Behind the suppression of scholars by Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, why do you want to blame the scholars here?
We read all the books to present different histories.
We all know that Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, are known as Jiangnan, and since the opening of the Sui-Tang Grand Canal, the Jiangnan region has developed day by day, and in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, it became the richest place in China. With the development of history, the economic and cultural center of gravity of Chinese civilization has shifted to the southeast, rich businessmen have gathered, culture and education have developed, and talents have come out in large numbers, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions have become increasingly prosperous. All dynasties attached great importance to the territory of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but why did the Ming Dynasty suppress the merchants and literati of Jiangsu and Zhejiang?
In 1368, after Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng and other southern rebels were suppressed, the Ming Dynasty was established in Yingtianfu (now Nanjing), and Ming Taizu was proclaimed emperor. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, a series of rules and regulations were formulated, but there was a very strange provision in these rules and regulations -"Scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang are not allowed to enter the Ministry of Internal Affairs"This rule must be written into the royal tradition of the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty and cannot be changed. Because of this regulation, there were no Jiangsu and Zhejiang people in the Ming Dynasty, from the household department to Shang Shulang, and then to the celebrant supervisor.
Not only that, but Ming Taizu also introduced other policies to further oppress the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. The first is to increase the taxes paid in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are several times the national averageThe second is to bring the rich households of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to other regions, and the population migration is more common during the Hongwu period, some of these rich households will go to the north, and some will move to the southwest and other places;The third is to limit the number of people raised in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and during the Ming Dynasty, people from the north and south were listed, even if Jiangsu and Zhejiang were talented and learned, the proportion would not be considered too much.
The people of the Ming Dynasty speculated that the reason why Ming Taizu did this was because he did not like the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, because Zhang Shicheng caused a lot of trouble for Ming Taizu when he ruled Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang were eager to help Zhang Shicheng, and the local wealthy families did not cooperate with Ming Taizu when Ming Taizu took over Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Therefore, after Ming Taizu ascended the throne, he implemented a series of suppressive policies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. However, if we analyze it closely, we will see that things are not so simple.
Considering the situation in the Ming Dynasty at that time, we can see that since the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the development of the region north of the Yangtze River in China has not been smooth. When the Ming Dynasty was founded, the northern region was already devastated by war, with barren fields and a sparsely populated population. Therefore, the scale of the Ming emperor's project in the decades before and after the large-scale migration of people to the sparsely populated provinces during the Hongwu period was unimaginable in ancient times. In addition to the economy and population, the nomads also destroyed the culture and education of the north, and the first imperial examination in the Hongwu period, the Beibang, immediately set off a shock to the government and the opposition, and the Ming Dynasty began to divide the north and south lists to suppress the hearts of the people in the north.
The devastation in the north is obvious to all, and the south of the Yangtze River, especially in the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, due to the fertile land, large population, and the early recovery of the Ming Dynasty, the economy is highly developed, the five grains are abundant, and the culture and education are prosperous. Therefore, for a long time after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the wealth of Jiangnan was used to restore the vitality of Jiangbei. Coupled with the severe disaster in the north, the Ming Dynasty had to train hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the north, and in this case, the operation of the officials who managed the country's money and grain became extremely important.
The Chinese have a strong sense of place, and if they are from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the people in the official department should immediately know that the Ming Dynasty is financial"Injustice", and then will stand up and speak for the territory of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, asking for a reduction of money and grain. In this way, the rationing and planning of the national economy of the Ming Dynasty could not be implemented, and the national economy was difficult to recover. This kind of plan, which is unfair to all localities but beneficial to the development of the country, certainly has no room for discussion in the imperial court. Later, in order to maintain this economic plan and maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, acted arbitrarily and implemented this policy in the form of an edict on the family law.