Be sympathetic to the people's feelings and public opinions
In the first month of the first year of Hongwu (1368 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the national government, prefecture and county, and said: "The world is initially decided, and the people are in financial difficulty. Do not shake the roots of a newly planted tree. and rest in peace. If you want the people to enjoy the benefits of these policies that benefit the people, you must have the best to implement these policies, so Zhu Yuanzhang personally met with these people, and repeatedly educated them to think more about the people. However, under China's traditional bureaucratic system, there are too few officials who can truly understand the best policies and do things for the people.
Not long after Zhu Yuanzhang met with the local ***, one day, he went to Sanshanmen in Nanjing, and stumbled upon some farmers who were naked in the river, as if they were touching something. It was December, it was cold, and what were these farmers doing naked in the water? Zhu Yuanzhang felt that something was wrong and asked people to ask. When I asked, I found out that the farmers were looking for hoes in the river. Their hoes were thrown into the river by the officials of the overseer. When Zhu Yuanzhang learned about it, he asked the peasants to get some additional hoes, and arrested the officials who supervised the work, beat them violently, and punished them.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked every village to place a big drum. As long as this drum is beaten, all the peasants in the village will have to work in the fields, and if anyone does not go, the village chief will have to take care of it. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang asked people to write a "Sectarian List Text", which was engraved and distributed to all parts of Henan and Shandong. There are dozens of articles on the list, and the content is to urge farming: "Among the peasants in Henan and Shandong, some are lazy and unwilling to work hard in agriculture, so that they are denied food and clothing. The imperial court has sent people to supervise and cultivate. Today's order, after that, the old man should be divided, persuade the governor to put a drum in each village, where the time and month of farming, five more drums, everyone heard the drum in the field, the old man lit the gate. If there is a lazy person who does not go to the field, the old man is allowed to be punished. We must strictly supervise and supervise the merger, and do not allow the lazy to eat. If the old man refuses to supervise diligently, the peasants are poor and embarrassed, and the old man in the village is guilty of breaking the law. In order to announce the strategy of the imperial court, Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered the construction of a "Shenming Pavilion" in front of the village. The so-called Affirmation Pavilion is actually a notice booth, and in addition to these things like the "Religious List", announcements of government judgments and notices from superiors must also be posted in the Affirmation Pavilion.
Author: Wang Gongjian.