In feudal dynasties, the emperor shared power with the scholars, not with the common people. Therefore, there is a clear distinction between the scholars who have achieved fame and the common people. For example, Xiucai can see the magistrate without having to kneel, but the people must kneel when they see the magistrate, otherwise they will be served by the board.
However, during the Chongzhen period, the magistrate did not dare to be too arrogant, and would check whether the other party was a scholar before making a move, so as to avoid hitting the reader's "shearle" by mistake, because if the "shearle" of the reader was hit, the county might not be able to bear the consequences.
Legend has it that Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, rose from the bottom of society to the top, and his education mainly came from practice rather than books.
Therefore, traditional Confucianism was helpless against him, which is why the court staff flourished in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the history of the court staff can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, but the emperor at that time did not use the court staff frequently in consideration of the dignity of scholars.
The essence of the court staff is spanking, and before that, the pants that cover the butt must be taken off, which is equivalent to **, in feudal society, how many people can endure such humiliation?
And Zhu Yuanzhang is to achieve this effect.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not explicitly state it, over time, the court staff gradually evolved from an initial humiliating method to a potentially lethal tool. This is mainly because the executor Jin Yiwei can choose to hit lightly or heavily depending on the situation of sending silver.
There are even three specifications: fighting, playing with real and playing with heart. You only need to hit a few times casually, and you will soon recover after being beaten**; If you really fight, you will fight seriously, and if you are beaten, you may open your skin; The most serious thing is to fight with your heart, and you may die if you are beaten, because hitting with your heart means going all out.
Some people may think, how dare Jin Yiwei deceive the emperor and not be afraid of being punished? The answer is yes, because Jin Yiwei is highly trained. How do they train?
Put a layer of rice paper on the bricks, if you can break the bricks, and the rice paper is intact, then you can go out. Giving silver is like beating rice paper, and if you don't give silver, you will make bricks.
When it comes to the most brutal beating of the court staff, it is undoubtedly the Zuoshunmen incident in the third year of Jiajing, where 16 of the 140 ministers were beaten to death. Won't the ministers give money?
But in this case, even if the silver is given, the brocade guard will not accept it. The reason is very simple, one hundred and forty ministers will receive the court staff together, and the emperor must be very angry, in this case, the emperor will take care of the money, then the unlucky one will only be Jinyiwei himself.
Why is Jiajing angry? Because his path to the throne was full of twists and turns. According to"Brother to brother"Although his father was not Ming Wuzong's biological father, he was his closest uncle.
Therefore, according to the regulations, he should be the successor of Ming Wuzong. However, he was unwilling to be bound, because the succession of the small sect to the throne of the large sect required the succession to the name of the large sect.
He wants more than just the throne, but to keep himself. So, he could only put his father on the throne. However, the courtiers were reluctant to accept this result, as they had a deep affection for the throne they inherited.
In addition, if Jiajing really put his father on the throne, it would mean the transfer of the imperial line. Therefore, the ministers must resolutely oppose it. This is why Jiajing is so angry that he even has to throw away his father.
But in the end, Jiajing still won. Because he is not only smart, but also has the support of the courtiers led by Zhang Fujing. In addition, due to Zhu Yuanzhang's reforms, the power of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty far exceeded that of all dynasties, and it was difficult to lose.
In the Ming Dynasty, when ministers were often beaten to the death of their lives with a cane, a first aid method was widely used: peeling a piece of sheepskin alive and applying it to the buttocks. Because the buttocks are originally blurred with flesh and blood, this compress directly glues the sheepskin with the ** tissue, so that the ** butt will leave traces of the sheepskin, so it is called "wool skin".
The court staff did not exist only in the Chongzhen Dynasty, but in the entire Ming Dynasty. However, why did Chongzhen become the county governor of the county to begin to pay attention to wool skin? It may be because of the sharp social contradictions in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, frequent peasant uprisings, rampant filthy officials, numerous party henchmen, and unstable borders.
Most of Liaodong had become the territory of the Qing Dynasty, which had been trying to break into Shanhaiguan. Once you break into Shanhaiguan, the consequences will be unimaginable, because from Shanhaiguan to the capital is a plain.
Therefore, the Chongzhen period was the most chaotic period of the Ming Dynasty.
In the face of such a crisis, from God's point of view, destruction seems to be a foregone conclusion. But Emperor Chongzhen, as an authority and a person with vested interests, will never sit idly by.
In fact, he did struggle, but it is obviously impossible to solve all of these problems in a short period of time. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen was anxious. Although Emperor Chongzhen's reign was short, only 17 years, the number of ministers he replaced was astonishing.
According to statistics, the total number of ministers in the Ming Dynasty was 160, and during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, the number of ministers accounted for nearly one-third. Even more coincidentally, two of the 33 ministers died of unnatural causes.
So, why did Emperor Chongzhen change his ministers so frequently? The answer is simple, he hopes to solve the current contradictions in this way. However, how can these contradictions be easily resolved?
This is true for the Cabinet, let alone other high-ranking **.
The governors and governors of the Ming Dynasty, although they suffered heavy blows in the Chongzhen Dynasty, a large part of them died due to injustice. For example, the governor Xiong Wencan was killed because of a failed appeasement, and the governor of Xuanfu, Li Yangcong, was executed for being accused of embezzling 70,000 taels of silver.
Although the embezzlement of 70,000 taels of silver was a significant amount at that time, in the Ming Dynasty, except for the Zhu Yuanzhang period, which period would *** be executed because of ***? For Chongzhen, the execution of feudal officials is no longer a novelty.
For other ** in the imperial court, it is normal to be beaten today and reactivated tomorrow. This is also the reason why the officialdom of the Chongzhen Dynasty was full of corruption and injustice, and the magistrate had to act carefully.
Some people may wonder, aren't those retired court ** famous figures in the local area? Don't the magistrates know them? You must know that the term of office of the magistrate is only three years, and the speed at which Chongzhen replaces ** is amazingly high, how can the magistrate have enough time to get to know everyone?
So, to be on the safe side, it's wise to take a look first.