The year 1402 is an unforgettable year in Chinese history. The city of Nanjing in June was chaotic. Fang Xiaoru sat quietly at home, waiting for the impending arrest.
The city is full of wanted notices, and the whole country is hunting down 29 "traitorous ministers", including Huang Zicheng, the secretary of the Taichang Chamberlain, Qi Tai, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Chen Di, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Fang Xiaoru, a doctor of literature, and Lian Zining, the imperial historian.
Among them, Fang Xiaoru ranked fifth. Fang Xiaoru was "invited" by Zhu Di's people to go**. His military advisor Yao Guangxiao once knelt down and asked Zhu Di before sending troops, hoping that he would not kill Fang Xiaoru, because "killing Fang Xiaoru will kill the seeds of reading in the world."
After Zhu Di captured the city of Nanjing, Fang Xiaoru resolutely did not flee or surrender, and after being imprisoned, Zhu Di sent people to persuade him to surrender many times, but Fang Xiaoru always refused to give in. When Zhu Di was about to ascend to the throne, he invited Fang Xiaoru to draft an edict on the throne.
Fang Xiaoru was wearing filial piety clothes, crying and going to the palace, asking why Zhu Di wanted to usurp the throne. Zhu Di's answer was not satisfactory to Fang Xiaoru, and he insisted on refusing to draft the edict and defended his faith with practical actions.
In the end, Fang Xiaoru was sentenced to capital punishment and became the hardest "hard bone" in the Ming Dynasty. However, his death sparked a long controversy that continues to this day.
Fang Xiaoru, a native of Ninghai, Zhejiang, was one of the most important thinkers and writers in the early Ming Dynasty. He studied under Song Lian and was known as the "Lonely Phoenix". Zhu Di's military advisor Yao Guangxiao called him the "seed of reading", representing Confucianism's pursuit of WTO accession.
He firmly practiced the belief of "establishing a heart for heaven and earth, establishing a life for the people, continuing to learn for the saints, and opening peace for all generations". Although he was not reused during Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, his ideas of political reform were contrary to Zhu Yuanzhang's monarchical policies.
However, at the age of 42, he finally waited for a great task from heaven.
Portrait of Zhu Yunwen 3 Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen appointed Fang Xiaoru and awarded him a bachelor's degree, with a low official character but a high position, and had a lot of opportunities to instill his philosophy of governing the country to the new emperor.
Zhu Yunwen would ask Fang Xiaoru for advice whenever he had any doubts. He would also be consulted when it was difficult to make a decision on a state matter. With the emperor's trust and favor, Fang Xiaoru's status in the Jianwen Dynasty was comparable to that of a national teacher.
The two monarchs and ministers were highly consistent in their governing concepts, and all important documents in the court were drafted by Fang Xiaoru. To some extent, Fang Xiaoru became the spokesman of the new emperor.
This provided the foundation for Fang Xiaoru to realize his ambitions. Under the impetus of Fang Xiaoru, Zhu Yunwen was determined to strictly implement benevolent government and carry out political reform. However, the literati have a fatal flaw in politics – they are too easy to fall into the trap of idealism.
In the course of China's historical development, the early Confucian expectations for the ideal world were not the future, but the past. This ideal world was the Zhou Dynasty, which was highly prized by early Confucianism.
Many readers made the restoration of weekly productions a lifelong pursuit, but they lacked political clout to put it into practice. Before the theory of evolution was introduced to China, people's understanding of history was not linear, but regressive.
Against this backdrop, Confucian intellectuals' expectations of an ideal world seem unrealistic. However, there are still countless people who hold out hope. In the four years since Zhu Di raised his troops to launch the "Battle of Jingyan", Fang Xiaoru and his faithful followers Zhu Yunwen devoted themselves to the efforts to reform the government according to the Zhou system.
They focused on how to go back to the world, building provincial bow halls, renaming the city gates, and even planning to restore the Ida system ......However, in the face of a military situation in full swing, coping is always their secondary task.
It wasn't until Zhu Di's army attacked the city of Nanjing that Zhu Yunwen woke up from the retro dream. It is said that "Zhu Yunwen was worried, and some people persuaded him to flee in order to make a comeback."
However, Fang Xiaoru resolutely asked to defend the city and wait for help, even if the situation was not good, he was willing to die for the country. At that time, Zhu Di was alone, and the territory he actually controlled was not large, and most of the territory was still under the rule of the imperial court.
If Zhu Yunwen abandoned the city and fled, it was possible to counterattack Zhu Di with the power of the imperial court, so some of his subordinates persuaded him to leave in order to make a comeback. However, Fang Xiaoru resolutely supported Zhu Yunwen.
His political naivety made Zhu Yunwen miss the opportunity to turn the tables and sent himself to the point of no return. In the end, Zhu Di announced that Zhu Yunwen was dead and took over the authority of the empire.
It can be said that Fang Xiaoru's political naivety caused Zhu Yunwen to suffer a tragic fate.
Fang Xiaoru, the word Xizhi, a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang, as a cloth cloth, entered Beijing to take the exam, and wanted to change his fate through the imperial examination, because of the "Imperial Trial Strategy" advocated resisting the Northern Yuan Dynasty and became famous for the government and the opposition, but because the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid of his talent, Fang Xiaoru finally failed to get his wish, and since then he has gone to his tragic life.
He witnessed the incompetence of the imperial court and the deterioration of state affairs, in order to save the country, he made one last attempt - to help Zhu Yunwen restore, but the final result was that Zhu Di was accused of "rebellion" and killed the ten clans.
Regarding Fang Xiaoru's death, later commentators have different opinions, some believe that it was because Fang Xiaoru angered Zhu Di and angered the tyrant; Some people think that Zhu Di himself is a mean person, and Fang Xiaoru is the leader of the world's Shilin, if he chooses to cooperate with him, there is only this way to go; If he doesn't cooperate, then Zhu Di will definitely clean up Fang Xiaoru very badly.
In any case, Fang Xiaoru finally chose to refuse to cooperate, and was executed by Zhu Di in a brutal manner. Zhu Di is a politician, and his purpose is to prove his legitimacy, so he can only use cruel means to achieve this goal.
Fang Xiaoru's death became a major event in the Yongle Dynasty, his writings were all destroyed, and he became a **, and even people who talked about him would violate the ban. It wasn't until after Zhu Di's death that Mingrenzong Zhu Gaochi succeeded to the throne that someone began to rehabilitate Fang Xiaoru, but the process was very long.
In general, people in every historical period, when they mention Fang Xiaoru, the real purpose is not for Fang Xiaoru, but to deal with the current practical problems.