Zhu Yuanzhang's iron-fisted rule reveals the "empty seal case" and its bloody history
It broke out at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty"Empty seal case"with"Hu Weiyong's case"、"Guo Huan case"、"The Sapphire Case"and known as the four major public cases in the early Ming Dynasty. So-called"Empty prints"。So-called"Empty prints", in fact, it is a blank tool with a seal stamped in advance, and then the local ** fills in the specific content according to the needs of the work, and falsifies, instead of challenging Zhu Yuanzhang, it killed tens of thousands of people in one fell swoop.
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, and in order to cope with his work, he killed tens of thousands of people.
According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, the local government had to send people to the household department every year to report the money and grain accounts, fiscal revenues and expenditures, and tax revenues for the imperial court to examine and approve the local fiscal revenues and expenditures. In the audit process, the accounts reported by the local ** must be checked with the household department to ensure that the accounts are completely consistent and the procedures are complete before the accounts can be determined. If there are any discrepancies, the entire book must be rejected, refilled and sealed.
However, at that time, transportation was inconvenient, and there were no problems in the vicinity of Nanjing, but if the money and grain, especially grain, were transported to more remote areas, losses were inevitable. But how is it possible for local authorities to estimate the amount of damage on the way before departure? As a result, mistakes are inevitable in reconciling allotment figures, and when they do, they have to be returned to the local area to be re-booked and re-sealed, which can be very lengthy, often lasting several months.
In fact, revising accounts is not just a waste of time, because unlike modern times, there used to be computers and electronic versions to revise accounts, which was extremely simple, but once the accounts were wrong, they had to be re-entered and re-filled, which of course was extremely labor-intensive. Therefore, the ** who goes to the tax department often carries some blank account books, usually stamped in advance, so that if there are discrepancies in the accounts, they can be modified nearby, and it is also convenient for them to fill in the accounts.
In fact, this method has appeared as a common practice in the Yuan Dynasty, and it is just a tool to deal with cheating operations, and ** at all levels knows this, and it is no wonder that in the officialdom, it has never been explicitly banned in the Ming Dynasty. What people didn't expect, however, was that this practice triggered an unprecedented disaster.
In the ninth year of Hongwu (also known as the fifteenth year of Hongwu), Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, was furious when he learned of this, thinking that the ** conspired at all levels to deceive the king, and the crime was extremely heinous, and ordered all the ** involved in the case to be arrested and punished. According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty - Criminal Law Chronicles", Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all the ** at all levels below Zhengyin to be executed, and they were distributed to the army to beat a hundred sticks under their deputies. In other words, all the governors, prefects, and counties of Zhengyin were to be executed, and all the deputies below were beaten with sticks and sent to the army.
And in Fang Xiaoru's "The Biography of Ye Zheng", he wrote:"More than 20 generations of provincial judges, as the commander of the guard. Even want to kill the blank seal"。What is being said here is that the imperial court, which sent the magistrates, was also condemned in this case. Wu Han's "Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang", "Outline of National History" and "History of the Ming Dynasty-Criminal Law Chronicles" recorded that there were at least 30,000 or 40,000 people"Empty seal case"Sentenced to death and confiscated.
Why Zhu Yuanzhang is angry, in addition to punishing the authorities, has a deeper meaning.
We've already said that"The White Stripe Case"In fact, it is caused by fraud at all levels, why did it end up with a big case of 30,000 or 40,000 people? I think there are several main reasons for this:
1.Hate ** and lead by example. Zhu Yuanzhang was born in poverty and knew the tragic fate of the people under the rule of the ** filthy officials, so much so that he hated the ** filthy officials to the core, and one of the main tasks of the emperor against the ** filthy officials was to suppress the ** filthy officials. Although this move at all levels is to save time and facilitate work, who dares to guarantee that if this precedent is set, no one at all levels will take advantage of this loophole to make money? Although Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on governing the country according to law, due to the low salary of civil servants, due to the influence of subjective factors such as constraints, coupled with the influence of other objective factors, ** cases still occur frequently, so Zhu Yuanzhang's move cannot be said to be without the intention of killing a hundred people.
2.He was worried that ** would collude with each other and mislead his superiors. Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion may be heavier than that of the emperor, and an important reason why the empty seal case will involve many ** is that Zhu Yuanzhang is worried that ** at all levels will collude with each other, and then mislead the upper echelons. After all, in the whole incident, so many ** were informed, but none of them could make him, the emperor, appeal, how could he not be worried? Obviously, in addition to this, Zhu Yuanzhang thinks that the lecturer has the right to listen to things, and his duty is to supervise all levels, but he imposes this matter to arrest it, can this not make Zhu Yuanzhang angry?
3.Prevent the country from closing itself off and causing turmoil. What is the emperor's primary concern? Of course, it is the stability of the political situation, although in the empty seal case, all levels of ** take care of each other, but what Zhu Yuanzhang is worried about is that he, the emperor, will"Look back"。The empty seal case is at best at all levels***, but what if it is a local rebellion? If the ** at all levels continue to cooperate with each other in this way, hiding their heads and showing their tails, the emperor will be in a hurry, so that the court will have no time to react, and then the world will be in chaos, which is also an important reason for the severe punishment of ministers in various places.
As mentioned above, although the empty seal case was only caused by speculation and cheating, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang saw the deeper problems behind the whole case, although as *** he understood this kind of cheating and did not have a proper solution, but he had to punish him severely, and even did not hesitate to cause a big conflict.