The ancients did not dare to forge the holy decree, because it was difficult to create the first word
Demystifying History The wisdom of working people is endless, with both positive and negative values. In the pre-Qin period, with the advancement of commerce, some merchants began to seek opportunistic ways.
They sold immature grain and timber, sold cloth that was not up to specification, and even used silver stamps and silver dollars to commit fraud. While these actions reflect the complexity of business activities, they also reveal the need for business integrity.
After the vicissitudes of Chinese civilization, there are constant changes of dynasties, and there are many puppet emperors and powerful ministers who control the government. Why, then, is it that so few people forge a decree when it is falsely propagated, ordained, or even tampered with?
The phenomenon of counterfeiting and cracking down on counterfeiting has appeared as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, and has even become a confrontational situation. With the passage of time, with the opening of the Silk Road during the Han and Han dynasties, a large number of novelty goods poured into the Central Plains, and these rare goods gradually became high-end goods or luxury goods, attracting many merchants and counterfeiters.
As a result, the phenomenon of counterfeiting gradually emerged, and the fight against counterfeiting also came into being. Although the government has cracked down on counterfeiters and sellers, the competition between cracking down on counterfeiting and counterfeiting has become more and more fierce driven by interests, forming a situation in which "the road is one foot higher and the devil is one foot higher".
Anti-counterfeiting technology is becoming more and more sophisticated, and counterfeiting technology is also constantly upgrading.
Although the counterfeiting of goods may only be a local economic problem, if it involves things with national symbolic significance, such as military charms and holy decrees, the consequences may be unimaginable, and even lead to the danger of the entire country and nation.
Therefore, since the appearance of the military talisman and the holy decree, a series of verification methods have been developed. Let's first take a look at how difficult it is to "copy" the decree. To understand the difficulty of the "copycat" Divine Decree, we first need to understand what the Divine Decree is and what is the meaning of its existence.
The holy decree was first seen in Cai Yong's "Seven Essentials of Chen Zhengshi" in the Han Dynasty, which expressed the emperor's will and orders.
The emperor, as the supreme power holder in feudal society, needed a carrier to convey his orders and speeches. There are many such carriers, the most important of which is the Holy Decree.
There were many ways for the emperor to give orders, the most important of which were oral, hand, and holy decrees. Dictation is an easy and convenient way to verify authenticity, and is usually only useful for confidant ministers or ministers of prestige.
For example, when the Ming Dynasty royal family gave orders to Jinyiwei, they usually used oral orders, because Jinyiwei only obeyed orders from the imperial front and could give orders directly. However, no matter how the command is issued, it will be recorded by ** to avoid problems in the execution of the Jinyiwei.
The edict is slightly more formal, and the thousands of years of feudal imperial system have arranged the ** institutions properly, and it will be troublesome if it is carried out according to the process. The handwritten decree can avoid the drawbacks of the holy decree, not only is it not as formal as the holy decree and does not need to be discussed by hundreds of officials, but it also bypasses many review and review agencies, saving a lot of time.
However, the informality of the oracle and the oracle are also exposed, which once again emphasizes the greatest characteristic of the decree – formality.
The importance of the emperor's jade seal for a country's most formal written order or declaration is self-evident. It is an irreplaceable symbol, and without the seal of the jade seal, even if the same materials and pen and ink are used, the holy decree will lose its authority and value.
However, there have also been many internal struggles between powerful ministers and the royal family in history, and they had the opportunity to obtain the jade seal, so why did they not use it to forge the holy decree? Theoretically, it is entirely possible for them to forge a decree in order to expand their power.
However, the Three Kingdoms period is an example of this, and although the jade seals of the country were circulated among many warlords and tyrants, there was never a phenomenon of forgery of holy decrees. This shows that forging a holy decree requires not only the seal of the jade seal, but also courage and wisdom.
Even if you master the jade seal, if you don't have enough strength and wisdom, you can't successfully forge the holy decree. Therefore, falsifying a decree is not an easy task and requires a combination of factors.
Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor in the name of the jade seal of the country, but what is the point of being called emperor? Will the princes of the world recognize him? Even in the hands of the Cao family, although Cao Pi forced Emperor Han to concede, they did not touch the jade seal at all.
Because everyone is not stupid, the reason why the jade seal has such an important significance is entirely because of the emperor behind it. If there is no emperor, this jade seal is at most a stone, and it has no value.
As long as there is an emperor, even if it is carved with turnips, it has its meaning. This reminds people of poor Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, he was driven away, and the ** who accompanied him even used wood to engrave.
Therefore, it can be said that the power of the emperor gives meaning to the holy decree, and the power shapes the status of the emperor. If the emperor loses power, whether the decree can be forged becomes a false proposition and does not need to be considered too much.
If we leave aside the question of the jade seal, can the holy decree be reproduced? The answer is still no, because the specifications and materials of the decree are not easily forged.
There are many particulars in the production of the Holy Decree, and different grades of ** will receive different types of Holy Decree. The selection of materials for these decrees is very strict, and even the seemingly ordinary black horns are carefully selected from many cattle.
There are many different colors of the Divine Decree, the longest of which is even 500 centimeters, and it takes a lot of time to make. Therefore, if there is a need to forge the holy decree, it must be urgent, but even so, there is no need to fake it, and it is more prudent to directly learn Cao Pi to force the palace to make it.
It was an impossible task to make the shafts and color schemes of the Holy Decree in the shortest possible time.
The holy decree of the ancient emperor, the selection and processing of materials are a difficult problem. Even the gold-inlaid jade medals made in the modern Olympics may seem simple, but it is very difficult to pass rigorous tests without breaking.
In the same way, the holy decree is made of fine silk, embroidered with auspicious clouds and cranes, and there are flying dragons at both ends to prevent counterfeiting, which is even more difficult if you want to reproduce it one by one. Some people may think that since not everyone can see the real thing, it is not impossible to make a holy decree that resembles the real thing.
But this would involve the question of verbal and verbal oracles. These are done in order to avoid redundant review and review bodies. Even if the person receiving the decree may not have seen the real thing before, the auditing agency has access to it every time, so it is absolutely impossible to make a fake decree and go through the process.
Therefore, those powerful ministers in ancient times, even if they were in control of the government, would not choose the troublesome path of forging holy decrees.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor's power reached its peak, and "Fengtian Carrier" was the beginning of the emperor's holy decree, and the significance behind these four words was significant. Among them, the position and size of the character "Feng" are different in different sizes and materials of the holy decree, which brings great difficulties to those who want to falsely transmit the holy decree.
Even if someone can solve the problem of the axis and material of the holy decree, it is impossible to know exactly the position and size of the character "Feng", let alone show it to others. Therefore, the emperor's four words "Fengtian carrier" undoubtedly added a solid guarantee to his power.
Even if having a jade seal solves the material problem, in the face of the blank holy decree, the pen is still an insurmountable obstacle. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to Chinese characters, Manchu, palindromic and Mongolian scripts were added to the holy decrees, which made it more difficult to forge them.
Is this just a literal change? Apparently not! During the Kangxi period, the Divine Decree adopted a gradient color, just like the colored ink on today's coins. By the Tongzhi period, the Qing Dynasty was already crumbling, and in order to balance the power between the clans, the prince and the empress dowager of the two palaces needed to seal with their own seals, otherwise the holy decree would not take effect.
In addition, some of the edicts were written by the emperor himself, such as the thin gold font of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, a unique font that cannot be imitated. There were also some emperors who would draw a pledge on the decree, that is, sign an artistic signature, which is also difficult to copy.
In ancient times, the forgery of a holy decree was an extremely serious crime, and when involved, it could implicate the fate of an entire family or even a servant, who might choose to report it rather than accompany the rebellion.
Therefore, the difficulty of forging the decree is extremely high, and even if it is successful, the effect is difficult**. Therefore, it is undoubtedly unwise to take risks for the sake of unknown results. This is also why in today's film and television dramas, the color and content of the Holy Decree often make people laugh, because cumbersomeness and confidentiality are the biggest anti-counterfeiting measures of the Holy Decree.