What is the allusion between literary inquisition and eight-part essay?

“Avoiding seats and fearing the literary prison”, it was really not easy for literati in the feudal era! An airtight literary network is enough to suffocate and destroy a nation's thinking and creativity. Countless cases of fatal disasters caused by poetry have ruthlessly exposed the illusion that "books have their own golden houses, and books have their own beautiful faces."

Before Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he stayed at Prajna Temple in Taiping Mansion (now Dangtu, Anhui). The abbot of the nunnery was surprised by his appearance. Then he asked about his name. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was already the commander-in-chief of thousands of troops, so he pretended to be reserved, smiled without answering, and wrote a poem on the pink wall:

Kill all the millions of soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River.

The sword on the waist is still bloody.

The mountain monk didn't know the heroic master,

he only asked his name.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Nanjing and deliberately sent people to search for his ink marks from that year. The reply he got made him very angry. The imperial poem had been wiped away. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately arrested the monks in the nunnery and sentenced them to death. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was still unfinished, asked angrily: "Why were my poems removed?" The captured young monk was still somewhat witty and replied calmly: "In the place where the imperial poem was written, there are four lines of my master's poem. "Where is it?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked hurriedly: "What poem?" The monk recited loudly:

I dare not leave the poems written by my pen,

I often worry about ghosts and gods.

So wash it gently with Dharma water,

There is still a bright light shining on the bullfighting.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang laughed loudly and acquitted the young monk. Just imagine, "The successful are princes and the defeated are thieves." Zhu Yuanzhang was originally a hero in the green forest. Before he conquered the world, he was actually a rebellious person wanted by the court. His poems were highly suspected of being "anti-poetry." How dare the old monk in the nunnery reserve? The clever young monk boasted about Zhu Yuanzhang in a few poems and was lucky enough to save his life. We can learn from this story that Ming Taizu, who was fierce and easy to kill, liked to show off his literary talents and was quite conceited. If he encounters someone who is ignorant of current affairs, he will not hesitate to retaliate with capital punishment. Encountering such an emperor, one can imagine the life of the world's literati.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a tenant farmer's family in a "land without a foothold". He was impoverished, with no clothes to cover his body and no food to eat. How could he have the opportunity to study in a private school and become literate? After his parents died, he was reduced to a wandering monk begging for food and suffered all the sufferings in the world. As a result, he did not know much about literacy until he joined the peasant uprising in the late Yuan Dynasty. Different from ordinary reckless people, Zhu Yuanzhang had a strong interest in cultural knowledge and was willing to associate with Confucian scholars. From the time he condescended to visit Zhu Sheng in his early years to the time he accepted Liu Ji, Song Lian and others known as the "Four Elites in Eastern Zhejiang", Zhu Yuanzhang began to get along with these famous scribes day and night, and his knowledge greatly improved due to his diligence in learning and inquiring. From being illiterate to being able to write poems and essays at will, it shows that he is extremely talented and intelligent.

As a British leader who founded the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that governing the world required a large number of high-quality talents. He emphasized in his edict: "To govern a country, the most talented people must be the first. He is the hope of the world." It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang linked the selection of talents to the stability and governance of the country, and its importance is naturally unusual. Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang came to the throne, he repeatedly issued edicts to recruit talents from all over the world, and his eagerness was beyond words. For example, in the edict in September of the first year of Hongwu (1368), it was written: "Now that the world is at peace, I would like to ask all knowledgeable scholar-bureaucrats to talk about the way to govern the world and enlighten my mind, so as to achieve prosperity in the age. Among those in the opposition, there are If you can assist me with talents and benefit the people with virtue, local officials will send gifts to the capital, and I will promote them." At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang specially sent officials to visit all over the country to find talents.

Secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang also had very clever insights and measures in the selection and recruitment of talents. For example, when selecting talents, emphasis should be placed on talent and virtue, rather than on family status or qualifications. He once said: "Talents cannot be generalized. There are often talented people among Lao Buddha, divination, and salesmen. The key lies in how the court selects and reuses." "(Yuan Dynasty) The selection of officials must require family background, and those with ambitions often relegated to lower positions. ." He also said: "Qualifications are set by mediocre people. If there are talents, how can they be followed as usual? In the future, those who have talents and are in lower positions should be given priority." These understandings are naturally based on Zhu Yuanzhang's reality. Observe and experience. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously promoted talented people. For example, in the 22nd year of Hongwu (1389), some court officials expressed dissatisfaction with the phenomenon of Confucian scholars starting from common people and suddenly becoming high-ranking officials. They believed that the court should cherish famous titles and not give them indiscriminately.

Zhu Yuanzhang categorically refuted this: "The purpose of setting up juelu in the imperial court is to give preferential treatment to talented people. If he has outstanding talents, how can he be limited to qualifications? I only hope to obtain talented people, and I do not cherish famous titles. ... What I worry about is not getting talented people. If I can get them, I will not regret their official status. "At the same time, when selecting talents, Zhu Yuanzhang emphasized that talents should be used regardless of their size, but they should be given full play. He believed that the monarch's employment of people "is like a good craftsman's use of wood, each big and small is put to its proper use." He also said: "I must respect the ancient system, promote talented people, and promote them according to their talents."

By Therefore, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a wiser talent selection strategy from the perspective of maintaining his dominance, which was commendable for a feudal emperor who relied on rebellion and entrepreneurship. The implementation of this policy played an extremely important role in the establishment of the ruling institutions and the stability of the political power in the early Ming Dynasty. The exceptional recruitment of a large number of outstanding talents has also brought vitality to the development of the emerging regime. Historical records: "At that time, there were countless people who were hiding in the mountains and forests, and there were countless people who suddenly rose to high positions as commoners." This gratifying scene of gathering of talents has the meaning of "the heroes of the world have come to my rescue". Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to talents and promoted talents in an exceptional way. His insight and courage seemed to be deservedly praised by future generations. But the truth is not that simple.

Zhu Yuanzhang was an emperor with a strong personality, full of contradictions between his words and deeds, and typically represented a complex personality of "both a saint and a robber". On the one hand, he is open-minded and magnanimous, and does not hesitate to win over the civil servants and generals who work for him. But on the other hand, he is very aware of everything, very suspicious of his ministers, decisive and conceited. His success on the battlefield makes him headstrong, arbitrary and daring to achieve his goals. The ends justify the means. After the world was at peace, he massacred the founding heroes, and was described by later generations as "unprecedented in his cruelty". The civil servants who made great contributions to Zhu Yuanzhang's advice could not escape their fate. Zhu Sheng, Liu Ji, Song Lian and others did not have good results, so one can imagine the plight of other Confucian scholars. What's more, in the name of punishing corruption, Zhu Yuanzhang used harsh punishments, widely implicated others, and killed innocent people indiscriminately. A large number of literati and Confucian scholars were brutally massacred. For example, in the "Guo Huan Corruption Case", tens of thousands of people were executed, and even caused Six institutions were completely wiped out. This is in sharp contrast to Zhu Yuanzhang's vigorous recruitment of talents. It can be said that "easy come, go faster"! This atmosphere of terror has caused many scholars to view becoming an official in the imperial court as a fearful path, because there are so few mortals who serve as officials in the imperial court and have a happy ending!

The main motive of Zhu Yuanzhang's killing of heroes was to eliminate the threat to the Zhu family's imperial power. He went to great lengths to concentrate all power in his own hands and did not allow anyone to have any ulterior motives. In this sense, the vigorous recruitment of wise men from all over the world in the early years of the Ming Dynasty was precisely to fill the various ministries of the imperial court and prefecture and county yamen with a large number of new people to replace those founding heroes who were tabooed by Zhu Yuanzhang. These white-faced scholars who had no power to restrain themselves naturally did not dare to have any thoughts of overstepping the imperial power. However, this aroused strong dissatisfaction among the ministers with martial arts background. They looked for various excuses to oppose, and the scribes' love of slander became one of the shortcomings of their criticism. In the early years of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to open a subject to recruit talents from all over the world. This has been the best method for selecting talents for generations, but the distinguished ministers have some objections. They thought this was an act of the emperor advocating for scribes. Zhu Yuanzhang understood their mood and patiently enlightened: "When the world is in trouble, use force, and when the world is governed, use literature." The military ministers retorted: "What your Majesty said is certainly reasonable, but scholars have vicious intentions and are very good at ridicule. If you are not alert, , that is, he was fooled by him. At first, Zhang Jiusi (Zhang Shicheng's original name) was sincere and courteous to the literati and Confucian scholars, and even asked them to change his name, but these scribes actually named him 'Shicheng'." Zhu Yuanzhang said disapprovingly: "This name. It's so beautiful, why should it be strange?" The military ministers said: "There is a saying in Mencius that "Shi Cheng is a villain". How could Zhang Jiusi know about it? When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he woke up like a dream and was very angry. I didn't expect that the white-faced scholar could make insinuations and praise and blame at will while writing and writing! Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally worried that he would also fall into a situation of being fooled and ridiculed.

Some people believe that the literary inquisition (i.e. the curse of writing) in the early Ming Dynasty arose from this. Obviously, the conflicts between the civil and military ministers were also one of the reasons for the literary inquisition in the early Ming Dynasty. The reminders from the military generals made Zhu Yuanzhang more wary of the scribes whom he did not care much about. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was originally "not rubbing sand in his eyes", became more aware of the situation, and tragedies in which scribes suffered disasters due to their writings happened one after another.

Zhao Yi, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, pointed out in "Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories": "The ancestors of the Ming Dynasty understood the meaning of the text, which was consistent with their nature. However, their initial knowledge was not deep, and they often killed people by mistake based on the text." Facts have proved that, Zhu Yuanzhang used words to kill people, not because he was not knowledgeable, but because he hated his subordinates touching his own secret pain the most. He would never be merciful to such an offense. In a narrow sense, "literary prison" refers to the situation where scribes were brutally killed because their works violated the taboos of the feudal emperors. For Zhu Yuanzhang, an emperor with a complicated background and a reputation for being aggressive and easy to kill, there were many scribes in the world who suffered disasters because of their writing.

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, most scribes were guilty of improper writing of notes. According to the custom in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, on the New Year's Day, the Longevity Festival and the time when the East Palace was enthroned, the civil and military ministers at home and abroad would present notes to celebrate. There are not many civil and military ministers at all levels who are good at diction, so the task of writing congratulatory forms generally falls on local instructors. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that scribes liked to ridicule, so he paid special attention to this kind of writing. Sure enough, he saw "flaws" in some forms, and Zhu Yuanzhang unceremoniously showed his butcher's knife. At that time, there were many people who violated taboos with their writings, and the most common reason was the use of the word "ze". In the Jianghuai dialect at that time, the pronunciation of the word "ze" was similar to that of "thief". Zhu Yuanzhang thought this was a mockery of his experience of being a bandit. For example, Lin Yuanliang, a professor at the Zhejiang Fu School, was killed because his "Xie Zengsao Biao" contained the sentence "If you do it, you will be guided by the constitution." Jiang Zhi, a tutor from the government school, was killed because his "Zhengdan Congratulatory Table" contained "Jianzhong Model". Secondly, because there were words such as "生" (near "monk") and "Fakun" (near "fakun") in the note, Zhu Yuanzhang thought this was a satire on his becoming a monk. Jiang Zhen, a lecturer from the Changzhou Prefecture, was killed because his "Zhengdan Congratulations" contained the sentence "Wisdom leads to knowledge"; Xu Yuan, an edict from Weishi County, wrote "The Wanshou Congratulations" contained the sentence "the body is dry and the law is Kun, and the algae is decorated with peace". "The sentence was killed.

These are shocking and appalling examples of people being killed for just one word of suspicion. When Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, there were all kinds of disasters like this kind of intrusive and complicated writing. For example, Lin Yun, the tutor of Haozhou, has the sentence "Shi Junfu to Banjuelu" in his work "Xie Donggong's Banquet Note". Zhu Yuanzhang thought "Shi Junfu" was a code for "regicide father", which was intended to humiliate the emperor. Lin Yun So he was killed. There is a sentence in "He Li Taisun Biao" written by Wu Xian, a tutor at De'an Prefecture, "We will live forever for ten thousand years, and the world will be Taoist, and we hope to pay homage to Qingmen." Zhu Yuanzhang thought that "Youdao" was a joke of "There are thieves", which was slanderous. As you wish, Wu Xian's body and head were separated as a result. What is even more ridiculous is that Lu Rui, the academic advisor of Huaiqing Prefecture, included the words "Looking at the Emperor's Fei from afar" in his work "Thanks for the Gift of the Horse Biao". Zhu Yuanzhang thought that "Emperor's Fei" implies the ridicule of "the Emperor is not", and Lu Rui also Beheaded. In the early Ming Dynasty, the above-mentioned people were not the only ones who caused trouble because of their writing. Zhu Yuanzhang sentenced all scribes to death for speaking out against taboos, and most of these taboos were based on Zhu Yuanzhang's conjecture. As the old saying goes: "If you want to inflict a crime, why bother without excuses?" Faced with such a dense web of literature, literati around the world hardly dared to write.

Ming Dynasty Xu Zhenqing's "Jian Sheng Ye Wen" records such a story: Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was suspicious and often worried about being ridiculed by his ministers. Xu Yikui, a professor of Confucianism in Hangzhou, once wrote a congratulatory statement, including the words "under the light of the sky" and "a born saint, setting an example for the world". After Zhu Yuanzhang read it, he said angrily: "Do corrupt scholars dare to insult me ??like this? 'Sheng' means a monk, because I once became a monk. 'Light' means bald. 'Ze' means a thief! It's not a crime to be so rampant. Pardon." He ordered the Jinyi Guards to behead Xu Yikui. The ministers of the Ministry of Rites nearby were dumbfounded when they saw this situation, and their bodies were like sieving chaff. They all knelt down and apologized: "I and others are stupid and ignorant of taboos. I beg the emperor to personally surrender and order you to abide by it forever." Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face changed. Only then did he get better, and he agreed to his request without any ceremony. After that, Zhu Yuanzhang successively issued books such as "Format of Suggestions", "Warning on Traditional Texts", and "Standards of Table of Notes", which stipulated in detail the formats of various literary styles for official and civilian reports, so that the world could use this as a standard and not write anything with private intentions. Simulate.

After the promulgation of these "imperial books" specially made for scribes, Zhu Yuanzhang, an emperor with little knowledge, became the supreme literary overlord. At this point, we seem to suddenly realize: It turns out that "the drunkard's intention is not to drink." Behind Zhu Yuanzhang's arrogant accusations and ruthless killings was that he could not tolerate the scribes' freedom of writing and ink. Of course, the reasons listed by Zhu Yuanzhang in these "imperial letters" are high-sounding and sound reasonable.

For example, in September of the sixth year of Hongwu (1373), Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to abolish the "four-six" literary style (i.e. parallel prose) and use articles by Liu Zongyuan and Han Yu as the writing format. He emphasized in the edict: "The diction of the three ancient dynasties is of good quality and without pretentiousness. It should be the rule of composition for thousands of generations. During the Han and Wei dynasties, articles still respected the ancient quality. After the Jin and Song dynasties, the style of writing declined day by day, and the parallel and elegant figures became more and more ancient. The law has disappeared. ... In modern times, the old customs of making imperial edicts and forms are still followed. I usually hate the embellishment, which deviates from the ancient style and obscures the facts with words. From now on, I must obey the words of my ministers. Simplicity and ancient qualities are used to overcome bad habits. "The scribes' blind pursuit of neatness in style and gorgeous diction will certainly lead to a trend of elegance and weakness, but blindly advocating for ancient qualities and following the trends without daring to step beyond the barriers will also inevitably lead to scribes' failure. The ideas are suffocating and the writing is dull and tasteless. The ancient prose movement of Liu Zongyuan, Han Yu and others is "retrospection as innovation", which is quite different from Zhu Yuanzhang's understanding. Moreover, the emperor personally formulated the format and used high-pressure means to force the scribes to "follow the gourd and draw the scoop". The result could only be that the world's articles became the same "Taige style". The bad influence on the literary world may far exceed that of parallel prose.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang's punishment of scribes was not limited to individual writing violations. Zhu Yuanzhang was not willing to let go easily for those scribes who vented their dissatisfaction with the dynasty's rule in poems. For example, Chen Yanghao, who served as an official, once wrote a poem that said: "There are concubines in the south of the city, crying for their husbands every night." At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was recruiting troops everywhere to cut off the power of separatist regimes in various places. After Zhu Yuanzhang saw this poem, he was very angry. Thinking that Chen Yanghao was venting his dissatisfaction with current affairs, he sent people to capture him, sink him into the water, and drown him. Hanlin editor Zhang Xin was appointed as the teacher of the princes. Once, he randomly used four sentences from Du Fu's poem, such as "leaving bamboo shoots to penetrate the wall", as calligraphy patterns for the princes to practice. Unexpectedly, he was seen by Zhu Yuanzhang who came to inspect, and disaster was imminent. Zhu Yuanzhang "Long Yan" was furious, thinking that Zhang Xin used Du Fu's poem to ridicule the poverty of the people at that time, and cursed: "The great dynasty is ridiculing you like this!" He ordered this learned scholar to be "cut in half", and let the world's literati This is a warning.

Zhu Yuanzhang's fault-finding and indiscriminate killing of innocent people created an atmosphere of terror in the literary world at that time. The trembling scholars did not know when disaster would befall them. This kind of tight suppression by the literary network has also caused lamentable jokes. For example, Deng Boyan, a poet of Xintu, had a line in his poem: "A pair of cranes with a bright moon in the cave sky, a thousand green peach trees and flowers in the stream", which won the appreciation of Song Lian, the leader of the literary world at that time. Song Lian especially recommended it to Zhu Yuanzhang. After Zhu Yuanzhang summoned him, he ordered him to compose a poem in the hall with the title "Xiaohan at Zhongshan". Deng Boyan lived up to his high expectations and completed the poem with his help. There are two sentences in the poem: "Aozu stands on the four poles, and Zhongshan is a dragon." After seeing it, Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed, clapped his hands on the imperial case, and recited aloud. Zhu Yuanzhang was born in the military and had strong hands. Deng Boyan, who was kneeling before His Highness, was already frightened and fearful of offending the emperor. Hearing the sound of violent beatings, he thought that the emperor was angry and his life was in danger. He was so frightened that he fainted on the spot. When the guards carried him out of Xinhua Gate, Deng Boyan regained consciousness. The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang gave Deng Boyan the post of editor of Hanlin Academy. He refused to resign on the grounds of old age and illness. Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to agree to his request.

The Qing Dynasty scholar Zhao Yi's "Twenty-Two Histories" contains a section "Many literati were not officials in the early Ming Dynasty", which pointed out a prominent phenomenon at that time, that is, many famous literati were unwilling to become officials. Except for some elders of the Yuan Dynasty who were unwilling to welcome the new master, most scribes were afraid of becoming an official because they were afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang's decisive, fierce and cruel government. Xie Jin, a famous scholar in the early Ming Dynasty, once described the characteristics of Zhu Yuanzhang's rule as: "Your Majesty has no laws that remain unchanged for a long time, and there is no one who does not make mistakes every day." After the mass killing of heroes, the targets of punishment were thousands of literati and Confucian scholars. An official by birth. Ye Boju, the tutor of Pingyao, once pointed out in his memorial: "At the beginning of recruiting scholars, the net is all-encompassing. If there is any slippage, if you want to avoid being killed, you will have to pay a lot of attention to the field and city building." Faced with this kind of "as soon as an official position is awarded, Confucian scholars all over the world were naturally daunted by the terrifying situation of "rarely ending well."

However, this silent protest by the Confucian scholars aroused Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion, so he once issued a special order: "All the officials in the four seas are the emperor's ministers. If the scholar-bureaucrats in the country do not want to be under the control of the emperor, "Promoting" means resisting the emperor's order. It is not wrong for local officials to kill him and leave his family without his family. "This kind of harsh cultural autocracy makes even those who are not in the Five Elements" have nowhere to escape. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a famous poet monk Shouren, named Yichu, who was an outsider with little talent. Seeing the decline of the world, he escaped into Buddhism and devoted himself to studying poetry.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, his refusal failed and he was called to the capital to serve as an official. But in this horrifying environment where the literary network is dense and easy to blame, one can imagine the bad mood of this eminent monk. When he was bored, he entertained himself with poetry, but he did not expect that this would also lead to disaster. He had a poem about jadeite that goes: "I heard that people from Yanzhou enter the green clothes, and the nets are all over the place in one day. The feathers are enough for the body, so how can I live in a quiet place in the autumn forest!" After Zhu Yuanzhang saw this poem, he angrily questioned Shouren. : "You refused to be an official in every possible way because you resented that my legal network was too tight?" Later, Zhu Yuanzhang used excuses to accuse Shouren, and Shouren did not end well. What happened to the monk when he came back further showed Zhu Yuanzhang's ferocious face of raping rogues. After meeting Zhu Yuanzhang in Jin Dynasty, Monk Laifu wrote a poem of thanksgiving, which contained the words "special realm" and "I feel ashamed of my lack of virtue and praise Tao Tang". Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang turned against him and said angrily: "You used the word 'special' What do you mean? Don't you call me a "bad man"? "Praise to Tao Tang for being unvirtuous". Don't you think that I am immoral and cannot praise me like Tao Tang (the legendary ancient sage)? How can I spare you?" Then he ordered the guards to behead him again.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a strong vanity to cover up his faults, and he liked flattering words and flattery. I will never tolerate the disrespectful behavior of my subordinates, even the silent thoughts. He once traveled privately incognito and entered a temple. Unexpectedly, when I looked up, I saw a poem titled "Budai Buddha" written on the screen wall. The text said:

The world is vast and vast,

I will hide it all in a bag.

After all, there are gains and losses,

It doesn’t hurt to relax a little!

This seemingly ordinary poem has a profound meaning. Zhu Yuanzhang was once a wandering monk who begged everywhere, and he was well known to everyone in the world. This poem is titled "Budai Buddha", and anyone with a discerning eye will understand its metaphorical meaning at a glance. This "Budai Buddha" is indeed too greedy and wants to put the whole world into his own small cloth bag. Doesn't he know that this will cut off the livelihood of the people in the world? The poet tactfully persuaded the "Budai Buddha" to loosen his cloth bag and let the people of the world breathe. What's the harm? The metaphorical meaning of this poem is astonishing. No wonder Zhu Yuanzhang was so furious after seeing it that his pupils were filled with blood and he was so furious that he ordered all the monks in the temple to be executed, which staged the most brutal scene of the Literary Prison in the early Ming Dynasty. "Freedom is the best thing for literati to write, but literati are not free!" These two lines of poetry from modern scholars are probably most appropriate to describe the situation of literati in the early Ming Dynasty. The unlimited power of the autocratic emperor allowed him to kill people without any scruples. Countless well-educated scholars and Confucian scholars only ended up in the miserable situation of being submissive and being slaughtered by others. This truly makes future generations sigh!

In addition to the "literary prison disaster", Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately strengthened the control over the thoughts of the people of the world, which was prominently reflected in his vigorous promotion of Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties and the standardization of imperial examinations. Compared with indiscriminate massacres, these measures can "touch people's souls" better, so they are much smarter and have a more far-reaching impact. Zhu Yuanzhang clearly understood that "the root cause of the problem lies in the heart", that is, the governance of the world lies in the control of the minds of the people. Moreover, "what is based on the heart has infinite uses", even better than "what is based on the law". In other words, the degree of effectiveness in controlling the thoughts of the people in the world is greater than that of severe punishment and law. After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he greatly respected Confucius. While completely denying the Yuan Dynasty system, it recognized the posthumous title of "Dacheng Most Holy King Wenxuan" given to Confucius by the Yuan Dynasty. He summoned Confucius' descendants many times and praised Confucius for "understanding the subtleties of Yilun and expressing the principles of eternity." Master of the Emperor". He declared: "The way of Zhongni is vast and long-lasting, and is integrated with heaven and earth." Therefore, he vigorously advocated the "Four Books" and "Five Classics". Zhu Yuanzhang said: "The Four Books and Five Classics are like five grains, indispensable for every family." At the same time, he advocated Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. He made it clear that "scholars will not read books other than the Five Classics and Confucius and Mencius, and they will not teach those who are not Lianluo, Guan, and Min (that is, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism)." In this way, the ideological world in the early Ming Dynasty became dominated by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. For example, the learning content of Guozijian, the highest academic institution in the country at that time, was completely based on the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" annotated by Song Confucianism and the "Da Ming Code" and "Da Ming" approved by Zhu Yuanzhang. Students were clearly ordered to "dedicate themselves to the sages and devote themselves to As the ancient saying goes, those who violate it will be punished.” The Ming Dynasty stipulated that students from prefectural, prefecture, and county schools must study in the Imperial College before becoming officials. This made the Imperial College (or "Guozi School") one of the main bases for training officials at all levels. Bureaucrats at all levels who had received education from the Imperial College had unconsciously become followers of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

When selecting talents, Zhu Yuanzhang placed the most emphasis on practical results, so his attitude towards the imperial examination was more ambivalent.

For example, from the sixth to the sixteenth year of Hongwu (1373-1383), Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the imperial examination was useless, so he announced that he would stop the imperial examination for ten years and select talents exclusively through recommendation. However, the shortcomings of the recommendation method are also obvious. For example, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382), a large number of talents recommended through various channels poured into the capital. It was a mixed bag and difficult to distinguish. Zhao Ren, the supervisory censor, suggested: "There are no fewer than thousands of talents recruited today. It is better to test their ability, test their merits and weaknesses, and then appoint them." Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to allow separate examinations and then appoint officials. Only then did the imperial examinations resume. However, Zhu Yuanzhang made strict regulations on the examination system, that is, selecting candidates based on "eight-legged essay" and specifically taking the contents of the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" as topics, and the interpretation of the "Four Books" must be based on Zhu Xi's annotations. The candidates' compositions imitate the style of the Song Dynasty's "Classics and Meanings", imitating the tone of the ancients to express their opinions, and the sentences adopt the form of couplets. This is the notorious literary style in Chinese history - the eight-legged essay. The eight-legged essay has a specific format, and the content includes several parts, such as breaking the topic, starting the speech, and comparing the topics, etc. The topic comparison is also called "starting". This is the beginning of the text. Subsequently, the four parts of virtual ratio, middle ratio, back ratio and big knot are also called "starting stock", "middle stock", "back stock" and "ending stock". Each of these four shares has two parallel paragraphs. Combined into eight parts, it is called "eight-part essay".

Historical records show that in the seventeenth year of Hongwu (1384), after Zhu Yuanzhang determined the "style of the imperial examination", he "ordered the Ministry of Rites to promulgate it in all provinces, and then regarded it as a permanent system." From then on, the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty formed an unchanging and fixed pattern, that is, the examiner selected passages from the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" as the title, and the candidates wrote in the eight-part format. The writing and discussion must be based on the annotations of Zhu Xi and others, and no new ideas are allowed. You can't even express your own opinions. It can be seen that this kind of exam is just like a word game. Candidates only need to memorize the annotations of Zhu Xi and others and "cramm" according to the format. After Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination gradually overshadowed the recommended examination and became the most important way for the government to select talents. The temptation of fame and wealth has made scholars all over the world devote themselves to reciting the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" and studying the eight-part essay, and they have exhausted all their efforts. In order to succeed in the imperial examination, every candidate must become a loyal believer in Cheng and Zhu's learning and regard the teachings of Confucius and Mencius as the foundation for self-cultivation and destiny.

Zhu Yuanzhang admired the Tao of Confucius and Mencius and Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism so much. Did he personally worship these things and be convinced of them? The answer is thought-provoking. For example, Mencius was called "the Lesser Sage" by later generations of Confucian scholars and was one of the most outstanding representatives of Confucianism. "Mencius" is an important part of the "Four Books", but Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry about some of its views. For example, there is a sentence in "Mencius Li Lou Pian" that says: If the king treats his ministers like grass and mustard, then the ministers will regard him as a bandit. The self-respecting Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but became furious after reading the book. Isn't this a scolding of himself? Zhu Yuanzhang no longer cared about the saint's face and cursed loudly: "Is it better to avoid this old man today?" That is to say, he accused Old Master Meng, who had been dead for more than a thousand years, that he also committed the crime of deceiving the emperor. Fortunately, he did not fall into the trap. It's Zhu Yuanzhang's hand, otherwise he will be punished severely! Zhu Yuanzhang, still angry, ordered the removal of Mencius's shrine from the Confucius Temple in the Imperial Academy. The ministers on the left and right tried to persuade each other, and Zhu Yuanzhang restored it. In addition, there are many comments in "Mencius" that Zhu Yuanzhang could not tolerate, such as "the people are the most important, the country is second, the king is the least", "if the king has serious faults, he will give advice, if he repeats it and does not listen, he will change his position", etc. wait. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Confucian officials to delete 85 items that were not in line with their own opinions and compile it into "Mencius' Essays" as a basis for students to study. The deleted parts were not allowed for candidates to study. The treatment of "Mencius" vividly exposed Zhu Yuanzhang's dictatorial face of "those who obey me will prosper, and those who go against me will perish". He did not allow anyone to offend the sanctity of his imperial power, and even treated the "sages" of Confucianism thousands of years ago. No exception.

The various measures of Zhu Yuanzhang's cultural autocracy are like "mercury leaking out of the ground, penetrating into every hole". Since he disdains the opinions of ancient and modern sages, he simply compiled a book by himself. Zhu Yuanzhang also paid attention to targeting different reading audiences when compiling his books. For example, those compiled for the royal family include "Huang Ming Ancestors", "Yongjian Lu", "Zhao Jian Lu", etc. The latter two books sort out the deeds of the rebels and conspirators of the clans and vassal kings in the past dynasties, so that members of the royal family should not Repeat the same mistakes. The books compiled for courtiers include "General Records of World Ministers", "Records of Sincerity", "Records of Loyalty and Precepts", etc. These books are nothing more than summarizing the deeds of so-called "loyal ministers" in the past dynasties for courtiers to imitate. In addition, there are also "Wujiang Dagao" compiled specifically for military officials, and "Xiao Ci Lu" compiled for ordinary people.

These books concentratedly reflected the idea of ??the sacred power of kings. The people of the world could only take this as a guideline and obey the emperor's will in a regular manner, otherwise they would be in danger of their wealth and life.

During the Ming Dynasty, literary inquisition and the suppression of thoughts were most severe in the early Ming Dynasty, and set an example for all subsequent emperors. For example, during the Yongle period, Zhu Jiyou, a scholar from Raozhou, presented a book to Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, in which he fiercely criticized Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. After seeing this, Zhu Di became furious and cursed: "This is a thief of Confucianism!" At that time, Zhu Jiyou was over 70 years old, but Zhu Di still sent people to take him back to his place of origin, where he was beaten in public and all the books he wrote were destroyed. The depth of the literary network is no less than that of Hongwu.

In short, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty restrained the minds of the people to a greater extent than any previous feudal dynasty. In particular, the imperial examination system characterized by the eight-legged essay was even more despised by later generations. Although after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, some thinkers denounced the crimes of the autocratic emperor. However, the succeeding rulers of the Qing Dynasty, in order to consolidate their political power, staged scenes of tragedies of "literary prison", which were even worse than those of Zhu Yuanzhang. Obviously, the existence of the autocratic system is the crux of this tragic reincarnation!