The corruption of "one dollar" should also be severely punished, which is no joke. How did Zhu Yuanzhang do it?

Where there is power, there is corruption. China was a powerful society in ancient times, which did not restrict power and curb corruption as modern laws did. Moreover, once the sensitive issue of corruption and bribery is involved, even an ordinary person can't help but say, "Even embezzling a dollar is greed, and such people should be arrested and severely punished!" However, everyone knows that this is a joke, even if the person who said this sentence is in power, he will not do so. But is this situation really bullshit?

The so-called existence is reasonable, which really happened in ancient China. Which dynasty? Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, "planned" the movement of learning to be high during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty.

First, learn the beginning of the "big high" movement

The wind of corruption in a dynasty did not start in the middle and late period, but from the moment when the state system machine was established. However, it is not easy to detect when the quantity is small, and it is precisely because of the small quantity that the emperor will choose to ignore it; By the middle and late period, more and more corrupt people could not be suppressed, and the darkness and gray inside a dynasty finally exposed its arrogant minions.

The Ming Dynasty is a special case in the history of China. From the late period of Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, the wind of corruption could not be suppressed. Looking through the historical materials, we can see that the wind of corruption at that time was actually not as good as other dynasties in the later period.

To give a few examples, there was a minister of punishments in the Ming Dynasty who accepted bribes from criminals and ordered his subordinates to take him away and replace him with others. Coincidentally. In the Ming dynasty, an assistant minister of the Ministry of War took advantage of the opportunity of arresting military fugitives to accept nearly 220,000 ingots from military families?

There are many such examples in the early Ming Dynasty, and the degree of official corruption has reached a very serious level since the founding of the People's Republic of China. We may not feel how serious it is from these examples, but we can look at several sets of data.

The agricultural tax paid by Zhejiang farmers in the early Ming Dynasty was 45% higher than that stipulated by the central government. Where did the extra money go? Obviously, it went into the pockets of those local officials.

But as we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang is not only a doer emperor, but also a "peasant" emperor who can't tolerate any sand.

After he ascended the throne, he fabricated various reasons to kill the Zhu family because he was afraid that the brotherhood that had fought alongside him would threaten his dominant position in the Zhu family. Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang was an emperor from a peasant background, with a simple three views and thinking like a peasant.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was an ordinary child in the countryside, he hated this bureaucratic class that suppressed their blood and sweat. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang could not only tolerate this kind of "sand" in his eyes, nor could he tolerate this class he once hated most, and even had a hostile and unpleasant attitude towards the bureaucratic class.

So Zhu Yuanzhang personally wrote a book called Da Gao. What is this thing? What effect does it have on anti-corruption? This great coat is somewhat similar to the effect of current horror movies, and it is psychological warfare.

This book consists of all kinds of bloody, horrible and cruel criminal cases, aiming at intimidating officials and people not to disobey his orders, corrupt or rebel.

How horrible is it? For example, in Da San Bao Bian. Rescue Pan Fu 18 ",an escaped fugitive passed through more than 200 families on his way to escape, but these families did not report his thoughts, and some kind or uninformed families provided him with accommodation. Finally, the escaped prisoner was caught. Zhu Yuanzhang not only executed fugitives, but also killed more than 200 families along the way.

It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang is decisive and cruel, and the publication of this book also indicates an unprecedented national anti-corruption campaign in the Ming Dynasty.

Second, the early stage of the movement of learning to be big and high was not as intended by Zhu Yuanzhang.

The mechanism of the "Learning from the Great Heights" movement was to publicize the emperor's supreme authority, to root this concept in everyone in the Ming Dynasty, and then to push the people at the bottom to expose corrupt officials with great heights. The essence of the movement is to learn from officials and crack down on civil corruption.

As soon as the imperial edict came out, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that the people of the whole country would help him keep an eye on those disobedient officials, but the people of the Ming Dynasty were silent and unchanged.

Why is this happening? According to our modern thinking, shouldn't people be angry? Why are these people silent?

This has to start from the ideological and cultural roots of the ancient people in China. Since the Qin dynasty unified the whole country, it has publicized and used the Legalist way to govern the country. Legalists have a very important theory to pursue "weak people", "foolish people" and "winning people". In the famous Shang Yang political reform of Qin State, Shang Yang once said: "The people are weak, the country is strong, the country is strong and the people are weak, and the country with a way should serve the weak people."

What do you mean? In other words, if a country wants to be strong, its people must be weak; A powerful country only needs ignorant people. Legalists, on the other hand, believe that human nature is evil, and it is not necessary for a monarch of a country to fully trust the people. The most important thing for a monarch is to use "technique", "situation" and "law" to punish people by law, oppress people by force and rule people by law.

Since the Qin dynasty, rulers of all dynasties have tasted the sweetness of legalism. Therefore, during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the so-called Confucianism was actually a legalist school. In this way, the root of legalist school thought has spread imperceptibly among the ruling class.

It was in the submissive environment created by the rulers that the people in ancient China learned to bow and scrape to the bureaucratic class, which was deeply rooted in the thoughts of ordinary people in ancient China.

How obedient are you? If it is simply said, it may be difficult to understand, for example. During the Qianlong period, British envoys visited, but they were unfamiliar with waterways, so they asked local officials to help them find someone who was familiar with waterways. The British thought that Qing officials would issue notices to reward those who had the ability.

However, the honest official led troops to search from house to house, asking one by one, and finally found two people who were familiar with waterways. But they said that they haven't sailed for a long time and they need to stay at home by themselves. But the honest official directly said that this is the task assigned to you by the state, and the government didn't give you a penny, leaving his wife and children directly.

Of course, at that time, when the government gave money, the local people might not dare to accept it, which was tantamount to the sun rising in the west for them.

This is the present situation of ancient people in China. Bureaucratic orders are tasks that they must perform, and they will hardly resist.

Therefore, at the beginning of the "Fighting High" campaign, Zhu encouraged ordinary people to arrest officials. Most of them have almost never thought of this idea, which is like letting a rabbit catch a wolf. This violation of their food chain is simply appalling.

So the people of Ming Dynasty chose silence and escape. However, it was their indifference that completely ignited Zhu Yuanzhang's anger.

Third, learn the climax of the "Great High" movement, the people are excited and the situation is excellent.

Zhu Yuanzhang flew into a rage and started another tragedy. In the 19th year of Hongwu, Wei Dong, a corrupt official in Zhenjiang City, was discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang himself. Originally, according to our common sense, Wei Dong would only be arrested and severely punished. However, Zhu Yuanzhang not only severely punished Wei Dong, but also severely punished some citizens in Zhenjiang City to move stones, and some of them were fined heavily, so those citizens lost their money.

Why should these citizens be severely punished? Because Lao Zhu felt that he had clearly stated in the notice that the people should supervise and report corrupt officials, but the citizens chose silence. This is to help others abuse and oppose him as an emperor.

Of course, this was not only Zhu's temporary anger, but Zhu Yuanzhang also clearly knew that violence was the most effective way to mobilize the ancient people at that time. Although realistic, in ancient China, violence was indeed an effective way, and many monarchs did it.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang not only showed his punishment, but also rewarded those who were brave. This combination of biting off the hand that feeds you thoroughly mobilized the courage and enthusiasm of Daming people, and made them realize that Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, really kept his word, and they could get huge rewards as whistleblowers.

Now, anti-corruption campaigns are being staged all over the Ming Dynasty. If you go back to that era now, you may see a group of ragged people escorting corrupt officials to meet the sky.

This large-scale national anti-corruption campaign has been launched vigorously, but this campaign is doomed to failure from the beginning, and its disadvantages have been exposed.

Fourth, learn the disadvantages of the "big high" movement

The original intention of Zhu Yuanzhang to launch this campaign was to crack down on all corrupt officials, and the principle was "I would rather kill one thousand by mistake than let one go". Therefore, he has no intention of setting up a relevant agency to check the reliability and rationality of the report.

The consequence of this is that more and more innocent people are involved. Teng demao, a senior minister of the Ming dynasty, was reported for corruption. After receiving the news, Zhu Yuanzhang did not hesitate or even send someone to investigate the real situation carefully and immediately ordered the execution.

After his death, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly decided to have a caesarean section to see what was in the stomachs of these corrupt officials. As a result, he found that his stomach was full of coarse grains and wild vegetables, and he could hardly find meat.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that he had caught the wrong person. But he didn't give up. He always thinks that this is the only way for him to succeed, and even thinks that this is a warning to those corrupt officials who are hidden among officials.

After that, this kind of incident has become more and more fierce, even to an incredible extent. To what extent? It is the so-called "embezzling a dollar" that we mentioned before that we should all be arrested and severely punished.

Looking through the history books, we can see that when Zhu Yuanzhang arrested corrupt officials, there were some records about his corruption, such as "receiving a dress, two pairs of boots", "receiving a round neck dress" and "receiving four books, a towel and a pair of socks" ......

Is this corruption? We can't judge, but in the ancient environment, such "corruption" is really unremarkable. At least among any corrupt officials we have seen, such officials are not even shrimp, but Zhu Yuanzhang treats such officials like other corrupt officials.

In the later period of the movement, the movement ran counter to Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention. The masses that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to mobilize also began to corrupt. Some local officials gradually joined forces with ordinary people, denouncing his opponents in officialdom, taking the opportunity to trip them up, and even making these people praise their "incorruptible style" in front of the emperor.

An anti-corruption campaign suddenly became a means for some real corrupt officials to bring down their opponents in officialdom.

Fifth, the failure of learning to be a senior high school student ended.

This is a campaign to crack down on corrupt officials, but it has fueled the power of corrupt officials and hit the real honest officials. This ending has to be praised.

In his later years, Zhu Yuanzhang realized the failure of the movement, but he still thought that his coat was a "precious book" and could not bear to be abandoned.

Therefore, one year before his death, he directly ordered Da Gao to be attached to Daming Law, thinking that Da Gao could be as immortal as Daming Law.

What he didn't expect, however, was that just two months after his death, Emperor Wen Jian personally issued an imperial edict, announcing that if there were outlaws, just follow Daming Law. Zhu Yuanzhang's "precious book" gradually disappeared in the history of the Ming Dynasty and no longer appeared.

Conclusion of intransitive verbs

The essence of the movement of "learning to be big and high" is that Zhu Yuanzhang consolidated his rule and felt that those corrupt officials were eroding their hard-earned foundation. However, he misjudged the source, and the corruption in the Ming Dynasty was never suppressed, even in the "most prosperous" dynasty in China history.

Why? As the saying goes, "Clear water means no fish", and this kind of corruption is hard to avoid completely, not only in ancient China, but also in our present age. The key to the seriousness of the Ming dynasty lies in the salary paid by Zhu Yuanzhang to officials.

Officials in the Ming Dynasty were the lowest paid officials in the history of China. An ordinary official even reached the point where "the monthly salary is only two meters, and there are not enough people to eat", while the lowest monthly salary of Jiupin Sesame Officials in the Tang Dynasty is thirty or forty stones.

Therefore, the fundamental reason for the prevalence of corruption is the salary system itself. Wages are pitifully low, and some ordinary officials can't support their families at all, and they can hardly survive without corruption.

Finally, although the Ming Dynasty's "learning to be high" movement did hit some corrupt officials, it went in the wrong direction from the beginning. Instead of looking for reasons from the system, it is "robbing Peter to pay Paul", and the wind of corruption will eventually intensify, and this movement will end in fiasco.