Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was the fourth son of Ming Taizu. He raised the "Battle of Jingnan" with the aim of seizing the throne of his nephew Emperor Hui. This political struggle was extremely brutal: after the bloody military struggle, there was a bloody ideological struggle, that is, to kill all the literati who opposed the usurpation of the throne of the Yan King. Among them, the bloody cases of Fang Xiaoru, Lian Zining, Mao Dafang and others also have the nature of a word disaster.
Fang Xiaoru case. In the fourth year of Jianwen (1402), the King of Yan attacked Jingshi, and Emperor Hui, the eldest grandson of Ming Taizu, died in a palace fire. In order to prepare for the great event, the King of Yan ordered Fang Xiaoru to draft an edict. Fang Xiaoru (1357-1402) was a native of Ninghai, Zhejiang. He was originally a lecturer of Emperor Hui, but because he opposed the usurpation of the throne by the King of Yan, he refused to draft it and threw himself into the ground. King Yan threatened, "Alone and not afraid of the Nine Tribes? In feudal society, the heaviest punishment was to "exterminate the Nine Tribes", but Fang Xiaoru was not afraid: "Ten tribes, nai I am he!" The Yan King still wanted to force him to draft, and he picked up a pen and wrote four words:
Yan Thief usurped the throne!
These four words exposed the conspiracy of the Yan King, but they also led to the extermination of Fang Xiaoru. The King of Yan was furious and ordered the left and right to take the knife from his mouth to the ear, and when he saw that he still did not yield, he put him to death.
His younger brother Fang Xiaoyou was killed along with him. His wife Zheng and his second sons Fang Zhongxian and Zhongyu hanged themselves, and the second daughter committed suicide by throwing herself into the Qinhuai River. His clan friends and his mother's clan Lin Yanfa, and his wife's clan Zheng Yuanji were also exterminated. His friends, protégés Liao Yong and Lin Jiayou, were captured and formed into ten tribes, and all of them were executed. The execution lasted for 7 days, and 873 people died, and more than 1,000 people died in remote areas. Suddenly, the shadow of death covered the entire capital.
Ye Huizhong, a linhai man, was also exterminated for re-editing the Records of Taizu and denouncing "Jing Nan" as a rebel against the party.
Lian Zining case. King Yan ascended the throne from a pool of blood for Ming Chengzu. After Ming Chengzu ascended the throne, he still opened the way with fresh blood and killed the literati who were unwilling to submit. as:
Lian Zining, ming'an, yi zi xing, Xingan (present-day Xingan, Jiangxi) people. Emperor Hui was then the right deputy capital of Yushi. He was tied up before becoming an ancestor, and his tongue was cut off because he was not inferior. Cheng Zu said, "I want to emulate The Duke of Zhou and become a king!" Historically, the Duke of Zhou loyally assisted his nephew Cheng Wang in ruling the country, which has been passed down as a beautiful talk, but Ming Chengzu led the "JingNan" teacher to kill his nephew Emperor Hui. Lian Zining could no longer speak, and he still dipped his fingers in the blood of his tongue and wrote on the ground to pierce Cheng zu's deception. That blood word is: Cheng Wang An Zai?!
Cheng Zu was furious and put him to death. His relatives were killed 151 people, and hundreds of people were in remote areas.
Nanjing Yangshan Monument
Mao Dafang case. Mao Dafang, Mingpu, yixing, a native of Taixing (present-day Jiangsu). Emperor Hui was then the right deputy capital of Yushi. When king Yan led the "JingNan" division south, he sent poems to Mei Yin, the general of Huainan and the favorite son-in-law of Ming Taizu.
Poetry Cloud:
How is the news of Youyan near?
General Wen Dao's ambition is not sharp.
Even if there is a fire dragon turning the earth shaft,
Mo Jiao Iron rode across the Tianhe River.
Guanzhong career Xiao Cheng Xiang,
Stuffed with meritorious Ma Fubo.
Old I am not unreported,
The west wind once sang a sad song.
Comparing the feats of holding huaibei and blocking the Yan soldiers from going south with the han general Xiao He and the Fubo general Ma Yuan, he was arrested after the Yan soldiers captured the Jing division. Ming Chengzu scolded him for giving poetry, but he still did not give in, so he killed him along with his sons Mao Shuntong, Daoshou, and Wensheng, and his two grandsons also died in prison. His wife Zhang Shi's experience was also tragic: Zhang Shi was 56 years old, and he was sent to the Jiaofang Division, and after his death, Ming Chengzu actually ordered: "Carry out, eat the dog!" ”
The Glass Pagoda of Nanjing Dabao'en Temple
Zhu Quan case. In the first year of Yongle (1403), Ming Chengzu freed his hand to deal with Zhu Quan (1378-1448), the king of Ning. Zhu Quan was the seventeenth son of Ming Taizu. Among the many sons of Ming Taizu, he was able to keep pace with the King of Yan, because there was a saying that "the King of Yan is good at war, and the King of Ning is good at plotting". King Xing of Yan "Battle of Jingnan", The King of Laning, Zhu Quan, came to the staff, and even said that "when things are accomplished, the world is divided", and until the King of Yan ascended to the throne, he was called emperor, but he fell behind. Zhu Quan requested that the southern soil be changed, and successively proposed to seal Suzhou and Hangzhou, but "there is heaven on the top and Suzhou and Hangzhou on the bottom", and Ming Chengzu did not agree, and finally changed the seal to Nanchang. Zhu Quan used the poem "Eclipse" to express his dissatisfaction:
The light bath into a pool is shining,
Suddenly, it was like throwing twilight into the abyss.
Qingtian Russia has a thousand stars,
The first string of the day contested moon.
Shu birds cry into the night,
The people are crazy and complaining.
Look up and don't see Chang'an Day,
The world is clear in front of you.
The meaning of resentment jumped on the paper. Soon after, someone accused him of "witchcraft slander", that is, using witchcraft to curse the heavens and the sun in order to frame the emperor. Ming Chengzu took the opportunity to send someone to investigate and spy on zhu Quan, causing a momentum to open the knife to Zhu Quan. Although the matter is not clear, but the purpose has been achieved, it is to make Zhu Quan panic for an indefinite time, which is tantamount to hanging an invisible "sword of Damocles" on his head.
After the bloodbath of the court, Ming Chengzu had already discovered that it was impossible to deal with political opponents by means of physical annihilation alone, and it was necessary to use the means of mental intimidation. This is manifested in literature and art, which is strictly forbidden to desecrate the lyrics of the emperor and sages, "those who dare to collect, the whole family will be killed"; at the same time, it is forbidden to destroy Fang Xiaoru's poems, and all those who collect them are sentenced to death. In the third year of Yongle (1405), Shu Ji Shi ZhangPu was killed in the city because he had Fang Xiao Confucian poems in his possession.
Like Ming Taizu, Ming Chengzu also adhered to Cheng Lixue as the criterion for unifying the world in thought. The so-called norms are like knives, and whoever offends them will bleed. In the second year of Yongle (1404), Zhu Jiyou, a scholar of Raozhou Prefecture, wrote a book denouncing Cheng Zhu Lixue. Ming Chengzu looked furious and scolded, "This Confucian thief also!" "He was ordered to be severely beaten, taken back to his hometown, and burned all his writings.
Correspondingly, in the examination of the imperial examination, mental intimidation is also used from time to time. In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), the examiners Zou Ji and Xu Shanshu were accused of making deviations and being imprisoned for having their test questions from the Mencius Verses and the Shangshu Hongfan (尚書洪范).
Ming Chengzu is very similar to Ming Taizu. In the "Battle of Jingnan", his suppression of the atrocities of the literati was as ferocious as Ming Taizu's. However, he was not able to catch the wind and shadows from the text, and fabricate charges, such as Zhu Quan's poem "I don't see Chang'an Day" and was not sentenced; Zhu Jiyou rebuked Cheng Zhu Lixue and did not execute; that is, in the thirteenth year of Yongle (1415), Qu You and Hu Zi Ang were imprisoned for poetry and did not kill, so that Qu You later had a thankful verse that "did not abandon the Lord of Feng Ming".
Ming Chengzu had a clear political principle, that is, to slaughter those who opposed his seizure of power and become emperor, in addition, he did not easily kill the ring. Since the "Battle of Jingnan", he has been busy grasping the important matters of cutting the various domains inside and the desert north outside, and he has no time to pick up the writing.