Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang can be said to be a different one among the founding emperors of the past, compared with Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and Temujin, the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang is the lowest status, a thorough peasant origin.
He once stipulated that officials who embezzled more than 60 taels would be sentenced to death, and how much was it to convert 60 taels to the present? Whether this official died unjustly or not, let's take a look!
How much is the 60-fold now?
Embezzlement of 60 taels is punishable by death, is this criminal law too heavy? Let's first see how much 60 two is. We often see in costume dramas that the protagonist goes to a restaurant to have a meal, and the tea house will throw down a few pieces of silver casually after drinking tea, and also said to Xiao Er that there is no need to look for it, is the silver not worth enough?
Of course not, gold and silver since ancient times is currency, the value from ancient times to the present is not low, even today you go to buy a silver bracelet the worst need a few hundred or thousands of pieces, in ancient times silver is more valuable, ordinary people can not see silver several times a year, and even some families can not see silver for a lifetime.
In this case, what kind of family conditions can do a handful of silver casually thrown, I am afraid that there are mines in the family, so do not be deceived by costume dramas, and sometimes you use silver to trade is still illegal.
From the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, silver was forbidden to circulate as currency. After the unification of the six kingdoms of the Qin Dynasty, the currency was also unified, and then it could only be bought and sold using the unified currency of the country, silver was forbidden to circulate, but it could be used as decoration and jewelry, just like now, you take a piece of silver to eat, although it is not illegal, but people are nervous when you are nervous.
The Qin Dynasty reached a consensus with the present at this point, but in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, silver began to gradually become popular, and silver in the Tang Taizong period was very valuable, which could reach about five or six thousand now, but the value of silver would fluctuate in different periods, and silver was not so valuable during the Song Dynasty, but it was still equivalent to one or two thousand yuan now.
In the Ming Dynasty, one or two pieces of silver can probably buy 480 pounds of rice, according to the current rice price of 3 yuan a pound to convert, one or two silver in the Ming Dynasty is about 1440 yuan now. That 60 two is 86400 yuan.
Close to 100,000 yuan is indeed not a small number, ordinary families do not have this income for a year, embezzlement so many heavy penalties should be deserved. However, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered officials to be sentenced to death for embezzlement of 60 taels, is it a bit serious? Why did Zhu Yuanzhang do this?
Second, severely crack down on the causes of official corruption
Zhu Yuanzhang was not a brainless person who coveted pleasure when he became emperor or would only fight wars and would not govern the country, and there were certain reasons why he stipulated this. First of all, we need to look at his family origins.
In 1328, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor peasant family, a family that had lived on agriculture for generations, and Zhu Yuanzhang's generation was no exception. However, at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was not called this domineering and pleasant name, but called Zhu Zhongba, a very grounded name, just because he was the eighth in the family.
Born as a farmer, he was more able to understand the suffering of farmers, and Zhu Yuanzhang's father and grandfather had all been hiding debts because of tax arrears, and there was no fixed place to live. As a farmer, the biggest wish is to have an acre and three points of land, to be self-sufficient, to live a peaceful life, but the situation is turbulent, and the simplest wish has become the greatest luxury.
In 1343, there was a drought in Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, followed by locust plagues and plagues, in which Zhu Yuanzhang's father, mother, and eldest brother all died one after another, because of poverty, there was no land to bury the body after the death of his relatives, or the neighbors saw that they were pitiful and let Zhu Yuanzhang bury his family in his own land.
This is a natural disaster, but it is not just a natural disaster. Even if the information was not smooth at that time, the imperial court knew about such a big disaster, and it would also distribute relief grain and send officials to help the people. But when the final relief grain rarely reaches the hands of the people, where does the relief grain go?
It is obvious that the officials of the imperial court are greedy, the officials of the imperial court are greedy, the officials who are transported are greedy, the local officials are greedy, and the officials are exploited layer by layer, and there is not much food for the people at the bottom.
Therefore, in that era, the disaster was a natural disaster mixed with man-made disasters, and if you were not careful, you would not be able to escape. Zhu Yuanzhang, who had experienced this, understood the difficulties of the people, and also hated the corruption of officials even more, and he did not forget these things after he later took power, so he ordered a severe crackdown on official corruption.
Whether a country prospers or not, the quality of officials is very important. If all the property of the treasury goes into the pockets of the officials, how can the state develop? From today's point of view, Zhu Yuanzhang is also right to vigorously crack down on official corruption, but the punishment is too heavy.
But at that time, there was no good way to solve this matter, and increasing the punishment played a deterrent role to a large extent. Because of the corruption of officials, not only would he be sentenced to death, but his family would also be sentenced to sit down, and At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang invented many new criminal laws, such as cruel punishments such as skinning people. Many officials do not dare to embezzle when they see the fate of corruption so tragic.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang did not just formulate laws and not implement them, but became more strict in the process of implementation and did not favoritism. In 1380, Zhu Liangzu and his son were flogged for corruption and beaten to death.
And Zhu Liangzu this person is not an ordinary official, in the previous conquest, Zhu Liangzu has been following Zhu Yuanzhang, for the establishment of the Ming Dynasty made a great contribution, so that the former heroes can not escape the punishment of the law, let alone other ordinary officials?
Third, the prosperity under zhu yuanzhang's governance
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing, changed the name of the country to Daming, and the era name was Hongwu. Although Zhu Yuanzhang was a farmer, he had always been very far-sighted in the governance of the country. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, after years of conquest, the people's life was not good, so Zhu Yuanzhang took many measures to recuperate and restore national strength.
Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the peasants to return to farming, rewarded the reclamation, and also organized the peasants to build a lot of water conservancy projects to help better farming, while encouraging the peasants to plant mulberry, cotton, hemp these cash crops for trading, not only food, after a series of policies of Zhu Yuanzhang, the economy at that time was very rapid, the national strength also grew rapidly. Therefore, we later call this period the reign of Hongwu.
4. Summary
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a peasant, can better understand the peasants, and the heavy punishment for corrupt officials and corrupt officials is even more for the people and the country, and embezzling 60 taels of silver will be sentenced to death. Come to the comments section and discuss with everyone!