I. Overview
The "Zhuang Ting Ming History Case" is also known as the "Ming History Case" and the "Zhuang Family Blood Case". The incident occurred in Nanxun Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province during the Qing Dynasty.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Nanxun Zhuang family was prominent and was one of the "four major families". In Nanxun Town, there are many goods stores, business branches are all over the north and south of the river, and the family is rich and wealthy. The fathers and sons and brothers of the Zhuang family have all studied the history of the classics and are proficient in poetry, among which Zhuang Yuncheng, Zhuang Yunkun, Zhuang Yunkun, Zhuang Tingxi, Zhuang Tingyi, Zhuang Tingjun, Zhuang Tingjing, zhuang Tingqiao are called "Zhuang's Kowloon".
The "Ming Shi Case" was the largest text prison case in the early Qing Dynasty caused by Zhuang Tingxin's compilation of the Ming History.
Zhuang Tingxin, who was talented and intelligent at the age of fifteen, entered the Guozi Prison, because of his diligence and studiousness, he later suffered a strange illness, causing blindness in both eyes, and dropped out of school to return to his hometown, but he was not discouraged and disabled, imitating Sima Qian's revision of the "History", determined to revise the "History of Ming" to leave a name for himself in the history of Youth. By coincidence, Zhu Guozhen, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty's Apocalypse Cabinet University in the neighborhood, because his family was in the middle of the road, his descendants were poor, so he gave the manuscript of Zhu Guozhen's "History of Ming" to Zhuang Tingxin with heavy gold. Zhu Guozhen died in the early years of Chongzhen, and his "History of Ming" manuscript lacked Chongzhen and southern Ming dynasty historical facts, so Zhuang Tingxin, out of caution, hired his friends and celebrities from The Culture of Yanlan Jiangnan to jointly add and abridge the manuscript of Zhu Guozhen's "History of Ming", supplement the historical facts of the Chongzhen Dynasty and the Southern Ming Dynasty, and compile a book called "Ming History Compendium".
Zhuang Tingxin himself served as the chief writer and died of overwork in the twelfth year of Shunzhi (1655). His father Zhuang Yuncheng, in order to fulfill his last wishes, asked the Ming Dynasty Chongzhen Hanlin Li Linghao to make a preface, such as Cha Jizuo, Lu Qi, Fan Xiao, Zhuang Tingqiu, Mao Yuanming, Wu Zhiming, Wu Zhirong, Li Tao, Mao Cilai, Wu Chu, Tang Yuanlou, Yan Yunqi, Jiang Linzheng, Wei Jinyou, Wei Yiwei, Zhang Yi, Dong Eryou, Wu Yan, Pan Tao, Zhuang Tingjing, Zhuang Tingjing, Zhuang Tingmilling, and more than 20 others as participating authors. Fan Jun was included in his head as an editor, and the literati borrowed their names from ancient times. The hiring of famous engravers Tang Dafu and Li Xiangfu lasted 5 years and was engraved and printed in the winter of the seventeenth year of Shunzhi (1660 AD). The "Ming History Compendium" totaled more than 100 volumes, the engraving project was huge, the brocade binding, the cost was innumerable, and the rich merchant Zhu Youguo donated five million taels of silver on zhuang Tingxin. The publication of the Ming Chronicle was widely praised.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Qing army drove straight into the pass, the Ming government was defeated and retreated, and the people in the south were clear-minded, and everywhere the Qing army went was actively resisted by the remnants of the Ming Dynasty and various local forces, so the Qing army carried out a brutal suppression of the Anti-Qing organization in Jiangnan, which created the "Ten Days of Yangzhou" and "Three Massacres of Jiading" massacres. This made the people of Jiangnan harbor an incomparable hatred for the Qing court. In particular, people of the cultural class, mentally endured the "shame of Jingkang" and at the same time had family hatred and hatred for the country, and had nowhere to vent, so at the invitation of Zhuang Tingxin to revise the "History of Ming", they stepped forward one after another to write the history of the Chongzhen Dynasty and the Southern Ming Dynasty, which inevitably had slanderous words against the Qing government, and the book honored the Southern Ming Hongguang, Longwu, and Yongli Emperor as Zhengshuo, and called those Ming generals who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty as rebels, Nurhaci as slave chiefs, and Qing soldiers as Jianyi, which greatly violated the taboos of the Manchu Qing.
In order to be consistent with zhu Guozhen's original draft of the Ming History in terms of content and form, the "Ming History Compendium" did not shy away from the Manchu Qing court, and if you are in the book, from the perspective of Zhu Guozhen's original draft of the "History of Ming" and the independent position of the "History of Ming", it is completely reasonable. There was nothing wrong with it, but it buried the bane of purgatory.
2. Causes
First of all, on the grounds that Zha Jizuo, Lu Xi, and Fan Jun were worried about being implicated, they reported to Hu Shangheng, a scholar in Zhejiang Province, who believed that the author would not try the book on the grounds that he was guilty. After that, wu Zhirong reported it, prompting the "Ming Shi case" to occur.
Wu Zhirong was originally returned to Anzhi County, but was dismissed from his post because of a corruption case, this person is a sinister, cunning, despicable and filthy villain, first blackmailing the Zhuang family, and trying to use the whistleblowing as a merit to seek reinstatement, and colluding with Zhao Junsong, a professor of Huzhou Fuxue, to conspire to sue the Zhejiang general Song Kui.
Song Kui was transferred to Inspector Zhu Changzuo, and Inspector Hu Shangheng was transferred to Inspector Hu Shangheng. The Han official Zong Shang culture, coupled with Zhuang Yuncheng's maneuvering, turned big things into small things and temporarily calmed down the disaster.
At the same time, Zhuang Yuncheng deleted the forbidden words in the "Ming History Compendium" and sent it to the Political Department, the Ministry of Rites, and the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau for the record, and continued to be published and distributed.
Unexpectedly, Wu Zhirong saw that there was no movement, bought the first edition, and took the wind out of context, and Shangjing reported it again, and the matter became more and more noisy, and finally alarmed the auxiliary minister in the imperial court, Ao Bai and others. At that time, Kangxi was still young and had not yet pro-government, and Aobai Gang used himself to monopolize the government, ordering Luo Duo, a full official of the Criminal Department, to wait until Huzhou to thoroughly investigate, and severely deal with the relevant persons involved in the case.
Wu Zhirong once also held a grudge against Zhu Youming, a wealthy merchant in Nanxun, for extorting zhu Youming, and falsely accused Zhu Youming (actually Zhu Guozhen) of the "Original Manuscript of the Zhu Clan" mentioned in the preface, implicating Zhu Youming and his five sons. The rest of the listed school participants, preliminary examination officials, etc., the Zhulian family was raided, and a large number of celebrities in Jiangnan were brutally killed.
3. The occurrence of the case
In the eighteenth year of Qing Shunzhi (1661), the Punishment Department found out the eight major crimes of Zhuang's "History of Ming" and destroyed the Qing Dynasty, which was determined to be a reverse book, and a bloody and bloody tragedy began in the early morning of the twentieth day of the first month. The gates of Huzhou were closed, and they were hunted down one by one according to the list in the book, and the fathers, sons, brothers, sisters, grandchildren, as well as internal and external slaves, were all captured. The Zhuang and Zhu families arrested hundreds of people, and those who were not in Huzhou were still wanted and arrested. Li Linghao's family was arrested in 100 families, and even relatives who came to visit the New Year and neighbors who watched the liveliness were also taken down, and all of them were implicated and imprisoned.
The "main criminal" Zhuang Yuncheng was arrested and escorted to Shangjing, and Wu Zhirong, in order to prevent him from defending himself, sent people to poison him and mute him, and died in prison and was chopped into meat paste. Zhuang Tingxin was excavated and coffined, his head was broken, and his body was suspended on the wall of Beiguan City in Hangzhou for three months.
All those who write the preface, proofread it, and those who carve, sell, or collect books are convicted of this and severely tortured and tortured those implicated. Among them, Zhuang Tingjie's brother Zhuang Tingyi, Mao Yuanming, Jiang Linzheng, Zhang Liao, Wei Yuanjie, Pan Taozhang, Wu Yan, Wu Zhirong, Wu Zhiming, Zhuang Tinghao, Zhuang Tingjun, Zhuang Tingjing, Zhuang Tingmilling, and eighteen other people were executed; more than seventy people were hanged and rebuilt.
The new prefect of Huzhou, Tan Ximin (who had only been in office for half a month), li Huanning, and Zhou Guotai, the governor of Huzhou, were hanged for concealment. Gui'an instructed Wang Zhaozhen to arrive in office for less than half a month, and was hanged for the crime of indulging in guards. Chen Yongming, the former prefect of Huzhou, sat on a bribe to cover up the crime, dismissed the official in the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1662), went to Taierzhuang, Shandong, hanged himself in a hotel, the coffin was transported back to the Hangzhou Court, the coffin was opened and the corpse was divided into thirty-six pieces in public, and his brother Chen Yonglai of Zhixian County, Jiangning County, was beheaded at the same time.
Tang Dafu, the engraver, Li Xiangfu, the printer, wang Yunjiao, Lu Deru, and miscellaneous servants of the bookstore owners, were slaughtered, and Li Jibai, the chief of Suzhou Hushuguan, was beheaded for buying books.
The prologue, Li Lingling, was executed, and his son Li Lingtao and four others were beheaded. Li Linghao's youngest son was sixteen years old, and the chief inquisitor at that time was really pitiful to this family, had compassion, and ordered him to reduce his offering by one year, according to the law, fifteen years old can avoid death and only need to fill the army, but he did not expect the teenager to refuse, he said, "Father and brother are dead, and they cannot bear to live alone!" Finally, the chop was also chopped.
Zhu Youming, who is believed to have provided the original manuscript, was executed, his sons Zhu Nianshao, Zhu Yanshao, Zhu Keshao, and nephew Zhu Xuan were beheaded one after another, and his wife Xu Shi committed suicide by swallowing gold.
The editor Dong Eryou was dead at the time, and his body was exhumed from the coffin and dismembered into 36 pieces, and his son Dong and Yi were beheaded.
Zhao Junsong, a professor of Huzhou Fuxue, was one of the whistleblowers, and not only did he not make meritorious contributions to the book, but he was convicted of the crime of privately hiding reverse books and was beheaded.
General Song Kui of Hangzhou, and all officials below Zhu Changzuo, the governor of Zhejiang, were dismissed from their posts and investigated. Hu Shangheng, the viceroy of Songjiang, Liang Huafeng, the shoudao Zhang Wulie, and others were spared by paying bribes with heavy gold.
The general Song Kui Mu Bin Cheng Wei Fan, who was convicted of failing to handle the case at first, wore shackles and locks, and was escorted to the Beijing Division and slaughtered.
Fan Jun, Zha Jizuo, and Lu Ji, who were also enrolled in the school, denounced their merits and were acquitted. The three and the whistleblower Wu Zhirong each received half of the property of Zhuang Yuncheng and Zhu Youming, but Fan Lu refused to accept it, and only Cha Jizuo accepted it correctly. Lu Ji avoided death, saw through the red dust, and traveled from then on, not knowing the end.
Wu Zhirong was rewarded by the imperial court for his meritorious service, and reinstated the Imperial History of the Right Governor. The family property of Zhuang Yuncheng and Zhu Youming was confiscated. It is recorded in the fourth autumn of the Kangxi Dynasty that wu Zhirong was on his way back from Fujian when he suddenly encountered a fierce wind, thunder and lightning, suddenly became a vicious disease, flesh was melted on the ground, and bones were stored in the bed, and people said that he was punished and killed by heavenly thunder.
4. Case Closure
By May of the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1663), the "Ming Shi Case" was finally concluded, which lasted for three years, and the case involved more than 700 people counting more than 3,000 people, in addition to capital punishment, the rest of the people involved, including women and children, more than 1,000 people were all given Ningguta, clad in armor, and isolated from the world.
The entire Nanxun Zhuang family was exterminated, Li Linghao and Zhu Youguo were convicted, men over the age of fifteen were beheaded, and all women and children were exiled and enslaved.
The Ming Chronicle was destroyed.
In order to consolidate political power, the Manchu Qing government carried out a cruel blow to the ideological defense and imprisonment of people of the Han cultural class, and in the entire history of the Qing Dynasty, more than 10 cases of unjust cases of literal prison similar to the "Ming History Case" were created, tens of thousands of people were killed in the literal prison, and countless scholars Hongru were implicated to varying degrees, some were exterminated of the Nine Ethnic Groups, and some were exiled to the frontier until the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The heinous crimes committed by the tyranny of the Manchu Qing government are uncountable, and they are bound to perish.
The "Ming Shi Case" is the most extensive, darkest, bloodiest, and most far-reaching case of the first unjust case in the literal prison, and the means are cruel and vicious to the extreme, which is outrageous. Mr. Sun Yu's cruel and bloody account of the execution at the Execution Site of Hangzhou Bijiaofang in the "Ming History Case" in the book "Death of Jiangnan Shi":
"The army was heavily guarded, heavily guarded, the execution ground was crying for days, the screams were incessant, many people were executed by Ling Chi, plus those who were beheaded and hanged, a total of more than 70 people, thousands of prisoners' wives, daughters and children, crying, escorted to the ship, exiled Ninguta as a slave, the scene was unbearable to see... On the Ling Chi shelf, Zhuang Tingqiu, Li Lingjiao, Mao Yuanming, Jiang Linzheng, Zhang Liao, Wei Yuanjie, Pan Taozhang, Wu Yan, Wu Zhiyong, Wu Zhiming, Tang Yuanlou, Zhuang Tingyi, Zhuang Tingjun, Zhuang Tingjing, Zhuang Tingqiao, Zhu Youguo, etc. were all stripped naked, tied to the rack, the executioner poured cold water on the chest of the executioner, took knives of various shapes, cut off the flesh on their bodies piece by piece, the flesh of the whole body was almost clean, several blood vessels were exposed and jumped, the skin and flesh on the face of the head were cut in half, and the circles of the eyeballs were open. Very scary... The executioner pressed the beheaded people one by one on the tree stem, and the knife fell and the blood flowed into a river... Old Lady Zhu and several female relatives died of grief and exhaustion on the spot... Relatives and friends of all families braved the rain to collect corpses, wrapped their bones and flesh with cloth, and wrapped corpses with straw mats. ”
In order to cover up its crimes, the Qing government did not mention a word in various Historical Materials of the Qing Dynasty, and folk records recorded only a few words or oral transmission. With the opening of a large amount of information, more and more scholars are studying the "Ming History Case", and more and more historical materials and readings about the "Ming History Case" are also presented, and the intricate "Ming History Case" is gradually becoming clear.
Sixth, the pain of history does not dare to touch
History, in the end, will show its true face, it is only a matter of time!
Shameless, finally engraved on the pillar of shame, no matter what means, can not be washed away!
Nanxun Ancient Town is located at the junction of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and shanghai provinces and one city, the central hinterland of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, bordering the beautiful South Taihu Lake in the north, Suzhou City in the east, and Jiaxing City and Huzhou City in the south and west respectively. Nanxun has a long history and many celebrities, known as the Nine Mile Three Pavilions Old, Ten Mile Two Shangshu. The scenery of the ancient town is as enchanting as a bright pearl embedded in the rich plains of Hangjia Lake. Nowadays, the G50 and G15 highways run through the north and south of the ancient town, and the traffic is convenient and touristy. Not many tourists know that there have been earth-shattering massacres in the ancient town, and people living in the town know about that tragic history, and everyone rarely talks about it, because it is too painful to touch.
I first came into contact with the "Ming History Case" when I read Jin Yong's "Deer Ding" more than twenty years ago, and I have been consulting various relevant materials for more than twenty years to trace the painful past. But the past is like a dream, fragmented, I don't know how many times I have come to Nanxun, wandering in the ancient courtyard or deep alley, silent in front of the ruins of the old house of the Zhuang family, touching the mottled ruins of the broken wall, sitting on the ancient bridge for a long time staring at the flowing water, quietly listening to them tell the unbearable past...
In the early spring evening of that year, the sky was particularly gloomy, it was snowing, and it was particularly cold, and the people involved in the "Ming Shi Case" used a slot boat, the slot boat had no canopy, they were bound to each other by ropes, and the snow fell on their heads, which made them look extremely sad. Long fleets of boats, crossing the ancient Tongjin Bridge and then sailing through the Hongji Bridge to Taihu Lake. The streets and bridges on both sides of the river were full of people in the town. There was silence, only the sound of shaking, and occasionally you could hear the cries of the infants on the ship from the swaddling baby in the cold, and the sound was particularly desolate, able to cross the sky. People watched as the fleet drifted away and disappeared into the vast taihu lake bordering the sky...
Time seems to freeze forever, year after year, day after day, for more than three hundred years at the mercy of wind, frost, snow and rain. The people standing on the streets and bridges have never left, looking at the vast Taihu Lake as far as the eye can see, looking forward to the return of the fleet, and the relatives are safe and sound!
Source Ming History Society Wenzhuang Nanming