In many film and television dramas, there is such a mysterious group, they are dressed in dark robes with complex patterns, wear bright moon-like machetes, wear black gauze hats, often hide their figures in the shadows, flying cornices and walls, coming and going without a trace, but they are very interesting. They are the protagonists we are going to talk about today, the Jinyi Wei. With the interpretation of Jinyiwei in many film and television dramas, their fame is getting bigger and bigger, and the depiction of their divine skills in film and television works has caused the audience to have many misunderstandings about their image.
Let's cut through the clouds and explore the history of Jinyiwei.
The costume of the Jinyi guard
In the film and television drama, almost all the Jinyi guards are dressed in flying fish costumes and embroidered spring knives around the waist, but in fact, not all Jinyi guards can dress like this, and not only Jinyi guards can dress like this.
The so-called "flying fish" is a four-clawed dragon with a tail like a fish's tail, and the four-clawed dragon is certainly not worthy of any one person. Flying fish clothes can only be worn by the Jinyi guards of the Shangguan of the Zhengsan Pin Tang, and the flying fish suits are given by the emperor, generally do not appear often, the Flying Fish Guards will only wear flying fish suits on large occasions, and in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there are also phenomena of flying fish clothes among the lower officials.
As for the embroidered spring knife, according to historical records, its style is similar to the waist knife common in the Ming Dynasty, but its body is a reduced type of the latter, and it has a curvature. The Jinyi Guard Official School can wear embroidered spring knives, but this is not exclusive to them. Ministers, with the permission of the emperor, can wear it, as well as for pro-soldiers such as guards.
The origin and function of the Jinyi Guard
After understanding the costumes of The Jinyi Guard, we should also understand the origin and function of the Jinyi Guard.
Historical records about the Ming Dynasty have recorded such an interesting event.
There was a minister in the Ming Dynasty named Qian Zai, and after a day of going to the court, due to his advanced age, physical weakness, and physical fatigue, this complaining literati was also guilty, and he wrote a poem in passing: "The four drums are banging and getting dressed, and it is too late to see the noonday. When to have a pastoral pleasure, sleep until the earth is cooked. This was originally just Qian Zai's slight complaint, but he didn't think that the next day when Qian Zai went to the court, the emperor smiled and squinted at him and said, "'Ai Qing made a good poem yesterday, but Qian Ke didn't dislike the Qing family's late ascension to the dynasty, is it more appropriate to use the word 'worry'?"' Although Zhu Yuanzhang's words were ridiculed, he still frightened Qian Zai, and he repeatedly prostrated his head to apologize, and the emperor waved his hand and asked him to go back to sleep, after which Qian Zai returned to rest.
There is more than one such thing, the famous courtier Song Lian was also deeply affected, and one day when Song Lian ascended to the court, the emperor opened his mouth and asked him: 'Did you have a guest yesterday?' Who are the guests this please? What kind of dishes are you eating?'' Song Lian replied one by one. Zhu Yuanzhang said happily: "What he said is all right, and he really did not deceive me." After saying that, he took out a piece of paper, and this paper carefully drew the seat position of Song Lian's guests, which could scare Song Lian out of a lot of cold sweat.
From these two events, we can see zhu Yuanzhang's terrible desire for control and the severity of his spies.
Maybe you will think: ''A good generation of emperors has become a perverted voyeur, why is Zhu Yuanzhang so bitter?' In fact, we can understand his feelings. The Ming Dynasty had just been established, and Zhu Yuanzhang, a commoner emperor with a bumpy and very suspicious life, did not dare to take it lightly after he became the lord. It is easy to fight the country and the mountains are difficult to defend, but this is something that all entrepreneurs know, and Zhu Yuanzhang of course takes this deeply.
The people's hearts were unpredictable, and the emperor sitting on the dragon chair held great power, but the ministers looking at the people below were still restless. Under the feudal system, the emperor represented the interests of one side, and the emperor was isolated compared to the people of the ruled side, and he was always on the edge of a volcano. In order to maintain the supremacy of power, in order to continue the Zhu dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang needed to achieve absolute control over the thoughts and actions of his ministers.
Public laws and regulations do not really restrain restless ministers. Although the emperor did not have surveillance cameras, the most important thing he lacked was manpower. At first, Zhu Yuanzhang only sent someone to investigate the unusual things of the size of the capital. But as his suspicions grew, he began to send his close associates to spy on the ministers' secrets in private, and his actions shifted from reactive to proactive. Gradually, however, spying on intelligence alone was no longer enough to satisfy the emperor's desires. In this case, the Jinyi Guard came into being.
The predecessor of Jinyiwei was the Gongwei Division set up by Zhu Yuanzhang, which was later changed to "Pro-Military Governor's Mansion".
In the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382 AD), Jinyiwei was officially listed, which can also be regarded as having a legal business license. Their leader was called the Commander, and the Commander was chosen and appointed by the Emperor from among his close associates.
The most primitive state of the Jinyi Guards was that they appeared as the Emperor's honor guard, and at the same time had the duties of guards, responsible for the security and honor guard work of large-scale events. They can be seen during sacrifices, pilgrimages, and temple examinations.
In addition to the affairs of the palace, they also had to maintain the environment of the capital.
In addition to the natural environment and artificial environment in the general sense, the environment here also includes the social environment, they are responsible for repairing streets, dredging ditches and security in the imperial city, which can be described as a combination of security and sanitation workers. However, as the needs of the emperor changed, their functions gradually diversified, and the Jinyi guards were divided into a number of different functional departments, each performing its own duties. The number of security services, which were basically indistinguishable from those of the traditional Janissaries, continued to increase, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty the size of the troops had reached more than 5,000.
Some departments are more special, they appeared when Zhu Yuanzhang wantonly slaughtered the powerful ministers, and the judicial organs on the surface, such as the Dali Temple and the Punishment Department, could not meet the emperor's requirements for eliminating dissidents, so the function of the Jinyi Guard was one more patrol and arrest.
The original security function was more reinforced, and the emperor understood the phrase "the best defense is to attack" better than most people, so the Jinyi guard became the emperor's personal criminal police. These Jinyi guards responsible for investigating crimes are the Nanbei Town Fusi. There are five health centers under the Fusi division of the north and south towns, and the chiefs are called thousand households, hundred households, general banners, and small banners. Hokujin Fuji even had a separate prison, where they passed on cases approved by the emperor, arrested prisoners on their own, interrogated and executed themselves.
The Ming Shi Penal Chronicle believes that JinYiwei was close to the imperial prison of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. On the one hand, the prison refers to the case of the emperor's order, and on the other hand, it refers to the prison under the personal control of the emperor.
Jinyiwei was also known as the Ming Dynasty's 'Zhao Prison''.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Yiwei did solve many founding heroes for Zhu Yuanzhang, and the number of people who were murdered and implicated in the Hu Weiyong and Lanyu cases exceeded 40,000, shocking the four sides and ensuring the stability of Zhu's world. After this, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that the Jinyi guard was a sharp sword, pointing at others and not knowing whether it would hurt himself, he began to curb the excessively broad power of the Jinyi guard, ordered that the torture equipment used by the Jinyi guards in the Zhao Prison be concentrated, burned all on the Yudao Street outside the Zhao Prison, and ordered the disbandment of the Jinyi Guards, but the drawbacks had been buried.
Until Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, there were almost no talents available in the dynasty, which allowed Zhu Di to exploit the loophole and rise up to seize power for Emperor Mingcheng. Inevitably, Zhu Di began to exclude dissidents again, and cleaning up Emperor Jianwen's cronies also required Jinyiwei to play a role, and Jinyiwei once again reached glory in Zhu Di's hands. Zhu Di was well aware of his father's concerns and was not completely indulgent to Jinyiwei.
Although the rebuilt Jinyi guards were the emperor's personal police, they also had to be legal, and the emperor ordered them to bypass the legal procedures to arrest prisoners, and some necessary procedures could not be avoided. According to the ancestral system, the Jinyi guard should also pay attention to a licensed driving. Jinyi guards must not arrest people at will, they must have a driving sticker, and they can only arrest one person at a time. This procedure is led by the Criminal Division, who is responsible for approving the signature, after which the Jinyi guards can arrest people. The Criminal Division gave the matter the right to refute itself, and the emperor could not interfere more, and if they did not approve it, the emperor had no choice.
By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the control of the Jinyi guards became more and more stringent, and if they went to the field to arrest prisoners, they needed multiple departments to sign and paste together, and when they went to the gates of the imperial city, they also needed to verify the customs and strictly prevent counterfeiting, so the cumbersome procedures bound the hands and feet of the Jinyi guards.
Another duty of the Jinyi guards was to hold the court staff, which began in the Ming Dynasty as a form of torture used to punish ministers.
If any minister accidentally offended the emperor, he might be ordered by the emperor to be punished with a court staff, and the unfortunate minister would be immediately stripped of his court clothes like a lamb to be slaughtered, and then tied up and escorted to the noon gate for execution. At the noon gate, the Jinyi Wei commander and the eunuch who was in charge of the ceremony had already received the news and were waiting here. The punished were wrapped in a large cloth, and with a command, the Lieutenant of the Jinyi Guard applied a stick to his thighs and hips. During this period, the phenomenon of black box operations also existed. Lieutenant JinyiWei had undergone professional training as an executioner, and the severity of his execution depended on the actions of the eunuchs and Jinyiwei commanders, according to the emperor's wishes. If the two men's feet are spread like eight characters, it is a hint that the prisoner can be released for a way to live, and if their toes are closer inward to show the inner eight, the prisoner will be less fierce. After the execution, the executioner carried the shroud at the four corners of the prisoner and lifted him high, and then threw him down heavily, and the prisoner would have to go to half a life even if he did not die.
The low-ranking personnel in the Jinyi Guard are called lieutenants or luxes, and they are also called "Ti Riders" when they carry out related matters such as the arrest of thieves, and their number is large, from more than 60,000 people at most to 1,000 at a young age.
The JinyiWei Official School was promoted by virtue of its ability, and the selection of Jinyiwei set by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty was indeed very strict. Jinyiwei must not only be strong and powerful, heroic and good at war, but also be born from good people, but Jinyiwei is different from ordinary officials, and their official positions can be hereditary. Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, the two emperors of the Ming Dynasty, due to their suspicious personalities and the particularity of ascending to the throne, made thorough use of Jinyiwei, which absorbed the benefits brought by imperial power and expanded their powers, which also gave people with ulterior motives many opportunities to take advantage of.
The threshold of the Jinyi guard is lower and lower, some people who tend to be inflamed and cling to the situation and sneak around the horse are gradually ascending to the throne, and the children of the nobles can easily enter the Jinyi guard, and the quality of the Jinyi guard is much worse than before.
After the middle and late Ming Dynasty, magnates, Yu Xing, and eunuchs and nephews mixed into the Jinyi guard, they did not participate in the incident, but just hung up the sign to take the state FengLu, like a moth corroding the interior of the Jinyi guard, pulling down the overall level of the Jinyi guard. When the ambitionists, who are full of conspiracy theories, take charge of the Jinyi guards, they use their power to spare no effort to create trouble and try to suppress dissidents, hoping to increase their ranks and become knights. The government and the public are shrouded in the "white terror" they have created. In the court and in the folk, people are cautious and cautious, as if they are walking on the tip of the knife everywhere.
The Beizhen Fusi Prison was overcrowded, the whole country was full of corpses, and the emperor lost the hearts of the people, which greatly violated Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention of establishing the Jinyi Guard. For example, after the change of civil engineering, the courtiers criticized and blamed all the blame on the eunuch Wang Zhen, and accused Wang Zhen one after another. Jin Yiwei commanded Ma Shun to be a faction that supported Wang Zhen, and when he saw the situation of the group of courtiers insulting Wang Zhen, he opened his mouth and rebuked them, which caused public anger, and a group of civilian officials from weak literary and scholarly backgrounds punched and kicked Ma Shun, and Ma Shun was overwhelmed for a while, and was actually beaten to death.
As the leader of Jinyiwei, Ma Shun became a strange flower in history, not to mention his martial arts, as far as his personal experience is concerned, Jinyiwei has long lost the hearts of the people. ‘
The true image and function of The Jinyi Guard
Although the above phenomenon exists, the film's blind portrayal of Jinyiwei as a villain who does nothing evil and acts arbitrarily is still biased.
Jinyiwei played an important role in many events, and in the war against the Mongol Army and the Anti-Japanese Aid Korea, they accompanied the emperor and charged into battle, and also collected many important enemy reports. The existence of Jinyiwei has never been harmful to the country and not beneficial.
The prominent decline of the Ming Dynasty was the dictatorship of eunuchs, but the phenomenon of eunuchs directing themselves to Jinyi Wei did not always exist. The seniority of the Jinyi guards was older than that of the East Factory, but after all, they were foreign officials, no closer to the emperor than the eunuchs of the Inner Palace, but there were also many periods when the Jinyi Guards crushed the East Factory. Under the factory guard system, the East Factory and the Jinyiwei belong to different institutions, and there is a relationship of cooperation and competition between the two, and the East Factory and the Jinyiwei are an important aspect of the balance of power, and they check each other to avoid one being dominant.
You must not think that the Jinyi guard also has another function, that is, to domesticate elephants!
Elephant, Xiang Rui also. In ancient times, elephants as mascots were indispensable for large-scale events such as sacrifices. At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the elephant training guard was set up, which was guarded by special hunters and elephant training masters, and after the Ming Dynasty moved the capital, he entrusted the elephants who moved together to the Jinyi Guards, asking the Jinyi Guards to be responsible for the work of "Elephant Ceremony", that is, to train the elephants to complete related matters such as sacrifices, such as performances. As a result, Jinyiwei has also become a "professional elephant breeding household".
No matter how powerful it is, jinyiwei is only a tool under high authoritarian centralization, which improves efficiency for the emperor to exclude dissidents, and occasionally out of control will cause serious impacts. Their presence was a wake-up call for many people in the Ming Dynasty, and the wind and cranes in the court were loud, and the people were all soldiers. Under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, or under the control of Jinyiwei, politics was in a stage of repression, and the power of the emperor was undoubtedly strengthened, which was a major trend in feudal society, but at the same time, the development of Jinyiwei was also a major manifestation of the gradual decline of feudal society in politics, and social vitality was gradually reduced.
summary:
Time runs in the sun, lengthening history, history has no end, but the history of the fixed period is ultimately blurred, the history in front of us is refracted by the sun, it is undoubtedly new, but behind the rolling mountains, ethereal clouds, a period of history away from us, hidden into the green mountain mist, disappeared, history needs us to carefully distinguish.
From the establishment of the Jinyiwei system in 1382 to the end of 1661, it has been a short period of three hundred years, and there have been merits and deeds, and we must judge objectively. Jinyiwei has meritorious deeds and deeds in history, they have many identities such as spies, elephant trainers, sanitation workers, criminal policemen, soldiers, etc., they show people with different faces, we can not only grasp one side to discuss, set a stereotype for them.