"He built a nation of unprecedented dignity He gave an ethnic group the confidence to stand tall and his name became the eternal name of a nation" — the opening line of the TV series "The Great of Han Wu."
As one of the most powerful dynasties in Chinese history, most of the emperors of the Han Dynasty had excellent political ability, since the Han Gaozu Liu Bang beheaded the White Snake Rebellion, the next Han Wen Emperor and Han Jing Emperor can be called a generation of Ming Emperors, and the later Han Wu Emperor is comparable to Qin Shi Huang...
In the Han Dynasty, the most common enlightened policy was to pardon the world, and to promote national favor by pardoning criminals, so that many people believe that there were Han generations that practiced benevolent government and rarely killed people. But is this really the case? In fact, if we look at some major events in the Han Dynasty, we will find one thing, although there are many han generations that pardon criminals, but often some "guilty" officials choose to kill themselves, and the reason why they will kill themselves is related to the ruler to a certain extent. Rulers, in a number of peculiar ways, suggest that officials choose to commit suicide, which we call "hidden curses."
First, in order to maintain their rule, the rulers of the Han Dynasty have been deifying themselves, and they can brush their prestige by concealing their curses
The "hidden curse" of the rulers of the Han Dynasty was the mainstream way to deal with the "guilty" officials of the Han Dynasty. So why is there a phenomenon that the Han generation will "conceal the curse"? In fact, the main reason is still for their own "prestige", and choosing to conceal it is a means to achieve the purpose of killing under the premise of ensuring their own prestige.
First of all, in China since ancient times, there is a saying that "the punishment can not be a doctor", this is because these scholars and doctors assist the emperor in managing the people, representing the face of the emperor, and the scholar was in the aristocratic class in ancient times, the class hierarchy at that time was particularly obvious, the scholar and the nobles and the commoners were not on a horizontal line, so in order to reflect the difference between the two, give the scholars enough dignity, so these scholars and doctors can not be executed in public like the common people, and the emperor of the Han Dynasty chose to conceal the ministers, to a certain extent, out of this consideration. After all, the difference between respecting scholars and commoners is to respect the feudal hierarchical order and respect the imperial power.
Second, if the minister is guilty and the ruler directly orders the killing, it will give people the feeling that the ruler has no human touch. And more importantly, if the emperor directly orders the murder, it defines the fact that the official is guilty, so that the emperor who promotes the official will get an unknown image, which is a punch in the face for the emperor, which cannot be allowed to happen.
Therefore, the emperor generally chose to conceal the minister, causing the minister to commit suicide, declaring that a minister would change his mind, realize his own mistakes, feel sorry for the emperor, and finally kill himself, face the emperor without face, and apologize for the image of death, so that the emperor's face was saved. Then the emperor will reduce the punishment again when the time comes, and the dead will be large, so that the image of the emperor's leniency to others is reflected, and he shows another hand in front of the people.
Second, the name is heavy Taishan, the Han Dynasty is in integrity, and many times have to follow in the face of hidden curses
As a Han Dynasty developed on the basis of the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty at this time was not very far from the pre-Qin period. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a large number of examples of giving up life and death for honor and humiliation were preached among the people of the Han Dynasty, which made the people of the Han Dynasty pay more attention to their own dignity. Examples such as "not eating the food that comes from the mouth" and "drawing a sword to kill people when humiliated" were not common in the Han Dynasty, which was the overall custom of the Han Dynasty from the princes and nobles down to the common people - it should be known that when The Han Jing Emperor was still the prince, he played chess with Wu Wang Shizi and quarreled over the chess, so Emperor Jing directly took up the chessboard and smashed Wu Wang Shizi to death.
Therefore, during the Han Dynasty, some officials were rebuked by the emperor, although the emperor did not order execution, but often after some officials returned home, the officials would choose to kill themselves without warning, which was the integrity of the Han Dynasty courtiers, in the minds of Han Dynasty officials, life and death did not matter, the most important thing was their own integrity. The other party is the emperor, and for the courtiers, they cannot resist the emperor; but they insult themselves, and their integrity cannot be denigrated. Therefore, in the case of such contradictions, only by choosing to kill themselves is to make a statement.
In short, in the Han Dynasty, most of the courtiers were dignified, and as long as the rulers grasped this point and pushed the boat along the water and gave them some hints, they would choose to end themselves. These hints are also varied and not fixed, such as giving some gifts of meaning, or issuing edicts with deep meaning, and there is no word "dead" at all. The most typical is that in the last years of the Han Dynasty, Xun Yu was dissatisfied because Cao Cao was king, and there was a gap with Cao Cao, Cao Cao sent an empty food box, Xun Yu chose to take poison and commit suicide after seeing it. This is a typical implicit accusation, without a clear commandment, but relying on the courtiers to understand and understand on their own.
This unique method of concealment of the emperor of the Han Dynasty can not only be used to consolidate his rule and achieve the purpose of the emperor's dictatorship, but also can be used to brush his prestige and create an image. Therefore, the emperors of the Han Dynasty rarely ordered the direct disposal of a certain minister, but more often adopted such a way to achieve their own goals, and it has to be said that the means are clever and rare in the past.
Third, there is actually a strong ambiguity in the concealment, and officials still have a glimmer of life
As we can see from the above, the emperor's hidden edicts generally choose euphemistic hints, leaving the ministers below to figure out the emperor's intentions. Officials with heads and faces do not want to be insulted, and after understanding the hints, they will choose to kill themselves, so as to save face.
This was because the emperor did not explicitly order the ministers to be convicted, and once it was clearly stated, these ministers had to go into the cell and face the interrogation and insults of the petty officials, which was a serious insult to these royal ministers. Coupled with the fact that the ancient fashion still exists, people are more willing to sacrifice their lives for righteousness, so most of the ministers choose to kill themselves and are not willing to endure insults.
However, this kind of concealment is after all the emperor's hint, and there is no clear punishment for asking the minister to kill himself, but more on his own understanding, so these officials have a glimmer of life. Thanks to the emperor's explicit punishment and not saying it, these officials who committed crimes could spend some manpower and material resources to find people with connections and backgrounds to say good things for themselves, and once they moved, they might be spared death.
The most typical is Zhou Bo, when Zhou Bo was arrested and imprisoned by Emperor Wen of Han for treason, Emperor Wen of Han took the opportunity to want to kill Zhou Bo, and it was also this method of concealment. At that time, he had been imprisoning Zhou Bo, letting him reflect on himself, in which the jailers were even more difficult and oppressive to Zhou Bo. But Zhou Bo was cheeky, and he never killed himself, but kept looking for someone to intercede for himself, and as a result, he really said that he had moved Emperor Wen of Han and was acquitted. If it weren't for Zhou Bo, replaced by other officials who could not bear the humiliation, I am afraid that I would have killed myself at the moment of imprisonment.
Therefore, because of the ambiguity of the language, the hidden curse gave the emperor and his courtiers a lot of room for turning, as long as they had the ability and cheekiness, there was also a glimmer of life for the officials. Of course, once there is no room for redemption, and the officials pretend not to know in the face of the emperor's hints, relying on a thick face, then these emperors will not be soft, and will directly condemn these ministers without leaving the slightest face.
summary
For the emperor, the hidden curse was, to some extent, the best way to dispose of his courtiers. The emperor of the Han Dynasty used the hidden curse to brush up on his prestige, deify himself in one fell swoop, and pass on to the people an image of the ruler's great talent and great wisdom and divine martial arts, and realize the desire to consolidate his own rule.
And because of the ambiguity of the hidden curse, this is also a valuable buffer opportunity for kings and courtiers. Because sometimes the emperor condemns his subjects, it is completely out of anger, and after a period of time, the anger subsides and regrets, the existence of this hidden curse is equivalent to giving both sides a chance to start again.