"Shangfang" refers to the ancient official office that helped the royal family to manufacture and manage daily necessities, and the "Records of History" recorded:
In the spring, Le Chenghou wrote to Luan Da. Luan Da, a native of Jiaodong Palace, was in the same division as General Wencheng and became the King of Jiaodong Shangfang. ”
The Shangfang Sword is a sword forged by the "Shangfang" Palace office for the exclusive use of the emperor.
In costume novels and dramas, there is often a scene: the emperor rewards the minister Shang Fang with a sword, and the minister seems to be able to be justified when he reaches the place with the sword, and even has a moving plot of angrily rebuking hundreds of officials and cutting first and playing later. In fact, those scenes are artistically processed in order to play a rendering effect. The real Shang Fang Sword is not a reward that can be used.
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, this kind of imperial sword was hidden in Shangfang, the workmanship was extremely exquisite, and painted with dragon and phoenix patterns, cutting iron like mud, a sheath can take the life of a mule and horse, so the Han Dynasty called "Shangfang chopping horse sword". The Book of Han records that Zhu Yun wrote to Emperor Cheng of Han:
"The subject is willing to give Shang Fang a sword to cut off the horse, and cut off one of the servants to force the rest."
This allusion is that Emperor Hancheng's teacher Zhang Yu did nothing evil, and Zhu Yun asked the emperor to let him kill Zhang Yu with the Shangfang sword in order to achieve the effect of killing one hundred people. However, the emperor felt that Zhu Yun was a criminal, so he asked the guards to drag him out and behead him. Zhu Yun held on to the railing, and the guards used too much force to pull Zhu Yun and the railing together. At this time, fortunately, there were officials next to him who came out to intercede, and Zhu Yun escaped the disaster. "Zhu Yun folding column" has become an allusion to the loyal ministers' outspoken advice.
It can be seen from this that during the Qin and Han Dynasties, some people wanted to use the Shangfang sword to kill the traitors, but unfortunately, if you think about it, in fact, the chancellor was not qualified to use the Shangfang sword, and the emperor would not easily reward it. The Book of later Han also records that the emperor made Cai Lun do Shang Fang Ling and supervise the production of Shang Fang Sword. Cai Lun said that "the instrument of royal use, the courtiers shall not use it privately."
In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court officials who were awarded the "Shangfang Sword" by the emperor did not have the right to cut first and play later, and they had to ask the emperor first.
It was not until the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, when Zhao Kuangyin's yellow robe was added to his body, that he was given the right to slash the sword first and play it later, but it was limited to a small number of high-ranking generals who "came in person and killed in violation of the law". The Wujing Bibliography records:
"In the system of this dynasty, every time the general goes out to negotiate, he will give the royal sword to himself, and those who violate the order will be killed by him."
The Song Dynasty emphasized literature over military force, and had great distrust of military generals, and in peacetime soldiers and generals were transferred to each other, and they were not familiar with each other, and it was easy for generals to move troops in wartime. In order to solve the problem of the general sending troops outside, far from the imperial court, playing everything and missing the fighter, the Song Dynasty had the custom of rewarding Shangfang's sword to cut first and play later.
The Shangfang sword of the Song Dynasty was mainly used in the military field, and there were corresponding restrictions, "below the deputy general, those who do not obey the order can be beheaded", which means that in the face of the generals above the vice general, the shangfang sword holder still has no right to cut first and play later.
In the judicial field, the Song Dynasty did not use the Shangfang Sword, so in the TV series, Bao Zheng of the Song Dynasty had a Shangfang Sword of "Cutting the Emperor on the Top and Beheading the Servants", which was purely imaginary and completely artistic creation. The tools used by Bao Zheng in handling cases were the dragon head (descending dragon), the tiger head (fu hu), and the dog head (beheading the dog), which punished the emperor and nobles who violated the law, corrupt officials, and ordinary criminals.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Shangfang Sword began to be widely used in military politics and supervision, not only with greater frequency of use, but also in terms of system more perfect. Liu Bowen once said:
"Seal the sword first, and curse the adulterous stolen goods according to the law."
The Shangfang sword of the Ming Dynasty, representing the Son of Heaven, is an extension of imperial power, and the sword bearer is generally the emperor's confidant or inspector of imperial history, and truly has the right to cut first and play later. When the Shangfang sword was rewarded, the imperial court also held a ceremony at the Fengtian Hall to "perform the ceremony of granting the ceremony on behalf of the emperor", when the emperor was solemnly dressed in a ceremonial dress, and the general entered the temple from the west and prostrated his head four times. The undertaker proclaimed the Holy Decree, "Conferring on the Great General with a Festival."
In the late Ming Dynasty, when the general took Tianzi on a campaign, he had to hold the "sword (Shangfang Sword), edict (concession edict) and seal (soldier's charm)" at the same time to represent the emperor's overseer.
The emperor felt the need to reward the minister with a sword, and the minister held the sword for only a moment. For example, Chongzhen rewarded Yuan Chonghuan, the overseer of Jiliao, with a Shangfang sword, and Yuan Chonghuan used the Shangfang sword to behead Mao Wenlong. Later, when Yuan Chonghuan was cleaned up by Chongzhen, one of the crimes was to kill Mao Wenlong with a sword.
The Shangfang Sword is the product of the ancient emperor's rule over the world, symbolizing the supremacy of imperial power, and is similar to the Three-Eyed Flower Plume and the Danshu Iron Coupon, which is just a prop for the emperor to control the ministers. Using these props to govern the world can only cure the symptoms, not the root causes, and the Shangfang Sword is not a panacea to reverse the fate of the dynasty.