In ancient times, if ministers wanted to report to the emperor if they had something to report, they had to write a note and submit it. And when the New Year is celebrated, it is also necessary to write a recital to congratulate the emperor and show his loyalty. Writing a recital is also a science, during the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang once set a stipulation that when ministers write recitals, they must be concise and clear, and they must not drag mud and water, and must not be too lyrical. The reason why he formulated this rule was related to a punishment attendant named Ru Taisu.
Ru Taisu was very competent as a punishment attendant, and he would write a letter to Zhu Yuanzhang almost every two to three days. Ru Taisu would put forward some of his own views on the criminal law or the government of the dynasty in the recital. But he had a problem with his writing, which was that the words were too jerky and difficult to understand, and they always stinked.
Zhu Yuanzhang started in the cold and did not read books for several years when he was a child. For Ru Taisu's deliberately showing off his knowledge, Zhu Yuanzhang has always been patient in reading, because he does not want to expose this shortcoming that he cannot understand. However, Ru Taisu had to test Zhu Yuanzhang once every few days, and he started with 7,000 words, which really made Zhu Yuanzhang angry. Once, Ru Taisu wrote another recital to Zhu Yuanzhang, which broke the length record of Ru Taisu's previous recitals, reaching nearly 14,000 words.
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at it roughly and found that there was nothing useful. He couldn't bear to look at it, so he summoned a minister to stand by and read it to him. Unexpectedly, this minister read nearly 7,000 words, and there was no word of the proverb of governing the country, all nonsense. Zhu Yuanzhang was angry and felt that Ru Taisu was delaying his time. So he immediately ordered someone to call Ru Taisu into the palace to beat up 30 big boards.
30 large boards is not a small number, after playing Ru Taisu is already dying. Zhu Yuanzhang was still angry, he ordered Ru Taisu to kneel under the hall, and then asked the minister to continue reading Ru Taisu's recital, and not allow Ru Taisu to leave without finishing reading. Unexpectedly, when he read the last 500 words, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly came to his senses. Ru Taisu's last 500 words are the essence of this letter.
At the end of the recital, he put forward his own summary of 5 suggestions on the revision of the law, and Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was very reasonable after listening to it, and adopted 4 of them on the spot. At this time, Ru Taisu was still kneeling in the palace, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered someone to help Ru Taisu up and reward him with some wound medicine. Zhu Yuanzhang euphemistically expressed his apologies to Ru Taisu, and Haosheng comforted him.
However, after this incident occurred, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered the civil and military officials to inform the civil and military officials that they must be concise in writing the recital, otherwise Ru Taisu would be their lesson. But Ru Taisu still did not get a good death in the end. Later, he was demoted by Zhu Yuanzhang because of his righteous words. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was too fond of a royal history, but this imperial history did not have real talent and practical learning, and he was still very arrogant and arrogant.
Ru Taisu wrote several times to impeach him, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not take it seriously. Ru Taisu was unwilling to give up on this, and later in order to express his dissatisfaction with Zhu Yuanzhang, he united 12 ministers to go to the court with shackles. This incident eventually angered Zhu Yuanzhang, who not only removed Ru Taisu's official, but also cut off his head.