Zhu Yuanzhang, the old Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, and all the emperors in the entire feudal society, can be regarded as a relatively decisive emperor. Okay, let's say that it is beautification, to put it bluntly, it is very suspicious, just the four major cases in the early Ming Dynasty (Hu Weiyong case, "empty seal case", Guo Huan case, Lan Yu case), which time the number of implicated people is not tens of thousands? Not to mention that there are all kinds of large and small word hells.
When his original empress Dowager Ma was still alive, with the conjugal friendship of sharing weal and woe, he could more or less persuade Lao Zhu not to always suppress the heroes so much, nor to formulate such a harsh criminal law; but as soon as Empress Ma died, after Lao Zhu had no one to take care of him, he began to intensify.
Fan Congwen was an official of the Ming Dynasty, who served as the superintendent of imperial history and the head of the household department, and was a relatively fair and upright kind of clean official. During the Ming Dynasty, the words and deeds of hundreds of officials were strictly monitored, so many officials were convicted for some small matter, and once Fan Congwen handled a case involving hundreds of officials.
The actual case is actually not serious, Fan Congwen can't bear to watch so many colleagues die, plus he was originally a royal history, responsible for supervising the civil and military officials, so he went to Lao Zhu and said that these officials would not die for their crimes, hoping to be able to open up a side. When did Old Zhu endure the finger-pointing of others after Empress Ma? Therefore, Lao Zhu said that since you can't bear to help them intercede, then you yourself have suffered for them.
So Fan Congwen had a good imperial history, so he was arrested and put in prison, and he was sentenced to an autumn and became a death row prisoner. It is reasonable to say that the person who was sentenced to death by Lao Zhu himself had no way to live, but fortunately, this Fan Congwen was first released from prison according to the formal procedures. Why is it fortunate? Ancient China was not so unkind, especially because of the low level of case handling, which often led to unjust, false and wrongly decided cases.
In order to reduce the probability of innocent people dying in vain, since emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the death penalty repetition system has begun to be established, and all death penalty cases must be personally examined by the emperor before they can be executed. The Book of Wei records: "When the deceased, the ministry is heard. Death cannot be revived, the superintendent cannot be judged, the prison is presented, the emperor himself comes to ask, there is no complaint, and the great opening of the states and the kingdoms is reported first, but it is implemented."
In the Tang Dynasty, the three-fold system was directly established, and whether it was a decision or a death penalty case decided after the autumn, it had to be carried out three times by the Punishment Department on the day when the emperor issued an order to execute the death penalty with the participation of Shangshu of the Punishment Department, ShiLang, university scholars, and military ministers.
Therefore, when this matter of asking Lao Zhu for advice, it suddenly reminded Lao Zhu of this Fan Congwen, and specially brought him up to personally inquire. Old Zhu's anger had almost subsided at this time, but he felt that Fan Congwen was quite courageous, so he asked him: "Which one of yours?" What's your last name? Fan Congwen replied, "I despise the surname Fan." ”
The surname Fan reminded Lao Zhu of a person he admired very much, that is, Fan Zhongyun, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, who wrote "the world is worried and worried, and the world is happy and happy after the world". Old Zhu Asked, "What is your relationship with Fan Wenzheng?" Fan Congwen replied, "I am the thirteenth generation of Duke Wen Zheng's descendants." ”
Old Zhu Yi heard this was terrible, he had always regarded himself as a generation of Ming Lords, how could it be rumored that after the killing of Zhongliang? It's just that at this time, just letting Fan Congwen's sincerity is a little too much, and Old Zhu simply doesn't do two things endlessly, using Fan Zhongyan's 5 famous golden sentences as "gold medals to avoid death" and telling Fan Congwen that these can save his five lives.
Later, Old Juddy remembered this Fan Congwen's family knowledge and sent him to work in the academy, which was also considered to be the best use of things.