In the first month of the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing (1548), Xia Yan, the first assistant of the cabinet, was finally defeated.
The Jiajing Emperor, who was nostalgic for his old feelings, still maintained warmth for Xia Yan at first. At the same time as ordering Xia Yan to withdraw from the court, Jiajing Jia'en gave him the retirement treatment of Shangshu of the Rebbe and let him go home and retire with peace of mind. Xia Yan quickly packed up his business and dragged the family away from the Beijing Division.
He was a native of Jiangxi, and when he returned home from the capital, he had to take a boat and take a waterway to return to his hometown through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. This way, the boat and car are tired, plus a handful of age, so it goes extremely slowly.
Just as he was leisurely returning home, the court in Beijing was full of storms.
Before being forced to retire, Xia Yan supported the governor of Shaanxi, Zeng Milling, in recovering the Hetao region. For this land where soldiers must fight, the Ming court was somewhat out of reach, and due to the japanese drama of the fiscal deficit in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Jiajing did not agree to Zeng Milling's plan to take the initiative to provoke war and burn money. However, as a university scholar who assisted the emperor, Xia Yan was always quite interested in this plan. Therefore, under the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, such as the university scholar Yan Song, a paper exposing the former fu xia yan's corruption and bribery, collusion with border generals, and resentment of the emperor before leaving his post was submitted to Jiajing.
After Jiajing finished reading the complaint, he was furious and quickly ordered Jinyi Wei to pursue Xia Yan.
Xia Yan, who was walking on the way back home, was unaware of all these changes. Therefore, when Jinyi Weiti rode to his side to read the holy will, Xia Yan still thought that he still had a way to live. Using the escort back to Beijing, he sent two consecutive notes to The Capital, claiming that he had been falsely accused and asking the emperor to investigate thoroughly.
Unexpectedly, this move actually became his "hypnotic".
Half a year after being escorted to Beijing, xia Yan, who was 67 years old at the time, abandoned xishi and became the first and only cabinet chief assistant to be publicly beheaded since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
▲Portrait of Xia Yan. Image source: Network
Xia Yan (1482-1548) came from a military family, and this origin made him more eager to get ahead through the imperial examination than the children of the Pingtou people's families.
Because, according to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, the children of military families were subordinate to the army for life, served as soldiers in wartime, and cultivated fields in their spare time. In order to prevent the troops from giving birth to soldiers and bandits, since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the emperors have set up various rules and regulations to restrict their freedom. As early as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang issued a decree strictly prohibiting officers and soldiers from engaging in cultural and recreational activities in the capital. If there is any violation, the light is to cut off the tongue and cut off the hand, and the heavy is to remove the leg and distribute the frontier.
Under the oppression of the harsh system, most ordinary people are reluctant to marry the children of military ranks. If Xia Yan, who came from the military, did not want to do his best to get out of the military, he was likely to be a beggar in the future.
Of course, jurisprudence is nothing more than human feelings. Under the status system of being restricted to death, there is still a possibility of getting rid of the military membership: that is, through the examination of the military, to achieve a high position of power or to win the emperor's favor, then the departure from the military is only a matter of the emperor's words.
Before Xia Yan, those who received amnesty in this way were Wan An, Li Dongyang, and others who had served as the first assistants of the cabinet.
Therefore, thinking about the Xia Yan of Guangzong Yaozu since childhood, he forced himself to develop the habit of loving reading. After years of meticulous preparation and several failed scientific expeditions, at the age of 36, Xia Yan finally became a jinshi and became an official in the DPRK.
▲ Zhengde twelve years into the jinshi Dengke record, Xia Yan for the same jinshi origin. Image source: Network
In October of the fifteenth year of Zhengde (1520), after completing his ordered inspection of the Huguang and Yungui regions, Xia Yan returned to the capital and was appointed as the military section of the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau, assuming the responsibility of advising and advising. At that time, the greedy Ming Wuzong had just died of illness, and he was replaced by the Jiajing Emperor, who was inextricably linked to Xia Yan afterwards.
As a cousin of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Jiajing lived in his father's vassal state of Anlu Prefecture (安陸州, in modern Zhongxiang, Hubei) before he ascended the throne, and served as the Prince of Xing. A last will of Emperor Wuzong of Ming before his death completely changed his fate and indirectly promoted the development of the ming dynasty's national fortunes in another direction.
After Jiajing entered Beijing, a choice question in front of him was who to honor as the father and emperor. Because of this "small matter", a controversy called "Great Ceremony" was set off in the court. Most of the central officials are more or less involved and express their opinions.
The imperial court was also divided into two factions because of this controversy: one faction, led by Yang Tinghe, the head of the cabinet during the Ming Wuzong era, forced the Jiajing Emperor to honor his uncle Emperor Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youfan as his father and emperor, and the courtesy of the son of a pedestrian, who was also a member of the Qishe Ji; the other faction, led by the new branch jinshi Zhang Xuan (later renamed Zhang Fujing to avoid the emperor's secrets), resolutely sided with the Jiajing Emperor and demanded that the father-son relationship between the emperor and the Xingxian King (Jiajing's biological father) be preserved.
In the protracted debate, countless officials who opposed the Jiajing Emperor's honor of his biological father have experienced the evil consequences of political struggle. Only Xia Yan, who worked diligently in the Metropolitan Inspection Institute, was always safe and sound.
In the face of the "great ceremonial discussion" set off by the emperor, Xia Yan, who had just entered the official field, seemed quite restrained. Under the premise that the situation was unclear, he only knew "loyalty to the king".
In his post, Xia Yan had bluntly impeached Shangshu Wang Qiong and Wang Xian of the Military Department, impeached the uncle of the current dynasty, Zhang Yanling, for oppressing the people and embezzling land property, and returned a detailed note to the emperor, asking Jiajing to eliminate the maladministration of the Ming Wuzong era and create a new atmosphere in the new dynasty. During this period, Xia Yan stood in the perspective of being conducive to the development of the Ming Dynasty and cleared the obstacles to Jiajing's rule. From the emperor's point of view, Xia Yan's obscure efforts have become a "clear stream" outside of many party ministers.
When Xia Yan returned to his hometown because of the death of his mother, the Jiajing Emperor directly gave him a great gift - exemption from military status.
In the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), with the "Great Ceremony" ending with the victory of Jiajing, Xia Yan, who had been away from the capital for several years, also returned to the court.
At this time, the situation in the DPRK has been very different from the previous sharp separation of the two factions. The young Jiajing, assisted by a team that supported him, firmly controlled the supreme imperial power of the Ming Empire.
▲Portrait of the Jiajing Emperor. Image source: Network
Xia Yan, who returned to the court, did not attract Jiajing's attention at first. As a rule, he returned to his original post and did the work of slander.
After the "Great Ceremony Discussion" incident, Jiajing, who was quite capable of doing things, launched a large-scale movement of questioning and discussing the Tao in the palace, so that the court, which had been difficult to calm down, once again surged up. This time, relying on God's appreciation of food, Xia Yan, who had been silently paying for a long time in the central government, finally waited for the opportunity to turn over the salted fish.
The emperor believed, and there was no big problem, after all, in history, many Ming Emperors believed in "immortality". Ke Jiajing not only revered the Tao, but also had his own unique views on the ritual methods of sacrifice in Taoism. He believes that the sun and moon rituals that the ancients have long advocated violate the Taoist ritual law, and if they want to express respect for the heavens, they should build two altars of heaven and earth, and divide the heavens and the earth.
Jia Jing did not expect that his proposal would actually be opposed by Zhang Fujing, who had previously firmly supported him.
Zhang Fujing believed that the law of the ancestors could not be violated, and since the Ming Dynasty had been the rule of the heavens and the earth sun and moon sacrifice since the generation of the grandfather, then no matter how reasonable Jiajing was, it would not work.
With his support in the "Great Ceremony Discussion", Zhang Fujing was already the first assistant of the cabinet and the head of the civil servants at this time, and his power was as powerful as the sun. His veto made Jiajing have to reconsider.
Just when JiaJing was depressed in his heart and thought that this matter was going to be yellow, Xia Yan, who had been diligent and silent, suddenly stood up and strongly supported the emperor's decision.
Xia Yan pointed out that Jiajing's attempt to carry out the heaven and earth sacrifices was not a complete violation of the ancestral ritual law, and at the beginning of the reign of the old ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, the state still practiced the method of dividing the heavens in the southern suburbs and the sacrifices in the northern suburbs. Today, Jiajing has restored this system, and strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with it.
Xia Yan's "righteous and righteous speech" made Jiajing instantly double his confidence - under his obstinate will, the division of heaven and earth began to affect the imperial sacrifice ceremony for hundreds of years in the future.
▲ The Temple of Earth in Beijing was built after this controversy. Image source: Figureworm creative
As the biggest contributor to the implementation of this system, Xia Yan was also favored by Jiajing. After Zhang Fujing, Xia Yan's promotion is like riding on a rocket. Within three years, he changed from a small matter to a Reibe Shoshu of Shojipin and obtained a ticket to enter the cabinet and participate in politics.
Seeing that the Jiajing Emperor had recruited another favored courtier, Zhang Fujing, who had several years more experience in a high position than Xia Yan, immediately realized that his position might not be secured.
Without waiting for Xia Yan's reaction, Zhang Fujing organized his henchmen to maliciously attack Xia Yan.
Zhang Fujing believed that with his position as the first assistant, as long as the emperor did not intervene, it was not necessary to kill Xia Yan. However, Zhang Fujing was still a poor chess player.
Behind Xia Yan, Jiajing never relaxed his control over the court. Because, after the victory of the "Great Ceremony", Jiajing had already realized that he could not let the group of subjects form an alliance, otherwise, it would be difficult for him to be the emperor.
Therefore, under the emperor's arrangement, Xia Yan and Zhang Fujing "went to war".
At the behest of Zhang Fujing, a wave of personal attacks against Xia Yan was set off in the court. In the testimony of these people, Xia Yan is described as an unusable minister, and whoever uses him will mislead the country and the people.
JiaJing, who was standing behind and watching the play, saw the ministers pointing at the mulberry and cursing the locust in the court, and his heart must not be a taste.
And Xia Yan is not a soft persimmon, which can be pinched casually. In the face of provocations from political opponents, he showed his consistent ability to write a good book and completed the accusation against them in the form of a chapter.
In order to increase his chances of victory, Xia Yan, in addition to refuting the courtiers, also specially invested in Jiajing's favor and wrote a green word for the emperor - this kind of article that provided Jiajing with a dialogue between heaven and man not only satisfied his desire for "divine right of kings", but also invisibly built a way for Xia Yan to listen to heaven.
In the end, after Jiajing intervened, the political battle was sentenced to a 1:1 draw. In exchange, Zhang Fu respectfully told the old man to return to his hometown, and Xia Yan began to enter the cabinet.
In the fifteenth year of Jiajing (1536), the emperor's second son Zhu Zaiyuan was born. This was the first prince welcomed by the imperial family after the death of the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Zaiji, three years earlier.
After entering the cabinet, Xia Yan always insisted on writing green words to the emperor, so Jiajing believed that the birth of the prince, Xia Yan should be the first credit. Therefore, in the midst of the celebration of the imperial palace, Jiajing did not forget Xia Yan, and let him officially serve as a university scholar and assist the first assistant of the cabinet to handle government affairs.
At that time, the first assistant of the cabinet was Li Shi, the elder of the Three Dynasties. However, with the special merits of Zuo Ming, Xia Yan, who had just entered the cabinet, quickly became a real Speaker of the Daming Cabinet.
After two years of internship in the position of second assistant in the cabinet, Li Shi died of illness. According to Jiajing's arrangement, Xia Yan smoothly sat on the throne of the first assistant of the cabinet.
However, from the moment he took office, his ending was destined to be similar to Zhang Fujing.com.
The main job of Daming Shoufu is not to write green words. The daily juggling of official affairs in the cabinet made Xia Yan anxious, and he gradually lost his enthusiasm for writing green words for the emperor in the past in order to seek greater power. When Xia Yan gradually faded out of Jiajing's sight, a group of ministers who were good at writing green words, such as Yan Song and Yuan Wei, successively became the emperor's new favorites.
At the same time, the speed of promotion was too fast, and Xia Yan's whole person drifted.
With the help of the power in his hands, Xia Yan gradually degenerated and lost his private morality. According to historical records, during Xia Yan's tenure as the first assistant to the cabinet, the family's house was repeatedly renovated, and the coarse tea and light rice on weekdays were also replaced with brocade and jade food. What is more serious is that some officials went to Xia Yan's house to drink and feast, and found that Lord Xia enjoyed the treatment of an emperor at home, which was quite comfortable.
Trespassing has always been taboo for the emperor. JiaJing, who had just taken the throne of Xia Yan, had a little more suspicion in his heart.
This is not the end, another direct impact of holding great power on Xia Yan is that his arrogance has become heavier. He was not accustomed to the ministers who disagreed with him, nor did he look at the pile of green words that he had discussed with the emperor before. What's more, in his daily companionship, he is not as obedient to the emperor as before.
Xia Yan's various anomalies deepened JiaJing's suspicions. He even wondered if he had mistaken people and found a "power greed" to divide his imperial power.
Out of a small punishment, Jiajing took back all the treasures that he had previously given to Xia Yan to see if the favored courtier could realize his mistake.
Who knows, in Xia Yan's plea for guilt, he blamed the reason for being punished by the emperor this time as "isolated by one heart, and feared by the public"! This means that he himself is not wrong, and it is only because he stands out from the crowd that he has caused everyone's dissatisfaction.
Isn't everyone including Jiajing himself? As soon as he read Xia Yan's fold, Jia Jing immediately realized that Xia Yan's attitude of admitting mistakes was clearly a provocation.
In the eighteenth year of Jiajing (1539), Jiajing deposed Xia Yan from all official positions and let him go home to retire. Soon after, Jiajing regretted it again and reinstated Xia Yanguan. The reason is that although Xia Yan is proud, he is reluctant to him in the end.
Xia Yan, who had returned to the court, not long after, once again annoyed Jiajing with his arrogance.
Perhaps feeling that there was no hope for his return to the dynasty, after being deposed for the second time, Xia Yan gave Jiajing a "Fourteen Strategies of the Royal Side". It turns out that the first assistant of the cabinet who is in the whirlpool of political struggles is not all dry food.
As a Daming official who successfully broke away from the shackles of military status, Xia Yan still had some contributions to Daming and to the military households in the world. In the "Fourteen Strategies of the Royal Frontier", he bluntly said the importance of the nine towns on the northern border to Daming, and asked Jiajing to "carefully select generals" in preparing the enemy at the border, and never use old soldiers and young masters. In view of the people's livelihood caused by the war infestation and other factors in the nine northern towns, he also proposed a solution: the imperial court must regularly and quantitatively prepare sufficient money and grain for the officers and men of the border towns in Xuanfu and Datong to maintain their combat effectiveness.
In addition, Xia Yan also made detailed countermeasures and suggestions for the management of the warhorses of the Ming army and the punishment of those who impersonated grain and pay.
It can be seen that even if the political struggle is fierce, Xia Yan is most relieved of Daming's safety.
Perhaps, it is precisely because of this original intention that soon after Xia Yan was deposed for the second time, he ushered in a new ups and downs.
However, this time back, it was different from before: Jiajing arranged an old acquaintance by his side- Yan Song.
▲Yan Song. Image source: Screenshot of film and television drama
Xia Yan and Yan Song were both from Jiangxi, and when Xia Yan was in charge of the cabinet, he recommended Yan Song to Jiajing as a candidate for the new Rebbe Shangshu. It can be said that the friendship between the two is very good.
As an official "old fox" with more seniority than Xia Yan for more than ten years, Yan Song was well versed in the way of being an official. As early as the time when Xia Yan was officially prosperous, Yan Song regarded himself as a protégé and was very respectful to Xia Yan. Knowing that Xia Yan did not like the superficial flattery of his subordinates, Yan Song repeatedly honored and demoted himself, and tried his best to show his sincere side in front of Xia Yan. Yan Song did so much, but he hoped that Xia Yan could say a few kind words for himself in front of the emperor, and he could also soar on his own.
However, when Xia Yan sensed that Yan Song had this intention, a trace of contempt arose in his heart. Instead of arranging a future for Yan Song, he deliberately ridiculed and manipulated Yan Song in front of outsiders.
For his own future, Yan Song has always been patient. Even though he was already on an equal footing with Xia Yan, he always posed in front of everyone as willing to be lower than Xia Yan.
This made Xia Yan look away again.
As for Yan Song's deliberately pretended courtesy, Xia Yan thought that Yan Song could not look back from beginning to end, and he was the most important person in Jiajing's heart.
As Xia Yan took charge of the cabinet again, a number of officials he had previously been blind to suffered. Among them were Yan Song's close associates, He Ao, who was then the right deputy capital, Yushi, and others. Although most of the officials impeached by Xia Yan were courtiers who were in cahoots with Yan Songpeng, there were also some loyal ministers, such as Tang Long, who were either disparaged for their political views or for their poor political performance.
It is precisely because of Xia Yan's "one-size-fits-all" management of the cabinet for the third time that he laid the groundwork for him to embark on the road of no return in his life.
In the twenty-fifth year of Jiajing (1546), Zeng Milling, who was then the governor of Shaanxi On the Three Sides, submitted a copy of the "Please Restore the River Loop" to the imperial court after repelling another invasion by the Mongol Qata Khan.
According to Zeng Milling, the Mongols went south to harass Daming, and as long as they left the Hetao area, they could directly attack Xuanfu and Datong in the north. If these thresholds are taken, Daming may unfortunately repeat the "civil change". But the Mongols were nomadic peoples, and their strongest fighting power was when the weather was sunny in summer and autumn. In the winter and spring, the steppe was "deep in winter, dry in winter, horses without grass, cold and rainy in spring, and dry soil in the soil", and the Mongolian cavalry, which was sleepy and tired of horses, was not threatening at all. Therefore, to cure the Mongol cavalry, we must take advantage of his illness and kill him. The premise of everything is to take the opportunity to recover the Loop area.
▲The Hetao area of the Ming Dynasty. Source: Historical Atlas of China
The Hetao region mentioned by Zeng Milling is roughly equivalent to the Ordos region of present-day Inner Mongolia, and further north is the Tatar base camp of Uttar Khan. In order to resist the Mongol invasion of the south, Emperor Mingwuzong also personally marched here and fought a decisive battle with the father of the Khan of Uttar Khan, the little prince of Mongolia.
Zeng's proposal coincided with Xia Yanshang's previous defense proposition of strengthening Datong and Xuanfu.
For Xia Yan, Zeng Mill's proposal came too soon. If it can help Daming to recover Hetao, it will not only make a new contribution to the country, but also refresh their impression of themselves in front of the courtiers and even the emperor.
For Jiajing, Zeng Milling's proposal is also quite good. In the unlikely event that he had recovered Hetao during his reign, later history books might rewrite his "Taoist priest" as an ancient Ming Emperor like Ming Chengzu.
According to Zeng Milling's plan, the recovery of the River Loop will not only cost a lot of money, but also be completed in three years and perfected in ten years. This was simply a burden that could crush the camel's camel at this time--from the fifteenth year of Jiajing, the Ming Dynasty had always maintained a fiscal deficit of about one million taels per year. Fighting a war is to burn money, not to mention that Zeng Milling also listed in detail that the entire re-suite process costs 22.4 million taels of silver. As soon as he saw this number, JiaJing knew that he did not have such a big skill.
▲The Great Wall. Image source: Photo Network
But as an emperor, he is rich all over the world, and he cannot directly state that he has no money to play.
Therefore, he played a routine, claiming that he was so hasty to retake the Loop area, and he was afraid that the teacher would be unknown. The cabinet officials are so talented and learned, why don't you draw up a paragraph to see if there is room for discussion on this matter?
Xia Yan, who took the hot potato, planned to stiffen Zeng Milling no matter what. When Jiajing gave such an attitude, the scheming Yan Song instantly understood that the emperor did not want to fight, as long as he obediently listened to Jiajing's words, and then he would not be a problem in this matter.
When Xia Yan openly supported Zeng Milling, Yan Song began to tear off the face of his former hypocrisy, collecting evidence everywhere and preparing to overthrow Xia Yan.
At first, Yan Song pointed the spearhead at Zeng Milling. At that time, a landslide suddenly occurred in Weinan, Shaanxi. Taking advantage of the emperor's superstitious psychology, Yan Song said that this was a warning sent to Jiajing by heaven because he had provoked the disaster of war.
Then, Yan Song arranged for the officials to give advice to the emperor one after another, and impeached Xia Yan for dereliction of duty.
At the same time, taking advantage of the contradiction between the border general Qiu Luan and Zeng Milling, Yan Song set off a political debate in the DPRK accusing Zeng Milling of corrupting the law and deducting military salaries, and completely pulled him down.
With the loss of power of Zeng Milling, Xia Yan was suddenly pushed to the cusp of public opinion. The courtiers accused him of being unworthy of his moral integrity and asked Jiajing to bring him to justice as soon as possible.
However, Yan Song was quite aware of the weight of Xia Yan in Jiajing's heart. The impeachment of the hundred officials is likely to only allow Xia Yan to briefly withdraw from the court, as long as he does not die, the deposed official returns home, and the next opportunity to recover is just around the corner.
Taking advantage of Xia Yan's resignation, Yan Song joined forces with Qiu Luan, who was still in prison, to fabricate a piece of evidence for the emperor that Zeng Qiao had secretly contacted Xia Yan's relatives through his son and bribed him with silver to pass the proposal to recover Hetao.
In fact, for such accusations, Jiajing's inner waves were not large. After all, Lu Bing, the commander of the Jinyi Guards who often held high positions around him, was also a corrupt person in the eyes of the courtiers. What really made Jiajing unacceptable was that among the evidence submitted by Yan Song, there was also a content about Xia Yan scolding the emperor after he was deposed.
▲ Lu Bing. Image source: Screenshot of film and television drama
Therefore, no matter how Xia Yan later defended himself that he had been wronged, for Jiajing, who had trusted him immensely, it was just the last jump of the dying person.
On October 2, the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing (1548), Xia Yan, who had no hope of surviving, was beheaded in Xishi.
Until his death, he never imagined that he had struggled all his life for power, but in the end he became daming's most tragic "prime minister", and he died without a corpse.
Perhaps it was karma, less than four years after Xia Yan was beheaded, the former enemy Qiu Luan, because of the sores on his back, died of illness, was exposed for treason, and was opened in a coffin. As the big winner of this political battle, Yan Song did not survive until Jiajing lost his breath. When his son Yan Shifan was accused of plotting to overthrow Daming, this old man, who was over eighty years old, eventually starved to death in the tomb.
Interestingly, Xu Jie, who single-handedly contributed to Yan Song's defeat, was one of the few people who won Xia Yan's favor.
▲Xu Jie, the first assistant of the Daming Cabinet. Image source: Screenshot of film and television drama
But xia yan couldn't see any of this.
What is even more ridiculous is that a few years later, Xu Jie was also ranked first in the cabinet. And the "highest honor" he received before and after the Zhishi was called "power traitor" by the Manchu Dynasty.
In the field of political power where imperial power is supreme, whether it is Xia Yan, Yan Song or Xu Jie, they are just chess pieces.
References: [Ming] Shen Defu: "Wan Liye Was Edited", Zhonghua Bookstore, 1989 [Qing] Zhang Tingyu: "History of Ming", Zhonghua Bookstore, 1974 Ruan Mingdao: "Investigation on Xia Yan's Politics and Abandonment of the City", Journal of West China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), Zhou Quanhua, No. 5, 2006: "The Death of Xia Yan", "Journal of Shangrao Teachers College (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition)", Wei Zuoguo, No. 4, 1987: "JingZhongzhi Through the Sun and Moon Fang Yu YiXiang Lu - A Brief Discussion on the Ming Dynasty Politician Xia Yan", Jiangxi Historical Relics", No. 1, 1987, Ningxia: "When Yan Song Went up to The Loose and Opposed the Compound Set--Discussion with Mr. Ma Chujian", Journal of Inner Mongolia Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), No. 4, 2005 Sun Jingwei: "Research on Military Soldiers in the Ming Dynasty", Master's Thesis of Liaoning Normal University, 2011