In ancient times, whenever a rebellion broke out or a natural disaster such as a flood or drought or an earthquake occurred, the government and the opposition would often find one or two great traitors and evils, and hold on their heads the pots of political darkness, people's livelihood, and dynastic collapse. However, some things are obviously the emperor's fault, and the emperor himself needs to admit his mistake. But the supreme and dictatorial emperors were never willing to admit their mistakes themselves, but indirectly confessed them in the form of edicts. The emperors' review books are also called "sin self-commandments".
The emperor did not have to do anything but commit a crime. The most common situation is the emergence of natural disasters such as "water and drought are frequent, earthquakes are heard" and "winter thunder and spring snow, meteorite rain and soil". Emperor Hanming condemned himself because of the eclipse; Emperor An of Han issued an edict against himself because the great famine caused people to eat people; and Xianfeng, because of the Sichuan earthquake and the mouth of the Yellow River, issued an edict against himself in the second year of his reign, saying that he was "BoDe". Objectively speaking, the occurrence of these disasters was not the emperor's fault. But who makes them like to use their extraordinary powers to pretend to be ghosts and smear their rule with grease? Since the light has been borrowed, it is necessary to take responsibility for the disaster brought about by the extraordinary force.
The second situation in which the emperor issued a decree was that the political situation was critical, and the dynasty reached a critical point of life and death. The emperor may not be able to do it, what face does it have to take care of at this time? As a result, the desperate emperor also "dared" to self-criticize.
After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Tang Xuanzong fled to Sichuan, and on the way, he fell to eat and live with yamano. A grass farmer, Guo Congjin, bravely said a big truth: "The emperor is dimwitted, does not listen to advice, regards anti-thieves as treasures, close ministers and courtiers, and uses false words to please the emperor. If it weren't for this kind of bad, how could the grass people face the saints, and how could they talk to the emperor? Tang Xuanzong could not argue and had to admit: "This decay is unknown, and there is nothing to regret!" His great-grandson Tang Dezong, because of the division of the world and the loss of Chang'an, was hunted down and killed by the rebels all the way to Fengtian, and was reduced from emperor to a county order. With no way out, Tang Dezong issued the Edict of Amnesty for Sins. This sin self-edict is not only self-criticism, but simply self-scolding, saying that the world is in chaos, "all kinds of products are out of order, the nine temples are shocked, the upper is tired of the ancestors, the lower is lost to the steaming", he himself is "painfully sad", deeply reflective, and feel that "the sin is really given", it is all his own fault. After cursing himself, Tang Dezong promised to reform politics, "will carry out the long-term map, will be issued a new order." This edict of guilt inspired the hearts of the army, and Tang Dezong finally reversed the decline.
The Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be the emperor who had committed the most sins and cursed himself every two or three years, and even when he had to hang himself when the country was finally destroyed and his family was destroyed, he still had the last edict of sin hidden on his body. One of the sentences, "Let the thief split the corpse, and do not kill or injure the people alone", has earned a lot of sympathy points. However, judging from the results, so many of the sins and self-edicts promulgated by Chongzhen did not have much effect. This is also the common problem of all sins: the effect is not great. This is related to the attitude of the emperors to "sin against themselves".
Chongzhen ten years, the world is in a drought, Chongzhen also issued a sin of his own edict. This edict is not self-condemning at all, but is simply a rebuke to the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs: "The people who are out of service are for their own sake, and the official residences have the same trade." The money and grain are first consumed than the fire, and the right amount is envied. If A block violates his heart, he will knock out pu arbitrarily; if he is rich, he will be adulterous and foolish. Then, he divided them into categories, and scolded the local governors, the noble relatives of the courtiers, the gentry of the township eunuchs, the unscrupulous officials, and the evil people one by one, and came to the conclusion that the people did not live well, not that my emperor did not do a good job, but that you did not implement my wise decisions well. Chongzhen had such an attitude until his death, and the edict also believed that "the ministers mistook me" and said that "the king of the subjugation of the country is not the king of the subjugation, and the subjects are the subjects of the subjugated country". How can such a conceited person really admit his mistake and correct it?
Since ancient kings did not admit mistakes, they were all conceited people. But to put it more deeply, many of the affairs under the heavens are caused by the absolute monarchy, and it is not decided by the emperor's personal right or wrong. If only the emperor came forward to apologize for the mistake, but did not reflect on the entire absolute monarchy system, and carried out targeted reforms according to the problem, the result could only be to cure the symptoms but not the root causes. There are often only empty words, no practical actions, or problems exposed, but they cannot be changed. Guangxu admitted in his 1901 edict that "lying down to taste courage and vain words; self-improvement in financial management, almost into a set of habits." Where dynasties have fallen, where they have fallen again, repeating the same path. Ancient politics fell into a similar low-level cycle.
Not only does the edict not reflect on the absolute monarchy, it essentially reinforces the source of the problem. It "scolded and helped a lot", used a review book to wash away the emperor's stains, and added an aura that the emperor could change his mistakes.