Restoration of the "empty seal case" at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty

In recent years, the biggest change in my way of thinking is Mr. Spring Rain.

The tear-stained spring rain (railway worker), just like Liu Cixin (power plant worker) in the historical review, the god-like existence opens a new window for the reader, which makes people's eyes suddenly open.

Mr. Tears' article is worth brushing up on and doing, and it has benefited a lot.

The best companion reading of "Vernacular Zizhi Tongjian" is only the historical review of tear marks.

With my experience of reading history for more than 30 years, I have not yet been able to find a contemporary historical review, and I can produce the right of Mr. Tear Stain.

Enterprises with unspoken rules are just miniature versions of the "empty printing case".

Many people like to find chapters and excerpts from history books when they write history articles to prove their erudition.

When I write history, although I will also find corresponding evidence from the history books as evidence, I pay more attention to process analysis, which cannot be found in the books, but people with a little life experience can quickly understand what I mean.

The content of the history books is always just the words of one family, and the prevailing situation in reality is more in line with the truth of history.

For example, the "empty seal case" in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.

The "empty seal case" is roughly like this:

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor, he found that when local officials of the empire went to the central government to report their accounts, they would carry blank books stamped with letters.

The reason for this is that the explanation given by the bureaucrats is that because the money and grain will be lost in the transportation process, and the household department is very strict in reviewing the financial statements of various places, it must be accurate to several decimal points, and if there is a slight discrepancy, it will be immediately invalidated and re-reported.

Since there were no telegrams, telephones, or networks in those days, it was very troublesome to come and go, so officials used to carry blank books stamped with sealed letters and fill in the specific numbers after the household department had verified the detailed amounts.

As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was furious and immediately instructed the relevant departments to strictly investigate the case.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor and had long been accustomed to the heavy tactics of the war period, so Zhu Yuanzhang had already done so if he did not shoot, and one shot was a killing move, directly killing hundreds of officials and sitting tens of thousands of people involved in the case.

At first glance, this statement seems to make a lot of sense.

But in fact, this was a game in which the local gentry and bureaucrats joined forces to find ways to fool the emperor and compete with the government for taxes.

The reason is very simple: the bureaucrats came to the capital with blank books stamped with letters, and you said that they wanted to prevent the money and grain from being consumed by the escort, but who knows if you didn't want to covet ink from it?

In other words, how do you prove your innocence?

In our lives, we always hear one word: unspoken rules.

What are the unspoken rules? It's just not on the table, but everyone defaults to the rules.

Violations of unspoken rules will not be punished by the law, but it is easy to be isolated and excluded by the people around them, and the "empty seal case" is actually a classic case of unspoken rules.

No matter how you emphasize the objective difficulties, you must admit that the "empty printing case" itself is an illegal act, because any book must first write the content and then stamp it, which no one can oppose.

Objectively speaking: unspoken rules are not easy to check and even more difficult to grasp. The main reason why violations of the law have evolved into unspoken rules is because more and more people are involved, everyone is competing for benefits, and it is only the country that is harmed, not a specific person.

In this context, unspoken rules can exist semi-openly in society.

Looking at the "empty seal case", did the bureaucrats really infringe on someone's interests?

We don't seem to find a specific victim; but this kind of behavior will lead to damage to the interests of the country, and it is reasonable for Zhu Yuanzhang to be angry.

In most cases, leaders can only order the relevant departments to come up with a set of solutions when faced with unspoken rule cases. There is no then.

Because the officials of the relevant departments are involved in the relevant incidents?

You ask the suspect to introduce a set of suspect management methods, what is the difference between this and letting the wolf see the sheepfold?

When most leaders are confronted with unspoken cases, they order the relevant departments to come up with a set of solutions, not to solve the current case, but to prevent microaggressions.

In other words, this time it's over. I will draw you a circle, and I will turn a blind eye to you if you want to be greedy or corrupt, but as long as you dare to jump out of the circle, I will not spare you.

What is this called? This is called using unspoken rules to deal with unspoken rules, which is what we commonly call "playing official style".

By doing so, the leader acquiesced that he could not put an end to the violation and could only limit it appropriately.

In fact, if we can grasp this bottom line, we have to admit that the leader is still doing a good job.

If you don't understand it, let me give you another example.

For example, to build a building, the government will acquiesce to the greedy ink part of the relevant officials, but don't make people angry, don't let the developer make any big news, and don't make this building a tofu slag project.

As long as you don't do these things, you can be greedy, I pretend not to see.

But if something happens, then don't blame me for taking off your black hats, don't blame me for sending you to jail, and don't blame me for using your heads to calm the people's anger!

It is very helpless, but this should be the best way, "the law does not blame the public" is a reality that all leaders must consider.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not believe in this evil, and in his life creed, there was no such thing as "the law does not blame the public."

In other words, breaking the law is breaking the law, and I will kill as many people as I want to break the law, and I will show the strength I used to beat Chen Youyu and Zhang Shicheng, and I am afraid that this person of yours is probably not enough for me to kill.

Zhu Yuanzhang slashed down with a knife, the heads of the Ming Empire rolled, and all the responsible persons of the relevant departments were killed.

If you look at Zhu Yuanzhang's move alone, I am afraid that many people will feel: This emperor is afraid of the reincarnation of a beast, right?

In fact, the society at that time had this argument: the emperor was too perverted, too inhuman.

Open the history books and see, where is the emperor who did this?

Officials are not your livestock, how can they be killed in batches?

Not to mention that the officials at that time, even the readers of later generations, often commented on this, for example: this is the old custom of the Yuan Dynasty, and it is reasonable for the bureaucrats to use it. Besides, the so-called "empty printing case" is not the central and local officials sitting together and collectively making accounts of some blank books? At best, this kind of behavior is suspected of corruption, so why should it be so popular?

The reason why later readers have such a view is entirely because they are in a crooked position and are accustomed to looking at things from a bureaucratic point of view.

No bureaucrat is a fuel-saving lamp, and they dare to play with such fanfare unspoken rules, that is, to build a community of interests, and once they succeed, the entire Ming Empire will be hollowed out.

Because what they did was to turn the entire Ming Empire into a humane society, and to maintain feelings with various nepotisms.

In the long run, will this country still be the world of the Zhu family?

Objectively speaking, is the "empty seal case" a major case?

Not strictly speaking, but the nature of the matter is extremely bad.

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was furious was because he could not stand the majesty of someone challenging the imperial power.

Of course, I don't think we should look at the problem from Zhu Yuanzhang's point of view.

Zhu Yuanzhang can represent the fundamental interests of the common people, because Zhu Yuanzhang is an emperor, and all he thinks about is how to pass on his own country and mountains from one generation to all generations.

I just want to emphasize that the "empty seal case" is not simply who is reasonable and who is unreasonable, but that the bureaucracy and the imperial power are trying to subdue each other and thus achieve their own goals.

The bureaucrats chose to be silent, and Zhu Yuanzhang chose to kill on a large scale, all for the purpose of defending his own interests.

The reason for this situation is often because their interests are inconsistent.

For example, everyone says that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Chexiong, was a man of great talent and strategy, and that he fought the Xiongnu far away in the desert and was a very promising king. But for the bureaucrats and people under Liu Che's rule, what is Liu Che?

All day long I know that death requires money, the war has halved the domestic hukou, and the rich men see Liu Che like a mouse sees a cat, how can such an emperor not be hated?

For another example, everyone said that Liu Biao, the mu of Jingzhou, was a weak and incompetent guy, Cao Cao looked down on him, Liu Bei was ready to kill him at any time, and Sun Quan also hated him with itchy teeth.

But for the people of Jingzhou and the local magnates, which leader can be more perfect than Liu Biao?

Never toss the people, always respect the rich and powerful.

When Liu Biao was alive, most of Jingzhou was able to maintain peace and stability, which was simply a beautiful landscape in the chaotic world.

If you sit in front of a computer, I believe most people will like Liu Che's kind of leadership.

But from a realistic point of view, I believe most people will like Liu Biao's kind of leadership.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor, and he dared to put down his hands to rectify the so-called unspoken rules, but the unspoken rules were "wildfires burned endlessly, and the spring wind blew and grew again", because this land is suitable for the growth of unspoken rules.

Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang slashed and killed indiscriminately, he could only be forced to use unspoken rules against unspoken rules.

In other words, Zhu Yuanzhang was also forced to "play official".

The reason why the "empty seal case" is considered to be an unjust case is entirely because no one dares to expose the inside story.

The interests represented by the unspoken rules are too broad, and if someone dares to expose the relevant insider information, it is equivalent to making enemies of all the beneficiaries in the unspoken rules.

We can simulate a scenario where if you don't confess, it means standing with countless bureaucrats.

In this context, even if the emperor wants to kill you, he may not dare to do it.

If you are unlucky and meet a butcher emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang, then even if you are killed, public opinion will be on your side, everyone will think that you died unjustly, and your orphans and widows will also receive universal sympathy and help from society.

But if you actively or passively expose the relevant insider information in order to please the emperor, it means that you are on the opposite side of the entire officialdom.

In this context, even if the emperor does not kill you, your life will not be better.

Because you have betrayed thousands of bureaucrats in order to survive for your own survival; if they are all right in the end, they will certainly unite to take care of you.

If they are all killed if they are unlucky, please calculate carefully how many people you have offended?

These officials are killed, there will always be new people to replace, how will they treat you when they see an official scum like you?

It is precisely because of the above reasons that the "empty seal case" not only failed to become a corruption case, but became ironclad evidence that Zhu Yuanzhang indiscriminately killed innocents.

When later history books talk about the "empty seal case", they always say that Zhu Yuanzhang is suspicious of ghosts and kills people indiscriminately, which is a typical psychopath.

Although the history books have repeatedly washed the floor for the "empty seal case", I firmly believe that there must be ghosts in the "empty seal case".

Because without regulation, I don't believe that every bureaucrat can demand the highest standards of himself.

Don't talk about officials, it is to find a group of so-called "high-quality talents", and I do not believe that they can "be selfless and wide in their hearts", which is due to human nature.

However, it must be admitted that the "air seal case" is not a vicious case of large-scale serialization, it is a typical unspoken rule case.

Because of this, many of the people involved are actually very wronged, because in the face of unspoken rules, you either join or refuse, and it is impossible to avoid them.

In the context of everyone hoping to profit from this, if you are as smelly and hard as a stone in a pit, I believe that your end will not be too good.

From this, we can conclude that as long as a person sits in the appropriate position, he is bound to be involved in the case, whether he wants to or not.

When the empire is stable, the economy will always be on the rise, and the overall economic share of society will become larger and larger.

But new questions will also arise: how should this extra share be dealt with?

Based on the interests of the government, it is natural to hope to continue to increase taxes; based on the interests of society, it is natural to hope that the government will give back to society.

What kind of ghosts the bureaucrats in the "Empty Seal Case" have done, it is difficult for us to restore.

But one thing is certain: the bureaucrats will certainly take the opportunity to appropriately erode imperial taxes and then divide the interests with the gentry and other representatives of the grassroots.

The so-called "central and local officials sit together and collectively make accounts of some blank books, just for the convenience of work", this kind of words can only be used to deceive children.

The later emperors of the Ming Empire could only watch the bureaucrats carefully design fake accounts to manage the country.

The end result was that the government resources of the Ming Empire were gradually eroded by vested interests.

To take the simplest example: with the family foundation of the Ming Empire, if you want to mobilize more than 100,000 troops, it is as simple as eating a dish.

I think that when Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youyi and Zhang Shicheng fought in Jiangnan, almost every main duel was a melee of 200,000 or 300,000 troops.

You know, at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was not even unified in Jiangnan.

Later, the Ming Empire ruled the north and south of the great river, and the land, population and materials were multiplied.

The result? The Ming Empire wanted to mobilize 100,000 troops to put down the rebellion, and they all tossed the empire to the ground.