In ancient mainland china, eunuchs interfered in politics from time to time, so after Zhu Yuanzhang established the country, he once restrained eunuchs and hoped that his descendants would pay attention to the problem of eunuchs interfering in politics, so he once set up a sign in the palace, which read: "Internal ministers must not interfere in political affairs, and criminals are beheaded."
After Zhu Di snatched his nephew's throne, he once let the Three Treasures eunuch Zheng He go to the West seven times, which everyone probably knows, but what everyone may not know is that in addition to reusing Zheng He, Zhu Di also reused a eunuch named Hou Xian, who not only sent ships to the West, but also sent envoys from the southwest and other places by land, in addition, Zhu Di also established a eunuch power organization that would have a far-reaching influence on Daming in the future - Dongchang...
It can be said that Zhu Di completely overthrew his father's ancestral precepts, so why was he so unfilial?
In 1382, that is, after Zhu Yuanzhang had been emperor for more than ten years, he had set up a department called "Jinyi Wei", which was juxtaposed with the six departments and only obeyed Zhu Yuanzhang's institutions, nominally guarding the palace ban, but in fact doing some secret service work, but a few years later, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished this "knife".
Did Zhu Yuanzhang abolish the Jinyi Guard because the Jinyi Guard was not easy to use?
The answer is actually no, if you understand this history, you will know that several major cases in the early Ming Dynasty were active in the figure of Jinyiwei, so we can say that Jinyiwei had a "great contribution" to Zhu Yuanzhang. So Zhu Yuanzhang used it so smoothly, why did he give up later?
The statement given in the history books is that Zhu Yuanzhang felt that although this knife was easy to use, but when he used it, he found that this knife was easy to lose control, so he scrapped it. That is to say, Zhu Yuanzhang, a fierce man who grew up in the blood sea of the sword mountain, was also very jealous of the Jinyi Guard's excessive control, so to what extent could the Jinyi Guard's authority reach?
After Zhu Di became emperor, he reused the Jinyi guard for a period of time, when the leader of the Jinyi guard was a person named Ji Gang, and according to the "History of Ming", Ji Gang was not a person with a foundation in the family, he could manage the Jinyi guard, only because he followed the King of Yan when Zhu Di raised an army, and then Zhu Di felt that he was capable, so he promoted him.
After Ji Gang, the "lucky" minister, had controlled Jinyiwei for a while, he wanted to see how powerful he was, so he did a small experiment at a public event. At that time, during the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhu Di took the hundred officials to hold a willow shooting competition according to the custom, and Ji Gang, the leader of the Jinyi Guard, naturally also went.
Originally, with Ji Gang's archery, shooting willow branches was easy, but in order to verify his authority, he deliberately shot deflections, and then let his subordinates break the willow branches in front of the civil and military officials, and then loudly announced that he shot them, in short, he wanted to come to a copy of the "refer to deer as horses", and after he did this, no one in the civil and military officials dared to say that he was not.
Although Ji Gang proved his power in this way, he also made Zhu Di, the emperor, kill, and in the end, Ji Gang did not end well.
After Ji Gang was killed, Zhu Di also realized that the Jinyiwei was easy to use, but it was not easy to control, so he set up a new institution called "East Factory", which was actually similar to Jinyiwei, but the most significant change was that the "senior management" of the East Factory was all eunuchs.
So why did Zhu Di trust the eunuch so much, that is, his father did not set up that sign, and he, the emperor who had read the book, should also know that in the previous dynasty, if the eunuch was in power, there would be no small harm.
As we all know, Zhu Di's throne originally belonged to his nephew, and his throne was hard-grabbed. Before Zhu Di seized the throne, his territory was only a small piece of Beiping, and Zhu Di's rebellion was a very secretive thing, so it is not difficult for us to deduce that Zhu Di was very, very lacking in "concubines" when he was emperor.
Some people may ask, after Zhu Di became emperor, "under the whole world, can it be the royal land", aren't the ministers of Daming all his people?
Not really. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "favored Confucianism alone," the officials in the court basically believed in Confucianism, and Confucianism paid the most attention to the "etiquette law", you Zhu Di robbed your nephew's position, do you talk about the "ritual law", you are seriously damaging the "etiquette law", if you Zhu Di succeeds, will the "etiquette law" still be valuable in the future, if the "etiquette law" is not valuable, then our ministers are still worth it, and the disciples of the world are still valuable? You still want us to cooperate with you?!
Friends who are familiar with this period of history know that after Zhu Di ascended the throne, he had killed Fang Xiaoru and others because of his strong opposition to him, although not as fierce as the "Zhulian Ten Tribes", but it was definitely more fierce than recorded in the history books. In this case, Zhu Di faced the problem of insufficient manpower on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also faced the problem of not daring to use it with confidence (in the history books, Jing Qing, the only minister who was zhu Di and the ten tribes, was "suddenly" assassinated Zhu Di after "from" Zhu Di. ）
Therefore, Zhu Di began to reuse eunuchs under the dilemma, so what advantages do eunuchs have over ordinary people?
First of all, the group of eunuchs, because of physiological reasons, he has no way to let his rights get a good inheritance, so the eunuchs who have always been in power, that is, "holding the son of heaven to order the princes", no one can really change the dynasty, so the emperor should be more at ease with them than normal people.
Secondly, although eunuchs and ministers of the court can also have collusion, but the ministers from Confucian origin will not be really with the eunuchs, because after all, everyone is a person on two roads, and we Confucians believe that "the body is skinny, the parents are affected, do not dare to destroy, and the beginning of filial piety", how can you people who are not filial piety be confused with those of us who pay attention to etiquette.
Third, the ministers because of physical health, so can not stay in the palace, the emperor's eyes can not see, naturally you have to be more wary, but the eunuchs have more advantages, every day under the eyes of the emperor to do things, I see is "clear and clear", so I have no reason not to believe them, and the ministers are relying on their own ability to eat, and eunuchs must be attached to the imperial power to jump, you say that the emperor relatively trusts whom.
To sum up, the reason why Zhu Di did not listen to his father's words was on the one hand because of his own special situation, because his status was not right, so he tied his hands and feet in the employment of people, and had to reuse eunuchs, on the other hand, it was the commonality of the emperor, eunuchs from the perspective of "security", but they had certain advantages over normal people, so Zhu Di was so "rebellious".