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This is a group that will not be recorded in the canonical history, and there is no name for this group in history.
We called them according to Zhu Yuanzhang's name--"Help the idle officials."
If you want to find a word to describe it in modern language, you really can't find an appropriate word, and the closest one may be called "temporary worker" or "non-staff person".
However, these "idle officials" and "temporary workers" and "non-staff personnel" are still very different, the former is unpaid, the latter is paid.
Some people have to say, what is so stupid, working without pay? However, I can tell you very responsibly that there is no salary, and it is useless. There is even money posted at the beginning.
So what are they doing? I'll talk to you about it.
As we all know, there were officials, officials, and servants in the ancient yamen. An official is an official, and this is not much to explain.
Officials, that is, scribes, are mainly "six rooms scribes", the so-called six rooms, is corresponding to the "six departments" in the imperial court (officials, households, ceremonies, soldiers, criminals, workers), of course, there are other scribes.
Service is service, service. When we see the officials and masters on TV ascending to the church, those who stand on both sides with burning sticks and shout "mighty and martial", and those who go out with chains to lock people, as well as the prison guards and jailers who watch the big prison are called slaves.
However, these people are not "idle officials", because they belong to the personnel of the organization and are paid by the state.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, according to the records of the counties that have survived to the present, there were about 200 officials, officials, and servants in a county. Of course, the specifics also depend on the size of the county, rich and poor, and we will not delve into this.
The origin of "helping idle officials"
Why did Zhu Yuanzhang give us the title of "helping idle officials" that we are talking about today? Here's why.
According to the Ming "Continuation of the Imperial System", in the nineteenth year of Hongwu (1386), the officials of Songjiang Province violated the law and harmed the people, and the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan traced the root cause and dug up a special group. Songjiang Prefecture was located in songjiang county of present-day Shanghai, with jurisdiction over Shanghai County and Huating County.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty had just opened the country, and Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was full of energy, trying to establish an ideal society, and paying attention to the "melon copying" when trying cases, and extorting confessions by torture was a must. Like the Hu Weiyong case, a melon involves more than 30,000 large melons and small melons.
This time in Songjiang Province, it was also Shunteng to touch the melon, and it involved Suzhou Province, and it turned out that a group of 2871 people was found.
Zhu Yuanzhang's "Great Commandment" said that there was a group of people in Songjiang Province who did not do their proper work, and specially attached themselves to the servants in the Yamen and used the authority of the government to harm the people. These people called themselves Xiao Gangzi, Wild Prison Zi, Zhisi, Chief Wen, Xiao Guan, and Bang Hu, and there were 1350 in Songjiang Province alone and 1521 in Suzhou Province.
These people know that the peasants are difficult, and they prefer to go to the countryside to do things when the farmers are busy. They took the official approval documents to find the peasants, locked people from the water wheel, or snatched seedlings from the peasants and locked people out of the fields.
Zhu Yuanzhang also explained in detail the cattiness inside.
There are three classes of prisons, including regular cells, small cells and wild cells. The main prison is the main servant within the establishment, and the small prison and the wild prisoner are all non-righteous people, and there are more than 900 such people in Matsue Province alone.
Soaps (衙役, 匀役), the soaps outside the establishment are called "Little Archers" and "Naoji". The small archer is equivalent to a temporary worker in the soap position, and the status of "naoji" ranks after the small archer and belongs to the second-class temporary worker.
There are also non-staff personnel in the position of the main official, and there are also three ranks, the main official (within the establishment), the first-class temporary worker is called "Jingshu", and the second-class temporary worker "Qingshu" and "Xiaoshu" are the disciples of the Scriptures.
It is estimated that at that time, the seats in these establishments were sitting firmly, too lazy to move, and they wanted to leave the dirty work to the temporary workers. Temporary workers have been working for a long time, and their positions have been secured, and they will recruit and support second-class temporary workers, and three levels have been formed in the same position.
Zhu Yuanzhang said that these people, who are not scholars, non-farmers, non-workers, and non-businessmen, do not belong to the four major social groups of "scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants." So what group do they belong to? Zhu Yuanzhang collectively referred to them as "the people who help idle officials".
The means of "helping idle officials"
Since these people are unorganized temporary workers and have no salary, why do so many people break their heads and drill into them?
Even if I don't say it, everyone can guess that there is an interest behind it. Not only are there benefits, but they are huge benefits. How big is this huge benefit?
Let's tell another story in the "History of Ru lin", and everyone will understand. At the beginning of the "History of Ru Lin", it is written that several servants, the people respected him as "old father", and it was a glory worth showing off to be able to drink back with them. What is their real income?
According to the dialogue in the second episode of "Ru Lin's Outer History": "Father Li has really run in the hands of the new old master in recent years, and he is afraid that he will have to find a thousand pieces of silver in a year!" It's just that his old man is good at gambling, not as good as Xiban Huang's father, who also played in these things at the beginning, and these years have become the right results, and the family's house is built like a heavenly palace, so it is not lively! ”
At that time, the nominal salary of the servants was only about 12 taels, or even less. And after this run, Father Li has 1,000 taels, which is equivalent to ten times the salary. If we convert it according to the price of grain, one hundred and two pieces of silver are now about thirty thousand. That's three hundred thousand.
Of course, Father Li in this story is a genuine errand boy, mainly responsible for arresting people, so he mixes well. It does not represent those "idle people who are idle in the government.".
So where does the income of these people come from?
One is to buy "bad tickets", and the so-called "bad tickets" are the vouchers sent by local officials to send messengers. After the executioner gets the ticket, the transfer transaction begins.
So why don't you do it yourself but transfer it, it's like a landlord who has more land and rents it to others when he is too late, or if the genuine servants are richer, they are too lazy to run errands.
Moreover, in those times, these legitimate servants could also scare the flat-headed small people with iron chains, and there were many opportunities to catch extra money, calculate the cost of time, and sell these bad tickets without delaying his other opportunities to get extra money, but more efficient.
There is also a way to provide informants to legitimate servants to catch some small traders and hawkers with contraband, such as illegal salt, sulfur and the like.
There are also small things such as catching some alcoholism, gambling, fighting, stealing chickens and dogs, and you can also get money out of them.
The third is that these people have been following the genuine errand for a long time, and they have become a group of non-staff law enforcement personnel centered on the genuine errand service. Many times, when there is a chance, there is no need to notify the legitimate servant, just need to pay tribute in time.
After a long time, they have become servants in the eyes of the ordinary people, and no one dares to resist their words. At that time, the people would not ask these people to show their work permits first.
Later, under all kinds of blatant and banners, they wandered around the countryside and the city all day long, and a few people and a group of people, wherever they went, the heads of the town streets had to give them a plate fee, provide wine and food, and when they encountered those who committed minor crimes, even if they did not commit crimes, they casually found a reason, watched the situation and knocked on a bamboo bar.
As long as the bamboo bar is properly tapped, basically no one will resist. At that time, most of the ordinary people were illiterate, and the information was not clear, so they casually said that they were under the orders of the leaders, and then all kinds of blackmails were basically grabbed.
The songjiang mansion was known to Zhu Yuanzhang, and it was estimated that the knock was too fierce, and he met the other party who was a hard stubble who had read the book.
There are also those who look at the big prison, and the means of accumulating wealth have also gone, just look at those fragments in "Water Margin" and understand.
When Song Jiang was in Jiangzhou, DaiZong said very clearly when he introduced Li Kui to him: "This is a small prison in the prison next to the younger brother. ”
These are all said to be non-staff servants, called "white service". And those non-editors, how does the "White Book" make money?
This is the "bad ticket" mentioned above, and these "bad tickets" need to be filled in, written, and signed, and these are the work of the scrivener.
The price of these "white books" is not like that of "white servants" who can do it without money. The price of a "white book" is between a few dozen and a hundred taels of silver, called "top silver". The largest amount was the scrivener of the two Huaiyan governments, and the "top silver" was 10,000 taels.
Zhu Yuanzhang's thunderous means
After introducing these "white servants" and "white books," let's talk about how Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with these illegal "non-staff personnel" after he found out.
As an emperor bent on establishing an ideal country, Zhu Yuanzhang's reaction was extremely fierce.
Zhu Yuanzhang said that some officials dared to set up a name outside the imperial court's decrees and use idle people as "cadres" and "pawns." Officials name names without authorization, and idlers undertake to do so without authorization, which is a disorderly government and a bad law, and the crime should be punished. In the future, when they are arrested and sent to Beijing, officials and idlers will be beheaded.
But it didn't take long for Zhu Yuanzhang to feel that he was relieved to just cut off the head of the person concerned. The holy decree was issued again, and the current government deliberately violated the law and abused the lawless people... In the future, there will be those who dare to do so, myself, "guan gan" myself, along with government officials, and clan curses!
The folk saying is "full of door slashing", that is, exterminating the clan. According to the provisions of the "Law of Daming, The Law of Officials, and the Indiscriminate Establishment of Officials", the heaviest punishment for officials who indiscriminately set up non-staff personnel is one hundred rods and three years of imprisonment. And Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to exterminate them.
It is conceivable how deep Zhu Yuanzhang's hatred was, he not only established a harsh punishment and cruel law, but also mobilized the masses. The "Great Commandment" stipulates: In the future, the officials of the provinces, prefectures, prefectures, and counties must make a public announcement of the number of candidates for service and let the people know.
At the end of the announcement, it must also be stated: "In addition to the names on the list, there are those who pretend to be in the name of Yamen, called soaps, and books, and everyone has taken them to Beijing." ”
In order to encourage the people to arrest these "idle officials" for him, Zhu Yuanzhang hung a heavy reward: "In the village where he is located, those who are good and proud of the people and the elderly people, jointly discuss the capture of this disciple and go to Beijing to receive the reward." If there is one person who grabs the 'dang', one person who does the 'cadre', one person who is 'in charge', and one person who rewards twenty ingots. Not false. "Hongwu's 20 ingots in eighteen years is equal to 100 yuan, and the value is now six or seven thousand yuan."
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang raised the reward. The Great Commandments continue to stipulate that those who are idle people who claim fame and color in private, and who together with officials harm the common people, are punished by the clan. If the victim denounces, the prisoner's family property is rewarded to the first accuser. The officials concerned were executed.
The Great Commandment is a compilation of various cases personally handled by Zhu Yuanzhang and a code of conduct for the people, and is the highest instruction of Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang asked everyone to study the Great Commandment, and every household had the Great Commandment, which was one of the important tools for him to build an ideal country.
With the promulgation of the Great Commandment, it is equivalent to sowing a net of heaven and earth in urban and rural areas across the country. So what's the effect? Next articleTo move on!
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