"Cutting the Ming" - the gain and loss of employing people, the road to the use of power, for you to depict the power of the Ming Dynasty (21)
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(Image: Ming Shi Zhu Zhu Thick Ugly)
Zhu Houxi is very angry because he has received a lot of whistleblower letters recently.
And these whistle-blowing letters are basically all reports of Zhang Xuan, the first assistant of the cabinet.
However, although the emperor was very angry, the emperor understood Zhang Xuan very well.
This Lord Zhang, with a bad temper and a thorn in the head, has been engaged in reform since he became the first assistant.
Reform the land system and offend the powerful.
Reform the imperial examination system and offend hundreds of officials.
Reform the social and people's livelihood and offend the people.
Reform the revenue and expenditure of the court and offend the eunuchs of the palace.
Got it, changed a circle, whether there is any result aside, the two capitals and thirteen provinces of Daming can be said to have offended over and over again.
In fact, the emperor was clear about these things.
The emperor is very annoyed with the emperor's relatives and relatives, these magnates occupy and annex the land of the common people, which is really a big problem for the country, but the problem is that the emperor's relatives are part of his imperial power, the emperor cannot directly clean them up, after all, they are all relatives, and the emperor can't pull down his face, so he needs the first assistant Zhang Xuan to rectify these magnates.
The emperor was even annoyed with his relatives, and of course he was also annoyed with these ministers who had formed parties in the court for personal gain.
The Shangshu and the attendants of the six ministries did not do their jobs properly, and they did their own work so-so, but they all wanted to sharpen their heads and drill into the cabinet.
The three divisions frequently backlogged cases, but they were very busy attacking their colleagues and impeaching ministers.
(Keju)
Not to mention the imperial examination, favoritism and fraud are rampant, and candidates rely on bribes, relationships, backgrounds, and connections, that is, they do not rely on their true ability.
Zhu Houxi can be said to be extremely bored with some ministers, and even hated them to the teeth, but he never dared to rashly sanction the ministers, because in the environment of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial power, the emperor, although supreme, but the heights are cold, the emperor is also isolated.
He couldn't figure out who the ministers were allies with whom, he didn't know which departments were in contact, and the emperor didn't want to move his whole body because he had to pick up a certain minister, and when the time came to poke the honeycomb, the ministers all stood together and formed a group to deal with themselves.
However, the emperor is the emperor after all, and if it is not easy to do it, he cannot do it himself, and he can let Zhang Xuan do it.
You are the first assistant, and I give you the power to let you clean up these ministers for me.
As the Treatise on the Monarch says, the monarch should entrust the things that cause criticism to others to carry out, and keep the things that give favor to himself.
Good people I Zhu Houxi to be, bad people you Zhang Xuan to be, good things I Zhu Houxi to do, bad things you Zhang Xuan to do.
I, the black hand behind the scenes, will never show the horse's feet, and when the time comes, the person who will be criticized and criticized will only be you Zhang Xuan.
It's just that some people who move forward in the dark will always have a day of being justified, and you Zhang Xuan will always bear these notorieties.
(Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli)
Speaking of the book "Monarch", it is actually very interesting.
The author of "On the Monarch" is the Italian writer Niccolò Machiavelli.
The most popular and respected version of monarchism on the market is the version annotated by Napoleon.
Interestingly, Niccolò Machiavelli and Napoleon were not actually the people of their time.
The version we read today, like Napoleon who had been firing bullets at Niccolò Machiavelli's video, was in this form a dialogue between two troubled conspirators.
Now, Zhu Houxi, who had a bad water, had been criticized by many impeachments against Zhang Xuan, and the emperor did not think about it, so he dismissed Zhang Xuan.
Of course, this is inevitable, because carrying the pot for the emperor is also the job duty of the first assistant Zhang Xuan.
However, after all, Zhu Houxi still had a real feeling for Zhang Xuan.
The emperor could never forget that he was besieged by his courtiers during the great ceremonial dispute, and Zhang Xuan, who was soft-spoken, was the first to stand up and speak for himself, despite the threats of his ministers.
It's touching, it's really touching.
Therefore, Zhu Houxi's attitude toward Zhang Xuan was to dismiss zhang repeatedly and then appoint him repeatedly.
In the eighth year of Jiajing, Zhang Xuan served as the first assistant of the cabinet, and two years later, he was dismissed.
Less than a year later, Zhang Xuan was reinstated as the first assistant to the cabinet, and Jiajing was dismissed in eleven years.
A year later, Zhang Xuan was again the first assistant to the cabinet, and finally retired completely in the fourteenth year of Jiajing.
(Zhang Xuan)
In the fourteenth year of Jiajing, that is, in the spring of 1535 AD, even if he wanted to do the first assistant again, his body could not support it.
Zhang Xuan, who had only become an official until he was middle-aged and elderly, could not get old anymore, and he really couldn't move.
When you get old, you become dull.
Become dull, so as not to numb, become no longer accustomed to the court that is changing all the time.
However, for Zhang Xuan, this ups and downs of life, he also experienced almost.
So this time, he solemnly submitted his resignation application to Zhu Houxi, and said, Emperor, I am afraid that I will never return to my resignation this time, and I will never come back.
Looking at Zhang Xuan's body, which had aged to a certain extent, Zhu Houxi felt a pang of sadness for no reason.
To say that he was distressed by the minister who had been working hard for him was certain, but the more important reason was that Zhu Houxi suddenly felt that the flow of time was so fast, and the aging of life was so cruel.
Zhang Xuan is old, and he is still young, but he will inevitably go to aging.
Yeah, the world is like this, no one will always be young, but there are always people who are young.
"Biography of the History of the Nation": "Beg for the disease, stay on the top, and pro-medicate for it." ”
Zhu Houxi, who was infinitely emotional and sad, did not agree to Zhang Xuan's resignation application, but intimately equipped him with some drugs to strengthen his body, hoping that he could take care of his body and accompany himself for a while.
After all, you're not just my courtier, you're my original friend.
However, Zhang Xuan's indisputable body still failed to live up to the emperor's kindness, and Zhang Xuan, who insisted on working with illness, actually fainted in the court room within two days.
(Facing the room)
I can't stand it, I can't stand it.
When the emperor saw it, he couldn't force it, even if he wanted to completely squeeze Zhang Xuan dry, he couldn't let the family play with his life, so he had to let Zhang Xuan go home to recuperate.
Zhang Xuan was gone.
Sure enough, he never came back.
History does not record what happened when the two monarchs last met.
Since there is no record, the author cannot talk nonsense, and he cannot open his mouth.
However, according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, the minister retreated and had to bow his head and walk backwards.
Therefore, the two people most likely did not look at each other, Zhang Xuan saw the floor tiles, and Zhu Houxi saw Zhang Xuan's figure, saw him slowly hunched out, and watched him gently leave this piece of heaven and earth.
And it was only at this time that Zhu Houxi found that he had inexplicably developed a wonderful respect for Zhang Xuan.
He found that in contrast, Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing were too general, in fact, Zhang Xuan was the real master, the master who hid deeply.
He has been stunned, he has been suppressed, he has been a scapegoat, he has become the emperor's labor machine, his life has fluctuated, one will rise to the top, one will step down, he has countless grievances, but no one has ever been able to overthrow him in the true sense, he has integrated with the politics of the Ming Dynasty.
When summer comes, you can't feel summer, but summer wraps warmth around your whole body invisibly, and when winter comes, you can't feel winter, but winter is invisible, making water turn into ice.
Zhu Houxi has always thought that Zhang Xuan is ordinary, but ask himself, how many people can really achieve "ordinary" in this world?
In the eighteenth year of Jiajing, in 1539 AD, a famous minister Zhang Xuan died of illness in Wenzhou at the age of sixty-five.
To be honest, among the famous courtiers during the Jiajing period, Zhang Xuan's popularity was not too high, especially he once avoided the "璁" character in his name and the "熜" character in the emperor's name, so the emperor also changed his name to Zhang Fujing.
Moreover, because Zhang Xuan offended too many people in the process of doing things for the emperor, his wind evaluation has not been very good, but the bad wind evaluation does not mean that he is really bad.
In addition to his work, Zhang Xuan lived a very simple life in private, just like a cold Confucian, living in the dynasty for ten years, not entering a domestic courtier, not allowing a private guru, and not abusing a son and nephew.
Life is simple, not greedy, not nepotism, not playing yin, and never let relatives and friends stain his light.
It seems that a person with such a simple and clean resume, his life is frank.
(Natsugen Image)
Zhang Xuan was replaced by a man named Xia Yan.
Xia Yan (夏言), courtesy name Gongjin, is a native of Guixi County, Guangxin Province, Jiangxi.
This comrade was born in the eighteenth year of Chenghua, in 1482 AD.
As the author said before, the Ming Dynasty had a very strict household registration system, and what kind of nationality the grandparents and fathers were, what kind of nationality they were born.
Xia Yan's family is a military member.
That is to say, whether Xia Yan is willing or not, there is only one way out after growing up, that is, to become a soldier.
However, the imperial court is not all so impersonal, so in the military registration system, there is another provision:
"History of Ming": Households have military status, and they must be removed from the Bingbu Shangshu.
Before becoming a soldier, if you become an officer and achieve the level of bingbu shangshu, you can get out of the military and don't have to be a big soldier.
However, although it is said to be a special case, it is also very difficult to meet this requirement.
Bingbu Shoshu, a shogun of masajipin, is not a person who wants to be a member.
Xia Ding, the father of Xia Yan, seems to be very confident in his son, often encouraging his son, telling his son that it is no problem to be an official, and that it is no problem to do Shangshu, as long as you work hard, you will be able to realize your ideas.
Young Xia Yan was very confused, like all the people who were about to enter the Daming officialdom.
But he did not know that the reason why people are confused is because confusion is like a fog, and the meaning of the existence of the fog is to let those who cannot persist to the end retreat, so that they cannot remove the fog and witness the glory after the fog.