In the feudal dynasty, the emperor hated the rebel first, and the second hated the corrupt. Those who conspire against each other are quick to end their rule, while corrupt people are like moths, a little blunt knife cuts the flesh, slowly encroaching, will also end their rule, the slightest carelessness, the dynasty will fall.
However, throughout the dynasties, various emperors have used various means to combat corruption, but corruption still exists, even if there are bloody lessons from the predecessors, but many people will not learn from history. Among them, the most famous corrupt officials are the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was committed to fighting corruption, using thunder and iron and bloody methods, killing more than 100,000 people one after another, but why are the corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty like running water, unable to finish curing, but more and more?
Those who covet more than 60 taels of silver shall show their heads to the public
When it comes to grassroots emperors in history, everyone will definitely think of Zhu Yuanzhang. His entrepreneurial deeds have made him the object of worship of many ordinary people who struggle. And when he reigned, he also considered from the perspective of the people, such as dealing with corrupt officials.
No matter when, corrupt officials are a big problem, ancient emperors in order to maintain their rule, in order to maintain the entire ruling group, for the governance of corrupt officials, generally thunder and rain, after all, the bureaucratic court is also a human favor, once merciless killing, will only involve the whole body, so generally as long as the greed is not too excessive, will not be dealt with.
But Zhu Yuanzhang was different, he came from the masses, he knew the sufferings of the people, and his parents were all starved to death because of the corruption and embezzlement of the Yuan ruling clique. Therefore, he especially hated corrupt officials, so after becoming emperor, he made a special legal stipulation for corrupt officials: anyone who embezzled more than sixty taels of silver must be beheaded and displayed in public, or skinned and grassed.
This law was strictly enforced, and the "Guo Heng case" of the Ming Dynasty is a typical example of how to control corruption, Guo Heng, as a high official, did not have much money, but when he was corrupted, almost 10,000 or 20,000 people were killed. The blood of the noon market has not been dried. The officials of the Ming Dynasty were trembling, and with the pervasive surveillance of minions and guards, they were extremely careful, even if their heads moved one day.
But be careful, because there are many people who die of corruption, and they also know it, but their own pace of corruption has never stopped. Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with corrupt officials in front, and they were like moths to a fire in the back, constantly greedy, and then rushed to the execution ground in a steady stream.
Poverty is desperate for food and clothing
It stands to reason that if you leave Qingshan and don't worry about burning firewood, in any case, Zhu Yuanzhang has already thunderous means to govern, why do these officials not leave the life of "Qingshan", but seem not afraid of death of corruption? The first fundamental reason is that it is too poor and the salary is too low.
Being an official in ancient times was the happiest in the Song Dynasty, because Lilu was very high. For example, Yue Fei, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty, at that time, because of the change of Jingkang, the national economy had been hit hard, and he had to pay reparations, etc., and the cost of living was also rising, but his annual salary was 72,000 yuan, which was about 3.5 million yuan in current yuan.
And what was the official of the Ming Dynasty? According to historical records, the annual salary of the first-class officials of the Ming Dynasty was 1044 stone. One stone of grain is about 59 kilograms today. Let's say the current rice is 5 yuan a kilogram. Then the price of one stone is equal to about 300 yuan. 1044 stone is about 310,000 yuan.
This is now very good, the annual salary of more than 300,000 yuan is also very good. But the problem is that this is the annual salary of the first-class officials of the Ming Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, Shangshu is the second product, and it is now at the ministerial level, then their first product can only be higher, and the annual salary of 310,000 corresponds to high-level officials like them, which is really less.
Because the higher the level, the greater the cost, such as they want favors, servants in the household, etc. In this way, it is really not enough. And they are still good, you must know that the county orders of the Ming Dynasty are even more pitiful, their salaries are lower, not to mention, the catchers in the county government, the servants at home, etc. should all be paid for by them. If you don't have money, you can only be a light pole commander.
So in this case, many people cannot live, and naturally walk on the brink of embezzlement. After all, not everyone is a talent like Hairui who firmly protects the natural economy, and there is no vegetable at home and grows it by himself; If there is no firewood at home, cut it yourself; Throughout the year, only when my mother celebrates her birthday, the meat boss does his Hairui two meat business.
Therefore, under the persecution of poverty, even though Zhu Yuanzhang was trying his best to govern, the officials still had not enough to eat and could only be greedy, so the corrupt officials were caught, as if generosity was righteousness, and they continued to rush to the execution ground. And Zhu Yuanzhang is a "double-standard" talent, and the people below are not allowed to corrupt him, but his own children and relatives are all living well, if Liu Bei's descendants of King Jing of Zhongshan, who are far away, appear in his reign, Zhu Yuanzhang will also prepare the title and the title in advance.
Human nature is such that it is difficult to fill
The second reason is that human nature is like that. In the era of the Song Dynasty, there were still people who were greedy, because money was a thing, and no one would be too much. With a thousand, you want ten thousand, with ten thousand, you want a hundred thousand, in short, it is difficult to fill.
And the officials of the Ming Dynasty were all stretched thin, then they were even more greedy. Because they are also ordinary people, they also have selfish desires, and the more they desire what they lack, for them, money is the most lacking. Therefore, there are always people who feel that they will avoid Zhu Yuanzhang's detection and live a rich life.
And driven by money, many people have also lived a model of "drinking in the present day and getting drunk today": regardless of whether Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, found out, first be happy and greedy. If he was caught later, he would die just because he embezzled sixty taels, which was too wronged, so driven by human nature, he would be greedy for more, and then corrupt officials would appear in a steady stream.
epilogue
In fact, for Zhu Yuanzhang, he did not realize why corrupt officials should be greedy. There were so many corrupt officials in the previous dynasty, and why there were especially many during his reign required a fundamental investigation. This curing greed is like curing water, and it should be loosened rather than blocked. If he had fundamentally solved the problem of low morality of Ming officials, perhaps there would have been much fewer corrupt officials. But he does not start from the root, just blindly kills, but in the face of a long poor life, death does not seem so terrible.
However, a gentleman loves money, and he still has to take it wisely. These officials of the Ming Dynasty did have low salaries, but later when they grabbed profits, the means were not simply greedy, because they still sucked the blood of the people. If they knew how to cut costs, maybe they would be less poor. However, in the final analysis, the corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty were because of the problems of the original bureaucratic system.
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