Author: Shi Yuchun
It continues to say that the positions of those Jianwen Wenchen who were attached to Zhu Di rose and fell during the Yongle period and the eunuch sea rose and fell.
Zou Ji - After presiding over the meeting test, he presided over the township test three times, which is extremely rare; after the fire in the Three Temples, he spoke bluntly and was shocked to read, and it was also strange that he was safe and sound
Zou Ji (born unknown ~ 1422 AD), courtesy name Zhongxi, was a native of Jishui (present-day Jiangxi).
Zou Ji has worked hard to learn from an early age, he read a lot of books, and he never advocated carving and painting in his articles.
During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang and Hongwu, Zou Jiming was appointed as the teaching of Xingzi County (now part of Jiangxi) (a saying that it was xingzi county teaching).
During the Jianwen period of Zhu Yunjiao, Zou Ji entered the dynasty and served as an assistant teacher of Guozi.
Zhu Yunjiao cut off the Yan domain, and Zhu Di raised an army against the imperial court.
The Yan army attacked Nanjing, and Zou Ji was one of the Jianwen wenchen who followed Zhu Di.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, Zou Ji was promoted to Hanlin Attendant and served in the Eastern Palace (where the crown prince lived) and Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zhongyun.
At that time, the position of Guozi Supervisor was often vacant, and Zou Ji was appointed many times to preside over the affairs of Guozi Supervisor.
After the expiration of his term of office, Zou Ji was promoted to Zuo Chunfang Zuo Shuzi (左春坊左庶子), and still held the post of attendant.
Zou Ji also participated in the compilation of the Records of Ming Taizu (Zhu Yuanzhang) and the Yongle Canon.
In the seventh year of Zhu Di Yongle (1409 AD), zou ji, who was then an attendant of the Hanlin Academy, served as an examiner with Xu Shanshu of Zuo Chunfang Zuo Si Zhilang, presided over the examination, and took Chen Pu and others.
At the same time, Zhu Di was touring Beijing, and the crown prince (i.e., Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozi) invoked the old practice of Chengshu (1406 AD) to grant kong Chenzuo Zhongyun, the first place in the deputy list, and even gave him the title of jinshi. It should be noted that many people who were on the list at that time had not yet participated in the temple examination.
In this examination, the examination questions include "Mencius Verses" and "Shang Shu Hong Fan Jiu Domain". Because the examination questions were too biased, the imperial history impeachment examiner waiter Zou Ji and others made a mistake. As a result, the examiner was reprimanded and Zou Ji was sent to prison.
Subsequently, the imperial court appointed other officials as examiners, conducted re-examinations, and took more than a dozen people, such as Zhongxiong Kuo and Jin Kuo; these re-examination winners were later all officials to the posts of Du Yushi and Shilang.
In the twelfth year of Yongle (1414 AD), the imperial court appointed Zeng Tang, a attendant of the Hanlin Temple, and Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zhongyun Zou Ji to preside over the Shuntianxiang Examination.
In the sixth month of the lunar calendar of this year, Zhu Di personally marched on Wei La, defeated him at Sarigar, and defeated him at the Tula River, during which countless people captured and beheaded the other side. In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Zhu Di returned to the court, and Zou Jijin presented the "Yongle Qingbian Ode".
In the fifteenth year of Yongle (1417 AD), the imperial court rewarded the official who re-revised the record, Zou Ji, who was then a waiter, and was given a hundred ingots of money, a table of color coins, and a gown.
In this year, the imperial court appointed the Hanlin Yuan Attendant, Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zhongyun Zou Ji and the Attendant Wang Hong to preside over the Shuntianxiang Examination.
In the eighteenth year of Yongle (1421 AD), the imperial court appointed Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zhongyun to serve Zou Ji at the Hanlin Temple, and Wang Ying to preside over the Shuntianxiang Examination.
In the nineteenth year of Yongle (1421 AD), on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the Fengtian Hall, the Huagai Hall, and the Zhensheng Hall were simultaneously caught by fire. The new palace in Beijing, which has been under construction for more than a decade, actually caught fire less than four months after its completion. The incident shook Zhu Di so much that he even suspected that his rule had caused anger in heaven.
Therefore, on the tenth day of the first month of April of this year, Zhu Di issued an edict, asking the wen and wu subjects to do everything they could to hide their words and directly explain the shortcomings of the imperial court.
In response, Zou Ji responded, and the book bluntly said that its content is mainly as follows:
First, it has been nearly 20 years since the founding of Beijing. In the past two decades, the volume of construction projects has been huge, the value of the money and materials has been high, and the scope of manpower dispatched is extremely wide.
In the meantime, the number of redundant officials is staggering. With the help of construction projects, these people cannibalize whales and consume the country's reserves in vain.
In the meantime, the servants of the people were often up to millions of people. These people, who had been working on the construction site for many years, simply did not have time to cultivate the fields in the writers. Nevertheless, the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes they had to pay on the fields of their families were not reduced in any way, and even because of the construction works, they had to add to their various burdens. Faced with such a harsh situation, these people really had no choice but to cut down the mulberry and jujube trees that had been making a living for a long time to supply the court with firewood; in desperation, they could only peel the mulberry trees to supply the materials for the imperial court to make paper.
In the meantime, in order to build the project, the officials even levied and arbitrarily apportioned, causing the people to buy things that were not originally produced locally at high prices, and the officials and families confiscated a variety of miscellaneous items.
In the meantime, there were even more craftsmen and villains, under the pretext of power and power, expelled and persecuted the people, and let them migrate and move away on the pretext of expropriating land by the imperial court; causing the people to be homeless and displaced; orphans and widows, crying and shouting, and exposing the emperor in a hurry, not knowing what was appropriate and not knowing what to do. The lands that had been seized by the expulsion of the people were empty for months and for a long time, deserted and abandoned.
Of course, there are also honest and strong officials who do not act flatteringly, but these people are often wantonly slandered and slandered by others, and the result is that they are often accused and criminalized at any time.
Second, at present, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi have been flooding and drought disasters one after another, and the people have no way to live, and even peel off the bark of trees and dig up grass roots to fill their hunger. The elderly and children are displaced from other villages and on the road, and the people can only sell their wives and beards in order to survive. In stark contrast, there are tens of thousands of monks and Taoists among the Beijing masters, who have nothing to do, do not work, do not produce, but spend hundreds of stones of rice and grain every day.
Third, the imperial court ordered the world to weave splendid embroidery and mint coins every year, and then sent internal officials, carrying splendid embroidery and coins, to buy horses in outer china. Each one produces tens of millions, but the number is less than one or two. Although many horses were also bought, most of these horses were useless, and the people were also allowed to raise them, and if there were deaths and injuries, the people were ordered to compensate, resulting in the scattering of the people's wives and families.
Fourth, those who surrendered in the north of the desert were treated very generously by the imperial court, not only giving them a house and a room, but also generously supplying them with supplies.
Fifth, the matter of praying in the palace is to harm the beneficial with the useless, to waste money and money, and to inflate the state fee.
Cloud.
Zou Ji said it very well and very profoundly.
Of course, Zhu Di did not reply.
This time, the edict was issued, and not only Zou Ji was the one who spoke straight, but also many ministers, who wrote to rebuke the current government.
For this reason, Zhu Di was very unhappy, and he was angry that these outspoken people were slandering the imperial court, so he issued an edict that it was strictly forbidden to write such letters and discuss state affairs.
At the same time, the attendant Li Shimian and the attendant Luo Rujing were also arrested and imprisoned by Zhu Di for writing a letter.
In addition, Yushi Zheng Weihuan, He Zhong, Luo Tong, Xu Yao, Ke Xian and others were also demoted to officials because of their letters.
Of all the people who wrote this letter this time, only Zou Ji and the chief priest Gao Gongwang and Shu Jishi Yang Fu were not questioned by Zhu Di.
In the winter of this year, in the tenth month of the lunar calendar, Zou Ji, the attendant of the Hanlin Academy, was zuo Shuzi of Zuo Chunfang, and still served as a lecturer.
In the twentieth year of Yongle (1422 AD), on the sixth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Zuo Chunfang Zuo Shuzi and hanlin yuan attendant Zou Ji died.
Zou Ji once suffered from poisonous sores on his back, so Zhu Di also specially ordered the lieutenant to urge the Tai Doctor to go and treat him, and gave him a famous medicine.
Zou Ji was a man, he was fair-minded, and when he was in the DPRK, he never hesitated and bowed down with the crowd. When dealing with friends, he will certainly guide others to walk the right path; when friends are in difficulty, he will certainly try his best to help.
Zou Ji was a man of few years, indifferent in temperament, and enjoyed thirty years of food and court, and his frugal simplicity had never changed.
When Zou Ji was not yet in the army, his hobbies and interests were only books. He loves to learn to the same extent that hunger and thirst are to eat. When he sees a different book, he will definitely copy the snow. Zou Ji has been playing with the group all his life, and his mood is rich.
After Zou Ji's death, the family had no remaining wealth, and only a few thousand volumes remained.
Zou Jiju was diligent and careful, and QingCao was like a cold soldier, and eventually died in office.
Zou Ji was more famous for his literature than he was at the time; he was also proficient in calligraphy; he wrote the Su An Collection, which was hidden in his home.
For the history of Zou, see the Ming History volume 164 Liechuan 52 "Zou Ji Biography"; another collection of books are Qing Zhao Yi's "Twenty-two History Records", "Qianqingtang Bibliography", Qing Chen Menglei's "Ancient and Modern Book Integration and Minglun Compilation", Ming Wang Shizhen's "Collection of Yishan Tang", Ming Huangzuo's "Records of Hanlin", "Records of Emperor Ming Yingzongrui", Ming LiXian's "Ming Yi Tongzhi", "Jiangxi Tongzhi", "Records of Emperor Taizong Wen", "Records of the Six Arts", "Ming Poetry Synthesis", "Records of the Sacrifice of the State Dynasty", and so on.
(End of this article)