There is a cloud in "The Book of Rites": If you can't be courteous, you can't punish a doctor. This means that ordinary people are toiling and tired, and they have no leisure to be perfect in terms of etiquette, and they should not be too harsh on them. However, when a doctor commits a crime, he should take into account the dignity of the doctor and do not need to impose a penalty on them, and the doctor has a high level of moral self-discipline and will be humble and self-reflective. If the doctor's offense is really serious, he is to be "on his knees and judged" and no punishment is imposed on him.
The development of non-commissioned officers in the Han and Tang dynasties reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. There was a Song generation, and civil officials were rarely killed, but it was only in the Southern Song Dynasty that Song Ningzong ordered Shi Miyuan to kill Prime Minister Han Yanxuan, which opened the Song Dynasty's etiquette.
In the Ming Dynasty, if you can't punish a sergeant, it really becomes an empty word.
The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were most notorious for beating officials with bare buttocks and heavy rods. Among them, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was the initiator.
In the Hongwu Dynasty, Zhu Liang, the Marquis of Yongjia, and his grandfather and son were ordered by Zhu Yuanzhang to be whipped to death because they accepted bribes and deceived Zhu Yuanzhang. The most inexplicable thing is the cane scolding of Ru Taisu, the head of the Criminal Department, Ru Taisu is knowledgeable, but he loves to show off, and the written chapter is long and smelly, Zhu Yuanzhang was dizzy after reading it, and the angry Emperor Taizu summoned Ru Taisu to scold him in person, and the more he scolded, the more angry he became, so he simply ordered him to be beaten.
regarded hundreds of officials as domestic slaves, and Zhu Yuanzhang gave the descendants of the Ming Dynasty a bad start.
There are two descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang who love to spank officials, one is Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao, and the other is Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi, these two happen to be brothers.
In 1519, Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to the Ministry of Rites: Zhu Shou (i.e., himself), the mighty general of the governor's military affairs, the chief military officer and the Taishi, and the prince of Zhenguo, was about to inspect Beijing, Nanjing, and Shandong, worship the gods and pray for blessings, and please prepare a detailed code of rules and rituals to submit to the imperial review. The officials of the Ministry of Rites were dumbfounded when they received this edict, and the civil and military officials could not bear the willfulness of Ming Wuzong, and they all went to the palace gate to admonish, but Zhu Houzhao was unmoved, and it is said that 146 Beijing officials were punished with a rod in the court, and 11 were killed with a rod.
Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi is not far behind his cousin Zhu Houzhao, in order to elevate the status of his biological father and mother, Emperor Jiajing wants to respect his biological father as the emperor and his biological mother as the empress dowager, which was fiercely opposed by hundreds of officials. Hundreds of officials knelt outside the palace gate and wept bitterly to admonish, Emperor Jiajing couldn't bear it anymore, and ordered Jinyi Wei to put 134 officials below the fifth grade in prison for torture, and 86 officials above the fourth rank to be suspended from their posts and awaiting their crimes. A few days later, Zhu Houxi was still angry, and ordered the officials above the fourth rank to be suspended, and the officials below the fifth rank to be punished as court rods, and 16 people were beaten to death.
In the TV series "Ming Dynasty 1566", the emperor easily scolded officials. Zhou Yunyi, the eunuch of Qintian, advised Jiajing to control and love the people because of the weather and frequent disasters, but Jiajing was jealous and hated by Jiajing, and instructed the eunuch Feng Bao to kill him alive at the noon gate.
This example shows that the officials of the Ming Dynasty have been completely reduced to the emperor's slaves and can be killed with a cane at will.
However, the more domineering the monarchy, the more people dare to pull out their teeth. The Ming dynasty produced a large number of idealistic civil officials, the most famous of whom was Hai Jui, an iron-faced and selfless moralist and law-worshipper, who was imprisoned for criticizing Jiajing's eccentric behavior and neglect of the government.
Unfortunately, there were too few officials like Hai Jui, and the vast majority of them eventually had to submit to the monarchy and become loyal servants of the emperor.