Being honest and honest and benefiting one party has always been the ideal of every official. In ancient Chinese history, in many dynasties, clean officials and corrupt officials often coexisted, but there are no absolutes, take the early years of the Ming Dynasty as an example, at that time the officialdom was very honest and honest. Today I want to talk about the matter of a Qing official in the Ming Dynasty, saying that at that time, there was a person named Zeng Bingzheng, who experienced ups and downs in his officialdom career, and then was driven back to his hometown, but was finally arrested and castrated halfway, which can be regarded as the most miserable Qing official.
We all know that Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, was just a commoner in his early years, and he saw a lot of the cruelty and inhumanity of the rulers, and the power of corrupt officials to benefit the people, so after he established the Ming Dynasty, he issued a series of policies and strict laws for the benefit of the people.
Speaking of this Zeng Bingzheng, he was at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, because of the lack of talents, so Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a recommendation system to let officials from all over the country recommend talents.
In the ninth year of Hongwu, Zeng Bingzheng once wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang, so that Zhu Yuanzhang felt that this person was of great use, so he appointed him as the supervisor of Siwen. It didn't take long for him to be promoted to the head of the Criminal Department and Shaanxi to participate in politics. Then he became a general political envoy, which was a three-grade official position.
Zeng Bingzheng is a good official who is honest and honest, from the beginning of his work as a local official to the central government, he has exposed many bad things and pointed out many shortcomings in the imperial court. But he was too pedantic, upright in words and deeds, straightforward, angered Zhu Yuanzhang several times, and was finally dismissed under Zhu Yuanzhang's anger. You must know that the dismissed officials are no longer allowed to stay in the capital and must return to their hometowns, but Zeng Bingzheng has no travel expenses, so he sold his 4-year-old daughter.
This matter was known by Zhu Yuanzhang, he thought that Zeng Bingzheng had achieved the official position of three grades, according to the imperial court system, there were 35 stones every month, how could he not even have the money to return to his hometown, and he tasted the etiquette, righteousness, honesty, benevolence, righteousness and morality, but now he did something unethical to sell his daughter, thinking that he was not worthy of being a parent, and arrested Zeng Bingzheng, who was halfway through, and castrated him, so as not to harm his descendants.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang thought too simply, you must know that in the early Ming Dynasty, the distribution of Yulu was replaced by treasure banknotes, and the Ming treasure banknotes were officially issued at that time, and the market that circulated in gold and silver at that time was not recognized by most people, and the printed paper was very poor, not durable, and the imperial court only issued but did not receive, which led to inflation, and the officials were not very rich. And Zeng Bingzheng himself is an honest official, and he has to support a large family, so of course he has a very hard life.