The feudal ruling class regarded He Xinyin as a "demon", "treacherous", and "thief", arrested him, and died in Wuchang Prison in Huguang.
Why did He Xinyin die? The one who killed him, Wang Zhiyuan, why do later generations often associate his death with Zhang Juzheng?
His death not only made Zhang Juzheng suspicious, but also indirectly led to the famous ideological rivalry between his classmate Geng Xiang and Li Zhen.
1. Misguided Ideologically
He Xinyin (1517-1579), whose real name was Liang, whose name was Ruyuan, whose name was Zhuqian, and whose name was Fushan, was born in Yongfeng County, Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi Province in the late Ming Dynasty, and was born in a large landlord family with "rich family background".
Although he was the first in the group examination and became a lifter, after coming into contact with Wang Gen's theory, he abandoned the road of the imperial examination, worshiped Yan as a teacher, and officially became a member of the Taizhou School.
He Xinyin's ideological proposition originated from Confucianism, and he took "benevolence" as the highest moral standard, further promoted and developed Confucianism, and put forward the ideas of "no affinity" and "no respect".
In order to improve the status of "benevolence", He Xinyin proceeded from idealism and further regarded "benevolence" as the origin of the world and the master of all things.
In fact, He Xinyin portrays the Confucian moral concept of "benevolence" as the supreme and eternal spiritual entity capable of dominating everything, but it is only to cater to the political needs of the ruling class to use the reactionary "benevolent government" to oppress and exploit the people.
He Xinyin's thought is an idealist moral theory, which conceals the class attribute of "benevolence and righteousness", and is used to consolidate and strengthen the feudal system and save the feudal rule during the period of decline of feudal society.
He Xinyin also put forward the ideological proposition of "oligarchy" and "nurturing desire". "Sex and taste, sex and color, sex and sound, sex and peace, sex also. He believes that people can't live without desires, and that food, beauty, music, and comfort are all things that people love, and that's human nature.
But he also said, "Those who take advantage of their desires also." And fate is for it. That is to say, human nature is like a car, the one who pulls the car is "desire", and the one who drives the car is "life". "Destiny is for fathers and sons, destiny for kings and ministers, destiny for sages, destiny for heaven, destiny for those who obey their desires. ”
In He Xinyin's view, the so-called "destiny" is the "destiny" of the monarch and the minister, the father and the son, and the "mandate of heaven", and people's desires cannot violate the "mandate of heaven", and cannot violate the "way of heaven" such as the monarch and the minister, father and son.
He regarded the "life" of the Three Principles and the Five Constants and the life of the "Heavenly Dao" as the master of human desires, and from this point of view, he put forward the proposition of "few desires", "everything that wants to do what is desired and if there is a way, it is also in the middle", "everything that wants to be done and if there is moderation, and the temperance is also harmonious", that is, according to a set of feudal moral standards of "neutralization" to control one's own material desires.
In addition, He Xinyin asked people to "widow" their own "desires" through the moral cultivation of "nurturing desires", so that they can conform to the "lives" of kings and ministers, fathers and sons, and the way of heaven. "Although the former prince Liu wants goods, he wants to share the desire with the people, and he is more fierce than the previous one, so as to nurture the desire. Although the king desires lust, he also desires with the people, and he wants to nurture his desires according to the king's achievements. ”
In essence, He Xinyin's "lack of desire to life" and "nurturing desire" are still to maintain feudal morality of "preserving heavenly principles and destroying people's desires".
This also shows that He Xinyin's ideological propositions have always served the exploiting class, reflecting the change of the landlord class's means of ideological domination and ideological blinding after the impact of Song and Ming Taoism.
In addition, He Xinyin also carried out a work of "gathering and merging clans" in accordance with the general proposition of the Taizhou school of attaching importance to the clan system. In addition to collecting "Ding Grain" to reduce the tax pressure of the same clan and maintain harmony among the people, he also concentrated on the education of the children of the clan to get rid of "selfish thoughts", and the food and housing of the educated were collectively borne by the clan.
However, it is worth noting that the practice of collecting grain from Juhetang instead of "Lijia" is actually just a layer-by-layer apportionment, and does not reduce the taxes of the grassroots working people, and the so-called township education also requires the parents of students to pay their own food expenses, so whether it is to raise one person or teach one person, it is not based on moral concepts or "humanitarianism".
Exploring the root cause, He Xinyin only wanted to create a so-called "family relationship of mutual love" by running a village school and paying taxes on behalf of others, so as to blur the class boundaries and educate the people in feudal culture, so as to ensure the tax revenue of the feudal dynasty.
In fact, the system of leading education, raising people, auxiliary education, and auxiliary education established by He Xinyin represented the feudal clan rule, and he attempted to achieve the goal of consolidating the feudal system by strengthening the patriarchal rule.
Obviously, these ideas of He Xinyin are not of progressive significance. Therefore, He Xinyin, who was in stark opposition to the Taoists of the time in thought and action, made many enemies and was regarded as a "heresy" and could not be tolerated in society.
Second, "lecturing" triggers killing
In order to save the crisis of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng carried out some reforms in military, political, economic and other aspects, such as strengthening border defense, abolishing redundant officials and redundant personnel, governing the Yellow River, clearing the land of the whole country, and implementing the "one whip" law of the enslavement system.
Zhang Juzheng, who advocated reform and innovation, obviously had a contradiction and conflict with the Taizhou school that respected Confucianism. The so-called "broad" means that it cannot solve practical problems.
It can be seen that he has long been dissatisfied with the blind talk of the Taizhou School. Therefore, after summing up the historical experience of Qin Shi Huang's "burning books and pit Confucianism", he ordered that Confucian private lectures should be forbidden, and Confucian students should not be allowed to enter and leave the official government and yamen to participate in political affairs, precisely to eliminate their interference in reform activities.
The acquaintance between Zhang Juzheng and He Xinyin began in 1560 (the 39th year of Jiajing). At that time, He Xinyin followed Cheng Xueyan into Beijing to get acquainted with Yushi Geng, and thus met Zhang Juzheng, who was the official of the country at that time.
In a lecture activity in the Manifestation Palace, He Xinyin was dissatisfied with Zhang Juzheng's views, and at first only said "only only", and later ridiculed: "Gongju is too learned, do you know the way of "University"?" And Zhang Juzheng pretended not to hear, only looked at He Xinyin and said: "You want to fly all the time, but you can't fly." ”
The stimulation of this contradiction caused the two to break up unhappily, suggesting that the two were seriously opposed in their thoughts, which also laid the groundwork for why Xinyin's death.
For this point, He Xinyin himself is conscious, and even predicted to Geng Xiang: "Zhang Gong will be the prime minister, the first to give a lecture, and the first to poison." But he didn't stop lecturing.
Zhang Juzheng believed that as long as he understood the scriptures, he would be explaining his knowledge, and there was no need to engage in any lecture activities, especially emphasizing the opposition to "don't mark the door and gather the party to talk about empty talk", and demanded that the Ming Dynasty explicitly prohibit lecture activities such as "don't create a academy" and "gather a group of disciples".
Therefore, in 1576 (the fourth year of Wanli), He Xinyin began to be arrested by Chen Rui, the governor of Huguang, on the charge of "robbery".
What Zhang Juzheng is opposed to is exactly what He Xinyin is fighting for. He Xinyin expressed fierce opposition to this: "The prime minister has made a statement about his studies, and there are many people who can admonish him. Now we can't refer to it all the times, but it refers to the first article of the first article, and how careless is it to give lectures and conceal poison to scholars?
In 1578 (the sixth year of Wanli), he threw out the 10,000-word "Yuan Xue Yuan Lecture", which not only made a detailed historical examination of the lecture activities in the text, and greatly stated its benefits, but also aimed at Zhang Juzheng's decree prohibiting Confucianism from giving lectures privately, calling it "hidden poison", shouting that "must learn and must speak", and claimed that he would take this book of 10,000 words with him, "to the imperial court and to the world".
In fact, He Xinyin and Zhang Juzheng belonged to the same landlord class, and they devoted their lives to maintaining the feudal rule of the Ming Dynasty, but they differed in the form of their ideas on resolving social contradictions, so they were divided into two factions: one group focused on strengthening feudal ethics and morality education, and resolutely demanded open lectures, reflecting the political demands of some landlord class intellectuals; One faction focused on social, political, or economic reforms and resolutely forbade lectures, reflecting the dissatisfaction with the Taizhou School's empty talk about sexual morality and morality, and also out of the need of the feudal ruling clique to strengthen its control over ideology and social public opinion.
Therefore, in the social environment at that time, the defenders who defended feudal morality were ultimately defeated by the reformists of the landlord class who conformed to the trend of progressive thought, and He Xinyin, who was weak and weak, naturally lost to Zhang Juzheng, who was a high and powerful person, and therefore paid the price of being arrested and killed with a cane.
3. Its own factors
He Xinyin died at the hands of Wang Zhiyuan, and many words in history are related to his flattery to Zhang Juzheng, which can be described as "I don't kill Boren, but Boren died because of me". Although He Xinyin died because of Zhang Juzheng in a sense, looking at He Xinyin's words and deeds before his death, the cause of his death should actually be attributed to himself to a large extent.
First of all, when the first contradiction between He Xinyin and Zhang Juzheng was stimulated, since He Xinyin had recognized the serious opposition between the two people's thoughts, and issued the prophecy that "Zhang Gong will be the prime minister, he will be the first to give poisonous lectures, and he will be the first to poison the yuan", then why did he stop his lectures without knowing the current affairs, and change a political line that "curved" and could better save the rule of the Ming Dynasty?
Perhaps this is due to the courage and courage of the thinker, and the steadfastness of following the truth in his heart. But his mistake was that he shouldn't have repeatedly publicized and exaggerated the contradictions between himself and Zhang Juzheng.
To a certain extent, this behavior is regarded by others, especially those with unscrupulous intentions, as a "hype" behavior to use Zhang Juzheng to enhance the popularity of his lectures, and the pressure of public opinion caused by it will undoubtedly cause the disgust of the "party" Zhang Juzheng, which invisibly further expands the contradiction with Zhang Juzheng, and even maybe this is the beginning of Zhang He and the two forming a personal feud and having a murderous intention.
Moreover, in the year of Zhang Juzheng's father's death, there was a struggle between "seizing love" and "counter-seizing love" around the question of whether Zhang Juzheng should go home to mourn "Ding You".
At this time, at the climax of the reform, Zhang Juzheng, who focused on the cause of reform, resolutely chose to stay in the cabinet and carry out the reform.
However, this was undoubtedly a bold challenge to the way of Confucius and Mencius, so those defenders of "filial piety" who respected Confucianism and opposed the law went up one after another, accusing Zhang Juzheng of "forgetting his relatives and greedy for position" and opposing "seizing affection".
Zhang Juzheng, who had been impeached by Fu Yingzhen and Liu Tai, two officials from Ji'an Prefecture, was once again accused by Zou Yuanbiao, a Jinshi from Ji'an Prefecture and a believer in Wang Xue, which made Zhang Juzheng disgusted with Ji'an people and had deep prejudices.
He Xinyin, who had long been opposed to Zhang Juzheng's thoughts and was also from Ji'an, not only did not know how to avoid the limelight at this time, but at the same time threatened in the lecture of the disciples: Zhang Juzheng "contempt for the abuse of power and call for changes in the sky" ("Ye Shu Ed.", volume 17), and said that he would enter the county to preside over the meeting and expel Zhang Juzheng.
This made Zhang Juzheng have to suspect that Fu, Liu, and Zou and He Xinyin were originally the same party, and the contradiction between Zhang and He deepened, so Zhang Juzheng signaled his local officials to "look for them", thus intensifying the arrest of He Xinyin.
Again, Zhang Ju is the official to the first assistant, with a high position of power, and how many people are trying to flatter and have no way to flatter for the sake of power. And this He Xinyin is so "ignorant of current affairs", and repeatedly and openly calls Zhang Juzheng when lecturing, turning himself into his well-known number one "thorn in the side".
How could these good deeds at that time easily let go of this great opportunity to flatter. Wang Zhiyuan, as an official who wants to make a difference, it is within his duty to arrest He Xinyin and He Xinyin, a "demonic" criminal, and make him confess his guilt.
In addition, He Xinyin, as a powerless and powerless commoner, lectured everywhere, blatantly violated the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and was a law-breaker who was taboo in the imperial court.
And He Xinyin didn't know how to give in when he died, and said wildly to Wang Zhiyuan: "If the public security dares to kill me, Yi'an can kill me! Telling the "truth" about his imprisonment to Wang Zhiyuan in such an agitated manner, He Xinyin is equivalent to giving himself a reason to die.
IV. Conclusion
To sum up, there are many reasons for the death of He Xinyin of the Taizhou School. In essence, Wang Yangming's doctrine that He Xinyin learned from Yan Jun had long since deteriorated, and he inherited a branch of the Taizhou school that was rotten and rotten, so he was destined to become a defender who vigorously advocated feudal morality and desperately maintained the feudal system.
He Xinyin was a practitioner among Confucianism, and in order to promote the spread of secularized Confucian political thought, he not only strongly advocated lecturing, but also personally organized lecture activities everywhere, which formed a serious opposition to Zhang Juzheng, the person in power who gave lectures and destroyed the academy, in terms of ideological ideas and actions, which triggered the murder and laid the groundwork for He Xinyin's death.
More importantly, He Xinyin's lecture activities violated the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, violated the laws of the dynasty, and caused panic and disgust among the feudal ruling group.
What's more, the ideas that are very different from the times have made He Xinyin have many enemies, and he is really not "smart" enough, he does not know how to avoid suspicion, and has a personal enmity with Zhang Juzheng, which causes many good people to flatter and want to get rid of him.
Therefore, although Zhang Juzheng did not kill He Xinyin, to a certain extent, He Xinyin also died because of him, but in the final analysis, He Xinyin's death is largely to blame himself, and he himself finally pushed himself into the abyss of death.