At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, at the time of the Jiangshan Revolution, after the Qing Dynasty occupied Beijing, it was able to quickly gain a firm foothold in Guannei, in addition to the incessant civil strife of the Ming Dynasty and the strength of the Qing Dynasty's own armed forces, the most important thing was that the Qing Dynasty adopted a friendly attitude of co-opting and cooperating with the Ming officials and gentry.
When we remember the city of Beijing being attacked by Li Zicheng, the dozens of Loyal Ming Dynasty ministers who were martyred with their families recorded in the history books cannot be ignored, at that time, the vast majority of the thousands of officials in Beijing did not follow the Martyrdom of the Chongzhen Emperor.
In the future, they first surrendered to Li Zicheng, and later surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, becoming the greatest contributor to the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of its entry into the Guanxi, which could quickly stabilize the situation in the north and even the whole country, and help the Qing Dynasty truly become the lord of Guannei.
The thousands of officials stranded in Beijing, including those of the Hongguang Dynasty who later surrendered the city of Nanjing, as well as former Ming officials who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in various places, all had a title, "Second Minister."
Of course, later generations appreciated shi Kefa, Xia Yunyi, Xia Wanchun, Yan Yingyuan, Zhang Huangyan and other loyal and righteous soldiers, but it is undeniable that when the Ming Dynasty fell, the vast majority of officials still chose to become "second ministers".
The motives of these officials who were unwilling to martyr the country and were willing to serve the new dynasty were not necessarily because they were afraid of death, but because some of them surrendered for fear of death, but more because they were unwilling.
Why are they not reconciled? Would you rather bear the identity of a "second minister" and serve the Qing Dynasty?
Moreover, the particularity of the Qing Dynasty also lies in the fact that this is a regime established by foreign nationalities, and it is a "second minister" at the time of the change of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and in terms of reputation, the "second minister" during the change of dynasties such as Han Wei and Sui and Tang Dynasties is more difficult to hear and has been criticized more.
Perhaps, from the words of confucius, the ancestor of Confucianism, we can find a hint. In the Analects, there is a conversation between Confucius and Zigong about Guan Zhong:
Zi Gong Yue: "Guan Zhong is not a benevolent person and?" Huan Gong killed Gongzi Zhen, could not die, and then matched. Zi Yue: "Guan Zhongxiang Huan Gong, the overlord of the princes, the whole world, the people have received their gifts to this day." Microtubule Zhong, I was sent to the left. If the wife of the woman is forgiven, it is not known that it is self-deprecating in the ditch. ”
From this dialogue, it can be known that Guan Zhong was originally a disciple of the noble Prince of Qi, and duke Huan of Qi killed gongzi gui, and Guan Zhong did not martyr the lord, but defected to the duke of Qi Huan, and also helped the duke of Qi Huan become one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period.
According to historical records, at that time, there was a Gongzi who was the same as Guan Zhong, who was summoned to the door, but after the Death of the Gongzi, he committed suicide and martyred.
From this point of view, Guan Zhong, a famous sage in history, is a typical "second minister".
However, Confucius's evaluation of Guan Zhong is positive, he believes that Guan Zhong's retention of useful bodies and helping Qi Huangong to achieve hegemony is really beneficial to the people, and this kind of general pattern is not something that the generation of "pifu pi women" can understand.
Although not absolute, this dialogue in the Analects is hardly one of the most important reasons why many Ming officials were willing to serve the Qing.
After all, they were all familiar with the Analects and took its truth as their life criterion.
For the Confucian-based scholars, governing the country and the world is the highest pursuit of their lives.
When the Qing Dynasty handed them an olive branch, willing to govern the country with Confucian ideas and hoping to get their help, most people were certainly contradictory at first.
From the poems left by many of them later, we can see the strong ambivalence of the "courtiers".
But reason is ultimately greater than emotion.
For example, Hong Chengzuo, who played a vital role in the unification of the whole country by the Qing Dynasty, held out for half a year in the isolated city of Songshan before surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.
Hong Chengyu defended Songshan Castle until he ran out of ammunition, and was only captured after being betrayed by Songshan's deputy general Xia Chengde.
Most importantly, regardless of whether the evaluation of Hong Chengzuo by posterity is good or bad, according to the records in the history books, we can still know that the main responsibility for the defeat of the "Battle of Songshan" was not on Hong Chengzuo.
It was led by the theory of quick warfare advocated by Chongzhen to Chen Xinjia (then the Ming Dynasty Bingbu Shangshu).
His surrender after being captured, in my opinion, was due to unwillingness.
At that time, Hong Chengzu was not yet 50 years old, and in the official arena, it was the time of "young and powerful".
He also has a talent, emotionally, he should be martyred, but rationally, he still wants to leave a useful body to rule the country and the world.
This may be the main reason why Hong Chengzu surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
Another example is Qian Qianyi, a big man of the Donglin Party, who surrendered to him, and many people's views are because they are afraid of death, he said that "the water is too cold to go down", and also said "itchy scalp", which is really too famous.
These two allusions are absolute evidence that Qian Qianyi surrendered to the Qing Dynasty for fear of death.
But in his later years, under the close surveillance of the Qing Dynasty, he ran around for the anti-Qing and restoration, which not only reflected his ambivalence, but also proved that he was not really afraid of death.
As for Qian Qianyi's motives or psychology of not wanting to be martyred and willingly surrendering to become a "second minister", later a literati named Shen Deqian (born during the Kangxi Dynasty, who participated in the imperial examination 17 times in his lifetime, during the Qianlong Dynasty, at the age of 67), in his book "Qing Poetry And Other Cuts", was analyzed like this:
Mu Zhai (Qian Qian Yi Zi Mu Zhai) is not dead, one is self-appointed by Ming Shi, one is attacked by Wen Tiren, and he is hated for not getting the position, and he is ordered to be a new dynasty, and Shu Zhan is also ambitious.
In Shen Deqian's view, Qian Qianyi is not because he is afraid of death and qing, but because he has never been the prime minister in this life, he is not very willing, and he still wants to leave a useful body, continue to exert his ambitions, and also think of ruling the country and the world.
Shen Deqian's analysis of Qian Qianyi may also be a statement, as to whether it is correct or not, it still depends on the reader's own judgment.
The choice of Hong Chengyu and Qian Qianyi was probably also the choice of most of the "courtiers" at that time, after reason over emotion, contradictions naturally existed, and the psychology of not being willing to have nowhere to show their talents occupied the mainstream.
Among the Ming officials who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and were willing to serve the new dynasty, there were two typical examples.
One was that the Ming Dynasty had just entered the official arena and had not yet had time to display its talents, and this kind of official was mainly a scholar in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen.
According to historical records, among all the Jinshi sections in the Chongzhen period, the batch of Chongzhen sixteen years was the most degraded.
They were all just over a year into the official arena, they were faced with the choice after the national break, and they read it hard for ten years, thinking about the ambition to govern the country and the world, and finally defeated the emotional martyrdom.
In addition to the controversy over whether Yang Tingjian was later an official in the Qing Dynasty (Yang Tingjian's son served the Qing Dynasty), the more famous ones, such as Gao Heng, Wang Chongjian, Liang Qingbiao, Yao Wenran, Bai Yinqian, Cheng Kegong, and others, led by Song Zhisheng and Tanhua Chen Mingxia, all took the initiative to serve the Qing Dynasty.
For example, Chen Mingxia, before he was impeached to death by Ning Guan, he was mixed up in the position of a university scholar.
There is also a kind of person who has long entered the official arena, but is still young, has not yet reached a high position, and is eager to continue to exert his ambitions in the political arena.
Among them, the more famous ones, such as Gong Dingzi, one of the "Three Great Masters of Jiang Zuo" with Qian Qianyi, was only 28 years old at the time, Zhou Lianggong was 32 years old, Cao Rong was 32 years old, and Chen Zhixuan was 39 years old.
Ming officials, who were relatively young in the official arena, ultimately took the initiative to choose rationality and chose to serve the new dynasty.
To sum up, at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, when we admired many loyal and righteous soldiers and used their deeds as an example, we still need to know that it is the majority that surrenders.
Putting aside the so-called ethnic contradictions, most of the readers in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were still rational in their choice.
It is difficult to imagine the high enthusiasm of ancient readers to become officials and engage in politics.
Whether it is for the glory and wealth, or for the ambition to govern the country and the world, or because of the fear of death, the olive branch handed out by the Qing Dynasty, in the absence of more choices, most Ming officials still actively embraced.
As Chen Mingxia wrote in a poem: "For Confucianism is not for the official, an use of readers... It is said that the flowers are small and full of heavenly spring. ”
He believes that the reason why readers read hard in the cold window is to become an official, otherwise what is the purpose of reading? As long as you can become an official, even if you become a small official first, you must be willing to accept it.
With this kind of thinking, it is normal not to choose emotional martyrdom.
While we encourage and learn from those loyal and righteous soldiers who appeared in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, it is a little less regrettable that the Qing Dynasty is different from the Yuan Dynasty after all, no matter how much controversy there is, it is completely integrated.
Thinking like this, "second minister" is not "second".