Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 202: Cut off someone’s financial resources and kill their parents!
Destroy people and money.

Like killing one's parents.

The national policy of "measure the land and distribute it equally to the people" started in Wanping County, which was adjacent to the capital.

Chen Yiqin never expected that the first obstacle he encountered when implementing national policies came from his peers.

In the palace examination of Xinchou in the 20th year of Jiajing's reign, many outstanding figures emerged.

Gao Gong served as the second prime minister of the cabinet.

Chen Yiqin served as a cabinet minister.

Wang Chonggu served as the governor of Xuanda.

There were also a number of court officials including Gao Yi and Xu Yangzheng, as well as the deceased member of the Yan Party, Yan Maoqing.

These young men were indeed extraordinary, but just by looking at these successful people, one could tell that they had bad relationships, different beliefs, and lacked communication with each other.

The magistrate of Wanping County at that time was Wu Shouzhen, who ranked 205th in the third class of the palace examination in the 20th year of Jiajing and was granted the status of a Jinshi.

He was the last on the list of the imperial examination in the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing, and the younger brother of two cabinet ministers.

Wu Shouzhen begged Chen Yiqin to let him go based on their friendship.

Standing in the fields, Chen Yiqin looked at the boundless yellow land and said in confusion, "The land survey is aimed at the hidden land of officials, gentry, big families, and powerful people. The land is distributed equally to the people, which is a favor to the world. Why would I harm you?"

Wu Shouzhen was from Jiangnan and was an official in the capital. He might have bought property, but he would never buy land.

The land survey did not include Wu Shouzhen. Chen Yiqin could not understand why Wu Shouzhen was begging him to let her go as if she had lost her parents.
Wu Shouzhen disregarded his dignity, lifted his robe, knelt on the ground, and said in a sad voice: "The national policy is good, but the clerks in Wanping County have been clerks for generations and have colluded with the gentry.

There is a mix of good and bad people under the feet of the emperor. There is also the home of a saint's disciple, and they are in collusion with each other.

The specific executors of the land survey were the clerks in the county. When these clerks were asked to survey the land, they would inevitably act arbitrarily and measure the common people's land as larger and wider, while not measuring the land of the gentry and wealthy families, as if they had lost their land.

In this way, the gentry and the wealthy will not lose their land, and they will also take a few acres of land from the common people. When that happens, people will be resentful and rush to Beijing. I am afraid that my head will fall to the ground immediately."

There are policies and measures to counter.

Even though the national policy had just been issued, local officials had already come up with a countermeasure. When surveying the land, they only surveyed the land of the common people, but not the land of the gentry and wealthy families.

After the land survey was completed, the gentry and wealthy families would divide the people's land according to the number of people. In the eyes of the people, this was probably a means for the court and local governments to jointly plunder their land.

The civil uprising was imminent, and Wu Shouzhen had to panic.

This place is too close to the emperor. If anything goes wrong here, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty and the current emperor, I, as the marquis of this county, will be the first to die.

During his twenty years as an official in the court, Wu Shouzhen walked on thin ice. He worked diligently and with countless efforts, he was transferred from a county under Yansui Town to the position of magistrate of Wanping County.

After going through so many hardships along the way, he was finally about to see the flowers and lights. However, Chen Yiqin's arrival was undoubtedly pushing him to his death.

Wang Yangming's School of Mind is divided into seven areas based on region. One of them is the Northern Wang School represented by two disciples of the sage Wang Yangming, Mu Konghui and Zhang Houjue.

The Mu family of Mu Konghui, a disciple of the sage, settled in Wanping County.

Mu Konghui is dead, and now the person in charge of Northern Wangxue is Mu Bei, the eldest son of the Mu family.

Mu Bei and all the clerks in the county united together, openly following the emperor's orders but secretly seizing the people's land. If the land was further surveyed, a civil uprising was imminent.

There has never been a local official in this dynasty who was able to remain in office despite a civil uprising.

"The county clerks are not afraid of you?" Chen Yiqin said in disbelief.

As a county magistrate appointed by the imperial court, Wu Shouzhen possessed the highest authority here, but his words and actions showed his fear of the Mu family and the county officials.

Wu Shouzhen smiled sadly and said, "The Shilin family has been passed down from generation to generation. As long as the School of Mind exists, the Mu family will exist.

The position of clerk is also inherited from generation to generation, but I am just a temporary official.

On weekdays, I have to rely on clerks, but also be on guard against them. If I make a mistake, I will be ruined. I am just a lone boat in Wanping County.

They dared not disobey my orders, but they had many ways to pretend to obey them while secretly disobeying them, which made it very difficult for me, the county magistrate, to express my suffering.

If I go downstream, everything will be fine for me. But if I go upstream, I will be drowned.

Sir, how could they be afraid of me? "

These words were filled with envy and resentment.

Wu Shouzhen envied Chen Yiqin's background and the fact that he became a noble Hanlin after entering the court, but he did not know how difficult it was to be a local official.

Throughout the dynasties, there has never been a shortage of officials who want to get things done, but with the collusion between local forces and court officials, no matter how good the national policies or new policies are, they will become empty words, and the dynasty will be hollowed out bit by bit.

As a result, the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. The people could no longer bear it and rose up in rebellion.

As for the local clerks, they simply changed dynasties and continued to work as clerks.

Many times, the families of clerks last much longer than those of officials.

Chen Yiqin had been an official in Beijing for twenty years. Even when his superiors intended to make things difficult for him, he was always able to overcome it. However, he had never personally governed a local area. At this moment, he understood why the emperor required the ministers and officials of the court to have experience in governing at the provincial, prefectural and county levels.

A cabinet minister, in the eyes of the Mu family and the clerks of Wanping County, he is probably just a newcomer.

He estimated that his two sons, Chen Yubei and Chen Yujie, would know more about the existence of clerks than he did.

However, decades of ups and downs in officialdom have taught Chen Yiqin a truth: the failure to accomplish something is mostly due to insufficient power.

Chen Yiqin thought of the Emperor's Sword bestowed by the emperor, and the good intentions of the imperial edict to the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang to cooperate in the land survey. He thought that it was the emperor who asked him to use it at this time.

To survey the land, it is not necessary to rely on local clerks to do the measurement. The Jinyiwei's Jinyiwei and the Dongchang's men can also do it.

"Seventh Master, Eunuch Chen!" Chen Yiqun called out.

Zhu Qi, one of the Thirteen Guards of the Imperial Guards, and Chen Hong, the seal-bearing eunuch and chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, hurried over after hearing the call from the elder, and asked, "Elder, what can I do for you?"

"Can the Jinyiwei and Dongchang complete the task of surveying the land in Wanping County?" Chen Yiqin asked, tearing up the fish-scale atlas of some land surveyed handed over by the clerks of Wanping County.

Zhu Qi and Chen Hong looked at each other and nodded in tacit understanding. Measuring the land was not a difficult task, as long as there were enough people.

The current Jinyiwei and Dongchang have nothing in abundance except for a lot of people.

The Jinyiwei recruited new people, while the Dongchang had too many idle people.

"Then I'll leave it to you. If any clerks try to stop us during the survey, they will be killed without mercy!" Chen Yiqin felt a little angry.

Zhu Qi and Chen Hong took the order and left.

"Mr. Ge."

Wu Shouzhen saw that Chen Yiqin did not stop the land survey and even asked the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang to take over the survey. He suddenly became anxious and said, "What if the clerks, gentry, and wealthy families stir up public sentiment and provoke a civil uprising..."

Chen Yiqin was quite grateful for his younger brother's advice and reminder, and explained: "The people followed the bandits because they were hungry, and the people were hungry because they had no land to farm. He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world. Do you know what the hearts of the people are? The hearts of the people are food, and they are a constant source of reserve soldiers.

To survey the land and distribute it equally to the people is to seize the land of officials, gentry, and clerks, and to win the hearts and minds of the people. Once the hearts and minds are won, nothing else matters. "

Chen Yiqin no longer had the gentle and refined aura of a scholar, and was replaced by a bone-chilling murderous aura!
……

The Imperial Guards dispatched a thousand Ti cavalrymen, and the Eastern Depot dispatched eight hundred guardsmen. They took out standard ropes, entered the fields, and began to measure the land.

This immediately caused dissatisfaction among the clerks in Wanping County, and the leader, Kuai Shou, immediately shouted, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Who are you? Do you know whose land this is? How dare you go and measure it? You are blind and courageous!"

The personnel configuration of county governments in the Ming Dynasty was divided into three categories: officials, clerks, and servants, presenting a pyramid-shaped structure.

Officials: including county magistrates, county magistrates, chief clerks, registrars and other court officials, whose number is relatively small.

The magistrate was in charge of the government affairs of the county, while the county magistrate and the chief clerk were responsible for certain aspects of the affairs, such as agricultural promotion, water conservancy, clearing the army, and patrolling.

Li: including Sili, Dianli, Chengfa, Yili, Zandian, etc., are officials appointed by the state and registered with the Ministry of Personnel.

They mainly worked in the various departments of the county government, handling paperwork and document transfer matters.

Service: including jailers, runners, strong men, etc., mostly engaged in hard labor such as running errands, arresting thieves, collecting taxes, etc.

They were at the lowest level of the county government, waiting to be dispatched by officials.

The "kuaishou" refers to the messengers in the yamen who are responsible for summoning officials and delivering documents, as well as the constables who are responsible for arresting criminals.

To put it bluntly, he is a constable.

In order to prevent "accidental damage" to the fields of gentry and wealthy families, at the beginning of the land survey in Wanping County, the clerks of various departments in the county sent out runners, quick hands and strong men to guard the fields of officials, gentry, the Mu family and a number of wealthy families.

As the adopted son of Zhu Qi, one of the Thirteen Guards of the Imperial Guards, and also the newly promoted Thirteen Guards of the Imperial Guards, Qi Dazhu gradually got used to the officials of all ranks speaking to him in a friendly manner after coming to the capital from Zhejiang. After hearing the sarcasm of a small constable, Qi Dazhu's expression instantly turned cold, and he said, "Don't you know what I'm wearing?"

The quick hand took a look at Qi Dazhu and recognized that it was the Jinyiwei uniform, but he could not tell the subtle differences between the brocade clothes. He sneered: "What if you recognize it? What if you don't recognize it? It's just a set of brocade clothes? What else do you think it is?
Our Master Mu has to say that the Buddhist scriptures say that after people die, some are reincarnated as humans, some are reincarnated as animals, and they go their separate ways from then on.

But if you ask me, it’s the same when people are alive. Some people are human beings, while others are animals.

You, you, since you have become an animal, you must accept your fate as an animal. If a dog cannot recognize itself, how uncomfortable it must be when it eats shit! "It is true that court officials are afraid of the Jinyiwei, but just like the Dongchang, they are regarded as the emperor's henchmen.

Even though the Jinyiwei rose to power, they were still not considered colleagues by court officials and literati.

The clerks in the county, the Mu family, and several wealthy families talked about this during their conversations. Their words were full of contempt, and when the young constable heard it, he took advantage of it.

No one has ever ridiculed the Jinyiwei as running dogs or eaten that.

Qi Dazhu concentrated his energy on his dantian and drew out his embroidered spring sword. With a flash of sword light, the quick hand was split in half from the top of his head.

There were also a few quick hands from Wanping County who were farther away. When they saw the man being split in half, they were also frightened and ran towards the Mu family in a panic.

Qi Dazhu did not chase after him. He asked the imperial guards to continue surveying the land, and went to the county government office to report the matter to his adoptive father.

At this time, the Mu family was hosting a banquet for guests, and almost all the clerks and wealthy families in the county were present.

During the banquet, there were wild animals from the mountains, swallows from the clouds, cattle and sheep from the land, seafood from the sea, monkey heads, bird's nests, shark fins, bear paws, dried scallops, and deer fins. The key was to ensure that both the host and the guests were happy.

The light snow falling outside the hall added a touch of poetry to the joyful atmosphere.

When the fast hands came crawling over, Mu Bei, the head of the Mu family, the owner of this place, couldn't help but frowned. After hearing the fast hands' hurried explanation of the reason, everyone present frowned.

The Jinyiwei and Dongchang were so rampant in the imperial court, but now when it comes to the local level, how can they do things the same way?

A constable just chopped someone down without paying any attention to laws and rules.

Mu Bei looked at the guests on both sides of the hall and sighed, "Although the Zhu family is the emperor and is showing off their power, the hawks and dogs they trained are like bandits in the mountains. How good can their masters be?"

As a disciple of the saint of Xinxue, Mu Bei has a strong sense of pride and superiority. The deceased Kuaishou may have misunderstood. Mu Bei looked down upon not only the Jinyiwei, but even the current emperor.

Wang Kai, the clerk of Wanping County, heard this and said happily: "Mr. Mu, you are imbued with the aura of a saint and have the character of a saint. Even the domestic slaves you have trained know the rules and etiquette. How can the descendants of the beggar emperor compare to you?"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"..."

The guests' voices of echo were endless. Unlike high-ranking officials and common people, the clerks who had been stagnant for hundreds of years did not have much awe for the emperor and could even make fun of Emperor Taizu Gao.

Anyway, I don't think about making progress, I have no selfishness, and therefore no fear.

This is selflessness and fearlessness.

Mu Bei, whose vanity was surging, lowered his hands. After the banquet was quiet again, he said, "Since the Jinyiwei and Dongchang do not know the rules and do not know the limits, we do not need to be timid for the sake of the emperor's face. How can those uneducated peasants and untouchables understand the national policy of measuring the land and distributing it equally to the people? Let the people below go to the towns and villages to tell the untouchables that the national policy is that the emperor wants to seize their land and starve them to death!"

The people are ignorant and can be fooled at will by those present. If they misinterpret the emperor's will, they can incite civil unrest.

Jinyiwei and Dongchang can kill the quick hands of the county government, can they also kill the unarmed civilians? Yes? And how many can they kill?

If they don't know the rules and kill people at will, then don't blame them for not cooperating with national policies.

Wang Kai and other Wanping clerks nodded and quickly asked their men to do it. The gentry and wealthy families also asked their servants to scare the common people. The scene of toasting and chatting in the hall returned to normal, and no one took Kuai Shou's death to heart.

Just outside the hall, the attendant of the clerk Wang Kai heard all the ridicule of the emperor and the Taizu Gaohuangdi, and the insults to the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang during the banquet. He found a chance and left the Mu Mansion.

……

Zhu Qi learned what had happened in the fields and in the Mu Mansion, and ordered the secret messenger to return to the Mu Mansion to continue to pay attention to the movements of the clerks and others in Wanping County. Then, he asked Qi Dazhu to personally lead people to rob and kill the slaves of each family who were inciting public opinion.

He himself returned to the capital at dusk and reported the matter personally to the emperor.

Ok Hee Palace.

Upon hearing that Emperor Taizu Gao was looked down upon by the people of Wanping County, Zhu Houcong became angry for a rare time.

These people take my bowl and smash my pot. They really don't want to live anymore.

Zhu Houcong held the gong and struck the gong heavily. The sound was no longer as clear and melodious as before, but heavy and heart-suffocating: "Search all the property!"

"Yes." Zhu Qi accepted the order, bowed and left the hall, turned around and went back to the Northern Pacification Office to mobilize people and rushed to Wanping County.

Inside the palace, Zhang Juzheng, who came to report the details of the trade and the transactions with the Eastern Tartars, heard and witnessed the whole process and said in a slow voice: "Your Majesty, the Wanping Mu family is the head of the Northern Wangxue School, and Mu Bei is the disciple of Mr. Yangming. The killing may cause panic among Wangxue people in the court and the country."

In the current court, Mr. Yangming Wang Shouren is undoubtedly an extremely important and even unavoidable figure.

People in ancient and modern times are called those who have achieved the three immortalities as "Three Immortalities". Those who have achieved these three immortalities are probably very few, not to mention in the Ming Dynasty, even if we look at the entire group of scholars in ancient China, who deserve this reputation.

Mr. Yangming's life was full of misfortunes. He experienced ups and downs in his official career and finally attained enlightenment in Longchang. He abandoned the traditional Confucian idea of ​​serving the emperor and practicing virtue, and instead sought breakthroughs in awakening the people and practicing virtue.

Different from traditional Confucianism, the advantage of Yangming's philosophy of mind lies in the conscience that can be understood by peddlers, ordinary people, and ignorant men and women.

This is undoubtedly more universal than Zhu Xi's theory that wants to limit the inheritance of the orthodox doctrine within the scholar-official group, and can better assume the functions of a sect or something similar to a sect.

Zhang Juzheng was Xu Jie's favorite student, and Xu Jie was a favorite student of Nie Bao, who was a member of the Right Wing of Wang's school: the Conscience Ready-made School, and Nie Bao was a favorite student of Wang Yangming.

These few proud moments made Zhang Juzheng more aware of the existence of the School of Mind. It was not a school in the traditional sense, but a sect similar to Taoism and Buddhism that took Mr. Yangming as its belief and excluded others.

This may not have been Mr. Yangming's original intention, but when he was alive, on the one hand, he persuaded his disciples to take the imperial examinations and enter officialdom to strengthen the political power of Yangming's philosophy of mind, and on the other hand, he also tried to expand the influence of Yangming's philosophy of mind through various means.

After Mr. Yangming's death, his disciples such as Nie Bao and Wang Ji firmly carried out the sage's orders and promoted "Wangxue" throughout the court.

To this day, half of the officials in the Ming Dynasty are disciples of Yangming's philosophy of mind.

Zhang Juzheng still remembers the lectures held in Lingji Palace in the 32nd and 33rd years of the Jiajing reign. The scene was grand and the number of people attending was large. The trend of Yangming's philosophy of mind spread throughout the country and the trend of lectures by the masters of the philosophy of mind reached a climax.

Moreover, what the imperial court could not accept the most was that the disciples of Yangming's philosophy of mind lacked the proper respect for imperial power and the imperial court.

It happened during the Jiajing period, and even happened to the emperor.

When His Majesty first ascended the throne, he was weak in the court and his throne was not stable. In order to consolidate his throne, he had to fight for control of the government with court officials headed by Yang Tinghe.

Thus, the "Great Ceremony Controversy" arose.

Your Majesty was undoubtedly in a weak position at the beginning of the Great Ceremony Debate.

The support from the followers of Yangming School of Mind at this time should have been transformed into huge political capital after the emperor won.

However, this “should” has not fully become a reality.

The emperor's perception of Mr. Yangming also changed subtly over time.

The influence of Yangming's Philosophy of Mind in the court and among the people grew rapidly and enormously without anyone noticing. To a certain extent, the threat posed by Yangming's Philosophy of Mind was greater than the threat posed to the imperial power by court officials such as Yang Tinghe.

In addition, the existence of Yangming's philosophy of mind advocated the dignity of teachers and the revival of teachers, making the importance of respecting teachers ranked before that of "kings and fathers".

This is also the real reason why Yangming's philosophy of mind once provided help to the emperor who was weak and had an unstable foundation during the Great Ceremony Debate, but was suppressed afterwards.

But the sapling has grown into a towering tree. Even if the emperor defines Yangming's philosophy of mind as pseudo-learning and cuts it off at the roots, the countless roots buried in the ground cannot be completely destroyed.

Zhang Juzheng's mentor, Xu Jie, was able to enter the cabinet and become the second prime minister, which is a representative example of the failure of suppressing Yangming's philosophy of mind.

Yangming's philosophy of mind has taken root in the imperial court, among the clerks, and among the gentry and wealthy families.

Then Mu Bei might not be that easy to kill.

"I have even implicated the royal capital, so why should I be afraid of a disciple of a saint?" Zhu Houcong laughed.

Zhao Zhigao was executed and his ten clans were exterminated, and even Wang Yangming's favorite disciple Wang Ji was given a plaque of "the first sinner". What would happen if he implicated others and killed Mu Bei?

"Your Majesty, there may be some disagreement. Zhao Zhigao committed the crime of treason and his ten clans should be exterminated. This is what should be done. Even if it involves the royal capital, the people of Yangming School of Mind will have nothing to say. But Mu Bei is just talking nonsense, and it involves land and interests. I am afraid that the people of Yangming School of Mind will not give in." Zhang Juzheng said tactfully.

Wang Ji was implicated and died, and the interests of Yangming's philosophy of mind were not involved.

As for Mu Bei, he was resisting the policy of "measurement of land and equal distribution of land to the people". He did it for his own benefit and for the benefit of the followers of Yangming School of Mind. The followers of Yangming School of Mind would never give up easily.

Throughout history, there is probably no school of thought that loves to lecture more than Yangming's School of Mind, especially Yangming's disciples, each of them is a master of lectures.

But you have to know one thing, giving lectures costs money. The venue, ceremonial equipment, food and drink, all of these cost money.

There is also the expense of inviting people to attend classes, which is even more expensive.

Don’t think that because every lecture hall of the masters of the School of Mind is packed, they are all true scholars who enjoy learning and are eager to follow in the footsteps of the saints.

The two lectures held in Lingji Palace in the 32nd and 33rd year of Jiajing were grand occasions, and more than half of the attendees were paid.

This is an era where travel costs a lot, and ordinary people are busy trying to make a living. How could so many people have the leisure to listen to others talk about what the "heart" is?

The money used for these lectures on Yangming's philosophy of mind was all provided by local gentry and wealthy families.

The imperial court is cutting off the roots of Yangming's philosophy of mind. How can those who follow Yangming's philosophy of mind be willing to submit?
"Then I will have the Jinyiwei go through every province, prefecture, and county. Even if there are 10,000 local clerks, gentry, and wealthy families, I will kill 10,000 of them. If there are 100,000, I will kill 100,000. If there are 1 million, I will kill 1 million!"

Zhu Houcong said in a cold tone, "I don't know how many Ming Dynasty officials I have killed, but I don't care if I kill half as many officials who are disciples of Yangming School of Mind!"

Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a monthly ticket! Important things should be said three times!
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(End of this chapter)