Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 259: Literary Inquisition, the Governor and Governor-General come to Beijing!
Cabinet, government hall.

The fire was high and it was another emergency meeting at night.

The chair in front of the big desk in the middle of the hall was still empty. Deputy Prime Minister Gao Gong was sitting on the upper chair on the left, Cabinet Minister Li Chunfang was sitting on the lower chair on the left, and Hu Zongxian was sitting on the lower chair on the right.

Zhang Juzheng, dressed in a bright red robe, had arrived at the cabinet at this time, but he remained in the room behind the lobby. His eyes slowly moved towards the imperial edict on the desk, lost in thought.

The literati of the country tried to rebel against the court by refusing to cooperate, which finally aroused the emperor's wrath.

All those who had achieved honors and titles were stripped of their titles, the writing system was officially simplified, and at the same time, a disaster was befallen.

The "anti-poems" that emerged in the two capitals and thirteen provinces were all written by literati who rebelled against the imperial court. These people had backbone, not to mention talent, but it was a pity that they did not know the overall situation, did not follow the trend, did not follow the people's feelings, and did not understand the laws of nature.

Previously, the emperor had not thought of killing all these literati who were unwilling to serve the court, so he let them roam freely in the woods and enjoy the moon and poetry.

But unexpectedly, the literati were not only ungrateful, but became even worse, criticizing current affairs and influencing national policies. It was a pity that there were only talents, but this had disturbed people's hearts, and the emperor was obviously not going to indulge them any longer.

I heard that the Jinyiwei had received an imperial decree to trace the source of "anti-poetry" and that anyone who wrote anti-poetry would be executed on the spot without interrogation if caught.

Anyone who spreads anti-Chinese poetry will be exiled 3,000 miles to Lingnan.

Convicted by words.

It should be a literary inquisition!
In the 41st year of the Jiajing reign, the first major literary inquisition had already begun.

Tonight is bound to be a sleepless night. The Jinyiwei and the secret police are everywhere. It is obvious that they have got clues about a group of anti-poems written, and they are killing and arresting people.

The Minister of Rites Hai Rui received an imperial order in front of the emperor, so as soon as he returned to the Ministry of Rites, he asked someone to fetch a list of all the people with honors in the Ming Dynasty, and then burned it. At this moment, the list is still burning.

Hai Rui organized the officials of the Ministry of Rites, conveyed the emperor's will, and divided them into two parts. One part was to simplify thousands of common characters in the shortest time possible, and the other part was to compile the history of China and the major events of all dynasties.

This is to dig up the grave of Wen Dao.

As the head of all civil and military officials in the country, Zhang Juzheng should have tried his best to prevent these things from happening, but he could do nothing.

Qiankun's autocratic rule bypassed the cabinet and issued orders directly to specific people.

Zhang Juzheng had a feeling that the cabinet of the Jiajing Dynasty had returned to the situation of the Yongle Dynasty. The cabinet elders had less and less power and became advisors.

The cabinet completely lost the power to go against the imperial edict and had to do things according to the imperial edict.

Zhang Juzheng fell into deep self-doubt. Ever since he became the chief minister of the cabinet, he had been working hard to expand the power of the prime minister and the strength of the civil service group. But why was it that the harder he worked, the smaller the power of the prime minister became, and the weaker the strength of the civil service group became?

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Juzheng still couldn't come up with a result. He sighed, then picked up the imperial edict and walked out.

As soon as Zhang Juzheng appeared from behind the screen in the lobby holding the imperial edict, Gao Gong and others stood up.

"Awaited."

As Zhang Juzheng spoke, he walked to the desk in the middle. He did not ask the ministers to sit down, nor did he sit down himself. He glanced at Gao, Hu, and Li, and moved his lips slightly, but no sound came out.

The power of the prime minister is already the weaker party in front of the power of the emperor, yet it has to be shared by several people.

Look at who are these people in the cabinet, the ones who are always eyeing the position of prime minister and waiting for Gao Gong to step down day and night.

Hu Zongxian, who was determined to break the control of the military from the court, was influenced by the wind. Li Chunfang, the old man of the licorice cabinet, was known for "promoting the emperor's virtue above, cooperating with his friends in the middle, and keeping the officials in check."

There is also a cabinet minister named Chen Yiqin who is not in the capital. That person, or rather that family, will turn against the people once their interests are touched upon and will not give face to anyone.

How can one gain great power as prime minister and challenge the power of the emperor by being with this group of "insects"?

Zhang Juzheng concluded that the cabinet was weak today, not because he, the cabinet chief, was incompetent, but because his teammates were holding him back.

Zhang Juzheng held up the imperial edict and said, "I'm sure you all know about the matter of literature and Taoism. I can't do anything about the emperor's will, but what I want to talk about is the case of forged memorials."

Having said this, Zhang Juzheng did not say anything else, but his meaning was very clear.

Previously, dozens of governors and governors-general in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, in order to protect the interests of the entire civil service group and their own interests, allowed forged memorials to circulate among the people and watched those with ulterior motives slander the emperor's reputation.

The emperor was furious and sent several imperial envoys to investigate, and asked the governors of each province to conduct their own investigations.

Although the ministers did not go to the place, they could guess what the governors and governors were thinking.

Either they deal with it perfunctorily or they regard it as an ordinary occurrence and cover up, conceal the truth and shirk responsibility from each other.

Before seeing the imperial edict digging up Wen Dao's grave, Zhang Juzheng actually did not take it seriously. His idea was simple: the emperor would not possibly punish all the governors and governors-general of the two capitals and thirteen provinces at the same time. He had the illusion that the law would not hold everyone accountable.

But now, things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and Zhang Juzheng, who is good at guessing the emperor's mind, cannot guarantee whether the emperor will take action against the top leaders of the entire civil service group.

Those provincial governors and provincial governors were high-ranking officials and close comrades-in-arms of the cabinet ministers.

For example, Zhao Zhenji, the governor-general of Southern Zhili, and Zhang Juzheng both studied under Xu Jie and were formal brothers.

Tan Lun, the governor of Sichuan, was a good friend of Zhang Juzheng when he was the teacher of Prince Yu.

There were also the Governor of Huguang, the Governor of Zhejiang, and the Governor of Henan, all of whom were familiar to Zhang Juzheng and had correspondence with him.

Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, including Chen Yiqin outside Beijing, even if these people did not have friends who were provincial governors before becoming cabinet ministers, they naturally had friends who were provincial governors after becoming cabinet ministers.

Regardless of whether they are cabinet elders or brothers or friends, these cabinet elders should remind the governors and provincial governors to stop standing idly by, as they will be in big trouble.

Gao Gong was also listening attentively when it came to serious matters. He was shocked and asked, "Prime Minister, is it that serious?"

The provincial governors finally relieved the pent-up anger in their hearts, but now they are asked to inhale the exhaled air again. Isn't this making things difficult for them?
Such a long time has passed and the person who forged the memorial has long been traced. Where can the governors and provincial governors find the main culprit?

"As for that." Zhang Juzheng nodded.

If His Majesty is not allowed to vent his anger, the cabinet, court officials, governors and provincial governors will be in trouble in the future.

Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang accepted the advice and took it to heart.

Regardless of whether the prime minister's guess was right or wrong, at this time, it would be no problem to give a few words of advice to those frontier officials. Even if he didn't want to investigate, he had to pretend to be out of it. He couldn't just watch the emperor's excitement like this. Gao Gong agreed silently.

"correct."

As the arrangements were being made, Hu Zongxian thought of something and called his colleagues to stop him, saying, "Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice Pan En has submitted a memorial stating that he is ill and has asked for leave from the cabinet."

The traitor forged a memorial in Paine's name and slandered the emperor's reputation. Although Paine did nothing wrong, he was narrow-minded and suffered from heart disease.

Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong and Li Chunfang were silent for a moment. Under the majesty of the emperor, even the important officials of the dynasty could not let it go and felt inexplicably sad.

……

Overnight.

Dozens of people were beheaded.

Hundreds were exiled.

The first real literary inquisition in the Ming Dynasty started in the capital and radiated to the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

Everyone knows that this is not the end, not even the beginning of the end.

Before Your Majesty, everyone said that Emperor Taizu Gao was cruel and tyrannical, and many cases were fabricated to slander him, including many literary inquisitions, but without exception, they were all false.

The so-called literary inquisition case of Emperor Taizu Gao, for example, Zhan Xiyuan, who proposed a plaque for the Imperial College, was "resurrected" the second year after he was beheaded for the literary inquisition, and wrote the inscription for the Imperial Stele Pavilion of Emperor Taizu Gao.

Others, such as Hanlin editor Gao Qi, who was said to have died for writing poetry, were actually implicated in a crime; and Lu Xiong, who was overworked to death for recording the family affairs of prisoners, but the case was forced into a literary inquisition.

The monk Dexiang was beheaded because of his poetry, but in fact this monk lived until the Yongle period.

The monk Lai Fu was killed because of his use of words. In fact, it was because he conspired with Hu Weiyong and died, which had nothing to do with the literary inquisition.

There are also Zhang Shangli and Chen Yanghao, two people who have no record in the national history, but were fabricated as evidence of Emperor Taizu Gao's literary inquisition.

Even the unofficial history says that Emperor Taizu Gao was very averse to words like "bald" and "bald". He even disliked the word "monk". He even hated the word "sheng" which had a similar pronunciation to "monk".

He once participated in the Red Turban Army, so he didn't like people calling him "thief" or "bandit". He even hated the word "ze" which has a similar pronunciation to "thief".

However, it is said in "Xian Zhong Jin Gu Lu" that because Xu Yikui, a professor in Hangzhou, wrote the words "光" and "则" in his congratulatory letter, Emperor Taizu Gao believed that it was a satire on him for having been a monk and a "thief", so he had Xu Yikui executed.

In fact, Xu Yikui was "resurrected" in the second year after he was "killed". He even wrote an epitaph for someone and lived peacefully until he was over 80 years old. He died in the second year of Jianwen, after the death of Emperor Taizu Gao.

In fact, in the "Ming Dynasty Imperial Tomb Stele", Emperor Taizu Gao himself did not hide the fact that he had become a monk and participated in the uprising. Instead, he frankly confessed this history that seemed unbearable in the eyes of the literati.

From this we can see that it is impossible for Emperor Taizu Gao to be ashamed of his past as a monk and a member of the Red Turban Army.

After that, two more Ming Dynasty emperors were slandered for launching literary inquisitions. One was Emperor Chengzu Wen, who killed Fang Xiaoru, and the other was Emperor Zhengde, who dismissed Han Bangqi.

There is no need to say much about Fang Xiaoru. The annihilation of all ten clans is just a rumor. Just talking about Fang Xiaoru's identity, he was an enemy minister who would not surrender.

When Emperor Chengzu ascended the throne after the Jingnan Rebellion, Fang Xiaoru, as a minister of Emperor Jianwen, was unwilling to surrender and cursed Emperor Chengzu. Even though Emperor Chengzu took pity on his talent and was willing to give him a chance to live, Fang Xiaoru still chose to commit suicide.

Fang Xiaoru's death was not so-called persecution, but was justified.

Just like Cao Cao killing Chen Gong in the Three Kingdoms period, even though they had thousands of friendships in the past, they could not escape the word "seeking death".

During the Zhengde period, Han Bangqi, a deputy governor of Zhejiang, wrote a song to mourn the eunuchs who plundered Fuyang tea and fish and harmed the local people. The local eunuch Wang Tang believed that he had slandered the emperor and imprisoned him and demoted him to a commoner. The literati of the time criticized him as a literary inquisition.

However, at that time, Liu Jin, the "emperor-maker", was in power and deceived the emperor. The Zhengde Emperor had never even heard of Han Bangqi's name. All his misfortunes were caused by Liu Jin and Wang Tang.

Moreover, Liu Jin and Wang Tang did not kill anyone. Han Bangqi was only dismissed from office, stripped of his honors, and demoted to a commoner. When the emperor first ascended the throne, he reinstated Han Bangqi as the councilor of Shanxi and promoted him to a higher position.

Afterwards, Han Bangqi felt that he was old and asked for retirement many times, but the emperor repeatedly retained him and entrusted him with important tasks, and he was finally promoted to the post of Minister of War in Nanjing.

It was not until the 34th year of the Jiajing reign that a major earthquake occurred in Guanzhong, causing the collapse of houses. Han Bangqi, who was nearly 80 years old, was hit by a fallen beam and died.

Relying on word of mouth and their ability to spread rumors, the literati falsely accused Emperor Zhengde of inciting a literary inquisition.

It can be said that the first ten emperors of the Ming Dynasty never launched a literary inquisition. Even in the first forty years of the Jiajing reign, the emperor did not launch a literary inquisition.

In a memorial forged in the name of the Minister of Works Paine, there was one in which the traitor accused the current emperor of persecuting scholars and launching a literary inquisition.

It is impossible to verify whether this was written by the treacherous people in order to further defame the emperor's reputation or to leave the impression to future generations that the current emperor is like Emperor Taizu Gao, who was a great literary inquisitionist.

The current emperor simply followed the wishes of the traitors and launched a literary inquisition in the Ming Dynasty. Those who wrote anti-government poems and talked about forging memorials should be killed or arrested.

Under the iron-blooded killing, the government and the public were silent, and the people did not dare to talk about it.

As a result, no one would say that the current emperor was an emperor who promoted literary inquisition.

At the reminder of the ministers, the governors and provincial governors finally took action. For a time, reports of the provinces discovering the forged manuscripts were sent to the capital like snowflakes.

Faced with such a situation, the cabinet elders were speechless. Such evil words spread to all provinces and even reached the chieftains. The fact that they were spread so widely proved that the previous governors of the provinces were really incompetent.

Under the Thunder Operation, many cases have been uncovered and many criminals have been arrested in various provinces, with Huguang and Jiangxi being the worst offenders. More than 280 people have been arrested in Sichuan alone.

Under such circumstances, secret investigations are no longer possible, and some provinces have to switch from secret investigations to public investigations.

Just when the cabinet thought that the governors-general of various provinces would listen to the emperor and give him a satisfactory explanation, they almost had a heart attack after seeing the reports submitted by the Jinyiwei, the Eastern Depot, the Three Judicial Departments and the governors-general of various provinces.

After much investigation, the captured suspects accused each other or pushed the blame onto deceased people. Some of them confessed under torture, but cried out for innocence again when the punishment was lenient. Not only did the case make no progress, it became more and more chaotic. The main culprit could not be caught, and there was no one to hold accountable.

The news spread more and more widely and became more and more bizarre. Even the envoys from various countries who had arrived in the capital to submit their credentials and prepare to watch the ceremony heard about it.

Just before the northern expeditionary army returned to Beijing in triumph, an imperial decree was issued to stop the investigation of all forgers of memorials and to order all provincial governors and provincial governors to come to Beijing...

(End of this chapter)