My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 14: "A Memorial on Three Matters in National History"

When Lu Shude was an official in the capital, he always lived in the home of his elder brother Lu Shusheng.

Lu Shusheng ranked first in the imperial examination in the 20th year of Jiajing's reign. Now he is promoted to the right vice-minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and is considered to be one of the important officials in the capital.

Although Lu Shude and Lu Shusheng are brothers, they are thirteen years apart in age. When Lu Shude was a child, he studied under the guidance of his elder brother Lu Shusheng. So although they are brothers, they are more like teacher and student.

Lu Shude respected his brother very much, and after becoming an official, he obeyed his brother's teachings.

But today, when Lu Shude returned home, he found Lu Shusheng packing his luggage.

"Brother, what are you doing?"

When Lu Shusheng saw his brother and smelled the alcohol on him, he started to scold him:

"As a censor, you're drunk all day long. How can you set an example for the world? And how can you give the emperor a proper warning?"

Lu Shude knew that his brother was going to scold him again, so he quickly asked:
"Brother, what are you doing?"

Lu Shusheng said:
"Alas, I have already resigned from my post to His Majesty and will be returning home today."

"what?"

Lu Shude looked at his brother and asked quickly:

"Both our parents have passed away, why does my brother want to return home now?"

Lu Shusheng is sixty years old this year, which is a standard age for ministers in the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty does not have a clear retirement age.

Lord Xu was six years older than Lu Shusheng, but he still served as the chief minister of the cabinet. Yan Song even held the position of Lord Minister until he was 82 years old before he fell.

Lu Shusheng said:
"My brother is in poor health, so I ask Your Majesty to excuse me and return home to recuperate."

After saying this, Lu Shusheng looked at his brother and said:

"There are vacancies in six departments in Nanjing recently. Do you want to go?"

Lu Shude now understood that his brother was not returning home to recuperate, but had seen that there was going to be a storm in the court and was looking for an excuse to escape from the capital.

I even wanted to run with him.

Lu Shude didn't understand why his brother was so nervous. Was it because of the fight between Xu Jie and Gao Gong?
Even if it is a fight between ministers, it doesn't mean that they have to return home, right?
Moreover, among the four people in the current cabinet, Zhang Juzheng is Xu Jie's disciple, and although Chen Yiqin does not take sides, he also has old grudges with Gao Gong.

Xu Jie's disciples and former officials were all over the court, how could they lose when three against one?
In Lu Shude's opinion, Gao Gong was only able to gain a foothold in the cabinet because of the emperor's favor. With Xu Ge Lao's skills, he would soon be able to drive him back to his hometown again.

His brother was the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, a backbone member of the Qingliu group stationed in the Ministry to hold Gao Gong in check. How could he just give up and return home?
Brother, if you don’t want to make progress, I still need to make progress!

Seeing his brother's expression, Lu Shusheng understood his brother's thoughts. He sighed and said:
"Since you are reluctant to leave the splendor and wealth of the capital, this house will be left to you."

After saying this, Lu Shusheng was too lazy to persuade him anymore and directly ordered the housekeeper to pack his bags quickly and leave Beijing as soon as the city gate opened tomorrow morning.
-
The next day, Lu Shude came to the Sixth Department Corridor in a daze. His colleagues from the previous day's gathering came up to him and said:
"Brother Lu, have you finished writing your memorial?"

Lu Shude then remembered that they had agreed to impeach Su Ze together yesterday. He quickly picked up the blank petition on the table and said:
"My brother resigned from his post and left Beijing. I helped him pack his luggage yesterday. I'm writing this now. I'm writing this now."

The status of Kedao officials in the Ming Dynasty's bureaucratic system was also very special.

Adhering to Taizu's idea of ​​"using the small to control the big", although the officials of the Kedao Department did not hold high positions, they had high status and had enormous power to impeach all officials.

This is also reflected in the office location of the Six Departments. The public housing of the Six Departments is a long corridor-shaped house, commonly known as the "Six Departments Corridor". Like the Cabinet and the Hanlin Academy, the Six Departments Corridor is also located in the imperial palace.

Therefore, the Six Departments’ Secretaries had the opportunity to meet with important cabinet ministers and even the emperor, and they could also get the information about the emperor and the cabinet at the first time. At this time, an official rushed into the Six Departments Corridor and said to everyone:

"Oh no! Su Ze is on the third shovel!"

When Lu Shude heard Su Ze's name, his heart skipped a beat. He had been gritting his teeth at this name these days.

But soon, Lu Shude became curious about Su Ze's third secret.

Su Ze, who just passed the imperial examination this year, submitted two memorials in total, both of which are famous all over the world!
You should know that many censors have never been able to write a memorial that can influence the court in their entire lives.

The last person whose memorial became known to the world was Hai Rui, who submitted a memorial on public security to the previous emperor.

The official took the copy and started reading in the Six Departments Corridor.

"A Memorial on Three Matters in National History"?
Is this a memorial about compiling history?
What kind of waves could such a memorial cause?
Lu Shude didn't understand. He was not an expert in history. In fact, matters like national history had nothing to do with ordinary officials.

But after listening to his colleague read Su Ze's memorial, Lu Shude's head buzzed.

How dare he!
It turned out that Su Ze's third memorial caused a violent shock as soon as it was sent to the cabinet!
When the cabinet chief minister Xu Jie saw the memorial, he almost fainted from anger, and Zhang Juzheng also turned pale after reading it.

Chen Yiqin's hands were shaking, and he began to curse Su Ze's ancestors for eighteen generations in his heart.

Only Gao Gong pretended to be shocked, but he could not hide the smile on his face. He then ordered someone to send him to the palace immediately for the emperor's judgment.

After seeing Su Ze's memorial, Emperor Longqing was also troubled, so he followed Gao Gong's draft opinion and sent Su Ze's memorial to various ministries for public discussion.

In his "Memorial on Three Matters Concerning National History", Su Ze mainly discussed three issues.

First, when compiling the national history, how should we characterize the problems of Emperor Jianwen, and should we include a chronicle in it?

Second, how should the problems of Emperor Jingtai be characterized? Should they be included in the chronicles?

The last one is the issue that the ministers are attacking now. How to characterize the problem of Emperor Ruizong, the father of Jiajing, and whether it should be included in the annals.

Compared with the third one, the first two are heavyweight issues, the kind that can directly blow up the cabinet and the Ministry of Rites!

When Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di launched the Northern Expedition, he did so under the banner of purging the court of corrupt officials, and at the beginning he still recognized Emperor Jianwen.

However, in his later years, he abolished the reign title of Emperor Jianwen, and even stopped using the reign title of Jianwen. He simply called the fourth year of Jianwen the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu.

You should know that Zhu Yuanzhang died in the 31st year of Hongwu. No educated person can accept the statement that it was the 35th year of Hongwu.

The problem of Emperor Jingtai was equally thorny. After Ming Baozong regained the throne, he suppressed Emperor Jingtai in many ways.

Emperor Jingtai was posthumously named "King of Yingli", and his Veritable Records were mixed in with those of Emperor Mingbaozong.

Compared with these two heavyweight issues, the issue of Jiajing's biological father is not a big problem. Anyway, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang posthumously conferred the title of emperor on his father Zhu Shizhen and compiled a record.

So this is Su Ze’s back-up plan?

Lu Shude was trembling all over. He only heard the official who had just read the memorial say:

"Then Su Ze suggested that officials from the Ministry of Rites, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial Academy should all submit memorials to discuss these three matters, and His Majesty has approved the memorial."

Lu Shude sat down on the stool. He already regretted why he didn't listen to his brother and transfer to Nanjing Section 6.

(End of this chapter)