"Stop Mencius"
One day in the fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting in a convenient hall reading Mencius.
Like all emperors, Zhu Yuanzhang advocated the Confucian and Mencius, but to be honest, due to the complicated military and political affairs, he didn't systematically study the Analects of Confucius and Mencius. Now that the world is settled, he is also interested in reading the original code. I don't know if I don't read it. Reading and reading, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyebrows are getting tighter and tighter. Finally, I threw the book down and said loudly, "Why not leave it today?" That means, if the old man lives to this day, will he still live?
It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang read: "The people are more important, the country is second, and the monarch is lighter." In other words, compared with the people and the country, the monarch is the least important. "You see me as a brother, then I see you as a center; If you treat me like a dog or a horse, then I treat you like a Chinese; If you treat me like dirt, then I treat you like a coward. " That is to say, the monarch is polite to the minister, and the minister also respects the monarch. If the monarch regards the minister as dirt, the minister also regards the monarch as nothing.
Zhu Yuanzhang flew into a rage, immediately summoned the civil servants and announced that he would "remove Mencius from the Confucius Temple", withdraw Mencius' memorial tablet from the Confucius Temple, and disqualify him from eating cold pork with Confucius in the Confucius Temple. The way of Confucius and Mencius is the foundation of China's founding, and this life has raised an uproar. This move is as shocking as expelling Jesus from the church in a Christian country. Ministers have played against it. Zhu Yuanzhang announced that I had made up my mind, and no one was allowed to say it again, otherwise I would be executed for "irreverence".
everyone immediately quieted down, and everyone knew Zhu Yuanzhang's prowess. But Confucius and Mencius have been worshipped in China for thousands of years. After all, there will be a few die-hard fans standing. Qian Tang, the minister of punishments, insisted on entering the palace to plead for Mencius.
when Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Qian Tang had come for this matter, he ordered Jin Wu's guards to shoot him alive in front of the temple. Qian Tang was shot with two arrows on each shoulder and arm, and his blood was flowing, but he was still brave and unyielding and rushed in. Zhu Yuanzhang admired him as a man and asked him to come in and talk. Qian Tang knelt in front of the emperor, complaining that Chen Mencius could not be abolished, saying that Mencius had been revered by the world for thousands of years. Once abolished, not only China would be shocked, but Siyi would also be amazed. Would you doubt that China was still the heavenly kingdom that revered the way of saints?
Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was the same. Qian Tang gave his life to break through the customs, and also let him see the weight of Mencius in the minds of scholars. So he ordered Qian Tang to be sent to the imperial hospital for good treatment, and soon Mencius was entitled to enjoy the Confucius Temple.
"Delete Mencius"
The sharing was restored, but Zhu Yuanzhang still felt that he could not allow a large number of toxins in Mencius to be passed down.
After much deliberation, I came up with a good idea, that is, I ordered my lieutenants to "delete Meng" and delete all the "reactionary words" that I didn't like. * * * Cut off 85 original articles of Mencius, leaving only more than 1 articles, and compiled a book "Mencius Festival", which specifically stipulated that the imperial examination should not be based on the deleted articles.
So, what's in the 85 abridged articles that Zhu Yuanzhang hates so much?
The first category is, of course, those words that advocate "the people are more valuable than the monarch" and "ministers can not respect the emperor". Although this kind of abridgement is ridiculous, it is understandable from the psychology of autocratic emperors.
but there are some abridgements, which are not easy to understand. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang could not tolerate the famous saying that "those who have permanent property have perseverance, and those who have no permanent property have no perseverance", and deleted it together with the words "five acres of house".
Many other provisions that advocated that the emperor must implement "benevolent government" were actually deleted. For example, this sentence: "Therefore, benevolent people should be in high positions. Being unkind and in a high position is to spread its evil to the public. "
There is another kind of strangeness, that is, Mencius' criticism of Shang Zhouwang has also been deleted. For example:
If you lose your ambition, you will lose your people. He who loses his people loses his heart. There is a saying in the world: if you get your people, you will get the world; There is a way to win the people: win their hearts and win the people; There is a way to get the heart: gather what you want with it, and don't do evil, and you will also. When people return to benevolence, the water will go down and the beast will go away.
ancient people enjoyed themselves with the people, so they could enjoy themselves. Tang Shi said, "Time will kill you, and your daughter (you) will die together." People want to die with them, although there are birds and animals in the pool, how can they enjoy themselves?
why is this?
Song Yuan
In fact, before deleting Meng, Zhu Yuanzhang did some things that his liegeman didn't understand very well.
For example, when the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown, the Han people in the Central Plains were elated and proud, and strongly demanded that Zhu Yuanzhang thoroughly liquidate the sins of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty. But Zhu Yuanzhang did not do so. After Yuan Shundi fled to the north in a panic, the Ming army captured Li Ba La bought by the Prince. Ministers demanded that a ceremony of "offering prisoners" be held in Nanjing to celebrate the victory. Zhu Yuanzhang refused to agree, on the grounds that it was an insult to the former prince. He said: "Although there is a gift of offering prisoners in ancient times, it is unbearable to add it." When he marched into the metropolis, he asked the army not to endanger the royal family and nobles of the Yuan Dynasty: "The kinship of the Yuan Dynasty is preserved by salt." All the captured nobles of the Yuan Dynasty were also respected and given high titles, so that the Han people could continue to salute them. Even after the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty, ministers presented the chapter of "Jiezou" one after another, criticizing the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty for being heartless, and praising the heroic power of Emperor Hongwu, which also made Zhu Yuanzhang very dissatisfied, because there were words in the memorial that belittled the monarch of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang said to the Prime Minister, "China, the Lord of the Yuan Dynasty, has been born and raised by his parents for a hundred years, so why do you make superficial remarks about it?" Change it urgently. "
For the Han people in the Central Plains, overthrowing the rule of the Mongols is to clear the clouds and see the sky again. Most Han people do not recognize the orthodox position of the rule of the Mongols. However, Zhu Yuanzhang admitted that Mongolian rule was "orthodox" and tried his best to defend the orthodoxy of the Yuan Dynasty from all angles. In his enthronement to astronomy, he said, "I am the only king of China people, and I ended up in Song Yun. The emperor ordered a real person to live in the desert and enter China as the master of the world. His father, son and grandson have been here for more than a hundred years, and today's luck is over. " In other words, the rule of the Yuan Dynasty was ordered by heaven, aboveboard and natural. It is worth noting that he not only regarded the decades after the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty as orthodoxy, but also regarded the ten years when Yuan and Song coexisted as orthodoxy of Yuan Dynasty.
Not only did he acknowledge the legitimacy of the Yuan Dynasty from the perspective of heaven, but Zhu Yuanzhang also expressed his gratitude for the rule of the Yuan Dynasty from the perspective of personal feelings: "Although Yuan moved to China, his teeth were numerous within a hundred years, and his family provided enough for others, my grandfather also enjoyed his peace in advance." This seems even more difficult to understand. Under the rule of Dayuan Empire, his father, Zhu Wusi, migrated everywhere and finally died of hunger, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not have a good day. Arguably, he should have a deep hatred for Dayuan. How can he sing praises and be grateful to tears?
Destiny
Criticizing Mencius and praising the Mongols run through the same intention: to make the Daming regime last forever.
When Zhu Yuanzhang first ascended the throne, he was a little unsure: China people always attach importance to family status and pay attention to birth. Since ancient times, have beggars been the sons of heaven? He thinks that although many people are afraid of his sword, they are quite contemptuous of him.
therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang should vigorously advocate the theory of "destiny", that is, "destiny is impermanent, and those with virtue live in it". God's mind is hard to guess, and the only evidence to prove it is who finally won the world. Zhu Yuanzhang's "destiny view" is actually very simple, that is, success or failure. As long as a person can beat the world, it proves that he has a destiny, regardless of his origin or means. There are so many rich people, scholars and people with roots in the world. None of them became emperor, but he became a beggar. Doesn't this mean that he has the help of "destiny"? In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang had to admit that Mongolian rule was in line with destiny. Because they once owned the world.
He said in "Yu Qi Lu He Luo Yan Ji Qin Jin Min Ren": "Since ancient times, emperors ruled the world, China lived in the house to control Yi Di, and Yi Di lived outside to serve China. It is unheard of that Yi Di lived in China to rule the world. Since Song Zuoqing moved, Di Bei of Yuan Dynasty entered China, and all over the world failed to submit. This manpower is really a gift. "
Zhu Yuanzhang must regard the Yuan Dynasty as orthodox, because this is the will of heaven. Therefore, he admitted that the Yuan Dynasty was directly ordered by heaven and succeeded the orthodoxy of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. "Correcting one's name and fixing one's system originated from san huang, followed by the Five Emperors, and san huang said that the two Han Dynasties called the Tang and Song Dynasties Yuan, and was ordered to take the place of Xing, or Zen or succession, and compared with merit, the virtues are equal."
Uprising
The theory of kindness is in line with the concept of destiny.
when he was about to ascend to the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang encountered a theoretical problem: how to treat the peasant uprising?
are you sure about the peasant uprising? It seems certain, because he and his followers are insurgents.
but wait a minute. If you are sure that the uprising is innocent, then what should others do to follow his example and oppose him? In fact, before the new dynasty was formally established, he was already busy suppressing peasant uprisings in his base areas.
when overthrowing the old dynasty, he can of course shout that rebellion is justified and uprising is innocent. However, as the ruler of the new dynasty, he must make the people realize that rebellion is not allowed, let alone uprising. This corner is not getting better. Therefore, he should vigorously create the "Zhu's theory of kindness."
before Zhu Yuanzhang, people in China thought that "those who have virtue have destiny", while those who have no virtue lose their destiny. If there is no way in the world, the people can rise up and overthrow it. Zhu Yuanzhang's "Zhu's theory of kindness" is: because the dynasty you are in is kind to you, you should not take the lead in betraying it, no matter whether it has a way or not.
Zhu Yuanzhang said that when a person has a destiny, he gains the ownership of the world from heaven, and everyone else is a "stranger".
therefore, the founding emperor had two great benefits to the people all over the world: first, he created peace, so that people all over the world would stop killing each other and save their lives; Second, since all the land in the world belongs to the emperor's family, all the food is grown on the land of the emperor's family. In this sense, everyone in the world is supported by the emperor alone, and everyone should be grateful to the emperor.
Don't think this is a joke. This is the real idea of the rulers of China, but Zhu Yuanzhang expressed it most thoroughly.
Based on this theory, Zhu Yuanzhang believes that although the emperors of Yuan Dynasty ruled with low abilities, they also established a set of laws and appointed several officials, which is better than chaos in the world. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang said: "The merits of Yuan ancestors lie in people." In his eulogy to Yuan Shizu, he even praised the rule of the Yuan Dynasty: "Only God came to China from the new land in the past, and the prosperity of public security and the numerous achievements of childbirth were won by the people." Although Zhu Yuanzhang was born at a bad time, he didn't catch up with the good ruling order of the Yuan Dynasty, and he didn't have enough to eat and wear for decades, but after all, he was eaten by the Mongolian emperor and drunk by the great emperor. How can he be ungrateful and not admit it? What's more, his grandfather and father, after all, had a full meal in the Yuan Dynasty: "If the parents were born in the early Yuan Dynasty when the world was decided, the laws were strict at that time, making them stupid and afraid of Wei Huaide, strong and not bullying the weak, and the people were not violent and widowed, then the father, son, husband and wife would live in peace and benefit greatly!" "I am a peasant, and I am happy to live in a world of yuan!"