"Officials in the early Western Han Dynasty generally consisted of two parts: one part was legalist bureaucrats and their children, which could be called literati; The other is the group of intellectuals who study Confucian classics and enter the official career, which can be called Confucian scholars. " Hao Erxu, a doctor of history at Pingdingshan University, said in an interview, "Most of the former are not well educated and have not received systematic study of the Six Classics, but they are proficient in political conventions, legal affairs and technical business. Their administration adopted the pragmatism theory of Legalists, directly adhered to the supreme will, and severely punished thieves and all forces that were not conducive to the rule of imperial power. Later people called them' cruel officials'. The latter usually comes from ordinary people, knows well the sufferings of the people at the bottom of society, and believes in ethics such as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust. They believe that the essence of governing the country lies in being kind to the people, but they can't handle government affairs and can't adapt to the rules of officialdom. Their management resolutely follows Confucianism, develops production, practices enlightenment, and is committed to social stability and good manners. Later generations called them' officials'. Zhang Tang was a famous generation of cruel officials in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. "
Zhang Tang, who was born in the middle of Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty, was a typical legalist bureaucrat. There is a folk proverb in China, "At the age of three, you look down on the small, and at the age of five, you look down on the big". Sima Qian recorded such a small incident in Zhang Tang's childhood in Historical Records and Biography of Corrupt Officials.
"The father is Chang 'an, and the soup is the son. Also, the mouse stole meat, and my father was angry and made soup. The soup is dug and smoked to get rat meat, and the rat is plundered and treated, and the book is sent.
Bow in the newspaper, take the mouse and meat away and take them to prison. When my father saw it, he took it for an old jailer. He was so scared that he put the book in prison. "
"The meaning of this passage is: Zhang's father lost his temper because the mouse stole meat. He beat Zhang Tang with bamboo boards and thorns and physically punished his son. " Hao erxu explained: "Whipping is one of the common formal punishments in ancient China. Xiao Zhangtang was wronged and dug three feet to catch the stolen mouse. Instead of killing it, he set up a court in earnest, disseminated documents, tortured and convicted, and finally read the verdict, executed the mouse and dismembered it. Whipping is one of the cruel weekly punishments in ancient times, which is also called' separation of five horses' in modern times. "
My father, who has been in public office for many years, was "shocked" by this scene. Since then, he discovered Zhang Tang's talent and asked his assistant to write judicial documents. There are not many documents about the litigation trial system in Han Dynasty, which are mainly described in Biography of the Cool Officials and Zhang Tang's Trial of Rats. Through the analysis of the above events, we can see that the influence of family environment, Zhang Tang's own interests and talents, and his father's professional training all make him very suitable for the post of "knife and pen official" and engage in judicial work, which has a great relationship with his later ranking in the three public schools and his becoming an ancient scholar. The cruel and cold-blooded side of Zhang Tang's childhood character has already begun to appear, with a strong tendency to violence, and then it became more and more fierce, until he became a generation of cruel officials, "making the world look askance", but at the same time it also laid the groundwork for the tragic ending of his life.
Second, the apprentice ranks three.
"After Zhang's father died, Zhang Tang was an official in Chang 'an for many years. Hao erxu said: "His political rise was first introduced to the North Korean nobility because he helped Xing Xing Hou Tiansheng and worked under the famous cruel official Ning Cheng at that time. Then he climbed to Ueda's younger brother, Prime Minister Tian Fen, and was recommended to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and was promoted to Imperial History. "Zhang Tang's emergence in official career began with the witchcraft case of Queen Chen in BC 135. Empress Chen competed for favor and called a witch to cast spells in the harem. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered a thorough investigation of the matter. Zhang Tang took the opportunity to play a cruel official and snare the innocent. There are thousands of people involved. Then Queen Chen was abolished. Zhang Tang was promoted to be a loyal doctor because of his meritorious service in handling cases. Since then, he has been appreciated by Emperor Wu and has been promoted all the way.
After Dr. Taizhong took office, Zhang Tang cooperated with the brutal official Zhao Yu and had a good personal relationship. Zhao Yu is the protagonist of the idiom "Go your own way". According to the actual needs of Emperor Wu's politics, the two men jointly formulated and revised various national laws and regulations. Its main actions are: to restore the harsh laws such as the law of sharing seats, clan punishment and libel, which were abolished in the early Han Dynasty; Formulate the law of knowing the past, that is, officials must report the case when they know it, and sentenced criminals must strictly enforce it, and local unrest must be severely suppressed, otherwise it will be treated as a felony; Twenty-seven compilations of Gong Yue laws (lost today). Guard system is an important part of Sixty Articles of Han Law.
Points. One of the same characteristics of its laws and regulations is to make the laws strict and meticulous, especially for the officials in office. This reversed the trend of lenient legislation since the prosperity of the literary field, and the development of China's law was harsh and rigorous.
At this time, in order to strengthen the feudal unification, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty no longer respected Confucianism, but instead respected Dong Zhongshu's neo-Confucianism. Zhang Tang is just speculating. He wrote a letter requesting the appointment of Dr. Ru as Tingweishi to assist him in handling the case. At the same time, on behalf of the emperor and court officials, he consulted Dong Zhongshu, who had retired from his hometown, and took his opinions as an important trial basis. Since then, prison officials have judged cases according to the will of the imperial court, with the intention of the ancients, and said that they must be "rams" in the Six Classics, which is called "Spring and Autumn Prison" in history, which not only promoted the process of canonization of legal Confucianism, but also opened the precedent of Confucian classics in Han Dynasty.
In BC 123, Liu An, king of Huainan, and Liu Ci, king of Hengshan rebelled and died. Tingwei Zhang Tang presided over this major political case, trying to figure out Liang Wudi's mind, and took the opportunity to eradicate the feud. "Huainan, Hengshan each prison, headed by Hou, two thousand stone, hero, etc. , killing tens of thousands of people. " The following year, that is, the second year of Yuan Di's enthronement ceremony, Zhang Tang became an official and became a knight, and began the most brilliant seven-year career in his life.
Third, to hit a person when he is down.
"The primary reason for Zhang Tang's sudden emergence is that before his success, he was modest, made friends and made a wide network of contacts, which laid a solid class foundation." Hao Erxu said, "Zhang Tang is treacherous. Even if you are not satisfied with your heart, you should do enough work on the surface, create an atmosphere, and express admiration and respect for rich and powerful senior officials. Although he had many problems as an official, he was praised by powerful people and gained a good reputation. Secondly, and most importantly, Zhang Tang won the trust of the emperor. " Zhang Tang's words and deeds, from the perspective of Emperor Wu, are obedient, absolutely loyal, without any selfishness. Emperor Wu naturally thinks that he is a rare talent and gives him power. In fact, it is "a person who wants to commit a crime ideologically and is deeply troubled by the history of supervision; In other words, those who want to explain what they want, and those who are indifferent to prison history ... prison ministers are responsible for themselves. "That is to say, Zhang Tang's case, most of them are met with the rejection of Emperor Wu, and his punishment will be aggravated when he falls; If Emperor Wu likes it, he will find an excuse to be merciful outside the law; If Emperor Wu ignores it and is estranged from himself, he will be merciless for the first time, take crowding out the enemy as his political achievements, and expand his desires to the maximum extent under the guise of safeguarding imperial power. Although "Wen Zhi Fa, Shang Cai Cha, often interprets the words of the Tang Dynasty", the emperor ruled nominally, but the final decision-making power was completely guided by Zhang Tang's personal will.
Zhang Tang was ranked after the Three Fairs. He relied on the emperor's favor and took many extra positions. His power far exceeded that of the prime minister, so he decided everything in the world. The long-term large-scale war between Han and Hungary led to the emptiness of the state treasury and the poverty of the people. In order to eliminate the financial crisis, Liang Wudi put Zhang Tang in charge of economic reform, planned the state to compete with the people for profits, made platinum currency and five baht, and monopolized salt and iron materials.
Selling bills, posting wanted notices everywhere, severely punishing powerful people, oppressing weak civilians with cool methods, causing inflation and unrest throughout the country.
At this time, with the acquiescence of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Tang personally created one of the most serious unjust prison cases in the history of ancient cultural thought and legal system in China-the case of bending prison. Yan Yi, a farmer who is famous for his honesty, offended Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty by opposing Zhang Tang's economic bill of replacing 400,000 yuan with a piece of white deerskin. Zhang Tang, who presided over the political reform plan and was good at observing political trends, had a feud with Yan Yi, so he sued Yan Yi for "condescending, saying nothing, and saying dead words" (saying nothing, slandering in his heart, and should be sentenced to death) on the pretext of "not responding slightly" when his subordinates criticized state affairs. With the consent of Emperor Wu, Yan Yi was executed. The condescending case can be said to be a strange injustice through the ages, but it is purely based on the subjective judgment of political prisoners. The direct consequence is that the autocratic power of imperial power is monstrous, and everyone in the government and people is frightened. "Naturally, there is a legal proportion of servility, and most officials flatter others", and servility is publicly accused of analogy, and ministers have to flatter themselves to save their lives. As for the reform plan, when you go into politics and don't listen to the consequences, the damage is too wide, which will inevitably cause serious harm to society. "Since the advent of platinum and five baht, hundreds of thousands of people have died because of stolen currency. There are many offenders, and the government cannot do its best to punish them. " As a result, people's grievances are boiling, and complaints abound. As for Shu Ren, salty means soup. At this point, the controllable economic crisis has been artificially deteriorated into a serious political and social crisis, and Zhang Tang's apprentice is coming to an end.
Fourth, forced to commit suicide under siege.
"The most fatal reason for Zhang Tang's failure lies in his dual personality. He was too indifferent to the law, created too many grievances and was finally abandoned by Emperor Wu. " Hao erxu analyzed.
In 1 15 BC, in the second year of Ding Yuan, salt and iron were monopolized by the central government, which greatly harmed the interests of the vassal States with the same surname. In addition to previous personal grievances, Wang Zhaoliu and Peng Zu took the lead in accusing Zhang Tang and his subordinate Lu Qiaoju of conspiring to harm the country. Lu Qiaoju, Zhang Tang's confidant, deliberately fabricated unjust cases to frame Zhang Tang's feud, remonstrance and literary achievements. Shortly after Wang Zhao appealed, Lu Qiaoju died and was sent to prison. Lu Qiaoju's younger brother, who was involved in the incident, thought that Zhang Tang would not be defeated, so he exposed the shady situation of his brother and Zhang Tang in prison. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Tingwei to investigate Li Wenwen, and Jian Xuan, the same brutal official, was also an old enemy of Zhang Tang. He wanted to kill Zhang Tang, so he acted secretly against Luo Zhi. At this critical moment, a thief stole the money buried in Wendi cemetery. As usual, Prime Minister Zhuang met with Zhang Tang and apologized to Liang Wudi. Zhang Tang temporarily changed his mind, unilaterally passed the buck, and prepared to impeach Zhuang first, putting all the charges on the Prime Minister. And (the protagonist of the idiom "water under the bridge"), Wang Chao and Bian Tong, three officials of the Prime Minister's Office, also have deep grievances with Zhang Tang. Knowing Zhang Tang's plan, they joined hands to launch a preemptive strike to defend the innocence of the Prime Minister. At the same time, they denounced Zhang Tang's illegal behavior on weekdays and linked several things one by one. Emperor Wu was furious and decided that Zhang Tang's inner treachery had been deceiving the king, so he threw himself into it and sent an emissary with a list of charges, denouncing Zhang Tang's eight major crimes.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also sent a cruel official, Zhao Yu, to question him. He and Zhang Tang were brothers. When Zhang Tang met his friend, he thought things would get better eventually. He was about to make a long explanation, but he was accused by Zhao Yu: "Today, you feel wronged. Are so many people killed by you not wronged? " Now people are suing you with hard evidence. The emperor put you in prison because he wanted you to kill yourself. Why argue? "After all this, Zhang Tang finally woke up, recalled his past actions and his understanding of Emperor Wu. Although he was unwilling, he had to die. Under the attack of governors, subordinates, cruel officials and colleagues, the emperor also abandoned him. Zhang Tang committed suicide.
Zhang Tang in the "Three Fairs" was forced to commit suicide with the joint efforts of powerful people. After his death, all his property was only 500 gold. This is the salary of his official life plus the reward of the emperor. At the time of burial, the Zhang family only had ox carts sent to the fields without coffins, which was rare at that time.