Exposing Zhu Yuanzhang's inferiority complex will never be soft on the rich.
Suspicion of courtiers became neurotic.
In his early years, Zhu Yuanzhang was forced to become a monk in a temple in Huang Jue. He experienced human kindness, and later he defected to Guo Zixing's men, and soon became a war fighter. Zhu Yuanzhang was good at tapping talents and soon gathered a group of senior consultants. They advised Zhu Yuanzhang. While overthrowing the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang swept away other peasant insurgents one by one and established the Ming Dynasty in 1368. Sadly, when Zhu Yuanzhang created the world, he was able to recruit scholars from all over the world and appointed his subordinates with confidence. As soon as the decision was made, he began to worry that civil servants would look down on him because of his poor birth, and that military commanders would usurp his throne.
Zhu Yuanzhang's dream is to establish a family-led pattern, with more than 20 children distributed all over the country and mastering military power. However, he was very worried that the founding fathers would usurp their country and try to get rid of them. Because of these "demons", over time, Zhu Yuanzhang showed typical symptoms of anxiety neurosis, such as serious lack of self-confidence, paranoia, extreme sensitivity, delusion and so on. In order to alleviate his anxiety, Zhu Yuanzhang also introduced many inhuman criminal laws, which were more cruel than kings in previous dynasties. Zhu Yuanzhang took pleasure in cleaning court officials and killing officials and people. For example, he invented the punishment method of court beating. From the prime minister down to the common people, no one can safeguard personal dignity. Many people actually "stand under the staff", and those who died without the staff became disabled and were sent to Fengyang or other border counties to serve as soldiers.
Zhu Yuanzhang slaughtered more than 40 thousand civil servants and military commanders before and after peacetime. In the nine years of Hongwu alone, there were more than 10,000 officials in Fengyang. During the twenty-six to twenty-eight years of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang first killed General Aquamarine, involving more than fifteen thousand people, then forced Xu Da to eat the steamed goose he gave him, and then forced Fu Youde to commit suicide, falsely accusing Liao Yongzhong of stealing the dragon robe and being imprisoned to death. Even Shengfeng, who was laid off at home, was dead. In just three years, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated the remaining elders who fought alongside him. In this regard, historians have always believed that this is because Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he was dying, so he accelerated the pace of eradicating heroes.
Zhu Yuanzhang's split personality before and after Hongwu ten years ago gave people a completely different feeling. The outstanding performance is that Ren Jun became a tyrant. The most representative explanation of Zhu Yuanzhang's psychological motivation for killing heroes and fathers is that Zhu Yuanzhang saw the cowardice of the Crown Prince and worried that ministers would oppress the lords after his death, so he eliminated the hidden dangers in advance. This explanation can be supported by a palace anecdote: one day, the Crown Prince advised his father not to kill too many people. Zhu Yuanzhang threw a stick full of thorns on the ground and ordered the Crown Prince to pick it up by hand. The crown prince grabbed the stick and stabbed his palm, screaming with pain. Zhu Yuanzhang said: I pulled the thorn out of the stick for you in advance. Don't you understand my pain?
Zhu Yuanzhang set up a security intelligence bureau and sent spies all over the country to monitor the details of ministers' lives, so as to eliminate the courtiers he wanted to eradicate at any time. Zhu Yuanzhang is keen on killing his subjects, which is a morbid way to relieve his psychological pressure. This practice brought many strange things to the official system of the Ming Dynasty, such as taking a cangue to court and going to the execution ground.
Zhu Yuanzhang had no chance to receive systematic education and lacked lofty ideals and noble sentiments. Therefore, it is impossible for him to turn his painful life experience into a driving force to transform society and benefit the whole world. On the contrary, because he has no knowledge, he is madly envious of learned and talented people. Like Hu, Li Shanchang, Liu Ji and others. They are all military strategists and strategists, and Zhu Yuanzhang's Mountains and Rivers Order is the crystallization of their wisdom. Song Lian was born in poverty, and his life experience was similar to that of Zhu Yuanzhang. He and Zhu Yuanzhang are in the same boat, as they were in the early days. But Song Lian was so learned that Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't stand it at last.
Shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, someone came to tell him that literati were so cynical and slandered others that they could not believe it. He also cited an example, saying that Zhang Shicheng's original name was Zhang, and later he became a sovereign. He asked the literati to give him a new name, and the literati took Shicheng. Mencius said: A scholar is a traitor. In fact, the literati secretly called Zhang Shicheng a villain. How did Zhang Shicheng know? He was called a villain all his life until he died. It's really sad. Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately looked up Mencius and found this sentence. Since then, his suspicion has become more serious, especially for literati. Because Zhu Yuanzhang is the emperor and holds the power of life and death, this is not only a question of doubt and suspicion, but also his paranoid personality, and the result is very terrible.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang basically killed all the literati who refused to be officials to avoid future troubles. Together with Gao Qi, Yang Le, Changyu and Xu Ben, they are called "Four Outstanding People in Wuzhong". Shortly after Gao Qi was beheaded, Yang Le was soon punished as a coolie by Zhu Yuanzhang. A generation of famous artists were tortured to death on the construction site. A few years later, Xu Ben was imprisoned and died; Zhang Yu was demoted to Lingnan and recalled halfway. Knowing that he was doomed to die, he threw himself into the river. Suzhou literati Yao Run and Wang Mo refused to be officials. Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude is clear: I invite you, and if you dare not come, I will kill you. Those who refused to be summoned were beheaded and robbed.
An uncle in Xia was cut off by a noble scholar and vowed not to be an official. He was arrested in Beijing. Zhu Yuanzhang asked them, "Where do you live in troubled times?" Xia said, "The Red Cross made an insurrection and took refuge in Fujian and Jiangxi." Zhu Yuanzhang was furious: "I know Xia bears a grudge and treats me like a child's play." I specifically said to Xia: "I know that you deliberately mentioned the Chikou Uprising, which means something else. You cut off your finger on purpose, so you don't want to be used by me. I will behead you, lest the fools in the world imitate you. " Send someone to send Xia's uncle back to his hometown to be executed.
Yang Weizhen, the literary leader at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, was the only exception. Yang Weizhen's poems are famous all over the world and are called "Iron Cliff Style". After he resigned from his post and returned to Yuan Dynasty, he was obsessed with mountains and rivers, and seldom cared about the fame and fortune of officials. When Zhang Shicheng carved up Soochow, he warmly invited Yang Weizhen, but Yang Weizhen was unmoved by fame and fortune. Zhang Shicheng also consulted. Yang Weizhen wrote back, denouncing Zhang Shicheng's shortcomings and predicting that he would be in trouble. And then it happened. After the reunification of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Yang Weizhen was famous and immediately ordered his cronies to urge him to enter the DPRK. Zhu Yuanzhang and Yang Weizhen sent people to forcibly recruit into Beijing. After staying for 120 days, he wrote a farewell letter and a Hakka folk song about Meiji. At this time, Yang Weizhen was already an old man in his eighties. It's no use killing him. Zhu Yuanzhang reluctantly let him go. Song Lian also wrote a poem to bid farewell to Yang Weizhen, saying, "If you don't get the imperial edict of one king and five colors, you will get it back in vain", which was greatly appreciated.
Zhu Yuanzhang should be suspicious of employing people and suspicious people should use them. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang should not only monopolize power, but also hold small power. Such an emperor naturally has to work hard. Every day, he gets up before dawn and works late into the night. No holidays, no entertainment, totally a workaholic. Because his main job is to review official documents, Zhu Yuanzhang especially hates the way that scholars pave the way in advance and show off their economic knowledge, which is lengthy but irrelevant. In the nine years of Wu, the ministers of punishments wrote tens of thousands of words. After reading more than 6 thousand words, I didn't hear any specific opinions. This is all empty talk. Zhu Yuanzhang lost his temper and sent someone to call Ru Taisu and beat him up. I watched it again the next day. After reading the word 16500, we get to the core issue and suggest five things, four of which are feasible. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered the relevant authorities to implement it. I also told Ru Taisu that these things can be explained clearly in 500 words, but I said the length of 17000 words. This is a red tape. Zhu Yuanzhang also specially published this matter in an article to educate officials and people all over the country.
It is similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's life experience, but Liu Bang does not have such a strong sense of inferiority. He embraces people with high birth and high education and entrusts them with important tasks according to their talents and specialties. Xiao He and Hu, Li Shanchang and Liu Ji, the brains of Liu Bang, are the same type of figures, but their fates are quite different. The former has always been respected by Liu Bang and died, while the latter was executed by Zhu Yuanzhang, killing three clans.
Inferiority about one's origins.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born in an extremely poor family. Both his parents died of the plague. He was an orphan since childhood, spared cattle, worked as a young monk, and was forced to become an outlaw when the world was in chaos. When you are poor, you may have stolen from others and been bullied at the bottom of society. Because he is jealous of the words "light", "baldness", "monk", "fate" and "thief". As a member of the Red Scarf Army in Han Liner, he was once called "Red Bandit" and "Red Thief" by Yuan officials. So when he became emperor, he was very taboo about "thief", "bandit" and words with similar shapes and sounds. Xu Yikui, an official student in Zhejiang Province, said that "under the bright sky, life is sacred and a thief in the world". Originally, I wanted to praise Zhu Yuanzhang, but I was thought to ridicule him for becoming a monk and was immediately beheaded. I don't know how many scholars and court officials were killed inexplicably because they inadvertently used these words in articles or books, so that caution became the ethos of Hongwu Dynasty.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in the Ming Dynasty, the literary world has been rather bleak, and almost all the outstanding works in the early Ming Dynasty were concentrated in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. This is also related to Zhu Yuanzhang's tyrannical rule in ideology and culture. In fact, this is caused by Zhu Yuanzhang's strong sense of inferiority. He comes from humble origins. Although he is an emperor, he is still afraid of being laughed at for his past. Zhu Yuanzhang has always been deeply ashamed of his poor status, afraid that others would remember him as an orphan and a young monk, and tried to force people to forget that disgraceful history with the blood of the upper class. The endless slaughter has nothing to do with the image of Zhu Yuanzhang and the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, it only shows that Zhu Yuanzhang is an extremely narrow-minded person.
As usual, the founding emperors of past dynasties will draw ancient celebrities with the same surname as their ancestors. Zhu Yuanzhang's father and grandfather were tenant farmers, and his grandfather was a wizard. They were extremely humble people in the society at that time and had nothing to boast about. When Zhu Yuanzhang and the civil servants discussed the jade repair schedule, they originally planned to bring Zhu Weizu, a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty. A Huizhou official surnamed Zhu came to the court. Zhu Yuanzhang intended to help his family, so he asked, "Are you a descendant of Zhu Wengong?" The official named Zhu didn't know the details because he was afraid of lying and getting into trouble. He just said no. Zhu Yuanzhang thought of those small officials, or