What kind of system was Zhang Ting in Ming Dynasty? Why did the Ming emperor like it so much?
Zhang Ting system began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. When studying the system, Gu once said: The incident of hitting Lang started in Han Ming, so what happened to later generations? . Later, emperors recorded that officials were punished by sticks in court. In the Sui Dynasty, due to the suspicion of Emperor Wen, officials were often beaten with sticks in court because they were in a bad mood. At that time, the left servant of Shangshu shot Gao Jiong, a scholar, and others advised Wendi: The court is not a place to kill, and the court is not a place to punish? . Tang dynasty, old Tang book? Zhang Tingxuan contains:? At that time, Jiang Ting, the director of advice, sentenced the staff to be lighter, so he took the staff to court. One day, Jiang Tingfu angered Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and Xuanzong ordered Jiang Tingfu to be beaten in court. This matter was strongly opposed by Zhang Tingxuan, the minister in charge of supervision. What do they think? Imperial secretary, an official who keeps an eye on all directions and listens to all directions, will kill whoever commits a crime, and he can't make decisions when he flows. .
In the Yuan Dynasty, court staff began to be abused. At this time, not only the emperor used the palace staff as an official, but even the empresses began to use the palace staff as an official. At the same time, even people who are not officials are executed by the emperor. Dou Mochuan:? When the hunter lost a stork, the emperor was angry, and the courtiers said loudly that it was right to aggravate the crime. The emperor hates it and caters to it, but the hunter doesn't ask? Yuan Di was furious that a falcon hunter lost a stork dedicated to Yuan Di, so he ordered to give the falcon hunter a scepter.
Of course, Zhang Ting was really abused and institutionalized in the Ming Dynasty.
The frequency and scale of the implementation of Zhang Ting in Ming Dynasty can be summarized into three periods, showing a trend from less to more and from prosperity to decline.
First, the germination period: Hongwu to Tianshun period. The curtain of Zhang Ting in Ming Dynasty began with Zhu Yuanzhang. Hongwu eight years (1375), Shang Shuru, the punishments department? Wu is tired of writing. He says a lot. He is too plain and arrogant. His staff is in North Korea. This is the first time in the Ming Dynasty to record the execution of court staff. Of course, although Zhu Yuanzhang pioneered the use of quadrangles in the Ming Dynasty, Hongwu did not use quadrangles many times. For example, in the fourteenth year of Hongwu (138 1), Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry was dragged down by the Hu case and was killed by Hongwu as a hospital stick.
Since then, there is no exact record about Wen Jian and the court staff in Yongle period. Firstly, Wen Jian was too busy to take care of the minister's behavior, and Wen Jian's time in office was too short, so the court staff never happened. Secondly, Emperor Yongle did not execute the court staff, not because he was kind, but because he used the method of slaughtering officials who dared to oppose him and sentenced them to prison lightly.
After that, Hongxi, Xuande, Orthodox, Jingtai, Tianshun and other five generations all recorded the execution of the imperial aides, but rarely. For example, Hong Xichao had only one record of Injong's reign. In the first year of Hongxi (1425), Hanlin read Li Shimian's letter and advised Injong not to be too addicted to womanhood, which angered Injong. Injong then ordered the samurai to pounce on the melon, and when the court beat Li Shimin, beat him? Broken tendon three, how many people have you dragged to death? . In a word, before the Tianshun Dynasty, Zhang Ting was still in its infancy in the Ming Dynasty, and the execution of Zhang Ting's punishment was not frequent and the scale was not large.
Second, the flood period: from Chenghua to Wanli. From Tianshun, the Ming court began to be flooded with manpower, because the emperor was too lazy and the eunuchs were too chaotic. At this time, as long as officials offended the emperor and eunuchs, there was a high probability of being punished by the court. For example, in the 15th year of Chenghua (1497), because of assistant minister Ma Wensheng and Mou Feng, etc. Angered Wang Zhi, the right official, and Wang Zhi then designed and framed them. Finally, 56 people, including Ma Wensheng's assistant ministers Mou Feng, Li Jun and Wang Rui, were appointed. For example, in the eighteenth year of Chenghua (1482), Shan Li and others wrote to Wan Guifei to interfere in politics. In a rage, Xianzong ordered the Royal Guards to go from Beijing to Ning at the meridian gate, and each was sentenced to 20.
Of course, in Hongzhi dynasty, Emperor Xiaozong was an open-minded, modest and remonstrable emperor, and one of the few emperors who was generous to courtiers in Ming dynasty, so court aides were once banned and did not appear in Hongzhi dynasty. However, in the Zhengde Dynasty, since Wu Zong was fun-loving and didn't like the admonition of officials, the imperial aides were used again, and they were more frequent and larger than those in the previous dynasty. At this time, the scholar-officials were remonstrated and beaten. In the fourteenth year of Zheng De's reign (15 19), Shi Yushufen, Huang Gong and others remonstrated with Wu Zong's southern tour, and Wu Zong was furious and ordered? One hundred and forty-six people, including Shu Fen and Huang Gong, and eleven people died? .
Since Zheng De, Jiajing, Qin Long, Wanli and other dynasties all used the palace staff like Zheng De, showing a situation of frequent use and wide coverage. For example, in the third year of Jiajing (1524), due to a big etiquette dispute, ministers opposed Jiajing's pursuit of his biological father as an imperial examination. Jiajing was furious and ordered that officials below five grades such as Bong-hee be taken down. Another example is the five years of Wanli (1577). Because Zhang was unfaithful and impolite, Wu Zhongxing was edited, Zhao Yongxian was tried and Jinshi was impeached. As a result, Wu Zhongxing and Zhao Yongxian each had 60, while Mu Yi, Shen Sixiao and Zou Yuanbiao each had 80. Generally speaking, the number and scale of courtiers reached the peak after Zheng De, especially in Jiajing Dynasty, and the frequency of courtiers reached the peak. For more than forty years, killing courtiers with sticks has doubled the previous generation? .
Third, the decline period: from the late Wanli to the Ming Dynasty. In the late Wanli period, Zongshen was tired of officials who frequently remonstrated because he didn't care about politics and didn't ask about political affairs for decades. Zong Shen ignored this, neither punishing nor asking their performance, so the court staff was once abandoned. During the Apocalypse, Zhang Ting was put into use again because of Wei Zhongxian's ultra vires, but at this time, compared with Zheng De and Jiajing, the frequency and scale of Zhang Ting were relatively reduced.
By the end of Wanli, the number of courtiers was reduced or even abolished. The reasons are as follows: First, most emperors in the late Ming Dynasty did not ask about state affairs. After Britain and the Constitution, there was little sympathy, the wind of investigation was blazing, the crimes were huge, and the cases piled up like mountains, but the purpose was from the bottom up, don't ask, don't die, and it was particularly miserable to hand over a piece of paper to prison. So summing up the criminal law of the Ming Dynasty, the factory guards ended? . Secondly, the Ming emperors gradually realized the harm of court aides and did not want to intensify the contradiction with literati, so the use of court aides gradually decreased.
Of course, no matter what the characteristics of the number and scope of quadrangles in the Ming Dynasty are, it is true that quadrangles will last forever in the Ming Dynasty. Except in the dynasties of Yongle and Hongzhi, the courtiers of the Ming dynasty never stopped at other times, even during the reign of the Ming emperor.
Then many people may not understand why the Ming emperors liked to punish officials with sticks so much.
First, treat officials severely. As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, started from humble origins. When he was young, his family was ruined because of the exploitation of corrupt officials. Therefore, since he ascended the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang has been proclaimed emperor, in view of the lessons of poor people and national destruction caused by lax discipline and bureaucratic corruption at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Heavy code bureaucrats? As a basic national policy, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that the former dynasty was corrupt everywhere because the imperial court was kind to officials? Too generous to know? Therefore, strict supervision of officials and severe punishment are used to shock the corrupt hearts of civil and military officials.
And Zhu Yuanzhang is a court aide? Heavy code is an official? The purpose of the punishment specifically targeted at officials in the process is to make officials fear the law and disaster by humiliating and even bloody court staff, and finally become driven by the emperor like dogs and sheep. In the eighth year of Hongwu, the minister of punishments wrote tens of thousands of words, exhorting Hongwu to kill cautiously, which angered Hongwu. He was ordered to be beaten by the staff in the temple. Since then, the imperial aides have become more and more popular, and many people have been killed by them, such as Zhu Wenzheng, the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang, and Xiang Xue, Minister of Industry. Since then, Zhu Yuanzhang's palace staff, as the ancestral system, has been continued by his descendants, with higher frequency, wider scope and even worse.
Second, it is easier for imperial aides to punish officials in the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Ting is not a penalty contained in Daming Law, that is, it is an extra-legal law, and its use is not bound by any terms. So it is very popular with emperors who want to deal with disobedient officials because of its characteristics. First of all, court aides are extra-legal, so they are not binding on the emperor. The emperor used it without a series of principles and basis. Whether it is implemented or not depends entirely on the will of the emperor. Whether the emperor carries it out or not depends entirely on the emperor himself. In this way, the arbitrariness and arbitrariness of the court staff can be said to greatly facilitate the excessive behavior of the lazy and remonstrant Ming emperors.
Secondly, the court staff can be directly used by the Ming emperors. In the Ming Dynasty, to punish criminals, they had to be tried by the Ministry of Punishment and then sent to Dali Temple for examination. At the same time, in the whole trial process, they have to accept the supervision of Duchayuan. Sometimes, when encountering major cases, the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Duchayuan have to jointly examine them. After that, they can punish the criminals accordingly. This process takes a long time, which the emperor can't wait for. In this way, the extra-judicial punishment of court staff was naturally loved by the emperor. This kind of punishment, which is not explicitly listed in the legal provisions, does not need the consent of the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Duchayuan, and can be implemented anytime and anywhere as long as the emperor is willing.
Third, most emperors in the Ming Dynasty were masters who did not play cards according to common sense. Throughout the feudal history of more than 2,000 years in China, the Ming Dynasty produced the most wonderful emperors, some like wet nurses, some like crickets, some like carpenters and some like generals. From these habits, we can see that most of the Ming emperors were masters who didn't play by common sense, and they were independent and reckless emperors. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why the Ming emperor habitually insulted officials.
At the same time, since the Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, their relationship with officials has been very tense. Most of them look down on officials and only regard them as dogs and sheep they drive. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang once said to a minister: The golden cup is drunk with you, and the white blade is not spared? ; Zhu Houzhao, the leader of Wuzong, also publicly accused the minister: Servants often do bad things, and husbands know it? ; Emperor Zhu Youjian of Chongzhen once told his ministers at a court meeting: Civil and military officials and I have always been untrustworthy. Who wants to work hard and just blame others? . In this way, I would like to ask the Ming emperors who looked down on officials in this way, how could they not abuse the scepter and let them punish officials unscrupulously?
On the whole? Zhang Ting? It is a concrete manifestation of the development of the autocratic monarchy system in Ming Dynasty and an inevitable punishment. In the period of the high development of The Ming dynasty emperors's autocracy, although the Daming Law, Daguan and other legal provisions can meet the needs of maintaining the absolute monarchy, it is not difficult for Ming Chengzu to rely on particularly cruel extra-judicial punishment to achieve and consolidate the absolute monarchy, so it is not difficult to understand that the extra-judicial punishment of court staff was abused by Ming Chengzu. The Ming emperor hoped to scare officials through the court aides and make them become like dogs and sheep, which was wiped out by the emperor. In their view, only by making officials fear themselves can we stabilize the rule of the Ming Dynasty and achieve long-term stability.
In addition, we need to note that although the court aides are extra-legal punishments, it is up to the emperor to decide whether to implement them, but there are also certain systems and rules.
First of all, although the emperor can decide to be attentive to an official at his own discretion, the court executives must also go through the corresponding procedures. According to the first year of Hongzhi, what was mentioned by the then minister of punishments? Under the old system, people were asked to investigate the matter, and the dispatched personnel had to go to court and assign numbers before acting? , that is, once the emperor decided? Zhang Ting? Punish the corresponding officials. Will the eunuch accompanying Emperor Li Si draft it? Driving post? As you wish, and then what? Driving post? After the drafting is completed, it will be stamped with the seal of Jian, and the eunuch will give this will to the official of Royal Guards, accompanied by him, and go to the yamen of the Ministry of Punishment to go through the formalities of issuing court staff. After the formalities are completed, it can be executed on schedule.
If you don't follow the above rules, the court staff will not be able to execute it normally (of course, if you meet a strong emperor, such as Jiajing, you don't need to sign the approval, you can execute it directly as a court). During the Hongzhi period, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming Dynasty reiterated that when people are invited to investigate things, they must give implicit approval to prevent rape. This is the old system of our ancestors, and we must follow it, so we must follow it as a routine. Batch when it's time, don't make mistakes? If you don't go through the issuing formalities in the criminal court, the court staff are not allowed to execute it. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court staff could not execute the death penalty because the Royal Guards could not get the endorsement. At that time, due to the vacancy of officials in the Ministry of Justice, Jin Yiwei directed Luo Si to play Zongshen. If you want to obey orders, you may break the law. Begging for the Emperor will meet Zeng Ruzhao and Han Jizhong, who served in the Department of Waiting for Punishment, and will be appointed at that time. Someone posted it, but the purpose was not recorded. .
Secondly, Zhang Ting's execution place is generally fixed at the noon gate, and the Royal Guards are responsible for the execution, and the eunuchs who supervise the ceremony supervise it. Will the Royal Guards in charge of execution receive professional training, such as Zheng De's period? Li Xi, an illegal corrupt official in the Southern Empire, angered Liu Jin and corrected his staff by 30? However, because the court staff were abandoned for a period of time, the Royal Guards did not perform for a long time and were somewhat unfamiliar, so they had to train frequently at that time.
As for why we should train, it is because Ming Taizu has special requirements for the way of beating court staff in turn. What are the court staff in Ming Dynasty? Hit with your heart? And then what? Really? , among them? Hit with your heart? It's basically death, and then what? Really? It may cause disability, but at least it will not die. What kind of beating method was decided by the eunuch who supervised the punishment according to the emperor's secret order. If the eunuch opens his toes, what is it? Really? On the contrary, if the eunuch's toes are closed, what is it? Hit with your heart? . Finally, the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty were mostly officials with four grades or less in Beijing. For example, in the early years of Jiajing, in the great etiquette dispute, Jiajing made an imperial edict. Life is less than four products? They are all subject to the staff of a court, but Jiajing did not implement a court staff for officials above level 4. It can be seen that the objects of court staff in the Ming Dynasty were indeed limited by grades.
Generally speaking, under normal circumstances, the court staff of the Ming Dynasty need to follow certain rules and systems. First of all, Zhang Ting's execution place was not above the imperial court, but at the meridian gate, and was executed by the Royal Guards and supervised by eunuchs. Secondly, for officials who want to be executed by the emperor, it is followed that they should be arrested first, and the emperor should send a letter, and then the official should be executed on another day after the formalities of ceremony supervision, security and punishment department are completed. Finally, the severity of the court staff was also carried out in accordance with the emperor's secret order. Will you die? Hit with your heart? Do you want to live? Really? .