Are Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian and Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty really frugal emperors?

Are Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian and Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty really frugal emperors?

Among the hundreds of emperors in ancient China, there were indeed a few who advocated frugality. For example, Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty married the queen and engaged in farming and mulberry cultivation. He also issued an edict to the world and refused to accept contributions. He reigned for twenty-four years There were no additional palaces, carriages, horses, and official uniforms, and he ordered the funeral to be simple. His mausoleum was made of earthenware, and no gold, silver, copper, or tin was used for decoration. Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, kept it privately in his inner palace and kept it for use during the farming in Danyang. Farm tools were used to educate his children; Guo Wei, Taizu of the Zhou Dynasty after the Five Dynasties, was very frugal in his life. When he was seriously ill, he repeatedly warned his nephew Chai Rong, who later succeeded the throne, to wear paper clothes after his death and use an earthen coffin to collect it. He did not build an underground palace or place a mausoleum. People do not erect stone statues in front of tombs... But the so-called frugality of some emperors is only superficial. They built palaces on a large scale, which cost astonishingly and brought huge disasters to the people.

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian was one of the emperors known in history for his frugality. There are records of his frugality in historical records: He repaired his carriages and daily necessities after damage and never replaced them with new ones; the clothes worn by the concubines in the harem had been washed many times; he had diarrhea, and the imperial doctor prepared antidiarrheal medicine for him He needed a tael of pepper and searched the palace but couldn't find it. He used himself as an example to teach his children to be thrifty and gave a few old clothes he had worn to the prince Yang Yong, so that he could look at them again and again to warn himself. , issued an edict that dogs and horses were not allowed to play with delicacies; Doulutong, the governor of Xiangzhou, flattered and offered silk cloth, and he ordered it to be burned in front of the court to admonish the officials... However, Yang Jian carried out large-scale construction and built a new capital and palace, but it was not much appreciated. People mentioned.

Yang Jian relied on conspiracy and trickery to control the military power, and then forced the eight-year-old Northern Zhou Jing Emperor Yuwen Chanchan to sit on his throne. After sitting on the dragon throne, he killed Yuwen Chan and punished the Northern Zhou royal family. member. He was very superstitious and lived in the old palace of the Northern Zhou emperor. He could not help but feel guilty, thinking that the evil ghosts were trying to settle accounts with him. Whenever there was any disturbance, he thought it was haunted. So in the second year after he took the throne, he built a palace in the old palace because the size of the old palace was too large. On the grounds that it was small, an edict was issued to build a new capital northwest of the old city. Because his earliest title was Duke Daxing, he named the new capital Daxing City (today's Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province), and the palace in the city was also named after Daxing.

In February of the 13th year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign (593), Yang Jian got tired of living in Daxing City and issued an edict to build the Renshou Palace in Qizhou (south of Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province today). It was designed by General Yu Wenkai. , Prime Minister Yang Su supervised the construction, and recruited hundreds of thousands of civilians to fill the mountains and valleys and build the palace. The new palace was built in two years. The buildings, terraces and pavilions are connected and connected, making it a spectacular sight. In order to claim credit, Yang Su and others supervised the construction workers in a hurry. Tens of thousands of people died due to fatigue. Some of the civilians who had collapsed on the construction site from exhaustion were still alive when they were pushed into pits by the soldiers who oversaw the work, filled with earth and rocks and buried alive. "Zi Zhi Tong Jian Sui Ji" records the brutal behavior of Yang Su and others as follows: The service was severe, many young men died, and the exhausted camp collapsed. The dead numbered in the tens of thousands. It can be seen that the palaces for Yang Jian to enjoy were built on the bones of civilian husbands.

In December of that year, Yang Jian issued an edict to build twelve palaces between the capital and Renshou Palace, so that he could stop and enjoy himself on the way there and back.

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, like Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty Yang Jian, was also an emperor famous for his frugality in history. The story of his advocating frugality also sounds more touching: when he was crowned King of Wu, the general offered Chen Youliang an engraved gold bed and ordered it to be destroyed to show his dislike of luxury; after he became emperor, he ate more vegetables for three meals a day, and all carriages and carriages were decorated with gold. Silver is copper; although my old wife Ma is a queen, she often wears washed clothes and is reluctant to throw them away even if they fade; the eunuch wears new boots and walks in the rain and is scolded by a cane; I see an official wearing bright clothes and spending five dollars. Bai Guan scolded: "Five hundred Guan is the annual expense of a farmer's family of several people, but you spend a lot of money on one piece of clothing. You are so arrogant and extravagant. Isn't it a waste of money!" He was ordered not to do this in the future...

However, Zhu Yuanzhang spent endless manpower and resources to build the huge Zhongdu City, and finally stopped building the Zhongdu City, making this huge expenditure go to waste, but few people mention it.

At that time, Xiang Yu led his troops to conquer Xianyang, the capital of the Qin Dynasty. After burning, killing and looting, he sighed: Wealth and honor will not return to their hometown, and they will travel at night like embroidered clothes. Who knows? Then he established himself as the overlord of Western Chu, led his army back east, and established his capital in Pengcheng (now Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province). Xiang Yu's words and deeds are actually the common psychological reflection of Chinese people for thousands of years.

If a person becomes famous in another place and his colleagues and friends know it, he must return to his hometown in fine clothes so that his neighbors know that he was a poor boy and now he has become something special. Otherwise, it will be like walking around in fine clothes in the dark. No one saw it. Zhu Yuanzhang was born in poverty and grew up in the grass. Although he was wearing a yellow robe, he could not escape this mentality. So after taking the throne, he ignored the dissuasion of his first adviser Liu Ji and decided to establish the capital in his hometown of Fengyang. He also ordered the retired Prime Minister Li Shanchang to take charge of the affairs. A large preparatory team was formed to survey the terrain, plan and design, recruit craftsmen, and purchase building materials. Construction started grandly in the third year of Hongwu (1370).

Zhu Yuanzhang named the future capital of the Ming Dynasty Zhongdu. Its outer city has a circumference of more than sixty miles, and inside is a forbidden wall. The wall is two feet high and has a circumference of more than fifteen miles. Going inward is the Imperial City, with a city wall that is more than seven miles in circumference, about four feet high, and about two feet wide at the top. The design and planning of Zhongdu City draws on the essence of previous capital cities and highlights the majesty of the autocratic imperial power. There are Fengtian, Huagai, Jinshen, Wenhua, and Wuying halls in the imperial city, which are built for the emperor, empress, concubines, princes, and other princes. As well as the five areas of the harem where the emperor, the queen mother and others lived; outside the Meridian Gate were built the Zhongshu Province, the Governor's Mansion, and the Yushitai; on both sides of the Tai Province were built the Taimiao Temple to worship ancestors, the Taishe Altar to worship the Earth God, and the Valley God. Taiji Altar; inside and outside the capital, there are also temples for founding heroes, temples for emperors of all dynasties, Zhongdu Chenghuang Temple, Imperial College, Wanwancang, Circular Qiu, Fangqiu, Chao Ri Altar, Xiyue Altar, Mountains and Rivers Altar, Star Observation Tower, Garden, Drum Tower, Bell Tower, etc. All institutional facilities in the capital are readily available.

In order to build the central capital, Zhu Yuanzhang recruited more than 1.5 million craftsmen, civilians, prisoners, immigrants, and military personnel. The required stone was mined locally, and bricks, tiles, and wood were collected from various places. In order to facilitate the inspection of the quality of city bricks supplied from various places, the bricks are marked with text codes such as the land supply, the promotion official, the craftsman, and the firing time. Archaeologists have discovered from these characters that there are twenty-two names from Nanjing, Jiangxi, Huguang and other places. The bricks provided by the sixty-eight counties of the prefecture and the two inspection departments are of course not the bricks supplied by the counties.

The required precious wood was also collected from various places. Zhu Yuanzhang even sent envoys to Sichuan, which was not yet included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty at that time, to purchase nanmu. Timber is extremely difficult to harvest and transport. These huge trees used as pillars and pillars were cut from deep mountains and old forests, where there were waterways, and were transported to the Huaihe River via the Yangtze River and canal, then transported to Linhao Shili City Wharf, then passed through the Hao River into the East Lake of Zhongdu City, and finally transported to Zhongdu City. Places without waterways need to be transported by land, and the process is particularly difficult. The book "Zhongdu of the Ming Dynasty" written by archaeologist Wang Jianying has the following description:

According to literature records, some of the timber used to transport Zhongdu at that time was so huge that it had to be transported by land in special A thirty-two-wheeled cart can only be pulled by two hundred people. Because the big wood was too heavy, the wooden wheel broke when pressed, so an iron hoop was placed around the wheel. When the big wheel with the iron ring rolled over the stones, the friction caused sparks to fly out. The iron ring fell apart after not walking a mile, so we had to stop to replace the iron ring. Therefore, in addition to 200 people pulling a large log cart, there are also 200 people carrying iron hoops on their shoulders to follow. They stop from time to time to change hoops and repair the cart, so it can travel ten miles a day. It takes 10,000 labors to transport a large log from the place of origin to Fengyang by land and water. It is difficult to calculate how much labor is required to transport so many large trees from all over the country to Fengyang.

It is so difficult to transport a piece of wood. You can imagine how huge the resources and manpower are consumed to build a huge capital city just by transporting wood!

Due to the urgent pressure from the governor and heavy labor, many servants and sergeants died of illness. Zhu Yuanzhang himself told the governor and officials: Near the camp in the capital, I heard that many sergeants died of epidemics. In the hot summer, there was heavy work, and the food and drink were out of order, and the workers were too hasty in their supervision. As a result, they became ill and died without a way to return to their homes. I felt very sad about it. (Volume 75 of "Records of Taizu of the Ming Dynasty") If the sergeant is like this, the fate of those prisoners will be even more miserable. Ye Boju, a Confucian instructor in Pingyao County, Shanxi, also said in his memorial that caused great disaster: What is happening now is Scholars... regard working in the fields as a certain crime, and beating Chu with whips as a common humiliation... If their words and actions fall short of the law, and if they want to avoid being executed, they will be forced to work in the fields. It is said that if you take all the baht, use it. It's like mud and sand... Today's Fengyang is where the imperial mausoleum is located, where dragons flourish, and sinners live there, filling the city with the sounds of resentment and sorrow. ("History of the Ming Dynasty: The Great Biography of Ye Bo") This shows how miserable the fate of the slaves was.

However, in April of the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), when the project had been carried out for six years and the capital had roughly taken shape, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to stop the construction of the central capital. stubborn.

"Records of Taizu of the Ming Dynasty" summarizes the reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang decided to build the capital and issued an edict to stop the construction in one sentence: At first, he wanted to build the two capitals like the Zhou and Han systems, but he stopped doing it at the cost of labor. The real reason is that he personally inspected the new capital city and remembered the advice of Liu Ji, the first adviser and Feng Shui master, and felt that Fengyang indeed had poor Feng Shui and was unsafe. He once issued an edict to the princes and princes to build mansions in Zhongdu. Unexpectedly, these people, relying on their high achievements and most of them being the emperor's fellow villagers, built luxurious mansions beyond the standards. There were actually hundreds of miles away, where the princes' homes faced each other, with crowns and crowns. Ruyun (Volume 10 of Guangxu's "Fengyang County Chronicles"). If these guys gather a crowd to rebel, they will respond to a hundred calls and become a climate, posing a serious threat to their throne. Before Liu Ji retired, he said to him: Although Fengyang is the hometown of the emperor, it is not the capital of the emperor. Although it has been established as the central capital, it is not suitable for living. This old man was really far-sighted. These parting words spoke to Zhu Yuanzhang's heart and became one of the reasons why he decided to stop building the Central Capital.

There is no historical record of how much money was spent on building Zhongdu City. However, experts estimate based on the labor and resources required to build the palace during the Yongle, Zhengde, and Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty that the cost was approximately equivalent to the total six years of national tax revenue at that time. The construction of such a huge project was only due to the emperor's psychology of returning to his hometown in glory; the stoppage of construction was also due to suspicion and fear of rebellion by his subordinates, that is, to stabilize the imperial power. In short, it was only in the emperor's mind. As for how much manpower was invested, how much money was spent, and how much losses it caused to the people, it was nothing in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang was unwilling to bear the sin of building large-scale construction projects that cost endless money. He said in "Zhongdu's Prosecution to Heaven and Earth": Then he discussed with the ministers, and everyone said, "Gu Zhongli Ke". In one sentence, the blame was put on the officials. In order to cover up his guilt and let the capital disappear, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the demolition of some palaces in the imperial city in the 16th year of Hongwu (1383) and used the materials to build Longxing Temple. Once this was started, people continued to demolish it until the Only four walls were left. Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's efforts to cover up, with the exception of Fengyang local chronicles, various historical books mention this disappeared capital in one sentence. It was not until the late 1960s when archaeologist Wang Jianying was transferred from Beijing to work at the May 7th Cadre School in Fengyang, Anhui Province that she discovered this once glorious and magnificent abandoned capital and wrote a monograph and published it, which shocked the historians.

Since there were too many extravagant and debauched emperors in Chinese history, Yang Jian and Zhu Yuanzhang became dazzling bright spots in the darkness by wearing old clothes, riding in old cars, or burning piles of silk and satin. However, historians took the trouble to write special books and repeatedly praised it, which magnified this bright spot infinitely, covering up the historical facts of Yang Jian and Zhu Yuanzhang's large-scale construction projects. If you compare wearing washed clothes and riding in a repaired old car with a palace built by tens of thousands of people who spent huge sums of money and exhausted themselves, it is no more than a grain of gold sand to a golden mountain. Yang Jian and Zhu Yuanzhang saved a A grain of gold earns a reputation through the ages, but squandering a gold mountain is not mentioned.