(image of Hu Zhongzao)
February of the 20th year of Qianlong's reign, AD 1755.
Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty Aisin Gioro Hongli , also known as Emperor Qianlong as we know him, had nothing to do and read some of the past poems and essays of the cabinet scholar Hu Zhongzao.
The emperor looked through the poems and essays of his ministers, firstly to evaluate the ministers' talents and learning, and secondly to see if he could get inspiration from other people's works and learn a few things himself.
Qianlong loved to write poems, which was well known throughout the court.
The emperor lived to be eighty-nine years old, and he wrote a total of about 43,000 poems in his life. If the emperor started writing from the time he was born and continued until he was old, on average, then the emperor I have to write one and a half poems a day.
Friends who are not very sensitive to numbers may not understand this concept. The author will give an example. The 1,895 poets in " Complete Tang Poems " have written a total of 42,000 poems. With more than 900 poems, Comrade Qianlong's creations by himself are basically the same as those of all the poets of the Tang Dynasty. It can be said that "one person overturned the entire prosperous Tang Dynasty".
However, although the emperor wrote a large number of poems, the quality of his poems is really not flattering.
For works such as "One Piece, Two Pieces, Three Four Pieces, Five Pieces, Six Pieces, Seven Eight Pieces", even if the ministers can unconscionably praise that this is a good poem, the emperor is not a fool. He still knows what level he is. .
Therefore, the emperor urgently needed to improve his creative level by reading excellent works.
And this Hu Zhongzao can be said to be very famous in the literary world of the Qing Dynasty . He is very good at reciting poems and writing poems. Moreover, he is not only talented, but also has a prosperous official career. In the first year of Qianlong, that is, in mid-1736 AD Jinshi, who worshiped under the cabinet chief minister Ortai , was promoted many times, and finally became a cabinet bachelor and governor of Hunan's academic affairs.
(Ortai)
Hunan Academic Affairs is equivalent to today's director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Education. Although the cabinet of the Qing Dynasty is not as good as the Ming cabinet, it is after all a formally confidential department of the imperial court. Hu Zhongzao is also the director of Hubei Province. He is a disciple of Ertai, so he is considered to be able to hang out in the officialdom.
The work of Hu Zhongzao that Qianlong read was a poem called "Jian Mo Sheng Shi Chao". The whole poem has been lost, and now only one sentence remains: "One heart can judge the turbidity and the purity." The only bad thing about
is this poem.
The meaning of this poem is that I, Hu Zhongzao, am loyal to the country and the people. You can come and see whether I am a good official (clear) or a bad official (turbid).
This itself is a very common ancient poem used to express ambitions, but after Emperor Qianlong read it, Long Yan was furious and thought that "Qing" was the name of the country, and Hu Zhongzao put the word "turbid" in front of the word "Qing" to place it. Knowing that he was disrespecting the Qing regime and burying the Qing Dynasty, he immediately arrested Hu Zhongzao, imprisoned him, and executed him immediately.
Moreover, because of Hu Zhongzao's great disrespect for the Qing Dynasty, even his late teacher Ertai was implicated. He was criticized by Emperor Qianlong for being ignorant, and even the tablet was removed from the Xianliang Temple. His posthumous reputation can be regarded as a crime. Both are clean.
This was a seemingly ordinary literary prison case during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, but in fact, this case was completely different from previous cases such as the Nanshan case and the Lu Liuliang case.
In the fiftieth year of Kangxi, in 1711 AD, Hanlin scholar Dai Mingshi wrote a book "Nanshan Collection". The chronicle in the book did not use the Qing Dynasty era name, but used the Yongli calendar of the Nanming Dynasty. Therefore, Dai Mingshi was beheaded.
(Nanshan Collection)
Dai Mingshi is a typical intellectual who misses the previous dynasty. When writing books, it is inevitable that his true feelings will be revealed. Only then will people grasp the clue and he will get the benefit.
People often say that Kangxi is sparse, but in fact, Kangxi brother started the literary inquisition in a set way. On the contrary, his son Yongzheng, who has always been regarded as the master of literary inquisition, has a different view on the Nanshan case. ：
" Qing History Manuscript ": "Although they are not suitable for ministers to say, there are really no rebellious words. When the Ministry of Punishment repeated the decree, it did not say that there were more objectionable words, so it was also considered unjust."
Emperor Yongzheng believed that as a minister of the Qing Dynasty, Dai Mingshi should not write such a fancy book, but there was nothing inappropriate in the content of the book. It was just a simple academic work, so the late emperor felt that Dai Mingshi had been unfairly accused. Famous.
However, such remarks were made by Emperor Yongzheng, who had not yet ascended the throne but was still a prince. After Comrade Yongzheng became emperor, he would only engage in literary inquisition more ruthlessly than his old father, but he would never be more ruthless than his old father. Difference.
In the sixth year of Yongzheng, in 1728 AD, there was a scholar named Zeng Jing in Yongxing, Hunan. He had anti-Qing thoughts and always wanted to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. However, he was weak and incapable, so this man actually Single-handedly knocked on the door of the then Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi Yue Zhongqi , and encouraged Yue Zhongqi to rebel. Yue Zhongqi admired Zeng Jing's righteous, heroic and bold attitude, and then arrested Zeng Jing with his backhand. He got up and reported the matter to Emperor Yongzheng.
When Yongzheng learned about this, he did not become furious, but became very interested in the case. The emperor really couldn't imagine where Zeng Jing, a poor scholar, had the courage and courage to rebel?
You wouldn’t know if you didn’t investigate, but you were shocked when you investigated. Under strict interrogation, Zeng Jing confessed. He said that he had no intention of rebelling, but after reading some works of the early Qing Dynasty writer Lu Liuliang, he came up with the idea of revolt. thoughts.
(Lu Liuliang)
The emperor suddenly realized that what Lu Liuliang, a bad old man, wrote was actually such a powerful reactionary thought. Therefore, Lu Liuliang, who had been dead for forty-nine years, had his body opened and his body was opened, and he was designated as a "great treason". "crime.
Dead people must be punished in this way, and the living people must not be spared. The descendants and disciples of the Lu family were either beheaded or exiled. They were widely implicated. Basically, it was a one-pot deal. The tragic death was worthy of Qing Dynasty. The head of Daiwen prison.
Since it is a family tradition to engage in literary inquisition, then of course our Emperor Qianlong will not be left behind. Moreover, through the "Hu Zhongzao Case" we can find that Qianlong's literary inquisition was more unreasonable and absurd than their two predecessors. It can be described as deliberately looking for trouble.
The emperor's intention is very obvious. If you are wrong, I will exaggerate your mistakes. If you are right, I will make mistakes. Anyway, I am the emperor and I have the final say in everything.
If you don’t accept it, then I will deal with you. The method of creating text jails like
can be said to be very similar to the logic of some male compatriots’ girlfriends getting angry.
This is also the particularity of the Hu Zhongzao case. The ultimate purpose of previous literary prison cases was to restrict speech and control thoughts, while the purpose of the Hu Zhongzao case was to suppress cliques.
The word cronyism has its own name in each dynasty. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was called clan politics. In the two Song Dynasties, it was called political partisanship. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called the civil service group. Its essence is that the officials in the court They no longer completely loyal to the emperor, but began to seek personal gain. In order to be foolproof on the road of seeking self-interest, they would never work alone, but would form parties with each other and form a powerful bureaucratic group to achieve group confrontation with the emperor. .
With the backstage, partners, and a group of people who are complicit in the corruption, officials became emboldened and began to form cliques for personal gain.
Some people say that the emperors of the Eastern Jin Dynasty had no sovereignty and it was the civil servants who harmed them.
Some people also say that the two Song Dynasties were rich and weak, and they were often bullied by the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which was the fault of the civil servants.
Some people even say that the reason why the Ming Dynasty perished was because of the civil servants.
Whether this statement is alarmist or has real evidence, readers can think about it carefully.
However, the harm caused by Pengtang was by no means groundless, and this wind soon spread to Emperor Qianlong himself.
(image of Zhang Tingyu)
Before the death of Emperor Yongzheng, he left two auxiliary ministers to his son Qianlong, one was named Zhang Tingyu, and the other was Ertai.
Ertai is from the Manchurian Blue Banner, while Zhang Tingyu is Han Chinese . The two brothers have very different political styles. Ertai is fierce, Zhang Tingyu is gentle, Ertai is rough, and Zhang Tingyu is delicate, so although they They are both ministers of Gu Ming, but they have always had different ideas and opposed each other. In order to settle down and find a backer, the officials in the imperial court joined the E and Zhang duo one after another and became their followers, thus forming the E Party. And Zhang Dang, the two parties are fighting each other and fighting each other in the court. This is like reaching out and opening the flower.
Emperors have always hated factionalism. In the feudal monarchy era, the court was like a villa with a large construction area, and the emperor was the landlord of the villa, and the officials were the tenants of the villa. The villa had their own rooms. The emperor allowed them to walk around in the villa hall, but he did not allow them to run around in the hall.
Whether the fragile wooden floor could withstand their running was another matter. Even the sound of running was enough to make the emperor upset.
The author knows very little about the attitude of emperors of other dynasties towards Pengtang, but the emperors of the Qing Dynasty had zero tolerance for cronies. Emperor Kangxi dealt with Obai, and Emperor Yongzheng took away the two people who helped him ascend the throne because of crony disputes. The great heroes Nian Gengyao and Longkodo were dealt with, and now the new landlord Qianlong will certainly not be merciful to Ertai and Zhang Tingyu.
The foreman, the Minister of Military Affairs, was punished by Emperor Qianlong in his later years and was almost unable to enjoy the imperial temple. Although Ertai had died of illness, the emperor still held on to his disciple Hu Zhongzao, and used this matter to "cloud" Ertai. One wave.
(Emperor Qianlong)
It seems that through the unremitting efforts of Kangxi and Emperor Yongzheng, Emperor Qianlong has understood the ultimate meaning of being an emperor, which is: never allow ministers to unite, and never let them unite because of Respect them, reuse them, and let them develop a mentality of interfering with you.
Therefore, in the end of Qianlong's reign, hundreds of officials worshiped him, and they only dared to shout long live the mountain without any disobedience.
Outside the Forbidden City the smoke is vast, the setting sun melts gold, and wherever Emperor Qianlong's figure is shrouded, everyone trembles. The ferocious side of the feudal monarch that is not easy to detect is undoubtedly revealed at this moment. Thinking back to the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yijun, If he had even a little bit of Qianlong's methods during his long reign, he wouldn't have been bullied by the ministers into self-isolation.
The past has become nothing and is just a joke. Now people of today and old have turned into a handful of loess.
