1376 In 1996, a supervisor met with Zhu Yuanzhang nervously, and took out a book of government records of money and grain from his sleeve, so that the emperor could read it.
Stills
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know if he didn't see it. He was shocked when he saw it, and his lungs were so angry that he almost exploded. Have these local officials taken the courage of the bear heart and leopard? Dare to ignore my system of Ming Dynasty , I don’t take me seriously.
What kind of account book can make Zhu Yuanzhang, who has been through many battles, get angry like this?
is an empty account book, nothing, empty, but it is covered with the official seals of local governments at all levels. To put it bluntly, the seal has been stamped and you can fill in whatever you want. The government recognizes it. Think about how terrible this is?
Zhu Yuanzhang carefully asked about the origin of the account book and learned that what he found in the local officials who went to Beijing to reconcile accounts, he almost fainted and understood the seriousness of the matter.
Long Yan was furious and with an order, he controlled all the tax officials of the local governments who came to Beijing to reconcile. All the top leaders in charge of the official seal, officials who do not report the information, and those who have poor supervision will be arrested and sent to prison.
Why do these arrested officials break the law so secretly? Is it really a matter of conspiracy to corruption?
In fact, this is not the case. Among these arrested officials, many are local officials who are honest and loved by the people. For example: the prefect of Jining Prefecture, Shandong Province, Fang Keqin , and Zheng Shiyuan , who served as the sixth-rank inspector, are all fair and honest officials.
Stills
The cause of empty seal case is closely related to the tax system of Ming Dynasty . At that time, the Ministry of Revenue stipulated that local governments would regularly hand over local taxed grain and money to the Ministry of Revenue every year.
checks the accounts with the Ministry of Revenue. If the numbers on both sides match, then the tax task will be finished. But once there is a mistake, it must be corrected. It doesn’t matter if it has been corrected, and the accounts must be re-made.
re-do the account, and you must contact the local government to review before stamping it. This is a relatively difficult point to operate. At that time, the transportation was underdeveloped. I went to Nanjing, rode a horse and took a boat, and traveled through mountains and rivers. The road was long. I took it back and stamped it again for at least half a year.
The officials who went to Beijing to pay the money and food were not the top leaders of the local government, and this official seal cannot be carried with them. It’s okay to hand over the money, but it’s mainly about handing over the food. Long-distance transportation is inevitably depleted, and things that cannot be matched with the account often happen.
Therefore, most local officials have thought of this method to let the tax payers stamp the blank account book with official seal before entering Beijing, and after paying the money and grain, if it is exactly the same as the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, then everyone will be happy.
If it doesn’t match the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, we are not afraid. Fill in the content of the new account in the blank account book with the stamped in advance, and then go to the Ministry of Revenue to check the consistency. It saves a lot of trouble and is not needed to run back for half a year.
Most officials in most provinces adopted this method. Perhaps the tax system in the Ming Dynasty itself had some disadvantages or was difficult to operate.
It seems that this matter is not complicated. Explain it clearly to the emperor. If you come up with better ways to promote tax work in various places, everything will be fine.
It's strange. There are obviously things that can be explained clearly. No one from the prime minister to the officials dares to come forward to explain clearly.
Stills
Don’t think that these officials of the Ming Dynasty were too ineffective. In fact, everyone is afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang, Ming Taizu The law enforcement is strict and even to the point of being harsh.
is unkind, relatives do not recognize you, kill people without blinking, no one dares to explain that there are unreasonable aspects of the tax system in the North and it is inconvenient to operate.
stamped on the blank account book is also a helpless act by officials who come to Beijing to pay taxes. They are all to save time and do their job well.
" Ming Shi " and other official historical records all say: " Hongwu June 2, the first star in Biyougubei was in the first solar eclipse on July 1." Imperial Heaven Supervision reported that Mars in July violated the general, and Venus in August violated again. "
In the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), the year when the empty seal case occurred, the Imperial Heaven Supervision, which specializes in observing the astronomical phenomena, went to the palace to report that Zhu Yuanzhang "when observing the star transformation, there may be disaster. "
Zhu Yuanzhang was anxious when he heard this and immediately issued an order: "Mobilize knowledgeable people in the world to write letters to the court or the government to point out problems, so that we can improve the political system and avoid disaster. "
At this time, a brave scholar Zheng Shili wrote a long letter to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to let go of the officials who had the empty seal case.
roughly the content is as follows: 1. Blank account book, no profit. The seal stamped on the blank account book is not an ordinary seal, but a sewing seal. Only half a seal is stamped on a record book, and such an account book cannot be used for other purposes. That is, it cannot be used by corrupt officials.
2. The reason why officials do this It is really helpless. The provinces and governments are 6,000-7,000 miles away from Nanjing City and 1,000-3,000 miles away. After checking the accounts, they returned to the provincial government to stamp the seal. It was a waste of time. They did this to improve efficiency and had no selfishness. This matter has been a long time and has become a routine. It is really not considered a crime.
3. The local officials who have seized so many seals of officials have no legal basis. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has been no law that is not allowed to stamp on blank books.
Behind the letter is Zheng Shili advised the emperor and other officials to be rare talents who have been dedicated to the country for decades. People's lives are different, and they cannot grow again after being cut.
The emperor cannot kill these loyal ministers of the court with such an indecent crime. Every word and sentence is at the point.
So what? Zhu Yuanzhang was furious after reading the letter and ordered Zheng Shili who wrote the letter to be arrested. The ministers clearly knew that the empty seal case was a helpless act of the local government, but they were afraid that He was burned by fire, but no one dared to stand up and persuade the emperor.
Zhu Yuanzhang
Zheng Shili not only did not rescue his brother Zheng Shiyuan who was imprisoned for the air seal case and the implicated officials, but instead drove himself in.
His letter failed to change Zhu Yuanzhang's view on the air seal case. Instead, he strengthened his determination to severely punish the people involved in the case, and ordered all the chief officers in charge of the seal, and his deputy to be exiled.
Later some people analyzed that Zhu Yuanzhang was not concerned about whether these officials were corrupt or not, but that everyone did not take themselves seriously.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in poor background, especially cared about others looking down on him. To put it bluntly, if you don’t give me face, I will take your life. This is the mentality.
The empty seal case may be an unjust case, but the emergence of the empty seal case also showed the imperfection of the regulatory mechanism at that time. The Ministry of Revenue is the financial supervisor of the central government, and it also includes the Including taxes.
Local governments in various places pay money and grain to the Ministry of Revenue in accordance with regulations every year, and then the Ministry of Revenue allocates money to the local government as needed.
The Ministry of Revenue is equivalent to accounting, local government is equivalent to cashiers, blank account books are prevalent, the Ministry of Revenue and local tax officials collude to create fake accounts, and embezzle public funds is easy to do.
plus the review system is like a false one. On the surface, the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue and the local government are completely consistent, and the supervisory officer is very It is difficult to see the flaws in making fake accounts.
Zhu Yuanzhang was the most concerned one, that is, these officials ignored the national system. Since the official seal of the local government on the money and grain accounts was a system stipulated by the Ming government, as an official, it should be strictly implemented.
Even if the system was not perfect at that time, it should go through strict procedures and be approved by the emperor and the important officials of the court.
cannot use such policies and countermeasures, which will form such a bad atmosphere.
On the one hand, this matter itself may be wronged, but this behavior cannot be encouraged.
On the other hand, stamping a blank account book is violated, but even if it is guilty, it will not be punished.
As Zheng Shili said, there are no relevant laws before the accident, and after the incident, they will kill people directly. This practice is a bit too serious.
At that time, there were more than 140 prefectures in 13 provinces and more than 140 prefectures in the country. Nearly half of the officials were involved in the empty seal case, and many of them were honest and good officials.
As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the purpose of doing this is to punish corrupt officials or establish authority, he should work hard to improve the system so that similar things will not happen.
Author: Kezhen Tribe
Follow my article to warm your soul
The picture in the article comes from the Internet
References: Baidu Encyclopedia, "Things in the Ming Dynasty"
#I am creating the second issue of Toutiao#
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