The so-called "companion of the king is like a companion of the tiger", in ancient times, the emperor, as the king of a country, held the power of life and death of all people in the world, as long as anyone provoked him, he could be killed at any time. Therefore, the eunuchs and palace ladies who served the emperor, including the ministers, had to be careful every day, so as not to lose their lives if they were not careful.
For these people, the biggest dream is to be able to have a death-free gold medal, so does this death-free gold medal really have such a big effect?
The deathless gold medal is said in the folk narrative, in fact, it also has a professional term called Danshu Iron Coupon. It refers to a kind of privilege certificate granted by ancient emperors to meritorious and important subjects, also known as "Danshu Tieqi", which was first seen in the historical books "Hanshu Gaodiji" and "Sacrifice Zun Zhuan", and its name is "Danshu Tieqi" and "Danshu Tie coupon".
The so-called Book of Dan is written in cinnabar, and the iron deed is a voucher made of iron. A few lines of writing were written in cinnabar, and then divided into two, half for meritorious servants and half for the palace. When the minister wants to use it, he only needs to take out the half and compare it with the other half preserved in the palace to distinguish the true from the false.
What does that look like? It is recorded in the "Yan Fan Lu" that the iron coupons are as strong as a cylinder tile, the iron gold characters, the two coupons are combined into a whole, the left coupon is issued to the recipient for preservation, the right coupon is hidden in the royal inner house or the zongmiao, if there is a special situation, the two coupons are combined together to test the authenticity and prevent forgery.
The system of awarding "Danshu Iron Coupons" began as early as Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, after Liu Bang seized power, in order to consolidate his rule and gather heroes, he awarded the founding hero "Danshu Iron Coupon" as a reward, which can be passed down from generation to generation. ”
However, the earliest "iron coupons" did not have privileges such as exoneration and death, but only as a kind of certificate for adding officials to the title of marquis. Among the heroes and their descendants who were given iron coupons, there were many people who were convicted or even executed, such as Zhang Liang, Han Xin, Peng Yue and others who owned the "iron coupons", and in the end they were not all killed.
It was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties period that the Danshu iron coupon added the function of avoiding death, and this value at that time was naturally greater, after all, with this iron coupon, it was able to save lives at a critical moment. At that time, in the imperial court, almost all the meritorious ministers had one, and most of the early iron coupons were exempted from death less than 3 times.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, there were more iron coupons, almost all the imperial relatives and nobles, meritorious ministers, and one share. Moreover, the Dansha crossword on the "iron coupon" was gradually changed to gold crossword, so it was called "golden book iron coupon" in later generations.
However, can danshu iron coupons really avoid death?
Most of the time it is indeed possible, after all, this is promised by the emperor himself, but some heroes may not be useful after getting the iron coupon, until after changing an emperor, there is no opportunity to use it.
So, is this iron coupon still useful?
In principle, it is useful, as long as the emperor recognizes it. However, some emperors did not recognize it, such as Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong, who did not recognize the iron coupons issued during the Tang Taizong period.
After all, in ancient times, the emperor was the supreme ruler, everything was decided by him, as long as he wanted, he could do everything he could to kill people, so the gold medal for avoiding death was not a crime or anyone could be spared.
Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, launched the Chen Qiao Mutiny, added yellow robes, and obtained the throne from the Hands of the Later Zhou Chai family, in order to appease the people's hearts, he ordered that the descendants of the Chai clan be treated favorably, and the Chai clan was given the "Danshu Iron Coupon", even if the descendants of the Chai clan committed crimes, they could not be punished.
In the Ming Dynasty, although Zhu Yuanzhang continued to use the Danshu iron coupon, he legally regulated the awarding of the "Danshu iron coupon" to only those who had military merit and were given the titles of gong, hou, and bo. For example, Li Shanchang, Xu Da and others were given "golden book iron coupons".
Compared with the iron coupons of the Tang Dynasty, the content of the Danshu iron coupons of the Ming Dynasty has changed significantly. The first is to plot rebellion and only commit other capital crimes; second, the number of deaths is less, and the descendants will inevitably die.
The "Wild Hagi Compilation" has a record: "The so-called avoidance of death, except for conspiracy and rebellion, all death penalties are exempted." However, after the exemption of the knighthood, it is not allowed to remain sealed, but it is loaned to its life. ”
For example, Zhu Yuanzhang killed the founding heroes, almost all of them have Danshu iron coupons in hand, and in the end, they were not killed by Zhu Yuanzhang one by one?
It turned out that when Zhu Yuanzhang was making the Danshu iron coupon, he deliberately added a line of small characters to the back, and the content of the small characters was "conspiracy to rebel is inevitable death." This is zhu Yuanzhang's cleverness, because these heroes who were later killed by him were all convicted of conspiracy and rebellion.
For example, Li Shanchang, who is also the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, is comparable to Xiao He of the Han Dynasty, who has made countless merits, and after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he was named a minister and a very popular subject. He was also granted an iron coupon to exempt Li Shanchang from the second death and his son from death.
The Biography of Ming Shi Li Shanchang records that it is the founding of the auxiliary transport of Tui Cheng Shou Zheng Chen, TeJin Guanglu Dafu, Zuo Zhu Guo, Tai shi, Zhongshu Zuo Xiang, Feng Han Gong, 4,000 stones of The Year Lu, and hereditary descendants. Give iron coupons, avoid two deaths, and save one son from death.
However, when he was in his seventies, he was implicated by his relatives and the Hu Weiyong Party, and the family of more than seventy people was beheaded. At that time, Li Shanchang was on the execution ground, and he also took out the Danshu iron coupon and wanted Zhu Yuanzhang to let him go. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was dismissive and asked him to take a good look at the words on the gold medal of death.
When Li Shanchang heard Zhu Yuanzhang say this, he saw this line of small characters on the back of the death-free gold medal: The so-called avoidance of death, except for plotting against the great rebellion, all death penalties are exempted. At this moment, he understood Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts, but he had nothing to say and had to wait for death.
In the Qing Dynasty, the "Danshu Iron Coupon" system, which had prevailed for more than a thousand years, was abolished.
Although the Danshu iron coupon has the theory of avoiding death, but more often, it is the emperor who says it, after all, in the ancient feudal society, the imperial power is supreme, the king wants the subject to die, the subject has to die, this is not the embodiment of the ancient supreme feudal imperial power?
Moreover, those who possess The Danshu Iron Coupon are generally almost all meritorious ministers, but since ancient times, very few meritorious people have been able to get a good death. Therefore, sometimes the Danshu iron coupon does not play a role in avoiding death, and many times it is more like a hypnotic!
References: "Book of Han, Gao Di Ji", "Later Han Shu Ji Zhuan", "Yan Fanlu", "Ye Di Bian" and so on