The Woman Who Loves History has Huigen, No. 82
Before talking about Zhu Yunjiao's reforms, we have to talk about the specific situation that Zhu Yunjiao faced when he reformed.
After Zhu Yunjiao succeeded to the throne, he immediately recalled Fang Xiaoru, who had been demoted to Hanzhong, and asked him to go to Hanlin Academy as a "teacher". At the same time, he appointed Qi Tai as bingbu shangshu and Huang Zicheng as the secretary of Taichang Temple, helping him to implement the "New Deal of Emperor Jianwen".
Zhu Yunjiao was influenced by the great Confucian Fang Xiaoru and realized that the harsh government and abusive punishment of The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang were unsustainable. When Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, he could also rely on his prestige to suppress the rebellion in various places. Once Zhu Yuanzhang died, with Zhu Yunzhang's moral hope, it was difficult to continue to maintain the intensity of the rule of Zhu Yuanzhang's era. Therefore, Zhu Yunjiao chose to reduce the heavy taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, opened up his speech, humbly accepted suggestions, and with the assistance of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, began to implement a policy of cutting down the domain.
The purpose of cutting the domain was to attack the princes of the clan who were arranged by Ming Taizu in various places and reduce the financial burden of the imperial court.
Most of the reforms of the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao were more idealistic, and he announced in his succession edict that he would implement a "new deal" to open a new taiping era for the Ming Dynasty
Emperor Jianwen's dilemma: the uncles are too strong, they are too weak, and the lives of ordinary people are too difficult
When Zhu Yunjiao ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty faced three major crises:
First, Ming Taizu killed meritorious servants and conferred the title of king of the domain, resulting in a lack of military talent in the Ming court, and the tail of the king of the clan could not be lost
Zhu Yuanzhang slaughtered many founding heroes, including Blue Jade, but resealed the descendants of the Zhu clan.
Yes, this was indeed as Zhu Yuanzhang wished, alleviating the difficulty of his grandson Zhu Yunjiao's ascension to the throne, so that after Zhu Yunjiao took the throne, he could directly become a powerful emperor to take charge of the government, without having to be constrained by the power of the courtiers.
But on the other hand, it unexpectedly hit the strength of the central government of the Ming Dynasty.
When Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, the princes and nobles who were sealed in various places were all his descendants and naturally obeyed him. However, for zhu Yunjiao, who was on the throne, these princes everywhere were his uncles and uncles and siblings. These "elders" may not necessarily obey Zhu Yunjiao.
After the collapse of the Meritorious Group, the clan became a huge constraint. This is actually very similar to the pattern before the Rebellion of the Eight Kings after the death of Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jinwu. The pattern of the clan princes' division of fiefdoms and the confrontation with Zhu Yunjiao are actually more problematic than the interference of the powerful ministers in politics. (Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang may not feel it, because they are all descendants of his Zhu family, and it doesn't matter who becomes emperor.)
Second, Zhu Yuanzhang established a "law of the ancestors" for future generations, his "Imperial Ming Ancestral Training". He treated the world as a static and unchanging world, framed and dead. As a result, it greatly hindered Zhu Yunjiao's reasonable revision of policies and the reduction of domains, and instead affected the stability of the Ming Empire.
Third, this is actually connected to the previous point. During Zhu Yuanzhang's period, it was a heavy agricultural tax and a light commercial tax, which greatly promoted economic development. However, in the jianwen emperor's period, because of the "ancestral system", the commercial tax could not be increased, the agricultural tax could not be reduced, and the people lived in great hardship, which was also like a barrel of explosives, which could explode at any time.
Jianwen Emperor Reform: Build your own team and tax the "vested interests"!
The three axes of Zhu Yunjiao's reforms:
First, change the official system
The purpose of the so-called change of official positions is to create a number of positions with real power, replace the existing positions, and form a political force loyal to Emperor Jianwen, and compete with the minions and teeth of these "Uncles and Uncles of the Zhu Family" installed in the imperial court.
Since this was shortly after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yunjiao's uncles and uncles were the "Wuxun" group that followed his grandfather to fight the world. Therefore, most of the eyeliner they installed in the imperial court were military attachés.
Therefore, Zhu Yunjiao mainly recruited more civilian officials through the Dakai Examination and enriched the imperial court and his own talent pool. At the same time, the "feudal ministers" who were born as civilian officials were promoted from the localities and promoted them to the six ministries, so as to form a force loyal to Emperor Jianwen and rely on this force for reform.
Second, raise the status of civilian officials and at the same time dismiss local officials
This purpose, on the one hand, as above, was to further expand the influence of Emperor Jianwen's forces. On the other hand, it is through the dismissal of local officials and gambling with the princes. The content of the bet is that these princes will not rebel because they have dismissed several official positions. In this way, Emperor Jianwen was able to boil frogs in warm water and eat them step by step, thus weakening the strength of the princes everywhere.
Moreover, this kind of abolition has really reduced the number of officials in various localities who eat "financial meals," reduced financial expenditures, and reduced the burdens of the people in various localities.
The third is to reduce sentences, reduce endowments, and reduce servitude.
The third aspect of Emperor Jianwen's reform was to greatly reduce the severity of the sentences for the crimes in the Daming Law. He also rehabilitated the unjust, false and wrongly decided cases during Zhu Yuanzhang's years.
At the same time, Emperor Jianwen increased the tax on monasteries, Taoist temples and the land and property under their names, and lowered the taxes on peasants.
Why increase the taxes of monasteries and Taoist temples?
The reason is simple, because Zhu Yuanzhang gave excessive preferential treatment to monasteries and Taoist temples. Zhu Yuanzhang was a monk in his early years, and he was very familiar with the teachings of Buddhism and Taoism, and he also believed in them to some extent. In his later years, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was afraid of retribution, especially favored these religions and gave them many preferential treatment, and what was more outrageous was that the land of monasteries and Taoist temples did not pay taxes. This is in stark contrast to his heavy taxation on farmers. After Emperor Jianwen came to power, he immediately corrected these problems.
I have to say that these reform policies of Emperor Jianwen are really to the point, and they are highly enforceable and have done a very good job. However, this team of Emperor Jianwen is very aware of how to govern the country and has a degree of progress and retreat. However, he was a little confused about the military, so he made a big mistake precisely in the most important matter of "cutting the domain"!
Jianwen Cut Fan: Three strategies of upper, middle and lower, and the most adventurous next strategy was chosen
Emperor Jianwen's staff offered him three strategies for cutting the domain:
First, it was the "martial arts faction" headed by Fang Xiaoru, who advocated forcibly cutting down the clan and arming the annihilation of the clan kings who refused to obey their orders. The advantage of this policy is that the problem of the king of the clan is simply and neatly solved once and for all. However, the disadvantages are: After Zhu Yuanzhang attacked the heroes many times, there were no good warriors in the DPRK, and most of the clan kings were wuxun who started out, and it was very likely that they could not fight well, and the clan kings may be connected together and join forces to start a war.
Second, Gao Wei shangshu suggested that Emperor Wu of han carry out the "Tui En Order". In the way of dividing the princes and grandchildren, the "great clan kings" are decomposed into a bunch of "small clan kings", so that they can be broken. The advantage of this method is to "go with the flow", without effort or fear of war. However, there is a major problem, that is, age is not appropriate!
Zhu Yunjiao, as the eldest son and eldest grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, was only 22 years old. The descendants of other clan kings were even younger. The descendants of these clan kings did not have the ability to independently portal. Even if it is divided, it is still just a marionette of the "kings of the great domain", and the so-called "Tui En" is just wishful thinking. If you wait until these children are older, and then push grace, it is really no problem. However, Emperor Jianwen and the civil official clique believed that the issue of the king of the clan was urgent, and felt that they could not wait, nor were they willing to wait.
Third, "changing the defense" to cut the domain, or "moving to cut the domain". What does that mean? The kings of the northern clans were re-divided into the south, and the kings of the south were re-divided into the north. The official named Zhuo Jing also pointed out that the first king of the clan to be eradicated was Zhu Di, the King of Yan.
I have to say that in the face of the powerful feudal king. Against the backdrop of the imperial court's lack of military talent, the use of force to cut the domain was itself a major political adventure. For the imperial court, the most secure way is to wait, wait until the kings of the clans are older, and then start to "push grace". The second is to adopt Zhuo Jing's strategy of "moving to the land and cutting the domain". However, Emperor Jianwen and his close courtiers eventually chose to slash the domain by force, gambling big and small, and did not hesitate to take risks, so that they lost everything.
Epilogue: Jianwen's mistake began with Hongwu
Emperor Jianwen's dilemma, whose mistake began with Hongwu, was created by his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang.
It is said that when the crown prince Zhu Biao was still alive, he once had a lot of criticism of Zhu Yuanzhang's massacre of heroes. Zhu Yuanzhang then summoned Zhu Biao and handed him a wooden stick full of spikes and asked him to hold it. Zhu Biao couldn't hold it at all, so Zhu Yuanzhang took back the wooden stick, drew out his sword, cut the spikes on it clean, and handed it to Zhu Biao.
Obviously, in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, these heroes were "barbs" who might threaten Zhu Biao's imperial power. Zhu Yuanzhang did not realize that the other sons he had planted in various places were actually "barbs".
For Zhu Biao, the king of the clan was not a problem. Because Zhu Biao was the eldest son and the prince of the Jianguo, he had richer political and military experience than his younger brothers, and his prestige was heavier than that of his younger brothers. But Zhu Yunjiao is not Zhu Biao.
As an "hindsight", we look back at history and can find out. After Zhu Biao's death, for the new heir, the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao, the threat to the issue of the king of the domain was no less than that of the Gongxun clique. The Hongwu Emperor should actually help his grandson complete the cutting of the domain first, or leave him a "new Wuxun clique" to help balance and hedge against the threat of the king of the domain.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but deal with his sons in the end.
Perhaps, the sons who raised an army to take away their grandchildren's world was not a big problem in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.
- Inside and outside, isn't it still surnamed Zhu?
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