In the social context of ancient feudal rule, with the absolute monarchy system as the center, imperial power often symbolizes the supremacy, and the emperor alone monopolizes the power; in addition to having absolute discourse power in the macro field such as political and military culture, the emperor also has the power to kill and seize the life of the heavens and the people.
Imperial
The so-called "companion is like a companion tiger". Each of the courtiers and attendants who accompanied the emperor was cautious in his words and deeds, like walking on thin ice. If you encounter a wise and benevolent monarch, making a small mistake is only to remove an official and a half-post; but if you encounter a "tyrant" like Qin Shi Huang, Zhu Yuanzhang, who kills decisively and has a fierce heart, perhaps if he says a wrong word, he will lose his head, and even be punished by the Nine Tribes and five horses, and the end will be extremely tragic.
However, in the TV series "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" in many people's childhood memories, the setting of "death-free gold medal" has left a very deep impression on people.
Whenever the protagonist Tuan made a terrible mistake and faced the capital crime of being beheaded, someone would suddenly pull out a death-free gold medal to avoid death, leaving the emperor helpless. Therefore, the "deathless gold medal" is like a "talisman" in front of the imperial dictatorship, which is fascinating.
The deathless gold medal in "Huan Zhu Ge Ge"
Fortunately, the setting of the death-free gold medal is not a product of imagination in the process of literary creation and artistic processing. Historically, the death-free gold medal was indeed real, and was often used by emperors to reward meritorious men and exempt them from capital crimes. However, it is worth noting that the ministers who held the gold medal of death in ancient times basically could not "die well" and could not escape the tragic death.
The deathless gold medal not only did not become a "talisman", but became a "death curse", what is the matter?
Deathless Gold Medal
In fact, the death-free gold medal has a special academic name, called "Danshu Iron Coupon", which is a privilege certificate awarded by ancient emperors to heroes to avoid death. The origin of the name Danshu iron coupon is precisely because it is a voucher made of iron as a material, and it is also named after a text written with cinnabar pigments.
In the Sui Dynasty, the documents on the iron coupons were changed to gold paint, so they were also called "golden books and iron coupons". In order to prevent counterfeiting, the Danshu iron coupon was usually split and divided into two, and the imperial court and the princes each stored one.
Danshu iron coupons
The earliest appearance of the Danshu iron coupon can be traced back to the time of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, who in order to win over the courtiers, awarded the Danshu iron deed to the meritorious people who opened up the country together, as a kind of award and medal for meritorious service and promotion, and also regarded it as a covenant oath between the emperor and the courtiers, which was solemnly preserved and stored in the special Zongmiao Temple.
However, the Danshu iron coupon of this period did not have the privilege function of avoiding death, mainly acting on a "sense of ceremony" of the voucher. Therefore, among the heroes who held iron coupons, there were also many people who were executed for their crimes.
It was not until the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties that the Danshu iron coupon really had the function of avoiding death. At first, iron coupons could only be avoided once or three times, but from the Northern Wei to The Sui and Tang Dynasties, the number of deaths was increasing, and even the descendants of iron coupon holders could be saved from death three times. Therefore, the iron coupon truly became the "gold medal for avoiding death", and also became a talisman and life-saving curse in the eyes of many people, and even during the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were cases where ministers took the initiative to beg the emperor for iron coupons.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the issuance of iron coupons had become the norm, and iron coupons could be rewarded for meritorious service; later, even some favored eunuchs could obtain iron coupons.
The most famous iron coupons preserved today are the "Qian Gong Iron Coupons" with a thousand years of history, which was given by Tang Zhaozong to the King of Wuyue Qian To commend the merits, made of iron, shaped like tiles, and the golden documents engraved on it mainly recorded the outstanding military achievements of Qian Gong's crusade against Dong Chang.
Iron coupons in the museum
Among them: "Qing forgives nine deaths, and his descendants die three times", which not only gives Qian Wei nine opportunities to avoid death, but also allows his descendants to enjoy the "welfare" of three times to avoid death, which shows the prominence of Qian's military achievements; today, this long-established iron coupon is being collected in the National Museum of China, confirming to the world the authenticity of the "gold medal for avoiding death".
However, if a person has the privilege of avoiding death, he may have no fear of the law and the rules, thus threatening the prestige of the emperor and the dominance of the imperial power. Therefore, since the Ming Dynasty, the emperor has begun to standardize and institutionalize iron coupons.
Deathless gold medals in all shapes
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor, was the first to standardize the issuance of iron coupons, stipulating that only meritorious people who had made military merits and were awarded marquises were eligible to receive iron coupons; and gradually established a perfect iron coupon system, dividing iron coupons into seven grades according to the level of the titles awarded to them.
Usually, the content of iron coupons mainly includes four aspects: one is the date of the voucher and the name and place of origin of the meritorious person; the second is to record the contributions and meritorious achievements made by the meritorious person; the third is the detailed privilege content, such as avoiding death several times, which can be avoided for several generations; and the fourth is the emperor's covenant oath to show that the emperor is trustworthy and his words count.
However, no matter how the shape of the iron coupon system changes, it is inseparable from the category of "showing virtue and righteousness, leading the world", and whether it can avoid death is secondary.
Why is it inevitable that the gold medal will die?
As a kind of reward and medal for the emperor to reward and reward the meritorious servants, the main purpose of the "death-free gold medal" is actually to win people's hearts, and it is a means for the emperor to motivate his subordinates and make them willing to give their lives for themselves. The sense of ceremony is greater than the practicality. If it is said that the minister has the gold medal of death and can openly rebel, does not it threaten the absolute dominance of the imperial power?
Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the iron coupon clearly stipulated that all the death penalties other than "treason" could be exempted, and after the death, they should also be demoted and reduced; this rule has also been used. However, this rule also made many heroes die at the hands of the emperor while holding the gold medal of death.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Hou Junji attacked Gaochang and made outstanding military achievements, and was one of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyange, and Tang Taizong awarded him a gold medal for avoiding death as a commendation. However, in the end, Hou Junji was killed by Emperor Taizong of Tang for participating in Li Chengqian's rebellion.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, gave each of the meritorious strategists who had fought the jiangshan conquest in each of them a gold medal to avoid death. In the end, almost all of them were executed. The Hu Weiyong case, the Blue Jade case, the Empty Seal case, and the Guo Heng case were created, and the history called the "Four Great Massacres of Hongwu" killed almost half of the imperial court, making the court shudder, tremble and tremble, and the political situation was depressed.
Among these meritorious men who were executed by the emperor, some of them did have the intention of plotting rebellion, and the execution was really helpless; but some of the heroes were suspected by the emperor of having meritorious service and exalting the lord just because of their outstanding ability and power, and they accused the meritorious people of the false charge of "conspiracy to rebel", killing themselves in vain, and even implicating tens of thousands of lives.
In the ancient feudal autocratic society, the imperial power was supreme, the emperor had the right to give the gold medal for the exemption from death, and naturally also had the right to interpret the gold medal for the exemption from death, and for the crime of "rebellion", which threatened the absolute dominance of the imperial power, the death-free gold medal could not save people's lives.
Ancient imperial power was supreme
The root cause of the inability to "end well": centralization
So, why was the emperor so afraid of "rebellion"? In order to prevent "rebellion", why should we not hesitate to kill tens of thousands of people by mistake to save the throne? Its roots are precisely the maintenance of the absolute dominance of centralized power.
As the saying goes, "it is easy to fight the country and the mountains are difficult to defend the country", the concept of the emperor under the feudal autocratic dynasty for the unification of the country is not equivalent to the concept of the "reunification of the motherland" today; our current unification is the unification of the entire Chinese nation, and the unification of the ancient emperors only pursues the rule of the imperial family over the country.
Although in ancient times, the emperor had supreme power, but those who were given death-saving gold medals by the emperor to commend the meritorious deeds and the power they held happened to be the most likely to become the eyes of the emperor, once the power of the heroes was suspected of containing the imperial power, the emperor would have to take some special measures to suppress in order to stabilize the imperial power.
As the saying goes, "A king wants his subjects to die, and his subjects have to die." "For the emperor, it is necessary to be able to give power to the ministers and to be able to take power back from the hands of the ministers. Therefore, the phenomenon that the deathless gold medal is inevitably dead actually confirms the inevitable trend that in the ancient feudal dynasties, centralized power and imperial despotism will continue to strengthen.
In fact, whether in ancient times or in modern times, people's pursuit of interests and power has never stopped. During the period of feudal autocracy, the emperor used the death-free gold medal to reward the ministers, and let the death-free gold medal avoid the dead end, which was actually a trade-off of interests and a balance on power.
However, those situations that have taken people's lives are also not lacking in warning of the oppression of human nature and the contempt for human life of the ruling class under the feudal autocracy, so with the progress of the times and ideas, the feudal autocracy will be abandoned under the wheel of history.
【Reprinted for reflection only!】 Copyright belongs to the original author, such as copyright issues, please leave a message in the background, delete it immediately】