"Violence is by no means a cure for the world." When justice appears in a violent way, in addition to the great pleasure of the people, how many sorrows are hidden behind it, which is doubly frightening. During the Western Han Dynasty in China, many "cool officials" used cruel means to govern the people, and although there was a peaceful situation everywhere for a time, it was accompanied by the threat of thousands of feet of blood, and no one dared to commit chaos.
In the Western Han Dynasty, there was a cool official known as "Tu Bo" who killed people like hemp, and as long as the prisoner committed a crime, no matter how big or small, most of them were no longer alive in his hands. Today's laws speak of humanitarianism, but in his case any bad person is doomed to be beheaded and shown to the public, even if the prisoner has been reformed. This "tu bo" slaughtered countless prisoners.
One day, his mother came to visit her son, but she was shocked and saddened to see the countless prisoners who died tragically on the street, who committed crimes of different sizes, who begged bitterly and wanted to be rehabilitated, but all that awaited them were polished butcher knives and blood.
The mother of "Tu Bo" saw this tragic scene and refused to see her son, she went straight home and prepared a cemetery for her son to bury him, but she did not expect her words to become a slur, and soon after he was tortured and died, and her mother was grieving.
Still
"Geng Zhi" Yan Yannian
During the Western Han Dynasty, Huo Guang wrote to abolish the whole day of play
King of Changyi
。 After King Changyi was succeeded by Emperor Xuan of han, he valued a man named Yan Yannian. Emperor Xuan of Han liked to use some capable and well-behaved officials, and Yan Yannian happened to meet these characteristics in some aspects, but Yan Yannian's journey as an official also had many twists and turns.
After Huo Guang abolished the King of Changyi, Yan Yannian wrote to impeach Huo Guang for the crime of "cheating the king and committing crimes", and huo Guang did not say what the purpose of abolishing the king of Changyi was not to say, but Yan Yannian dared to say bluntly that he did not observe the etiquette of his courtiers, saying that it was a great rebellion to abolish the emperor without authorization, which was really bold.
What Yan Yannian said was also reasonable, but the drunkard's intention was not in the wine, he purely wanted to find Huo Guang unhappy, as soon as this recital was on, the people in the DPRK began to be jealous of him, after all, those who dared to provoke Huo Guang could not be provoked.
Although this piece was presented, it was withheld from it, so there was no afterword. Emperor Xuan of Han was able to ascend to the throne, and although the purpose was not pure, it also showed how much power he held at that time.
Huo Guang could not be provoked casually, even Emperor Xuan of Han could not easily seize his power at the beginning, and it was precisely for this reason that a large number of people suddenly admired Yan Yannian and dared to write a letter to impeach Huo Guang, this person is not simple.
Huo Guang
Yan Yannian has always been this kind of person who does not know how to protect himself, which is related to his identity at that time, but it is also due to his personality. His father was a chief official of the XiangFu, who had studied law in the Xiangfu since he was a child, and during the Shu and Han Dynasties, the Xiangfu was highly powerful and even more powerful than the emperor.
Yan Yannian had seen a lot of learning in the Xiang Mansion, and it was because this experience had made him more capable.
However, perhaps some of the influence also came from here, Yan Yannian learned these rules and regulations from an early age and lived in a more disciplined growth environment, so he shaped his character.
Yan Yannian
After criticizing Huo Guang, Yan Yannian had a more famous thing, that is, he impeached The Great Si Nong Yannian. This time Yan Yannian had bad luck, but he almost hurt himself.
Tian Yannian and Huo Guang are in the same group, and it is not difficult to see how much he has a grudge against them these two times, and it is worth saying that Yan Yannian is indeed a person who is more "vengeful".
What did Tian Yannian do? In Yan Yannian's letter, he wanted Emperor Xuan of Han to punish him on the grounds that Tian Yannian had brought weapons into the palace and collided with the emperor's honor guard, but Tian Yannian naturally did not do it, and he insisted that he did not rush the emperor's honor guard at all.
The two people had their own opinions, at this time things escalated, someone came to try the case, and the person who tried the case stood on the side of Tian Yannian to give Yan Yannian a big downside, and directly let Yan Yannian lift a stone and drop it on his own feet.
What did this Yushi Zhongcheng say, saying that since Tian Yannian had collided with the honor guard, it was Yan Yannian's sin, and he obviously knew that he did not stop him much, but instead put him in. Yan Yannian was impeached as a sinner in the palace and wanted to execute him according to the law, Yan Yannian was afraid, and hurriedly packed up his things and ran.
Although he ran away, he was naturally not willing, and after a few years he finally waited for the opportunity, and Emperor Xuan of Han issued a pardon. At this time, Emperor Xuan of Han had already taken most of the power from Huo Guang, and Yan Yannian was a talent worth using. Yan Yannian was a native of Xiapi, Donghai County, and a native of present-day Pizhou, Jiangsu.
He started out as a minor official in Donghae County, and was promoted to the rank of Imperial Master because of his outstanding ability, and later became a Royal Historian, and his daughter was the main chamber of the deposed King of Changyi, which is probably one of the reasons for his dislike of Huo Guang and others.
Yan Yannian received a pardon and received documents from the Xiangfu and the Yushifu successively, because the leader of the Yushifu followed Yan Yannian to the Yushifu and retook the position of the former Yushi Dafu. Yan Yannian's return to the court has been much restrained, but the way of dealing with the world has not changed, but at this time he is also ushering in an opportunity.
Emperor Xuan of Han greatly appreciated Yan Yannian's courage and temperament, and presumably also appreciated his impeachment of Huo Guang and Tian Yannian, so he let him make the Pingling Order.
During the Pingling Order, Yan Yannian did something wrong again and killed people unjustly, so he was dismissed from his post. After several turnovers, Yan Yannian eventually became the Taishou of Zhuo County. The previous county commanders of Zhuo County were incompetent, and the local bullies in Zhuo County were vicious and had a very bad atmosphere. For these powerful people, some officials are jealous of a few points, so the situation is becoming more and more serious.
However, the good days of these bullies have finally come to an end, because Yan Yannian has always been harsh, and he is not soft on evil deeds, he is not as jealous of these local forces as other officials, after all, he is a person who has seen the world, and his means are very tough.
Yan Yannian had just arrived at his post, and after understanding the situation, he was determined to eradicate these evil people and evil deeds, and the "cool official" also began.
Zhuo County under severe punishment: the first Taishou
At that time, there were three giants in Zhuo County, namely Biyebai, Xigaoshi, Donggaoshi and others, and the two Gaoshi were particularly prosperous.
They use their background and wealth to do evil in the local area, not only as long as they are people who have some relationship with these people, but also for tigers, the locals have a saying that they would rather offend Taishou than offend them, which shows how arrogant they are, and Yan Yannian is most unaccustomed to people who oppress the people.
After Yan Yannian came, they still did not realize that Yan Yannian was very different from the previous official positions, and they still did evil deeds, and all their people would hide in the homes of these "big brothers" after doing evil deeds, and the officials who were arrested had no choice but to stop, and after a period of time, they would continue to come out and do their own thing without restraint.
In this situation of public security, it is not only the lives of the people, but also the development of the whole Zhuo County, and the fear of doing business, and the fear of doing nothing, you have to carry some weapons before you dare to go to the street, it is to the point of such panic.
Yan Yannian was determined to punish severely, and the first thing he did was to take the most difficult and most feared Gao Shi to open the knife.
Yan Yannian wanted to find evidence of Gao's crimes, so he found Zhao Xiuqing, an official of local origin, because the locals knew the situation better. Zhao Xiuqing did not dare to rebel against Taishou, nor did he dare to rebel against Gao Shi, planning to be perfunctory, underestimating that this new Taishou Yannian would probably be the most regrettable decision he had ever made.
Zhao Xiuqing found evidence but prepared two copies, he planned to submit a crime that was not too serious first, and then he could give it to Yan Yannian from a light haircut, and if the situation was not right, he would hand over the real one to him. Unfortunately, this matter was known to Yan Yannian in advance.
Zhao Xiuqing respectfully handed over the record that only recorded minor crimes, Yan Yannian took this record, did not rush to see, did not hurry to put his hand into his arms, and took out another record.
Zhao Xiuqing was immediately dumbfounded, but it was too late, who was not good to play, he had to play Yan Yannian. In fact, Zhao Xiuqing's crime was changed to someone else's words, and he was dismissed and imprisoned, but Yan Yannian directly beheaded him the next day. For a while, these officials, large and small, realized that this new arrival was too defensive--it was too bad.
After killing the chicken and the monkey, the work was also more profitable, and the criminal record about Gao's family was soon detailed and detailed in Yan Yannian's hands.
Yan Yannian directly ordered the officers and soldiers to go to Gao's home to arrest the prisoners, and the Gao people did not expect everything to come so quickly at this time, and also wanted to deter these officers and soldiers, but they were escorted away before they finished speaking.
Gao Shi wanted to die and struggle, but like Zhao Xiuqing, he was beheaded in public, a total of dozens of people, and not a single one fell. Since then, "the county has been shaken, and the road has not been left behind." This scene made the people rejoice, the wicked were removed, and where they were unhappy, their hearts were filled with joy.
Since then, Zhuo County has changed suddenly, and when word of the incident of adultery has come out, it has suddenly become a county town with an excellent atmosphere of living and working in peace and contentment.
Although Yan Yannian's means were "cruel", he had to defend him, Yan Yannian could only be so fierce in dealing with these gentry and bullies, and his treatment of the common people was actually much looser, calling him a "cool official" or "Tu Bo", in fact, Yan Yannian was not an abominable person, on the contrary, he was especially a loyal official.
For a statement I agree with, these two thousand stones can not rule the gentry, ordinary officials can not work, only cool officials can rule.
These harsh means are not against civilians, but for the gentry who do not do evil, so some Western Han cool officials similar to Yan Yannian should actually be called noh officials.
The Death of Yan Yannian: The Difficult To Judge
After Zhuo County, Yan Yannian went to Henan to do Taishou, and Henan had a higher influence than Zhuo County, and Zhuo County's governance was meritorious at this time, and Emperor Xuan of Han was even more optimistic about Yan Yannian. Yan Yannian still maintained his work style in Henan, grabbing and killing the local heroes and strongmen without mercy, and what remained unchanged was that he was more considerate of the common people.
Yan Yannian became an unpredictable Taishou in Henan for a time, and his judgment and behavior were really unpredictable. Often, people feel that the prisoner who is not on the death penalty will be sentenced to death severely. If people said that this person would definitely be sentenced to death, Yan Yannian would be lightly dismissed. For Yan Yannian, "the officials cannot measure its depth and shallowness."
In fact, as a Taishou is not to kill if you want to kill, if you arrest a death row prisoner, you must report it to the death row and then kill people, but this link is actually just a form, but it cannot be said that Yan Yannian killed people indiscriminately, and most of the people he killed were still local powerful and extremely evil people.
Every winter, all the counties under its jurisdiction had to take prisoners on death row to the place where the Taishou Mansion was located, and Yan Yannian was in Luoyang, Henan. In the bitter winter, the scene of blood on the execution ground made the people really frightened, and the people of Henan called Henan Taishou "Yan Yannian" Tu Bo, and this unpleasant name spread at once, and the cruel saying of Yan Yannian's cruel officials continued to spread.
In fact, this view is mostly influenced by Yan Yannian's governance style, yan Yannian treats loyal and conscientious subordinates very well, treating them like his own relatives.
These subordinates are people who spend all day with Yan Yannian and are familiar with his principles of doing things, and they naturally know what the stigma outside is.
Henan is different from Zhuo County, the local forces here are more complicated than Zhuo County, and the background is more, while Yan Yannian is not affectionate, I don't know how many people's interests are damaged, there are many people who see that he is unhappy with him, yan Yannian is so shrewd, but he is not afraid of these threats and potential dangers, and he is loyal to Emperor Xuan of Han to govern the people for him.
Yan Yannian had a friend named Jing Zhaoyin named Zhang Chang, and he heard the wind, so he hurriedly wrote a letter to advise Yan Yannian not to execute so many prisoners, but to forgive these people more. It is true that under the pressure of this kind of coercion, these bullies will be repulsed one day sooner or later, and it will be too late to stay there.
After receiving the letter, Yan Yannian did not accept the advice, and he wrote back, saying that Henan was a political stronghold, that the remnants of the Eastern Zhou and Western Zhou dynasties were still there, and that there were many evil people and few good people in this place, so how could it be ignored.
Yan Yannian's mother came to see him once during the Ren Taishou period in Henan, and the Yan family had five sons who were all officials, and many of them were officials in the DPRK, so Yan Yannian's mother could be said to have taught well.
After Yan Mu arrived in Luoyang, it happened to be the winter near the Spring Festival, and she witnessed Yan Yannian punishing the prisoners, and she was shocked by this and left directly. Yan Yannian was happy with his mother's arrival, but unexpectedly, he angered her and did not want to enter the Taishou Mansion. Yan Yannian had no choice but to rush to the station to see his mother, and as a result, Yan Yannian locked Yan Yannian out of the door and did not see him.
Yan Yannian has always been a good filial piety, in order to make his mother forgive him for kneeling outside the door for a long time, he asked to see his mother, and finally his mother also softened, so he let him enter the door.
As soon as Mother Yan saw him, she rebuked him, saying, "Fortunately, I have to prepare the county guard, rule for thousands of miles, do not hear of benevolence and indoctrination, and fool the people with full security; take advantage of the punishment, punish more and kill people, and want to establish prestige, it is the will of the people's parents." ”
Mother Yan taught Yan Yannian that if he was fortunate enough to be a Taishou, he should convince people with reason, and educate the people to educate them with benevolence, rather than using torture to kill people in a big way to establish his prestige.
Yan Yannian knew his mother's good intentions and kept admitting mistakes, and finally her mother only sighed. Didn't his own son understand it yet, and where did Yan Yannian hear these words?
In fact, whether Yan Yannian was wrong in the end, it was really impossible to break it, what he did was indeed too inhumane, but from one aspect alone, it was absolutely not rigorous, and the reason why Yan Yannian did this was inseparable from the political purpose and social situation at that time, after all, he was just a taishou, if the emperor did not want to, how could he kill so many people.
Mother Yan couldn't, remembering Cheng's return home, she looked particularly sad before leaving, and said to Yan Yannian: "I didn't expect that I would send a white-haired person to a black-haired person at such an old age." I'm going back to my hometown in Donghai, and I need to find someone to sort out the graves of my ancestors. The meaning of Yan Yannian's words is that Yan Yannian will be killed one day if he continues to kill.
This is true, Yan Yannian was eventually sent to the grave by his own nature. Yan Yannian, who had been with the killing all day, became more and more angry, and what happened constantly seemed to be against him, Yan Yannian became more and more dissatisfied, and how much he respected the emperor before, how much he complained now.
Yingzhou Taishou Huangba was praised by the emperor for his good governance, Yingzhou was peaceful, and there was also a rumor that the phoenix had descended many times, so some people said that Huang Ba's benevolent governance inspired the heavens to have this auspicious omen.
Someone reported these wonders to the emperor, and the emperor was overjoyed, and immediately gave him the title of marquis and rewarded him with a thousand taels of gold, and soon Huang Ba was made a prince by Zhaojinjing, and finally became a chancellor. Yan Yannian was particularly dissatisfied with this, he was not accustomed to Huang Ba, and he felt that he obviously governed Henan very well, why did he not see the emperor reward him.
Yan Yannian found his former colleague and friend Cheng Yi and complained, when there was a locust plague in Henan, Yan Yannian said bluntly: "So many locusts, how can he eat all of them under the phoenix?" "There is irony everywhere between the lines, if it is only ironic Huang Ba, it is okay, but Huang Ba is a person that the emperor is optimistic about, saying that he is not good, it is not to hit the emperor's face."
Then there was the matter of the imperial court setting up a Changping warehouse, and the person who made the comment was Geng Shouchang, a small official who was not high, who proposed to set up a granary to collect grain when grain was cheap and to sell grain when it was expensive, which was a good way to regulate the market economy.
There should be nothing to say about this, but who would be dissatisfied. As a result, Yan Yannian was not cold and sarcastic, saying: "This method was conceived by a small official who did not have any official positions, what did those imperial historians and ministers do?" If you don't have the ability, you should let the sage. "Yan Yannian is really good at annoying people, and he offends a bunch of them with one sentence."
Sadly and sadly, Yan Yannian and his friend Cheng Yi complained about these things, and eventually caused disaster.
Cheng Yi was old, his mind was not clear for a long time, he listened to Yan Yannian's complaints all day, and looked at his cold-blooded appearance of killing people, somehow he ghostly made God think of himself, he wondered what if one day Yan Yannian would do the same to himself?
Thinking about it day and night, this matter became a knot in the heart of The Righteous, so he made a gua for himself, and it seemed to be "death"! He suddenly felt hopeless at the thought of Yan Yannian, so he reported all the words that Yan Yannian had said about slandering the imperial court and slandering the emperor, and after drinking medicine, he committed suicide.
This ending seems ridiculous, but it is also a little helpless. Although Yan Yannian's torture is to eliminate harm for the people, but the bloodshed is also too extreme, and the extremism is not only reflected here, Yan Yannian showed an overly absolute extremism in his early years, and with the continuous brewing of these character defects, he eventually killed himself.
Although Yan Yannian was a "cool official", he was not the kind of vicious person who took pleasure in killing people, and it was really difficult to judge him assertively, if he did not feel unfair and indignant in his heart, he would not have said so many words that caused trouble. We can only lament that man is indeed a complex animal, and that killing is by no means the best way to stop violence.
Mother Yan's words became a proverb: Heavenly Dao gods, people must not kill alone. I don't want to be tortured when the old man is tortured also!
summary
There is a special volume in the Book of The Western Han Dynasty to record the biography of The Cool Officials, Yan Yannian is one of them, but compared to the traditional sense of the Cool Officials, Yan Yannian is not a bad person, but the political style and means are too extreme.
In the end, the murderer was eventually killed, and Yan Yannian was difficult to judge, but from the point of view of his understanding of the people's envy and hatred, he is worth recording.
literature:
"Cool Officials and the Politics of the Han Dynasty" Wang Ying
"Western Han Dynasty "Tu Bo" Yan Yannian" Cui Jianhua