Sichuan characters| Ming Dynasty Iron Mask Imperial History, Zizhong Ren Zhou Mian: Three Court Staff, Do Not Change The Original Intention (Part 1)

Text/Huang Yong

The Ming Dynasty officials were a special group of literati, and although there was a lot of controversy about it today, there is no doubt that most of them were able to perform their duties well and fought indomitably against imperial power and power traitors one after another, which made many people famous in history, including the famous Zizhong people Zhou Mian.

Zhou Mian (周冕), Zi Jingquan (字敬權), Songya (松崖), Zizhou Longshan (Zizhong County Longshan Township, abolished in December 2019, administrative area assigned to Taiping Town) people, Jiajing twenty years (1541) examination in the middle of the jinshi. As a speech official, Zhou Mian was honest and honest, resolute and indomitable, outspoken and courageous, righteous and awe-inspiring, regarded death as a homecoming, was tortured by the court staff 3 times, still did not change his original intention, known as the "Iron Mask Imperial History", "Ming History" has been passed down.

In the middle of the Gao Mountain, the "Qing Xuan" stone arch commemorating Zhou Mian is heavily weathered and on the verge of collapse (file photo)

Twice he entered the Jiajing Emperor, both suffered from court staff

According to the "History of Ming", after Zhou Mian was a scholar in the Jiajing Examination for twenty years, he served as a doctor of Taichang and the Inspector of Guizhou Province( the full name of the Examination Imperial History is The Imperial History of the Examination supervision, a kind of trial position in the Ming Dynasty's official system. Officials who enter the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau as the inspector of the imperial history first work as a probationary post for one year, familiar with government affairs, and after the expiration of their term of office, after examining their character and knowledge, they can hold a position before they are converted to imperial history), and the trajectory of his career is not detailed.

Zhou Mian was once ordered to go to the Jin Dynasty palace in Shanxi for official business, and Zhu Xinyu, the king of Jin at the time, was very appreciative of him and gave him a lot of money, hoping to keep him in the Jin palace to serve himself. However, Zhou Mian refused the appreciation of The King of Jin and returned to the dynasty.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, the Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was an alternative emperor, who had long been obsessed with alchemy and cultivation and often did not go to the dynasty. After the reconstruction of the Taimiao Temple dedicated to the ancestors, according to the ceremonial system, the emperor himself went to enshrine the ancestors. But the Jiajing Emperor did not bother to leave the palace and was ready to send someone to do this on his behalf.

In an era when the etiquette system was more important than the sky, the Jiajing Emperor's practice was "absurd" in the eyes of the officials. Yushi Yanmaoqing was the first to stand up and express strong opposition. The Jiajing Emperor was furious and personally wrote an edict of hundreds of words, denouncing Yan Maoqing for selling his reputation and taking this opportunity to gain fame for himself and coerce the monarch. At the same time, the Jiajing Emperor also warned the courtiers not to talk too much, and whoever "threatens the king to gain honor" will be severely punished.

The emperor was angry, and the consequences were serious. The courtiers were all frightened, "raising the court to be frightened", no one dared to mention this matter again, but Zhou Mian was not afraid. He wrote a note against the wind, with fierce rhetoric and argumentation. The Jiajing Emperor was furious and sentenced Zhou Mian to a court staff, and was imprisoned by JinyiWei and severely tortured.

After a while, Emperor Jiajing's anger subsided, and after calming down, he thought that Zhou Mian was a royal historian, just and honest, outspoken and outspoken, and a good official, so he released him and reinstated him.

Shortly after his release from prison and his return to work, Zhou Mian "healed the scars and forgot the pain" and suffered a second court staff. This time, it was he who "managed" the royal affairs and caused the trouble.

At that time, the crown prince Zhu Zaiyuan was already 11 years old and had not yet begun to learn cultural knowledge. Zhou Mian believes that the prince is so old, he should not waste his studies like a wild child in the countryside, and he should immediately choose a teacher with excellent character and learning to give a lecture to the prince.

Zhou Mian's words were originally out of a piece of sincerity, for the sake of the old Zhu family's Jiangshan Society. But the Jiajing Emperor didn't think so, thinking that Zhou Mian had ulterior motives, and did the royal affairs need you to worry about an official? The prince reads or not, the emperor is not in a hurry, why are you in a hurry? Since ancient times, the affairs of the royal family have been very sensitive, and foreign ministers' questioning will of course arouse the suspicion of the emperor.

The Jiajing Emperor was furious at this, and beat Zhou Mian with a court staff and demoted him to Tonghai County, Yunnan Province, to do the canonical history. Dianshi is a miscellaneous official of Zhi County, which belongs to the "un-entered stream", that is, there is no grade, and even the nine pin officials are not counted. This time, Zhou Mian planted a big heel, which can be described as a stroke to the end.

Even so, Zhou Mian was still passionate and did not change his upright personality at all. In the Biography of Ming Shi Zhou Mian ( Ming Shi ) , it is said : " Although the crown is far away , it means to be generous and unyielding. Suffering such a big blow, Zhou Mian insisted that he was right. This kind of attachment comes from the rigid genes of the bone marrow Chinese people.

Zhou Mian was demoted from the capital to the remote southwestern Tonghai County, and the official position was so low that it was said that others avoided it, who would want to cause a disturbance? But this is not the case, many people come to worship under his disciples to study, "there are hundreds of people of the Dianshi Sect." "The people's hearts have their own scales!"

Exposing Yan Song's perversion of the law was reduced to civilians

Later, perhaps it was the Jiajing Emperor who "discovered his conscience" and recalled Zhou Mian to the capital to serve. After many promotions, Zhou Mian was appointed as the military selection of the military division.

In the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), the famous advisor Yang Jisheng impeached the powerful minister Yan Song and exposed the incident of Yan Zhongzhong's false merits. This matter involved Ouyang Bijin and other ministers, who went up to defend themselves. The Jiajing Emperor was confused and ordered the army to investigate the truth of yan zhong's risk of merit. This hot potato fell into Zhou Mian's hands.

The incident of Yan Yongzhong's risk of merit was planned by Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan. In order to promote his son Yan Hu, Yan Shifan forged a son named Yan Zhizhong, saying that Yan Xiaozhong had passed the Wuju examination when he was 16 years old, but he did not pass the examination at the time of the examination, so he joined the army under Yan Song's cousin and Ouyang Bijin, who was then the governor of Liangguang. In the suppression of the rebellion in Lizhou, Yan Zhongzhong was beheaded by the seventh rank and promoted to Jinyi Wei Zhenfu. Less than a month later, Yan Zhongzhong was critically ill and ceded the position of Jinyi Wei Zhenfu to his younger brother Yan Hu, so that Yan Hu obtained the official position in this way as he wished.

Yan Song and Yan Shifan had thought that this matter was done seamlessly, and those who handled it were all trustworthy people, but they did not expect to be exposed by Yang Jisheng. To this end, Yan Shifan wrote a manuscript and handed it to Zhou Mian, which meant that Zhou Mian would return to the Jiajing Emperor according to his words, and this matter would be perfunctory. But what Yan Shifan did not expect was that Zhou Mian did not buy his account. (To be continued)

Sichuan characters| Ming Dynasty Iron Mask Imperial History, ZizhongRen Zhou Mian: Three Court Staffs, Do Not Change Their Initial Intentions (Part 2)

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