Chapter 067 Listening to the newspaper in the teahouse (Part 1)
Zhaoji Teahouse in the capital is a long-established restaurant that has been open in the capital for more than 30 years. It has been run by two generations of father and son. It is the best-selling teahouse near Xuanwumen. Zhaoji Teahouse opened in the west of Yongfang Temple in Dashi.
To the south is Xiangfang, to the north are Yanshan Zuowei Yamen and Hanfan Temple, to the northwest is Dali Temple, and to the southwest is Wang Gongchang. It can be said that the location is excellent.
This day was the day after Gao Pangshi officially returned to the capital.
Liu Xian and his son, who were staying at Chengen Temple next to Wanggongchang, after having breakfast that day, were introduced by the monks who knew the guests in the temple to go to Zhaoji Tea House to "listen to the news".
The so-called "listening to the newspaper" refers to the tea guests listening to the tea doctor reading the newspaper, and "bao" refers to the newspaper in the imperial palace. "Listening to the newspaper" is a unique project of Zhaoji Teahouse in the capital, which was started on a trial basis in the late Jiajing period.
It was launched and became famous due to the incident in which Hai Rui scolded the emperor.
The common people in the capital, probably because they lived under the emperor's feet, had always liked to discuss government affairs, even in later generations.
The Ming court seemed to have a very open mind to all kinds of discussions among the people. No matter how absurd and bizarre they were, as long as they did not reach the level of "deliberately inciting the people and intending to rebel", the court would completely let it go.
Dibao has existed since ancient times. It is an official newspaper in ancient times and is a news media in the original sense. It is said that it originated in the Han Dynasty, originated in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the Song Dynasty, and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Di Bao's mission was to record current affairs news. It was the main carrier for the imperial court to issue decrees and publish political information. It was also an important channel for officials from all parties to understand the court's trends. Through the Di Bao, it could not only inform the government and communicate information between the central and local governments, but also
Moreover, the Ming court could use this to control the publication and dissemination of official public opinion.
The Dibao of the Ming Dynasty was edited and distributed mainly through three agencies: the General Affairs Department, the Sixth Section, and Titang.
Among them, the General Affairs Department is a central administrative agency that communicates between the inner court and the outer court, and between the emperor and his subjects. It is mainly responsible for the matters of sealing and refutation. Except for a few parts of the official seals and memorials, which are collected by eunuchs and Honglu Temple officials,
Most of them were promoted by the General Affairs Department. "The six departments received the papers from each yamen every day, copied them into volumes one by one, and sent them to the cabinet every five days for compilation." After the book was completed, "all were transferred to the General Affairs Department."
The Six Sections are the abbreviation for the Six Sections of Officials, Households, Rites, Pong, Punishments, and Works. Each of the six Sections is assigned to Shizhong to assist the emperor in handling government affairs and supervising the operation of various ministries. It is somewhat similar to the disciplinary inspection departments within ministries and commissions in later generations, but because
In theory, they belong directly to the emperor, so they have greater power. An important responsibility of the officials of the Sixth Section is to go to Huijimen every day to receive imperial seals or imperial edicts, which are sent by the cabinet to the Sixth Section for each department to copy and edit on a daily basis.
The booklet, called the "Liuke Lunyin Booklet", is for reference by various departments. This book is also the blueprint of Dibao.
Titang officials are the officials sent by the governors of various provinces and the general army to the capital to process documents and copy the newspapers for distribution. After they copy the documents and newspapers from the Sixth Section, they will be screened and copied, and the post stations will dispatch postmen every five days to relay them to various places.
The governors and chief secretaries took turns to read it. Then, the officials stationed in the provincial capitals of each prefecture, state, and county hired scribes to "take what they need" and extract the relevant contents of the newspaper, and then passed it on to local governments at all levels through the inn.
During the process of copying and publishing the Di's newspaper, Beijing officials sent scribes to the General Administration Department to copy the biography every day, so they could know about the world's political affairs earlier. Local officials, on the other hand, needed to use post stations and hire postmen to deliver the Di's report to the governors.
, Chief Secretary, prefecture, prefecture, and county yamen. Since the Di Bao is delivered layer by layer, and it takes time to deliver it to the post station, local officials cannot have a sneak peek like the officials in the capital, and the time to receive the Di Bao is also sequential. It is probably far away from the capital,
In remote places such as Sichuan, Shaanxi, Liaodong, Yunnan and Guizhou, it often takes several months for officials to learn about the court's new policies.
In fact, in the early years, a mere teahouse would not be able to get the royal residence report. That is because in the last years of Jiajing, the emperor was superstitious in Taoism and only wanted to live forever. He allowed Yan Song and his son to do whatever they wanted, which led to many of the court's systems becoming lax.
In the early years, the Ming Dynasty recognized that "Di Bao was related to state affairs", so in addition to setting limits on the transmission time of Di Bao, there were also strict restrictions on the copying of Di Bao. "No copying of Di Bao is allowed except by decree."
Especially before Chenghua, the control over the circulation and copying of Di newspapers was still very strict. Later, it became increasingly loose. After the turmoil in the last years of Jiajing and then to Longqing, although the "ban on copying of newspapers" was mentioned several times, the circulation and copying of Di newspapers was not controlled.
In fact, the situation has become uncontrollable. There was even a situation where "copying and burning Di newspapers became popular". Some information even spread in the newspaper room before being published in Di newspapers. "Read Di newspapers closely"
, then there are those who have reported the property before submitting it." "In recent days, everyone has gone to the residence to report, and there are those who have left the money before submitting it."
In addition, some well-placed literati and celebrities can also freely circulate Di Bao, but it has little relevance to this book, so I won’t give many examples here.
Liu Xian and his son had to find something to do for themselves among the unaccompanied people in the capital. They couldn't just stay in the temple to gain weight. Anyway, in the final analysis, they had to wait for Gao Xiang to implement it before they could decide what to do.
So today I listened to the recommendation of Zhi Ke Monk and came to Zhao Ji Tea House to listen to the newspaper. After all, it is always good to know more about the dynamics of the imperial court.
Liu Xian is no better than Qi Jiguang. In fact, both of them often find ways to make money, but after Qi Jiguang made money, he invested it all in the army. Although Liu Xian also invested a lot of money in his own army, he still failed to make money.
He remembered to leave a small portion for himself, so compared to Qi Jiguang, he was considered to be a wealthy eunuch.
Liu Xian and his son, who were not very short of money, booked a small private room on the second floor of Zhaoji Teahouse and waited to hear Dr. Tea read the newspaper. Originally, if they were just reading dryly, it would not be interesting, but Zhaoji Teahouse
Thinking about what the guests think, in addition to reading, he will also analyze and comment on it, which attracts many people in Beijing to flock to it.
Of course, there may be some troubles arising from unbridled criticism of Di Bao, which is what the teahouse needs to control on its own. Fortunately, Emperor Longqing was a benevolent king, so at least so far, the owner of Zhaoji Teahouse has not been invited to any yamen for drinks.
The records of tea, compared with the "Don't talk about state affairs" during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties - well, there is no comparison.
Not long after Liu Xian and his son sat down, they just picked up the tea cup and before they started drinking, they heard Dr. Tea, who was sitting like a storyteller behind a long red cloth table in the lobby, giving a start and said loudly
: "The first thing reported by the Di yesterday: Governor Shuntian reported to the cabinet that Liu Xian, the former chief military officer of Langshan, borrowed hundreds of Gao's family members to go out to suppress the Bailixia bandits. The Bailixia bandits were photographed in Tianwei.