Chapter 282: Inside and outside the palace () I know the sincere minister
The ministers in the south verandah had discussed the matter at this point, and Liu Ping finally brought the emperor's summons, calling all the cabinet ministers to come to the imperial court immediately. The ministers looked at each other in twos and threes, and they all guessed that the emperor had found a reason to help Zheng Zheng.
The imperial concubine escaped from the incident. However, whether the reason the emperor found can achieve the desired effect, everyone still has to go there first to know.
Not long after, the six cabinet ministers came back to the outside of Xinuan Pavilion again to ask for an audience. Chen Ju welcomed them in according to the instructions. As soon as they entered the door, the cabinet ministers smelled the smell of medicine. After a quick glance, they found that there was a medicine on the table next to the royal palace.
There was a silver-rimmed porcelain bowl with residual medicinal stains in it.
Under the leadership of Wang Jiaping, the ministers first greeted the emperor and said some words of blessing and comfort. The emperor did not have any unexpected reaction, and only expressed calmly, "I am fully aware of the good intentions of all my dear friends."
, then the topic turned to the incident itself.
Gao Pingshi noticed that Zhu Yijun's face was indeed a little pale at the moment, but his mental condition didn't seem too bad, and his eyes even looked a little sharp from time to time - but he didn't know why.
"I'm sorry for worrying about me, but it's okay now. You can rest assured." Zhu Yijun looked around at the cabinet ministers and said calmly: "Today's matter was unexpected. This was just after consultation by the imperial doctors.
I don’t want the foreign court to have other speculations about this matter in the future, let alone any rumors among the people.”
Huh?
Gao Jingshi was a little surprised and thought to himself, does the emperor intend to suppress the matter forcefully like this? If so, I'm afraid the final development of the matter may not be what you want.
It is relatively easy to convince cabinet ministers about things like this, but science and technology officials are far less easy to talk to than cabinet ministers. Although you are the emperor, if you don't come up with a convincing reason, these
How can the official give in so easily?
Hey, people are following the orders of Emperor Taizu and relying on arguments to make ends meet. Pressuring officials not to speak up? This is such a cruel job that even your imperial grandfather, Emperor Shizong Jiajing, did something wrong!
This truth is obviously not only understood by Gao Xiangpang, but which of the ministers present does not understand it?
Sure enough, Chief Assistant Wang Jiaping immediately expressed his opposition, saying: "Since ancient times and now, gossip has been the enemy of the imperial court. The emperor is cautious about this, and I think there is nothing wrong with it. However, there are several ways to control rumors in the past dynasties, among which the most
It is useless or even harmful, because it is better to guard against the people's mouth than against the river; the best thing is to "listen to songs on the road". I hope that your Majesty will be careful about it, think about it, and encourage it."
In fact, Wang Jiaping's words are a bit euphemistic, but this is a habitual practice of civil servants. Not only civil servants are used to it, but in fact even the emperors are used to it. I don't know if this is some kind of successful pua.
The reason why Wang Jiaping's words are deliberately exaggerated is that he secretly changed the concept here and equated the "gossip" in the emperor's mouth with "prophecies" and "nursery rhymes".
You must know that once it is equated with "prophecy" or "nursery rhyme", it will be a big event. Of course, his concept is indeed very hidden, especially in the era of "feudal dynasty" like the Ming Dynasty.
The word "rumor" originally meant popular folk songs or proverbs, that is, folk songs or folk proverbs. With the development of society, this meaning gradually evolved to refer to unfounded rumors or fabricated words. In ancient times, the way of spreading rumors
There are roughly two types: prophecies and nursery rhymes.
Therefore, although Wang Jiaping's words are exaggerated, the relevance and directionality are indeed correct, and it is difficult for the emperor to think of vetoing this relevance and directionality.
"Prophecy" is a term used by soothsayers to predict good or bad luck. "Prophecy" refers to the argots made up by Confucianists in the Qin and Han Dynasties to predict good or bad luck. "Wei" is a type of book derived from the Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty.
In ancient times, when science and technology was underdeveloped, people were full of curiosity about many things, but struggled to find the driving force and mechanism for the appearance of things. Therefore, they often entrusted the solution of mysteries to wizards engaged in divination. Whether it was the weather or national events, many relied on divination.
To decide. Of course, most of the divination results are eventually proven to be wrong, so these divination results are just rumors.
Nursery rhymes are a relatively easy-to-control method of communication. Some people with ulterior motives will compile rumors into children's songs to achieve their own goals, and teach children to spread them widely, thereby confusing people's hearts.
In addition to Li Ru's "A Han in the East and a Han in the West. It is not difficult for a deer to walk into Chang'an" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there is an example that people in the Ming Dynasty are more familiar with, which happened together in
Strange events in the late Yuan Dynasty.
It is said that at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was social unrest, and peasant armies from all walks of life revolted and caused trouble, and Zhu Yuanzhang also participated in it. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, a nursery rhyme suddenly spread on the streets of Dadu: "A gust of yellow wind and a gust of sand, thousands of miles away."
There is no one to live in; when the snow disappears, the three-eyed monk blinds the horse."
The three-eyed monk refers to Zhu Yuanzhang, who was a monk, and the horse refers to the Mongols, because the Mongols often call themselves a horse nation, and "blinding the horse" means that the Mongols are about to die. Having said that, the rumormongers can do whatever they want.
It’s also obvious.
From the above two ways of spreading rumors, it is not difficult to see that wizards and peasant armies can be said to be the two main groups of people who spread rumors in ancient times. In addition to these two, there are also ordinary people and emperors-or those in power.
The reason here is actually very simple. Since Dong Zhongshu, the ancient Chinese believed deeply in the theory of "influence between heaven and man". Because they did not understand the laws of nature, whenever a natural disaster struck, some of them would even attribute it to God's punishment on themselves.
And the rumors that were born from it spread like wildfire.
For example, in the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty, a rare heavy rain fell in the south. This heavy rain lasted for more than 80 days, causing huge floods and famine. At this time, there were rumors that dragons lurking underground took advantage of this.
A heavy rain came out one after another, and there were so many of them. They were sent by God to clean up the people on the ground.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Such a rumor actually convinced many knowledgeable and experienced people at that time.
Zhu Yijun himself also experienced a famous rumor, but this was somewhat inaccurate because the rumor actually occurred during the reign of his father, Emperor Longqing.
In the first year of Longqing, rumors circulated among the people of the Ming Dynasty that the imperial court would go to Jiangnan to recruit beautiful girls to enter the palace. Until the second year, the rumors not only did not get relieved, but intensified, and it was even said that widows had to accompany beautiful girls to Beijing.
For a time, no matter the family was rich or poor, anyone with a girl of the right age in the family, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, got married. Later, according to the "Purple Tao Xuan Miscellaneous Records", one family hired a craftsman to sew a wedding dress for their daughter.
When the wedding dress was ready and ready to get married, it was discovered that the son-in-law had been snatched away by another family.
In desperation, this family simply betrothed their daughter to the craftsman. This shows how eager families with daughters at that time were to get their daughters married.
In addition to these women of the right age, even widows were getting married one after another. A poem at that time described it like this: "It is laughable to laugh at a group of chaste women, and they follow the imperial edict to become romantic." However, in the end, the facts proved that these were nothing more.
It's groundless, but it's a pity that it's too late for those who know the truth. Many girls only find out that their partner is much older than them after they get married. Some of them marry unreliable husbands, and are even sold into brothels later. It's really unbearable.
Sad.
As for the emperor's rumors, everyone is familiar with this. Liu Bang's mother dreamed of having sex with an immortal by the lake, so she gave birth to Liu Bang. The former Zhao Founding Emperor Liu Yuan claimed to the world that he was the son of the Sun Spirit and was known as Liu Bang's second son.
When Zhu Yuanzhang's mother, Mrs. Chen, was pregnant with Zhu Yuanzhang, she dreamed one night that a god gave her an elixir to take. When Zhu Yuanzhang was born, the house was filled with red light. Neighbors thought there was a fire and rushed over.
Putting out fires... These are all well-known rumors made by the emperor himself.
So, when rumors spread, what measures did the politicians take to control them? As Wang Jiaping said just now, "There are only a few ways to control rumors in the past."
The first is to use severe punishment to crack down on those who create and spread rumors. For example, during the period of King Li of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Li found the wizards of Wei to monitor the people, and if they found any unfavorable words, they were killed - this is what Wang Jiaping said
The origin of the allusion "to defend the people's mouth is better than to defend the river". During the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang also ordered: "Anyone who dares to utter poems and calligraphy will abandon the market, and the past will be replaced by the present, and those who spread rumors and slander will be punished."
However, Wang Jiaping also commented on this kind of treatment just now: "It is most useless and even harmful."
In fact, when Chinese society was stable in all dynasties, the handling of rumors would be slightly relaxed, and "opening up the air" became the most common practice.
For example, after Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty came to the throne, he rectified the government and issued an edict to abolish the crime of slander and evil speech. He also specifically explained in the edict that the imperial court had banners for promoting good words and wooden signs for discussing right and wrong and criticizing faults, and their functions were
It is to allow those who give advice to speak freely and discuss matters governing the country and the world.
However, the current law stipulates that discussing right and wrong will be regarded as spreading absurd remarks and will be punished accordingly. This will prevent the ministers from speaking out what is in their hearts and the emperor will not know his fault. This is not advisable, so
He wants to abolish this rule.
In addition, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty also explained to the people in the edict that the people sometimes invited each other to gather and curse the emperor. The officials thought this was treason. If he had other remarks, the officials thought he was slandering. However, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty believed that this was just because of the small
He believed that it was undesirable to be sentenced to death because of the ignorance of the people.
At the end of the edict, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty also emphasized that "from now on, those who commit this crime will not be punished", that is, they will not be punished. It can be said that even the mausoleum of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty did not dare to be dug up.
There is a reason.
As for what Wang Jiaping said in the end, "The best way to control rumors is to 'listen to songs on the road.'" This method was also an old method from the Han Dynasty.
What we are talking about here is actually to attack the revolution by adopting the public opinion in the rumors. According to the "Book of Wei" cited by Pei Songzhi in "Records of the Three Kingdoms: Records of Emperor Wu of Wei", during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, he issued an edict to "order the three prefectures to raise memorials."
"If state and county administration is ineffective, the people will remove those who spread rumors." This means that the three public servants are asked to report those officials whose political performance is so poor that the people criticize them with songs, and these officials will be dismissed.
Obviously, this is different from the Qin Dynasty's strict system for dealing with rumors. The Han Dynasty's approach was not to kill them with a stick, but to regard them as a mirror for understanding society. Therefore, in the Han Dynasty, "raising rumors" became a local
It is an important duty of an official. The imperial court stipulated that officials should "listen to songs on the road".
All in all, what Wang Jiaping said is that when facing rumors, those in power must first correct their attitude.
There is no doubt that the spread of rumors will make people panic and cause social unrest. But in the face of this situation, if those in power can behave correctly, calm down and understand the basis of the rumors, and then tell the people
If you carefully explain the ins and outs of the matter, the rumors can be alleviated to a certain extent.
For example, during the period of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, due to frequent earthquakes, floods, solar eclipses and other phenomena, rumors spread among the people. However, Emperor Cheng did not severely crack down on this. Instead, he first did some self-reflection and then corrected his words and deeds.
He reprimanded a group of officials who did not act, and at the same time improved politics, and sent officials to patrol the country to explain the situation to the people.
The final result? While eliminating rumors, it also had a certain positive effect on social governance. This is a very good precedent, and precisely because the Han Dynasty performed very well in this regard, Wang Jiaping described the Han Dynasty as "listening to songs"
Yu Lu's way of dealing with rumors as "the kindest one".
Zhu Yijun did not expect that his words would actually lead to a lesson. What was worse was that he could not refute the lesson. He originally planned to use his posture to calm the ministers, and then show kindness to the ministers.
The ministers obediently accepted the conclusion that "today's incident was just an accident." When they left the palace, they were able to suppress the discussions among the foreign court and the people, and finally eliminated the possible suspicion of Concubine Zheng in this matter.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Unexpectedly, although his plan seemed to be okay, it was a pity that Wang Jiaping did not accept this plan at all. Although Wang Jiaping, the first assistant, did a miserable job like a polished commander,
But his character is very tough - especially in "moral governance", which is the most insistent aspect of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.
This is like singing. If the first line is off-key, how can you continue singing?
Zhu Yijun was very angry,
But he couldn't find a way to remedy it all of a sudden, and he couldn't help but feel so angry that his eyes turned black for a while.
His temples were twitching, and he suppressed his anger and glanced at the ministers again. He saw that almost everyone had serious faces, as if if he, the emperor, did not listen to the advice, the world would be in chaos tomorrow morning at the latest.
It made him furious.
However, since it is "almost", there are exceptions. Zhu Yijun discovered that although Gao Pragmatic also looked serious, he also frowned deeply and looked at his left hand with a worried look.
Only then did Zhu Yijun remember that he was still holding a cloth handkerchief in his left hand, and the handkerchief had blood stains on it from the corner of his mouth he had just wiped.
Pragmatism is worried about me! It’s true that the strong wind knows the strong grass, and the rough wind knows the honest minister. It seems that if we want to solve this crisis, we can only find ways to win pragmatic support... But, how can I persuade him?
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