Chapter 291 Fortunately for the Duke of Nanjing (2)
Naturally, there are a series of etiquettes when the Holy Emperor arrives in Nanjing, such as the emperor needs to meet with Nanjing nobles, officials from the six ministries of Nanjing, etc. These trivial matters do not need to be described one by one. As for Gao Pragmatic, as the chief minister of the cabinet, he has more important things that need to be handled immediately. That is, he discussed with Shen Yiguan and others overnight the specific arrangements for visiting Xiaoling.
There is a reason why the visit to Xiaoling Mausoleum was not arranged in advance. The reason is that the emperor's journey south cannot be completely calculated accurately. The itinerary before the enshrinement ceremony is easy to arrange. After all, the road from the capital to Tai'an is limited, and the time can be squeezed. It has to be more accurate. The schedule after the Zen Ceremony left a certain amount of redundancy from the beginning.
Why leave redundancy? Because there are so many disasters! The climate environment in these years has been very strange. Floods, droughts, locusts, winds, plagues, shaking snow, it is really a disaster. The capital is close enough to Shandong because it is close to the center, so the court can still be accurate. By understanding the situation, you can better plan a strict itinerary. However, it is difficult to plan further south from Shandong, so you can only leave enough redundancy.
However, this redundancy cannot be left too much, because the holy driver must arrive in Nanjing before March at the latest, otherwise he will not be able to catch up with this year's Qingming Festival, and it will be difficult to arrange a suitable time to pay his respects.
Here I have to briefly introduce a small part of the complex sacrificial system of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, I will only talk about the sacrifices in the imperial mausoleums, and only the sacrificial times.
There are two types of sacrificial times in the imperial mausoleums of the Ming Dynasty: one is the regular sacrificial time, such as Zhengdan, Qingming, Zhongyuan and other festivals. During this regular sacrificial time, the emperor occasionally went to worship in person, of course, most of the time Official sacrifice.
The other is an unconventional worship time. If the emperor wants to choose his own longevity area, he will naturally have to worship the ancestor's mausoleum first when he goes to inspect. However, Zhu Yijun's imperial mausoleum has long been selected and is under construction, so naturally it will not Which longevity domain should he choose in Nanjing? Therefore, he could not use this excuse to visit the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Taizu.
In terms of regular sacrificial times, with the change of emperors, the system has also changed. The original sacrificial seasons may be deleted, or new sacrificial times may be added. The principle of increase or decrease is basically based on the wishes of the emperor, and the emperor maintains his own legitimacy. , authority is the main consideration for changing the principle.
Generally speaking, the major sacrifices in ancestral mausoleums are on the Winter Solstice and Zhengdan (the first day of the first lunar month), and the minor sacrifices are on Qingming, Zhongyuan, Mengdong and every new moon. The imperial mausoleums hold winter solstice every year, Zhengdan, Tailuo, Qingming, Zhongyuan, Mengdong and Shao After the ceremony, all the officials saluted. The time for regular sacrifices in the imperial mausoleum and the ancestral mausoleum is the same.
It is already the end of February, and the Winter Solstice and Zhengdan have passed. We cannot let the emperor wait here for more than half a year before going to pay homage. Therefore, we can only choose a day for small sacrifices nearby, that is, only Qingming is the most suitable, because Zhongyuan also has to Wait until the second half of the year.
Qingming is not a festival with a fixed time. It is one hundred and four days after the winter solstice, and this year's Qingming falls on the third day of March - so Shengjia finally rushed to Nanjing at the end of February because he still had at least three days left. Time to fast.
It has to be said that the navigation efficiency of the canal has indeed improved after the renovation and widening, and the new hard sails that Gao Pragmatic ordered Jinghua to research in the early years were also very helpful in increasing the speed. Otherwise, in one and a half months, there would be occasional accidents on the way. If we stay here, Shengjia will really not be able to make it to Nanjing.
After arriving a few days in advance, the emperor only had to fast for three days, while the cabinet, the Ministry of Rites and other related offices had many things to consider.
Since the mausoleum sacrifice is part of the national sacrificial system of the Ming Dynasty and one of the public sacrificial activities of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the visit to the Xiaoling Mausoleum has great political significance, so it is inevitable that there will be many responsible institutions and personnel involved.
The personnel who arrange and prepare can be divided into three parts from an organizational point of view:
The first is the national management agencies directly related to the mausoleum sacrifice, including the Ministry of Rites, Taichang Temple, Hanlin Academy, Guanglu Temple, Honglu Temple and Qintianjian;
The second is the institutions indirectly related to the mausoleum ceremony, such as the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Sixth Section, which is responsible for supervision, the Jinyiwei, which is responsible for guarding, and the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Households are also involved in a small amount of work;
The third part is the local mausoleum worship institutions, such as the ancestral temple ceremony office, mausoleum guards, etc.
Of course, with the increasing expansion of the power of the cabinet, the cabinet has "leadership responsibilities" for the above three departments. It needs to coordinate the opinions and suggestions of the above three departments and form the final arrangement for the emperor's review and approval.
Fortunately, the basic etiquette system of the Ming Dynasty is very clear. Even if it needs to be adjusted, it will only be a detailed adjustment. Generally speaking, it can be carried out according to the existing system, and these systems have clear records that can be checked by the Ministry of Rites.
The Ming Dynasty's mausoleum sacrificial ceremony is an important expression of the emperor's authority and legitimacy, so the rituals are numerous and the scenes are grand. As mentioned just now, the mausoleum sacrificial ceremony mainly has two forms: one is the emperor's bowing ceremony, the other is
The kind is to send officials to offer sacrifices.
The emperor's sacrifice is divided into three parts as a whole, namely: departure to the capital, offering sacrifices and returning to Luan, but preparations must be made before that.
First of all, the emperor decided to worship the mausoleum. He first notified the Ministry of Rites, and asked the Ministry of Rites to choose the specific date of the mausoleum sacrifice and submit the etiquette details. Then it was left to the emperor to decide when to worship the mausoleum. On the day of departure, the emperor was not in court, and the emperor's car drove through the left gate of Chang'an.
After setting off, the concubine's sedan chair left through Dong'an Gate - this refers to when we were in Beijing, but Nanjing also has a corresponding city gate, so this is not a problem.
To offer sacrifices: During the Qingming Festival, the Spring Sacrifice ceremony was held, and the emperor completed the kneeling ceremony under the guidance of the Naizan officials. Returning to Luan: After the sacrifices were completed, the officials accompanying the sacrifices went first to wait outside the gate of the Gansi Hall. On the same day, the emperor's car set off back to Beijing.
Free of charge.
If the emperor could not personally pay homage to the mausoleum, he would often send princes, princes, dignitaries, and important ministers to pay homage on his behalf to express his feelings of longing for him. The status of the person who pays homage to the mausoleum must be noble. For example, when Gao Jingzhi was in Beijing, he was ordered to go to Wanshou Mountain many times to pay homage on his behalf.
Imperial Mausoleum. This is easy to understand, so I won’t say much.
Since this visit to the Xiaoling Mausoleum is Zhu Yijun's political show and the last step of "worshiping heaven and earth and worshiping ancestors", the only way to do it is to worship the mausoleum in person, that is, the emperor personally worships the mausoleum. But now time is very tight.
The cabinet and the Ministry of Rites must come up with a detailed plan as soon as possible and submit it to the emperor for "review," so Gao Pragmatic, Shen Yiguan, Yu Shenxing, Fang Congzhe, and Shen Yongmao held an "enlarged cabinet meeting" overnight to discuss the arrangements for the memorial ceremony. (Zhao Zhigao
, Zhou Yong, two pavilion elders, stayed in Beijing to deal with daily affairs.)
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But having said that, Shen Guanyi did not come to Nanjing for a living after all. Although he could not control when the emperor arrived, the preliminary preparations, especially
The material preparation work has been done in advance. One of his main tasks in today's meeting is to find Gao Jingjing to report accounts and approve funds.
As mentioned just now, the regular sacrificial times for the mausoleum include three major sacrifices and five small sacrifices a year. The emperor sometimes visited the mausoleum in person, so the one-year-old mausoleum sacrifice ceremony was held more often, and many related items were always in stock. The same is true here in Nanjing.
, so the task of preparing supplies does not seem difficult.
The problem is that the scale of this mausoleum sacrifice is too grand, and there are too many people participating, so the corresponding materials required will naturally increase greatly. Moreover, this mausoleum sacrifice has great political significance, and the pomp must be as public as possible, which will inevitably cost more.
Already.
These expenses include not only the expenses of sacrificial items, but also the expenses of relevant traveling personnel during the sacrificial ceremony. The food, clothing, housing and transportation of a group of people during the trip require a lot of expenses. In addition, the emperor often rewards relevant entourage and guard officers as a token of his favor.
military, and even rewarded the surrounding people, reduced taxes, etc.; in addition, the additional maintenance and repair of Xiaoling Mausoleum itself was a considerable expense.
As a rule, most of these expenses are paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and a small part is paid by the local government. It should be noted here that the expenses for worshiping the mausoleum, including the emperor's rewards, are paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and internal funds are usually not paid.
What are the specific expenditures? Gao Pragmatic opened the pile of statements that Shen Yiyi had presented.
The first thing that catches the eye is the expense of sacrificial items. According to Shen Yiguan's list, the most important sacrificial items during the mausoleum sacrifice, such as various animals used in worship, incense candles, etc., fill several pages.
Such items are mainly the responsibility of Taichang Temple, and they must be delivered to the Xiangbo Pavilion two days before the sacrifice. After the reform of the High Pragmatic Large Household Department, the expenses of Taichang Temple also need to be withdrawn from the Household Department, and must be reviewed by the Household Department.
, and tonight's "enlarged cabinet meeting" was limited in scope, only including him and Shen Yiguan, two cabinet ministers, and three ministers of the Ministry of Rites. The minister of Taichang Temple was not included, so the regulations of Taichang Temple were also determined by Shen Yiguan.
forward.
Gao Pragmatic took a quick look and found that these sacrificial items were prepared by many yamen respectively. For example, incense, candles, silk and other items were originally received from the inner government in Beijing, but although there was a palace in Nanjing, there was no real meaning.
The inner government of the country, so this time the Nanjing garrison eunuch is responsible for handling it, and now the expenses are reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs for payment;
As usual, sesame oil, paper, pens and other items are requisitioned from the county government. Nanjing is easier to handle. Xiaolingwei is responsible for it. However, Xiaolingwei rarely undertakes such a large scale of expenses, so it also proposed more than 800 taels of silver.
expense report;
As usual, the animals used in sacrifices are from surrounding prefectures and counties. This time, it involves Yingtian Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, Taiping Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Ningguo Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture.
There are also some other items purchased directly by Taichang Temple - for example, the plain clothes for sacrifices are mostly woven from Hangzhou, and the porcelain used for sacrifices is mostly made from Jiangxi. However, these are not regular tributes and are required.
It costs extra money.
Some of these items, such as royal porcelain, have their own special specifications and cannot be purchased at ordinary prices, because almost all of them are specially made, so in general, there are many types, large quantities, and unique specifications...
In a word: the price is high.
Shen Guanyi may also be afraid of heights and pragmatism to find fault with him. He even clearly listed the firewood used to cook animals during sacrifices. This money alone cost more than two thousand taels. You must know that this is just firewood, and Compared with the overall cost of sacrificial items, this is a negligible cost, which shows how much the overall cost is.
Gao pragmatically looked at it carefully for a long time, and finally saw the total expenditure - the cost of the visit ceremony itself was 113,467 taels, and the early renovation of the palace cost 246,000 taels. One thousand four hundred and twenty-one taels, and the repair and maintenance of Xiaoling Tomb cost 74,336 taels.
The total of the three requires a total expenditure of 434,224 taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Gao Jingshi frowned. In fact, the total expenditure of 430,000 taels of silver did not exceed his worst estimate, but the proportion of these three expenditures made Gao Jingshi quite dissatisfied.
"Mr. Shen Ge, the expenses for the visit ceremony and the repair of Xiaoling Mausoleum are clearly listed and the quotation is moderate. I think it is reasonable. But the repair of the palace is not the case...how come it actually cost more than 246,000 taels, and the expenses listed Everything is not clear?”
As Gao pragmatically spoke, he put the list of palace repair expenses on the table, pointed at one place and said: "In addition, the proportion of the cost is also weird. If Qianqing Palace is the residence of the emperor, it must be repaired carefully, and it will cost a lot." That’s all.
It seems that the renovation of Chunhe Palace actually cost nearly 30,000 taels. As a local official, due to my responsibilities, I have to ask, is Chunhe Palace the outer palace of the former dynasty (the former outer palace here corresponds to the outer palace of the former dynasty). The inner harem is the palace south of the Qianqing Palace. These palaces are supposed to have certain government functions.) They are not of much use this time. They are just for daily maintenance. What is the purpose of such an overhaul? "
Surprisingly, Shen Guanyi not only did not panic when he heard this question, but a look of pride flashed in his eyes, which was quickly covered up by his immediate lowering of his head in response.
But when Mr. Shen Ge lowered his head, bowed slightly, and said in a respectful tone: "My lord, I don't know. The emperor once issued an oral instruction to the eunuch guarding Nanjing, stating that this Chunhe Palace is specifically allowing you to stay temporarily during your stay in Nanjing." Yes, so the Emperor specifically asked us to 'make good repairs'."
Gao Pragmatic was stunned for a moment, and even thought he heard wrongly, so he subconsciously asked again: "Who will live here?"
Shen Yiguan was not bothered and replied in a respectful tone as before: "The emperor said that Chunhe Palace is for Duke Jingguo to stay temporarily during your stay in Nanjing."
Gao Jingshi was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, and immediately objected: "Although Chunhe Palace is an outer palace, it is still within the forbidden city. How can I, a minister, arrogantly occupy it? It's not right, it's not right, I'm determined. It cannot be arranged like this."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Shen Yiguan said calmly: "Whether it is inappropriate or not, both the emperor and the Duke can have their own opinions, and the lower officials have no way to comment. But since the emperor has such a request, The lower officials and the Nanjing garrison eunuchs and others have to deal with it seriously, and I would like to ask the Duke to learn from this."
Regarding Shen Yiguan's answer, Gao Pragmatic's first reaction was: Resignation? What is Shen Yiguan's intention of being so humble?
Don't blame him for being careless. Although the great scholars of the Ming Dynasty are ranked in order in name, in terms of actual power, it is a natural practice because of the habit of "chief assistant", and they also have their own superiority, but these are not " "Jingzhi" - it is not an expressly stipulated system.
According to the "economic system", in fact, all the bachelors have the same status as "auxiliary ministers" regardless of their superiority. So how can one bachelor call himself "lower official" in front of another bachelor? ?
But Shen Guanyi was obviously deliberately taking advantage of the loophole. This can be seen from the fact that he did not call Gao Pangshi "Shoufu" or "Yuanfu", but instead called him "Guo Gong Ye" - Guo Gong was a super-class person. , is a title with a foreign surname, but he is also a court official.
In this case, how could it not be justified for him, a great scholar, to regard the Duke as a "high official" and call himself a "low official"? Before Gao Jingshi was granted the title of Duke, he could also call himself a lower official when facing other Dukes - but Please note that it is just "can", not required.
So the question is, why does Shen Yiguan do this?
----------
Thanks to book friends "Yuan Zhou", "Yun Fuyue Yu", and "book friend 452693" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: Black Monkey has completed all eighty-one achievements, and now we are considered platinum players!
