Chapter 5 internal prison
The inner eunuchs were called eunuchs in ancient times, and because they were in the court, they often had great influence on the political situation; especially when a dynasty was on the verge of decline, the inner eunuchs played more of a bad role, so the commentators of the past dynasties rarely praised eunuchs.However, this is all due to circumstances.First of all, it is often said by theorists of the past dynasties, because the inner prisoner has suffered physical and mental disabilities, and when things happen to people, he naturally hates more and loves less, and is vicious and sinister.Secondly, because I am in a deep palace and serve the emperor, empress, concubine, etc., if I accidentally touch their will, I will get into trouble, so I have developed a lot of evil virtues by using tricky words.Also, general internal prisons do not have their own dwellings, food and lodging are shared with their companions, they have more contacts and conflicts, and in the contest of offense and defense, the victor is usually more cunning.Those who have become popular and prestigious are mostly in this generation, so the inner eunuchs often can't do any good things.Although these are general theories that have existed in the past dynasties, when you think about it carefully, there is some truth.
In the Ming Dynasty, the inner prison was a disaster, and commentators often think that it was even worse than that in the Han and Tang Dynasties.Regarding this point, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, paid attention to it from the beginning, and tried to stop it.But the development of things has its own internal laws. Even if a person becomes the supreme ruler, he cannot change it according to his will. In addition, his descendants added some practices that were helpful to eunuchs. On the contrary, the eunuch's disaster is very prominent.
The earliest ancient book that mentions the inner prison is "Zhou Li". In that book, the inner prison is called "Am Temple", and there was a saying that "Am Temple is less than a hundred people".Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, admired the words of "Zhou Li" very much. He often said, "I look at the "Zhou Li". Envoys, unless there are special appointments, don't order too many." It is also often said, "There are no one out of thousands of good Cao Cao, and there are thousands of evil ones. If you use it as eyes and ears, it will blind your eyes and ears; if you use it as a confidant, It is the heart and belly disease. The way to control it is to make it fear the law, not make it meritorious. If you fear the law, you will restrain yourself, and if you have merit, you will be arrogant."He came from the common people, so he has very consistent views on internal prisons with the common people. He is well aware that they are used to doing harm, and he pays great attention to effective methods to stop them.But he didn't realize that the habit of internal prisons to make waves is formed by the internal causes of this system. To eliminate this problem, the only way is to abolish this system.Not only did Zhu Yuanzhang fail to realize this, on the contrary he also believed that the service of the inner eunuch in the court was indispensable.Long before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, when his administrative region still called itself the State of Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang's court already had internal prisons, and the number of them far exceeded the "hundreds" he frequently quoted.In terms of number, although he has been affirming and citing "less than a hundred people" in "Zhou Li", due to actual needs, the number of internal prisons in his palace has continued to increase. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, , the increase was even more rapid, and when he reached his body, the number of internal prisons had increased to several thousand, and the twelve prisons, four divisions, and eighth bureaus, the so-called twenty-four yamen, had also been established on a large scale.
The twelve prisons in the twenty-four yamen are: Lijian, Neiguan, Yuyong, Sishi, Yuma, Jingong, Shangshan, Shangbao, Yinshou, Zhidian , Shangyijian and Duzhijian.The four divisions are: Xixin Division, Bell and Drum Division, Baochao Division and Huntang Division.The eight bureaus are: Bingzhan Bureau, Yinzuo Bureau, Huanyi Bureau, Scarf and Hat Bureau, Needle Work Bureau, Nei Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, Wine and Vinegar Bureau and Siyuan Bureau.Judging from these names, the scope of its management is already extremely wide, covering everything from clothing, food, housing, transportation, military weapons, armored battles, as well as burning, used, money, etc.In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's understanding and propositions can be said to have collapsed to nothing.But even so, he tried to remedy it by formulating some extremely severe prohibitions.These prohibitions are: the internal ministers and foreign officials are not allowed to exchange documents; they are not allowed to exchange news; the internal ministers are not allowed to have both civil and military ranks; the internal ministers are not allowed to wear the crown uniforms of the foreign ministers; For one stone, food and clothing are all in the inner court; what's more, the servants are illiterate!What is even more solemn is that he also cast an iron plate and stood it on the gate of the palace. , was gradually destroyed, and few people could think of it anymore.Some prohibitions were even broken by Zhu Yuanzhang himself.For example, in the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), he sent Zhao Cheng, his servant, to Hezhou to market horses; Matters such as horses, these all violated the prohibition that "internal servants should not order foreign affairs" that he repeatedly ordered.This also created a precedent for many middle officials in various dynasties who were ordered to go on missions and even guard the border areas.
Generally speaking, there are not many prohibitions broken by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, and the other rules were gradually broken by later emperors.After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen succeeded him as emperor.The crown prince Zhu Biao had passed away before Zhu Yuanzhang, so the throne was inherited by the emperor's grandson. This is what later generations call Emperor Jianwen.The grandson of the emperor strictly enforced the prohibitions set by his grandfather. He had just ascended the throne, and he had strictly ordered officials from all over the country that if the servants went out to go out and violated the law, the local officials could send them to punish them.In the inner court, the management of internal supervision is also extremely strict, and any violation of the prohibition will be punished immediately.Many internal eunuchs felt dissatisfied under the strict supervision. When Zhu Di, the king of Yan, rebelled southward under the name of "the side of the Qing emperor", many internal eunuchs fled to Zhu Di's army one after another, dispelling all the false and true facts in the court. They all reported him, which accelerated his victory and enabled him to quickly invade Nanjing and seize the throne.
Zhu Di won the throne and changed his name to Yongle the following year. He was Ming Chengzu, one of the second ancestors in the Ming Dynasty.Because Zhu Di had been secretly helped by the inner eunuchs, his perception of the inner eunuchs was quite different from Ming Taizu and Emperor Jianwen. The remuneration of the inner eunuchs was much more relaxed, the number of people increased, and the scope of management of the twenty-four yamen was expanded. opened a lot.The most obvious thing about Zhu Di's change of the old system is that the internal supervisor can openly lead the army to board ships and visit freely.The "Sanbao eunuch's voyage to the West", which is still widely rumored to this day, began in the third year of Yongle (1405).This "Sanbao eunuch" was surnamed Zheng Minghe and was from Yunnan. He had been "purified" since he was a child (he had undergone surgery and became an eunuch, commonly known as "cleaning"), and was assigned to serve in the mansion of King Yan.King Yan raised his troops to go south, and Zheng He was also in the army.He has made some great achievements and won the trust of King Yan.He has visited various countries in the Western Ocean (that is, in today's Southeast Asia) seven times before and after. There are sixty-two big boats eight feet long.Such a number of people and ships, as well as the huge size of the ships, etc., can be said to be the unique and largest fleet in the world at that time.Zheng He's many tours were of course intended to promote the country's prestige and envoys to seek favor, but they also had the intention of showing off their wealth and strength, and wanting Western countries to regard China as a great power and come to pay tribute.In addition, it is rumored that there is another more interesting purpose, which is to find the trace of Emperor Jianwen who has been missing overseas.It turned out that when Yan Wang Zhu Di led his army into Nanjing, the situation was very chaotic, and a fire broke out in the palace.In the chaos, Emperor Jianwen disappeared, and he searched everywhere, but there was no trace.When Zhu Di heard about this, he immediately ordered to close the gates of the palace and the city, and sent people to search carefully everywhere in the city, so that he could see people in life and find corpses in death before he gave up.But even searched for many days, still nothing.Soon, there were many legends about Emperor Jianwen. All the legends said that Emperor Jianwen had escaped from the city as early as the day the city was broken; Gui and other places have their own legends.After a while, there were more and more rumors that Jianwen had fled abroad.Some people also said that someone, someone, had seen Jianwen in a certain place overseas; many people also said that Jianwen had already become a monk, and his cassock and straw sandals were completely dressed as monks...Yongle felt that However, if Jianwen is here, he is always a threat to him, and he must be found and killed before he can feel at ease.Therefore, when Zheng He went abroad, he secretly had the mission of investigating the traces of Emperor Jianwen.Zheng He made seven trips abroad, starting from the third year of Yongle (1405) to the sixth year of Xuande (1431) for the seventh trip, a total of more than 20 years, and visited Champa, Java, Chenla, Old Port, Siam For more than 30 countries including Luo, historians call it a grand event in the early Ming Dynasty, which is not a false statement.
In addition to Zheng He, there were many eunuchs sent by Yongle to various places. For example, in the first year of Yongle, Li Xing, an eunuch who was sent as an eunuch, was ordered to go to Siam to greet the king there.Since then, Li Da's envoy to the Western Regions, Tong Hai's envoy to Yibei, and Hou Xian's envoy to Xifan all had the same mission as Li Xing.
Sending internal supervisors to the army as supervisors, or letting the internal supervisors lead the army out of the town, also left examples as early as the Yongle period.For example, in the eighth year of Yongle (1410), Wang An, the internal supervisor, was sent as the supervisor in the camp of the governor Tan Qing. All the internal supervisors led the army out of the town.
Although Yongle had these things that violated the precepts of the ancestors, he refused to admit it.He quibbled and said: "As long as I follow the instructions of the Taizu, there is no imperial treasure document, that is, one army and one civilian, and middle officials are not allowed to transfer without authorization." There must be imperial treasure documents, otherwise, wouldn't it be close to treason or separatism?What's more, although the prohibitions of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty were aimed at internal prisons, what should be paid attention to is still for the descendants of the emperor who succeeded to the throne. They are asked to pay special attention to these places and not to give convenience to these places.Of course Yongle would not be ignorant to this point, what he said was just smoothing things over and whitewashing it.
Yongle also didn't pay much attention to the "insider's inability to read and write". He once specially ordered Fan Hong, Wang Jin, Ruan An, and Ruan Lang to study, so that they could learn classics and history, be good at writing, and write This was used to serve Zhu Gaochi who was the crown prince in the East Palace at that time.These few people were all beautiful boys captured by the British Duke Zhang Fu when he went to fight for intercourse. Yongle was happy that they were smart and good-looking, so they were castrated as eunuchs and allowed them to serve the prince with their writing.Later, these few people also played some roles in the palace.
Although Yongle broke the prohibition of "insiders not being able to read", the number of people who were allowed to read was very small, and it was done in secret, and did not openly express disobedience.By the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji, the grandson of Zhu Di, whose reign name was Xuande, ascended the throne as the empress, he had already ostentatiously denied the clause that "the servants are not literate".He set up an internal study hall in Da Nei by decree, selected some smarter eunuchs, and sent them there to study and study, so that they could learn classics and history and be good at writing and ink.This kind of practice became a custom, and it wasn't until the death of the Ming Dynasty that Neishutang disappeared.At the beginning, it was Chen Shan, a bachelor, who taught in the inner school, and many other bachelors or bachelors taught there later.Sometimes, there are even two or three people teaching there at the same time.Since the people who teach are all people who have learned a lot, the servants who have read books in the inner study all read well.It is said in history that they are, "Yong is a lot of literature and ink, understands the past and the present, shows off his ingenuity, and cheats on the king. After the biography, the momentum has accumulated, starting with Wang Zhen and dying in Wei Zhongxian. How far away are the Han and Tang Dynasties"!This theory is quite true, but it is not true to say that "died in Wei Zhongxian".For example, Cao Huachun or Gao Qiqian, who died in Chongzhen, would be more appropriate.When Wei Zhongxian finished, not only was there still more than ten years before the end of the Ming Dynasty, but he also didn't learn anything in the inner school.He was a eunuch who became a monk halfway through, and he probably spent a few days in the inner school, but he didn't read any books seriously.Among all the big pengs who were quite a disaster in the Ming Dynasty, he was the only one who had never read any books. At that time, it was even rumored that he could not even read.
Among the twenty-four yamen, the supervisor of ceremonies has always occupied the most important position, and the competition for the position of all internal supervisors is the most fierce.Historically, the Ritual Supervision has an eunuch who supervises and a eunuch who holds seals, under which there are eunuchs of all kinds, such as the eunuch who holds the pen, the eunuch who follows the hall, the head of the library of books and paintings, the head of the inner book hall, and the head of the six-section gallery. , There is no quota for these personnel, and the number of people varies from time to time.The supervisor of ceremonies and the admiral of the eunuch have the greatest authority, and he can manage almost everything outside the department.Since he has always had the power to supervise the rites and punishments in the imperial city and the power to restrain the subordinates, all punishments and punishments of the inner prison are in his hands.The palm seal eunuch is in charge of the internal and external chapters, and it is his job to check all the chapters in front of the emperor and issue them to Yongbao.The eunuchs who hold the pen are also very important. Not only do they often draft orders on behalf of the emperor according to the emperor's oral instructions, but they even have the power to approve Zhu according to the court votes.The so-called "criticism of Zhu" means to draw up documents based on the votes of the cabinet ministers, to use the ink pen to criticize opinions, or to approve, or to refute, or to point out other methods, and return them to the cabinet, ordering them to draft accordingly.The matter of this batch of Zhu was originally the work of the emperor himself, and it was his most important work, so it should not be entrusted to others.However, either because the emperor is too busy, or because he is in a bad mood for a while, and is tired of managing affairs; or because he has other distractions, he hates this kind of trouble; Or there are many reasons for not wanting to do this kind of thing, but if you really have to do it, the eunuch who is close by is the natural substitute.Of course, this was an accidental charge at the beginning, but later it became commonplace, and the matter of criticizing Zhu became a regular duty of the eunuch Sili Bingbi.Therefore, the main purpose of the establishment of the inner school is to improve the ability of the inner eunuchs in this area.
When the Lijian seized the right to approve Zhu, its power extended to the outer court, affecting the positions of the cabinet ministers, sometimes more important than the cabinet ministers.Because drafting only puts forward methods and opinions, criticizing Zhu plays a decisive role.In addition, the Supervisor of Rituals also controls the Dongchang, which is similar to a secret service organization, and its external influence extends to all parts of the country.In order to strengthen the ruling power of the imperial system, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Jinyiwei Town Fusi was set up, and there was also an edict prison besides the prison of the Ministry of punishment.The Fusi of Jinyiwei Township is a special agency specially used to investigate and arrest people.But later it was not enough, so in the eighteenth year of Yongle (1420), Dongchang was established, which was closer to the royal family. There was a eunuch who supervised the affairs of the East Factory.It can also be seen from this that Yongle trusts and relies on the inner eunuch more than his father.Jinyiwei and Dongchang, because they have the same function, and there is no clear division of authority, so there are often disputes between them, and it is also different from time to time which one is superior. Sometimes Jinyiwei gains power, and sometimes Dongchang takes over. upper hand.However, although most of the people in charge of Jinyiwei are close friends of the emperor, they are still foreign ministers. Compared with the internal supervisors who manage the East Factory, they are not as close to the Emperor, so the East Factory always has the upper hand more often.The investigation and arrest brought many opportunities for extortion, corruption and bribery to the eunuchs of the admiral Dongchang. It can be said to be an extremely beautiful and fat job, so the competition for this position has always been fierce.In the Chenghua period when Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty was emperor, the West Factory was added in addition to the East Factory. It was added to appease Wang Zhi who was unable to win the East Factory.This Wang Zhi is a Yao man, very cunning, and he was born in the Zhaode Palace of the most beloved concubine Wan Gui of Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen of the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Jianshen also loved him very much, and often sent him to change into plain clothes and go around to investigate some suspects. Secret things to know.At that time, Shang Ming was the eunuch who supervised Dongchang. Although he was good at handling affairs, he was not as good as Wang Zhi, so Wang Zhi tried to take the fat of Dongchang from Shang Ming many times.Zhu Jianshen felt that there was nothing wrong with Shang Ming, so it was inconvenient to dismiss him from his position, but he did not want to disappoint Wang Zhi too much, so he added this West Factory, so that Shang Ming and Wang Zhi could be equally divided, and both of them had a piece of fat. .
In addition to the East Factory and the West Factory, an investigative agency called "Expert Factory" was set up in the palace in the early years of Zhengde.This was added by Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao for Liu Jin, his most trusted eunuch.This factory was established last and lasted the shortest time, but when it was first established, it was so powerful that even the police officers of the East Factory were afraid of it.This expert factory can be said to be closely related to Liu Jin's fate. When Liu Jin was in power, it was the most timely; after Liu Jin was executed, it disintegrated and disappeared.Although the West Factory has existed for a longer time than the Expert Factory, it can’t be said for a long time. It was established and withdrawn twice, both of which were related to Wang Zhi’s rise and fall. Therefore, if the West Factory is related to Wang Zhi It is also possible that fate is closely linked.When the West Factory was first established, its arrogance was far greater than that of the East Factory. The arrests were faster and the tortures were more brutal, often causing people to lose their muscles and bones.Every time Wang Zhi goes out, he always leads a lot of followers and goes on a rampage, even the minister has to avoid the way.Xiang Zhong, Minister of the Ministry of War, met him and did not avoid him, but was also humiliated by him.The second time Xichang was dismissed was in the 17th year of Chenghua (1481). Since then, Wang Zhi's favor has gradually declined, and Xichang has not been reset.
Only Dongchang has always been with the Ming Dynasty.It has lasted a very long time and has accumulated a lot. It often sends out all kinds of spies to go out for reconnaissance, which makes people really feel pale.From the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were many notebooks and novels that talked about the spies sent by Dongchang, and the secrets of their investigations were quite unexpected.Among them, there is a story with roughly the same content but different names, which can be found in several novels. There is a servant who has been with him for many years. This person is extremely intelligent, extremely diligent, and extremely loyal, so he is extremely trusted and indispensable.One day, the servant suddenly resigned, saying that he wanted to leave.The master was frightened and perplexed, and tried his best to persuade him to stay, and insisted on asking him why he left suddenly.The servant was forced to have no choice but to explain his identity.It turned out that he was not a servant for generations, but a spy of Dongchang.Dongchang sent him to the master's place as a scout, and all work contacts, private life, etc. must be reported on time.The servant also said that he admired his master very much, and that his reports were very honest and fair, so Dongchang thought that there was no need for further surveillance, and now he was going to call him back and arrange other tasks.The master was amazed when he heard this, and after thinking about it carefully, he had followed him and participated in all kinds of life for many years, but it turned out to be such a person.The plot of this story, which can be seen in many places, is roughly the same. The only difference is that the owner's name and official rank are different.In this case, some people think that the story should be only one person, and it has been circulated and misleading, but later it belongs to more than one person.Others think that it should be a common method used by the spies sent by Dongchang, so although the people are different, the stories are very similar.Although the two theories are different, they have one thing in common, that is, this kind of story has been widely spread in the Ming Dynasty, and it has become a topic that people often talk about.
There is another story that has been widely circulated. Although the location and characters are slightly different, it can be seen at a glance that the source is only one.That story is about the horrible era when Wei Zhongxian was in power.It is said that two people, A and B, were drinking together in a hotel. When they happened to talk about current affairs, B couldn't help scolding Wei Zhongxian; , can he still peel my skin?" At that time, they broke up, and both of them were fine.The next day a certain A went to the street, but was asked to have a drink by a stranger who told him that there was something to do.They came to the hotel where they drank with B yesterday again.After sitting down, the man pointed to the top and asked A, "Did you see that, who said you can't peel his skin?" A certain B, who was drinking with him yesterday, has really been stripped of the bark and hung high in the store.There are fewer differences in this story. The only difference is that the location is slightly different. Some say they are eating wine in a hotel, while others say they are eating tea in a teahouse.Some still remember that someone praised Wei Zhongxian to a certain A, saying how the factory minister was so discerning, and the two of them were drinking together, but there was a difference between scolding and not scolding.
The above two stories have been circulating in Beijing, and many people have never read any notebook novels, but only heard them from teahouses and hotels.These two stories, one shows the depth of Dongchang's investigation, and the other shows the careful distribution of his eyes and ears, both of which are very typical and general.Dongchang was originally located in the eastern district of the inner city of Beijing, so there are more legends about Dongchang in Beijing than in other places.The street where Dongchang is located has always been called Dongchang Hutong, and it is still called so after the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
There are many Da Dang written in historical records in the Ming Dynasty, counting from Wang Zhen to Wei Zhongxian, Wang Tiqian, Gao Qiqian, etc., it can be said that it has been continuous, and there have been all dynasties.Many of them are arbitrarily powerful, almost more powerful than the emperor who was in office at that time.But having said that, since the Ming Dynasty, since the Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, in order to protect the imperial power, various regulations have been created between internal and external departments, so none of these big pendants can be compared with those in the Han and Tang Dynasties. Like eunuchs, even the emperor's life, death, establishment, and abolition are all in his own hands.As far as Wang Zhen is concerned, the young Yingzong Zhu Qizhen of the Ming Dynasty listened to him almost everything, and he conquered Oala himself, which was almost held hostage by Wang Zhen.Almost everything inside and outside, but Wang Zhen's order is to obey.But in the "Civil Change", King Tan supervised the country, and in an instant, not only Wang Zhen was exterminated, but all his seniors were beheaded, his party members were also slaughtered, it was as easy as ruining.Another example is Wang Zhi, Liu Jin, Feng Bao, etc., although they were once very powerful, they can only rely on their power to exercise their power. Once offended, they have no power to protect themselves.Finally, Wei Zhongxian, who has become the most powerful, has become a shrine all over the world, is known as "nine thousand years old", and has sons and daughters all over the court. When Tianqi passed away, although he and Cui Chengxiu had been in secret discussions for a long time, There are legends that intend to usurp power and seize the throne, but they have never been seen in action.Wei Zhongxian finally hung himself to death on the way to Fengyang, and his party members were destroyed for a while.
It can be seen from the fact that Da Dang in the Ming Dynasty could only rely on the situation to do evil. It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty's policy of mutual restraint among ministries was actually conducive to the consolidation of imperial power. It is an inevitable transformation on the other side, which makes the country decline day by day, become more and more corrupt, and finally get out of hand.
Notes:
Notes: