Chapter 17 1. "Fifteen Years of Wanli" did not explain it thoroughly

sweet: After reading your "Unspoken Rules: Real Games in Chinese History", I naturally think of Huang Renyu's, because you are all familiar with Ming history, you all pay attention to the fiscal and taxation system, and you are even interested in the same characters, such as Emperor Wanli, Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui .Also, your way of writing is a bit weird, saying that academics are not academics, and telling stories is not stories, so I think you may be able to answer a question I have had for many years: What are the flaws? Wu: I read it four times. When I first read it in 1986, I only felt that the writing was good, and the key points were mentioned, but I couldn't tell what the key points were, but I felt that Wang Yang was unrestrained, like a dragon seeing its head but not its tail.

A few years ago, I finally found the observation angle of "hidden rules". When reading history, I began to pay attention to those unspoken rules, that is, the rules that are hidden under the formal rules but actually govern the operation of Chinese society.After having this kind of accumulation, I looked at it again, and found that what Huang Renyu went around trying to explain but failed to explain was precisely this unspoken rule. Huang Renyu knew very well that the society of the Ming Dynasty was definitely not run according to the publicly declared formal norms, and the high-sounding moral laws were mostly just rhetoric, so he tried hard to describe this situation.As for what rules that society operates according to, he failed to figure it out, let alone analyze and pursue its formation mechanism.That is to say, Huang Renyu did grasp the key point, but failed to grasp the key point to the bright spot and research thoroughly.He heated the water to more than ninety degrees, but the fire was short of boiling point.

sweet: I know what you mean by boiling point is what really governs the game.So let's analyze those games.What is particularly interesting in Huang Renyu's works is the fate of Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng. Whenever Huang Renyu talks about these, he is like a master storyteller, often telling a surprising ending reasonably.For example, Hai Rui, who was upright and dogmatic, failed in the end; Zhang Juzheng, who had far-reaching calculations, exquisite arrangements, extraordinary intelligence, and unscrupulous methods, also failed in the end because he was sued.Those who followed the teachings of the sages fell, and those who did not follow the teachings of the sages also fell. Why?Is it accidental or inevitable?Is it the exception or the rule?

Wu: Of course it is a general rule.Whether it was Hai Rui or Zhang Juzheng, they had violated the unspoken rules of the officialdom, so they received retribution.Hai Rui strictly followed the official regulations, forbidding arbitrary charges of various names, took the lead in rejecting "rule rules" and "regular practices", and stopped enshrining bad rules and routines to his superiors. This was tantamount to depriving officials at all levels of their vested interests.Zhang Juzheng used various formal or informal means to force the imperial officials to complete taxation tasks, squeeze their leisure time, and squeeze the emperor's leisure time, and supervise them to improve efficiency without providing additional income.The two of them compressed the vested interests of the official group from different directions and destroyed the deep-rooted official rules.Their failure or downfall is but the inevitable punishment for violators.

In fact, Huang Renyu has already revealed these meanings in the story. His question is not clear enough, which makes readers feel inadequate and needs to ask "why is this? Is it a special case or a general rule?" I don't want to leave this kind of Ambiguity and insufficiency, I will discuss this phenomenon separately, and give a name to this phenomenon that can be summed up as a pattern.For example, "Yan's Transformation" said that Yanzi was ordered to govern Dong'e, and when the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, Yanzi was criticized by Qi Jinggong, and Yanzi changed his policy, making the people miserable and being praised instead.The problem lies in the information channels. Even if the interests of the common people are damaged, as long as the distribution of benefits is beneficial to the powerful group that controls the information channels, it will be a good word, otherwise it will be a bad word.So the facts themselves are not important, what matters is the preferences of the information filter.

sweet: In your book, you tell a story about how a county magistrate settled a case.If the facts of the case are a little vague, they have a wide range of legal choices. They can kill or release, and they can be light or serious. "Officials decide ten ways", no matter how they decide, it is justified.You also relayed a story told by Zhang Juzheng, the story of a big official bribing a small official. Zhang Juzheng has an incisive summary of this, saying that a big official is afraid of a small official, not because he expects to gain benefits from them, but because he is afraid of their harm. Own.In short, you found that the right to legally cause trouble or harm others is valuable, and indeed it continues to sell for a lot of money, so you named this power "legal right to harm".

"Legal right to harm" is a word that can help us gain insight into the hidden and the truth. With this word, many incomprehensible phenomena suddenly become clear. The "legitimate right to harm" is so powerful and low-cost that people can almost create something out of nothing and grab benefits out of thin air; in contrast, the power to benefit is much more limited and cannot be separated from the support of actual resources.Therefore, the "legitimate right to harm" has a far-reaching impact on the actual operation of society and history, and is also the basis for the formation of unspoken rules.

Wu: It should be said that the control of violence is the ultimate basis.The legal right to harm is nothing more than a legal application of legal violence.Various social groups, as well as within each group, are distributed according to their ability to harm, and various resources follow this ability to flow. As you said, the ability to benefit people comes second.Machiavelli also said the same. He believed that whether a favor can be reciprocated depends on the conscience of the beneficiary, and the benefactor cannot control the conscience of the beneficiary; The opponent's fear.Everyone has fear, but not everyone has a conscience.

The impact and significance of applying the "legitimate right to harm" to ordinary people is the most thrilling.I did some calculations on behalf of the people of the Qing Dynasty who petitioned to sue. How much risk would I have to take, what price would I have to pay, and what were the chances of winning in order to get rid of the arbitrary charges imposed on me?Conversely, officials extort money and collect exorbitant taxes. Once they are sued by the people, how much risk and loss will they have?After a few calculations, the conclusion is two shocking words: being taken advantage of is the most cost-effective choice for ordinary people, while being a corrupt official is the most cost-effective choice for officials.This is not a moral issue, but determined by the pattern of interests.

This pattern of interests further determines that the profits of squeezing into the officialdom are very high, so we see the unstoppable expansion of the bureaucratic group.For example, in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, the official establishment of county officials and officials was only about 20 people. Serving as yamen servants was unpaid labor among the people, but they got some food subsidies.However, because the yamen servant has the legal right to harm, it has become a status that needs to be exploited or even purchased with money, so that the team of yamen servants has rapidly expanded, and there are assistants and temporary workers under the yamen servants.Zhu Yuanzhang made a statistic: Songjiang Mansion has 1,350 market thugs who are working in the officialdom. They help out in the officialdom. , Banghu and many other names.Zhu Yuanzhang ordered to clean up, and one Songjiang mansion actually got rid of more than 900 people including small prisoners and wild prisons.There is a huge difference between the formal regulations and the unspoken rules that actually operate.This intensified, until ten sheep and nine shepherds, the sheep were eaten to extinction, and the carnivores also became extinct.

sweet: It seems that the biggest beneficiary of the legal right to harm is the entire bureaucratic group, not even the emperor, and the biggest victim is the peasant group.If we compare the modern industrial and commercial society, the biggest beneficiary is not the boss but the managers, and the biggest victim is the consumer group. Wu: Yes, ignoring the relationship between the bureaucratic group and the peasant group is my biggest criticism of the overall layout.Huang Renyu described the relationship between the emperor and the bureaucratic group, the relationship within the bureaucratic group, and even the relationship between the civil official group and the military group, but he did not use special pen and ink to describe the relationship between the official group and the peasant group.This is like describing how the kings of the mountain drink in big bowls, divide the meat in large pieces, and how they arrange seats, but they don't talk about how they cut paths and kidnap tickets, and how they rob houses, and that is the basic relationship that determines fate.The fat and water divided by the bureaucratic group ultimately come from the common people; the problems that Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui are trying to solve, such as the implementation of the one-whip law, are also attempts to adjust the interest relationship between the bureaucratic group and the common people, not to mention the most basic relationship , It's like talking about the company and only talking about internal management, but not mentioning the market and consumers. In fact, there are not many stories in this regard.In the 15th year of Wanli, 3,000 farmers from Dong'e and Yanggu in Shandong planned to seize the county seat and start an uprising.In the fourteenth year of Wanli, Wang An, a farmer in Qi County, Henan Province, led thousands of people to rebel.What does it mean?Consumers are coming to smash your company's brand, and competitors are coming to grab your market.Is it possible not to pay attention to the movements of consumers and competitors?The Ming Dynasty happened to die in their hands in the end. sweet: It seems that you are all concerned about the same issue, which is the fate of the company; the crux of your worries are different. What Huang Renyu is most worried about is the company's management, but what you are most worried about is the relationship between the company and the market.In contrast, Huang Renyu is more like a management professor, and you are more like a company researcher.So what do you think of the digital management that management professors advocate? Wu: I think digital management is just rhetoric and not a real problem.If Huang Renyu's digital management refers to the set of technologies corresponding to the industrial and commercial society, calling for it in the Ming Dynasty or expecting to use it to save the Ming Dynasty is a fantasy.That is to say, this kind of "use" could not grow on the "body" of the Ming Dynasty. Even if this kind of "use" was introduced, it would not be able to live on that "body".The real question should be why the Ming Dynasty could not grow into a business society that could produce digital management. If he was referring to the more instrumental numerical management, it was not without the Ming Dynasty—field mu measurement, household registration statistics, resignation audit, money and grain collection all did not leave numbers, but in the institutional structure full of unspoken rules, these numbers But reflecting the wishes and interests of digital needers and providers, they conceal more than they reveal.We are not unfamiliar with such history.