Chapter 12 Section 12 reveals its true colors

When Zhu Di walked towards the throne with a weapon in hand, the people of the entire Ming Empire were pushed into a rather embarrassing situation. According to the idea that this society does its best to promote, everyone's life should be based on the principles of justice.It is said that the reason why human beings are different from animals is that they can judge justice and evil, and have a heart of shame, evil and integrity. "Without a heart for right and wrong, you are not human." Now, a usurper has come to power, and it is undoubtedly a humiliation, even an unforgivable mistake, to be a obedient citizen of the usurper.

For ordinary people, it is easy to get rid of this embarrassment, all they need to do is scold their mother.To be honest, etiquette, justice, honesty and shame are more the luxury of adults and gentlemen, and what ordinary people need more is survival. For scholars, however, this issue is a matter of life and death.For them, the meaning of existence is to implement the principles.To serve a usurper is undoubtedly spiritual suicide.Therefore, Zhu Di's coming to power, of course, will arouse the "interest and righteousness in the heart" of scholars all over the empire. For thousands of years, Chinese history has continued to play jokes on scholars in such a savage way. They uphold the norms, in the final analysis, to protect the interests of the rulers, but the rulers have ignored the norms time and time again, creating conspiracy, coups, and usurping the throne. Constantly put scholars in a dilemma.For thousands of years, most of the scholars have also refined steel to turn it into soft fingers, so that they can move forward and retreat freely. The result of the "battle" is that most people abandon the eternal morality and choose the short-lived interests.Of course, there will always be some people who choose to keep their values ​​intact.Huang Zicheng was the instigator of the reduction of feudal vassals, and the first "treacherous minister" that Zhu Di declared that he would eliminate when he raised his army.Since there is no escape route, his posture towards death is quite free and easy.Above the imperial court, he called Yongle "Your Highness" instead of "Your Majesty", laughing and cursing in every possible way:

The minister knows that His Highness uses military force to obtain wealth, but he does not know that His Highness is this position... Besides, wealth is fleeting, so it is not important!Your Highness has always been paradoxical, and should not be taught, fearing that the descendants will be effective, especially those who are not blameless! Under the rage, Zhu Di, who usually had a smile on his face, showed an unknown ferocious side.He ordered all Huang Zicheng's relatives to be arrested. Sixty-five members of Huang's family, surnamed old and young, and 380 foreign relatives from his wife's family were brought before Huang Zicheng, "wailing loudly."The price of maintaining one's own values ​​will be the lives of more than 400 people.

Huang Zicheng looked at his old parents, tears in his eyes, and his heart felt like a knife. However, the principles of Confucianism prevented him from taking half a step back.He gritted his teeth and still did not change his words.Zhu Di ordered his hands to be cut off, but Huang Zicheng still refused to give in, so he ordered his feet to be cut off, and then chopped Huang Zicheng into a pulp.The sixty-five members of Huang's family, regardless of age, were all beheaded, and all three hundred and eighty relatives were sent to the frontier. Tie Xuan, who once resisted Zhu Di in Shandong so that he could not take the next step south, sat with his back on the court when he was sent to Zhu Di, swearing endlessly.Zhu Di ordered people to cut off Tie Xuan's ears and nose, and "break it into pieces".

Chen Di, Minister of the Ministry of Rites of Jianwen, debated the righteousness of the monarch and ministers with Zhu Di in front of him, scolding him endlessly.Zhu Di ordered people to arrest Chen Di's sons, and cut off his son's ears and nose, let him eat, and asked how it tasted.Chen Di replied: "The meat of a loyal minister and a filial son is extremely delicious." The six father and son were tortured together... Is this the Zhu Di who values ​​loyalty, empathy, and always smiles?Is this the King Yan who shed tears because of the plight of the beggar, and was outraged because the weak were bullied?Is this the incarnation of justice who spoke generously and showed righteousness in color when he raised the army?Yes, what this representative of justice, benevolent master, and humane great man has done is far more than that.

He and Fang Xiaoru scolded each other in the hall, hating Fang Xiaoru's stubborn mouth, and ordered someone to cut Fang Xiaoru's mouth to the ears.He invented "Punish Ten Clans", and 873 people related to Fang Xiaoru were killed in the city.Zhu Di invented the "melon and vine copy". In order to vent his anger for a while, he started with an enemy, then turned to another person, spread his influence, killed innocent people indiscriminately, and caused hundreds of people to die at every turn. Fortunately, history has left a close-up of the gangster's face that Zhu Di did not destroy in time: On the eleventh day of the first lunar month in the eleventh year of Yongle (AD 1413), the officials of the Jiaofang Division reported at the gate of Youshun Palace: A sister of Qitai, Two nieces and daughters-in-law, plus Huang Zicheng's younger sister, the four women were gang-raped by an average of twenty men every day. "The young ones are all pregnant, and they gave birth to a little tortoise on New Year's Eve, and a three-year-old daughter." After hearing this, Zhu Di said, "When the young ones grow up to be big, they will be shaken." The tree of money."

The beautiful mask was lifted, revealing an out-and-out hooligan behind.This rascal was meaner, nastier, and more brutal than his father.The only difference from his father, he is nothing but a classic rogue.This sanctimonious person did not have the slightest respect for human life from the bottom of his heart, and no noble qualities such as sympathy, compassion, and love grew in his cold heart. In his eyes, the world is only divided into two types that can be used and those that cannot be used, and things are only divided into two types that are beneficial to oneself and those that are not beneficial to oneself.Those who are worthless are worthless in his heart.

From a moral point of view, he is no higher than any hooligan in the Ming Empire.Unfortunately, such people are often the winners in the brutal Chinese competition.While fooling the world, these people savagely trample on the values ​​that honest people hold dear.What they advertise is kingly justice, but in fact they follow that those who follow me prosper and those who oppose me perish.When scholars of later generations talked about the era of Chengzu, what they regret most is that the righteousness of the world was once again destroyed. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, many scholars attributed the fall of the Ming Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, and the hearts of the people had already collapsed at the time of Yongle.Gu Yanwu, a great Confucian in the late Ming Dynasty, believed that "between Hongwu and Yongle" was the "meeting of ups and downs in the world", and it was an era when Chinese people's personalities were distorted.On the day of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, those who died for the country were not as good as those who died for Jianwen during the "Jing Nan".Li Qing, a descendant, said in "Nandulu": "It is difficult for Jing to gradually lose his righteousness, so he became today (the day of the Ming Dynasty's demise) and the cunning people bowed their knees and worshiped the false."