Chapter 20 Section 4 Who Created the "Sea Monster"

It was none other than Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor he admired, who turned Hai Rui into a "sea monster". In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Luo Furen, a scholar of the Hongwen Museum, lived in a simple and honest manner, and was known as "Honest Luo".One day, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly had the idea to investigate whether "Honest Luo" was real or fake, and went to Luo's house for a private visit.Luo's house is in a small alley outside the city. There are a few dilapidated houses. "Honest Luo" is painting the walls on the ladder. When he sees the emperor coming, he panics and asks the woman to hold a little wu (wu) The son asked the emperor to sit down.When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that he was really poor, the boss felt sorry and said, "How can a good scholar live in such a bad house!" He immediately rewarded him with a big mansion in the city. (Wu Han's "Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang") In fact, it was Zhu Yuanzhang himself who made the "good scholar" have to live in such a bad house.In the early years of the founding of the country, it was he who set the lowest salaries for officials in all dynasties.

The reason why the low salary system was stipulated was firstly because of financial difficulties at the beginning of the founding of the country; secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a poor background, always had a subconscious hatred for officials in his heart, and he did not want these people to be fattened by himself; Mencius disciples, their starting point for entering official positions should be to practice the way of Confucius and Mencius, not for their own self-interest.Therefore, the low salary is just conducive to them to forge their integrity and maintain integrity.As the saying goes, "Preserve the principles of nature and destroy human desires."The low salary system is actually a political tradition based on Confucianism in China, but other dynasties were not so low that people could not eat enough.

On the one hand, official salaries are too low to maintain normal expenditures. On the other hand, officials are all-powerful, and officials at all levels are not restricted in their power. There are almost no obstacles to formulating various land policies and conducting various arbitrary fees.The absurdity of this system is just like "thirsty horses guard water, hungry dogs guard meat", leading to the overall corruption of officials has become an inevitable trend. In this system, there are only two options.One is to be an upright official and take nothing, and the result is to be willing to be poor that normal people can't bear.The famous Qingguanxuan (ni) in the Ming Dynasty "has a green cloth robe in the cold and heat, which is almost patched all over the place. They usually eat vegetables and eat vegetables, and their wives operate the well mortar by themselves."This kind of embarrassment abounds in the biographies of upright officials.The other is to follow official practice and maintain expenditure through local policies to support the establishment of a network.Once the limit is exceeded, people's desires are often out of control.Corruption grows unstoppably like bacteria that are suitable for the environment.

For institutional corruption, there have been only two ways to deal with it in the past dynasties: one is "killing" to eliminate corrupt officials physically; the other is "education", which moves people and educates people by setting models, vigorously commending them, and advocating correct orientation. Convert people. These two methods are like fishing for the moon in water, to no avail.Over the past dynasties, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was the most firm in punishing corruption and had the strictest requirements on officials. However, it happened that he set up a series of punishments for the ancestors of corruption in the Ming Dynasty, and corruption reached its peak.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, all other crimes can be forgiven, only corruption, and none of them can be forgiven.He enacted a cruel corruption punishment law, stipulating that anyone who has embezzled more than sixty taels of money should be publicly displayed, and the human skin should be peeled off, filled with hay, and placed opposite the government court to warn his successors.Later, seeing that this move still could not stop corruption, it was stipulated: "From now on, those who commit stolen goods will be punished regardless of their severity!" As long as it is corruption, even if it is only one tael of silver, it will not be missed!In addition to beheading, Zhu Yuanzhang also created appalling tortures such as pumping intestines, scrubbing, tin snake swimming (poured into the mouth with molten tin water) and other appalling tortures to punish embezzlers.

Under the rule of Emperor Hongwu, it was like hell reappearing. Almost every county in the empire had a leather man in the county government, and tens of millions of officials were killed throughout the country.From Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son Gan'er, the emperor's relatives, down to the rankless subordinates, as long as they are involved in corruption, none of them will be spared. At the same time as the massacre, Zhu Yuanzhang also attached great importance to setting a model and commending the advanced.He successively set up dozens of models of clean government such as Wang Sheng, Wang Xingzong, Tao Houzhong, Sui Bin, and Wang Ping. , to publicize their deeds widely.Severe punishment and education, Zhu Yuanzhang's strength is unprecedented and unprecedented.How effective is it?Although corrupt officials seem to have been greatly reduced for a while, however, the intensity has weakened slightly, and corruption has sprung up like mushrooms after rain, which is unstoppable.After more than 20 years of governance, corruption cases still emerge in endlessly in his later years.Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly lamented that the dead bodies in the front hadn't been taken away, and the successors in the back had embezzled again.The heavier the governance, the more corruption there will be. "Like this kind of fool, I am so old, my mouth is dry, and I can't catch my breath, and I also say that he is not awake!"

In fact, what is obsessed with it is Chinese politics for thousands of years.For thousands of years, no one has tried to use other methods to control corruption, and no one has considered the rationality of the system. Chinese traditional culture is such a culture that lacks the spirit of introspection.Surrounded by such a completely closed cultural system, everything has a ready-made orthodox explanation, and people have lost the ability to solve problems constructively.