Chapter 21 Section 5 Honest officials are negative teaching materials in the officialdom

From a certain point of view, Hai Rui's heart and Zhu Yuanzhang's are connected.Hai Rui fully agrees with Zhu Yuanzhang's cruel measures to punish corruption: My Taizu regards the people as wounded, and adheres to the "Book of Zhou" "as if protecting a child", and those who invade the fisherman without any hair will be severely punished.For decades, the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment, and it is also a once-in-a-thousand-year prosperity. It can be said that there is a ignorant dictator like Zhu Yuanzhang and an "upright official" like Hai Rui who is willing to abuse himself, which has created the culture of greed and arrogance in Chinese society.Hai Rui never felt that there was anything unreasonable about eating coarse grains and vegetables, wearing patched clothes, and living the life of an urban poor.He is willing to be poor and poor, and poverty helps him maintain integrity, while wealth and gentleness are a moral trap.

Hai Rui has never thought about it. The economic depression at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China is not the same as the current economic prosperity. Is it realistic to use the standards at that time as the current salary?Is it possible to ask everyone to abstain from material desires like him?The Chinese culture that advocates the mean is always going to extremes.Confucianism divides people into two opposing groups, the gentleman and the villain, and declares that a person is "not a sage, but a beast", which has laid a radical background for Chinese culture.

Everything is divided into two poles, and the golden mean has no place to hide.The cleanliness of upright officials and the lack of taboos of corrupt officials are actually two poles born of the same cultural genes. The phenomenon of "honest officials" is actually an integral part of the corrupt culture. Honest officials and corrupt officials complement each other, just like Yin and Yang, one of Tai Chi, are interdependent.It is the "extreme purity" of upright officials that has caused the "extreme corruption" of corrupt officials.In other words, the standard of being an honest official is too high, and the requirements for people are too harsh, and most people cannot meet this standard.If you can't meet the standard of honest officials, you are more or less a corrupt official. Since you are corrupt, why not be greedy to your heart's content?

In the officialdom, honest officials are the negative teaching materials for officials.Being an upright official not only suffers materially, but also bears enormous mental pressure.Hai Rui had to strictly abide by the imperial regulations in every task, so there were many obstacles and difficulties.The ridicule, ostracism, and non-cooperation of colleagues, the boycotting, cursing, petitioning, and even death threats from the gentry are not counted. Even at home, mothers, wives, and relatives complained all day long. , at least don't give him a good look.Therefore, to be an upright official is to endure a kind of torment that ordinary people cannot bear every day.

Hai Rui regarded this suffering as a kind of test, a kind of tempering, a kind of necessary way to "become a saint". In the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing (AD 1560), after Hai Rui became the county magistrate of Chun'an, Yan Maoqing, the capital censor, toured Zhejiang.Du Yushi is the chief of Yushitai, equivalent to the secretary of the discipline inspection committee. Wherever he goes, the standard of reception is already very high.Moreover, the Yan family is usually very ostentatious, so officials from all over the country have put a lot of effort into the reception.Even food, drink and "souvenir products" are not worth a thousand dollars in a county.

Wherever the Yan family went, "all the officials in the county and town of the supervisory department walked on their knees and knelt down to eat. They walked with their concubines and made five-colored public opinion, which was ordered by twelve women. The ceremony was from Huanghe, and the road was horrifying." The news that the Yan family will pass through Chun'an came, and the master frowned.When government officials and Taoist officials come, you can do business. This time, they are ministerial cadres, and they are all censors. If they offend him, a small county magistrate will immediately lose his official position.

However, Hai Rui didn't believe in that evil. Facing the master's advice, he said impatiently: "I'd rather accept the death penalty of being exiled to the army. Enke will wear a yu (small hole by the door and window) for this!" Even if the exiled army beheaded, Don't do such a shameful thing! He told the master, don't worry, let's see how the county handles it! His "disposition" was to write a letter to Minister Yan.The general idea of ​​the letter is: Received an official document from you, informing you that you will inspect our county.In your official document, you said that you are "simple by nature and don't like to be welcomed", and you want to be simple in reception everywhere, and not extravagant and wasteful, so as to save the empire's money.However, I heard the report from the county you have been to where you have been, "there are banquets everywhere, and each table costs three or four hundred taels of silver. Gold flowers and gold sections, a soup and one entry", is exactly the same as what you said in the notice Said quite differently.Did the county officials misunderstand your meaning and regard your request as empty words?

After receiving this letter, the Yan family did not even enter Yanzhou, which Chun'an belonged to, and took a detour.The magistrate of Yanzhou was furious, called Hai Rui to the state and yelled at him: "What a corrupt official you are, and you turned against you!" The magistrate kept yelling.Hai Ruiwei knelt down and said nothing. The magistrate of Yanzhou finally couldn't take it anymore, and the patience of the Zhejiang officials reached the limit. They joined hands to get Hai Rui away.However, Hai Rui's official administration is based on Taizu's ancestral system and does not go beyond the rules. It is really not easy to find fault with him.

This is not difficult for people in the officialdom.Can't stop your official position, can't I still be promoted to your official position?Officials from the government and roads jointly suggested that a morally upright and upright official like Hai Rui should be promoted to the central government. Hai Rui's incorruptibility has been heard from time to time in Beijing's top management.Since the officials in Zhejiang Province also believed that Hai Rui should be promoted, let's promote him, which also reflects the fairness and integrity in the selection of cadres.However, it is not suitable to work in Beijing. Since the local officials have done a good job, it is better to stay in the local area and make contributions.So the three-year term of magistrate expired, and the Ministry of Officials prepared to promote Hai Rui to be the general judge of Jiaxing Prefecture, Zhejiang.

This time, the self-defeating officials of Zhejiang Province mobilized urgently, found Yan Maoqing who had been humiliated by Hai Rui, bribed Yushi Yuan Chun, and impeached Hai Rui on charges.After some tense officialdom operations, Hai Rui didn't know what was going on, and was transferred out of Zhejiang by a transfer order, and transferred to Jiangxi Xingguo County magistrate. Xingguo is a "bitter" county with barren land, sparse population, and inconvenient transportation. It has always been a place that no one wants to go to.However, Hai Rui had no complaints.When he arrived in Xingguo, as soon as he got off the bus, he vigorously concealed the serious situation of the land from the local big households, and began to re-measure the land and verify the imperial taxes.

Clearing the land is an extremely difficult job. The wealthy and powerful households do everything possible to obstruct it, and they also use all means secretly to bribe the staff and resort to deceit, which makes the work very difficult. Just one year and eight months after Hai Rui arrived in Xingguo, before the land clearing was completed, the Ministry of Officials issued another transfer order, and Hai Rui was promoted to the head of the household department because of his "excellent work", with a rank of six ranks. Obviously, the local gentry bribed the provincial capital, Jingli, through local forces, and finally cleared Hai Rui out.The Ministry of Officials also believed that although people like Hai Rui were upright, they were seldom flexible. It seemed that they were more suitable for working on the board rather than the block.The main responsibility of the head of the household department is the supervision of finance and taxation in various places. In fact, it is just signing official documents. It is more professional and has less relationship with other departments, so it is relatively quiet.This time, Hai Rui should be able to work in peace. Unexpectedly, in this "relatively quiet" position, Hai Rui had a catastrophe.