Chapter 23 Chapter 7 Jiajing died, Hai Rui cried

In "History of Ming Dynasty Hai Rui Biography", the most dramatic description is the next paragraph: Hai Rui waited to die in prison.One day, the jailer brought him a sumptuous banquet.He thought that the execution was going to be carried out tomorrow, so he chewed happily, with a calm demeanor.After eating, the jailer asked him, "Why did you give Mr. a banquet?" Hai Rui said, "You want me to be a dead ghost." The prisoner said, "Wrong, the emperor died today, sir, you are going to be released from prison. Yes, and it will be of great use sooner or later!" Hai Jui heard, "I was so terrified that I vomited all my food and drink, fell to the ground, and cried all night long."

The first time I read "Hai Rui's Biography" to this point, I feel deeply incomprehensible. With Hai Rui's sixth rank, I may have never even seen the Emperor Tianyan. Where did such deep feelings come from, so that I cried faintly on the ground?At that time, I only felt that Hai Rui was hypocritical. However, with a deeper understanding of the psychology of Chinese scholars, I "understood" Hai Rui.The monarch is the foundation of politics. From an ethical point of view, the monarch and his ministers are more important than father and son.Scholars in the old days really felt like their husbands and fathers to the emperor.The further evolution of the concept of loyalty to the monarch has become a unique complex of love for the monarch among Chinese scholars. "Confucius has no king for three months, and the emperor is like him", his psychology is really like a state of broken love.Mencius, on the other hand, believes that loving the emperor is a human instinct: "If there are few people, you will admire your parents; if you know lust, you will admire Shaoai; if you have a wife, you will admire your wife; if you are an official, you will admire the emperor, and if you are not in the emperor, you will be enthusiastic." When I was young, I loved my parents; when I grew up, I loved women; and when I became an official, I loved the monarch. If the monarch didn’t notice me, I would suffer from unrequited love, which is the so-called "enthusiasm".

The innocence of Emperor Hai Rui's anger is true, and the death of Emperor Ai is also true.For Hai Rui, the emperor is his "heaven", his master, the goal of his life, the object of his unconditional loyalty, and the place of his hope.No matter how the emperor treats his courtiers, from an ethical point of view, it is a grace, and the courtiers can only bear it with joy, and there should be no complaints. Due to continuous internalization, the concept of loyalty to the monarch has reached a highly emotional state in Hai Rui's heart, so that it has surpassed the scope of reason and erupted into a torrent of emotion.When the emperor passed away, to him, the son lost his father, and the old horse lost its master. How could he not feel sad?