Chapter 50 Section 3 The Secret of Xuanwu Lake

Today's Xuanwu Lake is one of the most attractive scenic spots in Nanjing, and it is very lively all year round. It may be difficult for tourists to imagine that more than 300 years ago, this place was a restricted area, heavily guarded and inaccessible. How strict is it? If you came to Xuanwu Lake during the Ming Dynasty, you would see rows of heavily armed troops patrolling back and forth with serious expressions.According to historical records, the system at that time was that military officers "bring archers, sergeants, local Huojia people, etc. to and fro day and night, patrolling along the lake" ("Houhu Zhi") to prevent anyone from trying to approach the lake area.You risk arrest if you try to look out over the lake.

Farmers are not allowed to cultivate the land around the lake.The original farmland shall be left barren.Not only fishing is not allowed by the lake, but also firewood collection and grazing are not allowed. Anyone who tries to break into the lake area will be severely punished. "The lake is called the forbidden lake, the land is called the forbidden land, the rules must be called the forbidden rules, and the boats must be called the forbidden boats, so that woodcutters, fishers and herdsmen are punished, and there are people who patrol and guard them, and those who cross the lake without permission must be severely punished" ("Houhu Zhi" ).

Not only ordinary people can't get close, even officials and even the emperor's close ministers can't come here without authorization. In November of the first year of Hongzhi (AD 1488), the eunuch Guo Yong, who was ordered by the emperor to go to Guangdong and Guangxi, passed by Nanjing.This person is the favorite of the emperor and has a high status in the palace.Hearing that the scenery of Xuanwu Lake is very beautiful, he led more than 20 entourages and sailed here for a visit.Unexpectedly, Sun Wen, the supervisory censor of the current dynasty, immediately reported the matter to the emperor in the name of "violating the forbidden regulations" and "traveling in forbidden places", saying, "Eunuch Guo Yong...Although the place that was strictly forbidden by the ancestors ignored him, he went to Recreation... The establishment of a law that destroys the country is tolerable and unbearable to the shock of the people of the capital."As a result, the mighty Guo Yong lost his job in Guangdong and Guangxi, and returned to Beijing in desperation.

Why is an ordinary lake so heavily guarded? It turned out that on the island in Xuanwu Lake, there was a "Yellow Book Library" that stored the household registration books of the Ming Dynasty.Why are you so nervous about the Yellow Book of Hukou?Because the household registration system was the foundation of all the systems of the Ming Dynasty, and it was the curse that restrained the people of the Ming Dynasty. Specifically, the household registration system maintained the occupational hereditary system of the Ming Dynasty, prevented people from migrating freely, and guaranteed state taxation.Without these household registration books, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to operate.

Although the occupational hereditary system naturally facilitates the management of society, it creates huge inequality among members of society.For example, military households undertake much heavier tasks than ordinary families. First of all, every military family must send at least one man to serve as a soldier in the guard or station of the army, which is called "regular army".Today when joining the army, travel expenses, military uniforms, and soldiers' living expenses are all borne by the state, but in Ming Dynasty, such expenses were all borne by the "military households" themselves. Once a "positive army" receives an order to enlist in the army from the state, his family will have to pay for him "the cost of purchasing military uniforms", "the cost of buying a military wife", "the cost of sending him to the army", and "the cost of military rations". Therefore, when the "main army" goes on the road, many military families often spend all their wealth at once.

In addition, another man had to be sent to the army with the "main army". His task was to farm and farm in the army, and exchange grain for money to provide food, clothing and flowers for the "main army".Although the state stipulates in name that "military households" families enjoy certain special policies and can reduce some tax and labor, but in fact the reduction is very little. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, "people are ashamed of being an army", as revealed by the word "discharge into the army".It is difficult for the sons of military households to even marry a wife. Many people cannot get married at the age of forty. Everyone is afraid that once they marry into a "military household", they themselves will become prisoners: , the corvee will be exhausting, and men and women will not marry until they are forty." ("Ming History" Volume 158, "Huang Zongzai Biography") Therefore, people do everything possible to get rid of their military status.Soon after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of soldiers fled.According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty" military records, by the third year of Hongwu, there were more than 47,900 recorded fugitive soldiers across the country.This is absolutely unacceptable to the rulers, as it would make it impossible to maintain national defense forces.

The yellow book system or household registration system can effectively prevent people from changing their household registration.Zhu Yuanzhang established the yellow book system, requiring every household in the country to submit their yellow book of household registration to the capital for preservation once every ten years.The personal information of every person in every village and township in the mountains and seas of the country is clearly grasped by the state machinery.In this way, if the government suspects that you are a "runaway army", they will ask you to show your household registration yellow book, and compare it with the yellow book in the Nanjing Yellow Book Bank.With this comparison, you can find out what kind of occupation your ancestors were, making it impossible for you to escape.This is the so-called "Only by checking and refuting according to the old books, those who bully hermits and those who change their ways can't escape" ("Houhu Zhi").

So later in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Yang Lian explained the importance of the yellow book system in accordance with Zhu Yuanzhang's legislative spirit during the Nanjing household division administration: However, according to the old rule of the ancestors, the Tibetan people register the back lake, and the law prohibits everyone from peeping.As for the fact that there are not many books from many years ago, and those who dare not disturb the general situation of the military and civilian books, they are sincerely afraid that the books will only exist in the back lake. In other words, it is precisely because the original copy of the yellow book is stored in Nanjing that ordinary people everywhere cannot bribe officials to change their household registrations.According to Wei Qingyuan, a historian of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Yellow Book is the "tightening curse" and "tying the immortal rope" of the people all over the country, and it is the last trump card that can kill every family.

The second purpose of implementing the yellow book system is to prevent people from migrating indiscriminately.Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to turn all the people of the country into plants. Not only was he not allowed to change occupations casually, he was also not allowed to move casually for the rest of his life. "Nowadays, scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen must keep their own jobs. Doctors and fortune tellers can only operate in their hometowns and are not allowed to travel far." Turning people into plants is just Zhu Yuanzhang's beautiful dream.After all, human beings are animals with two legs, and the right to visit relatives and friends and go out for business cannot be deprived.What if the people in the world are forced to think of doing business in other places?Zhu Yuanzhang came up with a good way: open a "letter of introduction".If you need to go out, please go to the government to register. After going through strict approval procedures, you will be issued a "letter of introduction", or a "pass". In the words of the time, it was called a "road guide".Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that people all over the country must apply for a pass when they go out hundreds of miles away.When you go to every village and town, you have to check your pass for meals and lodging.

Zhu Yuanzhang taught the people: "People everywhere, when they meet a stranger, they should carefully check his pass to see whether his clothes and behavior are the same as the occupation written on the pass." If you go out without a pass, you will be severely punished. : "Anyone who goes out without a pass will be given 80 sticks. Anyone who passes through a pass without going through the main gate, or crosses a river without taking the legal ferry will be given 90 sticks. Anyone who sneaks across the border shall be sentenced to death by hanging." If there is a famine in a certain place and people go to other places to beg for food to make a living, even if they successfully cross the checkpoint, they will be found when the yellow book is made. Inquiry" ("Ming Hui Dian" Volume 20, Yellow Volume).

That is to say, "the relevant local authorities will definitely investigate where you fled and where you wrote the document, so that the local government will arrest you and return you to your hometown, and ask you for crimes according to the law of the Ming Dynasty."The government will ask you to report your household registration information, and check it with the information in the yellow book database from the local area to Nanjing. In this way, if you try to falsely report your household registration and settle in other places, you will fail, and you will be escorted back to your place of origin. Into the Yellow Book.Man was originally the master of the land, but Zhu Yuanzhang made the land the master of the peasants.The peasants of the whole country have become appendages of the land. The third role of the yellow book system is to ensure taxation.The yellow book is different from today's household registration system in that it is not only used to record population information, but also to record the family's property to determine how much tax and labor should be borne.Therefore, the yellow book is called the household registration yellow book by some, and the tax and service yellow book by others.In line with the population system, Zhu Yuanzhang also established a national land registration system. Each household has a few acres of land, and the location, size, and location of each piece are clearly written.The following is the registration content of the land title certificate of a piece of land: Soil name: Li Shuyuan, the land is divided into four centimeters. The land belongs to the twenty capitals, four pictures and three tops, Cheng Jiulong. It reaches Fangliangshantian in the east, Zhangdanmintian in the west, Fangliangshantianlian in the south, and Fangliangshantian in the north. In the later stages of dynasties, there will always be a social situation, that is, powerful landlords, nobles and other powerful families recruit people, conceal land, and cause a large loss of national tax revenue.The yellow book system can effectively prevent ordinary people from sending their names to wealthy families to evade taxes.At the same time, wealthy and powerful families evaded taxes through various means and shifted the burden to ordinary people. As a result, the polarization became more and more intense, and the dynasty would eventually be swallowed up.The yellow book system can also suppress this phenomenon to a minimum.Therefore, during the Jiajing period, an official said: The urgent task of the country is not to take care of the people.The reality of being sympathetic to the people is just taxation and service.The level of taxes and servitude is only made in Shen Zan (yellow book).Therefore, the production of books and records is not careful, the distribution of tax and labor is not uniform, the treacherous tyrants can be tricked, the weak of the people are harmed, the national economy is shrinking, and the people's livelihood is withered. (Wan Wencai's "Cases of Shen Yan's Yellow Book of Taxes and Du Traitors", "Houhu Zhi" Volume 10) These words really speak Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.It can be said that without the yellow book system, the achievements of Zhu Yuanzhang's large-scale immigration, large-scale land reform, and equalization of land and property could not be maintained. Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang also spent a lot of thought on where to store such important information.The reason why it was finally decided on Xuanwu Lake is because it has a large water surface and there are several islands in the lake.For the superior natural conditions of Xuanwu Lake, in the eighth year of Zhengde (AD 1513), Yang Lian, Secretary You Tongzheng, Nanjing Tongzheng envoy, once analyzed: Emperor Taizu Gao established Jinling as his capital, and stored the yellow books of the world in Houhu. Until Emperor Taizong Wen made his capital in Beiping, most of the officials and commoners followed Tibet to the north, and Duhouhu's collection remained unchanged.The ancestors were far-sighted and saw this deeply, so they can all be moved, but the collection cannot be changed. Otherwise, under the chariot, such as the proximity of Shuntian Jifu, such as Zhen (ding) Baoding, why not the capital, but Nanjing?Gaihou Lake is 40 Li wide in circumference, with several islands protruding in the middle, and thousands of feet of broken banks.It has been a plan for thousands of years, and it is almost no more than this. (Preface to Yang Lian's "Records of the Houhu") Obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that Houhu, which is surrounded by water and separated from banks, is the most ideal environment for building archives.Built in the center of the lake, on the one hand, it can prevent fire, and on the other hand, it can ensure safety.This view was recognized by the imperial court. In fact, after Zhu Di moved to the north, the central state organs of the Ming Dynasty moved to the north, but left the Yellow Book Library in Nanjing alone, which further highlights the superior geographical conditions of Xuanwu Lake. .