Chapter 85 Section 4 mobilize the masses to arrest corrupt officials

Combined with the study of "Da Gao", Zhu Yuanzhang launched a vigorous mass movement.In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, an event unprecedented in Chinese history happened in the Ming Empire: the emperor called on the people at the bottom to rise up and rebel against the bureaucratic class. In the "Dagao Three Parts: Thirty-Four Officials Who Should Harm the People", he called for: The original intention of my establishment of officials at all levels is to govern the people and serve the people.However, almost all the officials I have appointed in the past are untalented and worthless!As soon as they took office, they colluded with local officials, yamen servants, and local black and evil forces, and tried every means to harm my good people.Now, I'm going to rely on you senior and virtuous local elders and the brave heroes in the village to help me govern the place.If you want to rely on officials to make decisions for the people, I have been emperor for nineteen years, and I haven't seen a single person!

In another chapter of "Da Gao", he expressed the same meaning: Because I am on the ninth level, it is difficult to clearly observe every detail of imperial politics, "If the people don't mobilize themselves to expose the stubborn people, it will be obvious It is difficult for me to know a virtuous official, so I ask the people to help me for this." So, how does the emperor want the people to help him? Zhu Yuanzhang told the people that they could report the violations of officials directly to him.With a big wave of his hand, he generously gave the grassroots the power to supervise and review bureaucrats at all levels, and promised that the emperor would reward and punish officials according to the opinions of ordinary people.

In the eighteenth year of Hongwu, he called on the people in the "Da Gao": From provincial officials to prefectural and county-level officials, if outside the national regulations, they set up a pretentious name to search for the people's money, they will allow the respected old people in the territory to connect with the nearby villagers and jointly file a petition in the capital, and punish the criminals with evidence. , replace good officials, and nurture the people.At the same time, officials from the provincial level to the county level, if they are clean and capable and have outstanding achievements, allow the people in the territory to come to Beijing to report, and I will reward them.

Because of distrust of the supervisory officials, in another chapter, he said that if a good official was framed, the people had the right to directly appeal to the emperor. ("Da Gao·Qi Min Zou You Si Good and Evil Forty-fifth") In the future, if there are honest and capable officials at all levels of government, who earnestly benefit the people, the people where they are will know the details.If these honest and capable officials are trapped under the pretext of bad people, and they cannot understand their public intentions for a while, and they are thousands of miles away, and their feelings cannot be communicated.

In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, his policy took another big step forward. He astonishingly declared that within his empire, anyone can rush into the government and arrest officials he is not satisfied with! In the future, if there are officials who are wronged when they go to court, the wronged person can gather the neighbors and go directly to the execution room, arrest the official and send him to the capital!If there are people who forcibly buy things from the common people without giving money, if some families collect more than others when it is unfair to collect taxes, if they accept bribes and indulge in crimes while arresting deserters, but arrest the people with the same name, etc., all the people will be allowed Let's capture these officials directly!

It is also stipulated that if an official who harms the people escapes back to his hometown, and his neighbors and relatives know about it, he will be captured immediately. ("Dagao: The Fifty-fifth Years of Civil Disasters Fleeing Back") He issued such a notice in another chapter: "Twelve chief secretaries and prefectures, prefectures, and counties: I try to prohibit officials and Zaoli, and do not allow The village has been banned for years to disturb the people. There are greedy people who are often not afraid of the death penalty. Going to the countryside against the order and disturbing the people. If you dare to do this in the future, Xu Folk, a senior citizen with virtue, will go to Beijing Come".

After easily jumping from the extreme of "tying the people to the land" to the other extreme of "letting the people rebel", Zhu Yuanzhang remembered his "passport" system.He knew that this system would definitely be used by officials as an excuse to prevent ordinary people from petitioning.Then he declared: Anyone who comes to Beijing to report problems, regardless of whether they have a pass or not, will be allowed to go.Anyone who dares to obstruct will be punished with death.Another chapter stipulates that if the common people arrest the officials, if the officials dare to stop them, then "the whole family will be punished."

Giving lowly peasants the power to directly arrest officials without any legal procedures has never happened before in Chinese political history.This call once again proved a certain loyalty to peasant ideals in the emperor who had risen to the throne through a peasant uprising. Zhu Yuanzhang has always had a certain taste of "populism". While showing extreme hatred for the bureaucratic class, he has always been full of closeness to the people at the bottom of society from which he grew up.He was never gentle and kind to their faces.The simple and sincere relationship between people in rural life has always been remembered in his heart. He believes that the conscience of people in rural life has not been polluted by greed and material desire.

Because of his distrust of the bureaucracy, the emperor recalled his experience in rural life.He took back part of the power of the officials and delegated this power to the rural people, hoping that a certain degree of village autonomy would be beneficial to curb the corruption of officials. In the "Jiaomin Bangwen", he stipulated that some minor judicial affairs, such as housework, scolding and fighting disputes, could be judged by the elderly and Li Jia.Officials are not allowed to interfere with the proceedings or take over the sentencing.If local authorities intervened in the case of an old man, other old men could report it directly to the emperor, and officials might automatically be implicated in the crime of the old man on trial.Of course, major homicide cases should be reported to the government for trial.