Hai Rui's "retirement of half of the land" certainly has no legal basis.
If Gao Rui, who studied law in his previous life, evaluates it, Hai Rui's simple and crude handling method not only has no legal basis, but even defies the law. Because China has always implemented written laws, not unwritten laws like those in Britain and the United States in later generations.
The so-called "unwritten law", to put it crudely, means that cases are decided based on past precedents on the basis of certain legal principles. As for statutory law, the circumstances of the case need to be adapted bit by bit to the existing legal provisions.
For example, the "Da Ming Law" is a typical statutory legal provision.
The operation of "returning half of the land" has no basis in any legal provisions of the Ming Dynasty, so Hai Rui's penalty itself is certainly against the spirit of the law.
However, if Gao Pragmatic is also asked to evaluate, he has another conclusion: "retiring half of the land" does not violate the axiom in a broader sense.
In other words, this operation itself is illegal, but it does not violate the axioms in the broadest sense.
Fairness and justice are actually never the same thing.
Let’s take an example that may not be appropriate: the state provides welfare to all people across the country, and each person is given 100 yuan. This is very fair.
But in fact, many rich people may not be interested in taking this mere 100 yuan, but many poor people feel that even if they take this 100 yuan, they are still extremely poor, so they ask the country to give the money that should be given to the rich Also take the money and divide it. If the country really does this, it is called justice.
No matter how rich the rich are, they can only have one ID card; no matter how poor the poor are, they must have one ID card. That's fair.
The rich have to pay personal income tax because their income is high; the poor do not pay personal income tax because their income is low. This is justice.
Treat everyone equally, without exception, it is fair.
It is fair to make up for the excess of losses and make up for the deficiencies.
Hai Rui's rough operation is obviously unfair, because as a representative of judicial power, he should be impartial and consider the facts, but he directly sided with the disadvantaged groups. The rich and poor under his rule litigated, even if he himself Even if the rich are right, they will probably not win the lawsuit.
But Hai Rui had his own reasons. He said: It is better to submit to the rich than to submit to the poor; it is better to submit to the stubborn than to submit to the stupid and straightforward. The matter is to fight for property. Instead of subjugating the common people, it is better to subjugate the local officials to save the disadvantages. The matter is to argue about appearance. Instead of subjugating the local officials, it is better to subjugate the common people in order to preserve the body.
To put it simply, Hai Rui's thinking in deciding cases where the rich and the poor are fighting is this: when it comes to property, the poor will basically win, because the rich can afford to lose that little money, and if the poor lose, he may not win. You will starve to death, or take desperate risks; when it comes to face, the rich will basically win, because you are so poor that you don't even know how many meals you can eat. Why do you think about such a thing as face?
This is Hai Rui's principle. In theory, it not only ignores the law, but even ignores the normal sense of right and wrong. But the purpose of this principle is obvious: to maintain social harmony and stability.
It is precisely because Hai Rui has always adhered to such a principle that the people in the south of the Yangtze River call him "Nanhai Qingtian". Countless people have painted pictures of him and hung them in their homes for worship. It is also because Hai Rui has adhered to such a principle that people all over the world have The officials and gentry hated Hai Rui to the core. Regardless of their relationship with Xu Jie or not, they did not want to see Hai Rui continue to be "arrogant".
But just now Feng Bao said that Zhang Juzheng would be the first to come to him if something like this happened to Mr. Xu. Zhang Juzheng knew this was wrong. In fact, the first person Mr. Xu looked for was his chief assistant, Li Chunfang.
Li Chunfang knew that Xu Jie had saved Hai Rui's life, so when she learned that Hai Rui had operated on Xu Jie, she really couldn't laugh or cry. She quickly sent someone to send a message to Hai Rui, asking him to be spared and spared. He is his own great benefactor.
Hai Rui was actually prepared for Xu Jie's move. He has always been a serious person, so he responded to Li Chunfang seriously, saying in the letter: Mr. Xu Ge has been in a lot of trouble recently. Where did this trouble come from? He doesn’t blame others, he only blames his family for their terrifying amount of property. Moreover, most of his family property came from robbing small people, so the people were extremely angry. This was caused by the unkindness of being rich. The people in Songjiang are very dangerous. If the Xu family does not withdraw even half of their land, no one can predict what consequences will follow. Therefore, when I asked the Xu family to withdraw from their land, I was actually protecting them and protecting Mr. Xu Ge from enjoying his old age in peace. Their family already has so much property, so what's wrong with spending it to eliminate disasters?
That's fine, Hai Rui didn't listen, and Li Chunfang had no choice but to stare at Hai Rui's statement. In fact, it's not that Li Chunfang, the chief minister, has no power in his hands, but his personality makes him dare not use such power at will - if you want him to dismiss Hai Rui from office, you can, but he really doesn't dare, for fear of Being scolded to death.
But Xu Jie was Xu Jie after all, and Li Chunfang couldn't cure Hai Rui, so Xu Jie simply used his old skill of "hiding the knife in the cotton", remained silent in front of him, and let others cure Hai Rui in private.
Who can cure Hai Rui? There is only one kind of person, and that is the speaker who is born to find trouble.
On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of Longqing's reign, less than a month after Gao Gong came to power, the criminal department was all concerned about the situation. First, they affirmed that Hai Rui was well-known for his integrity and was worthy of being a direct minister. But the conversation immediately changed and he said that Hai Rui was too pedantic and did not understand the world. Therefore, Hai Rui can be used as a moral role model, but he is not suitable for holding important administrative positions. Therefore, he suggested that the court change Hai Rui's position. This position could be higher, but he should not be allowed to bear too heavy a burden.
Then, Li Ke reported to Dai Fengxiang about the incident, accusing Hai Rui of seeking fame and ignoring the laws of the country. All those who were well-dressed and had enough food and clothing were poisoned. He also allowed the unruly people to complain and "fished the gentry", forcing the wealthy families to withdraw from their fields.
Section Chief Shu also heard (Wu Feng’s note: Section Chief is a common name given to a certain department, and it is true. It is of course completely different from the modern Section Chief.), there has been a phenomenon in Jiangnan that “it is better to lose weight than to grow fertilized fields.” "The ballad made people's hearts flutter and people fled. If things go on like this, the foundation of the country will be shaken.
This memorial is quite powerful. It involves a major issue, that is, the wealth of Jiangnan. If Hai Rui continues like this and the rich are liquidated but the poor still cannot afford to pay rent, how can the country's land tax be protected? Moreover, Hai Rui’s brutal behavior puts the dignity of the country at risk?
When Emperor Longqing dealt with matters, he first had to look at the cabinet's vote, but Li Chunfang no longer dared to speak on this matter, so the matter was placed in front of Gao Gong. Zhang Juzheng knew Gao Gong well as a person, and he knew the biggest characteristic of Gao Gong's employment: he had extremely high requirements for ability but average requirements for virtue. Therefore, when Zhang Juzheng saw so many memorials to impeach Hai Rui being presented this morning, he immediately guessed two things.
