Zhaoji Teahouse in the capital is a long-established teahouse that has been open in the capital for more than 30 years. It has been run by two generations of father and son. It is the best-selling teahouse near Xuanwumen. Zhaoji Teahouse was opened due west of Yongfang Temple in Dashi, with Xiangfang to the south, Yanshan Zuowei Yamen and Hanfan Temple to the north, Dali Temple to the northwest, and Wang Gongchang to the southwest. It is an excellent location.
This day was the day after Gao Pangshi officially returned to the capital.
Liu Xian and his son, who stayed at Chengen Temple next to Wanggongchang, after having breakfast that day, were introduced by the monks who knew the guests in the temple to go to Zhaoji Tea House to "listen to the news".
The so-called "listening to the newspaper" refers to the tea guests listening to the tea doctor reading the newspaper, and "bao" refers to the imperial palace newspaper. "Listening to the News" is a unique project of Zhaoji Tea House in the capital. It was launched on a trial basis in the late Jiajing period and became famous after the incident in which Hai Rui scolded the emperor.
The common people in the capital, probably because they lived under the emperor's feet, have always liked to discuss government affairs, even in later generations.
The Ming court seemed to be very tolerant of all kinds of discussions among the people. No matter how absurd and bizarre they were, as long as they did not reach the level of "deliberately inciting the people and intending to rebel", the court would completely let it go.
Dibao has existed since ancient times. It is an official newspaper in ancient times and is a news media in the original sense. It is said that it originated in the Han Dynasty, originated in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the Song Dynasty, and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
In the Ming Dynasty, Di Bao was responsible for recording current affairs news. It was the main carrier for the imperial court to issue political orders and release political information. It was also an important channel for officials from all parties to understand the court's trends. Through Di Bao, it was not only possible to inform the government and communicate information between the central and local governments, but also the Ming court could control the publication and dissemination of official public opinion.
The Di Bao of the Ming Dynasty was edited and distributed mainly through three agencies: the General Affairs Department, the Sixth Section, and Titang.
Among them, the General Administration Department is a central administrative agency that communicates between the inner court and the outer court, the emperor and his subjects, and is mainly responsible for the affairs of sealing and refutation. Except for a very small number of Baiguan Zhangzou collected by eunuchs and officials of Honglu Temple, most of them were forwarded by the General Affairs Department. "Every day, the six subjects receive memorials from various yamen, copy them one by one into a volume, and send it to the cabinet every five days for compilation." After the book is completed, "all are transferred to the Department of General Affairs."
The six subjects are the abbreviation of the six subjects of official, household, ritual, pong, punishment and work. Each of the six departments was assigned to the Ministry of Affairs to assist the emperor in handling government affairs and supervising the operation of various ministries. It was somewhat similar to the disciplinary inspection departments within ministries in later generations, but because it was theoretically directly under the emperor, it had greater power. An important duty of the officials of the Sixth Section is to go to Huiji Gate every day to receive imperial seals or imperial edicts, which are sent by the cabinet to the Sixth Section for each department to copy and edit into a volume on a daily basis, which is called the "Liuke Lunyin Book". For the reference of various departments, this article is the blueprint of Di Bao.
Titang officials are officials sent by provincial governors and general soldiers to the capital to process documents and copy reports to the residence. After they copied the newspapers from the Sixth Section, after screening and copying, the post station dispatched postmen every five days to relay them to the governors and chief secretaries for circulation. Then the officials stationed in the provincial capitals from each prefecture, state, and county hired scribes to "take what they need" and extract the relevant contents of the newspaper, and then passed it on to local governments at all levels through the inns.
In the process of copying and publishing the Di newspaper. Beijing officials send scribes to the General Affairs Department to copy biography every day, so they can know the world's political affairs earlier; while local officials need to use post stations and hire postmen to deliver reports to governors, chief secretaries, prefectures, prefectures, and county yamen. . Since the Di Bao was delivered from one level to another, and it took time to reach the post station, local officials could not preview it like the officials in the capital, and the time to receive the Di Bao was also sequential. Generally speaking, those who are close to the capital or the provincial capital will receive the imperial report earlier, and vice versa. In remote places such as Sichuan, Shaanxi, Liaodong, Yunnan and Guizhou, it often takes several months for officials to learn about the court's new policies.
In fact, in the early years, a mere teahouse would not be able to get the royal residence report. That is because in the last years of Jiajing, the emperor was superstitious in Taoism and only wanted to live forever. He allowed Yan Song and his son to do whatever they wanted, which led to many of the court's systems becoming lax.
In the early years, the Ming Dynasty recognized that "Di Bao was related to state affairs", so in addition to limiting the transmission time of Di Bao, there were also strict restrictions on the copying of Di Bao. "No copying or transmission of Di Bao is allowed unless ordered."
Especially before Chenghua, the control over the circulation and copying of Di newspapers was still very strict. Later, it became increasingly loose. After the turmoil in the last years of Jiajing and then to Longqing, although the "ban on copying of newspapers" was mentioned several times, the circulation and copying of Di newspapers was not In fact, the situation has become uncontrollable. There was even a situation where "copying and distributing Di's newspapers and burning them were popular." Some information even spread in the newspaper room before being published in Di's newspapers. Those who want to live in the house are here." "Recently, everyone has reported to the house, but some of them have already issued the money before they left the house."
In addition, some well-placed literati and celebrities can also circulate Di Bao at will, but it has little relevance to this book, so I won’t give many examples here.
Liu Xian and his son had to find something to do for themselves among the unaccompanied people in the capital. They couldn't just stay in the temple to gain weight. Anyway, in the final analysis, they had to wait for Gao Xiang to implement it before they could decide what to do. So today I listened to Zhi Ke Monk's recommendation and came to Zhao Ji Tea House to listen to the newspaper. After all, it is always good to know more about the dynamics of the imperial court.
Liu Xian is no better than Qi Jiguang. In fact, both of them often find ways to make money. However, Qi Jiguang invested all the money in his army. Although Liu Xian also invested a lot of money in his own army, he still failed to make money. He remembered to leave a small part for himself, so compared to Qi Jiguang, he was considered to be a wealthy eunuch.
Liu Xian and his son, who were not very short of money, booked a small private room on the second floor of Zhaoji Tea House and waited to hear Dr. Tea read the newspaper. Originally, if you just read it dryly, it would be meaningless. However, Zhao Ji Tea House wants to think about what the guests think. In addition to reading, it will also analyze and comment on it, which attracts many people in Beijing to flock to it.
Of course, there may be some troubles arising from arbitrarily criticizing Di Bao, which is what the tea house needs to control on its own. Fortunately, Emperor Longqing was a benevolent king, so at least so far, the owner of Zhaoji Tea House has not been invited to any government office for tea. Compared with the "Don't talk about state affairs" in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties - well, it's nothing. Like.
Not long after Liu Xian and his son sat down, they just picked up the teacup and before they started drinking, they heard Dr. Tea, who was sitting like a storyteller behind a long red cloth table in the lobby, slapped his eyes and said loudly : "The first thing I reported yesterday: Governor Shuntian reported to the cabinet that Liu Xian, the former chief military officer of Langshan, borrowed hundreds of Gao's family members to go out to suppress the Bailixia bandits. The Bailixia bandits were photographed by Tianwei. Raise your hands and surrender!”
