Precedent, this is a good thing, especially the examples made by the late emperor or ancestors. For children and grandchildren, that is the ancestral system, which can be copied and used without worrying about any gossip.
This is like Western case law, the basic principle of which is "following precedent", that is, when a court hears a case, it must use the precedents of previous courts as the legal basis for hearing and ruling.
To be more specific, it means that if we encounter the same or similar cases again regarding the issues that have been dealt with by the effective judgments of this court and the higher court, without new circumstances and more sufficient reasons, we shall not do it. until the Supreme Court makes a different decision in another similar case some day in the future.
Unlike the West, China has been dominated by statutory law for a long time. However, when some legal provisions that statutory law relies on are missing, it is very common to act based on existing cases such as case law.
Specific to the Ming Dynasty, if the ancestral system set by Zhu Yuanzhang did not have clear restrictions or requirements on a certain issue, then subsequent emperors would often act according to the precedents of the "ancestors".
It is obvious that at this moment, once the Feng Chan proposed by Shen Guanguan goes forward smoothly, the emperor will leave Beijing sooner or later, and at that time, a supervisor will definitely be appointed in accordance with the Ming Dynasty's practice. Now, the empress and Princess Yongning obviously believe that the most orthodox method should be adhered to: the prince supervising the country.
But here's the problem - there is no prince in Ming Dynasty yet. In other words, the real intention of the queen and the eldest princess is to say: It's time to establish a prince.
Queen Mother Li's political wisdom is not very high, but she can still see such obvious things. The reason why she was so vague and dismissive just now was not that she didn't understand what the queen and her own daughter meant, but that she was just unwilling to interfere in the matter.
Why are you so reluctant to intervene? Ultimately, this matter has something to do with Gao Pragmatism.
Since the collapse of the late emperor's mausoleum, Queen Mother Li had doubts about Gao Jingshi on several occasions. Although most of them were due to the instigation of people around her, in any case, she suppressed Gao Jingshi several times. This is an undisputed fact. .
However, what is embarrassing is that while these crises were resolved by Gao Jingshi, the people around Queen Mother Li fell one after another. At the same time, Gao Jingshi also proved his loyalty and talent every time, serving the court and the emperor. Solved one problem after another.
In this way, it seems that the several suppressions against Gao Pragmatic were all inexplicable. To put it nicely, it means that the Queen Mother was deceived by the villains around her; to put it more unpleasantly, it means that the Queen Mother cannot distinguish between loyal and traitorous, good and foolish, and does all the stupid things that are harmful to the court.
So after many times, Empress Dowager Li felt that she could no longer keep her face. In addition, the emperor had been in power for many years and had established his own authority. Therefore, the Empress Dowager, whether active or passive, involuntarily delegated power and almost gave up completely. Interference in government affairs.
Delegating power is not easy. In essence, everyone, both men and women, has a desire for power. When a person has once held power, it is very difficult and even contrary to human nature to give it up easily. Queen Mother Li is certainly no exception.
However, on the one hand, it was because of the issue of "unjustly accusing pragmatism" that the Empress Dowager Li was greatly damaged. On the other hand, it was also because the Ming Dynasty's ancestral system was unusually wary and repellent of interference in the harem, which ultimately led to the Empress Dowager Li choosing to take the initiative. She delegated power, and since then she has been cautious and unwilling to directly interfere in government affairs - even if she would influence the emperor on rare occasions.
But one thing has to be said here: Although the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty was very sensitive to the harem's interference in politics, due to the Ming Dynasty's great emphasis on "ruling the world with filial piety", it actually still gave people with the status of Empress Dowager Li the special power to interfere in politics at any time.
The source of this power is very simple: filial piety.
So a question arises, why did the Ming Dynasty attach great importance to "filial piety"? Even speaking more broadly, why do most dynasties in China attach so much importance to filial piety, so much so that many dynasties repeatedly and tirelessly emphasize that they "rule the world with filial piety"?
The word "filial piety" in early Chinese bronze inscriptions is the shape of a child (in the shape of "zi") supporting the old man to walk. The original meaning of "filial piety" is expressed by supporting the old man.
The character "filial piety" has the meaning of official script since the Chu bamboo slips of the Warring States Period. The character "filial piety" on the bamboo slips of the Qin Tomb in Shuihudi in the Qin Dynasty and the silk books of the Han Tomb in Mawangdui in the early Han Dynasty directly inherited the shape of the character "filial piety" on the Chu bamboo slips of the Warring States Period. , hair, body, and hands were combined and simplified into "肂" (the prefix of "老"), and finally evolved into the official script of Han, Wei and today's regular script.
In "Shuowen", the shape of the seal script "Xiao" is directly inherited from the shape of the Western Zhou Dynasty Jin Dynasty's "Xiao" character. However, the shape of the seal script "Xiao" on the cultural relics of the Qin and Han Dynasties unearthed is slightly later than the shape of the small seal script "Xiao" in "Shuowen". Therefore, judging from the glyph, the original meaning of "filial piety" is to serve your parents with all your heart.
Filial piety in the narrow sense is what people usually call "filial piety" to parents and elders. Of course, although it is said to be in a narrow sense, it actually includes several concepts and is a comprehensive system.
The ancients believed that the lowest level of "filial piety" refers to providing clothing, food and other material means of living to parents and elders, and "feeding them loyally with their diet", which means meeting the basic material needs of parents. In other words, it is the most basic support for parents.
Filial piety, which is one level higher than support, is "respect", which is the heartfelt respect that children and younger generations show to their parents and elders. It is not easy to do this. "Book of Rites: Sacrifice for Righteousness" says: "It is possible to raise people, but it is difficult to respect them."
The so-called "reverence" of the ancients has many contents, such as the morning and dusk rituals - the Queen Mother went to the Queen Mother of the two palaces twice a day to pay her respects, which evolved from this. Of course, there are many others, such as speaking in a low voice when talking to elders; if a parent is sick, the children's clothing, food, housing, transportation, joy, anger, sorrow, etc. will have to change accordingly; "Parents are here, don't travel far away" and so on.
In addition, younger generations often cannot directly point out the faults of their parents and elders, let alone forcibly correct them. Instead, they need to use appropriate methods to dissuade them, which is also an extension of filial piety;
"The hair and skin of the body are received from parents and dare not be damaged, which is the beginning of filial piety" ("The Book of Filial Piety: Kai Zong Ming Yi Chapter"). Paying attention to protecting your body is also filial piety;
"Having not changed your father's ways for three years can be called filial piety" ("The Analects of Confucius·Xueer"). Carrying on the legacy of your parents is also filial piety;
"Establish oneself and practice the Tao, become famous in future generations, and show off one's parents, which is the end of filial piety" ("The Book of Filial Piety: Kaizong Mingyi Chapter"). Establishing one's own meritorious service shows a higher level of filial piety to parents.
The above are only "filial piety" in the narrow sense, while "filial piety" in the broad sense not only refers to filial piety to parents and elders, but also includes a series of important ethical and moral principles in ancient China: loyalty to the king, respect for duties, trust in Wait for friends.
"Book of Rites: Sacrifice to Yi" makes it very clear: "It is not filial to be loyal to the king. It is not filial to be disrespectful to serve as an official. It is not filial to be distrustful of friends. It is not filial to fight against Chen without courage."
Especially for loyalty to the king, in feudal ethics, "loyalty and filial piety" are often mentioned together, so the concepts of "filial piety" and "loyalty" are often confused or even confused.
In this way, the fundamental purpose of the feudal dynasty's "ruling the world with filial piety" was to use feudal ethics to maintain the relationship between monarch and ministers and maintain the feudal ruling order. Therefore, many feudal dynasties adopted "ruling the world with filial piety" as their governing program.
The ancients said that "the family and the country are one," which means that the family and the country cannot be separated. For the emperor and the emperor, the country is the home, and the home is the country.
China's unique social structure that is different from the West makes family ethics also applicable in the political field. This is the social system basis for ancient China to implement "ruling the world with filial piety".
The whole world is one people, and the emperor is not only the highest political ruler, but also the head of the family, and the parent of the people in the world. In this way, "ruling the world with filial piety" makes sense. On the surface, it is talking about filial piety, but in fact it is "loyalty" to the country and the monarch. This is why the emperor calls everyone in the world "subjects". Since you are a "son", no matter you are a "subject" or a "subject", you should obviously be filial to your "parents", so loyalty and filial piety are perfectly combined.
Therefore, "loyalty" and "filial piety" are inseparable: the father is the guide for the son, so the son must be filial to his parents at home; the monarch is the guide for the minister, so the ministers must be loyal to the monarch in the country. This is the so-called filial piety at home, and loyalty at home. "Monarch, minister, father, son, son." The hierarchy of superiority and inferiority is insurmountable and constitutes the basic norm of interpersonal relationships in feudal society.
To put it bluntly, "ruling the world with filial piety" is just a superficial statement, and the real purpose is to subtly convey the private goods of "loyalty". If everyone is a loyal minister and filial son, then the world will naturally be at peace, and the dynasty will naturally be passed down for thousands of years.
Some people may still struggle, and even think of the "loyalty and filial piety are difficult to have both" plots in many movies and TV dramas, but in fact we can see that in any story "loyalty and filial piety are difficult to have both", in the end, you must choose to be loyal rather than choose to be filial. .
The reason is simple: Loyalty to the emperor is the greatest filial piety, and its priority is higher than honoring parents. This is a concrete manifestation of the true purpose of "ruling the world with filial piety".
The truth is this, but there is often one person in the world who is special on this issue, and this person is the Queen Mother.
Since emperors in Chinese history are almost always "life-long" [Note: there are still special circumstances, such as Li Yuan in the early period of Li Shimin's succession, Qianlong nominally abdicated to become the Supreme Emperor after sixty years of reign, etc.], so when a person becomes After becoming the emperor, he often had only one person to whom he needed to be filial, and that was his mother, the Queen Mother.
The high-level expression of filial piety among people in the world is loyalty. However, as the "Son of Heaven", although the emperor is nominally responsible to "God" and "the country", in fact he has no specific object of loyalty, so he only What remains is filial piety in the narrow sense - that is, being filial to the Queen Mother.
In this way, the Queen Mother had a unique speciality in the world: she could restrict the emperor with filial piety. Unless the emperor is such a bastard that he doesn't care about what the world thinks, he will often have no choice but to obey the many restrictions imposed on him by the Queen Mother.
Of course, if you insist on giving an example of Zhao Ji to Ying Zheng, it would be boring. At that time, the Qin State had basically no interest in Confucian ethics. There were many empress dowagers in the Qin State who had a good reputation. Ying Zheng didn't kill Lao Ai and his half-brothers in anger because his mother had a lover - that was actually a power struggle. [Note: Due to space limitations, this topic will not be expanded upon. ]
In short, both the queen and the eldest princess knew the special nature of Empress Dowager Li. Therefore, even though judging from the current situation of the court, it was basically a foregone conclusion that the emperor's legitimate son Chang Hao would be established as the crown prince, they still wanted to put pressure on the emperor through Empress Dowager Li and let him The matter of establishing a prince should be completed as soon as possible to avoid long nights and dreams.
Obviously, it is unlikely that the queen, who has always been generous and politically insensitive, would suddenly become so proactive and eager. Considering that Princess Yongning also happened to appear here with Queen Mother Li, the figures behind the two of them are self-evident. .
Today's scene was undoubtedly directed by Gao Pragmatic.
Fortunately, with Empress Dowager Li's political level, she could only see that the empress and the eldest princess hoped to establish Chang Hao as the crown prince as soon as possible, but it was not enough to discover that Gao Pingshi was behind all this.
Queen Mother Li was silent for a moment, sighed, and said: "The Ai family doesn't want to get involved in these matters. After all, the emperor has done a good job over the years. Regarding the country's foundation, the Ai family believes that he also has his own considerations..."
The queen and the eldest princess just looked at the queen mother, but did not interrupt. After all, the queen mother said, "I didn't want to intervene" - in other words, now I had to intervene.
Sure enough, Empress Dowager Li continued: "But the Ai family also understands what you mean. The dispute over the country has been going on for too long. Now that the Ming Dynasty has revived, even the ministers and ministers of the foreign court have begun to actively propose that the emperor go south to Mount Tai to enshrine Zen, so this country The time has indeed come when it must be determined.”
Empress Dowager Li looked at the empress and said: "The Ai family has heard today that Mr. Wang's resignation has been approved, so the person who will succeed him as chief minister must undoubtedly be Gao Rixin.
Gao Rixin had insisted for many years that he would wait until he gave birth to a legitimate son for the emperor before he could establish the crown prince. Now that everything was ready, the appointment of Chang Hao as the crown prince would not encounter much resistance from the outer court.
The Ai family returned the great power to the emperor many years ago, and all they can do now is to follow the trend... Queen, the Ai family will promise you today that as long as Gao Rixin, as the chief minister, requests to appoint Chang Hao as the prince, then the Ai family will There is naturally support for this here. As for other things, the Ai family can't control it, and they don't want to. Do you understand? "
The queen immediately stood up and saluted, saying: "How dare I disobey the Queen Mother's instructions? Since everything is done in accordance with the Queen Mother's decree."
Empress Dowager Li nodded, suddenly glanced at Princess Yongning again, and said, "Yao Xi, do you think Gao Rixin is willing to go to Shu to invite Chang Hao to be crown prince?"
The eldest princess was shocked, but she said with a smile: "Looking at what the Queen Mother said, how could the daughter know what Mr. Gao Ge thinks? But didn't the Queen Mother also say that Mr. Gao Ge has always insisted that the crown prince should be the legitimate heir, so now this The second emperor already has his legitimate son, so how could he not be willing to go to Shu and ask for a title?"
Queen Mother Li nodded expressionlessly, as if she had lost interest in the conversation, and asked the queen again: "Is there anything else important for the queen?"
This sentence obviously meant an order to expel guests. The Queen then stood up and said humbly: "I'm disturbing the Queen Mother. I have nothing else to do... I'll leave."
Queen Mother Li nodded slightly and said nothing.
——
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(End of chapter)
