Hai Rui, whose courtesy name was Ruxian and whose nickname was Gangfeng, was a famous upright official and expert on Ming law. Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng discussed his rise.
Zhang Juzheng believes that Hai Rui has gained too high a moral status because of his extremely clean style, but in terms of actual ability, he cannot live up to his reputation.
He advised Zhu Yijun: "Hai Rui is famous because he is honest. However, he sticks to the laws established by his ancestors, handles affairs carefully and puts the people first, and often ignores the merits. If he goes to Songjiang, I am afraid that the Jin gentry will be like this. The story of the third year of Longqing has disrupted the overall situation of Jiangnan."
Just as Hai Rui's reputation for purity is the best in the world, so is his reputation for extreme behavior. Hai Rui acted based on the teachings of saints and the laws of the Ming Dynasty. He believed that all problems in the late Ming Dynasty should be solved by the "ancestral system", that is, the rules set by Hongwu - this was of course impossible.
Therefore, despite his recommendation over the years, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, two pragmatic cabinet ministers, were unwilling to use him.
To a certain extent, Hai Rui is also a martyr. Just as he encouraged himself with two words: "If you use your body as a barrier, you will be overwhelmed; if you use your body as a standard, you will open the way to restoration."
He wanted to use what he had done to require everyone in the Ming Dynasty to be self-responsible, honest and in their proper place just like him. Although it is much better than those who ask others to do it but do nothing themselves, it is too idealistic.
Zhu Yijun originally did not have to recruit Hai Rui, but as Wang Yixiu stated in the memorial, the main resistance to retreating from the land mainly came from the various lawsuits involved. If the lawsuits were not cleared up, no one would dare to return the land. . Therefore, in his memorial, he requested the imperial court to send a minister who was good at handling litigation to Songjiang.
The judicial theorem "Hai Rui's theorem" named after Hai Rui is a subject in the history of Chinese legal system. Zhu Yijun listened to the professor in later generations' petition training courses. The so-called Hai Rui's theorem is actually a summary of Hai Rui's judicial experience in settling cases and settling lawsuits. It is roughly divided into three theorems: one: only fair justice will be truly efficient - the fairness theorem; two: the principle of differential protection - the difference theorem; third, no guilt is suspected.
Zhu Yijun believes that if the current situation in Songjiang is decided slowly based on the merits, it will not be clear for a while. Only by using a minister who is good at settling lawsuits and whose reputation is known throughout the world must be tried according to a certain principle of quick resolution of the case, can the problem be solved quickly. Otherwise, if you miss the spring plowing, you will inevitably be laughed at by the Jiangnan gentry, and it will also affect the effect of the Xu family's retreat from the land.
He told Zhang Juzheng this idea, and Zhang Juzheng also felt that what the emperor said was reasonable: no matter how Hai Rui judged the dispute over property and land, others would not suspect that he had taken bribes to favor one side, which was indeed conducive to quick settlement. lawsuit.
In addition, this was the second time that the emperor expressed his intention to use Hai Rui to him, and he could not stop him, so he did not insist on his opinion.
Since Hai Rui had returned to his hometown in Hainan at this time, Zhang Juzheng made two preparations in order not to delay things. First, he sent out the decree immediately; second, he transferred several judges from Dali Temple who were good at litigating property disputes and established the Songjiang Court of Justice. The working group of Judge Tsueda also set out subsequently. At the same time, Zhang Juzheng, who was well aware of Hai Rui's influence, also drafted a notice to calm the people.
When the decree was made clear, the first people to take action were the people on the ground in Songjiang. In the third year of Longqing, they used the second theorem of Hai Rui's theorem to get some benefits from Hai Rui. Now that they heard that Lao Qingtian was coming again, everyone had their papers ready. Regardless of whether they had dates or not, they were ready to go first. Let’s talk about three shots.
Next, those who heard the news and were ready to run away were the Jin gentry from Mansongjiang. The red door was changed from black when Hai Rui resigned from office in the third year of Longqing Dynasty. Now it is time to change it back. According to the "Governor's Charter" stipulated by Mr. Hai when Governor Ying Tian was there, none of the luxuries at home can be used - otherwise, we should hurry up and arrange the children's wedding before he comes.
At a time when people were panicking, the imperial edict and the notice to calm the people arrived at Songjiang at the same time. ——When the imperial envoy arrives, he always puts up notice boards first. It is probably unprecedented and unprecedented to post the notices of people's peace in the cities along the way.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the imperial edict strictly limited the scope of duties of the Hai Qin Envoy to Songjiang and mainly managed dispute cases. ——Fortunately, Zhang Juzheng thought carefully, otherwise when Hai Rui arrived, all the gentry in the city would have fled.
.......
On March 3, Hai Rui finally arrived in Songjiang. Wang Yixiu, who had been prepared for a long time, took over and took him to his back office to rest and discuss with him the imperial envoy's departure.
Hai Rui was now sixty-one years old, but he still walked like the wind and sounded like a bell. The black face has deep-set cheeks, and a pair of big eyes are bright under the thick eyebrows with an inverted splay, making the cheekbones appear even higher.
Wang Yixiu saw that he had arranged the arrangement, and asked him where he planned to arrange the carriage. Hai Rui asked, where are the people from Dali Temple in the imperial court now? The king is practicing Taoism, and they are all in my magistrate's office. They are divided into four groups these days, and they are judging cases every day.
After hearing this, Hai Rui smiled and said: "In that case, if it is not inconvenient, there is no need to find an imperial envoy to travel to the prison. Let's leave it in your yamen."
The prefect Wang only asked Hai Rui to help him share some of the responsibilities, so there was no reason not to agree. He said to himself that even if I move out, you can just settle the lawsuit with me, and I really don't care.
On the fourth day of March, Hai Rui began to settle the case and settle the lawsuit. Because Qingtian's name is so resounding and grassroots experience must be rich, Hai Rui's case was settled very quickly and there were almost no complaints.
This year, many Songjiang gangsters thought he could support the proletarians like he did five years ago. They had prepared petition papers and handed them in when Hai Rui started to review the case.
Unexpectedly, Hai Rui had anticipated this event a long time ago and had already kept the list of people involved in lawsuits over their land withdrawal last year. Seeing that the new papers were full of new cases, he first sent someone to find out the truth.
A few days later, when the court came to court, the plaintiff in the new case was asked what he did for a living before. Why haven't you complained before? Then he paired the facts of his visit with his words, and basically no one could withstand his three or five questions.
Hai Rui hated the person who used litigation to cause trouble the most in his life. He spent the first half of the day. Outside the Songjiang magistrate's office, a row of people with big wooden shackles stood in front of the public, and all of a sudden the evil thoughts of these social rats were knocked down.
After Hai Rui joined the work of settling cases and settling lawsuits, he was able to stand up to Wang Yixiu and be rich even if he had five, and finally completed all the trials of the lawsuits before mid-March.
Wang Yixiu was relieved, and regardless of Hai Rui's taboos, he insisted on paying for a meal at a big restaurant.
Hai Rui was not aloof from the world. Seeing the sincere invitation from the prefect, he changed into his casual clothes and followed him out of the government office.
Before they reached the place where they were going to eat, Hai Rui pointed to the groups of men and women on the side of the road with straw signs indicating that they were selling their bodies and asked the prefect: "Why are there so many people selling themselves into slavery? Why don't you go do some serious business?" born?"
Wang Yixiu smiled bitterly and said: "These are all slaves sent by the Xu family. They can only serve people and cannot make a living by farming. Songjiang is still relatively small, and Huating still has thousands of them."
After hearing this, Hai Rui's face changed and he said, "The imperial court has just issued an order to retain slaves. The officials and the people are firing slaves, so how can anyone recruit them from home? As a result, these people have no food and clothing for who knows how long. ?”
Seeing Wang Yixiu's face turn pale, Hai Rui's heart thumped and asked him again: "When did the Xu family fire them?"
Wang Yixiu was speechless and just stretched out his hand to make a 'six' gesture, meaning it had been more than six months.
After hearing this, Hai Rui looked carefully at the faces of the men and women on the roadside. Seeing that they all looked good, and looked at them with hatred in their eyes, I was shocked in my heart: "Chaos is right in front of us!"
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