The time soon came to the end of the 21st year of Chongzhen. Zhang Mingwei, together with the seven internal departments and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, as well as many yamen under his jurisdiction, had been busy, and finally got the matter done a few days before the New Year, and reported it to Emperor Chongzhen for approval. Promulgated to the world.
The reason why this matter takes so long is because this matter is not just about revising the etiquette system, but the etiquette system is related to household registration, and it is also related to the current booming social background. In short, this series of things have been straightened out. Only then can you start doing things.
In the end, what was originally just a revision of the etiquette system was eventually promulgated together with the household registration reform.
The household registration of the Ming Dynasty is mainly reflected in the household registration post, which registers the type of household (common household, craftsman household, etc.), place of origin, current place of residence, place of residence, name of each household, gender, age, relationship with the head of the household, etc., which is quite complete.
Later, a yellow book was established based on the household post, which in addition to recording the household post items, also included the corvee tax and food regulations. The Yellow Book is updated every ten years, and changes within ten years also need to be recorded to adjust taxes and servitude. The cadastral also has a fish scale book, which is parallel to the yellow book.
As far as the Ming Dynasty is concerned, the most famous household registrations are scholars, farmers, industry and merchants. These four are good households, and there are some subdivisions, including military households, which are also good households. However, there are other household registrations, which are low-level registrations.
Some people were assigned to Yihu because their relatives committed crimes and escaped, and those who were forced to move to engage in construction were called Yinghu. Relatives who committed crimes were assigned to people who specialized in art and pornographic services, called Lehu.
In addition, people who engage in certain professions among the people are also regarded as untouchables and are called downcast households, including those who engage in professions such as actors, prostitutes, beggars, head shavers, sedan bearers, and advocates.
There are also Dan households, beggar households, etc. Dan households are not allowed to land. They live on boats all year round and make a living by fishing. Beggars are easy to understand, the kind who can only make a living by begging, such as "Martial Champion Su Qier".
What many people may not know is that the tenant servants of wealthy families and the servants of county government offices are also untouchables.
Among the above untouchables, the largest in number and the lowest in status are slaves.
These are basically found in every dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty is no exception.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu demoted the original nobles of the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the Han officials who surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the generals under Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, and Fang Guozhen, all as degraded people.
In addition, after Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, raised troops to overthrow Emperor Jianwen, he demoted the wives and daughters of officials who still supported Emperor Jianwen to Lehu and served as official prostitutes.
Untouchable status is passed down from generation to generation, and male untouchables cannot study and take imperial examinations, women cannot wear brightly colored clothes, cannot walk in the middle, and cannot marry "good people", etc. It can be said that there are strict special requirements for food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Therefore, when modifying the etiquette system, it is natural to involve the etiquette system of humble status. Zhang Mingwei, who participated in it, raised objections to the low-level registration and strongly promoted this household registration reform.
Although most people in later generations certainly do not recognize this kind of household registration, at least in China, if neighboring countries have a caste system, that is their business and they have nothing to do with it.
However, in this era, they are accustomed to such low status.
If Zhang Mingwei wants to convince them, he must come up with sufficient reasons. It is impossible to say that everyone is equal. If he uses force to enforce it, the private sector and the government will have objections.
You know, ordinary people also have a sense of superiority over the humble. The simplest example is that when a lowly person sees an ordinary person, he must be courteous and cannot bow to others.
Therefore, after Zhang Mingwei raised his objection to the humble status, the matter finally rose to the imperial meeting.
I heard Zhang Mingwei say sternly to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I think such low status is out of date and must be abolished. However, it is still necessary to have low status."
"How do you say this?" Emperor Chongzhen was always very interested in hearing novel ideas and asked immediately.
Du Yinxi, Zuo Maodi and others had not heard Duke Xingguo say this before, so they also looked at Zhang Mingwei and listened carefully.
"Once you become a pariah, it is very difficult to get out of it. It is very likely that your descendants will all be pariahs." Zhang Mingwei said eloquently, "I think this type of hereditary inheritance is the same as the hereditary inheritance of merit. It is harmful to the stability of the country. Needless to say, meritorious service is hereditary, and His Majesty already understands it. With this hereditary inheritance, will those with low status be grateful to the Ming Dynasty? "
Zhang Mingwei himself resolutely resigned from the hereditary title and set an example. He also made Emperor Chongzhen understand the dangers of the hereditary system. For this reason, he could be knighted, but he was never granted a hereditary title.
At this time, after Zhang Mingwei asked the question, he answered it himself without waiting for others to answer: "Obviously, they are eager to perish the dynasty that condemns them as untouchables. Then the question becomes, why does the court have to push these people to this point? What about the opposition to the imperial court? Will the number of hereditary common people belonging to lowly status increase as time goes by? Will this large number eventually shake the stability of the dynasty one day? "
"..." Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was stunned.
Actually, neither the founding emperor nor the emperors of previous dynasties would think about this kind of thing.
Because first of all, when the country was founded, the military force was the strongest and there was no way to fear rebellion by the untouchables.
Second, at the founding of the country, or in the early days of the dynasty, there could not have been too many untouchables, just like the nobles and royal family members.
However, as time goes by, especially when a country like the Ming Dynasty was founded for nearly three hundred years, the number of hereditary people is absolutely staggering.
For example, the royal family members could not pay out their salaries after Jiajing, because the population was too large, so they could only think of ways to reduce them, not granting household registration, not recognizing the status of royal family members, etc.
Similar to this, the number of humble people naturally became a huge number by the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, Emperor Chongzhen was very aware of the large number of relatives in the royal family, and had forced the court to make innovations several times. With this comparison, Emperor Chongzhen became aware of the low-class population for the first time, and he was shocked. .
If it comes to other things, Emperor Chongzhen may still be indifferent or not care, but of course he cares most about the stability of the country.
Regardless of what they thought, Zhang Mingwei continued: "Therefore, I think this humble status cannot exist and cannot be hereditary. Even if it is not alarmist, taking the hereditary meritorious service as an example, in order to inherit the hereditary position, it must be recognized by the court or passed Assessment. Then why can’t the descendants of untouchables be given the status of good citizens if they meet the requirements of good citizens?"
Many military attachés in the Ming Dynasty were hereditary, including the famous Qi Jiguang, who was actually a hereditary military attache. However, there is a prerequisite for hereditary official positions, which is that they must pass the imperial examination.
Of course, by the late Ming Dynasty, this assessment was more about giving money and bribing the examiner.
"The ancestors were convicted and demoted to a lowly status. Why do descendants have to be a lowly status? Does it mean that if the ancestors were bad, then the descendants must be bad?" When Zhang Mingwei said this, he became a little excited, and his voice rose a lot, and he said again, "Fan Wenzhenggong was worried about the world. One of his descendants was named Fan Wencheng. Didn't he help build the captives and help Zhou to persecute and harm the people of Ming Dynasty. Is there a causal relationship between ancestors and descendants?"
Although tutoring is indeed related, it is definitely impossible to say that ancestors and descendants are definitely the same.
These people here all came from the imperial examination. Could it be that their ancestors also passed the imperial examination?
For a moment, no one spoke to refute Zhang Mingwei's continuous questions.
"Also, some people are forced to work in a certain industry and will be relegated to a lowly status just because of the pressure of life. What kind of prejudice is this?" Zhang Mingwei was still talking there, "Not to mention, even if the people in the hospital are now Midwives, they are doing the job of a stable woman, why is a stable woman of low status? A good nurse, mother and child are safe, what a good thing, for such a stable woman, you should be grateful, right?"
"Also, do the art soldiers in the army also need to be classified as happy households? Do they have to be classified as humble?" Zhang Mingwei said in a loud and firm voice, "But the Ming Dynasty quelled the chaos in the world in just a few years. , the literary and art soldiers played a very important role, boosting the morale of the army and guiding the social atmosphere upward. How can such meritorious service be regarded as a humble status? "
"Also, if the government officials in the yamen are appointed with low status, will they fulfill their duties and maintain social stability? Why should they work hard to maintain social stability? And..."
After saying a lot in one breath, Zhang Mingwei finally came to the conclusion: "For this reason, I think it is unreasonable to consider a certain profession as cheap."
The Wenhua Hall where the discussion was taking place was very quiet, and everyone was thinking about Duke Xingguo's words.
Some things have always been taken for granted. However, once you start to dig deeper, there are many things that are actually unjustifiable.
Especially during this period, after experiencing great chaos and doomsday, Ming Dynasty flourished again driven by technology. It can even be said that many things relied on craftsmen to promote social construction.
Whether it was Emperor Chongzhen or Du Yinxi and other senior officials of the Ming Dynasty, they had experienced such things, and their feelings were naturally more profound. Thinking carefully about all the things Zhang Mingwei cited, I couldn't help but be a little surprised. They had to admit that many things had been overlooked.
In fact, after Zhang Mingwei reminded them, these senior officials of the Ming Dynasty may not stop thinking that if they or their descendants did something wrong and were relegated to a lowly status, would the descendants of future generations also be relegated to a lowly status?
Seeing their thoughtful expressions, Zhang Mingwei said sincerely to Emperor Chongzhen, "If we want to make the Ming Dynasty long-term and stable, we must eliminate as many hidden dangers as possible. One of them is that the fewer people who are dissatisfied with the imperial court, the better the country will be." Stability. Therefore, I suggest that Your Majesty abolish the low status and benefit all the people!"
