Why didn't Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption work in Twilight come to nothing?

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was born in poverty and worked as a young monk, launched a vigorous campaign to severely punish corrupt officials at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China in order to strengthen centralized feudal autocracy. He killed as many people as possible, and made a hell of a contribution, which set a record for thousands of years of feudal rule in China, but he finally failed. His efforts to fight corruption were great, but failed. What lessons can we learn from today's anti-corruption struggle?

The official conviction is strict, and "the troubled times are severely punished."

Zhu Yuanzhang was squeezed out from the bottom, and he was well aware of the extreme importance of law as a "weapon against the people and a technique to assist the government." At the beginning of his reign, he formulated and promulgated the Daming Law on the basis of the Daming Law, and then compiled it himself. Zhu Yuanzhang's legislation is to govern the people and officials, especially to be honest and straightforward, and to punish corrupt officials. Now, we can regard it as a "special anti-corruption criminal law". Zhu Yuanzhang strongly advocated "emphasizing the rule of law in troubled times". He carried out a vigorous anti-corruption, and the punishment was cool and lasted for a long time, killing as many people as the previous dynasties of China's feudal society for thousands of years did not.

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's criminal law and anti-corruption practice in the early Ming Dynasty, three things left a deep impression on future generations: First, the conviction was strict, and all officials who paid bribes were dismissed and investigated, and they would never be pardoned. If you look up the cases handed down by Zhu Yuanzhang, you will find that even those who privately accept a dress, a pair of socks, a headscarf and four books are guilty; Second, the punishment is heavier, the death penalty is frequently used, and the execution means are harsh, such as ink tattoo, finger cutting, hand cutting, foot cutting, fleeting time, beheading, waist cutting and castration. This is extremely cruel. For example, it is stipulated that the embezzlement of 60 taels of silver will be skinned alive, filled with straw, stood at the entrance of the yamen or hung in the street for public display; This is a great tripartite collective punishment, even killing more than 10 thousand people in one case. Make people inside and outside the court nervous. He would rather make a thousand mistakes against corrupt officials than let go of one, so that he would kill people every day. From the first year of Hongwu to the 19th year, none of the administrative officials in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places expired, and they were often demoted or beheaded before the final exam. For a time, under severe punishment, bribery and bending the law were restrained. However, corruption cases emerged one after another soon, and Zhu Yuanzhang was puzzled: Why do you want to "kill people at dusk"?

"Mingda patent", "one copy for each hand" and "Beware of stupidity"

Zhu Yuanzhang believes that the situation of "corruption before and succession after" is caused by the bad habits of the Yuan Dynasty, which corrodes people's hearts and is the reason for moral decay. Therefore, he compiled Dabao, a similar compilation of cases, and published some sermons to teach those who did not follow the instructions to "be careful of stupidity." He issued an imperial edict that all officials and people should learn the "big-character poster" and distribute a copy to every household, saying: "Everyone in the family should recite it, so that they can have discipline and abide by it. According to statistics, during the Hongwu period, tens of millions of copies were printed, reaching "one for each person". Zhu Yuanzhang went to the meridian gate in person to explain Dagao's "legislative purpose" to ministers: "The law is there, but the people don't know. So, he ordered the criminal officer to take down the items of Dafa, extract its essence, and attach it to the law, so that the whole world can know and abide by it. "The government also held lectures and reading sessions among the people in a big way, with special lectures and people attending classes. More than 1.9 million teachers and students from all over the world came to North Korea. " It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang did a good job in "popularizing the law" education. Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered the establishment of Shen Ming Pavilion in urban and rural areas.

In order to promote the anti-corruption movement, Zhu Yuanzhang even engaged in "great democracy" and "showing the village to promote good and punish evil". Give people all over the world the right to resist corrupt officials, and allow people to report corrupt officials directly to the capital, or even turn them over to the capital; People have the right to break into the government and arrest officials with bad records. Whoever dares to stop them will kill their whole family. Encourage people all over the world to report supervisory officials.

However, although ordinary people hate corrupt officials, they do not respond positively in action, fearing that corrupt officials will not be caught. Later, Wei Dong, a corrupt official in Zhenjiang, was caught in the window. Zhu Yuanzhang blamed the citizens for not reporting and punished them for "moving the stone city".

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's determination to fight corruption is very strong, and his unique tactics have curbed corruption to a certain extent, which is regarded as a "phased achievement", it is far from the fundamental goal of thoroughly eliminating corruption. Especially after his death, the wind of corruption rebounded rapidly and expanded viciously, making the middle and late Ming Dynasty a rare corrupt dynasty in the history of China.

Anti-corruption is fruitless, where is the root of "killing at dusk"?

Zhu Yuanzhang took the most severe measures in history to punish corrupt officials. However, corruption and bribery are still "twilight criminals" and cannot be fundamentally eradicated. What is the reason? Is the punishment not strong enough? Is the anti-corruption system imperfect? Neither.

First, Zhu Yuanzhang did not and could not solve the problem of official corruption. There is a simple reason. He did not touch the feudal autocracy that bred corruption, and autocracy would inevitably lead to corruption.

Secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was to let the people supervise officials, but this kind of bottom-up supervision, due to the lack of institutional guarantee for the safety of supervisors, can only be a "gust of wind" with little effect.

Thirdly, if we look at the salaries of Ming officials, we can easily find that the salaries of Ming officials are the lowest in history. What is the annual salary of Ming officials, equivalent to the current departmental level cadres? It's usually fifty taels of silver. One or two taels of silver in the early Ming Dynasty is equivalent to 700 yuan money now. In other words, the monthly salary is only 3000 yuan at most.

Officials in the Ming Dynasty generally supported their families by one person, including servants and servants. If you are a county official, the touts and handymen in the county government have to pay their own salaries, not counting the public relations expenses of various relationships. What can 300 yuan do with a monthly salary? You can imagine. An official's daily expenses are very tight. What if he's not greedy? Some honest officials, such as Harry's family, can't live at all. Only dare to buy two Jin of meat for his mother's birthday. Usually, she can only live on vegetables and steamed bread. After he returned to his hometown due to illness, he could only make a living by farming ten acres of land left by his ancestors.

According to historical records, officials of the Ming Dynasty were all retired. If he is an honest official, he can save a trip home or die in other places, and have the money to send the coffin back to his hometown for burial. A few officials with high moral standards can be self-disciplined, but it is unlikely that all officials will live so hard. This is another reason why Zhu Yuanzhang failed to fight corruption.