Ancient Yamen hanging plaques why different?

8, a variety of plaques and couplets

Calligraphic art is an important part of Chinese architecture. There is no hall, plaques, couplets, only bare beams, walls, that really lost the unique rhythm of Chinese architecture. The vast majority of state and county officials are literati, even if they are not literati also want to put out three books, naturally, like to play ink, in the conspicuous part of the building to leave their own "ink treasure".

The hall is the center of the Yamen building, officials like to title a variety of other can show their own cultivation of the name of the hall, engraved plaque hanging in front of the hall. For example, said the emperor's pastoral governance "pastoral love hall", "flat political hall", "pro-people hall"; expressed loyalty to the emperor and love the people's "loyalty love hall "; expressed love for the people as sons of the "Tiren Hall", "Ru Bao Hall", "Xichun Hall". More elegant is to quote the classics as the name of the hall. For example, the Analects of Confucius - Liren, "the way of the husband, loyalty and forgiveness," so many state and county government offices in the hall named "loyalty and forgiveness hall". Shangshu - Gaotao Muo" has "a hundred bureaucrats division division", meaning that the hundred officials of the division of its teacher, turn to teach each other; and the Western Han Dynasty, Jia Yi "New Book - Rongjing" and "the glory of the court, the division of the division of the whole to the whole of the wing to respect," indicating that the hundred officials neat and serious look. Therefore, the halls of many states and counties were also called "Shishitang".

The Records of the Grand Historian, Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, and Huainanzi all record this famous legend: Confucius's student Mi Buqi (Zi Shi Shi) served as the "Zai" (governor) of Lu's Shanfu place (today's Shanxian County, Shandong Province), where he worked diligently all day long, fearing that he would not be able to govern the place. When his elder brother, Yuruo, visited him, he said, "In the past, Da Shun ruled the world by drumming the five-stringed zither and singing the song of the south wind, and the world was greatly ruled. You are only governing such a small place, what is there to worry about?" Mi Buqi listened to the words of Ruoruo, and did not go down to the hall, drumming the qin and chanting, dashing and peaceful. When the local people heard his song, they all became calm and polite without realizing it, and Shanfu was indeed greatly ruled. This story has been passed down for a long time, and "ruling by singing the qin" became the ideal goal of state and county officials. So many state and county officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties, although their own musical knowledge may not be as good as that of the moon gasping Wu Niu, their own hall is also filled with the sound of the torture of the people's boards, calculating the sound of the abacus, the weighing of silver arbitrage, but still titled the hall name of the "qin tang".

The roof beams of the hall, especially on the roof beams above the warmth of the pavilion must also be titled plaque, which is not to indicate the name of the hall, but in order to indicate the state and county officials of the conduct. For example, "to protect themselves and love the people", "the legacy of rites and music", "the public Ming Lianwei", "mirror hanging high" and so on is commonly used. commonly used. The most common is "clear prudent and diligent", "heavenly reason and human feelings of the state law" plaque.

"Qing Shen Qin" is the most common plaque in ancient times, no matter what kind of government offices have such a plaque. State and county government offices in the three plaques, some hung in the hall, some hung in the hall, the second hall, almost no state and county government offices do not hang the three plaques. The origin of this three-word plaque is very long, according to the Qing Dynasty scholar Zhao Yi "New Yu Congkao - Qing Shen Qin" test, this three-word plaque out of the Three Kingdoms Sima Yi, it is said that Sima Yi once met with the local officials, put forward when the officials to be clean, prudent, hardworking, with these three virtues, still afraid of governance is not good? He asked the officials which of these three virtues was the most important. Some said "clean", some said "diligent", but Sima Yi agreed with the "prudent is great" statement. Since then, these three words have become the basic requirements for officials.

The plaques of the "Heavenly Principles, Human Sentiments, and State Laws" were often hung in the halls and second halls of buildings involved in the judicial function, and these three were the three elements that state and county governors had to refer to when presiding over a trial. Tianli refers to the traditional "Three Principles and Five Constants" as the core of the principles of propriety, and can also refer to some of the laws of nature recognized by the society at that time. Human feelings refer to the common sense of people, which can be either the "Way of Loyalty and Forgiveness" boasted by the gentleman, or the social opinion advocated by the gentleman, and sometimes it can also include the local customs of a place. The law of the land, of course, is the official law of the court.

Wearing halls as well as inner yamen were often places where officers would take a break after a trial, and, citing the Analects of Confucius, "Retreating and Reflecting on One's Private Life," Ming and Qing state and county officials often preferred to call their halls "Retreating and Reflecting", "Retreat Hall", "Retreat Hall", "Retreat Hall", "Province Hall", "Hall of Deliberate Thought" and so on. Poetry - State Wind - Zhaonan" has "retreat food from the public, the snake snake" verse, referring to the handling of political affairs after the appearance of graceful self-complacency, so many state and county Yamen's rear hall, the Yamen named "snake hall".

The second hall, the third hall is also a place to deal with political affairs, its name is also very elaborate. Shangshu - Gaotao Muo "with Yin Xiegong, and the heart of the", indicating the unity and cooperation of colleagues, so the second hall of the Yamen is often named "Xiegong Hall". Xunzi - King's System" said: "neutralizer, the rope of hearing." Emphasizing the handling of political affairs to be neutral and peaceful, the officials of successive generations have often been so marked, the two halls named "neutral hall".