An Anti-Corruption Feast - The "Six Ten-Thousand Corrupt Officials' Heads Sacrifice" in the Ming Dynasty
The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty rose from a beggar to an emperor, having experienced the most arduous times among the common people and witnessed the most corrupt administration. He despised corrupt officials the most. Corruption has existed to varying degrees in any era. Even in today's society, corrupt officials are everywhere. Based on my understanding, from the Qin Dynasty to the current socialist China, the Ming Dynasty was the most effective and severe in punishing corrupt officials, which was also a gratifying dynasty.
During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, there were several famous cases of punishing corrupt officials. The first one is the "Angry Execution of the Deputy Minister of Works." In brief, after taking office for a year, Han Duo, the Left Deputy Minister of Works, colluded with Ding Sizhong, the Director of the Ministry of Works, Weng Jingzheng, and other officials such as Hu Shunhua and Yao Nengyu, releasing more than 2,500 craftsmen and making illegal profits of over ten thousand guan. They also sold 28,000 bundles of reeds, earning more than 6,000 guan, and sold more than 800,000 jin of charcoal, earning more than 16,000 guan. This incident enraged Zhu Yuanzhang greatly. Although Han Duo had been commended by Zhu Yuanzhang at the end of last year, when arresting Han Duo and his accomplices, they all confessed under interrogation. When Zhu Yuanzhang questioned Han Duo and confronted him with co-defendants, Han Duo still tried to argue unreasonably. In anger, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Han Duo to be beaten with 100 sticks. Despite this, Han Duo refused to confess until Zhu Yuanzhang prepared to beat him again. Realizing he could not escape, Han Duo finally confessed. Han Duo, Weng Jingzheng, and Ding Sizhong were executed by lingchi (death by slicing), and their three clans were exterminated. Hu Shunhua and others were subjected to the punishment of being flayed and stuffed with straw, and their three clans were also exterminated. This severe punishment shows Zhu Yuanzhang's deep hatred for corruption! After dealing with the Han Duo case, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "I believe that not only those who greedily seek money or goods are corrupt officials, but also those who crave fame, beauty, power, flattery, or pleasure are corrupt officials! If a clean and capable official commits a mistake, I can forgive them, but the rest of the corrupt ones harm the government and the people; even if their crimes are small, they must be severely punished!" This demonstrates Zhu Yuanzhang's determination to punish corruption.
Another representative anti-corruption event should be the "Righteous Execution of His Nephew." After becoming the King of Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion of ministers increased day by day. He selected a group of people to serve as inspectors, specifically to monitor important officials. Among these secret agents were both civil officials and palace guards, and even monks. Although Zhu Yuanzhang's excessive suspicion of ministers might not be entirely correct, it does prove his determination to punish corruption. Zhu Yuanzhang had a distant nephew serving as the magistrate of Dingyuan County. Coincidentally, Chao Shi Yuan, the censor, was sent to Chuzhou for inspection and discovered many tax collectors in Dingyuan County who arbitrarily collected taxes, violating the court regulations that exempted those with less than ten shi of mixed grain and small traders from taxation. According to unofficial history, even selling a load of rice, a basket of eggs, a bundle of firewood, or a basket of vegetables required paying taxes. (It's laughable to think that Zhu Heng would be so greedy.) When Zhu Yuanzhang heard about this, he was shocked because according to the 'Great Ming Code', anyone who arbitrarily set up tax categories and collected taxes for personal gain would be sentenced to death. Actually, before this incident, Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew had been severely beaten with 100 sticks and dismissed from his post for embezzling one thousand guan of city-building funds. Now, hearing about this again, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely angry. It's worth noting that Zhu Heng was the only offspring of Zhu Yuanzhang's distant elder brother. Otherwise, he would have been executed during the previous embezzlement case. To uncover the truth, Zhu Yuanzhang personally went to Dingyuan County. (There was a small incident along the way that also demonstrated Zhu Yuanzhang's determination to punish corrupt officials: while passing by the city wall of Chuzhou, he encountered more than three hundred people binding an officer and pleading with the emperor to severely punish corrupt officials. After investigation, the situation was confirmed, and the officer was publicly executed by lingchi.) Through thorough investigations, when the whole matter came to light, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and heartbroken. When his cousin came to plead for mercy, it disturbed Zhu Yuanzhang greatly. Ultimately, for the sake of the entire Ming Dynasty, he personally executed his nephew. Dozens of corrupt officials were executed in connection with this case, and several were exterminated along with their three clans. Zhu Yuanzhang's execution of his nephew shocked the court and effectively curbed the prevailing wind of corruption in the Ming Dynasty.
Another representative case is the "Execution of Chancellor Hu Weiyong and His Numerous Followers." I am not very familiar with the details, but the general course of events was that Chancellor Hu Weiyong formed a faction of Huai River bureaucrats, excluding dissenters, accumulating wealth through bribery, and wielding life-and-death powers over appointments. The downfall of the Hu faction began with a memorial submitted by Wang Deyu, the magistrate of Ruichang County in Jiujiang Prefecture, accusing Wan Qingyao, the governor of Jiujiang, of embezzling 200,000 dan of tax grain. Wan Qingyao was part of Hu Weiyong's faction. At the time, Hu Weiyong served as the Left Chancellor, and all memorials had to be reviewed by him before being presented to Zhu Yuanzhang. His purpose was to prevent anyone from accusing him. Upon seeing this memorial, he was greatly alarmed, convened his followers, fabricated false accounts, and unified their statements to prevent the matter from implicating him. He knew that withholding the memorial would be futile, as Zhu Yuanzhang would eventually find out. So, he decided to make Wan Qingyao a scapegoat. Before Zhu Yuanzhang dispatched censor Jiang Zhenqing to investigate the case, Hu Weiyong attempted to bribe and coerce him. Knowing that Hu Weiyong was not someone to be trifled with, Jiang Zhenqing hesitated during the investigation and reported to Zhu Yuanzhang that Wang Deyu was falsely accusing. Hu Weiyong then incited his followers to impeach Wang Deyu, leading Zhu Yuanzhang to mistakenly believe it was a false accusation and execute Wang Deyu. Afterward, to cover up his own corruption, Hu Weiyong killed someone who had given him gifts to demonstrate his integrity. However, Zhu Yuanzhang already had great suspicions about Hu Weiyong but lacked concrete evidence. During one early morning court session, censor Han Yi impeached Hu Weiyong. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to use this opportunity to remove Hu Weiyong, but some of Hu's followers spoke in his defense. Fearing premature action would alert the entire faction, Zhu Yuanzhang feigned retreat and secretly investigated. After being frightened in court, Hu Weiyong immediately gathered his followers and planned a rebellion in three months. Unfortunately, Hu Tianyou, Hu Weiyong's son, accidentally collided with a large cart while riding in the bustling market, resulting in his immediate death. Enraged, Hu Weiyong's servants killed the cart owner with clubs, and tens of thousands of people gathered demanding severe punishment for the murderers. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Hu Weiyong to hand over another son as compensation. Pressured, Hu Weiyong initiated a coup three days later. During the coup, many officials Hu Weiyong had contacted beforehand wavered and did not cooperate with him, merely observing the situation. Someone secretly informed Zhu Yuanzhang of this situation in the middle of the night, leading to the failure of the coup. The Hu faction case extended over more than ten years, resulting in the execution of over thirty thousand people, including twenty-two dukes and marquises. Zhu Yuanzhang did not stop there. He took advantage of this opportunity to abolish the Secretariat and decreed that no prime minister position would ever be established again, allowing the emperor to directly manage state affairs.
There were many other representative anti-corruption events, such as the execution of the Minister of Justice who replaced prisoners with corpses to conceal his embezzlement, and the killing of countless big and small corrupt officials, amounting to more than twenty thousand people. I won't go into detail about each one. In summary, from the above incidents, we can see how determined Zhu Yuanzhang was in combating corruption, and how gratifying it was!