This is the information given to the drunkard by a friend, about the Ming Dynasty. I won’t say much, just a sigh. If the reader is over 27 years old, I hope you can finish this article, which is a bit long.

Reprinted from Xisai Forum - Cancer of the Ming Dynasty - The Han Dynasty that rotted from the inside

Cancer of the Ming Dynasty - the Han dynasty that rotted from the inside

Author: Wu Si

The traditional social and political organization of the country was a family-state system that started from the Western Zhou Dynasty. The family was a small country and the country was a big family. This system did have great benefits to China's unification and prosperity, but after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually became the opposite of social development. The emperor had his own family, and ministers also had his own family. Each family was a member of the country, but each family wanted to expand its own interests as much as possible. This expansion was borrowed from other "families" (small power), and was useless for the growth of the total wealth of society. Just like cancer, the tumor spread to the whole body in the late Ming Dynasty. Even in the Southern Ming Dynasty, the dynasties of Fulu, Tang and Gui, and among the kings, they were still fighting for each other, and their personal interests were higher than everything. When King Gui had only a piece of land as big as a palm in his hand, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were still fighting happily. This kind of court was really unreasonable.

The demise of the Ming Dynasty is the most typical example of rotting from the inside. The demise of the Tang, Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan and Qing dynasties, external pressure or internal ethnic and separatist problems are the main causes. Only the Ming Dynasty started to rot little by little from the middle period, and external pressure only accounted for a small share. Without the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would be over.

Some people say that Zhang Juzheng was the greatest politician in ancient times. I agree with this. In the early years of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty could have had this same good financial situation, which is not easy. However, reflecting on this kind of reform in the old system, even if it has short-term effects, it seems that in the long run, it will be just a temporary supplement to some nutrition. If the cancer cells are not removed, they will be consumed quickly. Looking at Chinese history, no reform has been truly successful. Why does the country need to reform?

Whether it is Wang Mang, Yang Yan, Wang Anshi or Zhang Juzheng, it is all disrupted by the vested interests of the ruling group because the normal economic order of the country is disrupted by the vested interests of the ruling group. A large amount of social wealth flows to the cancer cells, and the national finances are naturally tight. Whether it is the well field, the two tax laws, the square field and the one-whip law, it is essentially about re-control of some of the social wealth robbed by the cancer cells by the state and reduce the distribution injustice as much as possible. Why do they all fail in the end?

Because these cancer cells are not ordinary cancer cells, they control the brain and will never watch their interests be violated; they would rather die together than give up their interests every minute. I don’t know if this social structure exists in the history of other countries, but in China, it has not changed to this day.

In fact, I think the most important thing about social development is the degree of order. The macro direction of human society for thousands of years is that the macro scale of society is becoming more and more orderly, the social division of labor is becoming more and more detailed, and the social contract is becoming more and more strict. Putting aside the ethical and philosophical preaching that are easily influenced by emotions, from the perspective of economic and legal system, dictatorship and democracy are not the purpose, but are just means of orderly management. Japan has less freedom and democracy than China in history, but its social order does not change in cycles like China; India and Latin America are both so-called democratic countries, but corruption is as powerful as corruption. I think the focus of studying the process of the demise of the Ming Dynasty can be on how the family and state system gradually induces cancer, leading to the collapse of social order and even the death of society (every time the change is over, China will lose about half of its population, which is rare worldwide).

Don’t forget the past, the teacher of future generations.

In the historical part, Ming history is worthy of attention and exploration. Han culture has reached a state of being mature and purgated by the Ming Dynasty, and both political, economic and cultural culture have shown structural non-subversion and irreversible decay. The fresh style of nomadic peoples delayed the collapse and also delayed the reconstruction accordingly. From the perspective of civilization, Ming is the end of Han civilization as the main world civilization. Zheng He's unsustainable expansion of the ocean declared the end of the expansion and rise of Han civilization. A hundred years later, the landing of European civilization in the Americas and the expansion in the ocean completed the transformation and rise of European civilization towards the world-dominated civilization. Ming is the main switching point for Han civilization from prosperity to decline, and is worthy of study.

Liu Jin's undercurrent—a section of the "Financial History"

Wu Si

One, a thousand-year-old world-class wealthy

I read a message released on the "China Youth Online" website on April 9, 2001. The title is "The 50 Richest People in the Millennium" 6 of China's 6 are on the list". The full text is copied as follows:

According to the Asian Wall Street Journal, the newspaper recently selected the 50 richest people in the world in the past thousand years. Among them, those who are still alive include His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei, Hazhihasanna Berga, who has a net worth of over US$36 billion, and Bill Gates, the richest man in the world today.

Among the 50 selected people, 6 were Chinese, and they appeared spanned 800 years. They were Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Heshen, eunuch Liu Jin, Qing merchant Wu Bingjian and Song Ziwen.

The Asian Wall Street Journal also said that if calculated based on the conquered land, Genghis Khan, who was "conquerors" in the occupation column and "plundered" in the wealth source column, could be called "the richest in the world". At that time, the Mongols captured 13 million square kilometers of land.

After the eunuch Liu Jin was executed during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Ming Dynasty, people found 3,360 kilograms of gold and 7.25 million kilograms of silver from his home. The treasury in the late Ming Dynasty received only 2 million kilograms of silver.

Heshen of the Qing Dynasty was found to embezzle 220 million taels of silver.

In the 1930s, after returning to China after her aesthetic education, Soong was quickly appointed as the Minister of Finance. Because his sister Soong Mei-ling married Chiang Kai-shek, Soong was more valued and became the main channel for China's negotiations with the United States at that time. It is said that in the 1940s, Soong might have been the richest man in the world.

Wu Bingjian was the comprador of the Thirteenth House. He inherited the silk and porcelain business that only a few people were allowed to operate at that time, with a net worth of at least several million silver dollars. This big vision seems to be very happy, thousands of years, and thousands of miles away, but I happened to pay attention to Liu Jin's property and copied some numbers related to the treasury of the Ming Dynasty. After seeing the amount of gold and silver in Liu Jin's family, I felt confused. As for the silver stock in the treasury in the late Ming Dynasty, it was even more wrong. In the tenth year of reform, Zhang Juzheng had a rich treasury. The silver stock of Taicang (a treasury dedicated to depositing silver, also known as the treasury) had only 6 million taels of silver reserves. However, the Asian Wall Street Journal said that Liu Jin's family had 72.

50,000 kilograms, dare to say that there were 2 million kilograms when the DPRK was ruined, and the error was probably ten times a hundred times. If Chongzhen really had this silver reserve equivalent to the 20-year central fiscal cash income, why would he hang himself? If Li Zicheng could seize this large amount of silver, why would he have to plunder in the capital and even the whole country to destroy the good situation of stability and unity? I vaguely remembered that there was a number where Li Zicheng captured Beijing and found that there were only more than 200,000 taels of silver left in Taicang. He couldn't help but sigh: Such a big country, with only such a little silver, how can it not perish? - I can't find the source of this story, let's put it here for reference only.

I believe I feel good, and I suspect that the translation is wrong, so I searched the original text online, and found the source on the website of TheWallStreetJournal (WSJ). The translation is indeed a little wrong. Below is the introduction of Liu Jin that I selected (Note 1)

Liu Jin (1452-1510)

Social status: Eunuch

Source of wealth: malfeasance

Property: Gold and Silver

In the Ming Dynasty, a stunningly rich eunuch in the court. Liu Jin abused his power and accumulated huge wealth. When he was finally executed for treason, he was found to have 12 million ounces of gold and 259 million ounces of silver. In contrast, when the Ming Dynasty fell, the palace treasury only had 30 to 70 million ounces of silver. However, reports on Liu Jin's wealth may have been severely exaggerated because historians would use his story to warn people what would happen when eunuchs intervene in politics.

Actually, I don’t want to compete in numbers and details. What’s important is that Liu Jin is ranked among the richest in the world in the thousand-year world. I think Liu Jin and Heshen’s list reveal a big thing hidden under the glory of Chinese civilization. This is what I want to study in depth. It doesn’t matter how much wrong Wall Street is. As long as Liu Jin’s “rich can rival a country” is correct, my intensive study will not be affected by substantial influence. However, I still couldn’t help but want to chase a few more steps, want to calculate the accounts, and count it into RMB to figure out how much money Liu Jin’s family has. I guess many people are as curious as me.

This pursuit really led to my own fault. It turns out that the number of Liu Jin’s family property provided by Wall Street is well-founded.

I found three sets of numbers in total. The first set is the number on which Wall Street is based, which is also the largest number, namely 12.0578 million taels of gold and 259 million taels of silver. Wall Street mistakenly said one tael (36.9 grams) from the Ming Dynasty to one ounce (31.103 grams), and therefore underestimated Liu Jin's property by 75,000 kilograms of gold and 1.5 million kilograms of silver. I understand that the number is too big and makes people dizzy. Two more zeros are more than two zeros or less. Let's put it this way, the error on Wall Street alone is six times the silver reserves of the treasury during the heyday of the Ming Dynasty. This is not a small mistake. Such a drastic cut of Liu Jin's property was in his hands, and a hundred lives were lost.

This first set of numbers is found in Volume 13 of Lang Ying's "Seven Classics Drafts", and Volume 3 of Chen Hongmo's "Jiqiu Wen". "Mingtongjian" says that Wang Shizhen also quoted this number. These authors are all from the Ming Dynasty and are not ordinary people. Among them, Chen Hongmo was in his prime when Liu Jin died. He was 36 years old and passed the Jinshi for more than ten years. He served as the Minister of Justice and the Ministry of Revenue. Finally, he retired as the Left Minister of the Ministry of War (Deputy Minister of National Defense). Such people write about Liu Jin, just like those who have worked in the Ministry of Finance and the Supreme Court today. After retirement as a senior cadre, he wrote about Chen Xitong or Cheng Kejie. How dare the younger boys in five hundred years not listen carefully?

The second set of numbers is found in Volume 35 of "Notes on Twenty-Two Histories". (Qing Dynasty) Zhao Yi said that Liu Jin had 2.5 million taels of gold and more than 50 million taels of silver, and he had no treasures. This number is about one-fifth of the first set of numbers, but Zhao Yi is also a famous historian. This book is also known for choosing the faults of historians of the previous generations. After detailed investigation, we younger generations dare not ignore it.

The third set of numbers belongs to the slippery numbers. After listing the first set of numbers in Volume 42 of "Mingtongjian", it compared Dong Xian's 4.2 billion yuan of property in the Han Dynasty and Liang Ji's 3 billion yuan of property were all one order of magnitude worse than Liu Jin. The author Xia Xie therefore suspected that he was overestimated by Liu Jin. Therefore, "Mingtongjian" announced that it was consistent with the official history and gave the statement that "gold and silver cumulative millions" was "cumulative millions", is it one million or nine million? Is it gold or silver? Is it gold or silver? Every difference here can be ten times different. The author blurs all the past, and such numbers are really useless. Of course, we can also take the most conservative attitude and choose small heads, saying that Liu Jin has at least several million taels of silver. What about millions? Just choose the least two million. In the first year of Zhengde (1506), Liu Jin was in power, and the central government's revenue was less than two million taels of silver.

From 1522 to 1532, the average annual silver income of Taicang was exactly 2 million taels.

According to the principle of caution in accounting work, I will adopt the second set of numbers here. Those who don’t like such conservatives may as well multiply my estimation by any of the numbers in one, two, three, four, and five. As long as it does not exceed five, it is not nonsense. And those who are worried that the descendants of the imperial literati will demonize Liu Jin and use Liu Jin as a scapegoat, and would rather be extremely conservative as long as they remember that Liu Jin’s property is equivalent to the annual silver income of the national treasury - the purchasing power of this silver is about 800 million yuan today.

According to the second set of numbers, Liu Jin had 2.5 million taels of gold and more than 50 million taels of silver. He had no treasures. We don’t count it as "his treasure". Then, according to the usual rules at that time, gold was 100% discounted to silver. Liu Jin’s total property was 67.5 million taels of silver—ten times more than Taicang, which Zhang Juzheng had worked hard for more than ten years. How much is this equivalent to? In the usual season at that time, one tael of silver could buy two stones of rice. According to the rice price, Liu Jin’s property was equivalent to 25.488 billion yuan (Note 2). I just checked the Internet that there was only one person in mainland China who was qualified to be on the list of global rich people in Forbes magazine, that is, Rong Zhijian, the son of former vice president of the country and managing director of CITIC Pacific, with a net worth of US$1 billion, less than one-third of Eunuch Liu.

Let’s say another thing. How much money does Li Ka-shing, the richest Chinese in the world known as Superman? Forbes magazine said that his property is US$11.3 billion, ranking 31st in the world. Li Ka-shing ranked 10th in the world in 1999, and has squeezed down a lot of IT nouveau riche in the past two years. If Liu Jin was alive, his ranking might have declined. As long as we choose the first set of numbers like Wall Street, that is, multiply Liu Jin’s silver by five. According to the rice price, Liu Jin’s property is RMB 127.4 billion, about US$15.3 billion, which is 4 billion more than Li Ka-shing.

Is such a large number reliable? I can't believe the first set of numbers that compare Li Ka-shing, but it's not easy to believe it. Liu Jin's first-class wealthy, namely the wealthy who was corruption, bribery and dereliction of duty, had ancient people in Chinese history and later people, which was definitely not an isolated phenomenon. I mentioned earlier that Dong Xian and Liang Ji of the Han Dynasty accumulated money to 30 to 4 billion. Before the Ming Dynasty, there were Wang Zhen, Yan Song and Wei Zhongxian. The list of property lists was also a long list of large numbers, so I won't bother readers with these numbers.

Heshen of the Qing Dynasty wished he was richer than Liu Jin. "China Youth Online" quoted the Asian Wall Street Journal saying that he had 220 million taels of silver. I have seen a larger number. According to the list of his property, Heshen had 5.8 million taels of red gold, 9.4 million taels of silver, 75 pawn shops, 42 silver numbers, and more than 8,000 hectares of real estate. There were also many warehouses such as jade, silk, foreign goods, and leather sheets. The total confiscated property was estimated to be about 800 million taels of silver, which was at least four Liu Jin. In the late Qianlong period, the actual annual income of the national finance was 43.59 million taels of silver. Heshen's property was equivalent to the fiscal revenue of the 18th year of the Qing Dynasty (Note 3). At that time, there was a saying: "Heshen fell and Jiaqing had a full meal", which shows that the feelings of his contemporaries also supported the number of wealth that could rival the country.

2. Financial history

The silver from the treasury gathers all rivers, with clear origins. All river channels of all sizes can be viewed and taken. Suddenly, a reservoir that was ten times larger appeared on the side of the treasury, but the ground runoff was only a lonely canal, that is, the salary of 288 stone rice per year for a fourth-rank official, equivalent to 144 taels of silver. According to this flow, if you don’t drink a sip of water, it will take 470,000 years to fill the reservoir of Liu Jin’s family. In fact, Liu Jin, the eunuch of the Sili Prison,

Although he was also a fourth-rank official, the legislators of the Ming Dynasty believed that eunuchs did not need to be accompanied by their families and could not use so much money. Therefore, the legal income of the fourth-rank eunuchs was only daily rations and clothing, which was less than one-tenth of that of the fourth-rank civil servants. This means that the surface runoff took more than 5 million years to fill the reservoir of Liu Jin's family, and Liu Jin's accumulation only took five years. The difference between theory and reality is so huge, can we not examine and explain it?

As long as we think of explanation, anyone dares to conclude that there must be undercurrents, gutters, and underground rivers below the surface. "The mountains are not high, but immortals are famous." We borrow the reputation of the world celebrity Liu Jin and call this underground network "Liu Jin undercurrents".

There were food and goods records in ancient times, and now there is a financial history. I became a monk halfway and was ignorant. The history I have read seems to focus on surface runoff, listing the money, grain, corvee service in each prefecture and county, the country's salt, iron, tea, horse, wine and taxes, and focusing on describing and explaining various obvious expenditure income and changes. However, we have found that the underground undercurrent flow has a considerable proportion of the total flow of resources. The financial history that does not describe the "Liu Jin undercurrent flow" can only be called "financial positive history". If you want to be complete, you should also add the "financial negative history".

"Financial History" is difficult to write. Those secret accounts and secret accounts may have been rotten in the gutter and cannot be found. This is not an example. Wang Huizu, a famous master in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, wrote a book called "Study on Learning and Governance", which talked about the issue of account books in a solid manner. He asked to establish four accounts: the book is in the book, the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the book is in the book is in the book, the number of taxes, the tax deeds, the taxes, and the consumption of the book is in the book is in the book.

The silver valley should be resolved, supported, placed, and the number of items that should be placed, and the number of items that should be repaired in the public hall"; these two items are all clear accounts. The items that are mixed into the book "record the balance of silver, the hukou flour of the grain, and the bad rules of a certain year's amount. Those who should be included in oneself can be regarded as ghosts and gods, which are well known to the public, and there is no need to be concealed. If you ask for extra greed, it is for stolen and private, and you cannot enter the book." The two items are mixed out of the book "record the donation and donation that should not be saved, and the daily expenses should be paid." These last two items are obviously the accounts of the small treasury.

Wang Huizu asked officials to settle accounts frequently. If they lose money in the book, they can first use the money they missed. This shows that the small treasury in the Qing Dynasty was very important and "not to be saved". Officials also had a good time to manage the small treasury, and they all understood the source and whereabouts. The main source was of course the income from bad rules, or the filial piety of subordinates, or the common law that was plundered from the people. The main destination was gifts that could not be left, which was filial piety to superiors. At the same time, it also included some daily expenses that were not available in the "preliminary" project.

If we have mastered many such books, the "financial history" will be easier to write, but there is still a lack of "extra greed, for those who cannot be included in the book" - for this huge gap, I am afraid that one or two of them can only be filled with the list of house searches.

What I have to do below is to collect some historical fragments around Liu Jin and try to piece together the historical cross-section of "Liu Jin's undercurrent" in the early years of Zhengde (Ming Dynasty). If I really can't get it, I will use fragments from other eras instead, which is better than nothing.

Three, water pump rules

In the early years of Zhengde, during Liu Jin's administration, Zhou Yu, the military officer, was ordered to go to Huai'an for investigation and committed suicide on the boat returning to Beijing. The knife was very heavy, and when the people around him rescued him, Mr. Zhou could no longer speak. The servant brought paper and pen, and Zhou Yu wrote the words "Zhao Gongfu misled me" and died.

According to the level, the officials who are only "from the seventh rank" are not as good as those of the seventh rank magistrate. According to their actual status and power, the officials of the six departments and the world are responsible for supervising the six central ministries and the various departments and departments. The officials of various departments and places dare not be disrespectful. Even if they encounter the wrong instructions of the emperor himself, as long as they are not in line with the teachings of the saints and the laws of the ancestors, the officials of the sages have the right to "disclaim" in name and are not allowed to issue them when they are pushed back. The officials of the kedao are eagles in the officialdom, the highest level carnivore, and animals that feed on the lives of officials at all levels. Working in the kedao and becoming a member of the six departments or the thirteen censors is the dream of officials of the Ming Dynasty. Why should a person commit suicide if he dreams come true?

Volume 188 of "History of Ming Dynasty" says that at that time, Liu Jin was in power and was very arrogant. When those who were on business trips came back, Liu Jin had to ask for a heavy bribe. Zhou Yu went to Huai'an to do business and had a good relationship with the prefect Zhao Jun. Zhao's prefect agreed to lend Zhou Yu a "three-month" to deal with Liu Jin. Before leaving, he changed his mind. Zhou Yu "had no plans" and committed suicide when the boat reached Taoyuan.

After reading this introduction, I still don’t understand why Zhou Yu committed suicide. The purchasing power of a thousand taels of silver is about 400,000 yuan today, which is indeed a big deal. But even if this bribe is as hard as a debt, what can it be if it can’t be paid back? Is it worth committing suicide? I guess he probably cared too much about the position of the staff. He finally reached the peak of honor and became the pride of relatives, friends and fellow villagers. Suddenly, he may lose his official position, and glory will become shame. Half of his life's efforts and future future will also be wasted. Isn’t these things worth committing suicide? - It’s still barely for me.

Finally, a record by Chen Hongmo from the time helped me understand Zhou Yu's choice. According to Volume 2 of "Jiqiu Wen", the minister An Kui and the censor Zhang 3�┎Rong Candy Grain. After returning to Beijing, Liu Jin asked for bribes. He thought the two were given too little, so he said that they impeached officials inappropriately and were furious and used a shackle weighing 150 kilograms to shackle these two at Gongshengmen. It was summer at that time, and it was raining day and night, and these two were wet in the rain.

It turned out to be the famous 150-pound shackle. According to Volume 95 of "History of Ming Dynasty", Liu Jin controlled the two spy organizations, the East Factory and the West Factory through his confidants, and made the two factories compete, mobilized the enthusiasm of the spies, and made many inventions. Putting a 150-pound shackle around his neck was one of their inventions. Wearing this shackle, "died in a few days." Volume 192 of "History of Ming Dynasty" also said that "numerous people died", which shows how terrible the prospects placed in front of Zhou Yu. Since it is very likely to be killed by the shackle, Zhou Yu's suicide means choosing to die for euthanasia, which is easier to understand.

After reading this story, I wonder if you have discovered something. When I first read it, I felt a little weird, but I didn’t realize anything weird, and I didn’t find anything. Later, I read six or seven records, all about how Liu Jin asked for bribes. If I didn’t do as I wished, I would try to deal with others. As I read it, I suddenly understood that Liu Jin showed us a very high-level unspoken rule. Corresponding to the metaphor of undercurrent, I thought of a name for this unspoken rule, called "pumping rule". Another metaphor can also be called "fishing rule".

The stories of favoritism and fraud in the officialdom that I read left me with a general impression: when facing the people, corrupt officials are usually very fierce and take the initiative to attack; when facing colleagues in the officialdom, they generally adopt the gentle strategy of "Jiang Taigong fishing - the willing to take the bait". In theory, as long as you have fishing bait such as a black hat in your hand, you will not worry about not taking the bait. The black hat means that the power of subordinates and the people can be legally harmed. With this power, you can squeeze out greater benefits. This is a very cost-effective transaction. In other words, people go high and water flows low. As long as interests attract, officials will naturally flow.

In the past, he completed the power and money transaction. But Liu Jin was not like that. He didn't use bait at all, and he didn't use profit to attract you to flow. He directly replaced the fishing rod with a fishing net, caught all the officials entering Beijing, and directly inserted a water pump pipe into the officialdom, and pulled it up with full horsepower. Liu Jin's pipe was limited in length and was too large in diameter, usually not reaching the lower class people. According to the classification method of the channel system, the highest-level channel was the main channel, the second was the branch channel, the second was the Dou Canal, the lower was the agricultural canal, and the lowest was the Mao Canal. Liu Jin looked down on the long canal of the rural canal, and mainly inserted pipes into the main canal branch canal.

Central supervisory officials like Zhou Yu and An Kui were tidied up by Liu Jin as if they were blocked in a cage and caught chickens. In fact, they were the eagles in the officialdom when they left Beijing. Local officials under their surveillance were very willing to accept bribes to the officials and the supervisory censors. In the late Ming Dynasty, there was also a saying that the officials were the king of bribery. Now these kings must uniformly accept bribes to Liu Jin. The total number of the above-mentioned official eagles is 58 in the six departments and 110 in the thirteen censors. There is also a group of officials in the supervision system, about 20 people. They have the titles of the deputy chief censors (approximately the deputy director of the Supervision Department) and are away all year round, and these eagles must also uniformly accept bribes to Liu Jin.

"History of Ming Dynasty: Biography of Eunuchs" says that Jiao Fang, Liu Yu (approximately State Councilor), Zhang Yu (approximately Minister of Personnel), Yang Yu (approximately Minister of Personnel), Yang Yu, and Shi Wenyi (approximately Director of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and Director of the Central Security Bureau) of the cabinet at that time were all Liu Jin's confidants. They changed the original system and ordered governors from all over the country to come to Beijing to accept the emperor's orders, and at the same time took bribes to Liu Jin. Liu Yu, the governor of Yansui, was arrested and imprisoned. Lu Wan, the governor of Xuanfu, came late and was almost convicted. He was asked to "test" after the bribery. Volume 186 of "History of Ming Dynasty" also mentioned a clean official named Mao Zheng, who was the title of right deputy censor of the governor Ningxia. Mao Zheng was honest and Liu Jin was unable to ask for bribes, so he found a fault and arrested him and fined him 3,000 shi. After Liu Jin's death, Mao Zheng restored his original position and retired.

A channel that is one level lower than that of the supervisory officer should belong to the chief executives of each province.

Volume 2 of "Jiqiu Wen" says that in the third year of Zhengde (1508), all the officials from all over the world went to Beijing to pay a commemoration. Liu Jin ordered each governor (approximately the provincial government) to send 20,000 taels of silver, and then he paid the money before he let the people go back. The bank was divided by Liu Jin and others. Officials from all over the country had no choice but to borrow money from the capital. After returning to office, they doubled their wealth in order to repay the loan. If this process was reflected in the accounts, it would probably be that the "main books" from various places entered the "miscellaneous books" of eunuchs. After the provincial governors returned, they searched for "miscellaneous books" to fill in the "miscellaneous books" in the correct book. Liu Jin and others took away one of their own from the eunuchs' miscellaneous books.

This large-scale bribery recorded in "Jiqiu Wen" is the second time. According to the Ming Dynasty, officials from all over the country came to Beijing to pay homage every three years. Three years ago, the first year of Zhengde, Liu Jin just got the power and sought bribes from officials of the three departments of the world. One person had 1,000 taels of silver, and the more they were worth 5,000 taels. Those who did not give were demoted, and those who gave were promoted. The so-called "Three Departments of the World" refers to the commander-in-chief, the governing and the inspector-in-chief of the thirteen provinces in the country at that time, and the soldiers and money of the provinces in charge of the provinces.

The name of grain and punishment is known as the chief official. The largest official is the commander of the capital, the second rank, with an annual salary of 732 stones, which is only 366 taels of silver at the market price. The salary of the governor (approximately the governor, from the second rank) is 576 stones of silver per year, and the silver is only 288 taels of silver. It is not enough for Liu Jin to be filial to three years without eating or drinking. The total number of people in this group is based on at least one or two positions or two positions of chief or deputy, and there are about seventy or eighty people. Once the search is carried out, there will be an investment of 100,000 snowflakes.

Liu Jin's pumping pipes are also inserted into the fields of canal transportation, salt administration, military farming and imperial examinations. The formal systems in these fields, such as the salt induction system, are not easy to explain clearly, and it is even more difficult to explain the tricks clearly. I will only choose a simple story about the imperial examinations as a schematic diagram here.

Volume 174 of "History of Ming Dynasty" talks about a man named An Guo who took over his father's class and became an officer. In the third year of Zhengde, An Guo passed the top scorer in the martial arts exam and was assigned to the acting division commander of the three sides of Shaanxi (commander of the office). At this time, Liu Jin asked for bribes. An Guo and the sixty people who were also admitted to the military service at the same time could not afford them, so Liu Jin sent them to join the army (incorporated as a corps), waiting for dispatch at any time, and prohibiting them from returning home without authorization. All of these sixty people were in trouble and lived with the garrison soldiers, and it was almost difficult to survive. The guards on the frontier were afraid of Liu Jin, and no one dared to accept them. It was not until after Liu Jin's death that An Guo returned to the starting point before the exam - to take over his father's class as an officer.

Liu Jin has also done many activities such as selling official positions or being favoritist and abuse of power. This is a power-money transaction, not a water pump operation. Except for the extremely large amount, the special identity of the transaction object, and the unscrupulous sale of public interests, these behaviors have no special significance for creating new rules. This is for now.

In short, Liu Jin is outstandingly offensive. We can find a common point in the above story: the bribes paid by the officials are not investments for promotion and wealth, but insurance premiums to avoid disasters, and to be more precise, debts owed by the mafia. Chinese seems to have not made any difference, and these two kinds of money undercurrents are collectively called bribery. The motherland language obviously has room for evolution.

4. How is the water pump made

The Censor Jiang Qin exposed to the emperor: Yesterday, Liu Jin sought bribes from officials of the three departments of the world, each of which costs 1,000 taels of silver, and even 5,000 taels. If he didn't give, he would be demoted, and if he gave, he would be promoted. The whole country felt disappointed, but His Majesty only put him around. He didn't know that there were thieves on the left and right. If he treated the thief as his confidant, please kill Liu Jin immediately to thank the world, and then kill the ministers to thank Liu Jin.

This is the first record I read about the operation of the Liu Jin brand pump. The "Yesterday" written by Jiang Qin was the eighth day of the first lunar month of the second year of Zhengde (February 19, 1507). On the sixth day of the lunar month, he had just been beaten by a court stick, and three days later he risked his life to submit a memorial again. (Note 4) It can be seen that it is not easy for Liu Jin to pump water, and someone really jumped out to destroy and make trouble.

In order to understand the courage of both parties involved, Liu Jin's courage to pump water and Jiang Qin's courage to jump out and smash the water pump, we need to trace the desperate battle that happened several months ago.

Liu Jin was very good at coaxing children. Emperor Zhengde was only fifteen years old when he ascended the throne and liked to play wars. Liu Jin was a rough man and could understand the fun of naughty boys. He went with the emperor with seven other eunuchs, "striking hawks and dogs every day, singing and dancing, and horn-like plays", and also took the emperor to travel in a condom. The little emperor had a "great joy" and became more and more trusting to Liu Jin.

When civil officials heard that the eight eunuchs led by Liu Jin were luring the emperor to "go to the banquet" and did not study well, they submitted memorials and advice. Grand Secretary (approximately member of the Politburo Standing Committee) Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang took the lead, and a bunch of Shangshu (approximately ministers), echoing the censors and the censors, forming an attack on the eunuchs of the court by the civil officials in the court. The little emperor was upset that those civil officials were talking about the great truths, but was under the supervision of the five senses (approximately the ninth rank, similar to the chief of the calendar section of the Astronomy Bureau) Yang Yuan said that he was afraid of a comment on astrological changes. Seeing that the little emperor was a little scared, Liu Jian and others launched a more fierce offensive and demanded the emperor.

The execution of Liu Jin, headed by Han Wen, the Minister of Revenue, shook the flag and shouted, and the momentum was greatly boosted. The young emperor felt guilty and wanted to give in, so he summoned the eunuchs, Wang Yue and others, who were the highest-ranking eunuchs, to ask their cabinet ministers to discuss and send Liu Jin and others to Nanjing to live. On October 12, the first year of Zhengde (October 27, 1506), Wang Yue and others traveled back and forth three times on behalf of the young emperor, bargaining with the ministers. The emperor wanted to ease the handling, and the ministers had to kill. Some of the ministers advised Liu Jian to give in to avoid excessive changes, but Liu Jian refused to give in.

It is said that the eunuch Wang Yue is more upright and a little jealous of Liu Jin. Liu Jin is the emperor's confidant, but his eunuch with a higher status is often left aside. During the process of passing the message, Wang Yue added his own comments and told the young emperor that the ministers had the right opinion. So Liu Jian became more courageous and agreed with the ministers that the next morning to "fight against each other" and kill Liu Jin, and Wang Yue was the inner supporter.

That night, Jiao Fang, the Minister of Personnel, sent someone to call Liu Jin. Liu Jin was very scared and kowtowed around the little emperor and cried bitterly. The crying was so touched that the little emperor was moved. Liu Jin said that Wang Yue wanted to harm slaves and others. He colluded with the cabinet ministers with the purpose of controlling the emperor's entry and exit. If we don't let him control the emperor, he would have to remove these obstacles. Besides, what's the big deal about playing with eagles and dogs, and the loss is only a few ten thousand. If the eunuch of the Silijian uses the right person, how dare those civil officials make such a fuss?

The little emperor figured it out at once. These people colluded with each other to control him and prevent him from playing. They were furious and ordered Liu Jin to take charge of the rituals. Two other eunuchs who were lying on the ground crying came out of the two spy organizations, namely the East Factory and the West Factory. They arrested Wang Yue and three eunuchs who helped civil servants, and sent them to Nanjing assassination overnight.

The next morning, the ministers were about to hang out and face each other and found that the situation had changed drastically. In fact, when bargaining with the emperor, apart from saying a few words, "Emperor, this is not good for Your Majesty, and that is better for Your Majesty", the ministers did not have a trump card in their hands. The emperor was determined to let them resign, except for staring at them. Liu Jian and three other cabinet ministers immediately resigned. According to the rules, it was not polite to have the resignation report three times in a row and then approved it. However, Liu Jian and others were approved as soon as they were sent, and no one except Li Dongyang kept it. In the language of the officialdom, this was equivalent to letting Liu Jian and others get out. At the same time, Jiao Fang was appointed as the Grand Secretary. Liu Jin won the battle in the first place.

Liu Jin immediately began to suppress the opposition, kill people to establish authority, and expand the results of the war. First, he sent people to chase Wang Yue and others who were exiled; secondly, he submitted a memorial to ask Liu Jian to leave six ministers and thirteen censors; again, Wang Yangming and four others who were beaten up for the memorial to be beaten and exiled; then he shot Yang Yuan to death - the small section chief of the Astronomy Bureau who made the astrological statement and almost killed Liu Jin's life. He beat the court silently, and Liu Jin won a great victory.

"History of Ming Dynasty" says that after Liu Jin used his case, whenever he asked the emperor for instructions, he would definitely reconnaissance first, and when he was addicted to picking the little emperor. The emperor was bothering him and waved his hand to drive him away in a hurry, saying: What am I doing with you? I'm sorry for me when I'm old one after another! From then on, Liu Jin was arbitrary and no longer had to report to the emperor. (Note 5)

Liu Jin brand water pumps are factory under this situation.

Thinking back to the past, Liu Jin held the power with great power, held the fairy in his mouth, and won the battles continuously, and his spirit was inevitably strong. In fact, people with discerning eyes had long seen this change, and the gathering movement that actively moved closer to power had begun like a river returning to the sea.

Around the end of the first year of Zhengde, Liu Yu, the Right Censor (almost executive vice minister of the Supervision Department) met with Liu Jin through the introduction of Grand Secretary Jiao Fang. Liu Yu's meeting gift was tens of thousands of taels of silver (about 4 million yuan). According to the "History of Ming Dynasty: Biography of the Eunuch Party", this was the first bribe of tens of thousands of taels of silver that Liu Jin received. "History of Ming Dynasty" said that at that time, Liu Jin "first bribes" and his expectation for bribes was only a few hundred taels of silver. When he saw 10,000 taels of silver, he was overjoyed and said, "Mr. Liu, who is so grateful to me." Liu Yu's investment quickly received returns. In the first month of the second year of Zhengde, Liu Yu was promoted to the Left Censor (almost minister of the Supervision Department).
To be continued...