Why did many scholars choose to surrender to the Qing Dynasty after the fall of the Ming Dynasty?
Compared with the Song Dynasty, the intellectuals of the Ming Dynasty had no dignity. The arrogance in their bones was cut off by the swords of Zhu Yuanzhang and his son. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang beheaded the famous writer Gao Qi in half in Nanjing; 28 years later, Zhu Di killed ten members of the Fang Xiaoru clan. It was precisely this series of tragedies that promoted the change in scholarly conduct in the Ming Dynasty. In conclusion, when the Qing Dynasty fell, most intellectuals chose to give up "bending one's knees".
Gao Qi, also known as Jidi, was a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu (now Suzhou, Jiangsu). He was a famous writer and litterateur in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. Together with Liu Bowen and Song Lian, he was known as one of the "Three Masters of Poetry in the Early Ming Dynasty". , and together with Yang Ji, Zhang Yu, and Xu Bi, they are known as the "Four Elites in Wuzhong". Due to Gao Qi's outstanding contributions in poetry, not only did later generations respectfully call him "the top writer in the early Ming Dynasty", but poetry critics of all generations also gave him very high praise; Cao Chuang Zhao Yi "Oubei Poetry" favored him as "the first founding writer of the Ming Dynasty"; the writer Mao Runzhi called Gao Qi "the greatest poet of the Ming Dynasty" in his calligraphy and painting.
It was such a literary master who was famous throughout the ages. Not long after the founding of Zhu Yuanzhang, he was cruelly cut off and abandoned. What crime did Gao Qi commit that made Emperor Zhu so anxious that he went to the execution ground and saw his miserable death with his own eyes? From Zhu Yuanzhang's point of view, Gao Qi did three things wrong.
First, it goes against the emperor's order
Gao Qi was one of the ten talents in the early Ming Dynasty, and his talent was revealed at a very young age. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng came to dominate Wu. Rao Jie, who was stationed in Wuzhong, had always heard of Gao Qicai's name. He sent people to invite him many times, extended him to be a distinguished guest, and recruited him as a think tank. There were all great scholars and ministers in the seats. Gao Qi was only 16 years old at that time. However, Gao Qi could not bear the bad habits in the political world, so he found a reason to leave Wuzhong at the age of 23 and lived in seclusion in Qingqiu Jiuwei on the banks of the Wusong River, so he named himself Qingqiu Zi.
After Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty, he once recruited young talents from all over the world for his own use. In the first year of Hongwu, at the age of 32, Gao Qi was recruited into the court again and was awarded the title of editor of the Hanlin Academy. Zhu Yuanzhang prepared two tasks for him, one was to compile "History of the Yuan Dynasty", and the other was to teach the kings. These two tasks are both noble and promising. It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to Gao Qi at that time. However, Gao Qi was upright and arrogant, and did not envy high-ranking officials for their generous salaries. He did not express gratitude or surprise at Zhu Yuanzhang's kindness.
In the third year of Hongwu's reign, the work of compiling "History of the Yuan Dynasty" came to an end, and Zhu Yuanzhang prepared a new job for him - the right minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Ministry of Household Affairs is the key administrative agency in charge of the Finance Bureau and household registration. However, Gao Qi used the excuse that he was young and prestige, so he would not accept his resignation. Zhu Yuanzhang showed an open-minded attitude at that time, paid him back his salary and allowed him to leave Beijing.
Second, Poetry Satires on the Emperor
If you blame someone, you will be careful to catch that person’s pigtails. Gao Qi is a man of letters, and his pigtails can only be found in words. inside. Sure enough, where there is a will, there is a way. Zhu Yuanzhang found evidence of her "sarcasm on the emperor" in Gao Qi's poems - Gao Qi once read a poem "Inscribed on the Picture of a Palace Lady": "The little dog barks in the sky across the flowers, the night is deep Who comes with the palace ban?" This is a leisurely poem about the personal privacy of Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty. It is opposite to the palace in the early Ming Dynasty. However, Zhu Yuanzhang pretended not to understand. He felt that Gao Qi was trying to use the past to describe the present. Ridicule oneself, and therefore hold a grudge in mind. In addition, Gao Qi also included the sentence "unwilling to bend his waist for five buckets of rice" in his poem, indicating that he had no interest in being an official. This was exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang hated.
A writer who has been hated and missed by the emperor for a long time will not come to a dead end sooner or later. Just, with these few lines of poetry, Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to kill Gao Qi so unscrupulously. Or just endure it, Lao Feng is also mentally prepared for the settlement of accounts after the fall. Qichang wrote poems with a certain degree of ridicule, but the emperor's comments were not expressed ("History of the Ming Dynasty").
Third, commit rebellion
After Gao Qi left Beijing, he went home to cultivate virtue and cultivate people. If Teacher Gao had been confident in teaching his own book, he might have been able to escape the disaster. However, when a great talent like him returned to his hometown, many people would take the initiative to meet Wei Guan, the former Suzhou County Magistrate. Just one of his passionate fans.
Wei Guan, whose courtesy name was Qishan, was born in Puqi, Wuchang. In the first year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, he told stories for the crown prince and preached scriptures to the kings. In the third year of Hongwu's reign, he was promoted to Taichang Qing, a bachelor's degree scholar in the Hanlin Academy, and a minister of state. Wei Guan's work experience overlapped with that of Gao Qi. They were both lecturers of kings and colleagues of the Hanlin Academy. Therefore, after Wei Guan was transferred to the county magistrate of Suzhou, the parent official of Gao Qi's hometown in the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, he Views often echo those of Gao Qi. After Wei Guan took office in Suzhou, he did a stupid thing - rebuilt the county magistrate and county government, and ended up risking a person's life. How did this happen?
Suzhou was once Zhang Shicheng's lair. The original Suzhou government office was transformed into a palace by Zhang Shicheng, and the offices of Suzhou government were moved to Dushui Xingsi. After Wei Guan took office, he found that the land in Dushuixingsi was low-lying, narrow and prone to floods, so he moved the Suzhou government office to its original site and rebuilt it. The purpose of doing this is also to dredge the river, which can be regarded as a project to benefit the people. Unexpectedly, this matter was reported to Zhu Yuanzhang, who said that Wei Guan had "different ambitions" in building a water conservancy project on the Zhang Shicheng Palace Industrial Base.
Conclusion, Wei Guan was beheaded by Zhu Yuanzhang with an order. But the matter was not over yet. Zhu Yuanzhang accidentally discovered the shadow of Gao Qi in the Wei Guan case, which made him extremely excited, and finally let go and killed him. What made Gao Qi step onto the guillotine was a Yingshiwen called "The Liangwen on County Governance". When people in ancient times built a house and raised the beams, there had to be a certain ceremony. When the beams were raised on the office building of the Suzhou government office, there was even more need to have a decent article about raising the beams. It is normal for Wei Guan to seek out Gao Qi to write this article to suit the world.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang was asked to grab the handle, because Gao Qi's "Liang Wen on County Governance" contained the words "dragons and tigers squatting", which violated Zhu Yuanzhang's taboo. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's logic, the place where "dragons, pans, and tigers roost" should be the residence of kings. What is your intention, Gao Qi, in calling the area where Zhang Shicheng lived "dragon, pan, and tigers roost"? Such deviant people should be punished!
When Gao Qi, 39 years old, was sent to Nanjing, he still kept chanting on the way. There are lines such as "The grass on the north side of Maple Bridge is speckled, and nine out of ten passers-by will not pay back their money" and "I know that I am worthy of being clear, and I ask the Yangtze River to learn from this." I confess that I have forgotten both things. It is said that after Gao Qi was cut in half, he did not die immediately. He lay on the ground, half-stretched his body, dipped his hand in his own blood, and wrote three bright red and dazzling words "miserable" in succession. When Gao Qi was executed, Zhu Yuanzhang personally supervised the execution, which was unusual in history.
Zhu Yuanzhang was bloodthirsty. In addition to being ruthless to the heroes who helped him conquer the country, he was also particularly keen on killing literati. In addition to Gao Qi being cut in half, the "Four Heroes of the Early Ming Dynasty" who were as famous as Gao Qi "No one was spared: Yang Ji was inexplicably punished as a coolie and eventually died in the workhouse; Zhang Yu was tied up inexplicably and thrown into the Yangtze River to feed the fish, but no bones were left; Xu Ben was imprisoned and persecuted because he had not rewarded the troops for a long time. lethal.
It is precisely because the Zhu Ming Dynasty deliberately undermined and harmed intellectuals that the intellectuals gradually lost their backbone. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, intellectuals went wild one after another, which is reasonable.
In general, nearly a hundred years after the demise of the Qing Dynasty, everyone knew that the probability was not high, but they still wanted to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. This was because the Ming Dynasty was an orthodox dynasty in everyone's minds. What we are restoring is not the Ming Dynasty, but the Han government.
In addition, in the early days of the Qing Dynasty's entry into the Customs, there were indeed many cruel things, which caused everyone to have a bad impression of them, and even the anti-Qing and Ming Dynasty voices continued for a long time. Of course, there are some people who are shouting "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming" on the surface, but in fact they want to deceive.