Perpetual Happiness
Page 11
At this juncture Emperor Jianwen became anxious to cauterize the self-inflicted wounds resulting from his political naivete. He despairingly sent feel-ers, including a princess and General Li Jinglong, to make peace with the Prince of Yan and even to o¤er him the northern half of the empire. In the meantime, the distressed Jianwen dispatched o‹cials to recruit and organize the train-69
the years of successional struggle
ing of local militia that could be called upon should the civil war continue.
The Prince of Yan regarded Jianwen’s olive branch as a hollow gesture and pressed on with his attack. On July 13, when his troops appeared before the northern walls of Nanjing, the then-disgraced General Li Jinglong and the Prince of Gu (Zhu Hui) opened the Gold River Gate (Jinchuanmen) and permitted the Yan soldiers to enter the capital. But when the Prince of Yan was passing through the gate, the censor Lian Ying stopped the prince’s steed while pulling a dagger from his robe. Lian’s attempted assassination failed as he was killed at the spot.32 Meanwhile, some 460 of Jianwen’s o‹cials had fled the capital.
In the midst of the confusion and panic, the imperial palace enclosure within the city walls caught fire, and Jianwen disappeared. He and his wife were likely burned to death, although legend has it that he escaped via a secret tunnel with the assistance of some twenty people in various disguises and later became a Buddhist monk, hiding outside Suzhou. Other rumors suggested that Jianwen fled overseas and prepared for a comeback.33 Qi Tai painted his horse black with ink and managed to flee undetected for some time. But the ink eventually wore o¤ with the horse’s perspiration, and Qi was recognized and caught.
Huang Zicheng attempted to organize a resistance in Suzhou but was quickly crushed by the Yan troops.34 The years of struggle were finally over: on July 17, 1402, the Prince of Yan “reluctantly” accepted the petitions of his court and ascended the dragon throne, hence beginning a new reign with the title Yongle,
“Perpetual Happiness.”
During the second half of 1402, Emperor Yongle callously but methodically purged Jianwen’s supporters in the ranks of both the civil service and the military while consolidating his newly acquired powers. Between nine hundred and one thousand o‹cials were branded “evil” or “treacherous,” and hundreds of thousands of their kinsmen, neighbors, teachers, students, servants, and friends were rounded up, imprisoned, banished to the frontier, or put to death.
Historian Gu Yingtai of the Qing dynasty called such people the “collateral victims” of the civil war and recorded that 870 associates of the neo-Confucian thinker Fang Xiaoru, who repeatedly gave Jianwen bad advice, were put to death during this ruthless purge. In the case of Zhou Jin, a councilor in the Court of Judicial Review, 440 associates were executed. During the trial of Censor-in-Chief Lian Zining, 150 persons met their maker. Minister of Rites Chen Di and his two sons were beheaded, his wife hanged, and 180 members of his household and kinsmen were whipped before being exiled to the frontier. When Yan Ya was detained in jail, more than 80 of his associates died because they refused to give testimony. In the case of Hu Run, all 217 members of his household were victimized. The arrest of Censor Tong Yong caused 230 of Tong’s kins-70
the years of successional struggle
men, ranging from first to fifth degrees of kinship, to die or be banished. The purge of 1402 was among the most brutal and barbarous political acts in Chinese history, but it also included many heroic and revelatory stories.35
Was Yongle a murderous monster like his father, or was he a sagacious, generous, forgiving, and humane ruler, as hailed by his courtiers? One thing is sure: no other purge would take place during his reign. Perhaps the political culture and the deep-rooted Confucian ideology of the time required that Jianwen’s o‹cials recognize no other Son of Heaven and serve no other masters. Such emphasis on loyalty and fidelity dictated that a man could serve only one master and a woman could marry only one man; an o‹cial could no more transfer his allegiance to another sovereign than could a widow remarry. Jianwen’s loyalists were also concerned with the mystique of the throne; if emperors could be made and unmade, the constitution would be undermined and the principle of primogeniture destroyed, and no one could predict the future. The death of Fang Xiaoru exemplified such moral and ideological standards. It is reported that before the Prince of Yan had left Beiping, Dao Yan made him promise never to harm Fang. Soon after the prince seized Nanjing, he summoned Fang and asked the latter to continue to serve the dynasty as if nothing had changed.
But Zhu Di got an earful from Fang about Confucian virtues and about the safety of his master Jianwen. When Fang learned that Jianwen had been killed in the fire, he decided that his life was no longer useful. The forty-five-year-old Fang then insisted that Jianwen’s son be installed as the new emperor. This bold request greatly irritated the victorious prince, who said that the successional issue was his family a¤air and that no outsider could decide the matter.
When Yongle reportedly commanded Fang to draft the rescript announcing his imperial succession, Fang threw the brush and paper to the ground, declaring that he would rather die than serve the “usurper.”36 Fang’s career and mar-tyrdom have stood ever since as stellar examples of fidelity. The foundation of Chinese civilization rests on a few simple ideas as old as Mount Zhong in Nanjing; preeminent among these is that of fidelity.37
Another vassal of Jianwen, by the name of Liu Jing (1340–1402), also confronted the issue of legitimacy and faced a di‹cult choice between life and fidelity. A brilliant, resolute, and loyal man like his father, Liu Ji (1311–1375), Emperor Hongwu’s most trusted advisor at the onset of the Ming dynasty, Liu had served as an administrator for seven di¤erent princes. He often visited Beiping and played chess with the Prince of Yan. At the outset of the civil war, Liu hurried back to Nanjing and presented sixteen “must” and “mustn’t” tactics to Emperor Jianwen but to no avail. In 1400 Liu disregarded his own poor health and once again asked for the audience of Jianwen, to whom he submitted 71
the years of successional struggle
a long written litany of advice, only to have the young emperor order him to go home and rest. When the Prince of Yan seized Nanjing, Liu Jing refused to pay his courtesy call by claiming poor health. He was blacklisted as an evil o‹cial and brought to the court by force. When Liu saw the Prince of Yan, he said,
“Even after one hundred generations, Your Highness [instead of ‘Your Majesty’]
will not be able to get away from the word ‘usurpation.’”38 Soon after Liu was thrown in jail, he hanged himself.
The political culture of the time and the question of legitimacy prevented several other of Jianwen’s vassals from working for the new monarch. Yongle was extremely sensitive to being branded a usurper and compared to Wang Mang (r. c.e. 9–23) of the Han dynasty. After Huang Zicheng was arrested and brought to see Yongle, the latter complimented Huang’s erudition and polished callig-raphy and told him not to emulate Fang Xiaoru’s obstinacy. Huang calmly replied, “If Your Highness desired my service, you’d have to apply cardinal principles to rule the world. Since Your Highness has violated such cardinal principles, I am afraid the future generations will learn that from you.” Huang then elaborated his concept of the mandate of heaven and boldly criticized Yongle.
Yongle asked, “I know you’d never work for me, but what crime should I charge you with?” Huang replied without hesitation, “Why don’t you charge me as a close advisor to the deceased emperor who failed to advise him to deprive you of your princely powers early enough, consequently allowing you to become so fierce and cruel.” Upon hearing these sharp, insulting words, Yongle, clearly in a rage, instantaneously ordered Huang’s “death by one thousand cuts” for committing high treason. Incisions were made on Huang’s chest, abdomen, arms, legs, and back, causing him to bleed to death slowly and agonizingly.39
While conducting a vindictive revenge against his political enemies of the previous two decades, Yongle also wanted to cultiv
ate the image of a sage-king, hoping to mute critics from talking about his brutality. He thus needed a hatchet man to carry out his political vendettas and to skillfully and readily trump up crimes against his enemies, some of whom were completely innocent but were nevertheless guilty by association. Such a person was Chen Ying (d. 1411), a hyena of a man who also harbored a deep hatred for the Jianwen regime. Chen had started his career as a scholar at the National University in Nanjing and was soon promoted by Emperor Hongwu to the position of surveillance commissioner in Shandong. In 1399 he was transferred to Beiping, where he continued his censorial work and became well acquainted with the Prince of Yan.
Chen was later demoted to a post in Guangxi by Emperor Jianwen and henceforth began to support the political agenda of the Prince of Yan, keeping in close contact with the prince’s inner circle. One month after Yongle had 72
the years of successional struggle
ascended the throne, the brassily clever Chen Ying received an order to return to Nanjing and became the senior censor-in-chief in the Censorate. According to the structure of Ming o‹cialdom, Chen’s job was supposed to be confined to the impeachment of wayward o‹cials. However, he was to exercise a much broader scope of power, including the ability to institute preventive, corrective, and punitive measures whenever he deemed them warranted.
Soon after Chen Ying took up his new post, he submitted a memorial to Yongle, part of which said,
Your Majesty responds to the heavens and obeys the general will of the populace, and the entire nation follows your order. Nevertheless, there are a handful of courtiers who remain loyal to Jianwen and refuse to accept the new mandate. They include Vice Minister Huang Guan, Vice Minister Liao Sheng, Hanlin Academy Compiler Wang Shuying, Surveillance Commissioner Wang Liang, County Magistrate Yan Bowei, and others. These people harbor rebellion and conspiracy, and I recommend that they be executed.
The emperor responded by saying that he wanted to punish and execute only a very few treacherous ministers (such as Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng) and to pardon some of those among the last twenty-nine persons on the indicted list (such as Zhang Dan, Wang Dun, Zheng Ci, Huang Fu, and Yin Changlong) and retain their services for the dynasty. Yongle made it very clear that in his court, he alone possessed the imperial prerogative and that no ministers would be permitted to exercise that power on his behalf.40 Nevertheless, Chen Ying seemed to be able to read Yongle’s mind and knew exactly how far he could go in the blood-curdling witch hunt. Indeed, it was Chen who read Fang Xiaoru’s deposition and who filed charges against the major political figures of Jianwen’s regime and several hundred of their kinsmen. Even though Yongle instructed him to exercise restraint in indicting innocent people, Chen continued to per-secute Jianwen’s o‹cials. The purge would not subside.41
Of the twenty-nine persons Yongle said he would pardon and retain, none would stay in government long and most perished in the end. Zhang Dan, formerly minister of personnel, was allowed to retain his post until one morning when the moody Yongle started criticizing Jianwen’s decision to restructure Ming governmental organization, for which the emperor felt that Zhang was also responsible. After his dismissal by Yongle, Zhang hanged himself in the rear hall of the Ministry of Personnel and his wife and children jumped into a pond and drowned. After Zhang’s suicide only one of his former subordinates dared to look at his corpse and take care of his funeral service. Another 73
the years of successional struggle
casualty was Wang Dun, who was serving as Jianwen’s minister of revenue when Yongle’s troops entered the capital city. Wang jumped over the city wall but was captured by Yongle’s soldiers. After briefly retaining his post, Wang was reassigned to coordinate and supervise farms and grain distribution in north China. In 1404 he was made an administration commissioner and was responsible for routine management of provincial business but apparently was not happy with his job. Wang died in depression and despair.
Zheng Ci, formerly minister of public works, had had a good working relationship with the Prince of Yan when Zheng was an assistant administration commissioner in Beiping. Indeed, when he became emperor, Yongle appointed Zheng to be his new minister of rites, but during the summer of 1408 Zheng was investigated for condoning a criminal act committed by a subordinate in his ministry. He soon died of fear and distress. Yin Changlong was able to escape immediate execution and, as promised by Yongle, was given a job working in the princely establishment in Beiping. However, Yin too was later tortured by the Embroidered-Uniform Guard before being put to death. Many of his kinsmen su¤ered the same fate. The only exception was Huang Fu, who had been Jianwen’s vice-minister of public works. Yongle actually promoted him to the position of minister, but Huang was soon impeached by Chen Ying and was transferred to Beiping as a branch minister. He was then arrested and, after serving a brief jail term, was assigned to manage civil a¤airs for the Ming colonial government in Annam. Huang would stay in Annam for nineteen years, help-ing to pacify the Ming’s southernmost colony. However, when he died of natural causes in 1440, he received no posthumous title from the court. It could be that Yongle’s grudge toward Huang was so deep that even Yongle’s successors dared not erase Huang’s name from the list of “evil and treacherous o‹cials.”42
In addition to cleansing the ranking civil o‹cials, Yongle took various measures—primarily assassination or other foul play—to deal with top military o‹cers who had fought against him at one time or another during the civil war. Commander Tie Xuan was arrested but refused to acknowledge Yongle as his new overlord. It was reported that the thirty-six-year-old Tie screamed and cursed at Yongle at the moment of his gruesome execution. General Sheng Yong surrendered his remaining troops and was appointed a commandant at Huaian, but within one year he was censored. Sheng took his own life. General Geng Bingwen continued to hold the position of marquis, but later he, too, committed suicide when he was charged with treasonable conduct. General Li Jinglong, who had opened the palace gate in Nanjing for the Yan troops and facilitated the transition of power from Jianwen to Yongle, was made a duke and received four thousand piculs of rice annually. However, two years later, 74
the years of successional struggle
he was stripped of his rank; his property, together with that of his brother and brother-in-law, was confiscated, and he was imprisoned. Although on several occasions he attempted to fast to death, Li would survive until 1421.43
During the purge, Yongle also had to deal harshly with some of his own relatives. In doing so, he may have troubled his soul and damaged his mental well-being. Xu Huizu, the eldest brother of his wife but a Jianwen loyalist, was a case in point. When the Prince of Yan had entered Nanjing, Xu went to his father Xu Da’s tomb at Mount Zhong, refusing to welcome the victorious prince.
As emperor, Yongle ordered his sta¤ to prepare a death warrant for Xu, but the latter declared that he was immune from any death penalty because his father, Xu Da, was a founding father of the dynasty and because Emperor Hongwu had guaranteed in a written certificate that Xu Da’s children would never be subject to capital punishment. The angry Yongle stripped Xu of his ducal rank and put him under house arrest. Xu, who had played games with Yongle when they were both young and carefree, would spend more than five stressful years confined in his own house. In 1407, a few months after Xu died of natural causes, Yongle decreed, “In spite of the fact that Xu Huizu joined Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng in undermining the welfare of the state, I want to pardon his crimes, mainly because of the great contributions of his father Xu Da. The house of Xu needs to have an heir.” Consequently, Xu Huizu’s eldest son and Yongle’s nephew, Xu Qin (d. 1424), was invested as Duke of Zhongshan.
However, when Yongle received him in audience in 1421, Xu Qin abruptly left the court. This act incurred the wrath of Yongle, who at once took every noble privilege away from Xu Qin and made him a commoner.44
Yongle also made a savage attack on the husband of his favorite sister, Princess Ningguo (1364–1434). P
rincess Ningguo was Empress Ma’s eldest daughter and was married to Mei Yin (d. 1405), who was known for his knowledge of history, classics, and the art of war. Of all his sons-in-law, Emperor Hongwu had loved and trusted Mei the most and, because of that, time and again instructed Mei to assist the young sovereign Jianwen. During the civil war, Mei was a regional commander at Huaian and put up a meticulous defense against the Prince of Yan. When the prince asked Mei to let his troops pass through Huaian, Mei cut o¤ the nose and ears of Yongle’s messenger in reply. Even after Yongle had ascended the throne, Mei continued to command his troops along the Huai River, refusing to take orders from the new emperor. Yongle then pressured his younger sister to write a letter begging her husband to surrender. When Mei read the letter from Princess Ningguo, which was sealed with her own blood, he broke down and wailed. The calculating Yongle, who was good at absorb-ing pain and humiliation but never forgot to keep score, finally showed his cun-75
the years of successional struggle
ning in the winter of 1404, when Senior Censor-in-Chief Chen Ying impeached Mei Yin for harboring fugitives and practicing witchcraft. Mei’s entire family was exiled to Liaodong, and one year later, when Mei arrived in the capital under orders to come to the court, he was pushed from a Nanjing bridge by two junior military commanders. Mei’s obituary stated that he had committed suicide. The heart-broken Princess Ningguo was then forty-one years old. Even though Yongle would later reward her regularly and handsomely, she had to endure her widowhood for twenty-nine long years.45
It is obvious that in order to begin with a clean slate and to concentrate all power in his own hands, the new emperor wanted to wipe out the old princely guard units one by one. He realized that he needed to first eliminate the most politically volatile elements by transferring many of the northern princedoms to central and south China. As a result, the Prince of Gu (Zhu Hui) was transferred from Xuanfu to Changsha, the Prince of Ning (Zhu Quan) from Daning to Nanchang, and so on. For a while he allowed the Prince of Dai (Zhu Gui) to stay at Datong, the Prince of Liao (Zhu Zhi) at Liaodong, and the Prince of Shu (Zhu Chun, 1371–1423) at Chengdu, but later on Yongle took away their troop commands altogether. And in spite of the fact that he restored the titles and properties to the Prince of Zhou (Zhu Su), the Prince of Qi (Zhu Fu), and the Prince of Min (Zhu Bian), they became essentially ornamental symbols with ceremonial functions as Yongle brought the princely establishments firmly under his personal control.46 In the meantime, Yongle rescinded the nomenclatural changes made by Jianwen and reappointed the o‹cials dismissed or demoted by his predecessor. He reestablished his father’s oppressive ruler-minister imbalance, secured control over the civil bureaucracy and the military establishment, and delivered both into the hands of administrators appointed by and answerable to himself. He started using eunuchs to manage espionage and internal security and to conduct military and foreign a¤airs, and thus unwittingly created a fully developed third administrative branch that participated in all of the most essential matters of the dynasty. Years before, when he was still a teenager, Zhu Di had admired the rulership of his father. The years of waiting were at an end, and a new era of “Perpetual Happiness” (Yongle) was about to begin. He was now most anxious to establish a brilliant and dynamic reign that would truly justify the violent turmoil of the past three years. To achieve that goal, he would have to play the roles of both savior (rescuing his father’s troubled empire) and redeemer (making up for the destruction and death brought by the civil war).