Perpetual Happiness

by Shih-shan Henry Tsai

  76

  5 / The Years of Reconstruction

  Government and Politics, 1402–1420

  On July 17, 1402, after a briefvisit to his father’s tomb at Mount Zhong, Zhu Di, at the prime age of forty-two, was enthroned as Emperor Yongle at Respect Heaven Hall, the tallest palace building in Nanjing.

  However, he did not install his wife as Empress Xu until four months later.

  Neither did he issue his inauguration decree proclaiming the imperial will until July 30, when he conducted a state sacrificial ceremony in the southern suburb of Nanjing. In his first imperial decree, Yongle gave routine amnesties to inmates with good behavior and waived land taxes for a year for people living in the war zone and in Fengyang, Huaian, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou; for the rest of the nation, land taxes were waived for half a year. But the corvée labor tax was to be reinstituted for households in Beiping, Henan, and Shandong for three years to facilitate speedy reconstruction and rehabilitation on the war-torn North China Plain.1 He also made known his will that, since all of the major culprits of Jianwen’s regime had been apprehended and would be dealt with by the authorities, any unauthorized reprisal, revenge, or vindictive acts against former enemies would not be condoned. In order to allay the fears of the populace and to prevent the spread of chaos across the land, Yongle ordered the Ministry of War to issue a proclamation urging the people not to listen to rumors but to return to their normal lives and resume their daily business. He then commanded his soldiers to release all of the women and girls they had captured during the civil war. A few weeks later, in September 1402, when Yongle was asked to send troops to arrest bandits in Jiangxi, he rebuked the Jiangxi o‹cial and told him to o¤er food and clemency to the desperados, who Yongle believed had been driven to stealing and robbery by the heavy taxes and mal-administration of the previous regime. Meanwhile, he removed thousands of landless peasants from Shanxi to homesteads in Beiping.2

  After the nation’s four years of strife and turmoil, Yongle was trying to heal wounds and at the same time to legitimize his authority and secure his posi-77

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  tion. He still did not quite believe that he had been able to take over Nanjing with such ease and continued to feel a great sense of insecurity during his early days as the emperor of China. This is why he took three immediate and simultaneous measures to establish control. First of all, he relentlessly sought to learn the whereabouts of his nephew Jianwen, scoured out clandestine subverters, and mercilessly purged the key political personnel of Jianwen’s court. Second, he recruited low-ranking scholars to process his administrative paperwork and to build his own political clique by establishing the o‹ce of the Grand Secretariat, thus steadily consolidating his centralized and authoritarian rule.3

  And third, he established a secret police apparatus first in the Embroidered-Uniform Guard and then boldly and extensively used his eunuchs for intelligence gathering, military supervision, diplomatic missions, and the like. All of these measures were the seeds of Ming absolutism; Yongle’s macabre purge turned out to be not the end but the beginning of a pernicious political trend.

  His heralded Grand Secretariat e¤ectively stifled any independent organisms that contradicted imperial opinions or checked the emperor’s powers. And his extensive use of castrated courtiers unwittingly involved eunuchs in court politics, espionage and internal security, military and foreign a¤airs, tax and tribute collection, the operation of imperial monopolies, and so on.4 Yongle was indeed a mover and shaker as he continued his father’s campaign to transform the character of Chinese government and politics by concentrating all power in his own hands.

  The practical Yongle also knew that the best way for him and his family to enjoy and endure absolute power was to revive and support the agrarian masses. As a consequence, during the summer of 1403, when locusts migrated in great swarms to Henan and destroyed crops, Yongle wasted no time in sending relief to the ravaged areas and had negligent o‹cials there brought under investigation.5 Four months later, Minister of Revenue Yu Xin (d. 1405) reported that Huguang was awfully late in remitting summer taxes to Nanjing and asked His Majesty to punish the local o‹cials of that province. Yongle told Minister Yu to be more lenient with the tax delinquents and to find out the real problems behind the tax delay. He reminded Yu to always first take into consideration the interests of the people and not to blame or pressure them until they became sick.6 That winter Zhending also su¤ered various natural disasters, and Yongle provided food, clothing, and tax relief for the people there. One of his urgent reconstruction projects was the dredging of the Wei River in Shandong so that grain boats from the south could sail all the way to Beijing (formerly Beiping) for the famine relief.7 Then, during the summer of 1404, Minister of Rites Li Zhigang memorialized that a congratula-78

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  tory delegation from Shandong wished to o¤er His Majesty silk cocoons spun by the larvae of wild silkworms, but Yongle told his minister that this was too trivial to warrant an audience. He added that it was good that Shandong could increase its silk production by using the wild strain, but that he would not be happy until every corner of the empire had enough food and clothing and none of his subjects su¤ered from hunger or cold.8 It is to be noted that throughout his reign, Yongle lived frugally and could not have cared less about imperial trappings.

  These anecdotes were recorded not in the standard Ming histories but in Treasure Instructions from Ming Emperor Yongle (Ming Taizong baoxun), edited by Minister of Rites Lü Ben and published in 1430 by Yongle’s grandson Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuande. Treasure Instructions was written in dia-logue form, with Yongle posturing here and there; it is clear that the intent of the newly crowned emperor was to win the hearts and souls of the people. Two months after ascending the dragon throne, Yongle gave awards and promotions to 109 people—including two dukes, thirteen marquises, and eleven earls—who had helped him win the civil war, which was now euphemistically called the “Suppression of Trouble.” At the victory ceremony, Yongle told his comrades-in-arms to remain forever trustworthy and to continue performing good deeds for the state. He clearly understood the teachings of Mencius—

  who held that the state had a stake in the livelihood of the populace—when he announced that he was seeking new talent and soliciting sound suggestions for reconstructing the nation. Among the many who responded was a minor army o‹cer by the name of Zhang Zhen from the western frontier. Even though Zhang’s memorial was crude and somewhat naive, Yongle was impressed with his sincerity and courage, and rewarded him with a garment plus one thousand guan of paper money. (In 1390 one guan was worth about 250 coins.) He also ordered that Zhang receive a promotion.9

  Six months into his new reign, Yongle finally laid down the intellectual groundwork of his rulership in an edict issued to his top civil and military o‹cials. In it, he said,

  Giving and nourishing lives is the utmost virtue of the heavens. A humane ruler needs to learn from heaven; hence, loving the people should become the principle of his rulership. The four seas are too broad to be governed by one person. To rule requires delegation of powers to the wise and the able who can participate in government. That was the way followed by such sage-kings as Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu. Throughout history there have been clear examples that when the government was run by wise 79

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  and able ministers, the state was orderly. On the other hand, when the ruler failed to find the wise and the able to help him, the state was chaotic. My late father, Emperor Hongwu, received the mandate of heaven and became the master of the world. During the thirty years of his rule, there was peace and tranquility within the four seas. There was neither catastrophe nor tumult. His clean government and disciplined population were not matched by any in the recent past. The way he accomplished these feats was by selecting the wisest persons of the world to help protect the people and run the government.10

  This decree sugg
ests that Yongle was fully aware that the imperial system of China was di‹cult to run and that it required the inherited monarchy of the Inner Court and the recruited literary bureaucracy of the Outer Court to work as a team.

  Yongle’s philosophy of rulership was further expounded in 1403 in his fortuitous instructions to his revenue o‹cials:

  The purpose of establishing various agencies and appointing graded o‹cials at the court was to govern the people. And the way to achieve the governance of the people was to protect and to feed them; that’s all. It is based on this belief that, after I assumed the emperorship, I dutifully followed the instructions of my father and the established laws. I now personally command you to check any desolate lands that have not been tilled or worked upon. I want your subordinates to report all such lands truthfully and exempt them from taxes so that you will not create trouble among the populace.11

  Nearly five years later, in 1408, when Yongle bade farewell to some 1,540

  provincial o‹cials from around the empire, he made another, similar speech: The way of rulership is to follow the wishes of the people. The reason for setting up o‹ces and selecting graded o‹cials and the importance of finding wise and able sta¤ is to bring peace and security to the people. If all of you provincial o‹cials can appreciate my love for the people and carry out that principle of love in your o‹cial capacity, then the people all over the world will feel at ease.12

  There is no question that Yongle looked to past emperors who ruled well and tried to emulate them. But if he also sounded like a modern politician run-80

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  ning for president, it is because he followed Confucius’s paramount rule: “Only people who are su‹ciently clothed and fed will know what are honor and shame.” Ming historian Edward L. Dreyer observes that Yongle tried to “live up to both the Chinese and the Mongol versions of the imperial ideal.” Consequently, even though his previous experience had been that of a soldier and that was the life he preferred, as emperor he needed to promote the Confucian ideal of humane government by paying close attention to famine relief, lessening tax burdens, performing never-ending traditional rituals, sponsoring literary projects, and appointing learned persons to high positions.13 It should also be noted that Yongle was a product of China’s thousand-year-old imperial tradition, which rationalized the absolute power of the imperial throne by the Confucian doctrine of moral leadership and humanistic sensitivity. He once said, in e¤ect, “What I fear is heaven, what I want to protect is the people, and what I want to manage is the wise and talented ministers.”14 Yongle’s philosophy of governance can therefore be summarized thus: follow the will of heaven, find wise and able o‹cials, and protect the people.

  Following the will of heaven ( fatian) sounds impossibly abstract. But Yongle’s immediate task was to make himself the legitimate successor to his father by asserting that his nephew Jianwen, through misrule, had forfeited the mandate of heaven. Consequently, during Yongle’s twenty-two-year reign, the court held regular rituals that manifested his political authority and rea‹rmed his role as the Son of Heaven. By mixing cosmology and realpolitik, Yongle found a religious formula to carry the force of divine judgment while consolidating his position as the supreme authority on earth. In order to proselytize to the world his concept of heaven, he emulated the great Tang emperor Taizong (Li Shimin, r. 626–49) by publishing a booklet, Learning from the Sages and the Method of the Mind (Shengxue xinfa), in early 1409. In his preface, Yongle says he wants to “learn from the teachings of the wise and the sages about . . .

  how to cultivate personality, harmonize family, rule the state, and bring peace to the world.” He further writes,

  Heaven is the most respected and has no peers. It stays so high that it is beyond our visibility but constantly watches our conduct. It remains in the blue sky and speaks no words but forever protects humanity. The sights and sounds of heaven are closely connected with those of humans. Since humans often neglect their respect for heaven, the coming and going of heavenly destinies are forever changing. Fortune or calamity, good or bad luck do not originate from heaven; they are caused by people. The most important agenda for the ruler is to respect heaven.15

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  Yongle’s reliance upon the power and mercy of heaven for maintaining his mandate is no di¤erent from a Christian ruler’s prayers for the support of God.

  Even though Confucianism deals primarily with earthly ethics, society, and politics and lacks a consecrated priesthood and sacred scriptures, it can be viewed as a religion in that it stresses dependence on a higher power and concerns itself with the meaning of life and the destiny of mankind.16 Yongle’s resolve to live up to Confucian ideals can thus be seen not only as a political commitment but also as a religious conversion. Whereas following the teachings of the sages and cultivating virtues within himself were imperative in winning the heavenly mandate, frequent rituals were equally important as outward expressions of his respect for heaven—and Yongle took them extremely seriously. During the Ming period, of the nine temples in Beijing south of Meridian Gate, the two most sacred were the Ancestral Temple on the east side of the road leading to the gate and the Altar of Earth and Grain on the west side.

  Since the central focus of Chinese spiritual beliefs was on ancestral spirits who were believed to have become divine dwellers in heaven, the dead were venerated and seen as active participants in the lives of their living descendants.

  And because the earth and grain provided material resources for human beings, Yongle diligently made state sacrifices at these temples on the first days of the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth lunar months. Whenever there was a solar eclipse or a leap month, the sacrificial ceremony was changed to the fifth day.

  On other state holidays and special occasions, such as severe and prolonged droughts or locust infestations, Yongle would o¤er sacrifices to heaven and personally plead for rain.

  Before each ceremony, Yongle would bathe thoroughly and avoid eating meat, drinking liquor, or engaging in sex. Prohibition of meat and sex was based on the idea that abstinence not only had intrinsic religious value but enhanced the emperor’s concentration on spiritual matters. Yongle would pray day and night before approaching the sacrificial temples.17 At the ceremony, brand new ornamental utensils featuring abstract patterns of intertwined dragons were used, and ostentatious objects and auspicious foods were displayed to show the emperor’s awe of and respect for supernatural powers.18 Regular ancestral worship rituals had been held and sacrifices o¤ered to heaven for a millennium.

  However, Yongle learned how to e¤ectively use these occasions to improve his image as the worthy inheritor of the mandate, to glorify his regime, and to convey his benevolence, virtue, and majesty. He also seemed to believe that favorable omens were the harbingers of his virtuous and humane rule, and he therefore frequently memorialized such events as military exploits, bumper crops, enfeo¤ments, treaties, and weddings.

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  On the other hand, Yongle was mindful that calamities or natural disasters could be warnings that the Son of Heaven was deviating from proper conduct.

  For example, at the Lantern Festival of 1415, there was a fire that destroyed a palace warehouse and killed several guards. Yongle took the fire as an unfavorable omen and immediately called o¤ the wasteful festival. He then ordered his ministers to refuse further congratulations or gifts. He also sent surveillance censors to the four corners of the empire to identify nasty and corrupt bureaucrats who had caused people misery. Finally, he asked the crown prince to make a sacrifice to heaven and beg for celestial forgiveness for his misdeeds.19

  Stories such as this can be found throughout The Yongle Veritable Record (Ming Taizong shilu), which was written under the supervision of Duke Zhang Fu and completed in 1430. They show that Yongle was not blindly insensitive to the possibility that sometimes even he could make mistakes.
Only about four months after the capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing in 1421, the three major palace buildings—Respect Heaven Hall, Flower-Covered Hall, and Prudence Hall—caught fire. The terrified Yongle felt that something he did might have upset the natural order, and he immediately called his top advisors to admonish him for his shortcomings. Consequently, he agreed to provide restitution to taxpayers who had been victimized by natural disasters the previous year. In the meantime, he dispatched twenty-six imperial commissioners to inspect the nation in order to give relief and assistance to the poor and the needy and to impeach and arrest irresponsible local o‹cials. Somehow Yongle blamed the fire on his own ineptitude and excesses, and in accordance with the Confucian doctrine of self-restraint, he cancelled his birthday celebration that year.20