pjbooks Chapter 264 The Stingy Wages of the Ming Dynasty
Chapter 264 The Stingy Wages of the Ming Dynasty
Lin Ke was also puzzled by the perplexing behavior of Ming Dynasty civil officials; perhaps they truly valued fame over life!
Lin Ke: I don't understand! But I respect it.
"Ahem, let's continue. The special products of the Ming Dynasty, besides civil officials, are eunuchs. We all know about the Eastern Depot. They do things like surveillance and arresting people, and their reputation has never been very good."
"Specifically, the Eastern Depot was established during the Yongle reign, and its head was a eunuch. It was responsible for inspecting and arresting people and officials."
"This institution only obeys the emperor's orders, and other judicial organs cannot interfere with it."
"So, to the officials, the Eastern Depot was a villain, and they wanted to throw all sorts of heinous words at them. But they never expected that such an Eastern Depot would worship Yue Fei as a deity within its organization!"
"In their eyes, they are much better than the civil officials of the court. In terms of loyalty, they are the eunuchs. Yue Fei devoted his life to serving the country, and he is exactly the kind of person they should emulate!"
Ming Dynasty civil official: ...! ? % Lackey! ...%
Yue Fei passing by: (′o?????o????`) : ！ ！ ！
A spoiled young man from the Ming Dynasty: Hahahaha, I'm dying of laughter! A group of eunuchs are worshipping General Yue!
A renowned scholar from a prominent family in the Song Dynasty said: "How dare a bunch of eunuchs worship General Yue Fei? Don't they feel ashamed of themselves?!"
Wang Zhi of the Ming Dynasty: ...What?! Did the eunuchs eat your rice?! Only you bunch of literati are worthy of it!
A romantic scholar from the Tang Dynasty: Actually, there's no need to condemn everyone. After all, there are always good and bad people in any era!
……
"As for civil officials, one emperor of the Ming Dynasty even wrote a poem in a burst of poetic inspiration. From this poem, we can clearly see his attitude towards scholars."
The Ming Dynasty officials in other timelines were thrilled to hear this! Even the Emperor himself was praising them—how could they possibly accept such praise?!
They don't know who it is, but they should listen carefully and praise him!
……
Lin Ke's lips curled into a mischievous smile as he teased, "And this emperor was none other than Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who started with a bowl. The poem he wrote is called 'Scolding the Scholar.'"
"His feelings about literati were described as follows: 'A few crows chattering away, spewing filth and cawing!'"
Zhu Baba of the Ming Dynasty: Good heavens! This time they're after me, Old Zhu!
A spoiled young master from the Song Dynasty: Hahahaha! This is written like this! Hahahaha! This is supposed to be poetry? Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter!
Big-Handed Liu Zhuzhu (suppressing laughter): Wow! This is the first time I've ever seen such a straightforward poem! Pfft, hahaha!
A certain romantic scholar of the Tang Dynasty: Pfft, hahaha! This poem is really... hahahahaha! Hmm... the emphasis is on realism, pfft, hahahaha!
Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty
Zhu Yuanzhang saw the comments on the screen and paced back and forth in his room in anger.
It really infuriated Old Zhu! Why is his writing so bad? Although it's a bit too straightforward, it's realistic!
Those intellectuals chatter on and on, talking nonsense, and they even dare to interfere with Old Zhu!
Meanwhile, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di, and several important ministers beside him were holding their breath, fearing that His Majesty would be even angrier!
However, the Ming Dynasty civil officials in other timelines were furious. This poem was simply vulgar! It was an insult to literature!
……
Lin Ke tried her best to suppress her laughter and calm herself down, but her slightly trembling shoulders betrayed her.
She really didn't expect that the poem could be written like this, and it's also really easy to recite!
After a moment, Lin Ke finally calmed down and continued to "punch hard" at Daming!
"As everyone knows, the Ming Dynasty, especially in the early years of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, was a nightmare for Ming officials, since he stipulated that anyone who embezzled sixty taels of silver would be beheaded!"
A Song Dynasty official: ???! So much and they're sentenced?! This regulation is truly terrifying!
"Furthermore, the History of Ming states that among all dynasties, the Ming Dynasty had the lowest official salaries. For example, a first-rank official's monthly salary was 87 shi (a unit of dry measure), and his annual salary was only 1044 shi."
"In the thirtieth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang adjusted the conversion ratio of silver to grain: one tael of silver could be converted into four shi (a unit of dry measure), so the monthly salary of a first-rank official was only a little over twenty taels, and even if he worked diligently for a year, he would only earn a little over two hundred taels."
"However, for ordinary officials, in addition to necessary social obligations, official business, and the expenses for their families' food and drink, as well as the money spent on servants, it is not actually enough."
"This might not give you a very intuitive understanding, so let me give you another example. For instance, during the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, there was an official named Zeng Bingzheng."
"Because he was relatively honest and incorruptible during his official career, he was later appreciated by Zhu Yuanzhang and rose all the way to the position of the third rank, which is generally considered quite impressive."
"However, he was quite straightforward and outspoken, which made him prone to offending people even in ordinary interpersonal interactions, let alone when he was facing Zhu Yuanzhang, who had a rather bad temper. So, during one of his remonstrances, he directly offended Zhu Yuanzhang!"
A romantic scholar from the Tang Dynasty: What can an official do with this little bit of money! Doing this will inevitably provoke a backlash!
A scion of a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: I bet there was a lot of corruption and bribery going on later! No matter how much he tries to stop this trend, he can't avoid changing the emperor!
A bystander from the Han Dynasty commented: "No wonder so much silver was seized at the end; the suppression was too severe."
……
"So, Zeng Bingzheng was sent back to his hometown by Zhu De to reflect on his actions, but something rather awkward happened on the way."
"Zeng Bingzheng had no money to return home, and he couldn't disobey the imperial decree. Desperate, he did something utterly reprehensible!!!"
"He sold one of his daughters. Is this a moral depravity or a distortion of humanity, that would drive a high-ranking official of the third rank to sell his daughter just to raise money for his journey home?!"
A spoiled young master from the Song Dynasty: ? ? ? No way! Is he crazy?! How did he end up having to sell his daughter?!
"Not long after, Zhu Yuanzhang learned of this. I don't know what he thought, but perhaps he felt it was a disgrace—that someone under his command, a high-ranking official, had resorted to selling his daughter to raise money."
"He was also a suspicious and hot-tempered man, so it was hard to guarantee that he wouldn't think that Zeng Bingzheng's actions were a way of saying that he was honest enough and therefore had no money. Whatever the reason, this made Zhu very angry, so he ordered that he be punished by castration."
"However, the salaries of Ming Dynasty officials were indeed much lower than those of other dynasties. For example, the salary system of the Song Dynasty was not just about giving money and food."
"Firstly, there is the official salary, which is the amount of money an official receives based on his rank. This includes a basic salary, food, and clothing. In addition, the government also provides officials with land for their own use, which is a form of supplementary income."
"There were also additional allowances in the early Northern Song Dynasty, such as the prefect being allowed to add a limited amount of rice, flour, and sheep, as well as subsidies for meals, tea, firewood, salt, etc. Compared to the Song Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was really stingy."
"Isn't there a proverb that says, 'You can't have your cake and eat it too'? That's ridiculous! If their salaries and benefits are high, won't they work even harder?!"
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty: Old Zhu, you should think this over carefully!
Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Zhu of the Ming Dynasty): ?? ? !! !
A bystander from the Ming Dynasty commented: "It seems the Song Dynasty really did have a lot of money and good benefits!"
A spoiled young man from the Tang Dynasty: Officials during the Hongwu era really suffered!
……
"In addition to their salaries, Ming Dynasty officials also had fewer holidays than those of other dynasties. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, the *Tang Liudian* records that Tang Dynasty officials had seven days off for New Year's Day and the Winter Solstice."
"Other festivals such as Qingming and Mid-Autumn Festival will also have three or four days of holidays, while other holidays will be based on the twenty-four solar terms, which will be about seven days."
"In addition, Tang Dynasty officials also get a holiday every ten days. It seems that Tang Dynasty officials have pretty good benefits. Being able to take so many days off is really friendly to working people."