prosperous age

Wei Guangde's repeated instructions did have some effect, at least among the officials from Jiangxi, especially those newly-appointed Jinshi who had just entered the court and were in their passionate period. Only the Jinshi from Jiangxi remained silent at this time.

As for the others, whether they were the Hanlin Academy's scholars or the various ministries' officials, they all wrote the first memorial in their lives, praising or criticizing Zhang Juzheng's "seizure of love".

Among the officials from various provinces in the capital who were in turmoil, the officials from Huguang could be said to be the most troubled.

Many of the officials who took the lead and spoke out strongly against the "seizure of love" were Zhang Juzheng's fellow townsmen from Huguang.

In response to this, some people from Huguang who had benefited from Zhang Juzheng also stood up at this time and tried their best to maintain Zhang Juzheng's position as prime minister.

Wouldn't that result in constant fighting and quarreling in the Huguang Guild Hall every day?

Wei Guangde was still in the cabinet duty room dealing with the memorials sent to him. As the imperial edict was issued from the palace, not only did it fail to stop the officials from submitting memorials opposing the "seizure of love", but it made such memorials become more and more overwhelming.

Nearly one-third of the memorials Wei Guangde handled every day were related to Zhang Juzheng, either supporting or opposing him.

However, faced with such a memorial, Wei Guangde could not simply ask the Secretariat to draft it. It had to be sent to his and Zhang Siwei's duty rooms, where they would draft it personally.

That afternoon, Wei Guangde had lunch in the cabinet. Just as he took a short rest, Lu Bu came in quickly.

"what's up?"

Wei Guangde was still lying on the recliner when he saw Lu Bu coming in and asked casually.

"Master, I just received news that the Minister of Rites Ma Ziqiang and several officials from the Ministry of Personnel went to the Prime Minister's residence."

Lu Bu stood in front of Wei Guangde and whispered.

"To pay condolences?"

Wei Guangde asked with a frown.

Although Wei Guangde had some guesses when he recalled what Wang Xilie said the day before, he still asked.

"No, I heard that he went to persuade the Prime Minister not to accept the order."

This time, Lu Bu spoke with caution.

"Haha, Ma Ziqiang is getting cocky. As the Minister of Rites, he actually encouraged the ministers to disobey the emperor's order. Haha."

Wei Guangde laughed freely and unrestrainedly, but it sounded very irritating to Lu Bu's ears, so he lowered his head unconsciously.

"Has Wang Xilie gone?"

Wei Guangde suddenly put away his smile and asked.

"I went there. Minister Wang is in the crowd."

Lu Bu answered immediately.

"Where's Pan Sheng?"

Wei Guangde continued to ask questions.

"Minister Pan didn't go."

Lu Bu answered quickly, obviously remembering all the people who had worked in the Ministry of Rites in the past.

Wei Guangde nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "I understand. Go down and tell me if there is any news."

After Lu Bu left the duty room, Wei Guangde no longer had the heart to take a nap. He sat up straight on the recliner and began to think.

The reason why the Ministry of Rites had to go this time was because the palace issued an edict the day before yesterday afternoon.

Wei Guangde drafted the decree and sent it to Zhang Siwei. The next day, the draft was sent back to the Imperial Household Department. Then it was stuck at the Ministry of Rites. After all, there were many people in the six departments who opposed Zhang Juzheng's "seizure of love".

In fact, although the six censors nominally submitted to Zhang Juzheng because of the performance evaluation system, they were not willing to do so.

You know, before, only the emperor could punish them.

If you did something wrong or did something wrong, you could only be punished by the emperor himself.

But now the emperor has transferred the power to supervise the six departments to the prime minister. Now they have an extra person to supervise them. How can they be willing to do this?

If Zhang Juzheng is impeached, there will be a chance to take back the supervisory power.

The cabinet drafted the imperial edict according to the palace's wishes and did not reject it, but the six ministries still had such power and they wanted to fight for it again.

But perhaps because Feng Bao had gone out of his way, today's official imperial edict still passed the six departments and was sent to the Ministry of Rites, which led to the visit of Ministry of Rites officials to Zhang Fu today.

This is a formal imperial edict, not an imperial decree.

If it was an imperial decree, Zhang Juzheng would never dare to accept it.

If the Prime Minister dared to accept the imperial edict, it would be breaking the rules, after all, this involves the power of the cabinet.

A formal imperial edict is different.

However, seeing that so many people were sent by the Ministry of Rites to convey the imperial edict, Wei Guangde knew that it must be more than just a simple imperial edict.

Sure enough, an hour later, when Wei Guangde returned to his desk and began to handle official business, Lu Bu hurried in from outside, came to him, and whispered the news from Zhang's Mansion.

Although Ma Ziqiang and others tried to persuade him earnestly for a long time, Zhang Juzheng still accepted the order.

"It didn't get loud."

Wei Guangde suddenly interrupted Lu Bu who was talking nonstop.

"Uh, no, no one said that there was a quarrel in the Zhang Mansion. They were just persuading the Prime Minister not to accept the imperial edict, but to obey filial piety and return home to observe the mourning period."

Lu Bu was stunned for a moment, then immediately spoke.

"That's good."

Wei Guangde nodded. It was good enough if he was just persuading. He was afraid that some young man would speak harshly in front of Zhang Juzheng and annoy him, which would be out of control.

Apart from anything else, the accusation of "disobeying the imperial order" alone is enough to make many people suffer.

Officials could refuse the emperor's edicts at will, and the emperor would generally not care about it in order to show his broad mind.

But instigation is another matter. It is naked contempt for the emperor. It prevents others from listening to the emperor. It is deceiving the emperor.

However, what Ma Ziqiang did this time was somewhat out of line.

"Ugh"

Finally, Wei Guangde let out a long sigh and murmured, "Even though he knew it was an open conspiracy, Uncle Da still went ahead and got involved."

Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde have been friends for many years. Although he knew that Zhang Juzheng was being plotted against, he could not do anything.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng knew it very well, but at this point, he had no choice but to go all the way with no possibility of turning back.

In order to preserve his reputation before and after his death, he even had to make the new policies better to silence the public, just like Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin.

When people talk about him, they will only remember the "Zhenguan Governance", "Heavenly Khan", and his humility in accepting advice and the beautiful story of "water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it". Who would remember the "Xuanwu Gate Incident"?

For the throne, he personally shot Crown Prince Li Jiancheng to death and injured Li Yuanji. Then he led hundreds of cavalry and the gate guards to defeat two thousand elite soldiers of the Eastern Palace and the Prince of Qi's Palace, and took the opportunity to kill all his nephews.

Afterwards, Li Yuan made Li Shimin the crown prince, and two months later he abdicated the throne and became an emperor.

Regarding the "Records", Li Shimin told the truth, and this move also preserved the fact that he personally killed his brothers in history books. Unfortunately, Zhang Juzheng was ultimately unable to realize his ideas, and he died before the new policies of the Ming Dynasty were fully implemented.

Although he had not met Zhang Juzheng since Wei Guangde came to pay his respects, he could still guess that he should have realized the danger.

In the evening, Wei Guangde returned home and sat in the study after dinner. After a while, Zhang Ji came in.

"master."

Zhang Ji stood respectfully in front of Wei Guangde and called out softly.

Wei Guangde looked up at him and then said, "Tell me, what happened in the capital today?"

"The Ministry of Rites sent an imperial edict to the Zhang family, but the people in the Ministry of Rites are said to have persuaded the Prime Minister not to accept the edict."

Hearing this, Wei Guangde waved his hand and interrupted: "I know about this matter, is there anything else?"

"Song Yaoyu, Zhang Fengxian and others bid farewell to Zhang's residence and moved to the Imperial College and other places."

Zhang Ji whispered again, "These few people are the ones who opposed the "seizure of love" before and insisted that they should return to their hometown to mourn."

"Oh, interesting."

Upon hearing the news, Wei Guangde nodded, saying that there were knowledgeable people around Zhang Juzheng.

With these people around, even if Zhang Juzheng himself couldn't think of it, he should be able to see it after their reminders.

Moreover, these people were very alert and chose to avoid danger and seek good fortune, and left the vortex of Zhang's mansion first.

Although it may have an impact on their future status in the Imperial College, it will not affect their normal official career. At least they don't have to worry about being purged.

"Has there been any news from the Prime Minister? When will he leave the palace and return to the cabinet to do his work?"

Wei Guangde asked again.

"Well, there is no news yet."

Zhang Ji replied hurriedly.

Although his love was taken away, it did not mean that Zhang Juzheng would not stay at home to observe mourning.

In fact, even if the love is taken away, it does not mean that they are completely free from the constraints of mourning etiquette. In fact, except for not returning to their hometown to mourn, they still have to observe many etiquettes.

For example, they were not allowed to participate in or preside over court ceremonies, engage in entertainment activities, marry and have children. If an official violated these regulations, even if it was a love affair, he would be impeached by other officials, and in serious cases he would also be punished.

Now, Zhang Juzheng had to stay at home for the full 49-day mourning period before he could leave the house to work.

Zhang Juzheng had just received the imperial edict, and he would have to submit a memorial to express his gratitude tomorrow, and then clearly state how long he would be on leave before returning to the cabinet to work.

As for going home to bury his father, that would be next year's matter. By then, Zhang Juzheng would naturally apply for leave in advance based on the date.

my country has been known as a country of etiquette since ancient times. In ancient times, people summarized social etiquette and customs into the simple and easy-to-understand "five rituals", namely "auspicious ritual, inauspicious ritual, military ritual, guest ritual, and auspicious ritual."

Among them, "funeral rites" mainly involve a number of customs related to funerals.

The feudal hierarchy was strict, and the emperor's funeral ceremonies were subject to strict regulations.

The "Book of Rites: Royal Regulations" clearly stipulates that "the emperor shall be buried for seven days and in the seventh month. The princes shall be buried for five days and in the fifth month."

The "funeral" here refers to the coffin being kept but not buried, while the "burial in July" means that after the emperor's death, the coffin needs to be kept for seven months before being buried.

Many scholars in modern times have conducted research and investigation on the day of the funeral. One of the most important reasons is to make sure that the deceased has indeed died in order to avoid misdiagnosis.

This reason may sound ridiculous, but it is indeed historically based.

Because of the lack of various medical auxiliary equipment in ancient times, diagnosis and diagnosis of diseases mostly relied on doctors' "visual, hearing, asking, and analyzing."

However, purely manual diagnosis will inevitably have errors. Sometimes the patient may still be alive, but due to extremely weak heartbeat and breathing, it is very likely to be misdiagnosed as lifeless, and then hastily buried and lifeless.

This is not alarmist talk. The story of the famous doctor Bian Que in the Spring and Autumn Period examining the prince of Guo is the best proof of this.

It is said that when Bian Que was traveling in the territory of Guo State, he heard that the country's prince had suddenly died in the early morning.

As the saying goes, a doctor has a kind heart. Bian Que felt that the sudden death of a young man was indeed strange. He was worried that there might be other reasons or that he might still be able to be saved. Therefore, he knocked on the palace gate and asked to see the prince.

Although everyone in the Guo Palace thought that what Bian Que said was nonsense, the emperor loved his son so much that he agreed to Bian Que's request.

After Bian Que examined the patient, he inserted silver needles into the Sanyang Wuhui acupoints of the Prince of Guo, and the prince gradually woke up.

After the prince gradually got better, Bian Que told everyone around him the reason.

It turned out that the prince of Guo was suffering from a sudden illness similar to "stroke". The patient often fainted suddenly in the early morning, with intermittent and extremely weak breathing. If one was not careful, it would be very easy to diagnose the patient as dead.

But if rescue is timely, there is still room for recovery.

With the previous case of Bian Que "resurrecting the dead", later generations became more cautious in determining whether the deceased had really died.

They all advocate that the body should be kept for a period of time before subsequent funeral arrangements can be carried out.

This practice is also confirmed in the "Questioning about Funerals" chapter of the Book of Rites, which states that "Those who bury the body after three days are waiting for the body to be revived. If the body is not revived after three days, then it is also dead."

That is, after the death of a person, one needs to wait for several days to make sure that there is no possibility of resurrection of the deceased before the subsequent funeral rites can be performed.

The "soul-calling" ceremony during the funeral process also serves this purpose.

Zheng Xuan once commented on the Book of Rites: "If someone stops breathing, then he should cry. If he cries and then revives, but does not revive, then it can be considered as a sign of death."

Because in the old days people believed that the death of the deceased did not mean absolute death. Only when the deceased could not wake up after the soul-calling ceremony, it meant that the deceased had truly passed away.

"If not, then there won't be."

Wei Guangde did not say anything, but suddenly remembered something and asked, "How many of the memorials submitted to the Ministry of Public Administration today support the Prime Minister, and how many oppose him?"

"My Lord, there are eleven memorials supporting the seizure of love, and twenty-two opposing it. There are still more opposing than supporting."

Zhang Ji quickly replied, "We have written down the names of the officials."

"Were there more than 30 copies yesterday?"

Wei Guangde thought about it before asking.

"Yes, one less than today. Wu Zhongxing and Zhao Yongxian also submitted memorials."

Zhang Ji replied.

"These people submit memorials one after another, and they are not afraid of anything happening."

Perhaps in order to express their determination, these officials who strongly supported and opposed "seizing love" not only constantly lobbied other officials to join, but also kept submitting memorials to explain their positions, stating that "seizing love" should not be done at will unless there were major state affairs.

"The holy dynasty governs the world with filial piety" is the fundamental political program of all dynasties. It is not clear how true or false it is in its specific implementation, but it must be absolutely followed on the surface.

That’s why they persist.

Of course, the deeper reason is that it is because of a person who breaks the rules, a person who harms the interests of vested interest groups, an unprecedented "dictator", who makes those officials uneasy and they want to get rid of him as soon as possible.

"I don't know what the final outcome will be for my students and fellow villagers."

Wei Guangde muttered in his heart. (End of this chapter)