Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Youjian's decision to grant Liu Zongzhou such great power was certainly not a sudden decision made on a whim.

In fact, long before Liu Lishun and Ni Yuangong submitted their memorials, he had learned from the Jinyiwei about the problems in the preparation of local parliaments.

The Internal Affairs Department of the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been collecting intelligence on internal enemies, including but not limited to folk religions, local clans, and other organizations capable of rebellion.

The Party and Secret Society Office of the Ministry of Official Information was collecting information on the social relations of various officials. Zhu Youjian was always wary of the Donglin Party and other parties interfering in elections.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian was very familiar with the problems encountered in the preparation of the parliament, and even formulated various countermeasures.

But to his disappointment, these officials simply did not report the problem.

They were worried that the emperor would retreat, so they wanted to establish local councils and parliament as soon as possible to use parliament to restrain the emperor.

We will leave the issue for later. We should first build the Congress and then improve it.

Zhu Youjian was naturally dissatisfied with this. In order to show his attitude and to make the officials who were preparing for the parliament aware of his determination, he decided to further delegate power to Liu Zongzhou.

Use this person to preside over the establishment of Congress, while keeping an eye on others on your behalf -

Compared with other officials, Liu Zongzhou can be said to be the person Zhu Youjian trusts the most.

This person is pursuing the goal of becoming a saint, and has almost no other selfish motives. He will not lay mines when remaking rituals and music because of considerations such as family and interests.

He was also flexible and was able to accept the etiquette and legal provisions proposed by Zhu Youjian, just as he accepted the revision of "Memorial to the King Yao and Shun".

This made Zhu Youjian very satisfied with him, and his biggest requirement for Zhu Youjian was to practice benevolence and righteousness and become a king like Yao and Shun.

At present, Zhu Youjian has done a good job. Apart from being a little greedy and fond of sensual pleasures, he basically meets Liu Zongzhou's expectations in other aspects. The most important thing is that he has a kind heart and has never killed anyone without reason.

The cooperation between the two can be described as smooth. They are both working hard to rebuild rituals and music and become sages and saints.

Now, after Liu Zongzhou was granted the veto power over ritual and music affairs by the emperor, he said in response to the purpose of the emperor's meeting:
"I don't think the slave issue is a problem and will not affect the election."

"According to the law, common people are not allowed to keep slaves. Only noble ministers can keep eight to twenty slaves."

"During the Wanli period, the Left Censor-in-Chief Wu Shilai explained the laws and regulations:"

"Whether it is an official or a civilian family, if a contract is signed and the work is for a certain period of time, it shall be treated as a hired worker; if the payment is small and the work is calculated by days and months, it shall be treated as an ordinary person."

"If a person under the age of fifteen is bought and raised for a long time, and a person over the age of sixteen is married, he shall be treated as a descendant. If a person is not raised for a long time and has never been married, the common people's family shall still be treated as a hired worker."

"The families of the gentry are treated as slaves. As long as they do not have a corresponding title or official position, they must abide by the law."

"The court can order a strict investigation and ban slavery among the people."

This statement made Zhu Youjian's eyes light up, and he felt that he had found a legal basis for abolishing slavery in Jiangnan.

In fact, the reason why he made use of the memorials of Liu and Ni was to solve the problem of slaves in Jiangnan.

Judging from what Liu Zongzhou said, as long as the court strictly enforced the relevant laws and regulations, even if it could not be called complete abolition of slavery, most slaves could be rescued.

The imperial court could have completely refused to recognize slaves kept by the people and treated them as hired workers.

Zhu Youjian, who had originally planned this, happily clapped his hands and praised:

"Mr. Liu said it well!"

"There are no slaves among the people. They are just hired workers!"

"Issue an order to have Zhang Pu take the lead in forming an association of hired workers to resolve disputes between hired workers and employers."

"The employment association is supervised and protected by the household registration agency and the parliament. Employed workers are treated as workers. They share the corresponding proportion of agricultural, industrial and commercial councillors according to the industry they are engaged in and their income."

The ministers were shocked when they heard this, because the limit on slaves in the Ming Dynasty was too low. They all felt that the relevant laws, like many other laws, were impossible to enforce.

Based on their understanding of the emperor's temperament, they thought that the emperor would most likely re-enact relevant laws and regulations in the name of re-establishing rituals and music.

Who would have thought that the emperor would change his mind this time and wanted to enforce restrictions on slaves.

This made the ministers look at each other in confusion, wondering why the emperor favored those slaves?
Wen Tiren thought of Wang Shimin's letter and Feng Quan, whom Zhou Yanru had introduced to him, and said to the emperor:

"Your Majesty, if you want to prevent slaves from interfering in elections, simply revoke their right to vote."

"I think we can do it like the free trade zone, where only officials and residents who pay more than 100 taels of tax can participate in the election."

This immediately aroused Qian Qianyi's opposition, because the free trade zone that Wen Tiren was talking about was obviously Xiangjiang Island.

That was a parliamentary pilot project chaired by Feng Quan of the eunuch party. As a rising leader of the Donglin Party, how could he be willing to see the eunuch party resurface?

So he immediately said:

"Your Majesty wants to rule the world together with all the people. How can you exclude the people of Ming Dynasty?"

"Mr. Wen wants to restrict the identity and property of voters. How can the elected members represent the people?"

Wen Tiren gave him an angry look, feeling that Qian Qianyi had gone a little crazy in his rebellion against him.

Is this the time to start a party dispute? This is a major issue that concerns whether slavery can be allowed in the future.

The attitude of the emperor and Liu Zongzhou was obviously to ban private slavery. If this proposal was passed, who in Jiangnan would be spared?
Suppressing his anger, Wen Tiren continued to advise the emperor, secretly reminding Qian Qianyi:
"Your Majesty, in Suzhou, the wealthy families have thousands of servants."

"If we ban everything, let Huang Tuiguan go and beat them. I am afraid that if we fail to enforce it, it may lead to chaos."

This finally made Qian Qianyi realize that the current prosecutor of his hometown, Suzhou Prefecture, was Huang Daozhou, who was famous for enforcing old etiquette.

Given the conservative nature of this group, it is estimated that once the emperor's order is passed, it will be carried out according to the law:
If a commoner's family keeps slaves or servants, they shall be beaten with the stick 100 times and then released to become free people.

Qian Qianyi did not dare to underestimate the reputation of "flogging Hanlin".

This made Qian Qianyi hurriedly remedy the situation:
"Your Majesty, etiquette and laws should change with the times."

"The limit of eight to twenty slaves was set by Taizu at the beginning of the country. The population was small at that time, so the limit was strict."

"The population today is several times greater than it was at the beginning of the country. I think the quota should be increased and the gentry should be allowed to keep slaves."

The rapid change in attitude made Zhu Youjian look sideways again, frowning and saying:

"Do the great families in Jiangnan have so many slaves?"

“Even if we abolish the voting rights of slaves and prevent them from interfering in elections, what about other things they use slaves for?”

"If someone rebels, can't they easily mobilize thousands of troops?"

Wen Tiren felt something was not right, and then he heard Liu Zongzhou say:

"Not only that, many slaves in Jiangnan are not slaves in name, but adopted sons and daughters."

"Zhang Liang, a former Tang Dynasty hero, was executed by Emperor Taizong because he had 500 adopted sons."

"Nowadays, there are many large families with thousands of adopted sons. I think this must be restricted."

Now the ministers also felt that something was wrong, because the adopted sons and daughters were just slaves, so how could they be implicated in treason?
But judging from the emperor's appearance, he had obviously believed it. He asked Liu Zongzhou:
"Mr. Liu, do you have any way to restrict the adopted sons and daughters?"

Liu Zongzhou heard this and replied:

"The Great Ming Code states: Anyone who seeks to raise a son of a different surname and disrupts the clan will be punished with 60 strokes of the cane."

"Collected Commentaries say: It is permitted to ask for an adopted son in the law. But if he is allowed to take his own surname and be listed in the order of seniority, it will disrupt the clan."

"Adoptive sons and daughters are permitted under the law, but they cannot be regarded as heirs."

"I believe that adopted sons and daughters should enjoy the same rights as other children, at least the same as illegitimate sons and daughters. Their inheritance rights in property should be written into the Ming Dynasty Inheritance Etiquette."

This made Wen Tiren and others open their eyes wide, feeling that Liu Zongzhou was digging up the root of the problem.

If this rule is really passed, which family would dare to adopt adopted sons and daughters as slaves in the future?
This is not keeping slaves, it's clearly raising a child!

Zhu Youjian was very impressed by this and said:

"The succession to the title should be based on the system of primogeniture."

"But when it comes to inheritance, personal wishes need to be respected."

"Except that the eldest son's inheritance must not be less than that of other sons', the property holder can distribute the wealth to his children according to his personal wishes." "You can also adopt adopted sons and daughters to inherit the family business and distribute the wealth to them."

This gave the ministers present a headache. For a moment, they couldn't tell:
The emperor was either unaware of the situation among the people, or he was pretending to be ignorant and really listened to what Liu Zongzhou said, treating his adopted sons and daughters as his own children.

At this time, Liu Zongzhou continued:
"Adoptive sons and daughters are also children. No matter if they are forced or not, they cannot have sexual relations with their adoptive parents or other relatives."

"If anyone commits a crime, he shall be executed according to the crime of committing a minor crime or above."

I have talked a lot, all about the relationship between parents and adopted children. The relevant laws should be revised to clearly include adopted children.

The ministers could not accept this, because many people raised adopted daughters as maids just to satisfy their sexual desires. Qian Qianyi said:
"Your Majesty, this kind of etiquette cannot be enforced at all."

"Who would dare to adopt a son or daughter like this?"

"Those who have many adopted sons and daughters, should we ask them to divide up all their property?"

Zhu Youjian's expression became serious when he heard this, and he suddenly said in a stern voice:

"By raising so many adopted sons, are they planning to do something bad?"

"Regardless of what happened in the past, from now on, all adopted sons and daughters must be registered in the household registration book."

"Otherwise the court will not recognize it and treat it as privately owned slaves."

This sudden change of expression made them understand the emperor's meaning.

It is obvious that the emperor knew the situation among the people, and this time he was targeting the adopted sons and daughters who were actually slaves.

The rumor of "plotting something bad" made them even more silent. They were worried that if they continued to talk about it, the emperor would suspect that they had ulterior motives.

But they were unwilling to let the emperor abolish slavery, and the ministers kept beating around the bush, hoping that the emperor would show some leniency, at least increase the number of places, and not follow the existing slave law.

Zhu Youjian looked at the attitudes of these ministers and the actual situation, and finally said:

"You have a point. The law must be enforced. If it cannot be enforced, it is the same as being abolished."

"But keeping slaves must be restricted. And it must be strictly enforced to prevent some people from rebelling with their slaves."

"Also, do you think that slaves are good people or untouchables?"

"Should we include them as citizens of the Ming Dynasty and grant them the right to vote?"

This question obviously concerns the number of slaves. Wen Tiren immediately said:
"Of course slaves are pariahs!"

"The Great Ming Code prohibits marriages between the noble and the humble. Any head of a family who marries a slave to a nobleman's daughter will be punished with 80 strokes of the cane, and the daughter's family will be punished with one less punishment."

"Slaves, beggars, and prostitutes are pariahs and should not have the right to vote."

Zhu Youjian frowned, obviously unwilling to add a new type of untouchables and reduce his own merits in opening up and becoming a good person.

However, classifying slaves as citizens would have a huge impact on elections, because slaves were completely dependent on their masters, and giving them the right to vote would increase the influence of the rich and encourage them to keep slaves.

It is impossible to completely ban slavery. Just as these officials are saying, it is impossible to enforce it.

So he could only sigh and say:
"Let the untouchables be untouchables. Treat those who are willing to be slaves as fallen people who have fallen by themselves."

"But they should also be given the opportunity to become good people. Slaves, beggars, and prostitutes can join the army and become good citizens."

"No one is allowed to stop it, otherwise it will be considered as private use of military and civilians."

This is a way out for me, but it will undoubtedly make me difficult to discipline. Wen Tiren said:
"This is so unfair to the people who bought the slaves. What if a slave joins the army right after being bought?"

"I think the master should give his permission, otherwise he will not be allowed to join the army."

Zhu Youjian did not listen to his advice this time, but instead asked him:
"Joining the army is to serve the Ming Dynasty. Do you think there are too many people serving the Ming Dynasty? We need to set limits."

"How about you, Mr. Wen, go talk to the Privy Council and see if they want to abolish the rule that untouchables can join the army and become good people?"

Wen Tiren didn't dare to do this, because as far as he knew, there were many boat people and fishermen serving in the navy. If he dared to make this suggestion, he would probably be scolded by the privy ministers.

The power of the Privy Council now exceeds that of any of the six ministries, and can almost rival the Cabinet. Wen Tiren does not want to provoke them unless necessary.

This left him with no choice but to say sorry to Wang Shimin in his heart, knowing that he could not stop a servant from becoming a good woman.

After establishing the principles, Zhu Youjian added:
"From now on, the indentures of slaves should specify the penalty required to forcibly terminate the contract."

"This amount should not be higher than the money earned from selling one's body plus the salary earned from working, and the total amount should not exceed one thousand taels, otherwise it will be considered invalid."

"You don't need to pay compensation while you are in the army. You can pay it gradually after you retire. You can pay it through the bank. If it exceeds ten years, interest will be calculated."

This finally made Wen Tiren feel better. He knew that if the servant became a good person, he could get back his investment and even make money.

However, for the wealthy families, what they value most is stability, and they need slaves to have no other choice but to be loyal to them.

Now that the emperor has made this rule, it has finally opened a loophole. From now on, slaves and servants in various places will no longer be content.

Qian Qianyi suddenly said:

"Male servants can join the army and become good women, but what about the maids? Should they also join the army? Become camp prostitutes?"

"Also, can married maids and slave children follow the men and become good citizens?"

Zhu Youjian laughed and said:

"Mr. Qian is really kind and gentle to women!"

"There are no camp prostitutes in the military now. There are only designated service areas for related industries near the base."

"And now there are female soldiers in the army, and female generals like General Qin, which allows women to serve in the army."

"Women can serve in the military in more ways than just as soldiers. They can also be nurses, sewing and laundry workers, or perform in military bands."

"There are already some prostitutes who have chosen to join the army and become good people. Mr. Qian can pay attention to them."

Everyone laughed upon hearing this, and the atmosphere in the hall finally became a little more lively, no longer as solemn as before.

Then Zhu Youjian continued:
"As for the descendants of slaves, they can naturally follow their parents and become good people."

"Before they reach adulthood, they are treated as residents without the right to vote and can stay with their parents in the host family. They can also choose to leave their parents and go to an orphanage or join the cub army as orphans."

"Once you become an adult, you can choose whether to sell your body."

"Residents can choose to sell themselves into slavery, but good citizens are prohibited from becoming slaves."

"Residents who do not sell their bodies can work as hired laborers like citizens, except for the right to vote. When they have paid more than 100 taels of tax, they can apply for citizenship."

"Or serve in the army and join the military-civilian household and obtain citizenship."

"You can also take the imperial examination, pass the exam, become an official, and obtain citizenship..."

"In short, there are many ways to go, and since I didn't sell myself, I don't need to pay a redemption fee."

"If there is enough money, we can also forcibly redeem their parents and relatives, and then turn them into good citizens."

Then he turned to Liu Zongzhou and said:
"I have made it clear here that no one may enslave Ming officials and soldiers, and no one may use people with meritorious service as slaves."

"This article must be written into the etiquette and laws as the rights of citizens of the Ming Dynasty."

Liu Zongzhou received the order and added another clause to the draft of the "Great Ming Etiquette and Law Convention":
The life and dignity of the citizens of the Ming Dynasty are sacred and inviolable. No one may buy, sell or enslave the citizens of the Ming Dynasty. Anyone who induces, abducts or sells innocent people or enslaves citizens should be punished by law.

Citizens of the Ming Dynasty who meet the qualifications prescribed by law may serve as civil or military officials.

Non-Ming citizens are not allowed to hold Ming public office, only foreign positions.

No one may prevent Ming citizens from taking civil service examinations or joining the army, no one may make Ming officials and soldiers into slaves, and no one may make people who have passed imperial examinations into slaves.

Descendants of the Ming people who have not obtained citizenship can obtain citizenship by serving in the military for more than three years and being willing to become a military-civilian household. Citizens can forcibly remove their indentures to redeem themselves and their families, and their families will automatically obtain citizenship.

The details are stipulated in the "Great Ming Law Household Law". (End of this chapter)