Undercover Mission

By Naomi Campbell

In 1587 AD, which was the fifteenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty in China, according to the stems and branches, it was Dinghai, which was a pig. On that day, the world was at peace, and there were no major events throughout the year. Even though the climate was a bit abnormal, there was a lack of rain in Beijing in

• Language: English
• Publisher: Undercover Mission
• Release date: May 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869391063

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Huang Renyu (1918-2000) was born in Changsha, Hunan Province. He entered the Department of Electrical Engineering of Nankai University in Tianjin in 1936. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he first worked at the Anti-Japanese War Report in Changsha, and later entered the Central Military Academy of the Kuomintang in Chengdu. He retired in 1950.

He then went to the United States to study history and received a bachelor's degree (1954), a master's degree (1957), and a doctorate (1964). He served as a visiting associate professor at Columbia University (1967) and a researcher at the Harvard University East Asian Institute (1970). He participated in the collective research work of Biographies of Ming Dynasty Celebrities and The Cambridge History of China.

Chapter 1 Wanli Emperor

In 1587 AD, which was the fifteenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty in China, according to the stems and branches, it was Dinghai, which was a pig. On that day, the world was at peace, and there were no major events throughout the year. Even though the climate was a bit abnormal, there was a lack of rain in Beijing in the summer, and epidemics were prevalent in May and June. The drought extended to Shandong, and southern Zhili suffered from floods due to excessive rainfall. In autumn, Later, there were earthquakes in Shanxi, but such small disasters seem inevitable every year given the size of our country. As long as little things don't lead to major disasters, they don't matter. In short, in history, the fifteenth year of Wanli was actually an ordinary year.

In this case, why did the author write such a monograph with the title The Fifteenth Year of Wanli?

In 1587, the year before the Spanish fleet was fully deployed to invade England, was the year in Western European history. In that year, several events occurred in the court of our country that were easily overlooked by historians. Although these events seemed like minor details on the surface, they were actually the crux of the major events that had happened before, and also the opportunity to stir up waves in the future. The relationship and cause and effect between them are precisely the focus of history.

Since it seems to be the final section, our discussion may as well start with the small things.

On March 2 of the solar calendar of that year, the ice and snow on both sides of the streets in Beijing had not yet thawed. Although the weather was not extremely cold, the branches had not yet sprouted, and it was not a good season for outdoor activities. However, at lunch time that day, the streets were bustling with people. It turned out that the news came that His Majesty the Emperor would hold a noon court ceremony, and all civil and military officials did not dare to neglect it and immediately rushed to the imperial city. Senior officials who took sedan chairs had the opportunity to adjust their hats and belts in the sedan chairs; junior officials who walked had a distance of more than one and a half miles from the six ministries to the imperial city. When they arrived, they were still catching their breath and had no time to pay attention to their appearance.

The imperial guards standing guard in front of the Daming Gate had not received any orders in advance, but when they saw a large number of officials in formal attire coming, they thought that a grand ceremony was indeed being held, so they did not ask any questions. Entering the Daming Gate was the imperial city. The civil and military officials saw that the atmosphere in front of the Duanmen and Wumen Gates was calm, and there was no sign of a court meeting on the towers. There were no tables, and the censors who stood in line to call out names and the big Han generals who were the imperial guards were nowhere to be seen. They could not help but speculate and ask each other: Was the so-called noon court a rumor?

When the eunuch announced the exact news, the emperor did not call for a noon meeting, and the officials dispersed one after another. After the shock subsided, this groundless noon meeting incident inevitably became a topic of conversation: where did this rumor come from, and how all the officials, thousands of them, were deceived, which was really puzzling.

Emperor Wanli could have laughed off this rather dramatic incident. But once he considered that it was damaging to the dignity of the court, he decided not to take it lightly. While the officials were talking and discussing, an imperial edict was passed to the cabinet by the eunuch in charge of documents. The general idea was: What happened at noon today is actually related to the duties of the Ministry of Li and the Hongzhuang Temple. The Ministry of Li is responsible for drafting and preparing the notes, and the Hongzhuang Temple is responsible for supervising the exercise. The two government offices knew that the noon ceremony had not been held for many years, and there was no reason to hastily summon all officials when the ceremonial notes were not ready. Therefore, since other government offices had spread the false information, the two government offices should have stopped it immediately. Since they did not stop it, it was dereliction of duty, and the officials from the Shangshu and the Temple Minister below were fined two months' salary, and they still had to find out who was the first to spread the false information.

The Ministry of Rites' investigation yielded no results, so they could only report back: At that time, the rumor was spread by word of mouth, and the person who spread it first could not be found out. In order to teach these confused officials a lesson, the emperor expanded the scope of salary fines from the Ministry of Rites and the Hongzhong Temple to all officials serving in Beijing.

It was very common to fine several officials for not fulfilling their duties or making inappropriate comments, which angered the emperor. But this time the punishment was extended to all the officials in the capital, which was unprecedentedly severe. The official salaries of this dynasty were meager, and the luxurious life of senior officials in the capital could not be maintained by the statutory salary. For example, the official rank of the ministers of various ministries was the second rank, and their annual salary was only 152 taels. Their income mainly depended on the gifts of local officials. The gifts or gifts sent by the governors of various provinces were often equivalent to 10 times their annual salary. This situation was naturally seen by the emperor, and the decree to fine them was perhaps a light punishment considering that these people did not rely on official salaries to make a living. But for most low-level officials, being fined two months' salary would make them feel tight and even unable to pay for necessary family expenses.

According to traditional concepts, the emperor's will is always absolutely fair. Once the imperial edict is issued, no criticism is allowed. It is no wonder that Emperor Wanli was furious about this incident. Because the emperor's ministers all understand each other, the political affairs in the court are complicated, and the key points are etiquette and personnel. Etiquette alone reflects the hierarchy and maintains the national system. Our empire is managed by literati and there are tens of millions of farmers. If all practical problems are to be brought to the court for review and analysis, it is naturally impossible. Therefore, our ancestors grasped the key point of etiquette and required officials of all sizes to follow the procedures and be orderly, and set an example for the whole country. Now all the officials in Beijing are disturbing each other and running around in a panic, which is really unbecoming.

Emperor Wanli was a monarch who was familiar with all kinds of etiquette. In March 1587, he was already 23, about to turn 24, and had been on the throne for nearly 15 years. He would naturally remember clearly that in the winter of his 8th year, his father, Emperor Longqing, held a ceremony for him to symbolize his coming of age. He was led into a special curtain in front of the palace, and changed his clothes and costumes according to the etiquette. He appeared in public in different costumes three times. After leaving the curtain, he held the jade sceptre in his hand, was led to salute, and drank from a special wine cup. All the programs were led by the ceremonial officials and accompanied by music, and took nearly half a day. The next day, he was led out again to sit in front of the palace, and accepted the congratulations of all officials with the most solemn attitude.

A few months later, Emperor Longqing passed away. The 9-year-old crown prince met with his ministers in mourning clothes. According to the traditional persuasion procedure, all officials pleaded with the crown prince to ascend the throne with the most earnest words. The crown prince refused the first two requests because his father had just passed away and he was in too much grief to think about his personal status. It was not until the third time that he reluctantly accepted the request, citing the ministers' advice that he should put the country first. The process of refusing and accepting was orderly, as if he had been rehearsed.

Since he ascended the throne of the emperor, he must follow all kinds of etiquette. In the past 15 years, he has worshiped heaven and earth, built ancestral temples, celebrated New Year's Day, and enjoyed the Dragon Boat Festival. He received foreign envoys, dismissed and retired officials, and replaced them with distinguished officials. He also reviewed the army, issued battle flags, and accepted prisoners after winning a battle. This prisoner dedication ceremony is extremely solemn and frightening. The emperor's throne was located on the Meridian Gate Tower, and he sat there, overlooking everything happening in the granite square below. On both sides of him stood senior military officers with knighthoods, as well as many burly imperial guards known as Han generals. Under the watchful eyes of a large number of officials in the square, the prisoners were led in, their hands and feet shackled, a piece of red cloth with a round hole cut out was passed through their heads, covering their chests and backs, and they were ordered to kneel down facing the Meridian Gate. At this time, the Minister of Punishment stepped forward, stood still, and then read aloud the crimes committed by each prisoner against heaven and earth and against mankind. After reading, he announced that these criminals were irreversible, and asked the emperor for permission to take them to the city to be beheaded in public in accordance with the law. The emperor replied: Take it! His speechless voice was conveyed to the two senior military attachés nearby, who passed it on to four people, then eight people, sixteen people, and the prisoners one after another. Finally, there were 320 Han generals. They shouted Take it in unison at the top of their lungs. The sound shook the roof tiles, and all onlookers were moved by it.

In the eleventh month of the lunar calendar every year, the emperor would receive the calendar for the following year and officially promulgate it to the whole country. Its promulgation provided all the subjects with the basis of astronomy and solar terms, and they knew when to plant grains and which fields were suitable for visiting relatives and friends. The collective works of the officials of the Hanlin Academy, such as the Veritable Records, were also presented to the emperor in the presence of incense and music. Once the books were accepted and reviewed by the emperor, they became imperial, which was the only standard for the whole country.

In the same solemn ceremony, Emperor Wanli granted the title of king to some of his brothers, uncles and nephews, named their wives prince consorts, and approved the marriages of their children. The most solemn ceremony was to bestow the title of Benevolent and Sacred Empress Dowager on his stepmother, Empress Chen of the Qing Dynasty, and the title of Cisheng Empress Dowager on his biological mother, Imperial Noble Consort Li of the Qing Dynasty.

Empress Dowager Cisi had a great influence on Emperor Wanli, because apart from her, no one else could give him true natural love. However, after Wanli ascended the throne, according to the royal custom, an invisible distance existed between the Empress Dowager and the emperor, making it extremely inconvenient for mother and son to communicate naturally. For example, not long ago, Wanli ordered the construction of a palace where Cisi lived. After the completion of the construction, she did not express her gratitude in a friendly tone, but asked scholars to write an article praising the emperor's pure filial piety and recite it sentence by sentence when he knelt down. This article became an important document of the dynasty because it could serve as an example and influence to the subjects of the whole country. Sometimes, Wanli used puppet shows in the palace to please the Empress Dowager, and before she got off the sedan chair, he had to kneel in front of the court to wait for her to come. But maternal love is the most profound emotion after all. Many years later, although Emperor Wanli had fewer and fewer opportunities to attend the court, he still went to Huangji Gate in person to accept the congratulations of all officials on Cisi's birthday in November.

Shortly before this, Wanli conferred the title of Imperial Noble Consort on his beloved concubine Zheng, and had prepared the public market etiquette in advance so that all relevant government offices could make necessary preparations. When the news came, a secretary raised an objection, saying that according to ethics and custom, this honor should be given first to the mother of the eldest son, Consort Gong Wang. Consort De Zheng was only the mother of the third son, and it was really putting the cart before the horse to be given the honor later. Although this objection caused Wanli to be unhappy for a while, the conferment ceremony was still carried out as planned. But no one expected that this small episode would be the opportunity for a far-reaching political struggle, which led to the confrontation between the emperor and his ministers for decades to come, and involved the entire empire.

To participate in various ceremonies, the emperor needed to change his crown and clothes frequently, sometimes several times a day. Among the costumes, there was a crown made of gold thread, which was exquisite and different from the European-style all-metal crown. The crown used by the emperor in the most solemn ceremonies was a crown, which was shaped like the tile worn by European scholars, but the cloth plate on the crown was rectangular instead of square, and there were 12 strings of pearls at different levels at the front and back ends. This bead curtain was an interesting prop. It swayed back and forth in front of the emperor's eyes, making him extremely uncomfortable. Its purpose was to remind him that he must have a dignified manner and not be frivolous. The clothing that matched the crown was a black top decorated with luxurious embroidery and a yellow skirt. There was a piece of brocade in front of the skirt, which hung above the belt and met between the legs. The boots and socks were all red.

At the next level of solemn ceremony, the emperor wore a red leather eyewear, which was actually his military uniform. The hat was very similar to the melon-shaped round helmet used by athletes today, with a strap tied around the neck. This hat was not much different from the helmets used by military generals at that time, but the helmets of the generals were made of cloth with iron sheets inside and iron nails outside; the emperor's leather was made of leather strips and decorated with gems instead of iron nails.

The yellow dragon robe is often regarded as the standard attire of the Chinese emperor. In fact, in this dynasty, this kind of clothing was only worn during general ceremonies. When there were no ceremonies, the emperor's daily attire was a blue or black dragon robe with green piping. [8]

The emperor was the symbol of supreme authority over his subjects, and many of his actions were symbolic. The annual personal plowing near the Xiannongtan was a representative example. This was like a play. Before the personal lecture, the government selected the actors from the Jiaofangsi to play the gods of wind, thunder, cloud and rain, and summoned about 200 farmers from Daxing and Wanping counties as extras. At the beginning of this scene, two officials led the ox, two old men held the plow, and other designated farmers carried various farm tools, including dustpans and buckets, pretending to be farming. There were also actors and actresses who sang the Taiping Song as village women. As for the emperor himself, of course he would not use ordinary farm tools. The plow he used was carved with dragons and painted in gold. He held the whip in his left hand and the plow in his right hand. With the help of two old men, he walked in the field three times to complete the task of personal plowing. After plowing, he sat under the tent and watched the officials headed by the Minister of Revenue do the same. Shuntian Prefecture Yin was the highest local official in Beijing, and his task was to sow. After the seeds were sown and covered with soil, the actors and actresses of the Jiaofangsi immediately presented the emperor with grains, indicating that his majesty's hard work had paid off and the harvest was good. At this time, all the officials shouted Long live the emperor and extended their warm congratulations.

However, the various rituals that the emperor participated in were not always so relaxing and interesting. On the contrary, sometimes they required a lot of mental effort. For example, even energetic politicians would find it difficult to persist in the morning court every day, and even regard it as a daunting task. The previous generations of Emperor Wanli had already become tired of it. Although the morning court ceremony had been greatly simplified by this time, it was still a job of importance to him. The following description proves this conclusion.

Before attending the morning court, all officials in the capital and local officials in Beijing who were eligible to attend had to wait in front of the Fu Gate before dawn. The palace gate slowly opened with the sound of bells and drums, and all officials entered the palace gate and lined up in the square in front of the palace, with civil officials facing east and military officials facing west. The imperial censor in charge of inspection began to call the roll and wrote down the names of officials who coughed, spitted, dropped their teeth, walked unsteadily, and other disrespectful behaviors, waiting for their punishment. After everything was ready, the emperor arrived and blew the whip. At the command of the ceremonial officer, all officials turned around and kowtowed to the emperor as usual. The officials of the Honghu Temple sang the names of officials who retired and were sent to various provinces, and those whose names were sung saluted the emperor to express their gratitude. Then officials of the fourth rank and above entered the main hall one after another, and the responsible officials of various departments reported government affairs to the emperor and asked for instructions, and the emperor asked questions or made necessary replies. This set of morning court programs began at sunrise