I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

Chapter 165 A death row inmate escapes, the three judicial departments lose face.
Inside the Wenhua Hall.

Under the watchful eyes of the young Wanli Emperor and Zhang Juzheng, Shen Nian slowly spoke, revealing what he called a "crooked idea".

"I suggest that we write a memorial impeaching the Empress Dowager on the grounds that Buddhism is interfering in politics!"

The moment he finished speaking.

The young Wanli Emperor, Zhang Juzheng, and Feng Bao all looked at Shen Nian with astonishment.

Impeach the Empress Dowager?

This isn't just a crooked idea; it's clearly a suicidal idea.

Little Wanli curled his lips slightly.

“Shen Shijiang, do not speak nonsense! The Empress Dowager’s kind heart and devotion to Buddhism are known throughout the land. Her request to pardon death row inmates this time is to pray for my well-being as my wedding approaches. How can this be considered interfering in politics with Buddhism?”

The crime of Buddhism interfering in politics can be serious or minor.

Even the smallest stain could tarnish Empress Dowager Li's reputation.

Zhang Juzheng did not speak.

He knew Shen Nian wouldn't act recklessly, and he was waiting for Shen Nian's explanation.

Shen Nian paused for a moment and said, "In the first year of Wanli's reign, the Empress Dowager sent the monk Yuanhui to rebuild Zhiti Temple and renamed it Wanshou Chan Temple; in the second year of Wanli's reign, in order to commemorate the late emperor and pray for Your Majesty's well-being, the Empress Dowager successively built Cisheng Temple, Puan Temple and Haihui Temple."

"In the third year of the Wanli reign, the Empress Dowager suggested building a stupa for relics at Tayuan Temple on Mount Wutai, but this was rejected by Grand Secretary Zhang because 'Mount Wutai is far from the capital,' and the project could not be carried out. In the fourth year of the Wanli reign, the Empress Dowager mobilized the palace ladies and eunuchs to fund the construction of Chengen Temple and Cishou Temple, and to cast a large number of Arhats, patriarchs of the temple, pagodas and Buddha statues."

"Besides repairing temples, the Empress Dowager held Buddhist ceremonies many times and made many donations and rewards to monks, involving Buddhist ritual implements, money, land, crowns and robes, etc., which cost an incalculable amount of silver!"

……

Upon hearing this, both the young Wanli Emperor and Zhang Juzheng frowned.

They knew that Empress Dowager Li had built Buddhist temples, given alms and rewards, and paid respects to the monks. She was even respectfully called "Buddha Empress" by some people.

However, they were unaware that Empress Dowager Li had undertaken so many acts of devotion to Buddhism.

Judging from the examples Shen Nian cited, the amount of money he has poured into these projects over the past few years is definitely no less than a million taels of silver.

usually.

Empress Dowager Li's Buddhist expenses were all covered by the imperial treasury.

The inner court had no right to inquire about the financial records of the imperial treasury, and even the young Wanli Emperor was unaware of the details. Only Empress Dowager Li and Feng Bao knew the most about them.

Empress Dowager Li instructed the eunuchs in the inner court to carry out these actions.

The young Wanli Emperor and Zhang Juzheng weren't unable to find out; rather, they simply never inquired about the matter.

Shen Nian knew these things, not because she had deliberately investigated them.

Instead, he paid more attention when he was going through the Ministry of Works' documents in the Cabinet Treasury.

Although the construction of Buddhist temples was the work of eunuchs, it was actually carried out by officials of the Ministry of Works, and the progress of the project is recorded in some documents.

The young Wanli Emperor turned to look at Feng Bao, who nodded.

This means that everything Shen Nian said was true; he would only say less, not more.

The young Wanli Emperor looked at Shen Nian with a puzzled expression.

“Shen Shijiang, the Empress Dowager is a devout Buddhist, and all the money she spends is with my permission. What does this have to do with Buddhism interfering in politics?”

The young Wanli Emperor naturally had to speak up for his mother.

No matter how much money the Zhu family spends, it's never too much.

Not to mention his mother!

Shen Nian replied, “Your Majesty, these expenses are all from the imperial treasury, and I have no right to inquire about them. However, the Empress Dowager’s favor has led to a revival of Buddhism among the people. Now, the Empress Dowager wants to use Buddhist beliefs to influence politics. If this continues, there will inevitably be situations where Buddhism interferes in politics. At the end of the Jiajing reign, how much influence did the Emperor’s patronage of Taoism have on the court and the people? I don’t need to say more about that!”

"Grand Secretary Zhang's 'Memorial on Severe Punishments in Accordance with Ancestral Laws' was of no use to the Empress Dowager, which shows that reasoning with her is ineffective. It would be better if Your Majesty produced a 'Memorial on the Interference of Buddhism in Politics' to frighten the Empress Dowager and instill fear in her. This way, she would be able to retract her oral edict and avoid gossip. I can write this memorial myself. Of course, the contents of the memorial need not be made public."

I heard the words "blow it up".

Emperor Wanli and Zhang Juzheng immediately realized where Shen Nian's idea had gone wrong.

Shen Nianzhi's intention was to frighten Empress Dowager Li, making her think that an official had impeached her for interfering in politics with Buddhism, and that the young Wanli Emperor would suppress the memorial and advise Empress Dowager Li to withdraw her oral edict.

in this way.

Emperor Wanli acted as a filial son, and Empress Dowager Li was reprimanded once again.

Empress Dowager Li was extremely protective of her reputation.

She advocated for pardoning death row inmates, which was actually a way to pray for the royal family and gain the reputation of a living bodhisattva among the people.

However, if one is impeached by censors for interfering in politics with Buddhism, then the losses outweigh the gains.

She will most likely retract her decision.

Shen Nian continued, "Of course, this matter must be kept absolutely confidential."

The young Wanli Emperor thought for a moment and looked at Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng nodded and said, "Your Majesty, I believe this plan is feasible!"

Reasoning with Empress Dowager Li is the least effective way to deal with her.

It would be better to do what Shen Nian did and scare her a little. Not only would it make her retract her verbal order, but it would also make her consider whether her future Buddhist activities would be too costly and attract the opposition of court officials!
Immediately, the young Wanli nodded and then looked at Feng Bao.

Of the three, Feng Bao was the most likely to leak secrets.

If Feng Bao had told Empress Dowager Li that the "Memorial on the Interference of Buddhism in Politics" was written specifically to frighten her, Empress Dowager Li would have hated Zhang Juzheng and Shen Nian to death.

"Your Majesty, rest assured, this old servant will never leak any secrets!" Feng Bao quickly assured him.

Lean slightly.

Shen Nian began writing "A Memorial on the Interference of Buddhism in Politics" in a side hall.

In fact, it would have been enough for the young Wanli Emperor to simply recount the gist of the memorial to frighten Empress Dowager Li.

But without this memorial, the young Wanli Emperor was lying.

How could a ruler of a country lie? Therefore, such a memorial was necessary.

After a while.

Shen Nian finished writing and handed it to the young Wanli Emperor.

After reading the memorial, the young Wanli Emperor looked at Shen Nian and said, "Don't worry, Minister Shen, I will not tell the Empress Dowager who wrote this memorial!"

The young Wanli Emperor knew that if Empress Dowager Li found out who wrote the memorial, she would most likely hold a grudge.

Therefore, he would deliberately conceal the name of the person who wrote the memorial.

A moment later, the young Wanli Emperor once again set off for Kunning Palace.

……

About an hour later, the young Wanli Emperor returned to the Wenhua Hall with a smile on his face.

Clearly, this memorial intimidated Empress Dowager Li. In the afternoon, Empress Dowager Li announced the withdrawal of the imperial edict, stating that the executions would proceed as usual this year.

……

Two days later.

The Cabinet reviewed all 277 case files provided by the three judicial departments.

According to the court's custom.

The practice of executing prisoners after the autumn harvest did not involve killing all those who had committed capital crimes at once. Instead, a portion of the most heinous criminals were selected for execution, while the rest remained in death row.

Killing some people is to enforce the law strictly; sparing others is to demonstrate benevolent governance.

At last.

Zhang Juzheng decided that forty-two prisoners would be executed in the autumn.

He marked five of them.

This meant that the young Wanli Emperor should use his imperial brush to remove these five people from the death penalty list, and only execute thirty-seven people.

This procedure is very sophisticated.

It retained the deterrent power of the Ming Dynasty's laws while also demonstrating imperial favor.

This was the "combination of ritual and law" approach that Zhang Juzheng could accept.

……

August 28th, early morning.

The names of the thirty-seven death row inmates to be executed in the autumn were officially drawn up by the emperor's brush.

The execution will take place soon.

Death sentences for prisoners within the Shuntian Prefecture were held in the West Market of the capital, while death sentences for prisoners in local prefectures, counties, and townships were held in front of the city gates or government offices.

All of them were held in lively places where ordinary people could see them.

……

It was near noon inside the Wenhua Hall.

While the young Wanli Emperor was reviewing memorials.

Wang Ji, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Justice, suddenly appeared outside the palace and announced that he had important matters to discuss with the emperor.

Officials from all six departments had the power to meet the emperor directly, but usually they would first draft a memorial and submit it to the cabinet.

Only matters of particular urgency or impeachment of cabinet ministers would be reported directly from within the palace.

"Let him in!" said the young Wanli Emperor.

Wang Ji strode into the hall, knelt on the ground, and loudly proclaimed, "Your Majesty, the list of thirty-seven death row inmates to be executed in the autumn, drawn up this morning, is incorrect. The Three Judicial Offices may have handled a wrongful conviction!"

"What's wrong?" asked the young Wanli Emperor.

Shen Nian also looked at him with a puzzled expression.

The imperial court has always been very cautious about the execution of death row inmates.

The established procedure has always been: first, the three judicial departments review the case; then, the Ministry of Justice submits a third report; then, the Grand Secretariat reviews the case; and finally, the young Wanli Emperor approves it.

Emperor Wanli also carefully read through the death row inmate files.

In matters of life and death like these, it's extremely difficult for mistakes to occur.

Wang Ji said, “Your Majesty, among the death row inmates is a man named Shang Qudong. He is a large landowner in Hejian Prefecture. Last year, he conspired with Bai Qi, the tax collector, to raise armed forces in Hejian. They colluded with local officials and gentry to seize land for profit, demolished hundreds of houses, dug up hundreds of graves, and killed twelve people who came forward to appeal.”

"At the end of November last year, after the matter was exposed, Bai Qi, the eunuch in charge of tax collection, committed suicide, and Shang Qudong was sentenced to death. I have read all the death row inmate files. According to his crimes, even if the court only executes one person this year, it should be him. However, he is not among the thirty-seven people who will be executed!"

"I felt something was amiss, so I immediately reviewed the documents stored in the Ministry of Justice and found that a line was missing from this death row inmate's file: 'Twelve people who had appealed were killed.' Then I rushed to the Court of Judicial Review and the Censorate to review the files and found that the same line was missing from both."

Killing twelve people who had filed complaints was Shang Qudong's greatest crime.

"When I first came into contact with this file at the beginning of last month, this line of text was there. I suspect that someone deliberately erased this line of text, and I earnestly request Your Majesty to dispatch the Embroidered Uniform Guard to Hejian Prefecture to investigate!"

The young Wanli Emperor murmured, "I didn't see that line when I was going through the files about killing twelve people who had complained. Are you sure you really saw it?"

"Your Majesty, I swear on my life that I really saw it, and that was all!"

"Summon Shi Qing, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!" the young Wanli Emperor said solemnly.

When investigating the case, Emperor Wanli no longer entrusted Feng Bao with full authority, but instead ordered his recently cultivated confidants to be put to the test.

If what Wang Ji said is true, then this is a major event.

Who has the ability to modify all the death row inmate files sealed by the three judicial departments?
It’s incredible!
At this moment, Feng Bao's expression suddenly changed as he recalled the scene he had witnessed in Kunning Palace a few days ago, but he quickly returned to normal.

……

Soon, the news reached the cabinet.

Zhang Juzheng immediately took Lu Guangzu, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Liu Yingjie, the Minister of Justice, and Chen Zan, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, to meet with the young Wanli Emperor.

This matter must be thoroughly investigated immediately, otherwise who will dare to trust the Three Judicial Offices! Who will dare to trust the court's justice system!
……

The next day, it was nearly noon.

Shi Qing, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, rushed back from Hejian Prefecture.

He reported to the young Wanli Emperor that the dossier of the death row inmate Shang Qudong, which was kept in Hejian Prefecture, did not contain the phrase "killed twelve people who had filed complaints".

but.

Through his questioning of the local officials who directly investigated the case, as well as his investigation among the people, it was confirmed that Shang Qudong had indeed killed twelve people who had filed complaints.

Local officials were baffled to find the case files altered and all claimed to be unaware of the situation.

This matter is chilling to think about.

The files kept by the three judicial departments and local authorities were all altered, which is simply unbelievable.

Ordinary people absolutely do not have this ability.

If Wang Ji hadn't discovered this, the death row inmate Shang Qudong would likely have been released. When the three judicial departments and local prefectures reviewed the case files, they relied solely on the files and couldn't discover any problems at all.

Clearly, there is someone with extraordinary abilities who wants to rescue the death row inmate Shang Qudong.

That afternoon.

The condemned prisoner Shang Qudong was arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and imprisoned in the Imperial Prison.

The other officials from the three judicial departments involved in the matter were also summoned to the imperial prison for questioning.

This is a wrongful conviction.

If the cause is not found out quickly, the imperial court will lose face big time!

(End of this chapter)