My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 317 "Suppressing the people's voices is more difficult than damming a river"

The Office of Transmission was almost overflowing with memorials submitted by six ministries and thirteen officials.

Xu Shuli was busy running around, immersed in the hell of memorials every day. After finally finishing moving all the memorials, he missed his former colleague Huang Wenbin.

Just thinking about Huang Wenbin's trip to Penghu before the Lunar New Year, he must be enjoying the sunshine and drinking sugarcane wine on the beach in Penghu now.
Thinking of his own arduous task of compiling memorials from censors, Xu Shuli wished he could submit a report now and be transferred to teach at the Imperial Academy.

Just as Xu Shuli was lost in thought, a minor official suddenly came to report that Su Ze had come to deliver a memorial.

Xu Shuli remembered the teachings of the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review and knew that Su Ze was treated the same as important officials, so he hurriedly went to greet him personally.

Su Ze handed the memorial to the enthusiastic Xu Shuli. He felt that this newly appointed official was not very clever and wondered why Yang Sizhong, the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review, had chosen him as a confidant.

Holding Su Ze's memorial, Xu Shuli hurried to Yang Sizhong's office.

Yang Sizhong's desk was piled high with memorials. Upon hearing that Su Ze's memorial had arrived, Yang Sizhong immediately put down the memorial he was holding and picked up Su Ze's memorial to read it.

Yang Sizhong had had enough of this kind of life.

Fearing that Yang Sizhong might deliberately delay submitting his memorials, the censors specifically assigned someone to watch over the Ministry of Justice, an attitude that truly infuriated Yang Sizhong.

However, Yang Sizhong dared not speak out against this, and was stationed in other government offices to specifically supervise certain matters, which was also one of the censors' power of impeachment.

Apart from the Cabinet, the Censorate could exercise this power over any government office, including the Office of Transmission.

Therefore, Yang Sizhong was also waiting for Su Ze to submit a memorial so that he could vent his anger.

However, Yang Sizhong was also very curious about the angle from which Su Ze would refute Ke Dao.

After all, the Censorate had the exclusive power of impeachment, which was an ancestral law established by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and a tradition that had been in place since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, even predating the Grand Secretariat.

Because of this power, the censors were able to "control the powerful with the small," becoming an important force in the political landscape of the Ming Dynasty.

Over the years, although Su Ze curbed the bad habit of "reporting on hearsay" in the censorate through the "performance evaluation system," the performance evaluation requirements also made the censors more effective.

This attack on the newspaper by Science and Technology Daily mainly focused on the system, without making any moral judgment on Luo Wanhua and others.

If Su Ze wants to refute this, he needs to dismantle the legal basis of Ke Dao.

Su Ze's memorial to the throne was a classic Confucian text.

"In ancient times, when people governed, preventing others from speaking out was more important than preventing a river from overflowing."

"Suppressing public opinion is like blocking a rushing river; the more it is blocked, the more it will overflow, eventually leading to a dam failure. Now, the officials of the Censorate are attacking the Yuefu Xinbao and prohibiting it from exposing the abuses of the Fangshan coal mine. In fact, they want to monopolize the channels of speech and silence the people."

“This not only violates the way of the sage kings, but also goes against the great principles of Confucianism: those who exercise political power are endowed with the right of the people and cannot be taken away.”

Yang Sizhong frowned. As a scholar-official, he naturally knew the story better than the one about preventing floods.

But isn't it a bit too much for Su Ze to elevate this to the point that political participation is an inherent civil right?

The Book of Documents says, "Heaven sees as the people see, and Heaven hears as the people hear." Heaven's vision and hearing are based on the hearts and minds of the people. Speech is the origin of the people's will and cannot be monopolized.

"Confucius said, 'To know and not speak is to be unbenevolent.' The newspaper's detailed account of the truth about the Fangshan mine disaster is a practice of the sage's words, allowing the people's sentiments to be heard."

Yang Sizhong realized where his awkwardness lay.

In Confucian classics, the right to discuss political affairs has always been the power of the scholar-officials.

However, Su Ze's article extended this power to all ordinary people.

However, when combined with the argument of "preventing people from speaking out," it seems to make sense.

King Li of Zhou forbade his people from discussing politics in order to guard against them. Later, a rebellion broke out and King Li was exiled.

In that case, the right to deliberate on state affairs should be a right that all citizens of the Ming Dynasty should enjoy.

"The lesson of preventing floods serves as a warning to the court not to suppress speech; the fact that the people have the right to discuss politics proves that their voices cannot be silenced."

But wouldn't that mean newspapers could publish reports at will?

Su Ze indeed wrote that down as well.

Su Ze believes that political participation is a natural right, but this right is based on the premise that political participation is a genuine discussion of issues, rather than the spread of rumors.

Those who fabricate rumors and slander the court are not entitled to civil rights, but rather are deliberately trying to harm the court.

Therefore, Su Ze believes that newspapers have the right to expose social truths and report on social problems.

Science and Technology also has the power to supervise the newspaper and verify its articles.

If a newspaper were to publish false information or fabricate news to slander the court, the censors could demand that the newspaper cease publication or even ban newspapers that repeatedly fail to correct their mistakes.

Yang Sizhong frowned. He felt that Su Ze's memorial was more about "discussing political power" than about the newspaper being attacked by the Science and Technology Daily.

Yang Sizhong didn't know whether this memorial was good or bad. The world was already chaotic enough, and it seemed that Su Ze didn't think it was chaotic enough.

Forget it, let the officials in the court worry about this. I'm just a mere Commissioner of the Court of State Affairs. As long as I deliver the memorials on time, I'll have completed my task.
-
As expected, Su Ze's memorial to the cabinet also sparked debate within the cabinet.

The cabinet actually supports protecting newspapers' right to report.

The Yuefu Xinbao exposed the dark side of society and protected ordinary people. Whether from a public or personal moral perspective, it is worthy of encouragement.

From the perspective of a Grand Secretary, one would naturally not oppose newspapers publishing such news just so that the Censorate could exclusively enjoy the power of impeachment.

However, Su Ze's memorial only complicated the issue further.

The idea that freedom of speech is an inherent right of the people is tantamount to expanding the political power of the scholar class, which is naturally "dangerous".

For example, Zhang Juzheng had reservations about this.

In this way, wouldn't the scholars in the academies of Jiangnan who criticize the government also have the freedom to criticize the court?
The Yuefu Xinbao was an official newspaper that reported these news reports. If other private newspapers followed suit and established editorial departments to be responsible for social news investigations, wouldn't that give private newspapers similar powers to the scientists and scribes?
Although Su Ze used "slander" as a last resort, it was extremely difficult to prove "slander" in practice. At most, the court could only crack down on false rumors in major newspapers.

In short, this has opened a breach in the channels of free speech.

In this way, wouldn't the common people also be able to criticize the court's policies?

Within the cabinet, the Grand Secretaries held similar views.

Su Ze only needed to submit a memorial to protect the newspaper, but he made the problem even bigger.

Wouldn't this offend Ke Dao terribly?

Even Gao Gong, who had always been a staunch supporter of Su Ze, had reservations about this memorial.

Gao Gong was determined to get things done, but now the court was hampered by the censorate, making it difficult to advance many things.

If the power of deliberation is further delegated, wouldn't the court face enormous resistance when pushing forward any policies in the future?
Will we still be able to handle matters in the future?
Just as the cabinet ministers were all hesitating, the Office of Transmission sent another memorial from Su Ze.

Was it delivered to the wrong address?
Gao Gong looked at Yang Sizhong with a puzzled expression. If Su Ze had two memorials, shouldn't they have been sent together?
Yang Sizong said with a wry smile:
"Grand Secretary Gao, Su Zilin sent them in two separate shipments. This one was sent this morning, and this one was just sent. I delivered it to the Grand Secretariat as soon as I received it."

Gao Gong took the memorial with a puzzled look. This memorial also discussed matters concerning the newspaper.

However, this memorial did not mention any concept of natural civil rights, but instead argued that the newspaper's right to report should not be infringed upon.

This time, Su Ze's perspective is on the matter of Fangshan County, which is actually a memorial submitted by a newspaper editor to the emperor.

Luo Wan, posing as a virtuous official, naturally had the right to petition the emperor about the atrocities committed against the people in the Fangshan mines. Therefore, publishing the memorial in the newspapers did not constitute an infringement upon the Censorate's power of impeachment.

After reading the memorial, Gao Gong also thought the idea was brilliant.

As a result, only official newspapers like the Yuefu Xinbao could report on such matters concerning the Fangshan mines that involved government officials.

Because the editors of other private newspapers were not ministers of the imperial court, they could not submit memorials to the emperor.

Su Ze's method circumvented the accusations by the censors that the Yuefu Xinbao had encroached on the censors' power of impeachment.

Luo Wanhua was the top scholar in the imperial examination of the second year of the Longqing reign and an official of the Hanlin Academy. Couldn't he submit a memorial exposing the crimes of the magistrate of Fangshan County?
Wouldn't that put the censors in opposition to all the upright officials?

This memorial, which no longer grants any right to speak, effectively confined the power of political consultation to the scholar-official class, thus dispelling Zhang Juzheng's previous concerns.

If we simply let the Yuefu Xinbao report it, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with that; it's just like setting up another public opinion oversight agency outside of the Confucian classics.

It is normal for the bureaucratic system to add more powerful institutions. Even if the censors and officials are dissatisfied, they can suppress it through the authority of the emperor and the cabinet.

Gao Gong circulated Su Ze's second memorial for review. After all the cabinet ministers had read it, Gao Gong said:

"In my opinion, Su Zilin's second memorial is appropriate."

Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Zhenji both nodded in agreement, clearly indicating that Su Ze's second memorial was more to their liking.

Gao Gong also understood Su Ze's intention in submitting the memorial in two parts: first, to make everyone hesitate with the first memorial, and then to gain support with the second memorial.

Gao Gong then added:
"Then let's keep this second memorial in the cabinet for discussion first, and send Su Zilin's first memorial to the palace. What do you think, Grand Secretaries?"

The cabinet has already accepted the respite from Su Ze's two memorials; there's no reason not to let the emperor experience it too.

Moreover, after the emperor reads the first memorial, he will issue a document to the censors. If the emperor then issues a second memorial, the censors will be more likely to accept it.

The censors could easily calculate the difference between granting everyone the power to participate in discussions of state affairs and allocating a portion of that power to the *Yuefu Xinbao* (a newspaper).
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Su Ze did this on purpose, of course.

Both of these memorials are titled "Preventing the People from Speaking Is More Difficult Than Preventing a River from Flowing."

To open a window, you must first demolish the house.

Is the right to free speech good or bad? Of course it is.

If the imperial court and government are not criticized, the result will naturally be unbridled behavior, and the supervision of the censors alone is far from enough.

Not to mention, in officialdom, it is common for officials to protect each other.

If Su Ze hadn't changed history, by the Wanli era, the Ming Dynasty's censorate would have completely degenerated into a tool for factional strife.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, where the illiteracy rate was very high, the right to free speech would become a tool for a minority.

Just like the factional strife at the end of the Ming Dynasty in the original timeline.

However, Su Ze's first memorial to the throne was not merely about "demolishing the house".

No idea or theory can be developed overnight.

Su Ze's memorial would inevitably be circulated, which would be tantamount to planting the seed for the theory of divinely ordained political power.

When the time is right, Su Ze can bring up this concept again.

The second memorial was about "opening the window".

The only request was for Science and Technology Daily to relinquish some oversight powers, and not to all newspapers, but only to the official newspaper.

In this way, Kedao naturally knows how to choose.

Therefore, what was actually put into the system was the second, more lenient memorial.

——[Simulation Start]——

The second part of the memorial entitled "Preventing the people from speaking is more difficult than preventing a river from overflowing" was sent to the cabinet.

Because of the influence of "Preventing the people from speaking is more difficult than preventing a river from overflowing" (Part 1), the entire cabinet agreed with your memorial.

Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and Zhao Zhenji all agreed with your memorial.

After the emperor was bombarded with memorials from the censors and officials, he read both of your memorials and approved of the solution in your second memorial.

Yesen, he sent your first memorial to the censors, and then approved your second memorial.

——[Simulation End]——

[Remaining Prestige: 910.]

[Simulation passed. This simulation will not consume a monthly simulation attempt.]

The simulation passed as expected.

Su Ze smiled; this incident could be described as a win-win situation.

Having resolved the issue of Luo Wanhua's official publication, at least for this period of time, the "Lefu Xinbao" was able to guarantee a certain sales volume thanks to its in-depth social news reporting rights.

In addition to science and technology, media oversight channels have been added. Having more oversight channels is always an improvement over the previous ones.

It also broke the monopoly of science and technology officials on the right to decide ...

Sure enough, the system displayed the settlement report.

[With the adoption of "Preventing the People from Speaking Out is More Difficult than Preventing a River from Flowing" (Part Two), the *Yuefu Xinbao* pioneered social investigation journalism in the media.]

During Luo Wanhua's tenure as editor-in-chief, the *Yuefu Xinbao* published numerous news articles exposing social problems and promoting social progress.

However, "Preventing the People from Speaking Is More Difficult Than Preventing a River from Flowing" (Part 1) gained wider dissemination in later generations and became a famous theoretical source discussing the innate right to rule.

These two memorials ushered in an era of citizen participation in politics.

The dynasty's fate remains unchanged.

[Prestige +200.]

[Remaining Prestige: 1110.]

The dynasty's fate remains unchanged.

Indeed, the development of media has two sides for any political system.

Public opinion supervision can promote social progress, but when the official control declines, the media can also exacerbate social conflicts and become an accelerator of social change.

All things considered, it would be quite good if the country could even maintain its existence.

Su Ze put down the [Portable Ming Dynasty Imperial Court] device.

However, judging from this incident, the Ming Dynasty officials were not doing their jobs well enough, as they actually joined forces to attack the Yuefu Xinbao.

Su Ze took out the "Post-Event Sketchbook," knowing that he would soon have something to keep the censors busy.

(End of this chapter)