Zhu Yunying looked at Chang Mao with a hint of reproach, "Duke of Kaiping, you are the Duke of the Great Ming Dynasty, and also my maternal uncle. You should be careful with your words and actions in court, and refrain from using foul language or slandering the scholars of the Great Ming Dynasty. What you just said was truly unpleasant to hear."
Chang Mao obediently knelt down, looking 'trembling with fear', and said, 'Your subject knows his crime!'
Zhu Yunying's words seemed rather harsh, as if he were reprimanding Chang Mao, and even appeared to be defending scholars. However, many people understood that the emperor was merely putting on a show. If the emperor truly wanted to punish Chang Mao, he would not have been able to gloss over it with such a simple remark.
Ultimately, it was the Chang Mao affair that was prematurely ended by the emperor. Many civil officials wanted to use this as an excuse to impeach Chang Mao, but nothing came of it. The emperor had laid a trap beforehand, not giving these people a chance to act.
The emperor's blatant protection of Chang Mao was truly disheartening to some scholars. But there seemed to be no other way; this wasn't the first or second time such a thing had happened, and they had grown somewhat accustomed to it.
However, some of these civil officials felt that the emperor seemed to be showing some favoritism towards Chang Mao, but that was only because Chang Mao was a rogue with a special status, and His Majesty the emperor could not easily deal with him. After all, Chang Mao was Emperor Ying Shi's maternal uncle, and the emperor still needed to care about his reputation.
In fact, Emperor Ying Shi was somewhat protective of scholars. He did not allow Chang Mao to continue his reckless behavior, nor did he further suppress scholars, which is acceptable.
Zhu Yunying may or may not have known what these civil officials were thinking. But it was clear that Zhu Yunying didn't really care about these things; he cared about other things.
Huang Zicheng's intelligence sometimes left Zhu Yunying speechless. Huang Zicheng certainly possessed talent; otherwise, he wouldn't have become the top scholar in the imperial examinations of the eighteenth year of the Hongwu reign.
In Zhu Yunying's eyes, however, this man was truly a bookish, pedantic scholar who had gone mad from reading too much, rash and short-sighted. Not only was his political understanding too superficial, but his so-called advocacy of ancient rites was often just empty talk.
"Minister Huang," Zhu Yunying said sternly, looking at Huang Zicheng and asking, "What you just said is that the laws of our dynasty are strict. I imagine it's not just you who knows this, but others as well. My Director of the Bureau of Censors knew that the court forbids officials from visiting prostitutes. How should this be treated? Is it that the court's laws are disregarded, or that ignorance is no excuse?"
Huang Zicheng was dumbfounded. He was talking about 'morality' and reason. But the emperor was talking about law, which was a completely different starting point.
Zhu Yunying continued, "According to what you've said, my Minister of Personnel only goes to brothels and pleasure boats with a few close friends to discuss refined matters. However, he doesn't have many close friends among them; rather, he has many officials who are evaluating officials. How can such refined matters be discussed?"
Huang Zicheng was even more dumbfounded, mainly because he was actually a very proper person and didn't really have that many ulterior motives. Some of the things the emperor mentioned were beyond the bounds of propriety, and also some of them didn't align with Huang Zicheng's arguments.
Huang Zicheng, a pedantic scholar, may not have much political wisdom, but that doesn't mean others lack such insight; in fact, they can see many problems now.
After scanning the room, Zhu Yunying slowly asked, "I believe all of you have heard what Minister Huang said. Should my civil and military officials be law-abiding and self-disciplined, or should they lead the way in disregarding the laws of the court?"
At this point, all the civil and military officials knelt down to beg for forgiveness, mainly because the emperor's words seemed to indicate that he was very dissatisfied.
Many people are actually blaming Huang Zicheng; this pedantic scholar is truly outrageous. It's fine if you want to advocate for better treatment of scholars and for His Majesty to be close to them. But you can't say it like that—you directly imply that civil and military officials can disregard the law.
Given this, let alone a strict emperor like Emperor Ying Shi, even some more lenient emperors might not be able to accept such an argument.
Because Huang Zicheng's viewpoint is simply that everyone should just give up and the government shouldn't care!
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