Above, we introduced some major events of the Zhu Yuanzhang era. It's time to make a general introduction to the system of the early Ming dynasty. These systems have had a profound impact on the entire Ming Dynasty. More importantly, behind these systems lies a secret, and this secret is buried in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

  Zhu Yuanzhang and the Legal System of the Ming Dynasty

  When it comes to the rule of law, people may find it difficult to associate this modern concept with a feudal monarch, but Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed an extraordinary person. He not only formulated a complete set of laws but also successfully popularized them.

  We mentioned earlier that Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the "Ming Code" and stipulated five types of punishments, namely flogging, caning, penal servitude, exile, and death. Translated into modern language, these are: being beaten with a small bamboo stick, being beaten with a large wooden board, fixed-term imprisonment, exile, and capital punishment. Of course, given Zhu Yuanzhang's personality, he would not have been satisfied with just these few methods of punishment. These five were the orthodox punishments; there were many other variations, which we have already introduced before, so I won't elaborate here.

  In the early Ming Dynasty's legal education, the most important book was not "Da Ming Lü", but a book called "Da Gao". What kind of book is this? Why is it more important than "Da Ming Lü"?

  The so-called "Da Gao" is a collection of over 10,000 criminal cases compiled by Zhu Yuanzhang, detailing the crime process and punishment methods, which were widely distributed. So why did Zhu Yuanzhang promote the "Da Gao" instead of the "Ming Code"? If we analyze it carefully, we can find that Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed a formidable figure.

  According to the classification of jurisprudence, "The Great Warning" adopted case studies, which should belong to case law. It seems that Zhu Yuanzhang still has a bit of inclination towards the Anglo-American legal system. Zhu Yuanzhang correctly recognized that it is impossible for ordinary people to memorize those articles, and these cases are vivid and specific, with names and surnames, and can be read as leisure reading after dinner, just like how we enjoy reading detective stories today. More importantly, they also detailed the various forms of torture used on the convicts, such as using iron brushes to scrape skin, extracting intestines, and peeling skin, which are enough to make people vomit up what they just ate, and then swear not to commit crimes for the rest of their lives.

  The criminal's crimes and punishments were written into the "Great Announcement", which served as a warning, and was indeed an innovation.

  But the problem still exists, because at that time people's cultural level was generally not high. Illiteracy accounted for the majority of the population, and there was no hope for engineering. Those who had finished primary school (private schools) were already very good, and everyone could often see on TV that a notice was posted at the city gate, one person read, countless people listened, not because the reader's eloquence was good, but because everyone couldn't recognize characters, this is in line with objective facts, the quality of the common people is low, even popular cases are difficult to popularize.

  Zhu Yuanzhang had no way to replace so many ordinary people listening and reading. This was indeed a difficult problem to solve. But an extraordinary person is an extraordinary person, Zhu Yuanzhang solved the problem with an unexpected method.

  His method of operation is as follows: for example, if Zhang San commits a crime and should be punished with imprisonment, the county official has already convicted him. The next step would normally be for those who should go to prison to go to prison, and those who should be exiled to be exiled. However, the bailiffs are not in a hurry. They still have one more thing to do, which is to take Zhang San to his own home to find something. What are they looking for?

  It's this "Dàzhāo" book, if it's found, then congratulations to Zhang San, if the original sentence was exile, then there's no need to go, back to the prison cell to serve time, if it's a capital offense, then he can save his life.

  On the other hand, if there is no such book at home, then it's all over. If Zhang San is convicted of a crime punishable by exile, the bailiffs will first congratulate him on saving a sum of travel expenses and then drag him out to chop off his head.

  In terms of legal principles, having this book at home means that one understands the law. According to conventional rules, knowing the law and breaking it should be an aggravating circumstance. However, at that time, this was probably the best method Zhu Yuanzhang could come up with.

  Zhu Yuanzhang successfully popularized the legal code in this way, although the specific effect may not be very good, but he made an attempt after all.