Located in Licheng County, Zhongzhou Province, Licheng County is the most well-preserved county-level official office in the feudal period. The road from Jiangyang to Licheng was being repaired, and Yue Haohan and his entourage arrived in Licheng County at more than 10 o'clock in the morning after two hours of bumpy travel.

The car drove to the east street of Licheng County, near the county government, found a parking lot, parked the car, and after everyone got out of the car, stood in front of the car, looking at the huge county government ancient buildings, Fu Rongsheng sighed: "Such a large scale! ”

Zhang Haiming, who was standing next to Fu Rongsheng, said: "I checked the historical data, this Licheng County Ya was built in the Dade period of the Yuan Dynasty, and then went through many repairs and expansions in the Ming and Qing dynasties before gradually forming such a large-scale official building complex. ”

Yue Haohan took out the mineral water carried in the car, distributed a bottle to everyone, and the group spoke, walked towards the county government, and arrived at the gate of the county government, the first thing that caught everyone's eyes was the one-word building composed of blue brick reliefs, commonly known as the wall.

The wall is a unique part of ancient Chinese traditional architecture. It was particularly popular in the Ming Dynasty, and generally speaking, it was a shield set up inside the gate. The ancients called it "Xiao Wall". Therefore, there is a saying of Xiao Wall. In the old days, people believed that ghosts were constantly visiting their houses, and they built a wall to cut off the way for ghosts. Because it is said that the imp only walks in a straight line and does not turn. Another theory is that the Zhaobi is a unique architectural form produced by the influence of Feng Shui consciousness in China, called "shadow wall" or "screen wall".

From the perspective of Feng Shui, residential Feng Shui pays attention to qi conduction, and the qi cannot rush directly to the hall or bedroom, otherwise it will be unlucky. The way to avoid air rush is to put a wall in front of the front door of the house. In order to maintain the "smooth air", this wall cannot be closed, so the architectural form of Zhaobi is formed. The wall has the effect of blocking the wind and blocking the line of sight, and if the wall is decorated, it will cause the effect of the scene.

The wall can be located inside the gate or outside the gate, the inside of the gate is called the inner wall, and the outside of the gate is called the outer wall. The shape has a zigzag, figure-of-eight, etc., usually made of blue bricks, composed of three parts: seat, body, and top, and the seat has a Sumeru seat, and there is also a simple no seat. The central area of the wall is called the center of the wall, which is usually made of square bricks placed at an angle of 45 degrees, and the simple wall may not have any decoration, but it must also be ground to the brick joints very neatly, and the luxurious wall is usually decorated with brick carvings with many auspicious patterns. The brick carvings on the wall mainly have the center and four corners of the central area, and there are also mixed owls and beads in the places where they intersect with the roof. The center brick is carved with a central flower and a fork on one side, and a brick plaque with the word Fushou is also inlaid in the center of the wall or a brick carving with an auspicious taste.

The wall of Licheng County is a zigzag-shaped exterior wall, the relief in the middle of the wall is a monster that resembles a unicorn, everyone stands in front of the wall, admiring the vivid monster; Cheng Ziying looked at it for a while, tilted her head and asked Zhang Haiming, "Teacher Zhang, is the relief on the wall a unicorn?" How closely you look at it, it doesn't look like a unicorn. ”

Zhang Haiming smiled and replied: "This monster is called 'greed', it is a kind of greedy beast in myths and legends, it is said that it can swallow gold and silver treasures, from the relief we can see that its feet and surroundings are full of treasures, but it is not satisfied, still open its bloody mouth, in vain to swallow the sun in the sky, but it ended up with a broken body and bones, and died on the cliff The sad end, this kind of wall painting used by the official office is the first initiative of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, mainly to warn officials not to be corrupt and pervert the law. ”

After admiring the wall, everyone looks towards the opposite side of the wall again, the opposite side of the wall is separated by a road, there is a memorial arch called "Xuanhua Fang", its south side is written with "Jutan Guzhi", and the north side is written with the word "Xuanhua".

Zhang Haiming explained to everyone: "The memorial arch is a place where the county preaches the holy oracle and educates the people on the first and fifteenth days of the month of the county. 'Jutan' is the name of Licheng County in ancient times. Licheng used to be also called Jutan County. ”

Standing at the gate of the county government to watch, the gate is three rooms wide, the bright room is the aisle, and the first half of the east tip is placed in the first half of the "shouting grievance drum", for the people to beat the drum and voice the grievances; There are two stone tablets in the first half of the west section, which are engraved with the words "false accusation plus three grades, and the more sue flogging fifty", which increases the seriousness of the entire county government. The gate is the first door to report the time and supervise the entry and exit of personnel.

After Yue Haohan bought the tickets, everyone entered the gate and saw that the buildings on the east side were called Yin Hotel, Yashen Temple, and Sanban Courtyard, and the buildings on the west side were restaurants and county-level prisons in the Qing Dynasty. There is a gate in the center of the 100-meter road from the gate to the lobby, called the Yi Gate, which is the second gate of the government. In the past, the middle gate was often not opened, and could only be opened on the first day of the arrival of a new official or when he was greeted by a state or government official; There is also a small door on the east and west sides of the instrument gate, the east door is called the birth gate, which is often open in the past for people's daily entry and exit, and the west door is called the "death door", also called the ghost door, when the prisoner is sentenced to death, he is pulled out from the west gate for execution, so the old execution of the prisoner is called to take the west gate or go to the west sky.

When everyone passes the Yimen, you can see the tall and magnificent county hall. On both sides of the corridor in front of the lobby, the east side is the officials, households, and ritual rooms, and the west side is the soldiers, punishments, and workshops. Liufang was the functional institution of the yamen in the feudal era. The building on the east side of the lobby is the county office, and the building on the west side is the main bookkeeper, and the county and the main book are eight and nine respectively. The lobby is the place where the magistrate issues orders, holds major ceremonies, and publicly hears major and important cases.

Under the eaves of the lobby, there is a large plaque with a black background, on which several lacquer gold characters are written "Licheng County Main Hall", and on the two pillars in front of the hall is a couplet: "Deceive people if you deceive the sky, do not deceive yourself, and bear the people like the country, how to bear it." ”

The facility in the center of the lobby is called "Ambiguous Pavilion", which is a public hall specially set up for the county to hear cases, and there is a three-foot public case in the center of the Ambiguous Pavilion, and the public case is placed on the four treasures of the study room and the red and green head tags used for the trial. The green head is a catch, which is used to catch people; The red-headed signature is a criminal signature, and it is the order to move the execution.

Behind the three-foot desk seat in the lobby is a screen, on which is painted the "sea tide map", which means that officials should be as bright as the sun and the moon and as clear as the sea; The flying bird on the map is called "White Pheasant Bird", it is the symbol of the five-grade official, in the past, the general county was set up as a seven-grade county order, and there was no ambiguous pavilion, and Licheng County used to manage the jurisdiction of a larger area, so the level was relatively high, and the county was generally from the five-grade official, which was equivalent to the current deputy hall treatment.

In the old days, in the county hall, when the county magistrate tried the case, he walked up to the pavilion from the east side, and then the original defendant could be brought up and knelt on the kneeling stone in front of the hall, the east square was the plaintiff's stone, and the west rectangular one was the defendant's stone, because in some cases there were co-defendants, so the defendant's stone in the hall was longer than the plaintiff's stone.

Behind the county hall is the door room. The person who guards the door room is called "Menzi", that is, the person who guards the door, and the door is generally served by the relatives or close people of the county, in fact, they are the extension of the officials' hands and ears, and they are the only way for the government to communicate with the people. For the common people, whether it is a complaint or a matter of affairs, the first contact is the doorman in the yamen, so some of them will take advantage of their positions to solicit bribes, and after a long time, "door" gradually becomes the meaning of "doorway". As people often say, "go to the door" and "go to the door" and the like evolved from here. And because the door room is located behind the county government hall, it was later called "going to the door" as "going to the back door".

There is a screen door behind the door room, and everyone enters the second hall through the screen door, which is the place where the county mediates and deals with general cases. There is also a couplet on the pillar in front of the hall: "The law is carried out without relatives and orders are carried out without reason, and the reward is only heavy and the punishment is light." The meaning of this couplet is that those who are required to be officials should not only be equal before the law, but also be cautious about those who have doubts about insufficient evidence, and avoid wronging good people. This couplet uses the words "pro, old, heavy, and light", which truly reflects the law enforcement thinking of officials in the feudal era.

Yue Haohan stood under the plaque and looked up for a while, turned his head and asked Zhang Haiming, who was standing beside him, and said, "Teacher Zhang, I don't understand how to explain the words 'Qinzhi'?" ”

Zhang Haiming said: "The "Qin Zhi" here should be an allusion in "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period", which says that when Mi Zijian was appointed as the commander of the single father county, he couldn't get out of the hall, and ruled by playing the qin, and easily governed the single father county in an orderly manner. Later, the county commander Wu Ma period ran around the people all day long, and he had to do everything himself, so he went to ask Mi Zijian the reason for this. Mi Zijian told him that I am more important than employing people, you are more important than contributing, employing people is comfortable, and those who contribute are of course tired. ”

Yue Haohan smiled and said, "It seems that the two halls are called 'Qinzhitang', which is a bit of self-proclaimed by the magistrates in order to show that their intelligence and way of employing people can be compared with Mi Zijian." ”

Zhang Haiming said with a smile: "I think Mi Zijian's emphasis on employing people is very worthy of reference, vast, if you become the main leader in the future, you must learn from Mi Zijian, focus on employing people, and strive to achieve the effect of 'Qin Zhi'." ”

In the second hall against the wall is placed the mold. On the east side is a cane, a bamboo board used to beat the board. On the west side, there are clamping sticks and hammers, which are the type of fingers used to clamp the fingers of female prisoners in the Qing Dynasty. This type of stick began in the Song Dynasty, commonly known as the "punishment of three woods", which is specially used to clamp the calf, and is suitable for some male criminals who have conclusive evidence but refuse to tell the truth.

The group went out of the second hall, and when they arrived at the back, there was the Master's Courtyard, which was where the master worked. In the past, the master was hired by the master himself or brought from his hometown, and they were very close and equal guests or friends with the master, belonging to the county magistrates, helping the county to participate in political affairs, most of them were some knowledgeable and talented people, so including the county magistrate, they were called "old masters", and the courtyard where they worked was called the master's courtyard.

There is an osmanthus tree planted in the courtyard of the Yuan Dynasty, which has a history of more than 600 years. Next to the osmanthus tree, there is a leafy Nantianzhu, take the homonym of "Zhu" and "Gui" as the main noble, which means that the ordinary people can not easily come in, only the dignitaries can come here.

After leaving the Master's Courtyard, and then walking back, you will arrive at Santang, which is the daily office of the magistrate, and if the case involves confidentiality, it is also tried here. In addition, there is a cross-courtyard on the left and right of the three halls, called the East and West Flower Hall, which is the place where the family of the county eats and lives. There is a back garden behind the three halls, which is a place for them to enjoy the eyes and avoid political affairs.

Everyone stood at the door of the three halls to watch, a plaque under the eaves of the three halls wrote "three provinces hall" three lacquer gold characters, the front two pillars wrote a couplet: "It is not honorable to get an official, it is not disgraceful to lose an official, don't say that an official is useless, and the place depends on an official; Eat the people's food and wear the people's clothes, the people can be bullied, and they are also the people. ”

Fu Rongsheng stood and looked at the couplet carefully, and said, it's not easy, officials in the feudal era can realize that the dialectical relationship between officials and the people, honor and disgrace, gain and loss is not simple!

Ye Yunqing echoed and said, yes, as a magistrate, the author of the couplet can consciously be equal to the people, and regard the people as their parents, which is indeed commendable. It seems that some officials in the feudal era were much stronger than some officials in our reality.

Zhang Haiming said: Today's visit to the Licheng County Ya has touched me deeply, because our China is the hometown of official culture, and there is no other place in the world where the bureaucratic system has developed into such a complicated situation as our Huaxia. A Licheng County government, half of the officialdom culture.

Yue Haohan answered and said, I am really amazed by the plaques and couplets here, the language is concise, the meaning is profound, and the pen is strong. The couplet plaques are everywhere, and the intention is not to leave the official morality and official motto, and the width can be called the masterpiece of the plaque couplet. No wonder my sister came here last year and carefully copied all the couplets here.

Everyone expressed a sigh, seeing that the time was already more than twelve o'clock at noon, Yue Haohan proposed that everyone go to the county outside the government to find a restaurant for lunch, when returning from the third hall, passing by the account room next to the lobby, Yue Haohan found that the front porch pillar of the account room also had a profound meaning on the couplet.

The east account room is the department that manages the finances, which is equivalent to the current Finance Bureau. Respect what they hear, and do what they know. This means to warn the officials who manage the treasury and the treasury not to speak of their own poverty; If you want to be diligent in government, don't talk about your hard work.

The west account room is also the treasury, which is equivalent to the current treasury, and the couplet in front of the door reads: "A little corn, my name is the festival; Every centimeter is the fat of the people. "Meaning, a little bit is about your name; Every centimeter comes from the blood and sweat of the people.

Everyone went out of the county office, stood at the gate and observed left and right, discussed, and prepared to eat in a restaurant not far from the east of the county office.

Yue Haohan saw Zhang Haiming's focused appearance, and also urged him to bend over and look, Zhang Haiming tilted his head and looked at Yue Haohan, and said, Haohan, you take a closer look, this is the county government's "Three Courts Forbidden Covenant Monument", we didn't notice it when we first came.

Yue Haohan asked Zhang Haiming and said, "Teacher Zhang, what does this "Three Academies Forbidden Covenant Monument" say? ”

Zhang Haiming said: "I have checked the information before, and this stele should be from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty." Because Licheng is the junction of the three provinces, the geographical location is very special, so there are more post stations in the jurisdiction to facilitate the accommodation and dining of past officials, and all the expenses spent by the post stations at that time were borne by the people. In the late Ming Dynasty, due to the corruption of the government, the extravagance of officialdom, the flood of eating and drinking, and the phenomenon of excessive supply was also very serious, resulting in the people's misery. In order to rectify the corruption of officialdom and reduce the burden of the people, in the 39th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Yi Sancai, the magistrate of the county, jointly named the county Cheng and the main Bo, responded to the three courts of the post preacher, the governor, and the supervision of the imperial history, asking to curb this unhealthy trend and obtained approval. At the same time, four prohibitions and one specific regulations on the carriage of horses and sedan chairs and the provision of meals for transit officials, as well as the penalties for violating these treaties, were also drawn up, and were engraved on the stone tablet and stood on the left side of the gate of the county government, and they were to be observed forever. Therefore, the name of the stele is called "The Forbidden Covenant of the Three Courts". ”

Yue Haohan listened carefully to Professor Zhang Haiming's introduction, and carefully read the four prohibitions engraved on the stone tablet, and couldn't help but sigh and said: "Teacher Zhang, this anti-eating and drinking, anti-extravagance and extravagance and waste regulations engraved on the stone are really unique, and it is really an anti-corruption declaration engraved on the stone!" ”