When Chongzhen submitted his revised "General Principles of Civil Affairs" to the gentry assembly for discussion, Yuan Keli did not know about it.

However, 1 day later, when the Daming Times published the full text of the adopted "General Principles of Civil Affairs", not only Yuan Keli knew, but even hundreds of officials in the capital heard about it.

Although Yuan Keli knew what the content of Chongzhen's revised "General Principles of Civil Affairs" was, he also promised the emperor that he would approve of these changes. But in fact, he was not sure in his heart whether the "General Principles of Civil Affairs" revised by the emperor could be recognized by hundreds of officials in the court.

After all, Taizu once said that those who change the law without permission are traitors who violate the law. It is the successive generations, although they think that the content of the "Da Ming Law" is no longer sufficient and cannot solve the problems of the world, but they only set up the law on the basis of the law.

The so-called "precedents arising from law" and "precedents arising from precedents" is actually case law, and for problems that are not covered by the Daming Law, the judgment of the same type of case is used as the basis. Of course, the main purpose of this punishment is still in line with the spirit of the Great Ming Law or Confucianism.

Yuan Keli compiled this "General Principles of Civil Principles", mainly to sort out the civil cases accumulated in the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, and to eliminate cases that are not representative, precedents that are inconsistent with the spirit of the Ming Dynasty and Confucianism, and many repetitive cases.

He hopes that a set of operational precedents will eventually be established for local officials, so as to prevent local officials from taking advantage of the complicated and complicated cases of the Ming Dynasty to manipulate the judiciary to fool local officials, thereby arousing growing public resentment.

It should be said that this idea is good. To a certain extent, it also upholds the uniqueness and nobility of justice.

However, when Yuan Keli compiled this "General Principles of Civil Affairs", the theme and purpose were quite clear, that is, to maintain the feudal ethical order of superiority and inferiority and local social stability.

Therefore, instead of weakening the power of the local gentry, this "General Principles of Civil Affairs" strengthened the gentry's interference in local legal power. After all, the best form of society pursued by the Confucian sages was a harmonious society that was harmonious but different.

In other words, it is best to settle all civil disputes through internal mediation under the auspices of the local gentry, rather than going to court. In essence, the area outside the county seat of Daming was handed over to the local gentry to manage in order to reduce office costs.

In Chongzhen's view, the "General Principles of Civil Affairs" compiled by Yuan Keli can probably solve many problems in areas like Jiangnan, where social contradictions are still relatively relaxed. However, in Shaanxi, Henan, and other areas where social contradictions have intensified, they are nothing more than a piece of paper.

When a person can't survive no matter how hard he tries, no law can deter. Therefore, he made some changes to the General Principles of Civil Matters and added: General Treatise on the Fundamental Rights of Man.

What are the fundamental rights of the human person? Chongzhen believes that the most basic right of a person is the right to survive; The second is the right to defend oneself against infringement, the right to think freely, and the right to inviolability of lawful property.

At the end of the general remarks, Chongzhen summed it up with the following sentence, "Any Ming person should fulfill his obligations to the country, such as paying taxes and serving in the military." At the same time, he also has the right to be protected by the state and enjoy the above basic rights.

Therefore, everyone is equal before the law, and all disputes between the people shall not be treated differently as dignity or inferiority, nor shall they be mitigated or exempted from punishment. The Eight Arguments on Mitigation of Punishment may also not be invoked for acts of infringement against others by taking advantage of their status as a public official, clan status, honorable status, status as a family member, or status as the head of the family. ”

After reading this general commentary, Yuan Keli was very skeptical about whether his "General Principles of Civil Affairs" could be approved by hundreds of officials and clans.

After all, according to this general statement. The privileges enjoyed by the privileged class in the Ming Dynasty have been reduced to varying degrees.

Although Yuan Keli believes that what the emperor said: Everyone is equal before the law, this sentence really makes ordinary people feel excited. is similar to what was said in the previous dramas, the saying that the Son of Heaven broke the law and the common people committed the same crime.

However, after all, the drama is just a drama, as long as the etiquette system of superiority and humility is still there, it is a joke that the Son of Heaven is guilty of the same crime as the common people.

Now Chongzhen wants to do something in his "General Principles of Civil Affairs" and publish this general treatise in his name, trying to break the etiquette system of superiority and inferiority and establish a society in which everyone is equal before the law, which is too much to overestimate his appeal among officials.

However, out of loyalty to the royal family, Yuan Keli remained silent about Chongzhen's revision of his "General Civil Rules". In any case, although this general treatise harmed the interests of the entire privileged class of the Ming Dynasty, from its starting point of view, the emperor's purpose in writing this article was to protect the interests of the ordinary people of the Ming Dynasty.

Yuan Keli is an old minister of the Four Dynasties, and only a few people can compare with him in the court. He also made friends with the Donglin Party, and several of his students, such as Ni Yuanlu and Huang Daozhou, were the newly emerged backbone of the Donglin Party.

He thinks that even if he does something deviant, he will ruin his reputation at best. But if the people of the world know that this is a general statement written by the emperor himself, I am afraid that the public opinion of the government and the opposition will not be so mild.

However, when Yuan Keli was ready to be reprimanded by the ministers in the court, Chongzhen first threw out the discussion of the "General Principles of Civil Affairs" at the gentry conference.

Under the advocacy of Niu Jinxing and others, there is also the fame of Yuan Keli himself, and the representatives of this group of gentry are also realizing their sense of mission and are in a stage of collective self-moving.

Therefore, most of them were quickly moved by this general treatise, and most of the delegates immediately approved of the ideas established in the general treatise. Except for a small number of gentry who were still suspicious, but when the crowd was in turmoil, they did not dare to stand up and speak against it.

Of course, when some representatives of the gentry read this general treatise, they were not thinking of the common people, but of themselves. Although they are also part of the privileged class, they can take what they want from the lower classes. But in the eyes of the elites of the privileged class, they are no different from ordinary people.

The proposition that everyone is equal before the law put forward in this general remark has indeed touched a glimmer of demand in their hearts. Especially those gentry who are in the territory of the vassal king's clan, they have suffered a lot from the children of these clans, and they are also happy to see such a "General Principles of Civil Affairs" to restrain the clan.

When the gentry assembly was passing the "General Principles of Civil Affairs" one by one, the court officials who had only received the news from the Daming Times suddenly panicked.

Many officials with more conservative ideas believe that the precedents at the end of the "General Principles of Civil Affairs" are not satisfactory, but the previous article on the basic rights of human beings does not conform to either the etiquette system or the ancestral system, and is really absurd.

Of course, what they didn't say was that the article on the basic rights of people had shaken the way of the Master's rule of law and the way of human ethics and humility.

On the other hand, young officials from the Jiangnan region, who are relatively economically developed and more open-minded, can accept many of the views in the article on the basic rights of people.

But there are also some orthodox officials who advocate the retro etiquette system to save people's hearts and minds, although they think that this article is reasonable, but it is not what the Ming Dynasty needs at the moment.

In their view, the problem of today's Ming Dynasty mainly lies in the decline of people's hearts and the corruption of scholars' morality. For example, some scholars openly regard the obedience of demons and the pursuit of famous prostitutes as the style of celebrities, and they are not ashamed of the methods of fraud in the imperial examination and corruption in the officialdom, but instead talk about it with relish, which is regarded as the only way to become an official.

Therefore, the restoration of ancient rites and the restoration of the atmosphere of the Ming society to the vigorous and simple social atmosphere at the beginning of the country is exactly what they believe is the only way to save the fortune of the Ming Dynasty at present.

It is precisely because of this that these orthodox officials basically tolerate the new policies implemented by Chongzhen. After all, many of the measures in the New Deal have the purpose of curbing extravagant consumption and rebuilding morale.

They were especially in favor of Chongzhen's ascension to the throne, and after he ascended the throne, he ordered the banning of the Xianggu Pavilion in the capital, and the sweep of many brothels and the release of a large number of prostitutes from the good people.

They originally thought that the capital was at the foot of the Son of Heaven, but these Goolan courtyards were full of filth and filth, and there were many women and children abducted and sold from all over the world, which was really a big cancer in the capital.

However, after all, what they pursue is the retro rite of governing the country with etiquette and music, and in the face of the Legalist remarks that everyone is equal before the law, they naturally have to resolutely oppose it.

But when Yuan Keli actually stood at the national meeting, he suddenly found that the remarks attacking him did not seem to be as stormy as expected.

Sitting on the throne, Zhu Youzhen stared at the controversy of the ministers below about the "General Principles of Civil Affairs".

In fact, because of Yuan Keli's special identity, the Donglin Party, which had already begun to split, is now divided into several groups.

This made the officials of the Donglin Party, who have always represented the mouthpiece of Qingliu, attack each other first in this court meeting.

Without this former main attacker, the criticism of other officials on the general theory of the "General Principles of Civil Matters" would be even more scattered, and there was no need for Chongzhen to come forward to defend it, and Yuan Keli's disciples and friends had already blocked these attacks for him.

Seeing this situation, the officials who were at a disadvantage and held critical opinions asked the emperor for a holy judgment, wanting Chongzhen to come out and show his attitude.

Zhu Youzhen seemed to be awakened at this time, cleared his throat and said: "After the "General Principles of Civil Matters" compiled by Yuan Shangshu was sent to the palace a few days ago, I flipped through several pages.

Considering that the implementation of the "General Principles of Civil Affairs" was closely related to the daily life of the common people, I was afraid that there would be some discrepancies in the contents, so I first submitted it to the gentry assembly for discussion and whether there was any inappropriateness.

In fact, I did not intend to put it to the imperial court, but since the ministers today are arguing with each other, there is no denial of the need for a standard precedent. It can be seen that the affairs of civil litigation really need to be sorted out and a standard has been formulated.

The representatives of the gentry in the gentry assembly from all over the world, representing the people of the Ming Dynasty everywhere, and the things supported by the people of the world, I really can't think of any reason for me to oppose them.

Therefore, I decided that the decision of the General Rules of Civil Affairs was final on the decision of the Gentry Assembly, and no one was allowed to interfere with it. ”