The person who made Chu Nguyen Chuong hold this grudge in his heart was Bo Tho Canh of the Bo Thi family, a wealthy Fujian merchant who specialized in trading and transporting goods by sea in the late Song and early dynasties. Original.
Logically, this surname has almost nothing to do with Zhou Yuanzhang because he lived in different dynasties. But why did he forcefully suppress this family, even forcing the descendants of the family to do lowly jobs, so that they would never be able to raise their heads?
Although the Bo family mainly does business, Bo Tho Canh himself is very interested in being an official.
At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Bo Shou Canh served as a non-permanent envoy to Fujian and Guangdong, and was responsible for the management of the Quanzhou shipping department and foreign trade. He has held this position for 30 years. So why is Bo Tho Canh so interested in being a mandarin?
In fact, Bo Tho Canh’s enthusiasm as a mandarin does not mean that he wants to benefit the country and the people, but rather wants to take advantage of his power and make money for himself. At that time, he built a “Vong Van Lau” (high floor to watch the clouds) on the coast of Quanzhou, which was used specifically to track merchant ships entering and leaving Quanzhou port. Thanks to that, Bo Tho Canh can inspect merchant ships and levy import and export taxes accordingly, master and control maritime trade.
Having these powers, Bo Tho Canh can expand the family fortune and serve his business interests. Therefore, the basic reason that helped the Bo Thi family to become the richest maritime merchant in Quanzhou at that time was because Bo Tho Canh held the power over maritime trade between Southeast Asia and other countries. along the Indian Ocean and Fujian at that time.
In 1276, the Song and Yuan dynasties fought, before the Yuan army entered Fujian, Kublai Khan knew that Boshou Canh had a high reputation in this land, so he sent messengers to capture Bo Tho Canh.
Bo Tho Canh also knew very well in his heart that the Southern Song court was now exhausted, if he didn’t make concessions to the Nguyen, when the Yuan army entered the city, his wealth and life would be difficult to preserve. But if you submit to the Yuan Dynasty, that means treason, even if you survive, you will later get a bad reputation in the business world. Therefore, Bo Tho Canh must think of a way to “convenience both ways and not offend anyone”, so not only can preserve his property and life but also keep his reputation.
And when Bo Tho Canh was still hesitating, the opportunity came. Soon after, Emperor Zhao Bing of the Southern Song and Zhang Shijie, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, retreated to Quanzhou port by boat.
As the “owner” of Quanzhou at this time, Bo Tho Canh got on a boat to invite the Emperor into the citadel, but Truong The Kiet saw that Bo Tho Canh intended to submit to the Nguyen Dynasty, so he decided not to let the Emperor enter the citadel. Emperor entered the city because he would be murdered by Bo Tho Canh.
At this time, someone suggested arresting Bo Tho Canh, but Truong The Kiet disobeyed and released Bo Tho Canh back to Quanzhou. But Truong The Kiet confiscated all the merchant ships of the Bo Thi family.
Must know, the commercial boat is the lifeline of the Bo family, how could Bo Tho Canh allow this to happen, so he surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty to seek help. Accordingly, Bo Tho Canh executed all the royal descendants living in Quanzhou.
In addition, he also sent his warships to support the Yuan army to attack the Song Dynasty. Zhang Shijie was almost unable to deal with Boshou Geng, so he could only protect the Emperor from leaving Quanzhou and heading south to Guangdong.
After Bo Shou Canh surrendered to Yuan, in order to protect the interests and reputation of his family, he posted a notice in Quanzhou, stating that he surrendered to Yuan to protect the lives and property of the people of Quanzhou. .
However, due to the war between the Song and Yuan dynasties, many foreign merchants no longer dared to come to China to do business. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, maritime trade gradually declined. Soon, the Yuan rulers also actively made changes to resume maritime trade as soon as possible.
In 1278, Bo Tho Canh was appointed by the Yuan government as the Left Vehicle of Fujian, responsible for the coastal counties, allowing him to continue to control the power of maritime trade. Soon after, the Bo family’s maritime business prospered again.
After the Ming Dynasty was established, Chu Nguyen Chuong was extremely indignant at Bo Tho Canh’s act of betraying to seek glory and help foreigners destroy the Han clan. Chu Nguyen Chuong ordered: “Forbidden descendants of Bo Tho Canh in Quanzhou not to receive any benefits, because of the crime of being chased and destroyed by Yuan’s extermination of the Song.”
Although Bo Tho Canh had died for nearly a hundred years, Chu Nguyen Chuong still ordered his body to be dug up and punished with “beating 300 lashes”. Since then, the Bo family has been classified as a low class, it is strictly forbidden for the Bo people to study as a mandarin, be a slave forever, if a woman doesn’t want to be a servant, she can only work in a brothel and have a bad reputation for life. .
After that, many people with the Bo surname had to migrate all over the country and change their surnames to Boc, Duong, Ngo… in order to change their status and live like normal people.
Source: Sina