In the previous chapter, Burst Shijun introduced Zheng Guifei, who made the Ming Dynasty begin to decline, and today we will talk to you about the eunuch who had an important influence on the Wanli Emperor - the "great companion" Feng Bao.
In ancient Chinese history, there were countless dynasties in which eunuchs interfered in government, but the Ming Dynasty was particularly numerous. The reason for this is mainly caused by the factory guard system set up by Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, zhu Yuanzhang, in order to prevent the meritorious people from usurping the throne, was suspicious all day long, and specially set up a Jinyi guard to monitor and spy on the every move of the courtiers.
After Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ousted his nephew Zhu Yunjiao from power, he set up a special East Factory in order to block the mouth of the world and to find the missing Zhu Yunjiao. Since then, Dongchang and Jinyiwei have become the mouthpieces of the Ming emperor. The people who mastered these mouthpieces were the eunuchs around the emperor, which gave them the power and opportunity to interfere in the government. Liu Jin was like this, Wei Zhongxian was like this, and so was Feng Bao, but the difference was that Feng retained the name of Xian.
Feng Bao, Zi Yongting, Shuanglin, a native of ShenXian County, Hebei, entered the palace during the Ming Jiajing period. Many people think that the reason why eunuchs can do politics is because of the fainting of the late emperor. But in fact, this is a misunderstanding of eunuchs. In the early years of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty began to involve them in the government, and the emperor not only sent eunuchs to all parts of the country to investigate taxes, but also sent eunuchs to act as his representatives on foreign missions to read edicts. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it had become an inevitable trend for eunuchs to become the emperor's confidential secretaries. Therefore, it is not that there are no eunuchs who become red people in front of the emperor by flattery, but it is definitely not the majority. And Feng Bao was such a well-educated eunuch.
With excellent knowledge, Feng Bao served as a eunuch during the Jiajing period. During the Longqing period, Feng Bao was also ordered to supervise the East Factory and the Imperial Horse Supervisor. When the eunuch in charge of the imperial court retired, Feng Bao should have taken over the matter according to seniority, but the Longqing Emperor did not like him, and the first assistant of the cabinet, Gao Gong, recommended Chen Hong, who was also the imperial superintendent. After Chen Hong was dismissed, Gao Gong recommended Meng Chong, who was still the superintendent of shang food, to take over the post of palm seal supervisor, but in fact Meng Chong was not qualified to hold the seal. Therefore, Feng Bao and Gao Gong were like water and fire, and later joined hands with Zhang Juzheng to drive Gao Gong back to his hometown.
In the sixth year of Longqing, The Longqing Emperor died, and he left the first assistant Gao Gong, the second assistant Zhang Juzheng, and Gao Yi to assist the government, but Feng Bao revised the edict and added himself to it. Therefore, after the Wanli Emperor succeeded to the throne, Feng Bao was also reused one after another, not only becoming the palm eunuch of the Si Li Supervisor, but also being regarded as the "internal minister" by the Wanli Emperor. Because he assisted Empress Li in supervising the study of the Wanli Emperor, the Wanli Emperor was still a little afraid of this "big companion". Every time I messed around with the little eunuch, as soon as I saw Feng Bao coming, I sat down and said, "The big companion is coming!" ”
On the day of the Wanli Emperor's ascension to the throne, Feng Bao deliberately stood behind the little emperor and next to the dragon chair, and the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu was horrified in his heart, and the first assistant Gao Gong was also very dissatisfied. Gao Gong believed that Feng Bao had deliberately wanted the courtiers to bow down to him, and the wolf's ambitions were clearly revealed, which showed the extent of Feng Bao's arrogance? Therefore, Gao Gong instructed the members of the cabinet to put forward the slogan of "returning the government to the cabinet", and at the same time organized the imperial envoys to impeach The eunuch Feng Bao for interfering in the government. But Feng Bao pinched what Gao Gong had said in front of Emperor Longqing's sickbed: "Ten-year-old prince, how to rule the world?" The handle of the handle allowed the Wanli Emperor to expel the high arch and return home. After that, Feng Bao was even more arrogant, even to the point where Wanli had rewards and punishments, he did not open his mouth, and no one dared to execute.
So why can Feng Bao still leave a good reputation as a "virtuous eunuch" in history? The first is because of his cooperation with Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Ju was changing the law in the Wanli Dynasty and proposing the reform measures of the "One Whip Law". It is true that he has great talent, but without Feng Bao's tacit cooperation, it is difficult to implement the change. With the support of Feng Bao, Zhang Juzheng's change of law was able to continue as desired, not only laying off redundant personnel and reducing expenditures, but also increasing the state finances, so that Daming's finances once appeared to recover.
Second, Feng Bao is greedy for money but not for power. After becoming the "internal minister", Feng Bao truly became one of the few people standing at the peak of the power of the Ming Dynasty. But Feng Bao loves money more than power. He was greedy for money and good things, and accepted bribes, and even Zhang Juzheng once gave him a lot of treasures in exchange for favor. At the same time, his mansions and shops are all over Beijing, and there are countless. Five thousand houses were built in his hometown, and even the counties crossed the county, and the magnificence was not inferior to the royal residence. He also spent a lot of money to build a shrine for himself. However, while greedy for money, Feng Bao also did some good things, and in May of the fourth year of the Wanli Calendar, Feng Bao worked with the Three Laws Department to conduct a national "hot trial" and calmed down many unjust, false and wrongly decided cases. Although he had many disciples, Feng Bao could restrain them from doing evil, so in the minds of the people in the capital, Feng Bao was a "good person".
In the end, he was able to persuade the Wanli Emperor to learn well, not to be desolate and degenerate. Like Liu Jin and the "Eight Tigers" of the Ming Wuzong period, and Wei Zhongxian during the Ming Xizong period, in order to control the government, they all advised the emperor to indulge in pleasure and abandon the state government. But Feng Bao advised the Wanli Emperor to be positive and be a diligent and good emperor. When the cabinet produced white lotus flowers and white swallows appeared in the Hanlin Courtyard, Zhang Juzheng used them for Wanli to play, but Feng Bao said to Zhang Juzheng: "The emperor is young, he should not make some strange things to let the emperor play greedily." When Wanli was eighteen years old and drunk and flirting with the palace women, it was Feng Bao who informed Empress Dowager Cisheng of his bad behavior, which almost led to the deposing of the Wanli Emperor. From then on, the Wanli Emperor did not dare to be absurd. And most of his behavior is beneficial to the country and the people, so it will be praised by the people.
But sooner or later, it was necessary to pay back, and feng Bao's black form of telling the Wanli Emperor had long since made Wanli begin to hate him. Coupled with his relationship with Zhang Juzheng, the Wanli Emperor felt that Feng Bao and Zhang Ju were exactly the same, and the two were in cahoots and colluded. In order to get rid of the shadow of Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao, Wan Li instructed his ministers to collect Feng Bao's black materials, so Feng Bao's crimes of accepting bribes, favoritism, and embezzlement of public funds were all placed in front of the world. The Wanli Emperor said to Feng Bao in a high-spirited manner: "You deceived the king and harmed the country, and according to the law, you should have been punished with torture, but remembering that you have worked hard for many years and made great achievements, you should go to Nanjing to grow vegetables..." After Feng Bao was degraded, his family property was confiscated, and his brother and uncle also died because they were implicated. It's really going to be empty!
References: Fifteen Years of the Wanli Calendar, History of the Ming Dynasty