Foreword: There is a village in Xinzheng City, Henan Province, the name is very interesting, called "Ge Lao Tomb", careful visits to find that here "long sleep" a big figure in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, which once influenced the development pattern of the history of the Ming Dynasty.
As the last Dynasty established by the Han Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has always attracted much attention and mixed reviews, and there have been a number of "loyal fans" of the Ming Dynasty on the Internet for a long time, which has played a great role in promoting the history of the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Dynasty character image
The study of Ming history has always been quite hot, and I think that the most "chewy head" in Ming history is actually the middle of the Ming Dynasty. At this stage, the Ming Dynasty has experienced more than a hundred years of ups and downs, various social contradictions have begun to intensify, and various decays and exhaustions have gradually emerged. It can be said that the tragedies of the last years of the Ming Dynasty can almost all be traced and originated from the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
However, it is precisely because of these various intertwined contradictions that the history of the middle of the Ming Dynasty is so colorful. Among other things, as far as the talents alone are concerned, this period belongs to the climax period of concentrated "emergence", which sets the tone for the historical trend of the Ming Dynasty.
Cabinet old grave
Because of my professional tendencies, I often go out to visit some historical monuments. By chance, I found a very interesting name in Xinzheng called "Ge Lao Tomb". From experience, I thought that the name of this village should be very promising, so I went around and visited it. If you don't know, when you go, you will find that there is a big man who once influenced the Ming Dynasty situation here - Gao Gong.
So, what kind of story does the high arch have? Next, let's talk slowly.
Ming Dynasty civilian official image
Unlike Zhang Juzheng, who was "born in a humble and humble background", Gao Gong was born in a typical eunuch family. His grandfather, father, and brother were all from keju high school and had been officials in other places for a long time. In today's parlance, this is a typical "third generation of officials" and "second generation of officials."
With these family capitals, Gao Gong saw extraordinary things when he was a child, because he followed his grandfather for a long time and was able to travel through the mountains and rivers and visit famous families. After zhongju, he even directly entered the famous "Da Liang Academy", followed his father's close friend Wang Tingxiang, and was hired as a teacher for more than ten years, where he came into contact with many scholars and laid a theoretical foundation for himself to become an official in the future.
Ming Dynasty official
Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, I think the person who can be the most able to be an emperor is the "Jiajing Emperor", who has been cultivating for more than twenty years, but his great power has not fallen, which can be described as a master in the "art of emperors".
However, JiaJing, who thought he was "pure-hearted and widowed," was a luxurious person, and the cost of his cultivation was truly jaw-dropping. However, he also wanted to grasp the "morality" button at all times, so these huge expenses could not be counted on the emperor's head. As a result, Yan Song and the like also became the "fire brigade leader" of the Jiajing Emperor, Jiajing squandered, Yan Song backed the pot, and maintained this model for a long time, which is also an important reason why Yan Song can stand for twenty years without falling.
Xu Jie
However, after a long time of gaining power, people will be paralyzed, and Yan Song has not been exempt from vulgarity. He couldn't imagine that Xu Jie, who had always been "respectful and respectful" around him, eventually became his own gravedigger. The History of Ming describes Xu Jie as follows:
The ranks are heavy, powerful, and respectful in the first place. Moreover, Emperor Zhi heard of Song's greed and Shi Fan's adultery, and instructed Yushi Zou to impeach him.
The "order" here is Xu Jie, "Song" is Yan Song, and "Shifan" is Yan Shifan, the son of Yan Song. The meaning of the text is not difficult to understand, so I will not translate it anymore. Xu Jiecheng was quite deep and had always behaved very well in front of Yan Song, but when he found out that the emperor knew about Yan Song's corruption, he quickly instigated Zou Yinglong to write a letter of impeachment and brought down Yan Song in one fell swoop.
Yan Song
After the fall of Yan Song, Xu Jie naturally took over as the first assistant of the cabinet and became the head of the civil servants. However, compared with Yan Song, Xu Jie was not necessarily very clever, and the "greed" of his heart far exceeded that of Yan Song, and the family's field production reached as much as 240,000 mu, which was criticized by the government and the public.
As a cabinet minister, Gao Gong saw that Xu Jie's character was so unbearable, and he did nothing, taking the lead in corruption, which made the atmosphere of the imperial court very bad. Therefore, with a fiery temper, he could no longer bear it, and even attacked Xu Jie, and the water and fire were intolerable.
Later, Gao Gong took the edict of the Jiajing Emperor drafted by Xu Jie and said that Xu Jie had an unforgivable sin of slandering the former emperor, so that to the point of "Xu Gong slandered the former emperor, he could be beheaded", so the two of them completely tore their faces, causing many frictions, and the affairs man Li Chunfang adjusted many times, all to no avail. And Gao Gong was once the teacher of the Longqing Emperor, and Xu Jie could not do anything with him.
High arch film and television image
Over time, the cabinet has become a place of right and wrong, and the Longqing Emperor has disposed of several officials in order to ease the contradictions. Gao Gong was bored with himself and simply resigned from his official position.
However, Xu Jie was forced to resign from his official post because he had too many problems and did not support him for too long.
After Xu Jie left, the position of the first assistant of the cabinet fell into the hands of Li Chunfang, an old and good man. But soon, the high arch will return. Li Chunfang is a person who understands, he knows that the position of the first auxiliary is an outlet, and after the comeback of the high arch, he is bound to use himself as a roadblock. As a result, Li Chunfang retired bravely, resigned from his official position, and went home to retire. Scanning the courtiers, no one could keep pace with the high arch, so the position of the first assistant became the bag of the high arch.
Talking about the history of the Ming Dynasty, some friends like to take a certain point to say, in fact, this is easy to fall into the subjective misunderstanding.
Examining the history of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it should be placed in the context of the world at that time. At that time, the Western world was at an important inflection point of the great voyage and the Renaissance, and at this critical moment, we in China suddenly seemed so "introverted" and "shy", playing the game of building cars behind closed doors.
Great voyage
In fact, it is also understandable that our nation is prosperous in agriculture, and in our eyes, agriculture can directly bring food, which is more affordable than anything else. As a result, the kind of "small peasant thought" in the bones of the Chinese broke out round after round, if placed in the past, our small peasant thinking is also in a leading position, after all, other regions of the world are still so dark and ignorant, and the middle and late Ming Dynasty is different, the West began to stride forward, and we hid in the small peasant thinking and were complacent, and over time we fell behind.
Different from the high arches, his administrative thinking is quite broad, and he has an incomprehensible interest in "shipping and revitalizing industry and commerce". In the History of Ming, he once said this:
The matter of shipping will be removed, and the parties concerned must oppose what we have done and discuss it. The sea boats built are useless, and all the coastal equipment is wasted, and it is a pity to smell and sigh.
Zhang Juzheng
This means that the matter of shipping, because he stepped down, was abolished by those in power, which is very unfortunate. Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once repeatedly ordered that "tablets are not allowed to go to the sea", and what kind of courage is needed to break the ancestral system, and this alone requires us to re-examine the historical status of the high arch. In the five years of Longqing, under the repeated insistence of Gao Gong, the sea ban was finally broken. Unfortunately, Gao Gong's reign was too short, and this expected government decree was eventually destroyed by Zhang Juzheng.
Imagine that at the climax of the era of western navigation, if we can also sail the ocean and see the outside world, it may bring a glimmer of hope to the crisis at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and even bring about the growth of capitalism.
Film and television image of the Ming Dynasty army
In addition to shipping, Gao Gong also exerted incredible energy in his short first assistant career, which made the political style of the Ming Dynasty invigorate and laid a very solid foundation for Zhang Juzheng's reform.
For example, we should vigorously push forward trade with the Tatars by pushing aside public opinion; open up and reduce expenditures so as to bring about a substantial improvement in finances; develop industry and commerce to make Jiangnan's economy more prosperous; eliminate corruption and fight corruption, lay off redundant personnel, and reform the procedures for selecting officials; and so on. Due to space limitations, I will not dwell on them.
In the end, Gao Gong's gloomy exit is also related to his own personality, his character is strong, his mouth is unobstructed, and he has brought great disasters to himself.
At that time, in order to promote reform, Gao Gong originally wanted to take back the power of the celebrant. However, the Grand Eunuch who was in power at this time was the Wanli Emperor's "great companion", Feng Bao. This house is a vigilant man, well aware of the "soft underbelly" of Empress Li and the Wanli Emperor. Orphans and widows, most afraid of being bullied by courtiers, so Feng Bao secretly joined forces with Zhang Juzheng to infinitely enlarge Gao Gong's words "ten-year-old child, how to be the master of people", which stimulated Empress Li, and finally Gao Gong was expelled back to his hometown and ended up depressed.
Feng Bao film and television image
If you turn to the "History of Ming", you will find that the evaluation of the high arch in the history books is not high, and even has many slanderous words. In fact, it is not difficult to understand, I think there are the following points, for your reference.
First, the "History of Ming" was an official revision of the Qing Dynasty, deliberately lowering the high arch. During Gao Gong's reign, he straightened out the border defenses and adopted an extremely tough attitude toward the Jurchens in the northeast, and after the Qing army entered the customs, they were naturally secretive about Gao Gong. The Qing government ordered the burning of gaogong's book "Bianluo" as a very convincing evidence.
Second, the literary leader Wang Shizhen hated the high arch into the bone, and added fuel to the high arch to slander it. Wang Shizhen's father, Wang Chen, had been unjustly killed, and Wang Shizhen had been running for his father's grievances, but unfortunately it did not go well. Therefore, Wang Shizhen believed that this matter was obstructed by Gao Gong. As for the truth, it has now become a confused account. For the record of the high arch, Wang Shizhen mixed with a lot of personal emotions, which seriously affected the objectivity of the evaluation of the high arch.
Third, since the Republic of China, in order to question the legitimacy of the Qing government, Zhang Juzheng has been established as a typical national hero, and his political enemy Gao Gong has been deliberately scandalized and sacrificed.
All in all, Gao Gong's life, although controversial, did not affect his existence in the long river of history as a ruler of the world. When we look at people and things, we must return to the historical background of the time, and we must not be biased by some non-objective public opinion. If Gao Gong can vigorously carry out its own reforms, what kind of historical achievements will be produced, and who knows?