According to the general saying, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a dimwitted emperor who only knew how to do carpentry work and did not like to take care of the government. And Wei Zhongxian was a "castrated" who deceived the monarch, used his status to manipulate the government and the government, and covered the sky with his hands, which was the culprit who pushed the Ming Dynasty into the abyss. However, in the end, he was struck down by the Chongzhen Emperor, who had just ascended to the throne, and lost everything. This is indeed very incredible, it is not common sense, there are many mysteries in it, let's explain them one by one:
What was Wei Zhongxian's color?
Turning to the history books, we can see a detailed record of Wei Zhongxian: he was a poor gambler, who originally had a family and daughters, but he was defeated by himself. Cornered, he could only "wield a sword from the palace" and cut off his own descendant line. He had never received much education, but he was quite clever, so after entering the palace, he successively served as an errand boy next to Emperor Tianqi's mother, Wang Cairen, and to Emperor Guangzong's favorite concubine Li Xuanshi. During this period, he met the Emperor of the Apocalypse, who was still a child, and formed an alliance with the Emperor of the Apocalypse's mother, the Keshi Clan.
Since the Emperor of the Apocalypse continued to immerse himself in his own carpenter game after ascending the throne and was not interested in the politics of the dynasty, Wei Zhongxian gradually became the only bridge between the emperor and the foreign dynasty. Whatever the news, Wei Zhongxian personally reported it to the emperor. Therefore, he had the opportunity to make small moves, grasp the content and timing of the report, and induce the emperor to do things according to his own will. For example, he often did his best job as a carpenter in the emperor to play the newspaper, and the emperor was impatient, so he would throw out a sentence of "You look at it." Relying on this method, Wei Zhongxian cultivated henchmen in the imperial court and attacked dissidents, which was very arrogant.
However, it should be noted that although Wei Zhongxian seems to have monopolized the government, and even some people say that he controls the emperor, he can see that Wei Zhongxian is actually not so powerful when he really encounters major events. The most obvious example is the relationship between Sun Chengzong and Wei Zhongxian.
Sun Chengzong was the teacher of the Emperor of the Apocalypse and a friend of the Donglin Party. Later, when the war in Liaodong was tight, the Emperor of Tianqi made Sun Chengzong the Shangshu of the Bingbu and was in charge of the affairs of Liaodong as a whole. After Xiong Tingbi's defeat, Sun Chengzong went directly to Liaodong to sit in the town and pack up the invincible Houjin army.
Seeing that Sun Chengzong was becoming popular step by step, Wei Zhongxian decided to win him over, so he repeatedly sent his own cronies to meet Sun Chengzong with large sums of money. However, Sun Chengzong did not want to see Wei Zhongxian, and always did not meet with the emissaries for various reasons. As a result, Wei Zhongxian sent emissaries several times and sprinkled a lot of money, but to no avail. In the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624 AD), most of the backbone of the Donglin Party was expelled from the imperial court. At this time, However, Sun Chengzong announced that he would bring his troops back to Beijing for the imperial court, and as a result, Wei Zhongxian thought that Sun Chengzong was coming for himself and wanted to do the "QingJun side", and was afraid for a long time.
It can be seen that Sun Chengzong is definitely not Wei Zhongxian's person. However, he was able to move forward against Wei Zhongxian in the Heavenly Revelation Dynasty, which not only showed Sun Chengzong's superior ability, but also reflected a problem--Wei Zhongxian was far from the point of covering the sky with one hand, and his control over the government was actually limited to a range. As for controlling the emperor, that is even more nonsense.
The power of the Emperor of the Apocalypse
In the History of ming, the Emperor of the Apocalypse was a late-day prince who only knew how to do carpentry work, favored Wei Zhongxian and Keshi, and let them fool around in the middle of the dynasty. And because he had not received a systematic education from an early age, the Emperor of the Apocalypse had limited literacy, like illiteracy. Later, Wei Zhongxian's henchmen made the "Records of the Generals of Donglin Points", ranking the Officials of the Donglin Party according to the Water Margin One Hundred and Eight Future. Wei Zhongxian reported to the emperor that the emperor did not know what the Water Margin was, which was really surprising.
However, the real history of the Emperor of the Apocalypse is likely to be a completely different style.
First, analyze according to common sense. Since Sun Chengzong was the emperor's teacher, it showed that the Emperor of the Apocalypse was at least not an illiterate. Although according to the records, Sun Chengzong's lectures are easy to understand and easy to accept. But after all, he was a teacher, and his job was to let the emperor read and learn. Moreover, from the favor and trust of the Emperor of The Apocalypse to him later, it can be seen that Sun Chengzong and the Emperor of the Apocalypse are definitely not a friendship of one day or two days. So how could the Emperor of The Apocalypse, who had been studying for a long time from a practical talent, be a "blind eye" who didn't even know about "Water Margin"?
Moreover, if we look at it according to the records of the Ming Shilu, the Emperor of the Apocalypse is definitely not illiterate. Among them, Prime Minister Ye Xianggao once had a conversation with the emperor that was recorded: "My emperor is wise and wise, and when the time comes to speak, it is really a diligent and studious lord... Taste the Emperor's preparation of this chapter, each time more than one edict, in order to look up to the Sacred Heart to keep an eye on the divine government......... The emperor, especially when Yan was idle in Yu, read the history of the scriptures and deeply guarded against idleness, and this sect was a great blessing for cangsheng. ”
The Emperor of the Apocalypse was not only not a dark emperor, but a clear-headed Ming jun. According to the Ming Xi Sect Records Volume 78, in November of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, Yuan Chonghuan went to Liaodong to carry out Tun Tian, and declared: "If you do this, the slave will not surrender, and will be captured by his subjects." After this, Yuan Chonghuan also deliberately patted Wei Zhongxian's ass: "Wei Zhongxian, the minister of the factory, and the ministers of the cabinet are all the choice of the dragon, and the ministers are not even coincidences, so they dare to predict that things will be successful." ”
However, as soon as the Emperor of the Apocalypse took a look, he understood the drawbacks of this matter, so he pointed out a series of problems with a vicious eye: "To the defensive side yin, so calmly discuss." But what should be done to the rear so that the military and the people do not get in the way? What kind of allocation should be made so that the agricultural war will not be abandoned? What kind of drills will be done to make the peasants all soldiers? What should be done to make the camp a farmer? What is the reason for this, enough to limit the horses? What is the guarantee to prevent money from stealing grain? Everything should be played in the care area. It is said in this book that if a slave does not surrender, he will be captured, and the courtiers will not be happy to hear it. In terms of decay, slaves may not be surrendered, nor will they be trustworthy; war will be won, and victory will not be lightly discussed. Doing what you do requires movement from time to time. Just also, strange in it. It is good to forgive and to be good."
The implication is to ask some specific questions from Yuan Chonghuan Tun Tanaka: How to distinguish between the military and the people in Tun Tian? If we allocate resources so that the agricultural war is not abandoned? How to train the army in the spare time of the farm? How are horses supplied? How do I collect food so that it is not taken away by robbers? And later, he also confessed his dislike of Tuntian and warned Yuan Chonghuan not to speak lightly about victory or defeat. From this reply, it can be seen that the Emperor of the Apocalypse is not only not a emperor, but on the contrary, a very wise monarch.
So the question arises: since the Emperor of the Apocalypse was neither illiterate nor a dimwitted monarch, and he was also relatively diligent, how could Wei Zhongxian control the emperor? Obviously the history books exalted him too much. Wei Zhongxian was at best a knife in the emperor's hand, and he wanted to kill people and eliminate political forces, most likely at the emperor's behest. The so-called "nine thousand years old" Wei Zhongxian not only did not control the emperor, but was controlled by the emperor.
The centralization of power in the Ming Dynasty and the approach of the Chongzhen Emperor
The Ming Dynasty was a highly centralized dynasty. From the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's abolition of the prime minister system, the emperor combined military and political power and became the absolute authority of the country. In the ming dynasty, the imperial power was basically not challenged in any way (Zhang Juzheng's dictatorship was a special case during the Ming Dynasty). This also made the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty sound particularly cruel, but as long as the emperor wanted to kill, the dictatorial eunuchs had no ability to resist at all. For example, Liu Jin, who illustrates the era of Emperor Zhengde of Wuzong, is the best example.
However, in addition to Liu Jin's suspected rebellion, the other great eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were basically able to live together, and even if they fell out of favor, the emperor might not necessarily kill them. This is mainly because the party struggle in the Ming Dynasty was not particularly fierce at that time, and there was no power struggle between people.
However, when it came to the Chongzhen Emperor, the situation changed again. When the Chongzhen Emperor was young, he was raised by Dong Li Xuanshi, and the two had a deep affection. However, the relationship between Dong Li Xuanshi and Wei Zhongxian's master Xi Li Xuanshi was not good, so both Wei Zhongxian and Keshi had framed Dong Li Xuanshi, and even Dong Li Xuanshi died because of this. Therefore, Wei Zhongxian and the Chongzhen Emperor had a direct blood feud. Moreover, judging from the later employment of the Chongzhen Emperor, he was an out-and-out Donglin Party member. This does not mean that there was anything wrong with Chongzhen, and the Donglin Party at that time was not as bad as in the era of Zhou Yanru and Wen Tiren. Wei Zhongxian, on the other hand, was the leader of the castration party and was born out of opposition to the Donglin Party. Between the two sides, there has been a situation of life-and-death struggle.
Then, the next thing became reasonable: when the Emperor of The Apocalypse was seriously ill, the future Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian entered the palace to serve, and in order to fear that Wei Zhongxian of different factions would murder him, he brought his own dry food and clean water. This is tantamount to clearly telling Wei Zhongxian that I don't trust you. Wei Zhongxian panicked and found Tian Ergeng, the governor of Jinyi Wei, and Cui Chengxiu, the head of the bingbu Shangshu, to launch a coup d'état. However, the ming emperor's authority was solemn, and Tian Ergeng and Cui Chengxiu did not dare to accept it, and this matter could only be done.
After Chongzhen ascended the throne, Wei Zhongxian, in order to continue to serve as a pawn for the emperor, got four beautiful women to pass. As a result, Chongzhen was meticulous and found the ecstasy incense on the beautiful woman's clothes, and had a worse impression of Wei Zhongxian. However, at this time, the power of the eunuch party was still very large, and the Chongzhen Emperor's own power was too small, and he could not but consider the use of a delaying tactic against Wei Zhongxian. On the one hand, he did not allow Wei Zhongxian to resign, allowing him to continue to be the chief eunuch of the East Factory; on the other hand, starting from keshi, he gradually cut out Wei Zhongxian's wings. For those eunuch ministers who were not loyal, Chongzhen adopted the method of co-optation and made them his pawns. When the time was ripe, he instructed the chancellor to initiate the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian, on the other hand, did not have the ability to compete with the emperor at all, and in the end he could only watch himself step by step into the abyss.