Several emperors in the early years of the Ming Dynasty were more diligent, such as The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who received and processed 1660 recitals in eight days, a total of 3391 events, handling an average of more than 200 recitals and handling more than 400 events per day. However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, most of the emperors were not instrumental, and as emperors, they did not perform the duties of the emperor, neither going to the dynasty, nor summoning ministers, or even appointing officials, resulting in the endless problems of the Ming Dynasty and pushing the regime into the abyss!
During the 23-year reign of Emperor Mingxianzong, he only summoned cabinet scholars in the seventh year of Chenghua. Emperor Mingxiaozong was still diligent in his reign at the beginning of his reign, but later he also began to "sabotage work", and the chapter "either stayed for several months, or did not implement it". As for the Ming Wuzong, Ming Shizong, Ming Muzong, Ming Shenzong, and Ming Xizong, there are more problems. Therefore, the historian Zhao Yi concluded: "In the 167 years from Zichenghua to the Apocalypse, except for a few years between Hongzhi and The Emperor, the rest were all far away from the hall, the gate was thousands of miles, the upper and lower levels were separated, and the government was not the same. ”
So the question is, why did there be so many "problem emperors" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty? This reason is very complicated and multifaceted, but there is a very important one, that is, the education of the imperial family, that is to say, there are serious problems in the imperial education of the Ming Dynasty! During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, he set up many official positions to assist the education of the crown prince and the yamen, but they were "irrelevant" and had actually been reduced to honorary vacant positions.
Often around the crown prince, "all the exchanges are white, and the eunuchs who are tortured", that is to say, the most contacted by the crown prince every day is those eunuchs who are not highly educated. Taking Ming Yingzong as an example, when he was a prince, he studied every day under the guidance of the eunuch Wang Zhen, so he trusted Wang Zhen a lot. Another obvious example is Emperor Mingxi, who had great trust in his wet mother Keshi before becoming emperor, and later favored the eunuch Wei Zhongxian.
The Ming Dynasty also had an education system, which was mainly aimed at the emperor. There are three prayers per month, on the second, twelfth, and twenty-second day of the first month. However, this system was not well observed, only Ming Taizu and Ming Xuanzong held it frequently, and the rest of the emperors rarely held it, and some did not even hold it once. As the name suggests, daily lectures should be read every day, which is the most important way of educating emperors and princes.
However, the emperors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty were lazy, and the first and fifteenth days of the month became "holidays", and they would pause in the middle of winter and mid-summer in the event of strong winds, rain and snow, or in the middle of winter and mid-summer, and did not speak every day at all. Later, because the emperor did not attend classes for a long time, the officials in charge of lecturing had to give the "sermons" to the emperor for the emperor to teach himself. Emperors are not willing to participate in the lectures for days, will they read those boring "sermons"?
In addition, there is a more important point, the Ming Dynasty prince went out of the cabinet to study late, "please leave the cabinet at the age of ten, but the bureaucracy lectures for a while, and the rest are women's temples and residences." For example, Emperor Mingguangzong did not study in the cabinet until he was 13 years old, but soon interrupted, and did not study again until he was 18 years old, while his son Ming Xizong did not start studying in the cabinet until he was 17 years old. These emperors have missed the best time for education, so all kinds of problems arise.
In terms of the education of the crown prince, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty learned the lessons of the Ming Dynasty and achieved a very strict education for the crown prince. When the Qing Dynasty historian Zhao Yi was on duty at the military plane, before dawn, he heard the sound of the princes reading in the upper study, and he wrote with emotion: "My generation of poor and college students who read books for food and clothing cannot get up early, and the body of the heavenly family is like this every day!" "Therefore, although the emperors of the Qing Dynasty also had fainting, they were still diligent, except for the Tongzhi Emperor."
References: 1. Ming Shilu, 2. Ming Shi, 3. Miscellaneous Records of Eaves Exposure, 4. Notes on the Twenty-second History