Why is it said that Zhu Yuanzhang's love for future generations is the culprit who dragged down the Ming Dynasty?
Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a bitter child, and after he laid the foundation of the world, in order to let his children not suffer hardships and live a good life, he crowned all his sons as kings. The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang did this is that in the final analysis, it is because he has suffered too much before, and it is his own compensation psychology for the children.
These clan kings had great power and lived well. At this time, because the number of these children was not large, the population of the clan was also small, and the pressure on the Ming government was not so great. But there is a potential problem here: after a few years, the descendants of these clan kings grow up, then the cost of supporting them is absolutely a huge expense, so how can the government afford it?
But Zhu Yuanzhang may not have thought about it so much, he just wants his children to live a good life now, and he will talk about things later.
After Emperor Jianwen came to power, he sat firmly on the throne and began to frantically cut the baby. He took many measures, abolishing some of the clan kings and relocating the territories of some clan kings. However, because the means were too radical, it provoked Zhu Di's resistance.
Unfortunately, Zhu Di finally defeated him and became emperor, which also meant the failure of Emperor Jianwen's policy of cutting the domain.
As the emperor of the clan kings, Zhu Di naturally knew the threat of these clan kings. But just after taking the throne, he could not be as radical as Emperor Jianwen, so he took more moderate measures. First, the stripped princes restored their status.
A few years later, Zhu Di began his great business of cutting the domain.
Zhu Di cut the domain after some thought, and he adopted both measures at the same time. On the one hand, he weakened the military power of the kings of the domain, but on the other hand, he gave them very superior economic treatment, money and land.
In this way, Zhu Di quietly solved the problem of the military power of the king of the domain. It is a solution to the pressing needs.
After Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, he continued to complete the great cause of cutting the domain. He stipulated that these clan kings could only stay in the places where they were divided, and could not leave and move around at will. Through these measures, the freedom of the king of the clan was restricted.
But this goal was achieved at the expense of giving the lords of the clan more generous treatment. Compared with the favorable conditions given to the king of the domain during the Zhu Di period, he further improved their treatment. In the end, it was the people of the Ming Dynasty who paid for these.
Therefore, although Xuanzong solved the threat of the king of the domain to the central imperial power, he left such a fatal problem. It puts a lot of pressure on the national treasury.
Moreover, the Ming government also implemented another policy, that is, to prepare generous gifts for the members of the Ming dynasty royal family who married and had children, which created another embarrassing situation.
Because these vassals were forbidden to participate in politics, there was basically no future in politics. Since they had no future in politics, they focused on pleasure, and they had many children in this way. By the way, he also received many awards from the government.
What is even more excessive is that some greedy clan kings have directly started the idea of land. They not only embezzled the fields of the common people, but also extended their hands to the fields of the army. It should be known that the army's tun tian is the guarantee for the army's survival, and the encroachment of the tun tian means that the army's materials cannot be guaranteed, and in the end it is the country that is affected. But they ignored it and embezzled it. The imperial court also turned a blind eye to this kind of thing, as long as they did not rebel and rebelled.
After the late Ming Dynasty, the government's finances were already stretched, and sometimes even the officials had to default on their salaries. But there was no way, Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants still had to manage the food and drink of Lasa. In the case of Henan, all the grain produced in Henan a year is handed over, which is not enough for the government to pay these feudal kings in Henan. From this, we can see how much financial pressure the Ming government is facing.
But the kings of the clan could not manage so much, and they could not ask for less than one point. Give them gifts when they are born, let the emperor give them a generous gift when they are married, and send them another funeral gift when they die.
The treasury of the Ming Dynasty was hollowed out little by little.
Therefore, from this point of view, the Ming Dynasty was indeed dragged down little by little by Zhu Yuanzhang's policy of dividing the feudals.
Zhu Yuanzhang