Most of the friends who are familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty know that there was such a person, together with Yang Yiqing and Li Dongyang, who was called "Three Masters of Chudi" by the people of the time, and who was jointly called "the Three Gentlemen of Hongzhi" by his descendants, who was clean and high-ranking, had outstanding political achievements, rectified armaments, and assisted Emperor Xiaozong of Ming to achieve "Hongzhi Zhongxing", and he was Liu Daxia.
However, in the evaluation of later generations, although many people regard him as one of the greatest meritorious heroes during the reign of Daming Hongzhi, many people regard him as a sinner of the Ming Dynasty, and even call him a sinner of the Chinese nation. Today we will analyze the reasons for this and tell in detail about the merits and demerits of Liu Daxia.
I. The Life of Liu Daxia
Liu Daxia's origin is not simple, Liu Daxia's ancestral home should be Dongping, Shandong, and his eleventh ancestor Liu Bao once served as the governor of the Song Dynasty during the Song Dynasty Song Gaozong, and once followed Yue Fei to quell the Yang Mo rebellion, which shows that Liu Daxia's promotion to bingbu Shangshu in the fifteenth year of Hongzhi is also quite related, but Liu Daxia's eleventh ancestor Liu Bao resigned from his official position and settled in Huarong after Yue Fei was wrongfully killed, but according to the urine nature recorded in the ancient clan genealogy, such a genealogy may also have a certain amount of moisture. But it still can't hide Liu Daxia's family background.
Liu Daxia's father was named Liu Renzhai, who had passed the examination in the yongle emperor's period and the eighteenth year of Yongle, that is, in 1420 AD, and had served as Ruichangzhi County, and then served as the imperial history of Zhejiang Province, and later became the deputy envoy of Guangxi, and Liu Daxia was born in the first year of orthodoxy, that is, december 25, 1436 AD, so that you heard it correctly, it seems to be a Western Christmas, and liu Daxia's name when he was a child was still called Ruichangbao, and the young Liu Daxia reflected a lot of intelligence and spirituality. When he was six years old, he once went to Beijing with his father, and Yang Pu, who was a university scholar at the time, was amazed when he saw the young Liu Daxia, and said: "This child may be able to achieve my position in the future", and set his name as "Daxia", and promised him the girls in his family.
Yang Pu's prophecy came true, when Tianshun was three years old, that is, in 1459 AD, Liu Daxia won the first place in the Huguang Township Examination that year, and then in the eighth year of Tianshun, Liu Daxia was admitted to the Jinshi and was elected as a Shujishi, the second year, that is, the first year of Chenghua, the Hanlin Academy hoped to keep Liu Daxia to serve in the Hanlin Academy, the Hanlin Academy was also a relatively "pension" department at that time, although there was not much oil and water, the real power was not large, but the victory was stable, basically the officials mixed in the Hanlin Academy for a few years of good treatment, Basically, when you are old, you can return to your hometown, the treatment is good, and after all, it is a Beijing official, and the political status is still good. However, Liu Daxia refused to be comfortable and chose to take up the post of official, so he became the chief of the Military Department, and was soon promoted to the position of Fang ShiLangzhong.
Second, the merit is great, loyal and outspoken
Liu Daxia was proficient in military affairs, straightened out the military pay system, made great contributions to the defense and rectification of the border army, and constantly eliminated the shortcomings of the military and government, once stopped many unnecessary soldiers, reduced the burden of the people and the border army, and improved the armament to make the border defense more stable.
After Liu Daxia was promoted to the rank of Fang Shilangzhong, the later Li Dynasty's Saint Emperor Li Hao was defeated by Laos at that time, and the belligerent and earnest Wang Zhi wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to conquer Li Hao, but there was no doubt that at that time, if Wang Zhi was allowed to attack, first, the food was not good, second, it would harm the people, and third, it would make the Fan state cold, so he wrote to Ming Xianzong and asked For the document of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's southern conquest of Annam, but at that time Liu Daxia risked his life to hide this document and did not give it, and privately advised Yu Zijun, the bingbu Shangshu of the time, to say: " As soon as the scourge began, the Southwest was over. Yu Zijun woke up and hurriedly stopped the matter.
Although Liu Daxia was outspoken, his personality and style also made his career full of twists and turns. At that time, the Korean Li Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute is generally from the Crow Pass into the territory of Daming, but suddenly there was a request to enter from the Yalu River, originally the imperial court wanted to agree, but the keen Liu Daxia immediately felt the strangeness in it: "The ancestors must have known about the passage of the Yalu River when they formulated the entry route, but still let the DPRK enter several large towns from the Yalu Pass, there must be a deep meaning, and now the Li Dynasty asked to enter from the Yalu River at this time, there must be something strange, absolutely can not easily agree." Although Liu Daxia tried to obtain the permission of the imperial court according to reason, many ministers lost face and were dissatisfied with Liu Daxia, and the brother of the eunuch Ah Jiu in the palace had served as a Jingwei and was flogged by Liu Daxia for committing a crime, Ah Jiu held a grudge and took this opportunity to enter into the rumors to Emperor Mingxianzong, so that Liu Daxia was arrested and imprisoned, and after the interrogation of the East Factory, no result was reached, and finally it was saved after the si li supervisor And the eunuch Huai'en Xiang saved his life, and Liu Daxia was sentenced to twenty rods before being released.
Third, there is no great merit, and there is no great sin
Although Liu Daxia was extremely meritorious, loyal and outspoken, and had made outstanding contributions to the administration and border armament of the Ming Dynasty, his own thinking was too conservative and extremely conservative, and he treated many border defense wars with the principle of "if you can not fight and do not fight", and in dealing with many border affairs, he always wanted to start from the administrative side and avoid war as much as possible, but after all, good troops were all fought, and although Liu Daxia's overly conservative thinking did alleviate the problems of the border army withholding, empty pay, and military power to a certain extent. However, a series of war-free policies have also made the border guards increasingly lax, and have greatly weakened the power of some military subjects, making the army lack of experienced and good generals.
On the other hand, during the ming xianzong period, some eunuchs advised ming xianzong to emulate the feats of Ming Chengzu sending Zheng He to the west, and it is estimated that some eunuchs also began to do "Zheng He's dream" before trying to persuade Ming Xianzong to also engage in "going to the west", but at that time, Daming could hardly be called "strong", "going to the west" was tantamount to laboring the people and hurting their wealth, and some historical books of the Ming Dynasty, such as Yan Congjian's "Consultation on the Special Domain" and Wanbiao's "Burning Ai Yu Collection", once recorded that Liu Daxia avoided "going to the West" The laborers lost their money and hid the "Zheng He Hai Chart", and in the "Guest Remarks" written by Gu Qiyuan, it is said that Liu Daxia burned the "Zheng He Hai Chart" in one fell swoop.
"Zheng He Chart" is a precious archive of Zheng He's voyage to the West, including a large number of advanced shipbuilding drawings, navigation routes, naval battle records, Fanbang geography, whether Liu Daxia burned the "Zheng He Chart" or hidden, this move is undoubtedly the brainchild of countless generations of Daming, the Ming Dynasty in the field of navigation, naval warfare and shipbuilding directly "overnight back to the pre-liberation", lagging behind for more than a hundred years, China's navigation technology, naval warfare ideas, shipbuilding technology has a fault, Liu Daxia as a "piece of plate is not allowed to go to the sea" China, which had lost a great deal of navigational technology and development, undoubtedly lost its shield in a series of late invasions by great powers, and although Liu Daxia was a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, even if his starting point was good, the egg tart liquid still could not escape the name of "Chinese sinner".
Resources:
"Zhao Ai Yu Collection", "Bingbu Shangshu Liu Gong Daxia Biography", "Special Domain Zhou Consultation", "Ming Shi , Volume 182 , Liechuan No. 70", "Records of Emperor Wuzong Yi of Daming , Volume 137", "Present Dedication , Volume 31", "Guochen Collection , Volume II", "Advanced Legacy , Volume 1", "Guest Words"