The Ming Dynasty was a very peculiar dynasty in Chinese history. In the 289 years of the Ming Dynasty, in the past three hundred years, there have been 21 emperors, and more than half of them are very strange beings, which can be said to be more than one strange. There are those who play missing, there are big foodies, there are those who like to fight crickets, there are those who are obsessed with alchemy, there are those who play carpenters and so on. The emperor to be talked about today can be said to be the most strange existence, his strange point is not to go to the dynasty, and it is not to go to the dynasty for 28 consecutive years, to know that the main way for the emperor to handle government affairs is to deal with it through the upper dynasty. However, this emperor who did not go to the dynasty for 28 years, the government was not abandoned, and during his reign, he actually created a prosperous era of the Ming Dynasty, this emperor is the thirteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Wanli Emperor Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun, the prosperous world he created is "Wanli Zhongxing".
From 1572 to 1620, Wanli was emperor for 48 years. Most of the time is not in the DYNASTY. Many people think that such an emperor must be a dimwitted monarch, but in fact, the Wanli Emperor is still a relatively well-known emperor, the big things are reliable, and the small things are confused. Although he did not go to the court, he arranged everything big and small in the imperial court properly, but this was also due to the fact that the Wanli Emperor had an extremely powerful assistant: Zhang Juzheng. It can be said that most of the credit in "Wanli ZTE" is Zhang Juzheng's.
Zhang Juzheng, needless to say, knows what kind of a person Zhang Ju is, and the reforms carried out by Zhang Juzheng are vigorous and bold, and because they have received the full support of the Wanli Emperor, the results have been outstanding, and in one fell swoop, they have reversed the decadent political situation that has continued to decline, and they have been in the annals of history. Zhang Juzheng was originally the imperial teacher of the Wanli Emperor, and from the beginning of the young emperor's ascension to the throne, Zhang Juzheng did his best to assist the young emperor. As the first strict division of the Wanli Emperor, Zhang Juzheng was extremely strict with the Wanli Emperor, even strict to the extreme, but this also laid the groundwork for the complete rebound of the Wanli Emperor later. After Wanli ascended the throne, most of the political affairs were handled by Zhang Juzheng and him, and the Wanli Emperor was also very obedient to Zhang Juzheng, and the big and small matters were basically handed over to him, and he was also very relieved, and it was this harmonious relationship between the monarch and the subject that brought about decades of social stability and economic prosperity of the "Wanli Zhongxing".
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor, in order to strengthen the central imperial power, the prime minister system was abolished and replaced by a cabinet system. However, in the cabinet, cabinet members are also divided into high and low, of which the first assistant of the cabinet is above ten thousand people, which is basically equivalent to the existence of the prime minister. When Zhang Ju was alive, he was very strict with the Wanli Emperor, and there seemed to be harmony between the monarchs and courtiers, but in fact, Wanli was already dissatisfied with Zhang Juzheng, and the Wanli Emperor was the kind of emperor who was greedy and hedonistic in his bones. First, Zhang Ju was the emperor of Wanli, second, he was the first assistant of the cabinet, and third, Zhang Juzheng was also the person whom the Wanli Emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Cisheng, relied on. Therefore, the Wanli Emperor still had great respect for Zhang Juzheng, and this respect could actually be understood as suppression. Because the Wanli Emperor at this time was not yet fledgling, he still needed to rely on the assistance of his own imperial division, but the greater the suppression, the greater the back bounce.
Just after Zhang Juzheng's death, the Wanli Emperor completely broke out all his dissatisfaction, and the Wanli Emperor not only dug up a coffin and killed Zhang Juzheng's corpse, but also harmed Zhang Juzheng's descendants, Zhang Juzheng's family was immediately confiscated, and his clan and descendants were detained and tortured. At this point, the Wanli Emperor was like a beast that had just come out of the cage, no one could restrain it, and the Wanli Emperor had completely changed, becoming jealous and tyrannical.
The Wanli Emperor not only ignored the government, but also indulged in wine and began to expropriate and tyrannically encroach on the common people. The imperial court began to smoke miasma, partisan contradictions, disputes over the establishment of reserves, and so on. Faced with this chaotic situation, the Wanli Emperor began to be a hand-waving treasurer and simply stopped going to the court. The emperor did not care, and the political situation in the imperial court became more and more turbulent, and the contradictions accumulated more and more. Sure enough, within thirty years, the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of extinction under the peasant uprising of Li Zicheng, the king of the Ming Dynasty. The demise of the Ming Dynasty was greatly linked to the inaction of the Wanli Emperor in the later period.
So, the Wanli Emperor did not go to the dynasty for decades, what did he do all day long?
First of all, the Wanli Emperor liked art more, especially liked to listen to small songs, and he let the palace ladies and the little eunuchs sing. If anyone did not sing, the Wanli Emperor would lose his temper and would draw his sword and kill people. Listening to Xiaoqu and hearing the excitement, the Wanli Emperor casually came to the palace maid, and naturally many palace women in his own palace were fortunate by him, even the palace women in the palace of the Wanli Emperor's mother, the Empress Dowager Cisheng, could not escape his clutches. Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo, that is, the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor, he was the Wanli Emperor who lined the palace maid next to him when he listened to the rise of Xiaoqu, and as a result, this palace girl became pregnant, thus giving birth to Zhu Changluo.
Secondly, another hobby of the Wanli Emperor was to smoke big cigarettes, that is, to smoke opium. This big smoke is very addictive. Every day, the Wanli Emperor was lying on the bed listening to small songs while smoking a big cigarette. This big cigarette was easy to make people hallucinogenic, so it further encouraged the lust of the Wanli Emperor.
Third, the Wanli Emperor was still a very greedy emperor, even greedy to the point of perversion. In order to amass wealth, the Wanli Emperor can be said to have worked hard. He pondered all day, and finally came up with a strange solution. That is, to examine the performance of officials according to the money they pay tribute to. The more an official pays tribute, the greater his achievements and the more rapid his promotion. Not only that, every New Year's Festival, the Wanli Emperor would hold a festive feast, the purpose of which was to receive more dowry money. This was not enough, and even a new hut was built in the palace, and the Wanli Emperor could find an excuse to celebrate to collect the gift money. It is conceivable that in order to promote and curry favor with the emperor, officials will certainly be corrupt and go around scavenging the people's fat and people's ointment. The lives of ordinary people are naturally becoming more and more miserable.
Although the Wanli Emperor is absurd, we must adopt dialectical thinking to look at the Wanli Emperor when we look at things, and we cannot completely deny him. We can divide the wanli emperor's reign into two parts, the first half is the auxiliary stage of Zhang Juzheng, and the second half is the part of the Wanli Emperor's magic after Zhang Juzheng's death.
In the first half of the wanli emperor's reign, the wanli emperor and Zhang Juzheng and his subjects worked together with one heart and one mind, and the "wanli zhongxing" also appeared in Daming, the country was prosperous and strong, the people had enough food and clothing, and their lives were stable. Moreover, during the reign of the Wanli Emperor, three major expeditions were launched, "The Battle of Korea", "The Battle of Ningxia", and "The Battle of Bozhou", these three expeditions, regardless of the outcome, the three expeditions effectively consolidated the stability of the Ming Dynasty's frontiers, and the attacks of the Wokou on the southeast coast were also greatly reduced, bringing stability to the southeast coastal areas of Daming.
So, what kind of emperor was the Wanli Emperor? All the officials and friends have their own judgment in their hearts, and you are welcome to express your views.
Author: Guoxue that little thing. Daily one read, you are insisting, if you like, welcome to support.
Guoxue is a little thing