Among the many emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the one who was most deeply criticized was Zhu Yijun, the Ming Emperor, who began the turning point of the Ming Dynasty from prosperity to decline. Because in the fifteenth year of the Wanli Calendar when he was in power, the glory of the Ming Dynasty that Zhu Yuanzhang had single-handedly fought down fell.
This point in time is wonderful, because many famous figures of the Ming Dynasty met at this point in time. These figures are the representatives of the strength and spirit of the Ming Dynasty up and down, and they are also the epitome of the special political society of the Ming Dynasty.
In the special social environment of the Ming Dynasty, from the emperor to the commoners were kidnapped by an invisible force. Even the first assistant, Zhang Juzheng, could have left his name in the history of Qingqing, but he encountered "the fall of the dynasty, and the tens of thousands of people criticized and written down."
Zhang Juzheng can be said to be the most outstanding politician of the Ming Dynasty, and during his tenure as the first assistant, the Ming Dynasty's national strength and prosperity proved his importance. In the entire political clique of the Ming Dynasty, his ability was too prominent, and his light was too bright. And his status is not low, he is also the teacher of the Myōjin Sect.
He is no less than in the power struggle. Originally, when Wanli first succeeded to the throne, the first auxiliary was the high arch. Zhang Juzheng is only a deputy. This obviously does not satisfy Zhang Juzheng's ambitions.
Zhang Juzheng made a plan at this time, he took advantage of the worries of the empress dowager and the noble concubines at that time about Wanli's young age and fear that someone would usurp the throne, and said that Feng Bao went to say that Gao Gong had the intention of rebellion. Gao Gong quickly stepped down, with Zhang Juzheng as the first assistant.
Zhang Juzheng's strength was also manifested in his governance of state affairs, and after assisting the Jiajing Emperor and the Longqing Emperor in creating a prosperous world, he assisted the Wanli Emperor in creating the situation of "Wanli Zhongxing". He was especially harsh on the little emperor, leading the Wanli Emperor to once regard him as a "spiritual idol".
During his tenure as first assistant, he did many great things, the most famous of which was the reform "Whip Law", which was another major reform in the history of China's field endowment system after the two tax laws of the Tang Dynasty, which unified the enlistment and changed the extremely chaotic and seriously uneven conscription system at that time.
The practical benefit was that the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty had fundamentally improved. At that time, the treasury had as much as four million taels of silver, and together with the silver deposits of Taicang, the total amount was about seven or eight million taels. The grain stored in Taicang alone can be used by the people of Beijing and the garrison for ten years.
However, the impact of this situation created by Zhang Juzheng was that although the country had prospered, the emperor's power had almost disappeared. This is also why in "The Name of the People", Gao Xiaofeng will say, "I just think that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty is too difficult to be, the minister is good, secretary, don't you think that the ministers of the Ming Dynasty are very strong?" ”
Finally, when the Wanli Emperor was 19 years old, this generation of famous courtiers died of stomach diseases. Those bureaucrats who had been suppressed by Zhang Juzheng inevitably began to stir up trouble, so they began to list Zhang Juzheng's various crimes to the emperor, and the other side of Zhang Juzheng was completely pulled out. This "spiritual idol" of the Wanli Emperor was completely ruined.
Although a generation of rulers died, the Wanli Emperor found that although he had great power, he could not avoid the shackles of this group of civil officials. Especially their moral bondage.
This kind of moral bondage mainly stems from the idea of "science" governing the world that was promoted in the early Ming Dynasty, and this kind of theoretical thought that has been handed down from Zhu Xi has always bound the people of this era. The emperor is certainly no exception. And the requirements for the emperor are even more stringent.
This can be seen from his previous emperors, such as the Jiajing Emperor who created the prosperous world before, who was actually scolded by Hai Rui for being a dog and bloody head, and Hai Rui gave a recital to the Jiajing Emperor in 1565, in which he directly attacked the Jiajing Emperor: vanity, cruelty, selfishness, suspiciousness and stupidity, and directly pointed out that the emperor was not attentive enough to political affairs, and made the Jiajing Emperor angry enough.
However, the Jiajing Emperor not only did not punish Hai Rui, but also made him promoted to an official. Was it really the meritocracy of the Jiajing Emperor? Obviously not, because the Jiajing Emperor was also bound by the dogma of "science", at least on the surface, he must also understand the principle of "understanding the general body".
Because Hai Rui is an absolute "clean official" and a "good official". Especially when he was a county commander in Chun'an, all kinds of things were done by himself and very diligently. But it is rigid, sticking to Zhu Xi's set.
His criterion for the judgment of the official case was: "Whoever is suspicious of a lawsuit should rather bend to his brother than his brother; rather than his uncle, rather than his nephew; rather than the poor, rather than the poor, rather than the rich; rather than be foolish and straight, rather than stubborn." Things are in the struggle for industry, instead of Qu Xiaomin, Ning Qu Township Eunuch, in order to save the disadvantages also. ”
That is to say, when the facts of the case cannot be sorted out for a while, take care of the weak party or the respected party according to the elderly, the rich and the poor, etc. In today's parlance, this practice is to condone those who are "disrespectful to the old." This kind of judgment standard that only looks at morality and does not look at reason is simply absurd.
Although Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui each had different personalities and ways of doing things, they both reflected some characteristics of the Ming Dynasty officialdom at that time. Under the prevalence of the Ming Dynasty's "Eight Strands of Scholars" and "Theory of Science", this moral force was a force that was better used than military force.
In the face of the relationship between the monarch and the courtier, the courtiers can use this power to suppress the behavior of the monarch, and in the face of the struggle between the imperial courts, these civil officials use moral power to suppress the other side. Hai Rui's incorruptibility is only a "deformed product" under this moral force.
Therefore, the Wanli Emperor found that as soon as he ascended to the court, these civil officials began to compete to show their "incorruptibility" and "loyalty", and to become "advisors". All the personal affairs of the emperor must be shaken out by them, whether it is too spoiled concubines or not filial piety to the empress, they must be criticized by these officials. Wan Li then simply turned his heart sideways and did not go to the dynasty. Let it be scolded.
The author of "Fifteen Years of Wanli" pointed out to the point that "moral kidnapping" was an important reason for the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
"In the past two thousand years in China, morality has replaced the legal system with morality, and to the Ming Dynasty, this is the crux of all problems."
He likened the structure of Chinese society to the social structure of the "submarine sandwich": "Above a piece of bread, the monarch is large and undignified, and below is also a piece of long bread, which is thousands, tens of thousands of peasants." Among them is the Confucian moral principle, that is, the concept of respect and inferiority. None of them is economically and humanly human, and none of them can be transformed into use.
He wrote seven chapters in the book, which were written about the supreme ruler, Emperor Wanli, the university scholar Shen Shixing, the first assistant Zhang Juzheng, the model bureaucrat Hai Rui, the liberal intellectual Li Zhen, and the anti-Wu hero Qi Jiguang.
There are also many contradictions that exist between them: such as the contradiction between the emperor and the courtiers, the contradiction between conservatives and liberals, the contradiction between officials and officials, and so on.
According to the author's own account, he wrote the book for seven years, during which time he went through a large number of historical materials. Try to restore the "real history" to a certain extent with rigorous brushwork. In this book, we can see the tireless efforts of a scholar to understand the real reasons for the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty.
Unlike those fictional novels, this book is a truly professional interpretation of history. To read history, we must read history even more. It can't just be like a novel, but history has passed and will leave traces. After reading the book, there must be a harvest.
Some big V commented that after reading this book, he was really qualified to "brag" and say that he understood the Ming Dynasty.
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