Emperor Xiaozong of Ming's 16 emperors has always had a high evaluation among the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, saying that he was an emperor who was diligent and loved the people and worked hard to govern.
Zhu Guozhen, the first assistant of the Ming Wanli Cabinet, compared Zhu Youfan with Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Renzong of Song, and later generations also referred to Zhu Youfan's reign as "Hongzhi Zhongxing".
However, people have advantages and disadvantages, the emperor also has moral government and bad government, and like most emperors in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youfan also had a period of not falling in love with the dynasty, and he also favored eunuchs, and also loved to practice Dan and cultivate and was rewarded indiscriminately.
Today, let's talk about the maladministration of Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youfan.
Officials who are not selected by the officials, do not follow the formal procedures of the imperial court, and are directly appointed according to the emperor's preferences.
It is not that the emperor is as wise as a torch and can identify talents, most of these people who have broken the rules are craftsmen, monks, painters, medical officers and other people with special professional skills.
These people relied on their own skills to satisfy the interests and hobbies of the emperor, and the emperor liked them and wanted to keep these people by his side, and there were only two ways: either castrated into the palace as eunuchs, or he was made an official.
For humanitarian reasons, the emperor would generally choose the second option.
The first to do so was Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen, who sealed not only a few people, but often more than a hundred and ten people in one pass. These people are not serious civil servants, naturally they do not understand the affairs of the court, and it is a good hand to show off their cleverness and gain favor.
Therefore, since the establishment of the official, there has been a strange phenomenon in the Ming officialdom: there are even civilian officials who cannot read a word, and there are military attaches who have never held a bow and arrow.
In the eyes of the literati doctors at that time, these preachers were like shells on the dinner table—disgusting and annoying.
Of course, to a large extent, the existence of these officials is tantamount to undermining the fair and equitable system of selecting and promoting officials in the imperial court, and these people of the three religions and nine streams are mixed in the official field, breeding unhealthy trends, and hundreds of officials have repeatedly requested the dismissal of the officials, but Zhu Jianshen felt that this was not a big deal.
The emperor does not enter the oil and salt, but he can start from the prince. When Zhu Youfan was crown prince, the subordinate officials of the Eastern Palace often talked to him about the political affairs of the former dynasty, which people had high moral character and which people had a bad reputation.
Zhu Youfan also lived up to the expectations of the people, and as soon as he ascended the throne, he vigorously eliminated the maladministration of the previous dynasty, not only dismissing more than a thousand officials, but also deposing the eunuchs and foreign relatives, and the inactive cabinet chiefs and assistants were all dismissed.
Not only that, in addition to the daily early dynasty, Zhu Youfan also opened the "Noon Dynasty", which was really full of ambition and had an inexhaustible strength.
Like the fresh experience of ordinary people for new roles, it is clear that Zhu Youfan's political enthusiasm is strong at this time. But being emperor is also a chore, a manual job, and like all professions, it will eventually become repetitive and trivial day after day.
When the initial enthusiasm is exhausted, it is not an easy task to persevere and persevere. Therefore, only those who really like to be emperors can become emperors of the ages.
The "History of Ming" records that in the eighth year of Hongzhi, Zhu Youfan "looked at the dynasty gradually".
In fact, after three years of Hongzhi, Zhu Youfan stopped the Noon Dynasty. From the Joseon Dynasty's "Records of the Lee Dynasty", it can be found that Zhu Youfan was not so diligent in his reign during the fifth year of Hongzhi, and the reason for this may also be physical problems.
As a vassal state of Daming, Korea would send emissaries to the dprk every year, and from their records, it can be found that Zhu Youfan's body was not strong.
In the fourth year of Hongzhi, the Korean emissaries still had the impression of Zhu Youfan as "tomorrow's son is on top and diligent in politics", and in the fifth year of Hongzhi, he said that "the emperor does not hesitate", "the dynasty will see the sky is very thin", and the court meeting is also "not strict".
The Emperor of Joseon heard that Zhu Youfan was not in good health and thought that he had some illness, but Daming said, "The emperor is thin and not ill."
Zhu Youfan grew up outside the palace at an early age, and may have a poor foundation of his own, coupled with heavy imperial work, so after insisting on a few years, his body will not be able to eat, otherwise he will not die at the age of 36 due to a wind chill, take the wrong medicine, and die.
The emperor's physical fitness was poor, his resistance was weak, and he needed maintenance, and Zhu Youfan's thought was not to increase physical activity and enhance physical fitness, but to rely on the Taoist cultivation method and pray for longevity.
In addition, the empress dowager of the two palaces was also very devout about the Buddhist Tao, and under the influence of it, Zhu Youfan became addicted to it.
Monasticism must be guided by monks and suitable places must be built. These monks and craftsmen were naturally rewarded for their merits. As a result, Zhu Youfan followed his father's old path again and began to seal the official, even more than the number of people who were sealed during the Chenghua period.
After indulging in it, it involved most of Zhu Youfan's time and energy, sometimes the sun rose to the old age and began to start the early dynasty, and the feast was also less talked about, and the pressure was a few months. Although the daily work of various departments is carried out according to the rules, it is really not good for the emperor to be so unprofessional.
Finally, in the ten years of Hongzhi, led by Xu Pu, the first assistant of the cabinet, he gathered everyone's opinions and advised Zhu Youfan, and put forward many opinions and demands, what to stay away from the cultivation, to maintain the diligent appearance of the early days of Hongzhi, and ignored Zhu Youfan's own interests and hobbies and psychological appeals for maintaining his body.
However, the advantage of Zhu Youfan as a person is that he cares about the advice of his courtiers and does not ignore the feelings of others for his own preferences. Therefore, after Xu Pu played this time, Zhu Youfan summoned the cabinet ministers to hold a summons.
Do not underestimate this summons, because in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the early dynasty was basically a formality, and the handling of government affairs depended entirely on cabinet votes, and the emperor approved a batch, and even if the emperor was lazy, he did not even bother to approve it, and directly handed it to the celebrant to write "I know" the end of the matter, so the ministers often did not see the emperor for several years.
This summons was the first time since Zhu Youfan ascended the throne, and it had been 26 years since the last time the emperor summoned the pair, and it is conceivable how excited the Qunchen should have been, and at that time it was "hailed as a grand event by the dynasty".
The specific content of this "grand event" was only that the emperor and the cabinet members worked together and handled some copies together, and there was no discussion and discussion on major matters of the government at all.
In fact, it was common for monarchs to summon several emperors in the early Ming Dynasty, and many major events of the dynasty were decided in the process of summoning, and the understanding and handling of the current politics itself in the process of discussion was a gain for both the emperor himself and the ministers. Even Emperor Zhu Qizhen, who was considered to be the most "faint", often summoned his cabinet ministers to play the right thing.
In this regard, zhu Youfan of the "Xianming" was considered to have lost to Zhu Qizhen.
Zhu Youfan's interest in monastic matters was far from being dispelled by a single exhortation, and after summoning him to deal with the cabinet ministers, he continued to cultivate.
Alone and without friends, lonely and unheard of. The emperor still needs to accompany reading, let alone the emperor's cultivation. There was a eunuch in the palace named Li Guang, and when Emperor Xianzong of Chenghua Dynasty was deeply obsessed with cultivation, he also studied for a while, but at that time, the grade was too low to curry favor with Emperor Xianzong, and later after Zhu Youfan took the throne, he dismissed the official and canceled the title of monk, Li Guang, he thought that his ability was useless.
After all, all the experiences in life will be wealth, Zhu Youfan "inherits the father's business", regains the cultivation, and Li Guang's spring is coming.
Compared with the professional monastic priesthood, Li Guangjiu lived in the inner palace, and could always accompany Zhu Youfan to cultivate the Tao, and he would serve people, and soon Li Guang became Zhu Youfan's Daoist friend. Since Zhu Youfan had Li Guang, he was "Li Guang today, li Guang tomorrow", Li Guang's grace was unbeatable, even the Celebrant was not an opponent, and he became the leader of the Inner Province.
Those officials were also happy to befriend Li Guang, so as to maintain the favor of the emperor, and Li Guang relied on these officials to cultivate cronies in foreign dynasties, marry party henchmen, accept bribes, and stir up trouble.
Although Li Guang was also a very famous eunuch at that time, he was still weak in his ability to bring calamity to the country and the people, and failed to rank among the four powerful eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the risk of being favored by fangshu is relatively high, and once the matter of danjutsu is proved to be useless, the favor will be shaken.
Soon Li Guang's good days were over.
In the eleventh year of Hongzhi, Li Guang advocated the completion of the Yuxiu Pavilion, and then Zhu Youfan's daughter Princess Taikang had chickenpox, and those who were not accustomed to Li Guang took this opportunity to create public opinion, saying that the princess's chickenpox was caused by Li Guangjian's pavilion, and Li Guang, in order to prove his innocence, used Taoist medical techniques to treat the princess, and as a result, the medical skills were not refined, and the princess was cured to death.
A few days later, a fire broke out in the Qingning Palace, where Zhu Youfan's grandmother, Empress Zhou, lived. The two things were put together, and everyone thought that Li Guangjian's Yu Xiuting was too old to hammer.
Empress Zhou was already very dissatisfied with Li Guang, because the two major foreign relatives of the Hongzhi Dynasty, the family of Empress Zhou and the family of Empress Zhang, Li Guang was in line with Empress Zhang's family, and he did not offend Empress Zhou less by talking and doing things. A fire in the Qingning Palace completely exploded Empress Zhou's emotions, and she had a long conversation with Zhu Youfan that night.
Li Guang panicked when he learned that the Qingning Palace was on fire, and he could brag about the matter of Fang Shu when there was nothing to do, but he did not expect that the nothingness was disintegrated by the reality of nothingness, and now successive natural disasters and man-made disasters were hitting Li Guang's face, Li Guang knew how much water he had, Zhu Youfan was also the most filial piety, it was difficult to guarantee that he would not calm the empress dowager's anger and dispose of himself, the more Li Guang thought about it, the more afraid he was, and he actually committed suicide on the night of the fire.
However, it was obvious that Li Guang underestimated Zhu Youfan's feelings for him, and Zhu Youfan not only sacrificed the funeral for Li Guangjian Temple, but also Li Guang's death did not make Zhu Youfan question Li Guang's technique.
On the contrary, Zhu Youfan thought that Li Guang's family must have a strange secret technique, and specially ordered someone to search for Li Guang's house.
As a result, the odd recipe secret technique was not found, and an account book was searched out, which recorded: A certain sent yellow rice hundreds of stones, a certain sent white rice thousands of stones, and counted millions of stones.
Zhu Youfan was very puzzled and innocently asked, "Can Li Guang eat so much rice?" ”
The following person estimated that he rolled his eyes in his heart and replied: "Yellow rice is gold, and white rice is silver." ”
After this incident, Zhu Youfan finally re-examined the matter of cultivation, thought bitterly, decided not to indulge in cultivation, and turned his mind back to governing the country.
Knowing mistakes can be corrected, and good deeds can be great. The good emperor Zhu Youfan lost his way and returned, and in the later period of Hongzhi, he resumed the "day without looking at the dynasty", no longer relying on eunuchs, but was closer and more harmonious with the cabinet and the six ministers, and the literati and doctors were also very satisfied with such an emperor, and the history book evaluation did not skimp on the sentence "Hongzhi Zhongxing".