Whether in ancient times or in modern times, identity and status are the object that everyone has been striving for. It's just that now in addition to status, everyone pays more attention to money, which is essentially the same. However, people nowadays are generally open competition, which is relatively better.
In ancient times, if you wanted to get any official position, or when you wanted to suppress someone. Not only is it necessary to suppress it on the surface, but also to carry out small actions in the dark. Moreover, the palace fights in history are actually very cruel, including not only the struggle between the emperor and the subjects, but also the struggle between the emperor and the emperor, and the struggle between the courtiers and the courtiers.
Or many people may say, how can there be a dispute between the emperor and the emperor? When the emperor abdicated, then everything was naturally the emperor's. In fact, things are not so simple, after all, in history, the emperor is unwilling to abdicate, resulting in the fact that the princes are already very old, and it is not unusual to be just a prince.
Therefore, the prince who has not been passed on the throne for a long time will be anxious and want the emperor to abdicate quickly, so the prince will take the risk and make a move to force the palace. However, there is only one result in such a struggle in the end, that is, the emperor and the emperor's father and son not only suffered heavy losses on both sides, but also became suspicious and turned against each other, which showed cruelty.
In fact, in addition to the struggle of the royal family itself, it is also easy for contradictions between ministers. The struggles between the ministers are often factional, and they will be harmed by other factions because of their respective interests, so they will make the move of excluding dissidents, forming parties for personal gain, and enriching themselves.
Today I will tell you about one of the more brutal struggles in the history of the Ming Dynasty- the dispute between the Donglin Party. Having said all that, I think some people don't know what the "Donglin Party" refers to. Presumably, Wuxi and readers and friends who have visited Wuxi have seen a local "Donglin Academy", which is said to be related to the Donglin Party.
So the question is, what kind of organization is the Donglin Party? Why was it "reckoned" in the fourth year of the Apocalypse? And what events did the Donglin party dispute begin? What happened to the end? And listen to the following to tell you about it.
I. The nature of the organization and structure of the Donglin Party
I believe everyone knows that in ancient times, many emperors wanted to show themselves to be a ming king. Therefore, there was a strong support for the discussion among the literati, giving them the opportunity to make more meaningful suggestions. So at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party appeared.
The Donglin Party was a bureaucratic class political group dominated by Jiangnan Scholars in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. Founded by Gu Xiancheng, a Ming Dynasty official, until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it took a total of 40 years. In the thirty-second year of the Wanli Dynasty (1604 AD), Gu Xiancheng and others restored the Donglin Academy where Yang Shi taught in the Song Dynasty, and gave lectures with Gao Panlong and Qian Yiben.
It attracted a large number of benevolent and righteous people to study here, and these people were called "Donglin Party" or "Donglin people". In fact, the "party" of the Donglin Party has two meanings, and when people in the party call themselves, "party" means comrades and comrades-in-arms. For Wei Zhongxian's eunuch clique, "party" means "forming a party for personal gain."
When Gu Xiancheng, Gao Panlong, and Qian Yiben were lecturing at Donglin Academy, it coincided with the intensification of social contradictions at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, in the name of satirizing the government and commenting on the officials, the Donglin people exercised the act of shielding the landlords and fighting for the profits of the rich merchants.
Although, on the surface, they also put forward positive slogans such as honesty and honesty, opening up the way of speech, revitalizing the rule of officials, and eliminating ills. However, in essence, they became the spokesmen of large landlords and large merchant interest groups, and vigorously obstructed the taxation and disaster relief carried out by the imperial court.
The actions of the Donglin Party members were fiercely opposed by Wei Zhongxian, the core figure of the eunuch clique at that time. After all, Wei Zhongxian wanted to rely on landlords and merchants to pay taxes and gain benefits. As a result, there was a difference in political views between Wei Zhongxian and the Donglin Party, which then developed into a fierce party struggle in the late Ming Dynasty.
The eunuch clique, on the other hand, pretended to be the emperor's sidekick, and often used their power to loot the people's fat and people's ointment. Therefore, when the Donglin Party was founded, the anti-Donglin Party's castration party also began to be gradually formed, and the two forces began to struggle endlessly.
Second, Zhu Yu used the Donglin Party heavily
Speaking of Zhu Youxiao, the Emperor of the Apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty, I believe that many people only remember him for reusing eunuchs and ignoring the government. He also ordered a crackdown on the Donglin Party, an emperor who would only concentrate on being a carpenter. But what everyone may not know is that the Donglin Party is actually a favorable supporter of Zhu Youxiao's ascension to the emperor.
The thing is, when the last emperor, Zhu Changluo, died, he did not make his favorite concubine empress. So the concubine blocked the palace door after the emperor died, so that all the people could not go to see the emperor. In this way, Zhu Youxiao, who was originally the crown prince, had no way to inherit the throne. Therefore, at that time, the Donglin Party pushed Zhu Youxiao to be emperor, which allowed him to successfully ascend to the dragon throne.
At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Zhu Youxiao was indeed very grateful to this group of people. Because there was no such group of people, it was estimated that they were nothing, so many of them were promoted. Among them were Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Zhao Nanxing, Gao Panlong, and many other upright men, who were entrusted with high-ranking officials in the dprk.
Moreover, with the assistance of the Donglin Party, Zhu Youxiao quickly promoted Sun Chengzong, Yuan Keli, Yuan Chonghuan, and other border guards in the early days of his reign. For a time, the Ming Dynasty bureaucracy was clarified. Moreover, Colonel Zhu You also attached great importance to the Donglin party figures, and it can be said that they obeyed their words and plans.
However, over time, Zhu Yu found out that something was wrong. This is because at that time, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, many political parties had been derived, and the various political parties fought with each other, making the court very chaotic.
At this time, the Donglin Party not only did not help him solve his troubles, but on the contrary, it was still the same as before. Impeach this official today, impeach that official tomorrow. It was also the Donglin Party members who arbitrarily excluded talents for their own selfishness, which made Zhu Youxue decide to start suppressing this group of People in Donglin.
3. Zhu Yu's favorite eunuch Wei Zhongxian
It was also Zhu Youxiao's favor of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian that he would leave such a deep insult. In fact, the author thinks he should know what kind of person Wei Zhongxian is, but he has no way to do it. Although the Donglin Party at that time was still alive and well as before, it could help him distinguish which courtier's merits were right and wrong.
However, the Ming Dynasty at that time was not a heyday, and the country had many external troubles in addition to internal troubles. Therefore, the duties of the Donglin Party cannot be easily removed from their posts just for the sake of a few wrong things done by the ministers, after all, there is a shortage of talents at the time of employment.
However, the Donglin Party will only move its mouth. There was really no practical skill, so Zhu Yu did not want to listen to them at all. It was also in this situation that the appearance of Wei Zhongxian undoubtedly helped Zhu Youxiao. Although this person often did a lot of cruel things for his own interests, to a certain extent, he was indeed able to help Zhu Youxiao solve the problem.
Therefore, Wei Zhongxian has always been trusted and valued, and Wei Zhongxian has also taken advantage of his position to start a misdemeanor. That is, Wei Zhongxian's satisfaction of his own demands at any cost has aroused the dissatisfaction of the Donglin Party and the people. They all thought that the emperor had reused traitors and was unwilling to listen to his own opinions. It was simply a faint prince, so he would impeach Wei Zhongxian more fiercely in the later stage.
Fourth, in the fourth year of the apocalypse, Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian, causing the Donglin Party to be "Waterloo"
Although there have been many years of open and secret struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party, after all, because the Donglin Party has a large number of people, and most of them still have identities, the people of the eunuch group do not dare to easily touch their bottom line. On the other hand, Wei Zhongxian was deeply loved by the emperor, and many things would not be pursued even if he knew, which led to a state of near equilibrium between the two sides.
However, the turning point of events occurred in June of the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624), when Wei Zhongxian sent people to the palace to beat the prince, and such a thing the Donglin Party would certainly not tolerate. However, the emperor's side only killed the perpetrator and hastily did something, obviously shielding Wei Zhongxian.
So Yang Lian proposed to impeach Wei Zhongxian, and this was actually the first time that such a thing had happened. Although the Donglin Party was also suppressing the castration party before, it was all carried out from the side. However, this time was different, Yang Lian chose to attack the eunuch group head-on. It is this impeachment that has completely pushed the contradiction between the two sides to a white-hot situation.
Unfortunately, Emperor Zhu Youxiao was still partial to Wei Zhongxian after all, and soon Donglin Academy was sealed. In October, the imperial court stripped chen Yuting of the official positions, the deputy capital Yushi Yanglian, and the imperial history Zuo Guangdou. Subsequently, Wei Zhongxian colluded with Keshi and began to deceive Zhu Youxiao, and began his own work as a mighty blessing, wantonly framing dissidents, resulting in Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, and Wei Dazhong's six gentlemen of Donglin being implicated and killed.
And this year, with the collapse of the Six Gentlemen of Donglin, the Donglin Party also suffered a tragic "Waterloo". After that, the Donglin Party began to collapse and soon perished.
In the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625), Gu Xiancheng's dismissal of officials and the imperial court ordered the destruction of Donglin Party lecture academies in various places. Moreover, Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen, the important border guards, were executed because of their good friendship with the six gentlemen of Donglin, and passed on the head of the nine sides. In October of the same year, Sun Chengxian, the governor of Jiliao, was forced to return to his hometown. It is a pity that the Qing army has the opportunity to take advantage of it.
summary:
Speaking of Zhu Youxiao, everyone's impression is that of a faint prince, but in history, he does not seem to be as incompetent as everyone says. Because at that time, as a newly ascended emperor, he had no one in his hands at all. In addition, the people in the Donglin Party are all literati and will only impeach others every day. When confronted with practical problems, they all stop talking.
For this reason, even if Zhu Youxue wanted to listen to their opinions, he still had to solve other problems. However, Zhu Yu did become unclear after he spoiled Wei Zhongxian. All power was given to a eunuch, and he himself cared about the carpenter's things all day long.
So much so that later when he passed the throne to his younger brother, the younger brother killed Wei Zhongxian. However, because the emperor had not cultivated his own people for so many years, and the Donglin Party had been destroyed. The court would become more chaotic, allowing the Qing army to take advantage of it, directly hastening the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
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