The historical Zhengde Emperor and Jiajing were two famous emperors in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Zhengde was the son of Emperor Hongzhi, and Jiajing was his nephew and a pair of cousins. In fact, in the eyes of historians, the evaluation of the two is not very good, believing that the Zhengde Emperor is deviant and that the Jiajing Emperor is favored and adulterous.
In fact, debunking the fog of history, I think there is some merit in both.
Zhengde
The Zhengde Emperor was the only son of the Hongzhi Emperor, and his brother had died very early, and the Hongzhi Dynasty was the zhongxing of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhengde inherited such a splendid country. Therefore, at the beginning of the reign, the situation inside and outside the Ming Dynasty was still good on the surface, heqing haiyan. Although it is deviant in the eyes of historians, it is actually intelligent and alert, and it is not constrained. In the end, Liu Jin, the king of Pingning, and the king of Anhua defeated the little prince of Mongolia, and therefore in modern times, historians have gradually viewed it rationally, for example, Shang Chuan, former president of the Ming History Society, gave affirmation to the Zhengde Emperor in the lecture "Who Misread the History of the Late Ming Dynasty". It is believed that the period of his reign coincided with the historical period when the individuality of the people began to be liberated.
He proclaimed himself a great general, went down to Jiangnan, and quelled the chaos, although the ministers of the DPRK and China obstructed him, but they never killed a single person because the ministers obstructed the advice. And because of the administrative team left by the Hongzhi Emperor, the Xianchen Manchu Dynasty. First there were Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, and then Yang Tinghe, and at the same time, he issued many edicts to reduce taxes and reduce taxes, so society continued to develop steadily during the Zhengde period.
In terms of personal morality, although it is fun and fun, it is not bad for the ministers and close attendants, such as the Eight Tigers headed by Liu Jin, Channing, Jiang Bin, and so on! Moreover, when Liu Jin was most rampant, he could not help Li Dongyang, which showed his intelligence.
Later light recorded its absurd side, in fact, he was more just pursuing the liberation of individuality. Later, due to falling into the water, he died after sixteen years of his reign.
And Jiajing had a mixed reputation because he reigned too long!
Jiajing
The throne of Jiajing, like Emperor Wen of Han, has its own elements of luck. After the death of the Zhengde Emperor, Empress Zhang and Yang Tinghe agreed to establish him on the throne. After taking the throne, the early period was still quite vigorous, and with the assistance of Yang Tinghe, Zhang Xiao, and Xia Yan, the country continued to develop, and in the early days of his reign, he issued an edict to eliminate the maladministration at the end of Zhengde and stayed away from eunuchs throughout his life. Because of these feats of his, there are so many in history
Jiajing ZTE
statement. However, in his later period, he neglected the government and advocated the Tao, allowing Yan Song's father and son to monopolize power for more than twenty years, Yang Jisheng, Shen Lian and other famous ministers and righteous men were imprisoned for impeaching the traitorous party, the people were starving, and the ming dynasty's national situation took a sharp turn. Wokou and Mongolia were rampant: Li Da broke through Datong, Xuanfu, directly to the Beijing Division, martial law in the capital, and the Jiajing Emperor allowed him to plunder the wealth and go north, which to a certain extent aggravated social contradictions. The undercurrents surged in the DPRK and China, and the Qingliu factions successively died on the arduous road of falling down. Fortunately, Xu Jie was patient and used a trick to bring it down.
Objective comparison
Therefore, objectively speaking, zhengde has more than enough political power. Although the level of Jiajing's power plot was superior among the many emperors of the Ming Dynasty, it was not put on the right path; in the early days, it also issued many edicts to reduce taxes, eliminate maladministration, and put an end to eunuchs interfering in politics, but in the later period, it began to become corrupt and degenerate! Although the Zhengde Emperor deviated from the scriptures, the overall trend of the Ming Dynasty during his reign was relatively stable, and there was no such thing as Yan Song's dictatorship, which caused anger and resentment.