Speaking of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, it can be said that the emperors of each emperor are all strange, and almost every emperor has a lot of things to say. But there were also some emperors who were silent and did not attract much attention from others, such as the Ming Muzong we are talking about today.
Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's father and son, the gap is still a bit large, and even compared with the last emperor Chongzhen, there are not many stories, even if the Emperor of The Apocalypse, who can only play carpenters, is probably more famous than him.
But the emperor who is so low-key and has no sense of existence is really not a dimwitted king. And he also did some very special things, which were still very helpful to Daming. In particular, the Longqing switch lifted the sea ban, which is a very difficult task.
So was he a qualified emperor?
Emperor Mingmuzong Zhu Zaiquan was Jiajing's son, and Jiajing was not an ordinary emperor, originally he had no chance to be emperor, and Zhu Houzhao had no sons, so it was only this cousin's turn when it came to seniority. But I have to say that this person is very smart, and his IQ is definitely enough. It is not that Jiajing has done a bad job, but objectively speaking, the world he left behind is definitely not a daming at the peak.
After Emperor Mingmuzong ascended the throne, he began a series of reforms, the first of which was to correct his father's maladministration, reusing a group of loyal ministers of the Jiajing Dynasty who dared to offend the emperor and advise, and they were all suppressed by Jiajing without exception.
With the support of the emperor, they began to rectify and reform some of the ills of the Jiajing Dynasty, and it can be said that the New Deal involved many contents, including political, economic, military, diplomatic and other aspects, and through such reforms, the situation of the decline and chaos of the Jiajing Dynasty was reversed in one fell swoop.
He also knew that Daming was now in decline, and some money was not something that could be spent if it was not spent. Therefore, he also did a good job in the frugal area, canceling many unnecessary construction projects and reducing the expenditure of the court, which greatly reduced the burden on the national treasury.
It is worth mentioning the Longqing switch. The Ming Dynasty issued a sea ban from the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, and although Zhu Di had the official Zheng He to go to the West, he was very strict with civilian ships. Until Longqing switched the private overseas trade gained legal status.
Although only Yuegang in Haicheng, Fujian Province, is regarded as the only open "special zone", this also reflects the difficulty of this matter, how difficult it is to push forward, and how difficult it is to change a policy established since the founding of the country in history. It's not easy for him to make a difference.
In fact, he can't do this at all, although the woes are serious, but it didn't start with him. In fact, objectively speaking, he is a qualified emperor, but he is not a generation of masters.
Ming Muzong Zhu Zaituo has one of the biggest points that has been criticized, that is, he is lustful. It can be said that he died young after only six years on the throne, which is inseparable from this. In addition, some people think that Ming Muzong is a person who "forgives more than enough but is not enough", to put it bluntly, he thinks that he is a bit soft and cannot suppress those courtiers, resulting in incessant infighting in the cabinet.
Compared with the last emperor Chongzhen, he had one of the biggest differences in employment. Chongzhen does not use people and has a suspicious personality, which leads to a very poor relationship with his subjects. And Ming Muzong did not doubt the use of people, and it was not easy to let the courtiers play their talents.
In contrast, in the late Ming Dynasty, although he reigned for a short time, he was still an effective emperor.