In my impression, the emperor was in charge of the affairs of the whole country, and he must have been very busy all day. Although the emperor has supreme power and can do whatever he wants, there is really one emperor who has not been in the early dynasty for twenty-eight years.
He was the longest-reigning emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Wanli. He worked hard for the first ten years, changed from diligence to laziness in the middle ten years, and "ignored everything" in the last twenty-eight years. Although he was not a mediocre person, he lacked a little talent.
Later generations also had mixed evaluations of him, with some saying that although he did not go to the early dynasty, the country was well governed by him. Twenty-eight years without the early dynasty of the country will not be chaotic? There was really no chaos, not only no chaos, but even three wars were launched and won.
According to many historical records of the Ming Dynasty, it was the Wanli Emperor who was inconvenient to attend various activities due to poor physical reasons. This reason also disgusted many ministers of the imperial court, because they did not believe this reason, they believed that Wanli had been addicted to wine for a long time, which caused physical discomfort, saying that Wanli would only shirk responsibility.
So, was the Wanli Emperor really unwell as he said before he did not go to the court? This mystery has been buried for hundreds of years, until hundreds of years later, When Guo Moruo, then director of the Institute of Chinese History, and archaeologist Wu Han excavated the Dingling Tombs in the Ming Tombs, the truth surfaced.
In 1958, Guo Moruo opened the Ming Ding Mausoleum and restored the bones of the Wanli Emperor and found that his two legs were obviously not the same length. Based on the shape of the bones of the Wanli Emperor, archaeologists have concluded that he suffers from severe muscular dystrophy, that is, a leg disease.
This disability is a great humiliation for an emperor, the status of the Son of Heaven is supreme, and the image is very important, so he is very miserable about it, and does not want to appear in the court with this "limping" image.
There is also a related story about his leg disease. It is said that Wanli once had a dream that a fierce tiger bit his foot, and he was awakened, and while he was still undecided, he hurriedly issued a holy decree to starve the tiger alive. For this reason, no one fed the tigers in Xiyuan, and in the end, these tigers starved to death.
Although this story is a bit absurd, it comes from the "Wan Li Ye Zhi Zhi" written by Shen Defu, a celebrity who lived in Beijing at that time, and its credibility is very high. Therefore, Wanli did not go to the dynasty for 28 years, and there was a basis for hiding in the deep palace and not seeing anyone.
But this does not mean that he is a dimwitted monarch, although most of the time is enjoyed in the harem, he will still take some time to manage the government, not indifferent. Behind it, there is a powerful group of civilian officials working together to handle the government, and the country is still functioning normally.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Wan Liye