I remember that when I was studying history, the teacher told us about the history of China's reform, and the reforms in it were magnificent one by one, but what made people collapse was that the reforms in China's feudal era were basically all failures, and only two times were barely successful, one was the Shang martingale transformation method, and the other was Zhang Juzheng's reform.
However, although the Shang Martingale Transformation Law changed the fate of the country, Shang Martin himself was split by the car, and he was defined by the Qin Dynasty as a taboo symbol and was not allowed to be mentioned casually.
Another successful Reform of Zhang Juzheng, although it was only optimized to the maximum on the existing basis, Zhang Juzheng was also not allowed to die. He himself was almost exhausted, and his descendants were even more ruthlessly liquidated, and the scene was so tragic that it made people sad for China's reformers.
The story of Shang Martingale is certainly familiar to Chinese, after all, Shang Martin's method of killing himself has been circulating for thousands of years. But about the tragedy of Zhang Juzheng, in fact, many people are not very clear, and even we mistakenly think that Zhang Zhi is the one who landed softly.
According to historical records, before Zhang Ju came to power for reform, there were actually several vivid examples in front of him. The first case was naturally Yan Song, don't look at it later, they all scolded him as yan Song's old thief, but people used to be the best friend of Mr. Yang Ming, and once the most righteous youth representative. However, during his 9 years as an official in Nanjing, he witnessed all kinds of corruption, witnessed all kinds of bad people's glory and wealth, and the history of celebrities.
Therefore, Yan Song faced the ills of society, and his final choice was to give up his ideals and become the emperor's voicepiece. So Yan Song changed from the original dragon slayer teenager to a vicious dragon.
Then there was Mr. Hai Rui, the only one in the Ming Dynasty who never changed his original moral benchmark, and his bravery made him move forward like a sword, but even if he died in exchange for the awakening of the Ming Dynasty. But in the end, instead of dying, he became a flashy moral benchmark and was shelved until he died of depression.
Witnessing the two cases in front of him, Zhang Juzheng's heart must have also gone through a lot of suffering, because he once admired Yan Song very much, and later admired Hai Rui incomparably. But the tragedies of these two have sounded an alarm bell for him, and in the face of the chaotic pattern, where should he go?
Zhang Juzheng finally chose another path, that is, to first take Yan Song's path to gain power, and then to execute Hai Rui's will in this context.
This can be regarded as the head of the two families, so Zhang Juzheng killed his good friend and teacher Gao Gong, and was also associated with the eunuch, and even Empress Li was unclear, but he finally gained the power of the first assistant of the cabinet.
For example, in the Henan tax case, the government stipulates that 30% of the taxes are collected by the people, but the local officials collect 50%, and the other taxes are all full of private pockets. Zhang Juzheng struck a blow at them, including Erpinguan and Yushi, and was deposed by more than 30 officials. This move directly indicated that he was going to wage war against the entire bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty was shaken.
Not only that, Zhang Juzheng also implemented the examination method, requiring all the bureaucrats who did not contribute to the original work to be allowed to mix their lives, but should complete the indicators on time and on demand, and all the indicators that did not meet the standards should be demoted. Doing so again stabbed the entire bureaucratic honeycomb, but Zhang Juzheng persisted.
Just in the first two aspects, Zhang Juzheng has already achieved the goals of Hai Rui and Yan Song in their early years, but Zhang Juzheng's purpose is not only this, because the entire empire is not only the bureaucracy sucking blood, including the emperor and members of the royal family are also sucking blood.
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng, who was bent on justice, actually extended his scissors to his biggest bosses, The Wanli Emperor and Empress Li. I believe that when Zhang Juzheng made this choice, countless colleagues said that he was a fool, because he relied on these people to succeed, and these people were his food and clothing parents.
However, Zhang Juzheng still made a move, and when Empress Li held a birthday banquet and asked the state treasury to give more money, Zhang Juzheng refused on the spot. And with this, it was proposed that from now on, the royal budget should be greatly reduced, and it should be mainly frugal. Just this move completely angered Empress Li and the emperor.
After the history we all know, Zhang Juzheng can no longer work, the bureaucracy gave him a way out, that is, retirement, everyone does not hurt his family. But Empress Li was too cruel, and she resented Zhang Juzheng, so he did not allow Zhang Juzheng to leave, and he must let him die on the post until he died, and also let his family die without a place to bury.
Zhang Juzheng knew the end of his continued work, but looking at the fierce eyes of the empress dowager and looking at this flower, the old man still persevered. As a result, Zhang Juzheng died in his post, and many scholars believe that Zhang Ju died of exhaustion.
It can be said that Zhang Juzheng's reform was successful, and he himself fought until the last moment, which all reflects his greatness. However, although Zhang Juzheng died, the life of the Ming Dynasty was taken over again, but his family was about to suffer.
Because Zhang Juzheng did not retreat in a rapids, when he died, the entire civilian official group was frantically retaliating against him. At the beginning, more than 60 officials wrote together, saying that Zhang Ju was bringing calamity to the country and the people, and that he was also corrupt and perverted the law, suppressing the emperor's consumption on the one hand, and consuming extravagantly on the other.
The emperor had already looked at it unfavorably, so he directly copied Zhang Juzheng's home through the advice of the chancellor. Originally, according to the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, raiding the family did not harm the family, at most it was only to loot the money, even if it was the most serious crime, as long as it was not to kill the head, those family members could be exiled and their lives were guaranteed.
However, the angry emperor and angry officials did the most shameless thing, they surrounded Zhang Juzheng's family in a broken house in the suburbs, which was tens of days. There was no water or food for dozens of days, and every day in fear of being killed by people outside.
In this despair, several members of Zhang Juzheng's family died of fright and starvation, and all the people inside were locked up in eating and drinking, and everyone seemed to be a beggar in a refugee camp.
When the emperor gave the final order, the officers and soldiers opened the door and saw a poignant scene. There were starving corpses, there was a stinking smell, and there were some poor people like beggars, each of whom had only fear and despair in their eyes, but absolutely no one dared to imagine that they were once the family of Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, after the siege is lifted, the days do not necessarily mean good. Because then these officials insulted and beat Zhang Juzheng's family and forced confessions. Zhang Juzheng's son chose to commit suicide by hanging himself, Zhang Juzheng's second son starved to death on the way to distribution, and some people were badly hit and died on the spot.
What was even more desperate was that the little emperor ordered that from now on, eunuchs should be specially monitored by Zhang Juzheng's descendants to prevent them from rebelling. This is the fate of Zhang Juzheng's family, a great reformer, a great man full of idealism, after a hundred years of continuing the life of the Ming Dynasty, but in exchange for such treatment, this is how ironic, the reform of the feudal era is how heavy two words.
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