Chairman Mao was very objective in his evaluation of the emperor, but directly rebuked the emperor for being "faint and old."
【Chairman Mao's Comments on the Jiajing of Successive Emperors】
Among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the longest reign was the Wanli Emperor, who served as emperor for 48 years, followed by the Jiajing Emperor, who served as emperor for 45 years.
Jiajing was quite accomplished in the early stages, and with the assistance of Zhang Xuan, the first assistant of the cabinet, he did several major things, which made the Ming Dynasty have a little improvement, and the "History of Ming" praised: "At the beginning of Emperor Sejong's imperial court, he tried to eliminate all maladministration, and the world was suddenly ruled. However, Jiajing soon became addicted to the alchemy of Dan cultivation and handed over the jiangshan to the traitorous minister Yan Song, causing the people's resentment to boil.
When Chairman Mao was reading the "History of Ming," he looked down on the Jiajing Emperor and commented on him: "When he was practicing Dan and cultivating, he fainted and decayed, and he sat in the world for more than forty years, but he did not do anything. ”
Academically, there has been debate about where the beginning of the decline of the Ming Dynasty began, some say it began in Wanli, but more experts believe that it should start with Jiajing.
In the "History of Ming", Jiajing wrote: "If there are many troubles at the time, it will be tired on the side, and the thieves will be cursed inside, but advocating Taoism, enjoying the Sutra of Worship, building prosperity, the government and Tibet are poor, and the cause of prosperity and peace in more than a hundred years will be gradually replaced." ”
Judging from this record, the downhill road of the Ming Dynasty should have started from Jiajing. Therefore, it is perfectly normal for Chairman Mao to have such a bad evaluation of Jiajing.
So, what historical facts are Chairman Mao's bad comments about Jiajing based on?
First of all, Jiajing ignored the government and politics, but pursued immortality and practiced Dan cultivation.
At that time, a person living to be sixty or seventy years old was already a high lifespan, but Jiajing's goal was to live forever, to live for six or seven hundred years.
Because Jiajing grew up in the jingchu land, which is the birthplace of Taoism, he believed in this thing since he was a child. Later, in order to pursue immortality, he was more fond of these things, especially in the middle of his reign, which was almost crazy, and he did not go to the court every day and concentrate on refining Dan.
Around him, there are also a bunch of Daoist monks under the guise of immortality, fooling him every day, and using all kinds of messy tricks, for example, some Daoists say that alchemy should be practiced with the menstruation of young women, which is perverted enough?
However, the Jiajing Emperor actually believed it, so he found many young women and summoned them to the palace, not allowing them to eat, but only drinking dew, so as to keep them "clean".
Who can bear to drink dew alone? Therefore, these palace ladies conspired to get rid of Jiajing, and put a rope around Jiajing's neck late one night.
But unfortunately, because the palace women were too nervous, the rope was tied into a dead knot, and the Jiajing Emperor escaped the disaster, and these palace women were all executed by Ling Chi.
It is reasonable to say that with this lesson, the Jiajing Emperor should have relented a little, but he felt that the reason why he was difficult not to die was because his sincerity over the years had touched the gods, and he was blessed with great difficulty not to die, so Jiajing was even more religious.
Secondly, it is to build a Taoist temple in a big way.
At that time, the Wukou invaded, and the military expenditure was originally very large, but in order to satisfy Jiajing's desires, the government continued to cut money from the common people, making the contradictions bigger and bigger, and the people began to rebel in various places.
Finally, Jiajing likes to use torture, whoever gives him a slap on the back, he likes whomever he likes, and whoever gives him advice will use torture to serve him.
Inspector Yushi Yangjue really couldn't bear to look at it, so he risked his life to enter the counsel, and shangqu said: "At the beginning of Your Majesty's ascension to the throne, he was energetic and promising, and tried to show the world with the "Tribute to a Proverb". For several years, the Imperial Xijian was abandoned through the feast. The big and small courtiers thanked the counselors, but they did not see the holy face. Chen Fu rebelled, and did not get a word of heaven. Fear of people's hearts becoming more and more sluggish, Chinese and foreign countries are becoming more and more scattered, and the weather of non-Longgu monarchs and courtiers is also respectful. ”
At this point, the pan was fried, and Jiajing directly threw him into prison, and all kinds of torture were used.
When Chairman Mao read the biography of Ming Shi Yang Jue, he saw this passage and commented on it: "There is no beginning. ”
These four words are from the "Book of Poetry, Daya Dang", and the full text is: "Swing God, the people's enlightenment." Threaten God, and his destiny is multiplied. Born to be a people, their lives are bandits. There is no beginning, and there is an end. ”
Chairman Mao's annotation of these four words is actually saying that the Jiajing Emperor, who was originally quite accomplished when he first became emperor, but later abandoned the government and government, brought calamity to the country and the people, and became like this.
Of course, Chairman Mao's appraisal of history is not simply a matter of appraisal of history, but of taking history as a mirror and applying it to China's revolution and construction.
In 1945, Chairman Mao and Huang Yanpei had an in-depth discussion of the problem of the historical cycle rate, which is the famous "cave pair".
Mr. Huang Yanpei said: "I was born for more than sixty years, I did not say what I heard, what I saw with my own eyes, the so-called 'its rise and fall, its death is also sudden', a person, a family, a group, a place, and even a country, many units have not been able to jump out of the dominance of this cyclical law, dafan concentrated at the beginning, there is no one who does not care about anything, no one does not work hard, maybe at that time hardships and hardships, only from the death of a lifetime." Since the environment gradually improved, the spirit gradually let go. Some of them, because they last for a long time, naturally have inert attacks, from the minority to the majority, to the cultivation of the atmosphere, although powerful, can not be reversed, and can not be remedied. Some areas have expanded step by step, and some have expanded out of natural development, some driven by the desire for merit and forced development, and when cadres and talents are gradually exhausted and difficult to cope with, the environment has become more and more complicated. Inevitably, the control is becoming weaker. In a history, there are also those who are 'slack in government', there are also those who 'die in government', and there are also those who 'seek glory and humiliation', in short, they have not been able to jump out of this cyclical law. From the past to the present, what I have a little understanding of the CCP monarchs is that I hope to find a new way to jump out of the domination of this cyclical law. ”
After listening to Huang Yanpei's blunt remarks, Chairman Mao was very happy and said to him: "We have found a new road, and we can jump out of this cyclical rate." This new path is democracy. Only by allowing the people to supervise the government can the government dare not slacken off; only when everyone rises up and takes responsibility, will no one perish in the government. ”
After listening to this, Mr. Huang Yanpei also agreed very much, believing: "Only by making the affairs of every place public to the people in every place can we make the land and the land rich, and everyone get things, and use democracy to break this cyclical law, I am afraid it is effective." ”
It's a bit far away, back to the Jiajing Emperor.
After Yang Jue was thrown into prison, another harder bone came again, that is, the famous Hai Rui.
In order to show his determination, Hai Rui bought a coffin, entrusted his family to his friends, and then wrote a letter to the Jiajing Emperor, also known as "The First Matter in the World".
At the end of this letter, Hai Rui wrote bitterly: "The husband and the prince are not righteous, the position of the subject is unknown, and the first thing in this world is also the first thing." What is more to say about this? The minister is obedient to the outside, the minor minister is afraid of sin and is obedient, and His Majesty has changed his deeds without knowing it, and the subject hates everyone. It is to be loyal to the dead and loyal to his majesty. Between the opposites and easy directions, and the rule and non-rule of the world, the peace and uneasiness of the people and things, His Majesty is attentive, the clan community is fortunate, and the world is very fortunate! ”
However, the Jiajing Emperor had been completely blinded by the alchemy and cultivation, and had thrown Hai Rui into prison.
When Chairman Mao read the biography of Ming Shi Hai Rui, he was impressed by Hai Rui's outspoken spirit of not being afraid of death, and during the Shanghai Conference in April 1959, he called on everyone to dare to give opinions, saying: "The Ming Emperor was harsh on his subordinates, and the court staff could not block the way of speech until he died. It is nothing more than five fears: not afraid of dismissal, not afraid of dismissal, not afraid of divorce, not afraid of going to jail, not afraid of killing heads. Therefore, we must learn from the spirit of Hai Rui and dare to criticize Jiajing. ”
Chairman Mao felt that he had not yet put it in place, and said to everyone: "Hai Rui, a man who scolded the emperor very badly, scolded Jiajing as 'every family is pure', and wrote this in the shangshu to the emperor, which is very rude." The emperor looked at it, threw it on the ground several times, picked it up several times, looked at it, thought about it, and felt that Hai Rui was still a good person. ”
Finally, Chairman Mao said to everyone: "I have gone out of my way to recommend Hai Rui to everyone in the hope that you will tell the truth so that we can correct policy mistakes in a timely manner. You must also criticize my shortcomings, and now that we have created a situation, we will not criticize my shortcomings much, and you can also criticize them by means of knocking on the side. ”
From Chairman Mao's remarks, we can truly see that he really wants to hear the truth from everyone.