According to statistics, the group of civil officials in the Ming Dynasty's Wanli period has reached a huge number of 20,000 people, of which Jingguan accounts for about 10% of them.
Most of these civil servants still studied hard for ten years and became famous officials through the imperial examination. Therefore, their ideas are often the same, and it is easy to form a common interest collective.
In the face of such a collective interest, the Wanli Emperor broke out several conflicts with him, and in the end no one took advantage of it, and tragically ended it.
For example, when the Wanli Emperor was 12 years old, a skirmish with the civil bureaucracy broke out, when many people in the imperial court went to impeach, and his teacher Zhang Juzheng accused Zhang Juzheng of nepotism and not putting the interests of the state first.
At that time, the Wanli Emperor was still very young and still needed to rely on Zhang Juzheng to assist himself, so for these impeached officials, instead of adopting their opinions, they also dismissed them from their posts, the court staff of the court staff.
This matter passed for the time being, but the Wanli Emperor and the civilian official clique have since formed a bond.
Three years later, the civilian official clique ran out to do things again, when Zhang Juzheng's father died, according to the custom, he needed to make a report to the emperor, and then he could return to his hometown for three years.
For such a matter, the Wanli Emperor, who was still a minor, could not make up his mind, so he ran to consult with the empress dowager. The empress dowager was an elderly person, had seen a lot of the world, and she knew in her heart that Zhang Juzheng did not want to leave and return to his hometown at all, so she let the Wanli Emperor seize Zhang Juzheng's affection and refused his request.
This caused a large number of civil officials to be dissatisfied, and they were impeached, but Zhang Juzheng was protected by the Wanli Emperor and the Empress Dowager, and no amount of impeachment was useless, and the result was that a large number of civilian officials were severely punished!
The Wanli Emperor thus formed a second bond with the civil officials.
The above is only a small friction that broke out between Wanli and the civilian official clique, and the real big friction is still to come?
In 1582, which was a very important year for the Wanli Emperor, Zhang Juzheng died in this year, he could finally take sole power, and at the same time, in this year, he fell in love with a woman of low status, the palace maid Zheng Shi, the two have been inseparable since falling in love, without saying anything, and soon gave birth to a son.
Aiwu and Wu, the Wanli Emperor also loved this newborn son very much, so he thought of deposing Chang Liyou, and the civilian official clique resolutely resisted it, which led to a huge dispute over the foundation of the country.
The battle raged for fifteen years, and countless ministers were demoted and demoted, but countless ministers stood up against it.
In the end, the Wanli Emperor could only abandon the idea of abolishing Chang Liyou, but in exchange for a complete break with the civilian official clique, he was not interested in the government.
The dispute over the foundation of the country was a tragic conflict within the Ming Dynasty, in which neither the Wanli Emperor nor the civil official clique was the true winner.
The civilian official clique ostensibly succeeded in forcing the Wanli Emperor to abandon the abolition of Chang Liyou, but it also led to the Wanli Emperor's determination to completely close himself from then on, and such an outcome was not what the civilian official clique wanted to see.