The Ming and Qing dynasties are the last two great unified feudal dynasties in Chinese history, which are dynasties with a high concentration of monarchy, and at the same time they are more and more conservative dynasties, the Ming Dynasty has a sea ban, the Qing Dynasty is a further closed country, and in the self-closure, you step in place, self-satisfaction, others are strong step by step, and in the end, they will be beaten if they are backward, that is, many land-cutting indemnities in the late Qing Dynasty.
It can be said that the Ming and Qing dynasties as a whole were conservative, not advancing or retreating dynasties, a slight difference is that although the Ming Dynasty was stuck in its own way, it also knew how to take the strengths of others, and in its last years, in the face of Western sharp weapons, it also knew to learn to imitate, such as imitating the red-clad cannon. In the Qing Dynasty, they did not think much of the advanced weapons, and even after the First Opium War, they did not catch up, until the Second Opium War, which was beaten too hard, began to learn to imitate Western sharp weapons.
In such a big era as the Ming and Qing dynasties, among the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, plus the 12 emperors of the Qing Dynasty, a total of 28 emperors, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di can be said to be the only exception, can be described as the most far-sighted person, can be said to be the last world emperor of China.
What does it mean to draw the point here, the last world emperor?
The meaning of the world emperor is that the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, in the environment of self-sufficiency, will only consider the current situation, at most the surrounding situation, which is not good, that is, the center of gravity is on their own acres and three points of land, will not consider how the outside world is, will not see what the world is like, and Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's overall view is to look at the world, not to be content with the status quo, has a very far-reaching vision.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established a series of systems, which can be said to be a negative lockdown doctrine, but after Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ascended the throne, it was contrary to it.
Judging from the relocation of the capital to Beijing and the Five Expeditions to Mongolia, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di adopted the method of attacking instead of defending, deepening his control over the north, and wanting to be once and for all.
Among the Han Tianzi, it was Ming Chengzu Zhu Di who repeatedly crossed the desert and fought against the nomads. However, the five conquests of Mongolia, although the achievements are brilliant, but the effect is not great. There are two main reasons: first, the Mongol departments saw the situation is not good, can not fight and run, give full play to the mobility of the nomadic people, the vast steppe you can not find, this point is indeed unsolvable in the era of cold weapons, unlike the Yuan Dynasty ancestor Kublai Khan attacked the Song in the south, even if the Southern Song Dynasty wanted to avoid war like this, there was no such environment; the second is that the Ming Dynasty was successfully founded through the Northern Expedition, and because of this, the Ming Dynasty did not have the conditions to adopt such means of control over Mongolia as the Qing Dynasty, even if it was occasionally gentle, the effect was not good. Because the beams on both sides are too big.
Secondly, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di also opened up territory on a large scale in other directions, the northeast was set up in the Nuer Gandu Division, the northwest set up Hamiwei, the southwest set up Guizhou Chengzheng Envoy Department, and also recovered Annam, which had been established for hundreds of years since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
The reason why Ming Chengzu Zhu Di did this, some people think that he is following the example of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, to build an unprecedented vast empire, to establish a world empire, so that there is an obvious advantage that trade can be developed unprecedentedly, after all, the founding emperor Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang left a state-locked system, the restrictions on foreign trade are too large, in this case, want to free trade, want to eliminate this huge restriction on transportation, without destroying the ancestral system, can only expand the territory.
In the case of Zheng He's voyage to the West, many people think that it is just an act of flaunting force and might, but in fact, it is not so, how can this kind of large-scale navigation behavior be so simple.
There are roughly two reasons, one is to increase the scope of tributary trade, and to promote national prestige. The second is the combination of the recovery of Annam and the establishment of such "enclaves" in Nanyang as the Old Port Propaganda and Consolation Division, which may have military intentions and further radiation control over the surrounding areas.
So in summary, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di can indeed be said to be the last world emperor of China, but unfortunately, Before Ming Chengzu Zhu Di had the lock-in ancestral system left by his father Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, there were too many restrictions, and there were his own period of reign, it seemed that the Eastern Expedition to the West was full of gains, but there was no obvious effect of embarrassment, such as the Five Expeditions to Mongolia, the actual effect was general, and after him, the later emperors immediately adopted a passive state of conservatism, which made the territory of the Ming Dynasty shrink rapidly and significantly. Instead of living under the Ming Dynasty Zhu Di, it was a game of dead chess, making this world emperor, like a flash in the pan, although it was eye-catching, it did not have a far-reaching impact, let alone change the direction of self-sufficiency in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
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