After Zhang Juzheng's death, the conservative forces opposed to reform quickly counterattacked, Zhang Juzheng was stripped of all official titles, the door was raided, the magistrate crucified the Gate of the Zhang family in order to welcome the shangyi, so that more than ten people starved to death, Zhang Juzheng's eldest son Zhang Jingxiu could not bear the punishment and committed suicide, and his brother and second son were filled with military smoke, "defeated behind them".
Zhang Siwei, who succeeded him as the first assistant to the cabinet, played Zhang Juzheng's "expropriation without art, and the government decrees were obedient", proposing to "clean up the troubles and harshness". As a result, officials who supported the reform, such as the official Shangshu Liang Menglong, the Rebbe Shangshu Xu Xuemo, and the Bingbu Shangshu Zhang Xueyan, were all excluded and persecuted, and "rebuked and exterminated." The "Examination Law" and "One Whip Law" that Zhang Juzheng vigorously promoted were also abolished one after another, and the reform completely failed.
In fact, Zhang Juzheng had expected this situation
In fact, Zhang Juzheng realized very early that he might be liquidated after his death. In the fifth year of the Wanli Calendar, Zhang Juzheng's father died, and within a day he received three edicts from the emperor in succession, and the magistrate cited it as a major event and built the "Three Edicts Pavilion" in Jiangling to commemorate it. After Zhang Juzheng knew about it, he wrote a letter to Huguang Inspector Zhu Lian, and the letter read, "On a different day, when the situation is different, the high platform is tilted, the curve is flat, and I can't have it, but this is just five miles to pave a pavilion ear." ”
In the ninth year of the Wanli Calendar, when the little emperor was already eighteen years old, Zhang Juzheng proposed "begging for rest", and he asked the emperor to "give the bones of his subjects to live in their hometown, and the Festival of Shuchen could be completed". Although the reforms he presided over at that time had not yet been fully successful, the heavy government affairs, intricate interpersonal relations, and the heavy resistance of the New Deal made Zhang Juzheng feel very uneasy, and he had to make a deep plan, hoping that he could retreat in a hurry and save the courtiers. However, Empress Li vetoed Zhang Juzheng's request and instead asked him to assist Wanli until he was thirty years old.
Judging from the above several events, the more later, Zhang Juzheng felt the danger of being liquidated, but in the bureau, it was not that he could quit if he wanted to, and the reforms he promoted had become a wave, enveloping him and a large number of officials to keep moving forward, and it was impossible to stop. And those whose interests have been damaged by the reform have long been spying on Zhang Juzheng, as long as there is an opportunity, they will definitely fight back fiercely, whether Zhang Ju is dead or Zhi shi, as long as he is not in the position of the first assistant, he will definitely be liquidated.
Why Zhang Juzheng can promote reform
The reason why Zhang Juzheng's reform was able to be smoothly promoted was mainly due to two aspects, one was supported by the imperial power, and the other was supported by eunuchs.
Whether a minister can enter the cabinet during the Ming Dynasty, how much power he can have after entering the cabinet, and whether he can implement his ideas mainly depends on whether the emperor favors and supports them. Emperor Mingmuzong died in the year of Emperor Mingmuzong, and his son Zhu Yijun, the Wanli Emperor, succeeded to the throne at the age of ten, and for a time he was unable to personally adjudicate political affairs, and the supreme power of the imperial family was temporarily controlled by his birth mother, Empress Li.
In the outer court, gao gong, the chief minister of gu order and the first assistant of the cabinet, was reprimanded back to his hometown for confronting Empress Li; another minister of gu orders, The former official Shangshu Gao Yi, died of a sudden illness, so that only one Zhang Juzheng was left, and he was able to become the only minister of gu shou as a shi bao and a first assistant. Zhang Juzheng took advantage of Empress Li's wish to see her son Jackie Chan and her ambitions in the emblem to give satisfaction, and was successfully entrusted with the responsibility of "accepting the emperor day and night". Therefore, when Zhang Ju was implementing reforms, the interference of opposition reforms, such as "seizing affection", could be eliminated by Emperor Xiao. Moreover, even if the little emperor was unwilling, there was still the support of Empress Li behind him.
On the other hand, for the eunuch forces that have long been fiercely competing with the cabinet for power, Zhang Juzheng tried his best to ease the contradictions, and strived to turn resistance into help and obtain mutual support and cooperation.
Feng Bao was always regarded by Empress Li's mother and son as a "visceral courtier", and at the critical turning point of the alternation between Longqing and Wanli, Gao Gong demanded that power be concentrated in the cabinet, personally came forward and signaled Ke Dao and other officials to impeach Feng Bao by name, and as a result, Empress Li rebuked him back to his hometown. When Feng Bao was most embarrassed, Zhang Juzheng adopted a tacitly accepting attitude towards Feng Bao and tried his best to alleviate it, and the two became "allies" from then on.
In daily government affairs and affairs, Zhang Juzheng took limited tolerance and double courtesy to Feng Bao, such as sending him a pearl curtain and writing him the "Pre-made Shouzang Record" to improve relations. In this way, Feng Bao became an effective channel for communication between Zhang Juzheng and the emperor and empress, and as long as he said one or two good words, he could make a strong impetus to Zhang Juzheng's reform. Through Feng Bao, Zhang Juzheng also effectively suppressed the eunuchs and did not dare to do too much power and evil, and in the Ming Dynasty, where the eunuchs were strong, the cabinet could be hidden above the eunuchs, which was really rare.
In this way, Zhang Juzheng achieved "although he does not have the power of a dictator, he has the magic power of a dictator" and can smoothly display his ambitions.
He supported Zhang Juzheng's imperial power and became the main force in liquidating him
Zhang Juzheng, with superhuman courage, tried his best to make use of the conditions that the historical stage could provide him to carry out reform activities, and achieved greater results than Shang Martingale and Wang Anshi's transformation of the law, but with Zhang Juzheng's death due to illness, all reform measures were overturned, Zhang Juzheng's family was also liquidated, and some people even demanded to "open the coffin and whip the corpse".
The result of "government by man" is that people will die. The reason why Zhang Juzheng was able to promote reform was mainly due to the support from the imperial power, whether it was his suppression of the eunuch power or the overwhelming advantage of the opposition, in fact, it was the power of the imperial power, not his own strength. Then, once the imperial power is no longer controlled by Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng will lose all advantages and lose all strength.
However, this is exactly the case.
Five years before the Wanli Calendar, the Little Emperor basically obeyed Zhang Juzheng and regarded him as a strict master. Even if there were occasional dissenting opinions, under empress Dowager Li's severe reprimand, they did not dare to reveal them. However, as Xiao Wanli gradually grew up, all kinds of evil desires centered on greed grew more and more undisguised in his heart.
Once, when the Wanli Edict ordered the use of Guanglu Silver 100,000 taels, Zhang Juzheng was very dissatisfied, and Shangshu said: "If there is any more use, the ministers and others will never dare to follow the edict." According to the relationship between the monarch and the subject at that time, it was extremely serious disrespectful to publicly declare that "I would never dare to obey the edict", which was really rare. He was outwardly respectful to Zhang Juzheng, but in his heart he was "angry for a long time" anxious to regain his power. In addition, with the implementation of reforms, the country's political and economic situation has improved, and for Wanli, Zhang Juzheng's role has slowly become less important.
Therefore, after Zhang Juzheng's death, he had always supported Zhang Juzheng's imperial power and turned to support the conservative forces that opposed reform, and the reformists "used a lone flame to be in the midst of rapid growth", completely unable to resist, and the result could only be a flash.
After Zhang Juzheng gained power, his private morality was lost, providing an excuse for those who liquidated him
Power and status can help to exert their talents, but they are also the most capable of obscuring the wisdom and corrosion of people. Zhang Juzheng "after winning the will, then he is clear about governing the country and ignorant of his own body", so that when the opposition liquidated him later, he had many handles.
In terms of employing people, Zhang Juzheng is overconfident, often because of his evil intentions, he mistakenly uses some villains who are aimed at speculation. For example, Zhang Siwei was "ashamed of Zhang Juzheng for four hours", and after entering the cabinet, he "qushi Juzheng" and became one of Zhang Juzheng's close confidants, but he would never have imagined that in the future, Zhang Siwei would actually become the main general of liquidation, "doing his best to see himself and do his best to do his best".
Someone once sent Zhang Juzheng a couplet, which was as follows: "Shangxiang Taishi Yi Defu Three Dynasties, GongGuang Sun and Moon; Zhuangyuan List Eye Two Difficult To Climb and First, Learn the Crown Heavenly Man", "Sun and Moon and Ming, All Nations Look Up to the Great Tomorrow Heavenly Son; Qiu Shan is Yue, Four Fang Song Tai Yue Xianggong", these two couplets can be described as extremely praised, but anyone with a little humility will return it, but Zhang Juzheng hung up triumphantly.
When Zhang Juzheng was ill, the officials in Kyoto and the local government prayed for him, and many copies of the watch seals he prayed to him were sent to him by bribing his family, which was not in accordance with the rules, but Zhang Juzheng not only did not stop this behavior, but instead "saw it and took the pen and pointed out one or two beautiful words", so that the officials "competed for words to do it, hoping to enlighten their faces", which damaged the official atmosphere.
In the fifth year of the Wanli Calendar, the emperor came forward and adjusted the package in the court examination, demoting Song Xiyao, who was originally scheduled to be the champion, to the first place in the second division, and Zhang Sixiu, the son of Zhang Juzheng, from the second place to the second place in the first division. Afterwards, Wan Li said to Zhang Juzheng: "There is no way to repay Mr. Zhang Juzheng's merits, and we should look at (take care of) Mr. Zhang Juzheng's descendants", and Zhang Juzheng even gladly accepted.
Zhang Juzheng's life was even more impoverished and extravagant, with a large number of wives and concubines, and he was very self-respecting. When returning to his hometown to do funerals, "since the beijing division removed the road, he reached his room for more than 4,000 miles, filling in the wood, and the breadth and narrowness were as one." The cooks of the supreme court were paraded thousands of stoves, and the officials of the outer domain looked to the dust to greet them." Zhang Juzheng sat in a special car, carried by thirty-two people, in front of which was the living room, in the back was the bedroom, and on one side of the two corridors was a book boy burning incense and waving a fan.
When Zhang Juzheng was raided, he copied out more than 10,000 gold and more than 100,000 silver, which did not seem to be much, but Zhang Juzheng was not from a family family, the Ming Dynasty officials were extremely thin, and the emperor's gifts were limited, so why he could live a luxurious life was self-evident. This, in turn, gives the opposition an opportunity to take advantage of it. Coveting his family property is also an important reason why Wanli wants to copy his family.
To sum up, Zhang Juzheng's reforms straightened out the rule of officials and reduced the burden on the peasants, and the "one whip law" also promoted the development of the commodity economy, which was conducive to the development of society, and it can be said that it continued the rule of the Ming Dynasty for decades. When he died, the reform was overthrown, and the situation in the Ming Dynasty immediately took a sharp turn for the worse, which also proved from the opposite side that Zhang Juzheng was indispensable.
However, under the circumstances at that time, the failure of Zhang Juzheng's reforms was inevitable, and it was also inevitable that he would be liquidated after his death. On the one hand, he lacks personal morality and gives people a pretext. On the other hand, Zhang Juzheng's reforms moved the cheese of conservatives, including imperial power, and under the social, political, moral, and ethical structure at that time, It was doomed that Zhang Juzheng could not carry out complete reforms, so it was not accidental that people died in politics.
For such a result, Zhang Juzheng should have expected it earlier, but he has no better way to do this, it is almost impossible to withdraw, even if the emperor allows him to "Zhishi", Zhang Juzheng returned to his hometown, can he really be a "rich man" who does not ask about the world? The answer is obvious, when Zhang Juzheng is no longer in power, it is time to liquidate him!