The emperor as the highest power holder in the feudal era, it has a decisive role in many decisions of a dynasty, or that the decision-making and ability of an emperor affect the development of a country, of course, the development of a dynasty must not be the monarch alone can decide all, many times, the court ministers, harem women, ordinary people and other factors will affect the direction of the country, but in any case, the monarch also has to bear most of the responsibility for the development of the country. Whether a monarch's decisions are correct or not also has a major impact on the development of a country.
For example, the Myōjin Sect that we are mainly talking about today. If the title of myōshin Sect is not very familiar to everyone, then we can change the title,
The Mingshen Sect is actually the Wanli Emperor as it is often called
The Wanli calendar is the era name of the Myōjin Sect. The Wanli Emperor was also one of the most controversial emperors in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
Friends familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty are well aware that during the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty once had a brief ZTE, when the Wanli Emperor's efforts to govern, so that the entire Ming Dynasty presented a thriving scene, before the Wanli, the Ming Dynasty's rule has been slightly corrupt, the external system is no longer as tough as before, and it is because of the Wanli Emperor's ZTE, so that the development of the Ming Dynasty has been revitalized, it is the strength of the Dynasty has been improved to a certain extent, delaying the decline of the Ming Dynasty, It can be said that it had a far-reaching impact on the development of the Ming Dynasty in later generations.
The "History of Ming" records that the death of Ming was actually due to the death of the Divine Sect
It can be seen that the contribution of the Wanli Emperor to the Ming Dynasty is traceable; but there is such a record in the "History of Ming", called
: The death of Ming is actually the death of the Divine Sect
。 That is to say, the demise of the Ming Dynasty actually began from the time of the Wanli Emperor, or the Ming Dynasty had already perished during the reign of the Wanli Emperor, and the descendants were just surviving.
However, during the reign of the Wanli Emperor, the Ming Dynasty did develop, and the influence of Wanli Zhongxing on the Ming Dynasty was also very far-reaching, so why did it still say that "the death of the Ming Dynasty actually died in the Shenzong?" In fact, this has to start from the political performance of the Wanli Emperor.
The Wanli Emperor hesitated in the choice of crown prince
Generally speaking, the establishment of the crown is a matter related to the foundation of the country, the selection of the right person to become the next successor of the country is crucial to the development of a feudal dynasty country, there are many dynasties in the succession to the throne has made mistakes and led to the decline of the development of the dynasty, and even some dynasties have led to the demise of this.
For example, the Qin Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty, these two countries are the most obvious embodiment in this regard, the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty allowed the Qin Dynasty to be destroyed more than ten years after the completion of the unification, Qin II pushed the Qin Dynasty to extinction, and the sui emperor's greed and pleasure also made the Sui Wen Emperor's hard-to-unify Jiangshan go to waste, so the choice of heirs also involved the fundamentals of national development.
Obviously, the Wanli Emperor was not wise in his choice in this regard, because of the development mechanism of the Ming Dynasty and the sluggishness of the Wanli Emperor later, the selection of the heir of the state had become a major priority of the Wanli Dynasty, and since the matter of Li Chu had room for choice, it would inevitably lead to disputes.
This "dispute over the foundation of the country" mainly revolves around the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo and the Fu king Zhu Changxun
The support rate of these two princes in the imperial court was basically the same, and it was precisely because of this that the Wanli Emperor was troubled by this matter, and he delayed the appointment of the crown prince, perhaps the Wanli Emperor wanted to conduct further investigation, but because of his entanglement in this regard, the courtiers were impatient, and they began to take their own sides, and then wrote one after another to ask the emperor to establish the prince as soon as possible.
Perhaps the Wanli Emperor was really unable to choose a better person among his two sons, and he also lost patience with the repeated urging of the ministers, so in 1601, the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo was made crown prince, and Zhu Changxun was made the Prince of Fu, thus ending the long dispute over the foundation of the country.
But originally the matter had been settled, but its subsequent development was beyond the imagination of the Wanli Emperor, it was precisely because of the entanglement before the Wanli Emperor that the court had almost been divided into two teams, and the disputes between the two factions were continuous, and the number was roughly the same, so after Zhu Changluo was made crown prince.
The other faction was naturally unwilling, and the small actions in the secret continued, and at the same time, Zhu Changxun was not satisfied with such a result, and he refused to leave the capital and return to the fiefdom until
"The Case of the Strike"
When it happened, his mother, Zheng Guifei, was pushed into the storm, and Zhu Changxun could not stand the pressure of public opinion before leaving Beijing.
It can be seen from this that although the prince has been decided, the struggle between the two brothers is not over, of course, the final result shows that Zhu Changluo is better. However, the problem was that because of the struggle between these two brothers and also because of the influence of the "Attack Case", the Wanli Emperor's ruling mentality underwent earth-shaking changes, and he began to be bored with the government and began to gradually retreat, but although he retreated, he refused to completely give the state power to the crown prince Zhu Changluo, resulting in chaos in the court of the Ming Dynasty.
The three major marches of the Wanli Dynasty, the glory of the Empire, but the Wanli Emperor slackened the government
In fact, the Wanli Emperor was indeed a very accomplished monarch in the early days, he rectified the Ming Dynasty's program, developed the military and economy, and made changes in many aspects of the country's development, such as the famous one in history
The Three Great Marches of Wanli (Battle of Ningxia, Battle of Korea, Battle of Bozhou)
Although it has been criticized by posterity for spending huge financial and material resources, the three major conquests of Wanli have all won, and the wealth and interests of its convergence are also huge.
The three major marches of the Wanli Dynasty stabilized the frontiers of the Ming Dynasty, and also made the domestic development last for a long period of stability, which was also a key to the development of the Ming Dynasty to prosper again. However, the Wanli Emperor's contribution to the ming dynasty stagnated after the end of the crown prince dispute.
The "Strike Case" and Zhang Juzheng's death caused the Wanli Emperor to lose interest in the government of the dynasty
That's because, due to the influence of the "Attack Case" and the death of zhang Juzheng, the wanli emperor's patience for the government of the dynasty gradually decreased, and finally he gave up the upper court and lived deep in the inner palace; from this we can also see that the center of the Wanli emperor mainly relied on Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong to assist him, and after the death of these two people, the Wanli Emperor could only face the disputes of the imperial court alone, and in the face of the struggle in the harem, he gradually lost interest in the government.
But this attitude of the Wanli Emperor led to two major drawbacks.
first
，
Because of the dispute we mentioned above
The chancellor himself has been divided into two factions, one of which will naturally not be willing after the defeat, while the other faction will certainly have many actions to suppress the failed faction, which will lead to a new division and taking sides in the imperial court.
For a period of time, the court must have been very chaotic, and at this time the emperor was most needed to preside over justice, but the problem was that the Wanli Emperor at that time was tired and slack, allowing the ministers, military generals, eunuchs, and factory guards in the court to fight and develop openly and secretly, and the final result was bound to be the confusion in the government of the dynasty.
Second, it led to the monopoly of power of officials and eunuchs, causing chaos in the management of the Ming army.
Because the emperor is in the inner palace and does not go to the early dynasty, the transmission of many edicts needs to be in the form of edicts, in fact, the three major marches of wanli that we mentioned above are basically commanded through the form of edicts, among which the Wanli Emperor himself can hardly be seen to discuss politics in the court, which will lead to the role of eunuchs around the emperor becoming greater, which is why there will be eunuch dictatorship in the late Ming Dynasty.
The eunuch was a threat to loyal and upright ministers, and it was also an influence on the rights of the state, and under this influence, the phenomenon of "lack of officials" (in fact, lack of talents) in the Ming Dynasty became more and more serious, and the entire dynasty was almost to the point where no one could use it, and the political rule of the Ming Dynasty fell into unprecedented chaos during this period, not only did the country have no successors, but also because of the loss of a large number of loyal and upright officials in the court, the development of internal affairs also fell into a stalemate, and the development of the country naturally stagnated.
If such an influence existed only in internal affairs, it might not be very big, but the ruling style of the Wanli Emperor led to the turmoil of the Ming army, resulting in the resurgence of the once settled frontier, and the Ming Dynasty was also caught in internal and external troubles.
The Wanli Emperor's late partiality
In fact, in the process of every emperor's reign, there will be a deeply trusted courtier, and the complementarity between the monarch and the subject can better develop the country, but the question is, is this courtier worthy of the monarch's trust? Obviously, Li Chengliang, the liaodong general who was very trusted by the Wanli Emperor at that time, did not deserve this trust.
Li Chengliang was a very corrupt and degenerate minister, who not only interfered with the political decisions of the Wanli Emperor, plundered a large number of people's fat and people's paste, and embezzled corruption in the process of serving officials, but more importantly, he also lied about military information and cheated military merits and rewards through this form.
Li Chengliang lied about military information, which led to the development and growth of Nurhaci
In this way, Nurhaci's power continued to grow, and the frontiers of the Ming Dynasty became more and more turbulent, but all this was unknown to the Wanli Emperor, who trusted Li Chengliang very much, and the Ming Dynasty also missed the opportunity to pacify the border passes, resulting in major omissions in the prevention of the border areas, coupled with the instability of internal affairs, the energy expended by the leadership in the border areas was even less, and this frontier problem was also an important reason for the entry of the Qing army into the border areas later.
From this point of view
If the Wanli Emperor could speak widely and not slack off too much in the government, in fact, Nurhaci's power would not rise so quickly, and if he could implement enlightened rule like the early Wanli Dynasty, I believe that the strength of the Ming Dynasty would become stronger and stronger, and perhaps there would be no later Qing Dynasty.
end
To sum up, although the Wanli Emperor showed great interest in ruling in the early days and also made great contributions to the development of the Ming Dynasty, from the middle period onwards, the reign of the Wanli Emperor went to faintness, saying that it was not inevitable that he brought the Ming Dynasty into the abyss, and his entanglement led to the dispute between the country's foundations, led to the dispute between the courtiers, the late slacking of the government, and strengthened the role of eunuchs, resulting in the situation of eunuch dictatorship, coupled with the trust in the corrupt and degenerate Li Chengliang, so that the development of the Ming Dynasty fell into greater internal and external troubles.
Therefore, there is the view that "the death of the Ming is actually the death of the Divine Sect"
。