Zhang Ju was an out-and-out bureaucrat, advocating drastic reforms and outstanding political achievements; he was mean and unkind, had shortcomings in private morality, and was full of mud and sand. In the ten years of the Wanli Dynasty, when raiding the Zhang Mansion, gold, silver, gold, silver, and jade belts were numerous, and these were also clear evidence.
But when we read history, we will find a very interesting phenomenon, that is, no historical figure is a simple "black and white theory". The evaluation of historical figures, even following the path of being able to and mediocrity, is consequential. As a carrier of history, it does not matter whether a historical figure is good or bad, what matters is what effect he brings to history, and whether his evaluation is whether he can promote historical progress or hinder the progress of history.
From this point of view, Zhang Juzheng is worthy of the title of the Ming Dynasty's prime minister to save time.
After the death of the Longqing Emperor Zhu Zaiyuan, what kind of situation did he leave to the Ming Dynasty? In "Wind and Rain Zhang Juzheng", Mr. Li Bo gave us more clear data:
Although the Ming Dynasty achieved a substantial increase in population and cultivated land, but the interrelated fiscal revenue was not enough to make ends meet, the deficit problem was serious, until Zhang Juzheng's reform, the fiscal deficit reached 3 million taels of silver, and because the root cause came from the inevitable feudal dynasty, the intensification of land annexation, this situation can only show an expansion trend under the maintenance of the status quo.
As the saying goes: '''The arrogance of the sect's office, the arrogance of the officials, the rule of the officials, the unmediation of the border, and the use of wealth and great deprivation.' ''
Faced with such a dangerous situation, at that time, the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun was not old enough to be old, and naturally could not pro-government. Zhang Juzheng also naturally became Empress Li's help. Under the alliance with the eunuch Feng Bao, Gao Gong was quickly expelled from the bureau by the two, and Zhang Juzheng also smoothly became the first assistant of the cabinet.
He was loyal to the Wanli Emperor and the Ming Dynasty. For the crisis of Daming, a reform that has been planned for a long time is imperative. As a result, a series of measures covering the rectification of the bureaucracy, rewarding farming wars, and increasing fiscal revenues were quickly implemented.
But the price of reform is the class contradictions and internal contradictions brought about by the clichéd redistribution of interests. Reform is bound to harm the interests of some vested interests, and it will naturally be opposed by them.
In the examination method implemented by Zhang Juzheng, the emphasis was on administrative efficiency, and all officials who did not act were eliminated, and such a measure not only realized the efficient operation of the Ming Dynasty, but also damaged the vital interests of these landlord class scholars, after all
"Cutting off people's financial paths is like killing parents."
In the economy, a whipping method that Zhang Ju is promoting can be described as a direct attack on the lesion. The initiator of a whip law was not Zhang Juzheng, Qingliu Hairui had been implemented in the jurisdiction, Zhang Juzheng adopted and with the help of his first assistant position of the strong implementation, the bureaucrats at all levels who could have profited from the middle and enriched themselves, the cost of fraud was higher, and the Ming Dynasty was also able to change the system of enlistment that seriously exploited the peasants at that time through this policy, alleviating social contradictions. And Qingzhang Tianmu, as a parallel measure with a whip law, also avoided tax evasion by the landlord class, so that the original fiscal deficit was also reversed, and the annual fiscal surplus reached three million taels, and by the tenth year of the Wanli calendar, the fiscal surplus reached twelve and a half million taels.
In addition, Zhang Juzheng's reform also appeared in the reform of the previous dynasty, which was different from the previous reform, he proposed
"Provincial levy, with thick farmers and resources; light guan city, with thick merchants and benefit farmers"
The practice of opposing the emphasis on agriculture and suppressing business, proposes to attach equal importance to agriculture and commerce.
It can be said that Zhang Ju is the "answer" of the Wanli Dynasty. However, unfortunately, the officials, scholars, doctors, and landlord classes touched by Zhang Juzheng's reforms easily used Zhang Juzheng's characteristics to follow the characteristics of officials after his death to find a fulcrum of attack, and zhang Juzheng monopolized power and demanded too harshly on the Shenzong, resulting in the displeasure of the Ming Shen sect, and only on the fourth day after his death, this attack was already launched. Soon, Zhang Fu was raided and stripped of his official title, and the crime was revealed to the world.
Of course, the most important point of this historical impact is that people die and die. And the marginal utility of this ending is that the accumulated shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty have accumulated again, coupled with the slack government of the Wanli Emperor, the collapse of the Ming Dynasty is in fact already there
"Irreversible"
。
By the time of the Chongzhen Emperor, during the Xiaoice River period, droughts and locust plagues were repeated, land annexations and self-cultivation farmers went bankrupt, displaced people became more and more numerous, and peasants revolted led by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong; during the rise of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the wise leadership of Emperor Taiji and Dolgun, and history was flattened under such a flattening, which made the Ming Dynasty fall into the country, the Qing army entering the customs, and the Manchu Qing Dingding Central Plains.
But as far as Zhang Juzheng is concerned, perhaps Zhang Tingyu, who revised the History of Ming, said more appropriately:
Zhang Juzheng has a general understanding of the times and has the courage to take charge of things. The beginning of the reign of the Divine Sect, the rise and fall of Zhen Fei, can not be said to be a non-cadre. And the power of the exercise, a few more than the shock lord, the pawn caused the disaster behind him. "Book": "The courtiers succeed in favoring the favor, but they are angry!" ”