The fall of the Ming Dynasty ushered in not simply a change of dynasty, but an unprecedented catastrophe of civilization. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Gu Yanwu said: "There is a subjugation of the country, and there is a subjugation of the world." Distinguish between the fall of the country and the fall of the world? "The change of surname to the name is said to be the destruction of the country; benevolence and righteousness are full of congestion, and as for the beast to eat people, people will eat each other, which is called the death of the world." It is the reason why it knows to protect the world, and then it knows to protect its country. The protector of the country, the king and his subjects, the flesh eaters, and the protectors of the world, the lowly and the responsible. ”
The demise of the Ming Dynasty is truly sad, and the martyrdom of the Chongzhen Emperor is even more tragic. However, as the king of the fallen country with the strongest sense of shame since the Qin Dynasty. After he was martyred, he was splashed with dirty water by some people and slandered as a miserly king. However, such a vicious slander cannot resist the scrutiny of simple logic.
Many people have heard such a rumor that after the fall of the dynasty, Chongzhen's internal treasury (the private treasury of the imperial family) was searched for how many two silver, so as to prove that Chongzhen was a miserly and foolish king, and the Ming Dynasty deserved to be destroyed. According to the more influential "Ming Ji Beiluo" record: .. There are old town treasury gold, accumulated years of use, thirty-seven million ingots, ingots are 502, engraved with the word Yongle, each two ingots, no wrapping.
That is to say, Chongzhen's internal treasury has 18.5 billion taels of silver. What kind of concept? It was not until two hundred and fifty years later that the Treaty of Maguan signed between the Manchu Qing and Japan lost 230 million taels of silver, which was not enough for Chongzhen's internal account. Is this to prove how rich the Ming Dynasty was? Or do you want to prove how stingy Chongzhen is?
And according to Mao Qiling's "Later Records":.." The gold and silver utensils in the Yu Palace and the ding-ear door knockers were embedded in the silk, and they were stripped all over the place, less than 100,000. The thief's voice comes from within, and the evil torture is also. Other historical sources of the same kind will not be cited, in short, one theory is that Chongzhen's inner pocket has a lot of silver; another theory is that Chongzhen's inner account has long been empty.
As for which statement is closer to the truth, we can judge the truth and false according to common sense and logic, and although lies can confuse the public opinion, there will always be flaws, and it is impossible to resist scrutiny.
Among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the most wealthy were the Wanli Emperor, who liked to send eunuchs to collect mining taxes and silver to increase their internal silver, and many historians believe that the Ming Dynasty actually died at the hands of the Wanli Emperor. However, the emperor's internal currency was not entirely for the private use of the imperial family. For example, according to the "Records of Emperor Ming shilu and Emperor Shenzong Xian", Ding Hai in March of the twenty-second year of the Wanli calendar: "The cabinet sent out the Holy Oracle, the Virgin of the Two Palaces, and heard of the famine in Henan. Thirty-three thousand taels of silver were issued to the Ministry, and the Ministry was relieved to provide relief, and the Ministry asked for the distribution of Henan, Shandong, and Jiangbei, and was allowed. ”... In April of the 31st year of the Wanli Calendar, he said: "The household department revealed that the number of salaries requested by each town is large, and the negative levy is indefinite. Please pay a million inside, and half a million with the Taibu Temple, and send a supplementary minister to smell for a while... Emperor Fu wei was the most anxious to read the border situation, and still issued a few quick instructions. ”
Although the Wanli Emperor had a wealth and a way to accumulate wealth, he also spent a lot of silver, and in addition to living a luxurious and extravagant life, he also gave a large reward to his favorite son, Zhu Changxun, the Prince of Fu. In addition, the Three Great Expeditions of the Wanli Dynasty and the Later Battle of Salhu, etc., the long-term large-scale wars have long emptied the treasury of the Ming Dynasty. When the treasury is depleted, it is natural to use the emperor's internal funds.
Since the Wanli Calendar, the ming dynasty's finances have basically been eating grain, and the problem of arrears of wages has become increasingly serious. Since the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, the war between the outside and the Jurchens has escalated, and there have been large-scale uprisings by Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others. Chongzhen did not love to accumulate wealth, and lived a very frugal life, Shi Zai: his "chickens chirping, not sleeping at night, often scorched into disease, and there is no feast in the palace." Even Chongzhen's underwear was worn out and he was reluctant to change it, and when the minister saw it, he felt embarrassed. In the case of repeatedly uneven military salaries, Chongzhen has reached the point of reducing clothing and food, how can there be so much internal silver?
In addition, Chongzhen was an emperor with a strong sense of shame, and at the last moment, he ordered the empress and noble concubines to commit suicide, and then cut and killed the princess, and finally hanged himself on the coal mountain. Before his death, he also left a last word: "Defying the virtue of the cold, the heavens are guilty, but all the ministers are mistaken. Death without face to see the ancestors, remove the crown, and cover the face with hair. Let the thieves divide and do no harm to the people. Chongzhen's sense of shame was so strong, if there was really so much silver in his inner pocket, would he still have the face to leave such words?
Chongzhen may not be a good emperor, but he has absolutely no loss in character. However, people with ulterior motives, seeking some kind of moral legal basis for his usurpation of the Ming Dynasty, wantonly smeared the Chongzhen Emperor. But such a despicable smear method is believed by many people to be true, is it not sad?