Emperor Mingshenzong Wanli was an extremely strange emperor in history, he was criticized for not being in the dynasty for many years (up to 30 years, longer than most emperors), not handling political affairs, and he was the longest-reigning emperor of the Ming Dynasty. In the later period of the Ming Dynasty, this strange emperor not only did not go to the court, but even did not approve the fold. To be an official, Jinshi and Xiucai who passed the imperial examination needed the emperor's instructions, and a batch of lists were sent, but the MingShen Sect did not approve them. As a result, there are insufficient personnel throughout the country and even the central government, and one official does the work of several people, or even a dozen people, and the officials complain.
Wanli Emperor
At that time, li Tingji, the first assistant of the cabinet, was too busy to come, sandwiched between the minister and the emperor, and even wrote 123 resignations, for two whole years, the Wanli Emperor never approved or replied, and finally Li Yanji had no way, simply abandoned the official and went home. Fortunately, although the Wanli Emperor was lazy, he was still reasonable, and it should have been a capital offense to abandon the official, and the emperor did not pursue it. Four years later, the impoverished Li Tingji died of illness, and Wanli also gave him the title of Shaobao, known as "Wenjie".
So, what makes Wanli so lazy? Let's summarize:
First: The collapse of idols and beliefs.
The influence of one's childhood idols on him is very important, and one day, if the person finds that his idols and the beliefs that come from them are originally false, this blow will be devastating. For example, Arthur in the bullfly, he was also a devout believer, but when he found himself under the cover of the "godly clothes" of the cardinal he worshipped, his faith collapsed in an instant, and he despaired of life.
Fortunately, after Arthur's faith collapsed, he found another faith and fought for it all his life. And Wanli, who was deeply locked in the palace, waited for him to be disappointed in everything around him, but he did not have the ability to please, and finally he was disappointed and got by.
Zhang Juzheng
Wanli's faith is undoubtedly Zhang Juzheng. Lord Zhang, with the aura of an auxiliary orphan and a heavy subject, under the condition that Wanli did not know anything and was despised by the high arch, he overthrew the high arch and "consolidated" the position of emperor, who was a symbol of wisdom. And Lord Zhang not only had to handle government affairs, but also was responsible for the education of the emperor. Wanli ascended the throne at the age of 8, and when he ascended the throne, he did not know much. Lord Zhang's education of Wanli was extremely strict, not only strict academic requirements, but also required the little emperor to be frugal, before the fifteenth day of the first month of each year, the palace courtyards lit up all kinds of palace lights, brilliant as day, and later under the suggestion of Lord Zhang, the palace lights on the fifteenth day of the first month were canceled. Wan Li once wanted to repair the palace for his mother to fulfill his filial piety, and Lord Zhang thought that the palace was rich enough, and he also stopped it...
However, more than ten years later, after the death of Lord Zhang, the previously oppressed officials began to impeach him, and finally Lord Zhang was raided, and the rare treasures copied in Lord Zhang's home made the idols and beliefs of the little emperor collapse in an instant. The impact of this incident on Wanli was enormous, and in the fifteenth year of Wanli, that is, when he was 24 years old, the emperor presided over the examination for the examination of the candidates, and the topic was "Rule by Doing Nothing". Wan Li, 24 years old, already has the feelings of ordinary people after the age of 40.
Mother-in-law tattoo
Zhang Juzheng was a child in Wanli, the implementation of strict moral education, moral education itself is not wrong, such as Mengmu Sanqian, Mencius's mother first of all she can provide for Mencius the environment is very demanding, and then strict education, Mencius naturally convinced. Another example is Yue Fei's mother,ed. Yue Fei's education to be loyal to the country, and her mother-in-law also led by example, never affecting Yue Fei because of family affairs, in order to educate the loyal and patriotic anti-gold heroes.
But morally educated people who can't demand the same standards can backfire. It's like many adults who smoke, drink, and play cards are counterproductive to the strict education of children, and relaxing will get good results.
Second: the lack of maternal love.
Wanli succeeded to the throne at the age of 8, and although his mother was still alive, the Ming Dynasty was the most ceremonial dynasty in ancient China. Imperial etiquette made communication between the emperor and his mother extremely difficult. For example, Wanli did something filial to his mother, and the mother could not express her affection in a grateful tone, but asked the university scholar to write an article praising the emperor's pure filial piety, and reciting it sentence by sentence when the emperor knelt down to ask for peace.
Originally, I was receiving my mother's thanks and praise, but it is estimated that after listening to the article, my legs were numb, and the joy of being praised by my mother was estimated to be gone. Later, the Wanli Emperor favored Zheng Guifei and remained unswerving until his death (definitely the emperor who favored a noble concubine and had only one noble concubine for the longest time in history), and more had already regarded Zheng Guifei as a person who could bring safety and warmth to himself, not just a lover.
The lack of maternal love made Wanli eventually find warmth in Zheng Guifei, and because he wanted to depose the prince, he set up Zheng Guifei's son to fight for the prince and the chancellor for decades, and finally did not succeed, but abandoned the education of the prince and the prince (Tianqi), and the cultural level of the Emperor of Tianqi was not as good as Wei Zhongxian, but the carpentry was skilled and wise.
In the end, because of the dispute between the princes, Wanli became more and more disappointed in the chancellor, and he became more and more disappointed in the emperor who had no decision, and finally he simply did not care about anything.
Finally: there are too many trivial things for civil servants
Although Wanli did not pay much attention to the affairs of the dynasty, the major affairs of the country were basically known. When the Wokou invaded Korea, the ministers were divided into "main battles" and "main watchers", and when the two factions were quarreling, Wanli appeared and said that this battle must be fought. Only then did Li Rusong take command to resist Hideyoshi Toyoda's war of aid to Korea.
However, after all, the Ming Dynasty, which asked lightly about martial arts, was the domain of civilian officials, and the imperial court was not only a big thing, but also a trivial matter. And the small things focused on the mutual impeachment of civilian officials, the Ming government was the most enlightened government, the previous dynasties often had human rights to the opposition, and the Ming Dynasty, let alone the first assistant, even if the emperor, did the same mistakes, a large number of officials wrote impeachment, and went forward and followed. Our Lord Zhang Juzheng zhang was not only impeached after his death and raided his home, but also when he was the first assistant, some people impeached himself at the cost of death, but the little emperor at that time naively thought that these were slanders.
After Lord Zhang raided his home, Wanli was completely tired of this kind of competition between ministers, and it was this kind of struggle that ruined his idols and beliefs.
I have to say that Wan Li is not a strong-willed person, he can't grow up in adversity like The Qin Emperor Han Wu did, and become more and more powerful. He is vulnerable, and like many of us ordinary people, adversity is easier for him to get bored. But this kind of personality is not only an innate factor, after all, his ancestor Zhu Zhongba was a rare anti-current and achieved the Great Ming Dynasty. There are also acquired educational factors, don't let your transitional education ruin your child's beliefs early.