On August 22, the 23rd year of Chenghua (1487), the Chenghua Emperor Zhu Jianshen died, and the crown prince Zhu Youzhuang ascended the throne, and the following year he changed to Yuan Hongzhi, beginning his eighteen-year reign.
Just as all new emperors ascended the throne, Zhu Youzhuang became emperor, just as all new emperors ascended the throne, Zhu Youzhuang became emperor, it is impossible to say without burning a few fires, which can be called a chicken blood period after each new emperor ascends the throne.
In the first few years of the Hongzhi period, Zhu Youzhuang made a series of improvements and corrections to the accumulated shortcomings of the previous dynasty, such as rectifying the rule of officials, opening up the way of speech, and speaking outright.
These made the courtiers happy, and they earnestly hoped that Emperor Hongzhi would continue to bring a prosperous era to Daming.
However, within a few years, they noticed that the excitement of the emperor's accession to the throne seemed to have passed. And most of the things he promised failed to deliver.
On the surface, Emperor Hongzhi often issued edicts asking for advice, and he was quite vain. The officials excitedly put forward many rationalization suggestions, ranging from curbing mergers, rectifying law and discipline, and widening the way of speech, to strictly rewarding them, saving money, and stopping fasting.
After a few years, they discovered that Zhu Youzhuang's "pleas were earnest, but very few people implemented them"—these suggestions were either not seriously implemented or simply not replied to, and very few were actually implemented.
In fact, the bloody period of Zhu Youxuan's rejuvenation and abolition of maladministration ended roughly in the seventh or eighth year of Hongzhi, after which he began to enter a long period of burnout.
It's not true to say he's burnout, at least not on the surface. It seems that Zhu Youzhuang is still a monarch who is full of advice. The emperor who has a bit of a temper, the recital that does not agree will be rejected, and it will be left in the middle, and Zhu Youzhuang basically does not see such a record. No matter what the minister's opinion is, as long as it does not touch his bottom line, he can be seen everywhere "Nazhi", "Garner", "Garna".
To sum up, whether it can be done or not is another matter. It has been eleven years since Liu Jian became the head of the cabinet, and he has long passed the bloody period of his old man's early years of cheering up and abolishing maladministration. From the middle period, Emperor Hongzhi began to show less interest in state affairs, and in some respects he even surpassed Zhu Jianshen in his later years.
For example, although Emperor Xianzong did not like to summon ministers alone, nor did he like to listen to people preach the scriptures, at least the façade was still well decorated, and the Chang dynasty and the scripture banquet did not fall.
Zhu Youzhuang was a little unsophisticated, and the prayer banquet three times a month was changed to several times a year, and even Chang Chao could not participate without participating. What can you do with me (or keep it for months, or not carry it out)?
Even so, it is difficult for everyone to single out the shortcomings of Zhu Youxuan, this emperor is too kind, too good to speak, and completely in line with traditional Confucian values. Lack of capacity is not a big problem, and the overall stability of the country is already very good. In short, the more humble and gentle Emperor Hongzhi was, and at the mercy of the courtiers, the more the courtiers praised him as a Daoming Prince.
After all, compared with the insect Zhu Zhanji, the meat ticket Zhu Qizhen, the Oedipal Mother Zhu Jianshen, and the later middle two Zhu Houzhao, the Taoist Zhu Houxi, the carpenter Zhu Youxiao, etc., the image of Zhu Youzhuang is already the one that is most in line with the traditional Confucian morality.
With such an emperor, everyone is already content.
During Zhu Youxuan's tenure, on the whole, the country was safe and secure, and there were no large-scale wars in the country, nor did it produce famous traitors. Therefore, this period of reign is known as "Hongzhi Zhongxing".
But in my opinion, this is actually overkill.
First of all, Zhu Youzhuang was an emperor with less strong abilities and personalities. Or rather, he is powerless.
Of course, this is related to the complicated social reality, and it is unrealistic for the accumulated shortcomings of the dynasties to be solved by the emperor's blood. Zhu Youxuan, who had just ascended to Dabao, did not understand, he began to think that as long as he cheered himself up, he could bring this old empire back to the top, but he soon found that those layers of things could not be shaken by himself alone.
In addition, this is closely related to his personality.
Zhu Youzhuang was a crown prince who was deeply taught by Confucianism. Since the fourteenth year of Chenghua, the prince has been in the cabinet to give lectures, and Zhu Jianshen has been very strict with him, in addition to arranging the top Confucians as teachers, but also paying great attention to etiquette education. He stipulated that the prince must pay attention in class, not divert his eyes and ears, and not make mistakes when endorsing. Reading other extracurricular materials is strictly forbidden except textbooks.
The prince cultivated in this way is completely a template for Confucianism. On the one hand, Zhu Youzhuang's favor to the minister was because he attached great importance to his reputation and was unwilling to leave a dishonorable record such as "Yan Shu and Great Fury"; On the other hand, after all, he was not an iron-blooded monarch like Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, nor was he a heroic lord.
He did not know much about the actual conditions of society, and he was not able to completely overthrow the ancestral law, and his mediocre ability made him insufficient to solve the problems mentioned by the ministers, or even to suppress them.
Well, naturally it had to be "Garner".
Why doesn't Zhu Youzhuang want to be arbitrary and turn things around with his own strength? However, this requires too much of the emperor's ability, since there is no thunder and iron blood like Taizu and Taizong, then the desire to govern the country well can only stay at the level of good wishes.
On the other hand, it is not for nothing to find examples of him not being so open-minded in accepting criticism, such as in the treatment of Empress Zhang's family.
Hongzhi is a rare monogamous emperor in history, and we must praise Comrade Zhu Youzhuang for practicing monogamy, and we must also criticize Emperor Hongzhi's connivance with foreign relatives. On the whole, it shows that the foreign relatives of the dynasty are relatively safe, and if you want to pick a fierce one among so many foreign relatives, you have to rank up to the Hongzhi dynasty.
Zhu Youxiang only had one Empress Zhang, and the most favored foreign qi was naturally the Zhang family.
Zhu Youzhuang made Empress Zhang's father and two brothers marquis, and even several relatives of his uncle Zhang Heling were also promoted to Jinyiwei Baihu.
With this honorary favor, the Zhang brothers were not satisfied with doing some illegal business of opening shops and corrupting salt classes, and also began to bully the people and seize the people's fields. Even the Empress Dowager Zhou's maiden family dared to move the soil, and in order to fight for the field, the Zhou and Zhang families accumulated more and more grudges. In the ninth year of Hongzhi, Zhang Heling, Marquis of Shouning, and Zhou Yu, the Bo of Changning, gathered to fight over trivial matters, which caused a sensation in the capital for a while.
Arrogance and indulgence of foreign qi is an irrefutable failure of the Hongzhi dynasty. It can be said that Zhu Youzhuang loves Empress Zhang and is afraid of Empress Zhang. In order to make the empress happy, he always satisfied the desires of the Zhang family as much as possible, preferring to take the responsibility on himself than to blame his beloved wife; As an emperor, he could not ignore the national economy and people's livelihood, and in the face of the minister's rebuke, he had to coax and deceive everywhere.
It is also quite tiring for an emperor to live like this. In the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, Zhu Youzhuang occasionally felt a cold wind when praying for rain due to the drought in the north, and after taking medicine, his nosebleeds did not stop, and he died in the Qianqing Palace at the age of thirty-six.
Comparatively speaking, Emperor Hongzhi was a well-behaved Emperor Shoucheng, but behind the appearance of the so-called "diligent and pro-virtuous" was complex social contradictions, and the crisis was growing darkly.
Zhu Youxuan's rule did not surpass his father Zhu Jianshen, and there were even regressions in many places.
For example, in the border defense, during the Chenghua period, Wang Yue and Yu Zijun became powerful, and the Mongolian "tent was wiped out, his wife and children were lost, and they wept each other", and Hetao got peace for a period of time.
From the seventeenth year of Chenghua, Dayan Khan, known as the "lord of Mongolian Zhongxing", rose to prominence and led troops to the east and west, bringing all 60,000 households in Eastern Mongolia under his rule.
When the Mongol tribes stop fighting civil wars, it is self-evident who their targets will be.
In the first year of Hongzhi, Dayan Khan sent an envoy to ask for tribute in the name of the Great Yuan Khan, and Zhu Youzhuang actually agreed.
I say "actually" because the name is wrong. The Ming people believed that the Ming dynasty was over, and the Ming dynasty was the orthodox dynasty of China, denying that the Mongol Khan was the successor of the Yuan dynasty.
Since 1402, when Ghost Li Chi Khan became self-reliant, the Ming Dynasty history books no longer recorded the name of the Great Yuan Kingdom.
Dayuan Great Khan, just shut the door and shout himself. Dayan Khan was written in black and white on the national letter, and the problem was a bit big, which was obviously quite an ambitious Khan.
It is a pity that Zhu Youxiang's monarch failed to recognize this and approved - the imperial court was favorable, and Xu Zhi.
Since then, Dayan Khan's tribes have taken advantage of the mutual market to slowly move back to the Hetao area like ants moving. Wang Yue was not reused during the reign of Hongzhi, Yu Zijun's border wall began to deteriorate without sufficient funds to repair, and the Mongols began to start the business of robbery again (gradually going back and forth, haunted as a curse).
In the eighth year of Hongzhi, Dayan Khan invaded Liaodong three times, killing and plundering countless times; In the ninth year of Hongzhi, Xuanfu, Datong, and Yansui were attacked and disabled; In the winter of thirteen years, Dayan Khan officially moved his royal court to Hetao.
Zhu Youzhu credulously believed Dayan Khan's tribute, lost the victories of the Chenghua dynasty, and the side troubles appeared again.
It can be said that what Zhu Youzhu left to his son Zhu Houzhao was the most powerful foreign enemy since Tumu Fort, and the most abandoned frontier.
Less than a month after Zhu Houzhao took the throne, Dayan Khan gave a dismount. This lord of Mongolia Zhongxing swept his army south, invaded on the border that was more than 20 miles long, and also set up camp (camped in the black willow forest of Niuxin Mountain, etc.), which seemed to depend on the meaning of not leaving.
Li Jin, the governor of the capital, and Zhang Jun, the commander-in-chief of the army, sent Li Ji, the left general of Xuanfu, Bai Yu, the deputy general of the army, and Zhang Xiong, the guerrilla general; Datong deputy general Huang Zhen, guerrilla general Mu Rong and other generals led more than 15,000 troops to resist by separate routes. The main forces of the two armies encountered at Yutailing (present-day Beixintun Township, Wanquan District, Zhangjiakou), and "the army was lured by the crowd and could not respond." The Ming army was defeated, Zhang Xiong and Mu Rong were killed, more than 3,300 of his subordinates were killed and wounded, more than 6,500 war horses were lost, and they were "robbed of men, women, and animal equipment."
The history of this battle is called the "Great Defeat of Yutailing", which is considered to be the greatest defeat of the Ming army after Tumu Fort (it is said that it is unprecedented since his own military disaster).
And internally, the Daming dynasty also had a new problem: the displacement.
The displaced people were a long-standing problem, and Zhu Youzhuang could not be blamed on him alone, but the Hongzhi period did not curb the growing momentum of the displaced people, and during the Zhengde period, a group of bandits was formed.
For example, Jinan has several famous thieves Zhang Mao, Liu San (Liu Hui), Liu Liu (Liu Pet), Liu Qi (Liu Chen), Li Long, Yang Hu, etc., in the confrontation with the officials and troops, they evolved a set of their own tactics, roughly like this:
In every battle, the expulsion of the subordinates is in the front, the call signs clash, the officials and troops shrink when they see the situation, and the thieves are happy with each other, killing and plundering at will. In the face of a little strong soldiers, the former are trapped, and they can not control the end by riding with fine riding as the advance and retreat.
These thieves are skilled in horsemanship, they come and go like the wind, do not occupy the city, grab a handful and leave; When the officials and troops encircle and suppress them, soft persimmons will be pinched, and hard ideas will be withdrawn.
This was a proper guerrilla tactic, and they were so sophisticated that the government called them "rogues", which means rebels who roamed everywhere and moved erratically.
The word "rogue" appeared from this time, and from then on it accompanied the Ming Dynasty, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it will be carried forward again and become more and more calamitous.
The biggest problem that Zhu Youzhu left his son was not these, but lack of money.
Why there is no money, the reasons are very complex, such as the pressure of people and land, the riots of the displaced people, the prevalence of extravagance up and down, and the huge military expenditure in the north, these problems are summed up in the fact that the emperor has no money on his account.
In other words, isn't Hongzhi once known as ZTE, how can he have no money?
I'm sorry, but even if Hongji ZTE is true, it does not include the economy. Looking through the history books, Koji Dynasty can find similar records everywhere:
But today, the people are depleted, and their wealth is exhausted...
Recently, the people are poor, the wealth is scarce, and the public and private are poor...
Today's Taicang has accumulated countless years, and the surplus food day is added to the front, the internal money is lacking in the use of the year, and the fee day is added to the later...
Chaotian and other palaces, Mount Tai, Wudang and other places repair and set up tens of millions of taels, Taicang official silver accumulation, do not hook to the side but take into the inner mansion...
Li Dongyang was sent to Queli to see the people's livelihood withered, and the thieves were exhausted...
The economy of the Hongzhi Dynasty had degenerated to the point of deficit for years, and Zhu Youzhu had to use private money to subsidize the country.
In a word, before the death of Emperor Hongzhi, it was already a mess financially.
What is even more exaggerated is that Zhu Youxiang did not even save enough for his own coffin.
Beginning in June of the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, the construction of the Tailing (Ming Xiaozong's Mausoleum) began, and the eunuch Li Xing applied for a freight of 50,000 taels, and Zhu Houzhao found that "the mansion was empty", so he instructed the Ministry of Works to embezzle some other funds first. The officials of the Ministry of Works crackled and made a dozen calculations, saying that it was not enough to move all the money from our account to repair the mausoleum, and the emperor must find money from other places, otherwise Tailing would have to stop working.
As a last resort, Zhu Houzhao scraped together the funds for his father to repair the mausoleum by scraping together everything and saving money.
How much did Tailing repair in total? More than 500,000 taels, to be honest, it is not much, the Emperor Daming can't even take out 500,000 taels, and the Jiangshan left by Zhu Youzhuang to his son must be short of money.
Later generations gave Zhu Youzhu a very high evaluation and regarded him as an unearthly Ming Jun. During the Wanli period, Zhu Guozhen, the first assistant, said: "Those who are called sages for less than three generations, Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Renzong of Song, and Emperor Xiaozong of Ming", called his reign "Hongzhi Zhongxing".
In my opinion, although Zhu Youxuan, who lived in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, was not a mediocre person, he was by no means the lord of Zhongxing Ming, and it is really worth pondering that he can win such a reputation for future generations.
The civil servants were satisfied with him, so the standards of ZTE were lowered. After all, superficial stability cannot hide the continuous accumulation of social contradictions. By the end of the reign, the national treasury was empty, the border defenses were in ruins, the number of displaced people was increasing, and "the people were exhausted." Even if it is not a mess, it has nothing to do with the so-called prosperity of Zhongxing.
If you really want to talk about ZTE, it should also be connected with his Laozi and say, called "Chenghong ZTE".
"The Ming Dynasty is really very material" series of articles
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