In November of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, a fallen eunuch hanged himself on his way to fengyang shouling. Who would have thought that half a year ago he was still the nine-thousand-year-old who responded to Xi Zong's side,- Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian died, and the people celebrated. The Chongzhen Emperor spent two years uprooting the castrated traitors, which was the first priority he did after he ascended the throne. History has always positioned Wei Zhongxian as "the biggest villain in the late Ming Dynasty", but recently the Internet has set off a wave of overturning the case for Wei Zhongxian.
Wei Zhongxian's death and the martyrdom of the Chongzhen Emperor were separated by a full 17 years, so why is there still a saying that "Wei Zhongxian does not die, and Daming does not perish"? How did a great eunuch who had only been in power for 3 years be said to be the last sage of the Ming Empire?
As early as Feng Menglong's "Diary of Yandu", such a small story was mentioned: after Wei Zhongxian's death, Cao Huachun wrote a secret message to the Chongzhen Emperor: "If Zhongxian were still there, current events would not be so. The Chongzhen Emperor was very remorseful and issued a decree to bury Wei Zhongxian. These few lines are enough to make the brains of posterity make up a touching story of "great loyalty is like adultery, and the monarch is centrifugal". As a result, the road to whitewashing Wei Zhongxian officially began, and now it is out of control, and this nine-thousand-year-old is even "praised" as the mainstay who can support half of the Ming Dynasty.
Cao Huachun overturned the case for Wei Zhongxian? Stop dreaming
The initial form of the rumor can be traced back to Cao Huachun, a key figure.
Cao Huachun's reversal of the case for Wei Zhongxian is recorded in many historical materials of the late Ming Dynasty, and the earliest record that can be found today is Zhang Dai's "Later Collection of Stone Books". For the record of Cao Huachun's person, Zhang Dai said: "Cao Huachun, I don't know what to do; Xiang has been in office for a long time under Wei Zhongxian. Obviously, these first two sentences do not stand up to scrutiny. Cao Huachun was a subordinate of the grand eunuch Wang An, and was considered a eunuch close to the Donglin Party in the imperial court. In addition, Cao Huachun never fell under Wei Zhongxian, he was a eunuch who was promoted by the Chongzhen Emperor in the form of the "Inner Palace Examination" after Wei Zhongxian's death, and after a struggle for power, he sat in the position of the viceroy of the East Factory.
Why is it impossible for Cao Huachun to overturn Wei Zhongxian's case? Then we have to talk about Wang An. When Wei Zhongxian first arrived in the palace, he actively wooed Wang An for the sake of his superior position, and finally turned his face and did not recognize anyone, framed Wang An on trumped-up charges, and did not give him water and food after being imprisoned, and Wang An had to rely on receiving rain and eating weeds for a living before his death. Wei Zhongxian still felt that it was not enough, and sent people to kill Wang An.
In the early Qing Dynasty, Dai Kasa recorded in the "Records of The Liukou of Huailing" that Wei Zhongxian killed Cao Huachun's mentor Wang An and persecuted wang An's subordinates. The hatred of killing the teacher, the hatred of persecution, and cao Huachun would not have regret or sympathy for Wei Zhongxian's death.
The "Chongzhen Testament" commented on Chongzhen's regret for killing Wei Zhongxian and burying his body thickly: "I don't know where it came from, it is absurd enough to discern. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shicong believed that the source of Wei Zhongxian's whitewashing was also because of special political needs. During the Hongguang dynasty, the eunuch Ruan Dacheng and others came to power, and there was a great momentum for the eunuch party to make a comeback. Some people wanted to whitewash Duke Wei and blindly cater to them, so they made up the fallacy of "Chongzhen burying Wei Zhongxian".
Wei Zhongxian added commercial taxes to save the country? The fictional god of wealth
Reading the articles written by later generations to overturn Wei Zhongxian's case, they all believe that Wei Zhongxian's greatest merit was to be able to collect taxes from the emperor, and he broke the rules of preferential treatment and exemption for the gentry, and struck a blow to the interests of big bureaucrats and big businessmen. The fundamental reason for the collapse of the Ming Army was that there was no money, and according to this logic, as long as Duke Wei was there, he could get enough money for Chongzhen to continue his life for the Ming Dynasty. Is this really the case?
In the Ming Dynasty, except for the birthrights who were exempt from taxation, civil and military officials did not ask which discipline or faction had to pay taxes legally. The idea that the gentry are superior and exempt is completely empty. According to the "Study of Late Ming and Liao", from the first year of the Apocalypse to the fourth year of Chongzhen, the tariffs were increased five times in total, and Wei Zhongxian only held power for three years.
Let's take a look at the financial situation of Duke Wei in the past few years in power. In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the arrears of the nine sides reached 2.37 million taels, accounting for 72.38% of the total; in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the arrears of the silver were 2.01 million taels, accounting for 61.29%. In the first year of Chongzhen, after the new household department Shangshu Bi Ziyan took office, this staggering figure began to ease slightly, and the arrears share in the first year of the Apocalypse was 36.58%, and the share of arrears in the fourth year of the Apocalypse was 0.51%. So where is Gonggong Wei's gathering financial resources?
Wei Zhongxian's ability to collect taxes has been seriously exaggerated, and the saying that "he can get money so he must be able to save the country" is very popular today, but a careful examination of the data can be found that the moisture of this "Great God of Wealth" is too large.
Wei Zhongxian's road to prosperity was unconscious
Wei Zhongxian was a bastard who couldn't read a word, and ate, drank, gambled and gambled everything. Forced by the creditor, he crouched on the side of the road and brandished his sword from the palace, hiding inside the palace. Wei Zhongxian has been in the city for so many years, and his ability to flatter and see people cook is first-class. Unwilling to be a bottom eunuch in the imperial palace, he befriended the grand eunuch Wang An and then took aim at Wang An's friend Wei Chao's counterpart.
Keshi was the emperor's wet nurse and a ladder to the clouds that Wei Zhongxian saw as something not to be missed. Wei Zhongxian angrily threw five hundred taels of silver to invite Keshi to eat a meal, plus he was halfway from the palace after all, he had also had a wife and visited a brothel before, and his mind about women was very accurate, and his mother Keshi was thus sunk under Wei Zhongxian's attack. Wei Zhongxian took down Keshi and became the emperor's "milk father" in one fell swoop, self-proclaimed "Grandpa of Lao Zu Chitose", and Keshi was "Grandma of Lao Zu Chitose". The two coaxed the emperor left and right, climbed step by step, and even formed a situation of confrontation with the largest party in the DPRK, the "Donglin Party".
In June of the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the Donglin Party took the lead and formed a group to impeach Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian, relying on his strong relationship with the emperor, suppressed these impeachments one by one and began a fierce counterattack. In just a few months, many Donglin Party officials died tragically in Jinyiwei's prison because of Wei Zhongxian's framing.
From a small on the side of the road to a nine-thousand-year-old Wei Gonggong, Wei Zhongxian climbed all the way, which is indeed a wonderful workplace drama. The netizens who whitewashed Wei Zhongxian attributed all his evil deeds to fighting with the Donglin Party, in fact, Wei Zhongxian's abomination was that he was destroying the order of the entire country.
Feng Quan entered the cabinet because of his shameless worship of Wei Zhongxian. Gu Bingqian was old, embarrassed to call Wei Zhongxian's father, so he asked his son to call Wei Zhongxian Grandpa, and he became the first assistant of the cabinet. There was an upsurge of new words for Wei Zhongxian everywhere; Feng Quan wrote a book, but it was said that it was the work of the illiterate Wei Zhongxian, and Lu Wanling patted the horse and said that Wei Zhongxian was comparable to Confucius, and was really a saint... Civilian officials were swept away, military attaches were morally demoralized, the entire Ming Dynasty was turned upside down, and it became a common phenomenon for self-interest to fly and camp dogs, and integrity and loyalty were laughed at as sour and useless. When Wei Zhongxian, who collapsed in the Three Views, became the agent of Emperor Xizong, and the officials of the DPRK and China obeyed the other and those who rebelled against the other died, there was still hope for the Ming Dynasty.
What about the exploits of Duke Wei? It is often said on the Internet that Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan were promoted by Wei Zhongxian, but in fact, after carefully examining the historical data, he actively supported Sun Shi, and was still a eunuch in charge of meals, but after gaining power, he forced Sun Chengzong back to his hometown by sinister means. Not to mention the relationship between Wei Zhongxian and Yuan Chonghuan, Wei Zhongxian borrowed Yuan Chonghuan Ningyuan and Ning Jin's two great victories to seal the henchmen, and also used "twilight" to make Yuan Chonghuan dismiss the official. Wei Zhongxian's "support" for the two was really extremely limited. You must know that his own nephews who have just been weaned have all been made counts, and if he really cherishes them and treats them well, why are Sun and Yuan persecuted and return to the field.
Yes, Wei Zhongxian had done several good deeds. Look at some of Wei Zhongxian's achievements recorded in the historical records, such as organizing fire fighting in the imperial horse grassland and personally carrying water; in order to save lamp oil, he ordered the cancellation of street lamps on the long street of the harem; dredged the Jinshui River and actively carried out the transformation of the old city; during the Liaodong War, he raised horses for the front line... Most of these were just trivial matters in the palace, basically the work that he should do in his functions. To put it bluntly, in his position, it is difficult not to do any good things in three years, but these are far from reaching the height of saving the country and surviving. It is ridiculous that the words and deeds of Duke Wei were also recorded by the officials who sneaked up on horses and horses, and they were held up to the heavens, and Wei Zhongxian was also regarded as "unconscious meritorious service" and "carelessness" became the moral benchmark of the Ming court.
Letting Wei Zhongxian become the helmsman of the state apparatus was originally the sorrow of the Ming Dynasty. In the three years he was in power, the court was filled with black smoke and miasma, human nature was distorted, and black and white were reversed, which directly accelerated the pace of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with his unconscious merits, his crimes are heinous and not worth orchestrating lies to whitewash him.
summary:
Mr. Lu Xun once said that those who tried to whitewash Duke Wei were looking for the way in the. Carefully comparing the historical materials, the Ancient Emperor Zhu Carpenter and the Zhishineng Supervisor Wei Gonggong are indeed legends that people imagined.
The wind of overturning the case on the Internet is not only against Wei Zhongxian alone, Qin Ju has been said to be a loyal minister who promotes national unity, Yue Fei has been reduced to a big warlord with a lonely personality, and Cixi has become a female emperor who bows down to exhaustion... People used to make a face of historical figures and make up their minds with simple loyalties and badness; today's people often dig up these notorious "historical sinners" to whitewash them in order to be different or sensational. Both extremes are undesirable, people's lives are complex and long, good people also have bad sides, and bad guys may inadvertently promote the development of history. For example, Song Yu and Ao Bai cannot simply label them as "loyal" or "adulterous".
Wei Zhongxian died 390 years ago, and what he did in his life was bound to have a positive side to the monarch or the country, but to be enshrined as the last sage of the Ming Dynasty was a bit excessive. Qing Shi Zhaozhao, how can this kind of gratuitous whitewashing be worthy of those loyal and martyred loyal subjects at the end of the Ming Dynasty? "Wei Zhongxian does not die, the Ming Dynasty does not perish, and the fate of a dynasty is definitely not determined by one or two people or one or two historical events, but is a historical necessity produced under the influence of many factors." It is too childish and ridiculous to pin the hope of the dynasty's survival on a virtuous eunuch.
bibliography:
Lin Meiling, "Research on Late Ming and Liao-Yuan"——Fujian People's Publishing House, 2011.7
Zhang Tingyu edited the History of Ming, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2007
Feng Menglong (Ming), "The Diary of Yandu"
Dai Kasa (Qing), "Huailing Liukou Always Record"
Wang Shide (Ming), Chongzhen Testament