Speaking of Emperor Jiajing, I am afraid that friends who know something about the history of the Ming Dynasty, the first impression is that Jiajing is wearing a Taoist robe to cultivate immortals and seek Taoism. Many people think that Jiajing is a mediocre and incompetent emperor. But who knows that Jiajing, the emperor who has not asked about the world for 20 years, is actually the most scheming, the most clever political means, and the most terrifying emperor in the Ming Dynasty.
Even in some ways, even Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di are inferior to Emperor Jiajing. And Jiajing's life is also quite legendary. From an enlightened holy lord to an emperor who ignores the government and only cares about cultivating and becoming an immortal. What exactly did Emperor Jiajing go through?
Let's briefly talk about this not simple emperor Zhu Houxi.
Frankly speaking, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxu still picked up the throne. After the death of Zhu Houzhao of Ming Wuzong, because Ming Wuzong had no heirs, Yang Tinghe, the first assistant of the cabinet at that time, began to select the heir to the throne in the Zhu family according to the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun". Selected by blood kinship, first of all, Ming Wuzong had no son, and secondly, his younger brother Zhu Houwei was also young and young. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao's generation is not in the scope of consideration. Therefore, the cabinet put the selection object on the father generation of Zhu Houzhao of Ming Wuzong, that is, the generation of Ming Xiaozong.
Ming Xiaozong's two elder brothers also died early and did not leave heirs, but although the fourth brother Xingwang Zhu Youqi is dead, he has two sons, and it is reasonable to say that the eldest son of Xingwang can succeed to the throne. But King Xing's eldest son also died, so the principle of "brother to brother" set up the second son Zhu Houxu as the heir, that is, Emperor Jiajing of Ming Shizong. This is why it is said that the throne of Emperor Jiajing was picked up.
After Jiajing was selected to inherit the throne, Jiajing himself couldn't believe this fact. After all, the throne was too far away from him. Finally, under the persuasion of the cabinet, Jiajing succeeded to the throne. To say that Emperor Jiajing is also a ruthless person. After he succeeded to the throne alone, there were almost no cronies and courtiers in the Manchu Dynasty. You must know that Emperor Jiajing was only fifteen years old at that time, and the old ministers of the Ming Wuzong period headed by Yang Tinghe and Mao Cheng wanted to suppress the imperial power, making Jiajing obedient to the emperor under the baton of the cabinet. The "Great Etiquette Dispute" during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty was the most intuitive embodiment of the struggle for power and profit between Jiajing and the cabinet. To put it simply, after Jiajing succeeded to the throne, he wanted to elevate the status of his parents.
But Yang Tingfei wanted to turn the cousin relationship between Ming Wuzong and Jiajing into a brotherly relationship. This is clearly about to change Emperor Jiajing's parents. Jiajing naturally would not agree. So there was a fight between the monarchs and ministers over this issue. Jiajing knows very well that this is no longer a matter of whether to change his parents or not. This shows that Yang Tinghe and others want to bully their youth to oppress themselves into submission. If this time fails, then Jiajing's power will be greatly hit. So Jiajing and Yang Tinghe have been arguing endlessly, not giving an inch.
Yang Tinghe thought that Jiajing, a young emperor, couldn't fight against him, an old fox. But Jiajing's methods far exceeded Yang Tinghe's expectations. On the one hand, Jiajing, with the help of speculators such as Zhang Xuan, began to reverse the situation. On the other hand, after Jiajing made full preparations, he directly forced Yang Tinghe back with force. In front of Zuo Shun's gate, Jiajing completely suppressed the courtiers who opposed him with the punishment of the court staff. At that time, 134 officials below the rank of 5 were imprisoned and tortured, and 86 officials above the rank 4 were suspended from their posts pending convictions. Sixteen people died because of the rod. After that, the three-year "Great Gift Discussion" ended with Zhu Houxi's victory. The power of the Ming Dynasty was completely held by Jiajing. And it ensured the dignity of the law and the political order of the Ming Dynasty. It also laid the foundation for the subsequent "Jiajing Innovation".
In the early days of the Jiajing Emperor, the "Jiajing Reform" was a movement planned and launched by Zhang Xuan to carry out drastic social reform. With the support and cooperation of Jiajing, the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty for more than 100 years were swept away to the greatest extent, the vitality of the Ming ruling class was stimulated, and the trend of declining national power was curbed and reversed. In other words, the "Jiajing Innovation" brought a hint of revival to the Ming Dynasty. With Jiajing's efforts, the power of the old courtiers, the imperial family and the nobles was greatly restricted, making the imperial power highly centralized. Moreover, the "Jiajing Innovation" had more than one influence, and the subsequent Longqing Dynasty and Wanli Dynasty were all affected by the "Jiajing Innovation".
In fact, from some levels, Zhang Juzheng's great changes in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty are just a continuation of the "Jiajing Innovation". It's just that Zhang Juzheng has thoroughly implemented "many policies that have not been implemented or are not thoroughly implemented in Jiajing." The changes from the "Jiajing Reform" to the Zhang Juzheng period are also known as the "Jialong Wanda Reform" in history. And the advocate and forerunner of reform was Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Jiajing's wisdom and martial arts completely stimulated the officials of the Ming Dynasty. They believed that Jiajing was the Ming lord of the Ming Dynasty and the hope of the Ming Dynasty.
At that time, Liu An, the imperial historian of Henan Province, admired Jiajing's reform very much, and even praised it many times, "Today, tomorrow's son is comprehensively audited at the top, and the deacons are vibrated at the bottom. "You must know that the imperial historian of the Ming Dynasty is a well-known hard bone in Chinese history. They're not going to give in. Their job is to find fault and then curse. How can the imperial historian speak highly of Jiajing. It can be seen that Jiajing's reform was indeed recognized by the courtiers. And "Jiajing Zhongxing" did bring a new atmosphere to the Ming Dynasty.
But just when everyone's joy was overjoyed, Emperor Jiajing began to "fall". In the middle of the reign of Emperor Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing began to believe in Taoism and advocated the art of immortality. Perhaps it is a common problem of all those in power. No matter how wise and martial an emperor is, he cannot escape the fear of death. In history, the four "Qin Emperors, Han Wu, Tang Sects, and Song Ancestors", except for Zhao Kuangyin, the Song Taizu, a person who Xi martial arts, did not believe in immortality, the other three emperors could not escape the temptation of immortality.
And Emperor Jiajing is not the same as others. Jiajing not only superstitious himself in cultivating and refining pills, but he also had to pull the minister to practice alchemy with him. Moreover, in history, Emperor Jiajing also caused the first coup d'état in history launched by the palace maid because of his cultivation, that is, "After Renyin Palace, Emperor Jiajing began to completely delegate power to the traitor Yan Song in order to concentrate on cultivation."
During the 20 years of Yan Song's dictatorship, the government of the officials was corrupted, the loyal and good were brutalized, and many meritorious heroes and direct ministers were killed and deposed. Moreover, due to Jiajing's ignorance of the government, the Ming Dynasty's border affairs were lax, which led to the Mongol Tatar leader Altan Khan constantly attacking the border. The southeastern coastal areas are also plagued. But even so, the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty was still under the control of Jiajing.
Don't look at Yan Song's father and son, the Ming Dynasty is invincible. But the power of Yan Song's father and son is still extremely weak in front of Jiajing. Don't look at the Ming Dynasty, the power of the monarch and the power of the vassal were mutually restrictive. However, during the Jiajing period, there was no phenomenon of subordination and balance of monarchy, and Emperor Jiajing had a strong grasp of power and a strong control over the civilian clique. During the entire reign of Emperor Jiajing, no matter how Jiajing wasted political affairs, the power of the entire Ming Dynasty was always firmly in the hands of Jiajing.
In his later years, Emperor Jiajing seemed to feel that monasticism might be a hoax. Therefore, Jiajing, who was obsessed with cultivation, became wise and martial again. Yan Song, who had been in power for 20 years, was completely abolished by Jiajing. Instead, Jiajing began to promote and reuse Yan Song's old enemy Xu Jie, and Jiajing probably felt that the more he felt that he had wasted politics for twenty years, it was not like that. Therefore, in order to alleviate social contradictions, Jiajing began to adopt reform measures such as reforming and reducing malpractices and revitalizing discipline and discipline. He also began to vigorously rectify the practice of officials and aristocrats privately occupying private land. In addition, in order to abolish the onerous craftsman system of the imperial court and reduce the burden on the imperial court. In his later years, Jiajing cut off more than 100,000 craftsmen. A series of measures in Jiajing's later years once again made the Manchu civil and military inexplicably excited. It also made the Ming Dynasty rejuvenated.
In the entire ancient Chinese history, Jiajing was the only emperor who seemed to be joking. It is likely that other emperors will not be able to do anything concrete to benefit the state in their lifetime. And many emperors spend their lives working hard to become a generation of emperors. But like Emperor Jiajing, Ming Jun went to the Taoist to play when he had enough. Enough of the cultivation and playing again, he became a Ming Jun again. The emperor who can switch roles so well, and can control the entire country even if he wastes political affairs. Full of calculations is just Jiajing alone. This is something that no king can surpass.
It's really hard to imagine what the Ming Dynasty would be like if Jiajing had been wise and martial arts and didn't waste time on cultivation.