Looking at the heyday of a dynasty, the size of the country seems to be a good proof.
In its heyday, the Tang Dynasty covered an area of more than 12 million square kilometers. The Ming Dynasty also had a heyday, that is, the "Yongle Prosperous Era", when the territory area was the largest in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
Since it was the prosperous age of Yongle, it could not bypass the Yongle Emperor, that is, Zhu Di. For this emperor, some people say that he was cruel and launched the Battle of Jingnan to seize the throne of his nephew Zhu Yunjiao, and some historical records say that he killed three thousand palace girls because of the death of his concubine. Some people also say that he was a wise emperor, and his reign should be the best era of the Ming Dynasty, with a strong country, economic prosperity, and diplomatic success. Looking at the emperors after the Ming Dynasty, it seems that some of the strange emperors in Chinese history are concentrated here.
In fact, to evaluate a historical figure, of course, we cannot replace the face with points. From Zhu Di's point of view, when he seized the throne, it was more of a kind of self-preservation, and the first thing Zhu Yunjiao did when he came to power was not to develop the economy but to cut the domain. But Zhu Di was different from other clan kings in that he had military merits. At that time, Zhu Di and Zhu Yuanzhang did not less than the southern conquest of the northern war, and Zhu Yuanzhang also admired Zhu Di very much, otherwise he would not let him guard Yanjing. This is the gateway of the country, and the Song Dynasty at that time was so passive because of such an arrangement.
Objectively speaking, it can be seen from Zhu Yunjiao's performance in the few years of his reign that it is very unsatisfactory to let him run the country. Although Zhu Yunjiao's grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang worked very hard, the problem of border troubles was still prominent. Looking at the contest between Zhu Yunjiao and his uncle, it is clear that at the beginning, Zhu Yunjiao had the upper hand in both military strength and financial resources, but he would not use people, and in the end, the situation changed a lot. Because, Zhu Yunjiao does not look at the ability to use people, but to look at the intimate relationship with him.
At that time, the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty were still waiting for an opportunity, and if Zhu Yunjiao continued to preside over the government, it was really difficult to say what would happen later. As a result, in the few years of competition between the uncles and nephews, the territory of the north of The Seychelles was lost a lot. But Zhu Di was not a vague person, and after ascending to the throne, he first moved the capital to guard the gate of the country, and then, he personally conquered to expand the territory, not only taking back the lost land, but also continuing to advance to the southwest. More importantly, in the fourth year of Yongle, Zhu Di set up envoys from Annam to manage these areas that were taken back.
In addition, during Zhu Di's reign, he also did a big thing, that is, to repair the Great Wall, and the Great Wall that you see now is the Ming Great Wall. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, some princely states began to build the Great Wall, the purpose of which was for military defense. In the qin shi huang period, the construction of the Great Wall became a huge project. Later, the Great Wall was built throughout the ages, after all, this kind of military defense was still very useful in the era of cold weapons. Although the Great Wall of Qin has a long history, it is difficult to see at present, and most of the current Great Wall was built between 1381 and 1620.
Here, let's take a look at the territory area of the Ming Yongle era.
The historical records mention the territorial area of this period many times, and the "Famous History" directly says that "the sixth division has been repeatedly produced, and the desert north is dusty", which shows that Zhu Di relied on war to increase the land area of the Ming Dynasty a lot. At that time, there were more than thirty countries paying tribute to China. The territory of the Ming Dynasty's Yongle Dynasty was "from Korea in the east, tibet in the west, Bao'an in the south, and Da Moraine in the north", with a territorial area of about 9.97 million square kilometers.
The vast territory is the most perfect proof of the strength of the country, so it will have the financial resources to build large ships, repeatedly send Zheng He's envoys, and take the initiative to show the world the powerful side of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this is only the positive side seen by future generations, and it is necessary to support the war and the construction of all aspects of the country. Therefore, the more important point of criticism of Zhu Di by later generations is that the taxes of the common people during his term of office were very heavy.
In addition, Zhu Di also liked pomp and circumstance, and naturally there was no shortage of civil engineering, especially the relocation project was very huge, and hundreds of thousands of people were successively recruited in Shandong, which increased the burden of the people, which led to the outbreak of the Tang Sai'er Uprising in the eighteenth year of Yongle. Although Tang Sai'er's army was eventually defeated and destroyed by Wei Qing, the commander of Shandong Capital, it had an abyssal impact on the society at that time.
But if You put Zhu Di in the context of history, he is still a great emperor. After all, Zhu Di's efforts during this period laid a solid foundation for the formation of China's great unification situation in the future. More importantly, some of Zhu Di's political measures have made China's imperial power system more perfect, such as the cabinet system.
So, does the time of Yongle's prosperity only refer to the period of Zhu Di's reign?
In this regard, many historians do not think so, and they prefer to move this time forward, that is to say, to count the years of Zhu Yuanzhang's later period.
Zhu Yuanzhang was an exceptionally diligent emperor, and under his rule, the economy of the Ming Dynasty soon came out of decline, and the whole country began to show a vitality of upward development. Zhu Di reigned for a total of 22 years, and there was also a Zhu Yunjiao between him and Zhu Yuanzhang, if according to this statement, then Yongle flourished for more than thirty years.
In fact, each dynasty seems to have a difficult end, that is, the family property that the previous generations desperately saved, but the descendants seem to care, such as the later Jiajing Emperor Ming Shizong, in his eyes, the government is not as important as Taoism, and even gives Daoist officials. Can such a country still be on track? Therefore, even if a country has a large territory, if it cannot be well guarded, it will eventually lose.
In 1449, the Ming Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline after the change of Tumu Fort, and later revived the country through Hongzhi Zhongxing and Wanli Zhongxing. In the late Ming Dynasty, a peasant uprising broke out due to political corruption, the Donglin party struggle, and natural disasters and external disasters that led to the decline of national strength.
Until 1644, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself, and the Ming Dynasty fell.
Resources:
["Ming Shi Taizu Benji", "Ming Shi, Volume IV, Ben Ji Fourth", "Ming Shi Ben Ji Fifth Ming Chengzu I", "Ming Shi Chronicle BenJi BenJi"]