Xiaobian often writes articles of the Ming Dynasty, which are well-founded and objective and fair. But some so-called "bright fans" may be unhappy, or even angry. They said that the Ming Dynasty was such a backbone dynasty, what "gentlemen die in the community, the son of heaven guards the frontier", what "no peace, no cutting of the land, no surrender, no indemnity" what is "not harmonious, not cut the land, no surrender, no indemnity." Feeling that what they said was so strong, I was speechless.
What exactly is this backbone? Xiao Bian believes that this bone qi should be the "solar terms" advocated by Cheng Zhu Lixue, and Mencius called it "Haoran Qi", that is, "the rich and noble cannot be obscene, the poor cannot be moved, and the mighty cannot be bent." The Song Dynasty was the dynasty most profoundly influenced by "integrity". The preface to the Zhongyi Collection, which was collected by Liu Linrui and Zhao Jingliang, said: "For more than three hundred years, the Song Dynasty established the country with benevolence and benevolence, created scholars with poetry and books, and encouraged the doctors with righteousness and righteousness, so the perception of its scholars and people arose, and everyone knew that killing oneself was beautiful. And its changes and deaths, there are those who die in the temple, those who die in the society, those who die in the king, and those who seal the territory in the dead city. After the change of Jing Kang, "the loyal servants of the Xishi died one after another."
The Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty, and many dignified people also died, represented by Zhang Shijie, Lu Xiufu and Wen Tianxiang. Zhang Shijie successively supported the Second Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, vowed not to surrender the Yuan, and finally defeated Yashan and drowned under Pingzhang Mountain; Lu Xiufu carried Zhao Fu to the sea after the defeat of Yashan and died; Wen Tianxiang refused to surrender after being captured, and finally calmly and righteously.
In general, to see whether a dynasty has backbone, we should look at the performance of their scholars. The life of the scholars of the Ming Dynasty should be the most superior dynasty in ancient China. The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the families of scholars in the Ming Dynasty were exempt from military service, that is, the Ming Dynasty's scholars, officials, nobles, and landlords did not have to pay taxes, did not have to serve, and only the low-level peasants, merchants, etc., who paid taxes, mainly peasants. 90% of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue came from farmers. As a result, the Ming Dynasty saw the phenomenon that the rich did not pay taxes, and the poor paid more taxes.
It is reasonable to say that the Ming Dynasty is so good to these scholars, the Scholars and Doctors of the Ming Dynasty should know how to be grateful, and they should have a lot of backbone. However, after reading the history of the Ming Dynasty, there are really not many scholars in the Ming Dynasty who have backbone. I can name a few of the more famous ones, such as Yu Qian, who sacrificed his life and forgot his death and finally saved the city of Beijing, but was eventually killed; Hai Rui, a Great Qing official; Shi Kefa, the Qing army came and refused to surrender and was killed.
So what was the backbone of the rest of the Ming Dynasty? Generally speaking, "the wind knows the grass, and the board knows the sincerity". In the last years of a dynasty, it is clear whether the dynasty has a backbone. Let's directly explain the performance of the scholars in the last years of the dynasty.
After the Chongzhen Emperor came to power, the treasury was empty, and officials were asked to donate some 1 million taels of silver to save Xiaoming. However, these officials are a dime a dozen, and they have forgotten what worries the world before they are worried, and what the world is happy about after that. There was no way, the emperor had to let the state abbot take the lead, the state abbot said no, and finally there was no way, the empress took out 5,000 taels, and made up 13,000 taels. Did the ministers of the Ming Dynasty really have no money? Later, Li Zicheng entered Beijing and found 600,000 taels of silver at the guozhang's house, as well as a large number of other treasures. In total, Li Zicheng found 70 million taels of silver in Beijing.
Let's talk about the performance of the Ming Dynasty soldiers in the face of the Qing soldiers entering the customs. After Li Zicheng's defeat, the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing and entered the Central Plains. At that time, the world was undecided, the Qing Dynasty only occupied a city in Beijing, but at that time it dared to set the capital of Beijing, why is this? The reason is simple, because the Ming officials welcome the Qing Emperor. At that time, they were all worried that their black gauze hats would not be guaranteed, so when the Qing soldiers came, they welcomed them in the middle of the road. Dorgon also understood their feelings, so he announced that they would return to their original positions. In this way, the officials of the Ming Dynasty in the northern region put on the official uniforms of the Qing Dynasty in the blink of an eye. Here I forgot to say Wu Sangui, but his affairs are known all over the world, and it is needless to say.
After the Qing Dynasty destroyed Li Zicheng's power, it continued to march towards the Southern Ming Dynasty. It is reasonable to say that the Ming Dynasty is very backbone, so let's fight. But the Southern Ming did not, and their first thought was to bribe Dolgun with money, let Dolgun return to the northeast, and even agreed to cede Beijing to the Qing Dynasty. However, dorgon refused. Since the compensation for cutting the land is not enough, it is best to face the battle. So the main army of the Southern Ming annexed the north of the Yangtze River and prepared to deal with the Qing army moving south. However, the Qing army is still in the future, the Southern Ming army first fought on its own, in 1645, the general soldier xu Dingguo stationed in Suizhou killed Gao Jie, Gao Jie's men sought revenge on him, he did not do two endlessly, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Gao Ming. What is even more speechless is that Zuo Liangyu actually led an army of 100,000 to attack Nanjing, and later his son also surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. At that time, only Shi Kefa of Yangzhou did not surrender, he insisted on the city of Yangzhou, but only for one day.
At that time, there were a large number of Ming Dynasty scholars who had gone from Nanjing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. The most famous is Qian Qianyi. In 1645, Qing troops approached Nanjing. When the soldiers approached the city of Nanjing, Liu Ru persuaded Qian Qianyi to throw water with him to martyr the country, Qian Qianyi was silent, and finally went down to the pool to try the water, saying: "The water is too cold to go down", Liu Ru "strives to sink in the water", but gives Qian Qianyi a hard hold. No, he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Sure enough, Qian Qianyi was very backbone and would not be thrown into cold water.
Now everyone should have some understanding of the backbone of the Ming Dynasty