The Chongzhen Emperor was the last emperor of the Ming Empire during the period of great unification, and as the last monarch of a great empire for more than two hundred years, this emperor eventually committed suicide and martyrdom.
It should be known that there are not many emperors in Chinese history who took the initiative to commit suicide and martyrdom, and Chongzhen is one of the more famous, so later generations expressed sympathy and understanding for Chongzhenduo, believing that when he took over the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to recover, and the sin of the Ming Dynasty's demise was not in him, but in the general trend.
However, some people believe that the demise of the Ming Dynasty is inevitable, but it will not perish in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and the responsibility for the demise of the Ming Dynasty cannot be shirked by Chongzhen.
So, what kind of emperor was Chongzhen, and how much did the fall of the Ming Dynasty have to do with him?
In 1627, the Emperor of Tianqi died, and before his death, he passed the throne to Chongzhen, who was only 16 years old at the time.
Chongzhen was very angry after he came to power, and he first overthrew the great eunuch Wei Zhongxian and won the praise of the literati and bureaucrats.
Chongzhen began a series of operations under the praise of Manchu civil officials, first exempting the mining tax and merchant tax in the south, but increasing the taxes of the people in the north, and he also abolished the "civil service system" such as the post station.
Chongzhen and Jiajing Wanli Heavenly Revelation are not the same, he is very diligent, he can even say that everything must be done personally, and his control over the courtiers has reached the level of paranoia.
However, it is such a person who is very spirited, very diligent, and in the end very strong, who would rather die than surrender, but has been questioned.
There are several main reasons for questioning Chongzhen.
First, Chongzhen killed Wei Zhongxian, abolished the factory guard, seemingly murdered the traitor, enlightened politics, in fact, is the abolition of martial arts, this is not to say that the eunuch factory guard is good, but in the environment at that time there was no eunuch factory guard checks and balances, the literati bureaucratic system is the only one, even if Chongzhen killed cabinet officials can not stop the expansion of the Ming dynasty bureaucratic system.
Second, although Chongzhen is diligent in government, but lacks the calm and strategy that the emperor should have, he has changed 19 cabinet chief assistants and more than 50 cabinet ministers in 17 years of reign, which has a great impact on the continuity and stability of the policy, and the entire Chongzhen Dynasty does not have a stable continuation of the grand strategy, in contrast to the emperor Taiji of the same era, the grand strategy is very clear and the implementation is very resolute.
Third, Chongzhen himself is very happy, but he is unwilling to take responsibility and likes to dump his subordinates. Chen Xinjia proposed to make peace with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and concentrate on resolving the internal peasant uprising, and Chongzhen also had this plan, but when the matter was revealed and the civilian officials rose up, Chongzhen betrayed Chen Xinjia and shirked his responsibilities himself. Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting were both rare generals of the late Ming Dynasty, shed their last blood for the Ming Dynasty, but after their deaths, they were snubbed and liquidated by Chongzhen. Who is still willing to be responsible for such an emperor, and who dares to act?
Fourth, Chongzhen credulously trusted Yuan Chonghuan in the early days, but after a failure, he was executed by Ling Chi, his own policies were inconsistent, and he suddenly tortured people he trusted, which was a great blow to other military generals, and everyone was dissatisfied with the emperor's employment.
In the early days of Chongzhen's reign, although the Ming Dynasty was already worried about internal and external troubles, at that time, Houjin did not achieve absolute superiority in the northeast, and under the joint suppression of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty and the Korean Mongols, Houjin was not easy at that time, and the economy was even more depleted.
Li Zicheng's uprising began precisely from Chongzhen's dismantling of the post, and before that, although there had been some peasant uprisings, they had not reached the later trend of burning the plains, and it was Chongzhen who exempted the bureaucratic landlords in the southeast region from taxes and put all the economic pressure on the people in the north, which led to the displacement of people in the north and smoke everywhere.
Chongzhen finally hanged himself on the coal mountain, in fact, he committed suicide in fear of sin, he originally planned to abandon the city and escape, but the Ming Intelligence System failed, he did not have time to run, which forced him to "coexist and die with Beijing".
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen may not be the only person responsible, but he must be the main person responsible, a person who does not dare to take responsibility, throws the pot under his subordinates, has inconsistent policies, has no strategic vision, does not understand power techniques, does not know compassion for the people, does not know how to suppress the literati and bureaucrats, is very happy, but is also an emperor with great ambitions and talents, who has been in power for seventeen years and has fallen into the country and died, Chongzhen is not a qualified emperor.
Before his death, he also said bitterly that he was not the king of the subjugated country, but that the ministers had misled him.
Although the Manchu literati and bureaucrats were not all good people, why didn't they mistake Jiajing, not the Wanli Calendar, and you Chongzhen?
It should be known that the situation chongzhen faced at the beginning of his reign was not a situation with no chance of victory like Qin Zibao, Emperor Xiandi of Han, and Emperor Aizong of Tang, and the cards in his hand were still good, and he could only say that he had broken it himself.