If you want to evaluate the Donglin Party objectively, you must first understand them clearly, and it is best to start with the eight founders. As the leaders of the original Donglin Party, they were very different from their successors in the middle and late stages.
There are eight founders of the Donglin Party, namely Gu Xiancheng, Gu Yuncheng, Gao Panlong, Liu Yuanzhen, An Xifan, Qian Yiben, Xue Shijiao, and Ye Maocai, that is, the "Eight Gentlemen of Donglin". In this order, I ranked them in terms of influence and contribution, and it was almost their position and role in the Donglin Party.
I can tell you very responsibly that the Donglin Party does not represent the Jiangnan scholar class, but the Daming scholar class, which is a national organization. Of course, the Donglin Party does not represent all the scholars, because the bureaucracy has been factional since the middle of the Wanli Calendar, and they are only one of the forces.
The reason why many people, including some historians, will think that the Donglin Party represents the Jiangnan (or Southeast) scholar class is mainly because the leaders of the original Donglin Party were from Jiangsu. Moreover, in addition to Qian Yishu and Xue Shijiao from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, the other six are from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, where the base camp of Donglin Academy is located. In other words, when the Donglin Party was formally established in the 32nd year of the Wanli Calendar, most of the people were from Jiangsu, and the regionality was very obvious.
But let's remind everyone that after the Donglin Party made a name for itself, it attracted readers from all over the country to join them. For example, Fuqing Ye Xianggao of Fuzhou Province, Li Sancai of Lintong, Shaanxi, Zhao Nanxing of Gaoyi, who is directly subordinate to Zhending Province, Sun Chengzong of Gaoyang, who is directly subordinate to Baoding, Huang Zunsu (father of Huang Zongxi) of Yuyao, Zhejiang, and so on, many of them are not from Jiangsu, Jiangnan or southeast china.
Therefore, I insist on dividing the national interest groups represented by the Donglin Party according to the characteristic concept and factional struggle position, rather than simply limiting it to the regional nature.
Many people have been brainwashed by the propaganda of the marketing number, and have always thought that the Donglin Party was very strong at the beginning, but the real history is just the opposite.
Gu Xiancheng was deposed by the Wanli Emperor because of his fierce rhetoric in the fifteenth year of the Wanli Dynasty, and later he was disgusted by the Wanli Emperor for his involvement in the dispute over the state, which eventually led to his dismissal in the twenty-second year of the Wanli Dynasty, and then he did not come back.
Gu Xiancheng's younger brother Gu Yuncheng was deposed in the fourteenth year of the Wanli Dynasty for his fierce words to defend Hai Rui's reputation, and in the twenty-first year of the Wanli Dynasty, he was dismissed from his post for interfering in the dispute over the foundation of the country and impeaching the Chu Party Zhang, and then did not come back.
Gao Panlong was demoted in the twenty-first year of the Wanli Calendar for impeaching the first assistant king of the cabinet who proposed the three kings and the title of King Xijue, and did not return until the first year of the Apocalypse.
Liu Yuanzhen was designed to retaliate against the Zhejiang Party Shen Zheng in the "Jingcha Case" in the thirty-third year of the Wanli Calendar, and Taichang only returned in the first year.
An Xifan returned to his hometown after he was demoted to an official in the twenty-first year of the Wanli Dynasty shangshu "Correcting the Right and Evil of the Auxiliary Minister Ming Zhengyi", and has not made a comeback.
Qian Yiyi was dismissed from his post in the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar because of the impeachment of Zhang Juzheng for blocking his words, and has not returned since.
Xue Shi taught wanli twenty-one years that wanli was unjustly wronged and degraded, and has not made a comeback since then.
The only exception was Ye Maocai, who resigned in the forty years of the Wanli Calendar, but the reason for resigning was because the Donglin Party was excluded.
Except for Ye Maocai, the Eight Gentlemen of Donglin all retired from politics before or similar periods of the official establishment of the Donglin Party in the 32nd year of the Wanli Calendar, and they were basically the losers of the party struggle during the Wanli period. So it is precisely because they have all failed that they gathered in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Donglin Academy to run a school and evolved into an organization.
Judging from the experience of the Eight Gentlemen of Donglin during the Wanli Years, most of them have "official speeches" unique to Daming, who speak out and dare to give advice, and like to criticize what they think is unreasonable in the government; most of them also have the spirit of not being afraid of death and are not afraid of power; in addition, most of them are basically wrong with hostile officials. These characteristics, combined with the idea of opposing tax increases, basically freeze the style of the entire Donglin Party.
It is precisely this kind of idea that gathers them together and becomes the most organized, unified, and ideological faction in the late Ming Dynasty, and these characteristics are an important basis for dividing them.
However, it is clear that the leaders of the original Donglin Party, as losers, are pinning their hopes on the next generation (or successor).
The outcome of the original Donglin Party leaders was also relatively regular, and most of them died before Wei Zhongxian completely took power, such as Gu Xiancheng died of natural death at the age of 62 in the 40th year of the Wanli Calendar, Gu Yuncheng died of illness in the 35th year of the Wanli Calendar at the age of 54, An Xifan Tianqi died of illness at the age of 58, Liu Yuanzhen died of illness in the second year of the Wanli Dynasty at the age of 51, Qian Yi died at the age of 71 in the 45th year of the Wanli Calendar, and Xue Shijiao died at the age of 56 in the 38th year of the Wanli Calendar. The remaining two exceptions, Ye Maocai Chongzhen died of illness in the second year at the age of 72, and Gao Panlong died in the sixth year of the Heavenly Apocalypse at the age of 64.
They mostly had better outcomes, mostly belonging to the type of natural death. The only exception is Gao Panlong, who committed suicide in the sixth year of the Apocalypse after being falsely accused of corruption by the eunuch Cui Chengxiu.
Obviously, Gao Panlong was the most miserable of the eight. The reason is easy for everyone to understand, because he lived to the period of party strife and actively participated in the government of the dynasty, so he was just liquidated by Wei Zhongxian's castration party. But not only Gao Panlong, who lived to wei Zhongxian's reign from the fourth year of the Heavenly Apocalypse to the seventh year of the Heavenly Apocalypse, but also Ye Maocai, how did he retire from the whole body?
It turned out that after Ye Maocai resigned in the forty years of the Wanli Calendar, he was also ordered by the Emperor of the Apocalypse in the first year of the Apocalypse, but he refused to take office. The Apocalypse was activated again in the fourth year, and Ye Maocai dragged it out until the fifth year of the Apocalypse before taking office, but after three months of service, he resigned from office. It is not difficult to see that Ye Maocai was already tired of power struggles when he was forty years old. Ye Maocai's low profile, no love of power, no participation in party struggle, and no threat are the fundamental reasons why he laughed to the end.
Ye Maocai's character was quite good, and he had successfully rescued the son of his former friend Gao Panlong and saved him from death. In a situation where all the Donglin Party members were brutally suppressed and faced death threats, it was ironic that Ye Maocai, as a senior Leader of the Donglin Party, could get people from Wei Zhongxian's hands.
The final winner of the Eight Gentlemen of Donglin was Ye Maocai, who ranked eighth and has always been very low-key.