Although historians have long made a conclusion about the Ming Dynasty, they believe that the Ming Dynasty, founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, experienced 12 generations, 16 dynasties, 17 dynasties, and was a relatively powerful and effective feudal dynasty in China history in 276. Some commentators said that the Ming Dynasty was the golden age of China after the Zhou Dynasty, the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, and it was called "Governing the Tang and Song Dynasties and Prospering the Han and Tang Dynasties" in history. Daming, without the intimacy of Han and Tang Dynasties and the money of Song Dynasty, the emperor ruled the country and the monarch perished. Should be respected by future generations. This is not empty talk.
However, in the impression of many people, the Ming Dynasty was a feudal empire that overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, but the emperor was incompetent, the politics was dark, the officials were corrupt, and finally it was destroyed by internal troubles and foreign invasion. Especially for the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, almost no one has a good reputation: Wu Hong who killed as many people as possible, Yongle who destroyed ten families, Jiajing who was defeated and captured by crickets, Jiajing who was keen on magic, Emperor Wanli who revealed the truth, Chongzhen, the king of national subjugation, and so on. It seems that each one can be used as a negative textbook for emperors to govern the country.
Supposedly, the Ming Dynasty, as the last dynasty ruled by Han people in China's feudal history, was also the only empire in China's history that unified the north and the south and achieved national reunification. It has its special advantages and special status. If we speak with facts, the Ming Dynasty created many positive firsts in the history of China: ruling the world in the early Ming Dynasty, ruling Wu Hong, ruling Yongle, ruling Ren Xuan, ruling Hongzhi and rejuvenating the country, and prospering in Wanli, etc. One after another, a scene of prosperity; The largest territory of the Ming Dynasty is the sea in the east and south, the Xilamulun River and Yinshan Mountain in the north, Tibet and Yunnan in the west, the Bei 'an Mountains in the east and Hami in the northwest, including two provinces in the mainland, thirteen provinces and islands in the South China Sea. It used to have fetter management institutions in old ports in Southeast Asia and other places, and its influence spread all over the east coast of Asia and Africa. 1662, Zheng Chenggong defeated the Dutch colonists and recovered Taiwan Province Island in Taiwan Province Province, bringing China to the top. The economy and culture of Ming Dynasty belong to a developed stage in the history of China. Later generations counted the tax revenue of the imperial court at that time. The economic scale of the Ming Dynasty ranked first in the world. The Institute of Technology is thriving, and there are Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu in the East, and three words and two beats also appear here. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin and The Journey to the West are four fantastic books, which can be called masterpieces of a generation. Zheng He and China's voyages to the West, the Wanli War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the construction of the Great Wall in Ming Dynasty attracted worldwide attention.
Faced with these commendable achievements, why do people still think that Ming Chengzu is illiterate? Among them, the whole story is complicated, including internal and external factors, as well as misunderstanding and prejudice. The author dares to put forward some opinions that are not necessarily correct and accurate:
First, treat the actions of the Ming emperors correctly and adhere to the dialectical analysis of history.
Compared with the philosophical thinking of modern people, we can look at many things dialectically, which is undoubtedly a kind of progress and a principle. As for the special occupation of emperor, we should treat it historically and dialectically in the big environment. For example, this bad king has also heard of his contribution to Chen's extinction, and his garden position in calligraphy and painting is also recognized; A monarch like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was involved in witchcraft in his later years, and his brother-killed one.
History should truly record human events, but the position and environmental atmosphere of historians cannot but affect the fairness of recording historical materials. As we know, in order to maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty implemented a series of policies to imprison national thoughts, which, together with the Confucian culture circulating in China for thousands of years, formed the unique character of China people-servility! From princes and ministers to ordinary people, they all claim to be slaves. It was during this period that Lu Xun created the image of China people with grief and indignation. When they are dissatisfied, they will only complain, wear no hats and be arrogant. Generally, we don't blame the system, the government, the emperor or resistance. Therefore, many historians do not seek truth when recording the historical materials of the Ming Dynasty, but only write what the court needs, which cannot accurately reflect the historical truth.
In addition, while deleting and destroying the political, economic and literary achievements of the past dynasties and enslaving the thoughts of the people of China, the Qing Dynasty also promoted the literary inquisition and strengthened the autocratic monarchy, resulting in a high degree of unity between the ruling system of the Qing Dynasty and orthodoxy. In addition, ministers did not have the capital to engage in political struggle with the emperor, thinking that they were slaves of the feudal emperor, so they did not dare to interfere with imperial power. In such an environment, who dares to make a fair evaluation of the former emperors or events? Later generations are often misled by these fragmented historical materials.
Third, scientifically discuss the words and deeds of the characters in the Ming Dynasty and adhere to the pragmatic principle of seeking truth from facts.
Some people say; After Hu was killed, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system that had been practiced in China for thousands of years, and selected some people to form a think tank, the so-called cabinet, to help them handle government affairs. However, after Yongle, due to some reasons, the actual status of cabinet members was greatly improved, and the actual power of the cabinet became greater. Where there are people, there are contradictions, and cabinet members are no exception, so political groups headed by each other attack each other! At this time, although the emperor stayed out of it, he was also doomed not to watch the fire from the other side. He must make a choice, politics is not black or white, only red! Decision-making can only be based on the skills of an American empire and the interests of political groups, which will inevitably harm the interests of some officials and people. The above seems to be no different from other dynasties. The difference is that the cabinet system in the Ming Dynasty led to this political failure, not a complete failure. After the officials who accepted his political thoughts entered the cabinet, they brought order out of chaos, and the bottom officials and the people were in a fickle political wind. As a result, the bad king came into being, which is also the reason why there were so many traitors in the Ming Dynasty.
Although this evaluation is somewhat arbitrary, it is not unreasonable. The reason why the Ming Dynasty went from heyday to decline until extinction was because the emperors in the middle and late period were far behind the needs of the times in ruling ideas, means, management methods, employment policies and foreign relations.
He believes that there are some problems in the system implemented in the Ming Dynasty, which leads to a high degree of differentiation between the ruling system and the orthodox concept. The so-called ruling system refers to inheriting actual political power to control society; The so-called orthodoxy is the thought and theory of managing society and guiding various relations in society. At that time, the system of emperor rule, vassal pipeline system. Officials were punished for exhorting the emperor, such as being fined, beaten, imprisoned and exiled. This is a glorious thing. Public opinion is on their side, and the emperor is sympathetic; In other words, the emperor can't and dare not kill ministers casually, and cabinet ministers also use their power to master the moral system, restrict imperial power, and even dare to be ordered by the monarch. The most typical example is the big gift dispute during Jiajing period, but Emperor Jiajing had no choice. because
As mentioned above, the Ming Dynasty was the heyday of literary creation and an era of great achievements. But we should not only see the vigorous development of culture, but also see the historical trend behind it. After experiencing ancient myths, pre-Qin fables, strange stories in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, legends in Tang Dynasty, stories in Song and Yuan Dynasties, and false stories in the early Ming Dynasty, the development of novels finally reached its peak in the middle of Ming Dynasty-Zhang Hui style novels. Literature is no longer the patent of poets and writers, but begins to go down the altar and enter the folk, resulting in a large number of folk writers. Wu Cheng'en, Luo Guanzhong and Shi Naian are outstanding representatives in this field.
In the Ming dynasty, the probability of a large number of literati becoming officials was very small. They have enough time and ability to participate in novel creation, because the way of speech at this time is relatively smooth and the literary inquisition is not very serious. They can and dare to bring their dissatisfaction with the society, the system, the government and the emperor into the novel, either explicitly or implicitly. When these novels spread in Weng Yisheng's and Zhong Ming's Ding Shi's homes, the author's dissatisfaction often aroused readers' * * *, so the bad king reappeared in people's minds.
In fact, sometimes the situation reflected by literary works is not necessarily the mainstream status quo. According to historical records, although the traitors were in power in the Ming Dynasty, the private economy developed very rapidly, and the capitalist economy sprouted at this time. Folk life is not in trouble. Matteo Ricci Jin Pingmei, a missionary in the late Ming Dynasty, recorded China in this way: the material production here is extremely rich and ubiquitous, the sugar is whiter than that in Europe, the cultured people in Europe are luxuriously dressed and personable, and the American spirit is cheerful and polite, and the conversation is elegant. However, during the generally optimistic Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, visiting British envoy magal said that there was amazing poverty everywhere. Many people have no clothes to wear. This army is as shabby as a beggar. It can be seen that novels are not historical facts, and we can. I don't believe it.
Especially some time ago, the film and television dramas reflected the history of the Ming Dynasty badly, or at least it was not accurate and complete enough. We say that history is often cruel, complicated and intense, far from being clearly expressed and accurately portrayed by a movie or a TV series. Imagine, the novel romance and the historical drama produced by unofficial history, the official history, although the characters stand out vividly, it is difficult to show the real history in essence. After all, the more fatuous the emperor is, the darker the system is and the more corrupt the bureaucrats are. For scripts written by film and television writers, the better the background of the times. The phenomena of Royal Guards, eunuchs, stereotyped writing and unjust cases, whether right or wrong, seem to be unique to the Ming Dynasty as long as they have something to watch and a box office, and then they are constantly innovated and developed by directors and finally put on the screen. In this way, it is strange that the reflected Ming Di has a good reputation.