Mingshenzong Wanli period.
Ming Muzong's third son, Mingshenzong Zhu Yijun (1563, 1620), was named Wanli, and due to the death of his two elder brothers, after the death of Ming Muzong, the ten-year-old Zhu Yijun succeeded to the throne. In the first ten years of his reign, due to his young age, his mother Mrs. Li listened to the government on his behalf, and the empress dowager handed over all military and political affairs to Zhang Juzheng to preside over the decision. With the cooperation of the eunuch Feng Bao, Zhang Juzheng carried out a series of new policies; Politically, "respect for sovereignty, the duties of officials, trust rewards and punishments, and Order No. 1 is the mainstay". Economically, the land of the whole country was cleared and a whip law was implemented. The economic field is the core content of Zhang Juzheng's reform, the tax is more dependent on the land collection, the tax distribution is more reasonable, and the fields that have been concealed have also begun to pay taxes, which is equivalent to reducing the tax burden of the poor who lack land, increasing the tax contribution of the landlords, and increasing the overall financial revenue, so that the finance began to be abundant. The tax structure is simpler, which is convenient for taxation and reduces the opportunity for corruption. The government exchanged labor for silver taels, which was very similar to Wang Anshi's exemption law, which promoted the development of the commodity economy. Zhang Juzheng also reorganized the border preparations and harnessed the Yellow River. Zhang Juzheng's new policy measures have brought good results, improved operational efficiency, and significant social and economic development, known as "Wanli Zhongxing" in history.
In 1582, after Zhu Yijun became pro-government, the new policy measures were gradually abolished. In November 1586, Myojinzong began to indulge in alcohol, and later had a dispute with the cabinet over the establishment of the crown prince, and the result of the dispute was a victory for the cabinet, and Myojinzong may be angry or tired of the government, and from 1589, he did not listen to the government for 30 years. In the past few decades when he was not in court, he actively presided over the major political affairs in the palace in the previous stage, and seriously approved the recital. After the three major expeditions of Wanli, Shenzong no longer approved the chapter in time or no longer approved the chapter, and the courtiers stayed in the harem, which led to many state affairs that could not be decided, such as the phenomenon that the official position was no longer changed, and some official positions were vacant.
The founding emperors of dynasties are generally relatively long-lived, and the emperors of the middle and late periods are generally short-lived emperors. Mingshenzong lived to be 58 years old, and was already the longest-lived emperor of the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty. But for the country, the longevity of the Mingshenzong seems inappropriate, maybe the Mingshenzong died 20 years early, and the situation in the late Ming Dynasty would be much better.
The harm of mining taxes. Myojinzong was not a frugal emperor and loved rare objects. With the implementation of the three major levies, the fiscal revenue cannot make ends meet, which means that taxes need to be raised. In 1596, the Myojin sect sent eunuchs to serve as mine tax collectors, who not only collected taxes, but also opened mines. From 1597 to 1605, the mining tax made an average of more than 500,000 taels per year, more than 1,000 taels, which was nothing to the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue, but the harm was huge. These eunuchs, who were born as eunuchs and were born as mine supervisors, relied on their imperial power to "whip officials, rob travelers, and hate the merchants" and "their party went straight into the people's homes, raped women, or plundered into the tax supervision office, and the people were indignant", but Mingshenzong did not ask about these illegal acts, which became a serious social problem. After the death of Emperor Shenzong, these commercial taxes were abolished, and the lack of tax revenue was compensated for by increasing agricultural taxes, which played a role in the outbreak of large-scale peasant uprisings.
The state is short of money, and it is necessary to levy taxes, but the mine supervision and taxation should not directly open mines, which belongs to relying on power and indiscriminately running state-owned enterprises, which is not efficient and disturbs the people a lot, and this is the main reason why this tax collection action was finally canceled. It is indeed a great tragedy that the indiscriminate operation of state-owned enterprises has affected the normal industrial and commercial tax model, resulting in the abolition of commercial taxes and the transfer of tax revenue to agricultural taxes. Another reason why the mine supervisor tax was made big during the Mingshenzong period was that the Mingshenzong did not care about the eunuchs' violations of law and discipline. After the death of Emperor Shenzong, the successor emperor was more diligent and could restrain these mine tax collectors, and only need to sell the state-owned mining enterprises set up by the mine tax collectors, and these commercial taxes should not be abolished.