Stone statue of Zhu Yuanzhang Ming Xiaoling.
After Zhu Yuanzhang seized power, he thought about how to keep the country forever, the foundation lasts forever, and his children and grandchildren can enjoy wealth and prosperity. To this end, after careful consideration and long-term planning, he explored a set of theories of governance.
The first thing Zhu Yuanzhang did was to strengthen the centralization of power. Politically, he abolished the prime minister system and promoted the status of the six ministries; Militarily, the five military governors were set up, and each government had two chief officers, so as to disperse the military power of the generals; At the local level, political envoys, commanders, and procurators should be set up to disperse the power of local officials.
After this operation, the civilian and military generals could no longer threaten the imperial power. This is also confirmed by later facts: in the 276-year history of the Ming Dynasty, there were no civil and military generals who could threaten the throne.
But the high concentration of imperial power also brought *** because all the power belongs to the emperor, and the emperor has too many things to deal with, and he is very busy.
Zhu Yuanzhang said of his diligence: "Since the accession to the throne, Lian has often encouraged himself with diligence, and he will return to the palace before he arrives. Lying down at night can not sit down, put on clothes, or look up at the sky, see a star missing, that is, worry, or measure the civil, there is a speed, that is, the first note, waiting for the day to be dispatched. ”
In other words, Zhu Yuanzhang was going to go to court before dawn, and he returned to the harem when it was almost dark. If there is an early warning of the stars, then quickly consider that the ** thing is not done, quickly let people write it down, and wait until dawn to arrange the affairs to be executed.
Zhu Yuanzhang's diligence keeps the power firmly in his hands, but he is still worried about one thing: he is afraid that his children and grandchildren will not be as diligent as himself. Therefore, he ordered: Chinese and foreign concerts are all thoroughly reviewed, every major event is decided, and the subordinates can only play the decree with the face.
Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang also wrote a book of "Emperor Ming Ancestral Teachings", which made his descendants not change it from generation to generation, stipulating: In later generations, those who say that they change their ancestral system will be regarded as traitors.
But Zhu Yuanzhang's children and grandchildren obviously did not follow the standards set by Zhu Yuanzhang for them to be emperors, not to mention the diligent and self-motivated handling of government affairs, and even some emperors, such as Wanli and Jiajing, did not go to court for as many as 20 years, throwing the ancestral teachings of their ancestors out of the clouds. In order to make it easier for themselves, some emperors even handed over power to some eunuchs to deal with, the best example is that the Emperor of the Apocalypse handed over government affairs to Wei Zhongxian, which eventually caused a situation of eunuch dictatorship and made the country into a miasma.
This is actually very understandable: they are all emperors, why are they working so hard? Isn't the emperor supposed to enjoy it?
Zhu Yuanzhang's diligent requirements for future generations were a failure, but Zhu Yuanzhang also gave another important strategy for governing the country, that is: people-oriented.
Zhu Yuanzhang said: Heaven loves the people, so the king of the establishment will govern it, and the king can be safe, and the people can protect (its throne). It means that God loves the people, so a monarch has been set up to govern the world, and if you, the emperors of the Zhu family, can properly arrange the people's livelihood issues, then your throne can be kept.
Zhu Yuanzhang is almost painstakingly teaching his children and grandchildren how to be emperors and how to keep the throne. So what is the key to doing a good job in people's livelihood? Zhu Yuanzhang gave the answer, that is: to let the people have food to eat and reduce the burden of the people, it is best to make the people rich.
In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang's original words are like this: The way to protect the country is to hide the wealth from the people. If the people are rich, they will be close, and if they are poor, they will leave. The rich and poor of the people are closely related to the country.
Zhu Yuanzhang also said: Those who are good at government empower the people and the people are not poor, and serve the people but the people do not work, so the people's resources are fully used. Today, there is a division that can devote himself to servitude, so that the people will not be impoverished, how can there be shortcomings, how can there be unrest in the fields, how can there be endless disputes, and how can the government not be clear?
That is to say, when the emperor collects taxes and uses forced labor, he must control it within a reasonable range, within the range that the people can bear.
Zhu Yuanzhang himself said so, and he did the same. He set the tax in the Ming Dynasty to be extremely low, only thirty taxes and one, that is, about 333% tax rate. In terms of forced labor, he set the standard of one man per hectare (about 50 mu today) and serve 30 days of forced labor every year during the agricultural slack, which was the lowest standard in the entire ancient Chinese history.
Did the monarchs of the later generations of the Ming Dynasty follow this standard?
Of course not. In the Jiajing period, because of the war with the Mongols, the tax increase had already begun, but because the tax increase was a short period of time at that time, it did not cause serious consequences, and the real tax increase was at the end of Wanli and the Chongzhen period.
At the end of the Wanli period, due to the rise of the Jurchens in Liaodong, the Ming Dynasty, in order to crack down on the Jurchens, levied three additional Liao salaries, adding nine cents per mu, with a total of 5.2 million taels of taxes.
In the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), he increased the tax to 7.48 million taels on the basis of nine cents, and the tax was also increased to 7.48 million taels.
In order to suppress the peasant uprisings such as Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng in China, they also levied additional salaries, totaling 2.8 million taels.
In the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), at the suggestion of Yang Sichang, "training salary" was added, and one point was added to each mu again, totaling 7.3 million taels.
Such a crazy tax hike eventually led to the Ming Dynasty falling into a land of no return. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Dolgon, when analyzing the reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty, took the tax increase as the most important reason:
In the previous dynasty, the maladministration of the people, the worst of which was to increase the salary, so that the people were poor and stolen, and then the salary was increased, and then the training for all sides was increased. However, these three salaries, several times the positive supply, tired of the small people, fat scraping marrow, far away for more than 20 years, near more than 10 years, the world is screaming, day and night. ”
And the ancestral motto of the Qing Dynasty to never add to it also comes from the lessons of the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang's painstakingly prepared recipes for future generations are not ineffective, but also very reasonable. But his descendants have long forgotten his ancestral teachings, and Zhu Yuanzhang's worst worries have finally become a reality.
But all this happens, and the emperors of the Zhu family can't be blamed for it, they are all emperors, shouldn't they enjoy it? They all stand above the people of the world, shouldn't they be supported by the people of the world?