Donglin Party The Ming Dynasty resisted the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty succumbed
Some people believe that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was related to the dictatorship of eunuchs, especially Wei Zhongxian in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, who played a role in the destruction of the Ming Dynasty. However, in fact, it was not the eunuch clique that caused the greatest damage to the Ming Dynasty, but the Donglin Party members, who played a role in fueling the ravages of the eunuchs.
After Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he eliminated Wei Zhongxian by thunderous means and completely suppressed the eunuch group. However, the Donglin Party's response to this was the complete destruction of the Ming Dynasty.
So, why did the Donglin Party, which was able to control the overall situation during the Ming Dynasty, become so docile in the Qing Dynasty and became a real "minion"?
1. The Rise of the Donglin Party (1) Many people have a misunderstanding of the Donglin Party and think that it is a bureaucratic group, but in fact, the Donglin Party is a political group dominated by scholars and doctors in the Jiangnan area, and they are not the imperial court, but the spokesperson of the Jiangnan consortium.
Their primary concern was whether their own interests were compromised, not the loyalty of the Ming Dynasty. The decline of the Ming Dynasty in the last years was largely due to the selfishness of the Donglin Party, who still insisted on safeguarding their interests when Emperor Chongzhen had no way out.
So, how did this interest group emerge? This is closely related to the political leanings and actual situation of the Ming Dynasty.
In the early days of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the political concept of emphasizing literature over military force in order to prevent military generals from usurping power, and many military generals were killed. This gave the Wenchen group a chance to rise, and the literati and scholars in the Jiangnan area became the main force of this group.
Although the Ming Dynasty limited the allocation of imperial examination places, the Jiangnan region still became the main part of Wenchen. The rise of the Donglin Party stems from the transformation of the business model in the Jiangnan area.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the sea ban was gradually broken, and the rampant smuggling activities in the Jiangnan area became more and more rampant, which provided business opportunities for wealthy merchants in the Jiangnan area.
The merchants knew that they could only make more profits by expanding their commercial circulation, so they skillfully used the Japanese to achieve this goal, while also weakening the imperial court's control over the Jiangnan region to a certain extent.
This series of measures enabled commerce to flourish in the Jiangnan region under the Ming Dynasty's long-term policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, thus bringing huge business opportunities to merchants.
With enough wealth, they began to aim for a higher goal, which was to enter the court and participate in the politics of the country. Another turning point in the history of the Ming Dynasty - the Tumubao Change, not only changed the political and military pattern of the Ming Dynasty, but also had a profound impact on the ** group of the Ming Dynasty.
As a result of this war, the position of the military general group within the Ming Dynasty was completely weakened, and the civil officials became the dominant, and the decision-making power of the ** system was held by the civilian officials. This change brought hope to the Jiangnan chaebol to gain power, and southern students also had a higher chance of entering the officialdom, but how to quickly promote became a problem.
Spending money is the most effective way, and the Jiangnan chaebol quickly became the core force of the imperial court on behalf of the Donglin Party with its huge financial support. In the Jiangnan area, businessmen gathered, and there were many factions within it, and these factions also constantly generated contradictions and conflicts within the Donglin Party.
However, such competition is healthy competition and protects the interests of the collective from being harmed. In fact, the Donglim Party has become similar to the chaebols of South Korea today, who controlled the government while using the power in their hands to expand their own industries and compete with the state.
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty": "The eastern forest is prosperous, and the people are in the dynasty." ”
3) In order to obtain more benefits, the Donglin Party carried out "reforms" in the Jiangnan region, where power rule had been realized, and they used their power to make the imperial court continuously reduce various taxes in the Jiangnan area.
In reality, however, there is a polarization of these taxes, with farmers bearing the same amount of tax as they do, while merchants are paying more and more taxes. This situation made it necessary for the Ming Dynasty to increase taxes through other means to maintain the operation of the state and the needs of the war, making the northwest and southwest regions the hardest hit areas.
In addition, the continuous natural disasters caused the Ming Dynasty to finally lose the last of the people's hearts and begin to decline. After the appearance of King Chuang, many commoners took the initiative to open the city gate and shouted: "Welcome the king, do not pay food", which fully shows that the Ming Dynasty has long lost the support of the people in areas outside the south of the Yangtze River.
From these perspectives, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Donglin Party was the main culprit for the fall of the Ming Dynasty. It was because of their selfish attitude that the Jiangnan clique behind the Donglin Party survived the war and became part of the Qing Dynasty.
However, why did the Donglin Party, which was powerful in the Ming Dynasty, fail to make any more waves in the Qing Dynasty? This is because the Qing Dynasty was well prepared before establishing its regime.
Although the Qing Dynasty occupied the Central Plains through war, this did not mean that they did not understand the situation in the Central Plains. In fact, as early as a few years ago, the Qing Dynasty had begun to infiltrate the Ming Dynasty and had contact with people from different strata of the Ming Dynasty, which shows that the Qing Dynasty was very clear about what the Donglin Party was doing.
Therefore, after the establishment of political power, the Qing Dynasty fundamentally put an end to the possibility of the emergence of the Donglin Party, directly restricted the channels for Jiangnan scholars to enter the court as officials, and dispatched ** to supervise the Jiangnan region.
At the same time, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty did not lack deterrence against the Jiangnan region. When the Qing Dynasty established power in Beijing, it did not actually complete the unification of the whole country, because the Southern Ming Dynasty still existed at that time.
It was not until the Kangxi period that the Qing Dynasty completed the unification of the whole country in the true sense. In order to maintain stability and deter the Jiangnan region, Kangxi has "gone to the south of the Yangtze River" six times.
Emperor Qianlong regarded Kangxi as his idol, and for this reason, he visited Jiangnan six times, although later people thought that this was just part of Qianlong's luxurious life, but in reality, it was more of a political consideration.
The emperors of the early Qing Dynasty were not only well aware of the influence of the Donglin Party in the Ming Dynasty, but also did not give the Donglin Party a chance to make a comeback.
2) The key to the rise of the Donglin Party lies in whether Jiangnan scholars can smoothly enter the court. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, if students in the Jiangnan area could not become officials or had limited opportunities for promotion, the Donglin Party would not be able to rise.
However, in the Qing Dynasty, the situation was similar, after the founding of the Qing Dynasty, which was based on the Jurchen and Mongol ethnic groups, the ** system was mainly composed of these two ethnic groups, even if there were a small number of Han **, they could not occupy important posts, and the number of scholars assigned to Jiangnan was even rarer, which made the Donglin Party unable to form a large enough bureaucracy to reproduce its glory.
In addition, the Qing Dynasty has severely cracked down on party formation and private interests since the founding of the People's Republic of China, although the ** system is prevalent, but it is more conscious in forming parties for personal gain, even if there are factions, there are rarely less than two factions in the Qing Dynasty officialdom, so the Donglin Party cannot dominate.
3) In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the rise of the Donglin Party benefited from the fact that there was an "authority" that could hold great power, such as Gu Xiancheng, the leader of the Donglin Party, who served as the head of the household department, in charge of the promotion and transfer of officials.
However, by the Qing Dynasty, the center of power was almost entirely Manchus and Mongols, and it was difficult for the Han people to access the center of power, and the Qing Dynasty was no longer a world of scholars, so the Donglin Party naturally could not reproduce its glory.
In fact, the reason why the Donglin Party was able to rise in the last years of the Ming Dynasty was due to specific historical reasons, in other words, the times gave the Donglin Party a chance.
If the Donglin Party did not appear, perhaps the Nanlin Party and the Beilin Party would appear during the Ming Dynasty, but in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty firmly grasped the political power, and the Donglin Party naturally could not appear.
This is the times to create heroes, there is no opportunity, they can only be honest businessmen. The emergence of any group or force has specific factors behind it, such as the group of foreign relatives, the group of eunuchs, local forces, warlords, etc., all of which are specific products of a specific time, and without this time period, these forces lack the soil on which they can survive.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were external troubles, and there were opportunities similar to those in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, but at this time it was not the Donglin Party that appeared, but the Han power groups in various regions, such as the Li Hongzhang faction, the Zuo Zongtang faction, etc., they were another form of the Donglin Party.
To put it another way, the existence of the Donglin Party depends on the trust of those in power. Chongzhen and several other emperors gave the Donglin Party a chance so that they could grow. If Chongzhen had chosen the eunuch group represented by Wei Zhongxian at that time, what was waiting for the Donglin Party would be a brutal and inhumane purge, which might continue to the history books and make the Donglin Party completely "disappear".