However, the dispute between the eunuch party and the Donglin party in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, who is right and who is wrong, has different views in the academic circles, in fact, the dispute between the eunuch party and the Donglin party, the essence of which is the dispute between the levy of agricultural tax or the levy of industrial and commercial tax.
In Chinese history, the imperial court's treasury was mainly based on agricultural taxes, and for this reason, Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582), the first assistant of the Ming cabinet, assisted the Wanli Emperor to carry out a series of reforms according to the social production structure at that time, and these reform measures are known as the "Wanli New Deal" in history.
In the reform of taxation, Zhang Juzheng changed the focus on collecting agricultural taxes in the past to focusing on the collection of industrial and commercial taxes, and in this way, these reforms touched the interests of industrial and commercial households in Jiangnan cities, and in this context, the Donglin Party representing the interests of industry and commerce gradually took shape. "Do not compete with the people for profit, hide wealth from the people" became their main political proposition, at this time any attempt to increase industrial and commercial taxes, will inevitably be unanimously resisted by the Donglin Party, after the death of the Wanli Emperor, the Donglin Party began to control the government, You explained that the Guangzong Taichang Emperor abolished the industrial and commercial taxes. At that time, the situation was that the northern wars were frequent, and the treasury was empty due to large military expenditures, and there was an urgent need to increase revenue. In this context, Wei Zhongxian had to reopen the industrial and commercial tax, which was of course opposed by the urban industrial and commercial households, but after a few years of persistence, the treasury began to be enriched.
However, after Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, Wei Zhongxian was angry and hanged, and the Donglin Party took power again, they first abolished the industrial and commercial tax, so that the country lacked the economy, and its burden naturally fell on the peasants, and in the event of natural disasters, due to the single tax of the treasury, there was no way to levy taxes as usual, therefore, the peasants were even worse, and the direct result was that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it eventually led to the outbreak of a peasant uprising, and the peasant armed leader Li Zicheng (1606-1645) was in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty ( A.D. 1644) invaded the capital, the thirty-five-year-old Chongzhen committed suicide, and the Ming Dynasty perished. In the end, it led Wu Sangui to lead the Qing army into the Central Plains.
It has been said that "the death of Ming is the death of the portal; The portal began with the pundo; Friends began with lecturing. As a result, this "Donglin Party Dispute" lasted for decades and was almost peaceful. During this period, the Donglin Party only cared about their own interests in the near future, and disregarded the overall interests of the country, which was the direct cause of the fall of the Ming Dynasty. To learn more, please click to follow.