The last famous prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty Wen Tianxiang has left us with a heroic legend. Many people know the glorious and magnificent deeds of his second half of his life, but they don’t know how he spent the first half of his life. In fact, Wen Tianxiang has always been born in a wealthy family. He was young and had a wealth of wealth and wealth that he could not use in ten lifetimes. But what does all this have to do with Ming Dynasty Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng ?
Deeds of Hai Rui, the official of the Ming and Qing dynasties,
Wen Tianxiang was generally considered a playboy when he was young! But he was a playboy, and he did not lose anything in the national justice. Instead, when the country was destroyed, he became the pillar of the entire Song Dynasty when the country was destroyed. Although he did not turn the tide in history, he gave up all his wealth to recruit the rebel army to resist the invasion of the Yuan army. He could still take on the word "the heroes of the Southern Song Dynasty". He ate more wine and vegetables, and lived a wealthy life longer, but it did not affect Wen Tianxiang's loyalty to serve the country. Only when the prerequisite of "talents are judging their traces and hearts" has been settled, the problem between Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng is worth exploring.
Hai Rui was a native of the three dynasties of the Ming Dynasty1Longqing and Jiajing Wanli Dynasty. He has always lived a poor life. He is the most famous honest official in the Ming Dynasty. He may really eat "green vegetables and radish" as recorded in history books. As a middle-level official of the Ming Dynasty, he did not marry more than a dozen wives at once like other colleagues. You should know that after the economic prosperity in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, even the small landlords in a county town had seven or eight wives. But Hai Rui, a local parent official, did not have it. This is simply a clear stream in the confused officialdom. To put it bluntly, it is an alternative.
Hai Rui's image of not embezzling, not accepting bribes, living a poor life as poor as the people, only marrying a wife, not building a big house for himself, and not buying land for himself, actually largely satisfying the fantasy of the ancient Chinese people about the Qingtian parents' officials. In fact, it is not only in the past, but even today, you can find a Chinese to tell him what the image of a clean official in his mind is. I am afraid that it is almost the same as Hai Rui's behavior. But how many things did the clean official Hai Rui do in the history books that are beneficial to the people of the country?
Try to look at the historical books, whether it is the official history of the Ming Dynasty or the unofficial history compiled by some later generations, the most classic thing about Hai Rui of the Ming Dynasty is to "curse Emperor Jiajing." Then everyone commented that Hai Rui is actually a typical personal heroism . He can be said to be the pioneer of moral and ethical models of the entire Ming Dynasty. His biggest dream in his life was that the Ming Dynasty was clear-headed politics. All officials, including the emperor, were like him, and devoted themselves to restoring the prosperous state of the early Ming Dynasty. However, Hai Rui actually had few political achievements. This black and white behavior and advocated restoring the harsh criminal law of the Ming Dynasty made Hai Rui isolated, unable to benefit the people and unite the masses.
Zhang Juzheng who embezzled things and worked
Zhang Juzheng and Hai Rui were actually both positive and negative among the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Because after Zhang Juzheng, the evaluation of famous officials and powerful officials in all dynasties has changed a standard. In the past, Hai Rui would definitely be elevated to surpass Zhang Juzheng's position, But from then on, he has done serious business for the people of the country, done good things for the world, and benefited the people of the country, and made progress. He has no debts in the major festivals and has guilt in personal minor festivals. These have become the only standards. It is the best choice for a powerful minister in a dynasty to make a final decision after his death. It depends on how many things the person has done, how many positive and negative impacts these things have occurred and how long it will take. From this we know that Zhang Juzheng can surpass Hai Rui's historical status.
Zhang Juzheng did what he did in his life as writing a few books. He governed the mid-term financial reform of the Ming Dynasty led by the Ming Dynasty during the Ming Dynasty was a great action of the Genesis.The reform of this system did not completely increase the burden on the working people at the bottom. On the contrary, it increased the income of various yamen in the Ming Dynasty's government and court, resulting in steady development between the causes of various countries. Some historians even commented on Zhang Juzheng that he extended the life span of 501 year for the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would have perished after the death of Emperor Wan 1. Is this the real situation like this?
First, from Zhang Juzheng, a special quantitative standard was formulated for many local officials who were busy. We do not look at the local officials’ scheming, but have special indicators to assess officials at every level. The only criteria for examining an official is based on the three standards of land area, population, and tax payment in each place. If these three standards are done well, the official can directly apply for promotion after the accumulated amount reaches a certain level. If the official is poor and the decline has been severe for three consecutive years, the official will be "removed from his salary cut." As for the moral level of embezzlement and marrying several wives, it will not affect the promotion of officials in the Ming Dynasty.
Since the implementation of this assessment standard, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty has changed. Although corruption and moral deficiencies still exist, more and more people are doing things in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and those who do not do things are quickly demoted. After the economic foundation of was guaranteed, Zhang Juzheng carried out a series of reforms to the Ming Dynasty's army. From Emperor Jiajing to the previous Yongle years, the military system of the Ming Dynasty was basically the old method used in the Hongwu period, which bound soldiers and descendants to military origins from generation to generation. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the combat effectiveness was severely reduced, and the salary of soldiers could not support the whole family. Therefore, more and more soldiers were doing business. The more soldiers were doing business, the less training time, and thus the combat effectiveness dropped rapidly and became a mess.
Zhang Juzheng saw these problems and corrected them one by one, so that the wages of soldiers in the army were paid in a timely manner, so that the wage level of each soldier gradually became eliminated every year with the economic development of the Ming Dynasty. The county towns in each place became stronger and stronger. All of this allowed the Ming Dynasty after Zhang Juzheng to maintain a large extent the image of the sect leader in the world. Even if Zhang Juzheng was confiscated after his house was confiscated after his death, all his reform measures were abolished by Emperor Wanli, but the results of those decades also allowed the Ming Dynasty to support the "Three Major Conquests of Wanli" at the same time. Therefore, all this that Zhang Juzheng did was evaluated by later generations as a successful reform of the Ming Dynasty that surpassed the reform of Wang Anshi of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Zhang Juzheng did not owe the people of the country during the festival. He ate more and his life was a little corrupt, but Zhang Juzheng personally did not rebel against the country, but his political approach was correct. Later history proved that there was no second person like Zhang Juzheng in the three hundred years of history of the Ming Dynasty. is the second person under the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He had a little more houses and a little more wives and concubines, but it did not hinder the state's government affairs at all! I don’t know why many people have such high requirements, requiring both horses to run and not eat grass. Where can I find such people?
Conclusion
In fact, from the perspective of Chinese history, the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty and contemporary, the knowledge level and cultural literacy of the Chinese people are constantly increasing. Everyone does not hate people like Zhang Juzheng. What everyone values is not personal moral standards, but whether this official does things in the true sense. So until his death in the Ming Dynasty, Hai Rui could only make a plaque and become a shrine and be worshipped. However, people like Zhang Juzheng are examples of officials and are capable officials dreamed of by emperors and ordinary people in all dynasties.
