He really couldn't help but be pragmatic and not angry, because in his thinking, although there were many factors that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the huge disaster and the Ming Dynasty's inability to deal with the disaster must have occupied a very important position among them.
Originally, the Ming Dynasty was a dynasty where natural disasters occurred frequently. Mr. Deng Yunte of later generations once made statistics and said: "The Ming Dynasty lasted for 276 years, and there were as many as 1,011 disasters, which is an unprecedented record. Counting at that time The most frequent disasters were floods, which occurred a total of 196 times; droughts, which occurred a total of 174 times; earthquakes, which occurred a total of 165 times; and hail disasters, which occurred a total of 100 times. Twelve times; the second was wind disaster, a total of ninety-seven times; the second was locust plague, a total of ninety-four times. In addition, there were ninety-three famines; sixty-four epidemics; and sixteen frost and snow disasters. , especially those who are inferior."
Gao Pragmatic once read an academic article, which said: If the two capitals and the Thirteenth Chief Secretary of the Ming Dynasty are used as statistical units, the main disaster types in the Ming Dynasty: floods, droughts, earthquakes, hailstorms, locusts, sandstorms, and epidemics If we make statistics on the number of frost and snow disasters, the total number of eight types of disasters nationwide is 6,199, including situations where one disaster involves two or more provinces and regions, so this number is inevitably somewhat expanded.
If you subtract these double-counted disasters, the number of occurrences of these eight disasters in the Ming Dynasty is no less than 5,700 to 5,800, and this number far exceeds the 1,011 times calculated by Mr. Deng Yunte.
In terms of various types of disasters, the number of floods, droughts, and earthquakes has exceeded 1,000, and the number of floods has reached 2,000, with an average of 7 floods per year.
As far as provinces and regions are concerned, disasters occur frequently in Northern Zhili, Southern Zhili, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, Huguang, Zhejiang, Henan and other provinces and regions. Among them, Northern Zhili has an astonishing 1,092 disasters, with an average of nearly 4 disasters per year. Second-rate. And some single disasters have a very wide impact and the harm is very serious.
For example, the epidemic in the 14th year of Chongzhen (1641) affected 217 counties. The total mortality rate of the population in the North China Plain ranged from 50 to 90%, and in the Jiangnan region it was 20 to 30%. The situation was simply appalling.
Of course, it is very difficult to make statistics on ancient natural disasters. The author of that article also said that he dare not say that the statistics he made are completely in line with the actual situation of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty, but at least they can generally reflect the situation of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty. basic situation.
Just imagine, such frequent and severe disasters have exceeded any dynasty in Chinese history. However, the Ming Dynasty, from the court to the local governments, was very ineffective in providing disaster relief. Who will be destroyed if you don't destroy it, and who will perish if you don't?
However, since the goal of being highly pragmatic is to save the world, it makes no sense to just criticize without solving the problem. To solve the problem, you can't just treat the headache and treat the problem. The first thing to do is to understand the crux of the problem. .
Is it because they are unwilling to do so if disaster relief fails tomorrow? Definitely not. From the emperor to the ministers, everyone has read the books of sages. Regardless of whether they are stupid readers or not, at least they know that the people are the foundation of the country, and at least they know that "benevolence" is one of the core ideas of Confucianism. How could they not be willing to do so? What about disaster relief?
So there must be a reason why they didn't take many disaster relief measures.
Either I don't want to, I just can't.
Those who cannot do it are beyond their capabilities.
When Gao Yongshi proposed to Su Yonglu in Kaifeng Prefecture to use work instead of relief and work instead of support, he had already discovered the reason why they were unable to do so - there was no other reason but no money.
In the Ming Dynasty, whether it was the central court or the local yamen, compared with other dynasties in China, one of the most significant features was poverty, and it was so poor that it was shocking! They were so poor that they had no ability to provide disaster relief and disaster relief. Later, when they had no choice but to do so, the imperial court even voluntarily withdrew from the main body of disaster relief.
Isn't this pragmatic and alarmist talk? The imperial court actually withdraws from the main body of disaster relief? But this is the fact. When he was arguing with people about keyboards, he had found a lot of information. At least from the perspective of disaster relief in the Wanli and Chongzhen dynasties, it was mainly self-rescue among the people. Among them, donations from wealthy businessmen and wealthy households had replaced the imperial government. And became the main force.
For example, during the famine in Zhejiang in the 14th year of Chongzhen, Qi Biaojia saw that "there were five or six migrant beggars and dead people every day. He felt pity for them and urgently planned to rescue them." The only thing the local government did was to express support for his actions, and of course made a small donation - and the funny thing is, this donation was in a personal name: the magistrate and others raised funds and donated 30 shi of rice, which is approximately equivalent to 4,000 yuan. Kilograms of grain. The imperial censor Chen Gongzu donated 15 stones in memory of "the love of a hometown". In addition, Mr. Shouxian, who was in charge of salt administration and was not under local jurisdiction, donated 150 taels of silver.
Most of the other food and money were donated by wealthy merchants and wealthy households. In addition, wealthy merchants and wealthy households also funded and organized the land reclamation and farming of more than 6,800 acres. However, after all, wealthy businessmen and households have limited abilities, and it is impossible for them to spend all their money to donate to disaster relief. Therefore, general relief is limited to local areas, and "a hundred miles of flowers will inevitably give rise to poisonous weeds." There are good-hearted wealthy businessmen and wealthy households, but there must also be bad-hearted ones. There are also many wealthy businessmen and households who have taken advantage of the national crisis to make a fortune.
And who is the culprit that makes the imperial court so embarrassed? Are they corrupt officials?
Corrupt officials are inevitable in every dynasty and every generation. Is it true that the Ming Dynasty only had more corrupt officials? Obviously, at least the corrupt officials in the late Qing Dynasty were better than those in the late Ming Dynasty.
Is it because the emperor exploited the people too harshly and was extravagant? This is even funnier. How many dishes did the emperor of the Ming Dynasty eat in one meal? Emperor Longqing liked to eat donkey intestines, but if he wanted to eat donkey intestines, the inner palace had to buy them in advance and kill them immediately. It was suspected of being a waste, so he was actually scolded by the imperial censor. As a result, Emperor Longqing honestly ordered the inner palace to eat donkey intestines. Reduce the purchase of donkeys, and this has been recorded!
In comparison, Cixi served 108 dishes in one meal and said there was no room for chopsticks. How to count?
Not to mention, the three main palaces were damaged more than once due to lightning strikes in the Ming Dynasty, and every time the repair of the palace had to be delayed again and again. If you were not careful, several years had passed, and the palace was still in a state of damage, and the emperor did not dare to rush it casually. , afraid of being criticized by officials, can this be called extravagant and lustful?
On the other hand, in the Qing Dynasty, let alone the palace, we just talked about the gardens. How many gardens were built? how much did you spend?
Therefore, it was not that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were too extravagant, nor that the courtiers were too corrupt. Although these factors cannot be said to be absent, they are certainly not the root cause, nor the main cause.
Where is the main reason? The main reason lies in Zhu Yuanzhang.
If the financial system set by Zhu Yuanzhang was not so inconsistent, how could such a deformed financial situation have been created?
In Gao Pragmatic's previous life, his uncle worked in the tax system all his life and also liked reading. He once told him: Zhu Yuanzhang did not understand the real reason for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty at all. He only thought that the Yuan Dynasty court imposed excessive taxes and extortion, which led to the rebellion of the whole country and the collapse of the country. .
The result is that after Zhu Yuanzhang won the world, he blindly lowered tax rates and even drastically reduced the salaries of court officials and officials, thinking that this would make the people of the world live a good life. But he did not know that national taxation itself is the foundation of national administrative power. Without sufficient taxation, once the country has problems, whether it is internal or external troubles, the country can only stare blankly and be unable to use its efforts at all - it is not that it is unwilling to use its efforts. , there is really nothing we can do!
As a tax collector, you take money from the people and use it for the people. If you don’t even take it, what use will you use when it’s time to use it?
