It has to be said that Guo Pu has a deep understanding of Zhang Juzheng, but maybe that's why he doesn't seem to have a very good sense of Zhang Juzheng - Gao Pingshi noticed that the few times he called Zhang Juzheng just now, he always called "Zhang Baigui" .
Bai Gui is Zhang Juzheng's nickname, or the original name - Juzheng changed it later. Guo Pu directly called Zhang Juzheng by his nickname, obviously disapproving of Zhang Juzheng's behavior.
Zhang Juzheng has always been shown as a great reformer in later generations. Some people even say that he was the only great politician in the Ming Dynasty. Gao Pragmatic's attitude towards this has always been to roll his eyes - Zhang Juzheng was indeed a politician and a reformer, but later generations over-exalted him to the point of completely ignoring the truth, which completely failed to convince Gao Pragmatic.
Even for the Long-Wan Reform, Zhang Juzheng, as a politician who continued the reform policies of Longqing and Gao Gong, not only failed to truly deepen the reform, but also made obvious mistakes of "excessive force" in some policies. Gao Pragmatic even felt that future generations would appreciate his achievements. The biggest boasting point of "prolonging the life of the Ming Dynasty for decades" is somewhat difficult to live up to the name.
As mentioned in the previous article, from the perspective and level of national politics, forcibly spreading a whip across the country is a typical example of excessive force - the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas in South Zhili, which are so wealthy that they are close to the level of early capitalism, are different from the poor and poor areas. How can Shaanxi, which has been hit by disasters for many years, be compared? It can actually implement a whipping method across the board?
Is this to prolong life, or to drink poison to quench thirst? Hard to say.
As for the examination method, the same is true - when there are still many problems accumulated in the lower-level administrative units that have not been solved, it is very difficult to improve administrative efficiency. At this time, Zhang Juzheng forcibly ordered the improvement of administrative efficiency in the name of the central government. , can only cause unrest in the entire administrative system and cause division within the civil service group. In order to please Zhang Juzheng, some people can only increase the oppression of the people in order to meet the "examination requirements", while the other part cannot do so because they are unwilling to overly oppress the people. After "passing the exam", he was liquidated and suppressed by Zhang Juzheng, and then became the main force behind Zhu Yijun's subsequent counterattack against Zhang Juzheng.
Is this to prolong life, or to drink poison to quench thirst? Hard to say.
However, history has proved that Zhang Juzheng's style after he truly took charge of power: arbitrary and self-willed. Those who follow me in employment and administration will prosper, and those who go against me will perish.
In this way, some sycophants and treacherous villains are often reused, while those with different opinions are ostracized. All court ministers who had offended Zhang Juzheng were demoted, dismissed, or even tortured or imprisoned, leading to death.
This method of employing people based on one's own likes and dislikes and personal rights and wrongs has not only caused difficulties in the implementation of reforms, but also planted risks for the failure of reforms.
In fact, not all people who are good at currying favor with Zhang Juzheng sincerely support the reform. For example, Zhang Siwei, who was promoted and appointed by Zhang Juzheng, followed Wanli's footsteps and liquidated the reform after he became the chief minister of the cabinet. In fact, Zhang Siwei was originally Gao Gong's faction, if Gao Gong hadn't fallen, he would have joined the cabinet to assist the government.
However, Zhang Siwei was also a person who had been polished by officialdom for a long time, so when Gao Gong fell, he endured it, lurked under Jiuyou, and behaved "like an official" in front of Zhang Juzheng. Only then did he win Zhang Juzheng's favor. He agreed, thinking that Zhang Siwei had softened, so he was reused.
In addition, Zhang Juzheng, who held great power, was not completely corrupt in the official circles of the late Ming Dynasty - at least he was much stronger than his teacher Xu Jie - but he was not completely innocent. He used his status and influence to seek fame for his family. The eldest son was the number one scholar. The second son originally ranked second in the examination, but Shenzong arbitrarily moved him to first and second, and Zhang Juzheng accepted it calmly.
The upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked. After Wanli, there was serious fraud in the examination room. Many sons of prominent officials became Jinshi. This led to dissatisfaction, a lot of discussion, and even the corruption of the atmosphere. Zhang Juzheng was very responsible.
In addition, his family members are also running rampant in their hometown in Hubei, accepting bribes. Zhang Juzheng was actually very aware of this situation and wrote a letter asking local officials to strictly control it. However, he failed to take any effective measures and even made it clear that as a son, he could not control his wanton father. Therefore, it was inevitable that he would attract criticism from others. .
In Gao Pragmatic's view, leading a large-scale reform movement is inherently full of thorns and difficulties. Zhang Juzheng himself was arbitrary, rejected dissidents, hired people inappropriately, made too many enemies, and was unable to be strict with himself and his family. Therefore, the end result could only be that he would die and the government would die. Not only would his reputation plummet after his death, but his ten years of business would also be in vain. .
The reason why Gao pragmatically tried every means to keep Gao Gong was, first of all, because Gao Gong was his third uncle. As long as he could not fall, he would be able to leave himself with abundant political resources to a large extent, which would help him continue to advance in the future. The Longwan Reform was carried out without the teachers and students turning against each other like Zhang Juzheng and Wanli, but this was not the only purpose.
Although Gao Gong is also a bit arbitrary, at least he listens to advice. Although he usually seems to be impatient, he is very careful in his governance. This is because he has to promote the opening up of sea trade and the promotion of one whip method in a step-by-step and partitioned manner. You can see it.
In addition, the previous time Gao Pragmatic suggested to him that the conditions for promotion of local officials should be linked to local economic development (actually Gao Pragmatic only mentioned the amount of tax collection, please see the previous article of this book for details). Gao Gong said that this might lead to the suffering of ordinary people. Excessive exploitation may have an impact on the country's stability. Even after Gao Pragmatic proposed that tax collection amount and regional stability should be considered as criteria, Gao Gong still cautiously expressed the need to slow down the process.
This is the overall view and caution that great politicians should have.
National affairs are not a child's play, and they cannot be thought about at home, patted on the head, and then others will follow them as a guideline. Any policy must be carefully considered. What is feasible in Jiangnan may not be feasible in Jiangbei; what is feasible in Yunnan may not be feasible in Liaodong.
Therefore, when presiding over major policies, one must have both a firm determination to advance and prudent advancement steps. During the implementation process, one must carefully and patiently discover, examine, and solve problems, and must not ignore, ignore, or cover up problems. problems, otherwise the problems will only increase and become more and more irreversible.
Guo Pu may not necessarily use the highly pragmatic "dichotomy" dialectical thinking that has been proven to be effective in later generations to examine Zhang Juzheng, but he does not understand the dangers of people with Zhang Juzheng's temperament holding power, so he has such an attitude.
Gao pragmatic suddenly realized from Guo Pu's two "Zhang Baigui": the reason why he was so cooperative and followed him back to Beijing without any delay was that he had actually agreed to retaliate in his heart, and the purpose was to restrict Zhang Juzheng!
Gao pragmatically breathed a sigh of relief. Although Guo Pu agreed to return to Beijing for the sake of the overall interests of the country, that was not important. For Gao pragmatically, the focus of everything at the moment was only one: maintaining the high profile and maintaining the right position!
