He really had no choice but to 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 with frequent natural disasters. Mr. Deng Yunte, a later generation, 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 serious disasters were floods, which occurred a total of 196 times; droughts, which occurred a total of 174 times; and earthquakes, which occurred a total of 16 times.
Fifteen times; hail disaster occurred again, a total of 12 times; wind disaster occurred again, a total of 97 times; locust disaster occurred again, a total of 94 times. In addition, famine occurred 93 times; epidemic disaster
Sixty-four times; frost and snow disasters sixteen times, especially the second one."
Gao Pangshi once read an academic article, which said: If the two capitals and the thirteen chief secretaries 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, which includes 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, floods, droughts, and earthquakes all occurred more than 1,000 times, and the number of flood disasters reached 2,000, with an average of 7 floods per year.
As far as provinces and regions are concerned, disasters occur frequently in North Zhili, South Zhili, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, Huguang, Zhejiang, Henan and other provinces and regions. Among them, North Zhili has an astonishing 1,092 disasters, with an average of nearly 4 disasters per year.
times. 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 did not dare to say that the statistics he made were completely in line with the actual situation of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty, but at least they could generally reflect the situation of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty.
basic situation.
Just imagine, disasters are so frequent and severe, more than any other 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 them, 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 the head and the foot. The first thing to do is to understand the crux of the problem.
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Is it because the Ming Dynasty failed to provide disaster relief because they were unwilling to do so? It is certainly not the case. From the emperor to the ministers, everyone has read the books of sages. Whether they are stupid readers or not, they at least know that the people are the foundation of the country.
Knowing that "benevolence" is one of the core ideas of Confucianism, how could we be unwilling to provide 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, 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 characteristics was that it was poor, and it was so poor that it was shocking! It was so poor that it was impossible to provide disaster relief. , and later there was no other choice, and the imperial court even took the initiative to withdraw from the main body of disaster relief.
This is not 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 on the keyboard, he had found a lot of information. At least from the perspective of disaster relief in the Wanli and Chongzhen dynasties, it was based on Self-rescue is mainly among the people, and donations from wealthy businessmen and wealthy households have replaced the court as the main force.
For example, during the famine in Zhejiang in the 14th year of Chongzhen's reign, Qi Biaojia saw that "there were five or six migrant beggars dying every day. He felt pity for them and urgently planned to rescue them." The only action of the local government was to express support for his actions. , of course, they also made a small donation - and the funny thing is that this donation was in the name of an individual: the county magistrate and others raised funds and donated 30 shi of rice, which is approximately equivalent to 4,000 kilograms of grain. And the censor Chen Gongzu read "the love of one village" Donated 15 taels of silver. 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 businessmen 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 merchants and wealthy households have limited abilities, and it is impossible to go bankrupt to donate to disaster relief, so General relief is limited to local areas, and "a hundred miles of flowers will inevitably grow poisonous weeds." There are well-meaning wealthy businessmen and wealthy households, and there are bound to be bad-hearted wealthy merchants and wealthy households, and there are not a few people who take advantage of the national crisis to make a fortune.
And who is the culprit that puts the imperial court in such embarrassment? Is it corrupt officials?
Corrupt officials are inevitable in every dynasty and generation. Is it true that there were more in the Ming Dynasty? It is obviously not the case. At least the corrupt officials in the late Qing Dynasty are better than those in the late Ming Dynasty.
Is it because the emperor exploited the people too hard and was extravagant? This is even more ridiculous. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty only ate a few dishes at a meal? Lord Long Qing likes to eat donkey intestines, but if you want to eat donkey intestines, the imperial government needs to buy them in advance. He was scolded by the Yushi Yanguan because he was suspected of being wasteful. As a result, Emperor Longqing honestly ordered the imperial government to reduce the purchase of donkeys, and this was all 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 was delayed again and again. Unexpectedly, several years 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’s not talk about the palace, but just the gardens. How many gardens were built? How much did it cost?
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 cause? The main cause is 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.
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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 enough tax revenue, once the country has problems, whether it is internal or external troubles, the country can only stare blankly and cannot do anything at all - it is not that it is unwilling to use its efforts, it is really powerless to do so!
Taxes, take from the people and use them for the people. If you don't even take it, what use will you use when it is time to use it?
