Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 375 Where is the Root Cause?
He really couldn't help being pragmatic and not angry, because in his thinking, although there were many factors that led to the fall 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, saying: "The Ming Dynasty lasted for 270 years, and the number of disasters reached as many as 190 times, which is an unprecedented record. Counting the most disasters at that time Flood disasters, a total of 170 six times; drought disasters, a total of 160 four times; earthquakes, a total of 97 five times; hail disasters, a total of 94 times; wind disasters, a total of 93 times The third time is locust plague, 64 times in total. In addition, there are [-] times of apologetic hunger; [-] times of plague;

And Gao Wushi once read an academic article, which stated: If the two capitals and the thirteen chief secretaries of the Ming Dynasty are used as the statistical unit, the main disasters in the Ming Dynasty are floods, droughts, earthquakes, hail disasters, locust disasters, sandstorms, and epidemics. 6199. If the number of frost and snow disasters is counted, the total number of eight disasters in the country is [-], including one disaster involving two or more provinces, so this number will inevitably expand.

If these double-counted disasters are subtracted, the number of occurrences of these eight disasters in the Ming Dynasty was no less than 5700 to 5800, and this number far exceeds the 1011 that Mr. Deng Yunte obtained.

As far as various disasters are concerned, the three disasters of floods, droughts, and earthquakes have exceeded 1000 times, and the number of flood disasters has reached as many as 2000, with an average of 7 flood disasters per year.

As far as the provinces and regions are concerned, North Zhili, South Zhili, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, Huguang, Zhejiang, Henan and other provinces and regions have frequent disasters. Among them, North Zhili has reached an astonishing 1092 times, with an average of nearly 4 disasters per year. Second-rate.However, some single disasters affect a very wide area and cause serious harm.

如崇祯14年(1641年)的疫灾波及217县，华北平原人口总死亡率在50～90%不等，江南地区为20～30%，其状况简直惨不忍闻。

Of course, it is very difficult to make statistics on natural disasters in ancient times. 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 Ming Dynasty, but at least they can roughly reflect the situation of natural disasters in Ming Dynasty. basic situation.

Just imagine, such frequent and severe disasters have surpassed any dynasty in Chinese history. However, the Ming Dynasty, from the imperial court to the localities, was very ineffective in disaster relief work.
However, since the goal of Gao Yushi is to save people, it is meaningless to criticize without solving the problem, but to solve the problem, you can't treat your head and feet with pain. The first thing to do is to understand the crux of the problem .

There was ineffective disaster relief in the Ming dynasty, were they unwilling to do so?Certainly not, from the emperor to the ministers, everyone reads the books of sages and sages, no matter if they are stupid or not, at least they know that the people are the foundation of the society, and at least know that "benevolence" is one of the core ideas of Confucianism, how could they not want to What about disaster relief?

So there must be a reason why they didn't take too many disaster relief measures.

Either unwilling or unable.

Those who can't, are beyond their power.

When Gao Wu suggested to Su Yonglu in Kaifeng Mansion to use work for relief and work for support, he had already discovered the reason why they could not do it-no one else, no money.

Compared with other dynasties in China, whether it is the central government or the local yamen, there is one most prominent feature in Daming, which is poverty, and it is so poor that it is shocking to the world!He was so poor that he had no ability to provide disaster relief and disaster relief. Later, there was no other way, and the imperial court even voluntarily withdrew from the main body of disaster relief and relief.

Isn't this highly pragmatic and alarmist, and the imperial court actually withdraws from the main body of disaster relief?But the fact is that, 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 mainly self-help by the people, and donations from wealthy businessmen and households had replaced the imperial court. And became the main force.

For example, during the 14-year Zhejiang famine in Chongzhen, Qi Biaojia saw that "the death of displaced beggars counts as five or six people a day, and they feel pity for them and urgently plan 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 it’s ridiculous that this donation was still in the name of an individual: Zhixian and others raised funds to donate 30 shi of rice, which is equivalent to about 4000 catties of grain.And the censor Chen Gongzu donated 15 stones for "Love of a Hometown".In addition, the constitutional master in charge of salt administration who is not under local jurisdiction donated 150 taels of silver.

Most of the other food and money were also donated by wealthy businessmen and wealthy households. In addition, wealthy businessmen and wealthy households also funded and organized more than 6800 acres of land reclamation and farming.However, rich businessmen and households have limited ability after all, and it is impossible to go bankrupt to donate to disaster relief, so the general relief is limited to the local area, and "the flowers in a hundred miles are hard to grow poisonous weeds", there must be bad-hearted wealthy businessmen and households with good intentions. There are not a few wealthy businessmen and households who take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune in the country.

And who is the chief culprit that made the court so embarrassing?Is it corrupt officials?

Corrupt officials are indispensable in every dynasty and generation. Could it be that the Ming Dynasty alone had more?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 hard and was extravagant?This is even more ridiculous. How many dishes did the emperor of the Ming Dynasty eat for a meal?Lord Longqing likes to eat donkey intestines, but if he eats donkey intestines, the inner government needs to buy them in advance and kill them now. It is suspected of being a waste, so he was scolded by the official censor, but Emperor Longqing honestly ordered the inner government to Reduce the purchase of donkeys, this has been recorded!

In contrast, Cixi served one hundred and eight dishes for a meal and said that there was no room for chopsticks, so how could it be counted?
Not to mention, in the Ming Dynasty, the three main halls were damaged more than once due to lightning strikes, and every time even the restoration of the palace had to be delayed and delayed. A few years later, the palace was still in a state of damage, and the emperor did not dare to urge it casually , Afraid of being sprayed by officials, can this be called extravagance?
On the other hand, in the Qing Dynasty, we don’t talk about the imperial palace, but just talk about building gardens. How many gardens were built?how much did you spend?
Therefore, it is not that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were too extravagant, nor were the courtiers 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 is Zhu Yuanzhang.

If it weren't for the fact that the financial system established by Zhu Yuanzhang was too inconspicuous, how could such a deformed financial situation come about?

In Gao Yushi's previous life, his uncle worked in the taxation system all his life and also liked reading. He once told him: Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand the real reason for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty. .

The result is that after Zhu Yuanzhang won the world, he blindly lowered the tax rate, and even greatly reduced the salaries of court officials and officials, thinking that this would allow the people of the world to live a better life.But he didn't know that national taxation itself is the foundation of the country's administrative power. If there is not enough taxation, once there is a problem in the country, whether it is internal or external, the country can only stare blankly, unable to exert force at all—not unwilling to exert force , It is really powerless!
Tax collectors take from the people and use it to the people. If you don’t even take the money, what do you use it for when it’s time to use it?
(End of this chapter)