Governing China had always been a formidable task. Expenditures had to be kept in line with revenues; borders needed to be defended; bridges, roads, and dams had to be maintained; countless daily decisions were required of the emperor and his top officials. In the late sixteenth century governing China became even harder. Mongol military pressure grew in the north, pirates continued to raid southern coastal cities, and in the 1590s the Japanese invaded China’s ally, Korea. Peasant discontent boiled over into peasant rebellion as rural misery deepened as a result of a series of poor harvests, worsening banditry, and rising taxes, made even more burdensome by fluctuations in the value of silver currency. From the 1580s onward, however, emperors ignored or were distracted from dealing with both their mundane tasks and their extraordinary new challenges. They paid a price for their indifference. Rebellion overwhelmed the government and brought about the fall of the Ming in 1644.The document that I would like you to read (you can by clicking here), a memorial (memorandum) directed to the Xizong emperor by a high official Yang Lien, highlights another problem of the late Ming government, namely the venomous conflict between court eunuchs and Confucian scholar-officials. Eunuchs, castrated males whose theoretical purpose was to manage the day-to-day business of the imperial palace, assumed a greater importance in government when the Wanli emperor secluded himself in the palace and eunuchs became the only intermediary between the emperor and his officials. Eunuch influence was opposed by Confucian officials, especially elite members of the Donglin Society, a group of scholar officials and former officeholders connected with the Donglin Academy at Wusih on the lower Yangzi River.
The conflict between court eunuchs and the scholar-officials came to a head in the 1620s when the eunuch Wei Zhongxian rose to power during the reign of Emperor Xizong. Wei, who had served as a butler for the emperor’s mother and was a close friend of the emperor’s former wet nurse, with the backing of spies and small eunuch army in the palace, purged his enemies, levied new taxes, and flouted rules and procedures.
In 1624, Yang Lien, a member of the Donglin Society, took the bold step of denouncing Wei in a memorandum to the emperor. He was carrying out his duties as a member of the Board of Censors, a branch of the administration that served as the “eyes and ears” of the emperor by investigating officials’ conduct, hearing subjects’ complaints, and reporting problems to the emperor. Emperor Xizong ignored the memorandum, and in 1625 Yang was accused of treason, tortured, and executed on orders of Wei. Wei fell from power in 1627 when the new emperor Chongzhen exiled him to Anhui province, where Wei hanged himself rather than face an official inquiry. But the Ming government had suffered another wound, and in less than two decades would no longer exist.
When you are finished reading the memorandum, I would like you to reflect on and discuss the following: According to Yang, what motivated him to write this memorandum to the emperor? This excerpt contains only a few of Wei’s twenty-four alleged “crimes.” How many of them can you find in the excerpt? What is it about Wei’s actions that particularly violate the Confucian sensibilities of Yang? What does the memorandum reveal about the basis of Wei’s authority and political strength? What does the memorandum tell us about the qualities of the Emperor Ming Xizong? Your thoughts…
6 comments:
wow, you can definatly tell that this guy absolutly hated Wei Zhongxian and wanted the emporer to see that greatly! Apparently enuchs were disliked by confucian scholars, but it seems that they were influencing China and the emporer, which angered the scholars. Some crimes i found that he "commited" were that he destroyed court precedents, ruined the emporer's reputation, and traveled in the palace without permission. That is a great offence to the confician scholar because he mentions that in the past when Hongwu ruled, that was never allowed and a normal enuch would be punished. He just doesn't know why Zhongxian isnt! He has " murdered" and the author of this just hates the fact that the Enuch has so much power and influence, takes orders from no one and he wants to bring this information clearly to the emporer. In the end it doesn't help because he was killed by Zhongxian, but still what he did was a hard thing to do. The guards and other enuchs fear him also, and it's sad how these letters were not taken be the emporer because it was probably true, and well he got killed because of this letter.
According to the document, he wrote the letter to save the dynasty from Zhongxian's crimes. I didnt catch all of them, but some of them are that he seized control of the dynasty, disrupted the government, decieved the ruler, flouted the law, destroyed the court precedents, destroyed political institutions that had lasted over 200 years, forged an imperial order and had Wang An killed in Nahai park, he rode a horse on the palace grounds and instead of begging for death he became more arrogant, he decieved his rulerm recognized no one above him, and piled up crimes. Dang, sounds like a pretty hated guy.
Over all, it seem that the person who wrote this must really really want the eunuch to go. I tried to count how many "crimes" he did, but i lost count after a while. There was so much complaining and some of it sounded by begging as well. I don't see why the emperor notices this matter, but everyone else in the palace does. the eunuch reminds me of a shogun. the shoguns have all the power practically and the emperors are just an icon of the empire. Apparently, this eunuch must be really good and the emperor must be just blind. The eunuch was able go slide by a lot of things, even murder! he seems like he has done so many "crimes", i don't see why they rest of the people just don't kill him or at least punish him badly.
This surprises me that Wei could commit all these crimes and not be noticed by the emperor. It seems like he commited multiple acts of treason and endorsement, which would be enough now to get someone thrown out of the government and put in prison for a long time. Back then I would think the punishment would be even more severe such as death. Either the emperor was a complete idiot or this is another example of how the rulers just stopped caring about matters of the government and started to only care about pleasure seeking.
Zhongxian seems like a very rotten character. it said that he committed a few murders in order to keep people who knew of his wrong doings quiet. The Document is pretty biased cause obviously that guy hates Zhongxian. From what i read though, i can see why. He is a guy with a bunch of tricks up his sleeve in order to become more and more powerful. Eunuchs seem to be challenging people from this document. They probably got a big head, which leads to just more conflict.
Well...obvioulsy Wei Zhongxian was hated by many many people especially this guy. This guy obvioulsy wanted the eunuchs to go and also Zhongxian. But probably accordign to the document the eunuchs seem to be cuasing too much conflicts adn that may have led to teh decline of the Ming Dynasty.
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