The fundamental reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty is the endless cycle brought about by land annexation.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the wars in various places had just subsided, the land distribution was relatively even, and people from all walks of life could live in harmony. However, with the development of the protagonist's bureaucratic class and landlord class, they use the land and wealth accumulated by their power to snowball, which may be determined by human inferiority.
The process of land and wealth accumulation was established in Ming Dynasty 1368, and lasted until the end of Ming Dynasty. After nearly 300 years of development in Ming Dynasty, the situation of land annexation has been extremely serious. Kings, nobles and dignitaries have thousands of miles of land and sing every day, but the general public has no place to stand and is struggling to starve to death. For example, Zhu owns 40,000 hectares of fertile land and has the exclusive right to sell salt tea in a province in Sichuan, so he is very rich. In the palace, there are many people who drink and have fun, but most of the tenants who rent his land starve to death because they can't afford the rent or natural disasters. However, during the Chongzhen period in the late Ming Dynasty (about 1640), the land was in the hands of a very small number of people. Coupled with frequent natural disasters and exorbitant taxes and levies, the general public could not survive, and peasant uprisings swarmed everywhere, making it a reality to start a prairie fire. The working people who can't live have no other way out but to rise up and resist.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian, the Emperor Chongzhen, can't be blamed for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, because the process of land annexation lasted for 300 years, and Chongzhen was unfortunately the last receiver. He didn't have the blessing of being Emperor Taiping for 48 years. In fact, the problem of land annexation occurred not only in the Ming Dynasty, but also in almost every dynasty. This is an endless cycle, and most dynasties can't escape this fate. This is an irreversible historical law.
The second reason is that Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, formulated a policy of preferential treatment to the vassal king.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang issued a letter to formulate a policy of preferential treatment to the vassal king. This policy was still strictly implemented after Zhu Yuanzhang's death until the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Ming Taizu stipulates that every member of the royal family can stop working and get a very generous salary after 10. This salary is ten times higher than the salary of the highest official position in the Ming Dynasty, which fully reflects Zhu Yuanzhang's deep love for future generations. This is no problem, but the problem is that the royal family's preferential treatment is unlimited. The state will give you as much high salary as the number of children born by the king, and ultimately the working people will pay for it. In the early days of the empire, there were not many members of the royal family, and the people could afford it. However, with the accumulation of time (the Ming Dynasty lasted for 276 years) and the temptation to give preferential treatment to members of the royal family, governors everywhere tried their best to have children, and the number of the royal family doubled. The direct descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang increased from less than 30 in the early Ming Dynasty to 654.38+0 million in the late Ming Dynasty! During the Chongzhen period, the taxes of the provinces were not even enough to pay the salaries of the princes. How can the imperial court have the money to quell the peasant uprising and the war military expenditure of Manchu in Liaodong? No wonder some people compare local captives to parasites of the Ming Dynasty.
It hurts to think about it. The country is dying, but the local prisoners are still drinking, and they don't even want to give the country a copper coin as a front-line military expenditure. In the end, the country was destroyed, and the 654.38 million royal family was almost slaughtered, exposing people's short-sightedness.
The third reason is that Liaodong has been in war for years, the military expenditure is huge, and the people are overwhelmed.
In forty-seven years of Wanli, the Ming army was defeated by Nurhachi in Liaodong. Daming not only lost its national prestige, but also almost all the land in Liaodong fell into Manchu hands, leaving only Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou defense lines in the capital. During the period of the Apocalypse and Chongzhen, the Manchu army in Liaodong area (now the northeast of China) constantly invaded the territory of Liaodong in Ming Dynasty. As Beijing and Liaodong are close at hand, the security of the capital is seriously threatened. The Manchu army was eyeing the Ming Dynasty and tried every means to enter the Central Plains. In order to maintain imperial security, the Ming Dynasty had to set up heavy defenses in Liaodong. Liaodong's military expenditure also surged from 502,000 silver per year before the war to 6 million silver per year, reaching 9 million silver per year at most. During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the financial revenue of the Ministry of Finance was only 5 million A Liang a year. It can be seen that the fiscal deficit is not generally serious. The solution is to increase taxes, which will eventually fall on the poor, and the people's suffering will be deeper. If Liaodong wants to fight, it needs military spending, and if it wants military spending, it needs to collect more taxes. The tighter the tax, the more likely it is to lead to social unrest, which is like a vicious circle. In addition, Li Zicheng, Zhang and other insurgents are full of anger, and whether local taxes can be collected is still a problem. It can be seen how difficult the situation is at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
The fourth reason is that Wanli has been fooling around for more than twenty years.
Zhu Yijun, Emperor Wanli, was the most blessed emperor in the Ming Dynasty, and he was Emperor Taiping for 48 years. Because of the problem of Li Chu and the anger of courtiers, he did not go to court for more than 20 years, which abruptly ruined a great Ming Dynasty. During his more than 20 years of disuse, the appointment and dismissal documents were not issued, and officials could not take up their posts normally, resulting in most vacancies in the six major departments of the central government. After local officials retired, no one filled the vacancies, and the state machine was in a state of stagnation. It was also during the Wanli period that the Lindong Party and the Party struggle appeared in the Ming Dynasty, and the internal struggle of the Ming Empire also reached a fever pitch. In the Ming dynasty, the officialdom formed a dispute between the party and the three hometown associations of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang. Their slogan is: No matter right or wrong, as long as the opponent supports it, we will oppose it, and as long as the opponent opposes it, we will support it.
Serious internal friction leads to extremely low efficiency of state machinery, and the most serious thing is that Chongzhen moved its capital to Nanjing. When Chongzhen saw that Li Zicheng was going to hit Beijing, it would be too late to go. He summoned officials to discuss the relocation of the capital. When an official proposed to move the capital to Nanjing, officials from other parties immediately jumped out and accused him. Whoever proposes to move the capital is a historical sinner. They don't care whether moving the capital is good for the country, they only care about the interests of their own small groups. In this way, because of the party struggle and Chongzhen itself, the last chance to live in the Ming Dynasty was lost.
The fifth reason is the decision-making mistake of Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian.
This should start with the character of Chongzhen. Zhu Youjian, Emperor Chongzhen, sincerely wanted to do something, and he was also very diligent. However, as the commander-in-chief of the whole country in wartime, he was not generous enough to take responsibility and was indecisive on major issues. To put it bluntly, he is still incompetent. For example, on the issue of peace talks with Manchu, Emperor Chongzhen wanted to leave the Liaodong battlefield as soon as possible and concentrate on the peasant uprising in China because of the huge cost of the Liaodong war. For this reason, Chongzhen appointed Chen Xinjia, a minister of the Ministry of War, to have a secret talk with Huang Taiji of Manchu Dynasty. However, just as the peace talks were about to be reached, the matter was leaked and made public. It's nothing. As the emperor, Chongzhen generously admitted that it was inspired by himself. But a dramatic scene happened. Chongzhen doesn't want to get a bad reputation for making peace with others. In order to clear the relationship, he put all the responsibility on Chen Xinjia, saying that Chen Xinjia made peace with Manchu privately and executed Chen Xinjia soon.
Another example is the southward migration of the Ming Dynasty. On this issue, although Chongzhen has had this idea for a long time, it can actually move south in the name of the emperor, but because it is afraid of taking responsibility for the decision-making mistakes, it is waiting for the courtiers to take the initiative to propose. However, after the lesson of making peace with Manchu, no one dared to stand up for the righteous cause, because maybe one day Chongzhen would go back on his word and put the blame on the person who moved south. Isn't that Chen Xinjia's second? In this way, the plan of moving south was delayed again and again, and the final result was that the capital was surrounded by Li Zicheng, Chongzhen hanged himself, and the Ming Dynasty, which had been established for 276 years, also perished. It can be seen that Chongzhen's personal ability is also an important factor in the demise of the Ming Dynasty. However, it needs to be emphasized that although there are major problems in Chongzhen's decision-making, it is not the fundamental reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Even if Emperor Chongzhen made a wise decision, it could only prolong the life of the dynasty at most, but it was doomed in the end.
The sixth reason is natural disasters.
The house leaks on rainy nights. During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, not only man-made disasters broke out one after another, but also rare natural disasters occurred constantly. The last year of the Ming Dynasty happened to meet the Little Ice Age. In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, there was an unprecedented drought in the Ming Dynasty for seven consecutive years. Due to successive years of drought, since the eighth year of Chongzhen, locust plagues have appeared everywhere. What is even more frightening is that after the drought and locust plague, smallpox epidemic began to wreak havoc in various provinces. Take Shaanxi Province as an example. Local officials report that the death rate is as high as 80%, which is terrible. Natural disasters have dealt a devastating blow to the productive forces within the Ming Dynasty, resulting in a sharp drop in population and a shaky country.
Summary: Natural and man-made disasters, the demise of the Ming Dynasty is like providence.
The Ming Dynasty was founded by Cowherd Zhu Yuanzhang on 1368 and spread to Zhu Youjian for 276 years. Under a series of blows, such as land annexation, the loss of popular support, Wanli inaction, Chongzhen decision-making mistakes, natural disasters and so on, this old empire finally fell. Now it seems that this may be an irreversible historical law.