Those who eat wealth must not compete with the people below, and those who suffer big losses must not take small things?
Add a sentence from Mencius to this sentence? Why should the king make a profit? And benevolence and righteousness. ? It became a famous saying of later Confucian scholars. What does this mean? Just as an emperor, don't always talk about interests, it's too vulgar. You should keep righteousness in your heart every day. This is a good emperor that people like.
This may be expressed more clearly in the Confucian scholars and documents in Salt and Iron Theory:
Therefore, the son of heaven does not say much, the princes do not say anything, and the doctors do not say anything. ?
There is certainly nothing wrong with this statement. If the emperor does not compete with the people for profit, but has benevolence and righteousness in his heart, then the world will live well. But in the Ming dynasty, this sentence was full of words because of different understanding of a word? Renyi? The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty personally ruined the Ming Dynasty!
In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was a farmer and the poorest farmer, so he treated farmers well. At the same time, in the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's uprising against Yuan, a group of people also gave him great help, that is, Jiangnan gentry. The so-called gentry, mostly handed down from family, has a huge family industry and very strong financial resources.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who had a hard life, was very nostalgic. After he became emperor, on the one hand, he treated the peasants well, on the other hand, he gave the privileges to the gentry, that is, the scholars. The Ming dynasty stipulated that all prestigious scholars could have the right of tax exemption. Perhaps because there were not many scholars when the Ming Dynasty was just established, Zhu Yuanzhang did not find that his preferential policies for scholars would eventually become an important reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
Because scholars don't have to pay taxes for their own fields and industries, scholars who specialize in making a fuss gradually turn the purchasing industry into their main function. They are combined with businessmen, who provide them with protection and tax exemption rights, and businessmen provide them with glistening money, which they use to continue to expand their industries.
There are more and more corrupt officials, and there are more and more troubles at the border. Farmers can't collect a few taxes, and scholars don't allow businessmen to collect taxes. Finally, there was a big financial problem in the Ming Dynasty. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the annual tax revenue did not exceed 4 million Liang, and the army began to pay in arrears, and its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.
During the Wanli period, the emperor began to increase business tax and mining tax, which met with fierce opposition from civil servants, because the increased tax was actually taken out of their pockets. At this time, the official put that famous saying? Those who eat wealth must not compete with the people below, and those who suffer big losses must not take small things? Confucian classics have come out, but has the business tax really dropped? Xia Min? On you? No way, at that time, businessmen and mines could still live well without a few civilian workers behind them.
Emperor Wanli didn't care about the deadly noise of these officials below, but taxes were collected, so the national strength of the Ming Dynasty gradually recovered and began during the reign of Emperor Wanli? What are the three characteristics of Wanli? I knocked down the powerful forces around me and taught them a lesson. I swore to neighboring countries again: Daming is still the same Daming, you can't be taunted!
However, after Wanli, two successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty were short-lived and died abnormally. Others speculate that they touched the interests of some people and were assassinated. Otherwise, it can't explain why the young Ming Guangzong ate inexplicably. Red pills? Like death, it can't explain that energetic Zhu Youxiao will die of a cold caused by falling into the water. The next step is Emperor Chongzhen.
When he was not an emperor, he heard too many bad words about Wei Zhongxian and Yan Dang (in fact, Yan Dang was really bad for officials, but their taxation of businessmen greatly reduced the pressure on farmers). As soon as Emperor Chongzhen came to power, he tried to get rid of Wei Zhongxian and promoted him vigorously? A gentleman? Lindong party. In front of Donglin Academy, there was a picture called:
The sound of wind and rain, the sound of reading, family affairs, state affairs and the world care about everything?
In order to flaunt his gentlemanly demeanor. However? A gentleman? What do children care about most? What happened in the world? They only care about their family's business income, so as soon as they came to power, they banned the business tax collected by Wei Zhongxian again, in order to achieve? Don't compete with the people for profit? The role of.
But there is not enough money in the treasury, and the front line is still at war. where is the money to come from?
Of course it's farmers!
So they raised taxes on hungry and hungry farmers. Then the question is coming, do farmers count? People? And then what? Does it count to increase taxes on farmers? Compete with the people for profit? And then what?
In the eyes of Lindong Party, farmers definitely don't count? People? Yes, only those who can provide glistening money to their pockets? People? Is it true?/You don't say. People? Farmers can't make money by planting those acres of land every day. How can they count? People? And then what?
Besides, the sage Mencius once said: it is not difficult to be a politician, and you don't feel guilty about it? Governing the country is very simple. As long as you don't offend those big families, you can be invincible with their support. This is especially true for these officials. As long as you speak for your family, you can gain a foothold in officialdom. Even if you are dismissed occasionally, someone will recommend you soon.
So farmers became the only ones in the Ming Dynasty? People? People's. In northern Shaanxi, the land itself was barren, coupled with the abnormal climate, successive years of drought, and almost no grain harvest. In addition, the court cut off the only post station that could give the people a little income at that time, and the farmers who could not survive selling children and women were forced to rebel and had to rise up with Li Zicheng. At that time, the world was surging, and the kind Chongzhen was still insisting? Thieves are children, too? .
But I can't live naked. What do you want? Regicide? Yes!
The civil servant who ultimately caused all this disaster? Justice? The title forbade Chongzhen to go south and forced Chongzhen to die, but he flew south.
But in the end, all this was settled. How many civil servants came to a good end after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty?