In the early years of Wanli, he was diligent, mainly because in the first ten years of his reign, because he was young, his mother listened to politics for him, while Zhang Taihou presided over all military and political affairs. Zhang was also the teacher of Wanli, the first cabinet minister of Wanli, so the young emperor of Wanli respected and obeyed Zhang, and the emperor was naturally diligent. With Zhang's assistance and leadership, he carried out a series of reform measures, such as whipping, in order to "rejuvenate the country in Wanli".

Statement 1: After Zhang's death, Emperor Wanli indulged in debauchery.

When Zhang died, Emperor Wanli became lazy. From a psychological point of view, under Zhang's strict discipline, Emperor Wanli is like a student who can't have a holiday. When the teacher died, he was naturally liberated.

"Biography of Isabella Chow in the Ming Dynasty": "In the seventeenth year, the emperor began to be diligent, and many chapters could not be left in the middle." 」

In December of the seventeenth year of Wanli, Luo, a left critic of Dali Temple, wrote "Four Difficulties of Richness in Wine and Color": "The emperor's illness lies in his wealth in wine and color. If a husband drinks too much, he will ruin his stomach, lust will consume essence, greed will confuse his heart, and anger will damage his liver. "

Zou Yi's "Qi Needle City" Volume I "Feng Chuan" also said that wine and color are lacking: "Because the tillers drink all night, they entertain and sleep all day." "Notes on the History of Ming Dynasty" records that when the Empress Dowager Wan lived for twenty-one years in Wanli, she summoned Wang Xijue in Nuange and said, "I know." Lord Xi played again: "See the emperor today, I don't know when to see you again." The master said, "I also want my husband to see me often, but I get angry from time to time." The Lord replied, "Using fire is a minor illness. I hope that the emperor will keep his heart clean and maintain his sacred bow so that ministers can see it. 」

Statement 2: the struggle between countries.

Because of the dispute with the cabinet on the issue of establishing a prince for more than ten years, ministers clung to the old adage of establishing a prince instead of a young one and fought with the emperor. As a result, Emperor Wanli simply did not leave the palace gate for 30 years, regardless of the political affairs, suburbs, temples and dynasties, and disappeared, disapproving and talking about it. The neglect of government affairs can be said to be the revenge of Emperor Wanli on the civilian group, and it also reflects the opposition between Emperor Wanli and the civilian group in the concept of "establishing reserve forces"

From the psychological point of view, this laziness of Wanli can also be understood as learned helplessness and depression. Learned helplessness is a sense of helplessness "learned after something", which refers to a passive animal negative behavior (including human behavior). In short, one of the main topics in life is to understand the relationship between things and the influence of behavior on the surrounding environment, so as to learn how to manipulate and adapt to the environment and meet the needs of survival. However, if we find that this causal relationship no longer exists, the behavior will immediately become meaningless, because the behavior response can not meet expectations. This situation will lead to a bad psychological state, which is called learned helplessness, that is, powerlessness.

Taken together, in November of the 14th year of Wanli (1586), Ming Shenzong began to indulge in debauchery. Later, he argued with the cabinet about the establishment of the prince, and finally decided not to leave the palace gate for 30 years, in order to silently confront the civilian group.