Chongzhen's Dynasty

No emperor in history has inspired such widespread sympathy after losing his country as Chongzhen. At heart, he was hardly a foolish ruler; compared with his ancestors, he could even be considered a diligent and capable emperor. So why did relations between him and his ministers grow steadily worse, eventually reaching the point of rupture? After the dynasty fell, Chongzhen lamented, “I am no emperor who lost his country. You are all ministers who lost it.” Was Chongzhen truly not responsible at all? Whenever he issued an edict taking blame, he killed a minister as a scapegoat; whenever a city fell, he executed its commander. Was this vicious cycle caused by a system that made communication impossible, or by conflicts of interest? Through the bitter struggle between the Ming Empire's most ruthless emperor and its civil officials, the author enters the heart of the empire and steps into the scenes where history unfolded to investigate who brought the Ming Empire to ruin.