The End of Donglin

"Donglin Benmo" is an important historical work of the late Ming Dynasty. It was compiled and written by Wu Yingji, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty. It is an important original document for studying the political disputes between the Donglin Party and the late Ming Dynasty. Wu Yingji pointed out in the preface that the so-called "Donglin" was not only the name of the academy, but also a code name for the scholar-officials' party at that time. The purpose of this book is to sort out the rise, debates, struggles and endings of this political group, to clarify historical facts, to judge the rights and wrongs, so that readers can understand the conflict between scholar politics and central power in the late Ming Dynasty through the historical context. The author strives to narrate the events in an orderly manner according to the beginning and end. He not only records the events, but also comments and analyzes them. This is a typical way of writing a chronicle-style history book. The Donglin Party first arose in the scholar-bureaucrat circle in the south of the Yangtze River, with Donglin Academy as the center. It advocated that scholar-officials participate in current affairs, criticize the powerful, and reform bad government. It had a long and fierce battle with the non-Dongli group represented by eunuchs and other parties. The Donglin Party Struggle ran through the Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen periods, involving a series of struggles such as the Beijing-Chacha dispute, the impeachment of officials, and the strife between powerful ministers. This book unfolds the narrative around these important nodes one by one, restoring the characters' activities, ideological concepts, and political games. For today's readers, "The Story of Donglin" is not only a first-hand historical material for understanding the mechanism of party struggle, the political culture and institutional contradictions of scholar-bureaucrats in the late Ming Dynasty, but also an important text for observing how traditional Chinese scholars expressed their political opinions and ethical stances in national crises. It organizes the complicated details that appear outside the history books into a coherent narrative. It is a rare in-depth reading for historical researchers, lovers of the history of political thought and readers who care about the political changes in ancient China.