From the forty-eighth year of Wanli to the early years of Tianqi, the Ming Empire turned from prosperity to decline. The war in Liaodong was tense, the Jianzhou Jurchens rose up, Nurhachi defeated Fushun and Shenyang, and the frontier troops retreated steadily. Above the court, the power of the Supervisor of Ceremonies has expanded. Dongchang and Jinyiwei are both inside and outside each other, forming a network of surveillance and suppression covering the entire empire. The emperor was obsessed with carpentry and alchemy, and the government essentially fell into the hands of the eunuchs who were in charge of the ceremony.
This is an era of "corruption and glimmer of light": on the one hand, there is systemic corruption where corruption is rampant, eunuchs are in power, and side affairs are corrupt; on the other hand, there are still a few officials who stick to the bottom line in the cracks and use the most clumsy and dangerous way to try to pry this leaning building.
