The Fifteenth Year of Wanli: the Great Tribulation of the Ming Dynasty

In the fifteenth year of Wanli, 1587 AD, there was no war in the world, no drastic changes in the government and the public. The Ming Dynasty seemed to be shrouded in the afterglow of Wanli's resurgence, but in fact, there were already undercurrents and the building was about to collapse. The Wanli Emperor, who ascended the throne as a young man, broke free from the shackles of his imperial mentor Zhang Juzheng and took charge of the imperial power. However, under the endless tug of the moral shackles of the civil service group and the struggle for national origin, he became disheartened, neglected his affairs in the palace, and used negativity. Confrontation propped up the dignity of the dynasty; the golden mean helped Shen Shixing, mediating between the emperor and his ministers, and worked hard to maintain the balance of the court with the golden mean. In the end, he could not stand alone and returned home sadly; Qi Jiguang, a famous general of the generation , wiped out Japanese troubles and guarded the northern frontier, but due to the fall of the powerful minister, he was jealous and ostracized. The hero was late and his later life was bleak; Hai Qingtian Hai Rui, who stayed honest and upright throughout his life, walked alone in the corrupt and dirty officialdom. , Became the only light in the troubled times, but eventually died alone in office; the mad philosopher Li Zhi broke through the ideological shackles of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and warned the world with his heretical words, but was regarded as a scourge by the ethical defenders and died to clarify his ambition. This year, there was no earth-shattering war or famine sweeping the world, but it depleted the last vitality of the Ming Dynasty. The separation of monarchs and ministers, the sudden rise of party disputes, the weakening of military equipment, the collapse of officialdom, the suppression of ideas, and the decline of people's livelihood... All the signs of the collapse of the dynasty were quietly laid in this seemingly peaceful year. From the imperial power in the Forbidden Palace to the intrigues in the court and officialdom, from the lamentations of famous generals on the border battlefields to the suffering of ordinary people in the civilian market, we uncover the secret truth about the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty, and witness the end of a prosperous age and the twilight of a dynasty through the ages.