In the spring of the sixteenth year of Zhengde, Emperor Zhu Houzhao dies, and the Great Ming’s fate reaches a crossroads.
Yang Tinghe, the Grand Secretariat’s Senior Grand Secretary, disapproves of the Zhengde era’s reforms, which strengthened the military at the expense of the people’s livelihoods. He intends to cut redundant posts and let the people recover by sacrificing military strength. He also hopes that Zhu Houcong, the Jiajing Emperor who inherits the throne, will restore the prosperity of the Hongzhi era.
But Zhu Houcong, who comes from a later age, disagrees and has plans of his own.
When he decides to put the historical Jiajing Emperor’s intelligence to use in governing the country, improving the people’s lives, and developing industry, rather than abandoning reform midway to pursue immortality and pray to the gods, Han civilization truly enters an age of revival. The nation grows powerful and the people prosperous, while the emperor’s virtue brings blessings to all under heaven.
And so the folk saying “Jiajing, Jiajing, every household is stripped bare” becomes “Jiajing, Jiajing, every household enjoys prosperity.”
