Centered on the two core figures, Emperor Jiajing of Daming and Hai Rui, the drama tells a series of events surrounding the "Korean Bureau" in Jiajing from 39 to 45 years. In my opinion, in addition to well-known reasons such as elaborate costume props and incisive characterization, the core of this drama is to let the audience have a glimpse of the principles of political structure design and the underlying logic of power distribution in China feudal dynasty. This part of the content is always interspersed in the plot, either explicitly or implicitly displayed in the plot. In the last episode, on the deathbed of Jiajing, with the last argument with Harry, the contradiction of "Jiangshan" and the emperor's mind and nature was taught to Yu Wang and the young emperor Wanli. Jiajing made an appropriate analogy between the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Jia Jing said, "The Yangtze River is clear and the Yellow River is turbid ... The water of the Yangtze River has irrigated the fields on both sides of several provinces, and the water of the Yellow River has also irrigated the fields on both sides of several provinces, so it can only be used because of the clear water, and it can only be wasted because of the turbid water." Criticizing Harry for not knowing how to govern the country, he advised himself to use the Yangtze River instead of the Yellow River in his recitation. Governing the Yangtze River and the Yellow River illustrates the reasons for killing Xia Yan, Yang Jisheng and Shen Lian, Yan Song and Yan Shifan and other corrupt officials. It is nothing more than a clean stream represented by the Yangtze River or a power traitor represented by the Yellow River. Once it can't be used by the imperial power, it will threaten the status of the imperial power, just like "the mountains are flooded with water", so it must be abandoned. When Harry was brought back to the imperial court, facing the disappointed little Wanli, Jiajing said to him, "What others promised you doesn't count, only you can decide." Educate children and grandchildren that imperial power is supreme and emperor dogmatism. At the last moment before his death, Jiajing left Harry's Sword of Daming to his son when he explained the affairs to the weak and honest Yu Wang, which revealed the last mystery between him and Harry: "Harry's performance is to hope that I will take the people as the foundation and govern the Ming Dynasty." Through the ups and downs of the plot, the relationship between the three-dimensional structure of the ancient feudal dynasty society in China was skillfully displayed.
All indicate that they died of party struggle. I think they are only half right. They have not raised fundamental structural problems. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the party struggle between Qing Dynasty and Niu Li in the late Tang Dynasty was as harmful as the party struggle in the Ming Dynasty. This is at best an internal contradiction of the ruling class. The power structure of the feudal dynasty in China can be roughly divided into three systems: imperial power, bureaucratic group and common people. Among them, the imperial power and the power of bureaucratic groups are interdependent, and the power of the civilian class, including agriculture, industry and commerce, has been squeezed. The degree of oppression depends on whether the incumbent is a "wise king" or a "faint king". The emperor needs to rely on bureaucratic groups to rule the vast territory, complete the realization of imperial power and maintain the stability of imperial power, so as to compromise and grant part of the power of imperial power to bureaucratic groups for use. Bureaucratic groups rely on imperial power to obtain privileges different from those of the civilian class: such as not paying taxes, not serving, and even "wasting money" and annexing land. However, imperial power and bureaucratic system, which have absolute right to speak and lack effective restraint, have an irreversible trend of self-expansion. Even if a wise master like Emperor Taizong or an able man like Zhang appeared, he carried out a distribution mechanism reform similar to the "Long Wan Reform" and created a temporary prosperity of "Zhenguan Rule" and "Wanli Zhongxing", but the fundamental problem of power distribution has not been solved, and the historical law of "long separation and long combination" will inevitably appear.
Churchill said: "There are no eternal friends and enemies, only eternal interests." At the beginning of the play, Jiajing, who represents the interests of imperial power, showed superb ruling art: Liu Qing Group, headed by Xu Jie, managed the household department to check and balance the party strictly and prevent these corrupt officials from emptying the state treasury. When Gao Gong questioned that the Ministry of Industry had spent a lot of money to repair the palace view for Jiajing, he skillfully expressed his support for Yan Shifan by saying "Only a hero can marry nine wives". At the same time, the eunuch group was regarded as its own minions and megaphones, rather than its own voice, forcing civil servants to cater to it. In the end, whether the palace is good or not, the emperor needs to maximize the interests of imperial power, and hopes that the following people will check and balance each other and ensure their status as the final arbiter. Later, after Fang Lu persuaded Yi Erfu to drink Maotai, Jiajing thought that when the three men joined forces to endanger their right to speak, he sent Fang Lu to practice spirituality as a punishment. When the Yan Party lost control and endangered the stability of the political power, he made a decisive move to oust Yan Song and destroy the Yan Party. For imperial power, it is more important to maintain its supremacy and stability. It doesn't matter who is the representative of the bureaucratic group. Unwilling to cater to the imperial edict, Xu Jie used the national treasury for Jiajing's private use. Jiajing quickly appointed Chen Hong as the eunuch, and used the eunuch's power to suppress the civilian groups that tried to "rule the monarch and his subjects". Liu Qing Group, which seems to be concerned about the country and people, remained silent in the process of formulating the national policy of "changing rice into mulberry", and even refused to lend grain to Zhejiang after destroying dikes and flooding fields, trying to force the southeast to squeeze out the "rotten sores" in Zhejiang, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Zhejiang in disregard, and even saying that "100,000 people died and millions died" was nothing more than hoping to overthrow Yan Song and replace it. Therefore, Jia Jing, who was well aware of this, also warned his son when he drew up the candidate for Postscript of Yu Wang: "Sometimes it is not up to them to decide whether to be virtuous or not, so it is shameful to be virtuous", which is the fundamental policy of employing people.
As for the civilian class with the largest number and the weakest strength, it has always been a negligible supporting role in the history of two thousand years. As the source of all productive forces, they supported the imperial class and bureaucratic groups. Even a giant like Shen can only be attached to bureaucratic groups and imperial power, which shows that businessmen cannot become independent political forces under this system, and finally they are hollowed out by the former two and set themselves on fire. Farmers with even lower status are just "numbers" in the mouth of Confucian scholars like Zhao Zhenji, not to mention. During the feudal dynasty, these large, docile and industrious civilians either became farmers who paid for food and paid taxes, or became craftsmen who built cities, or became sergeants who settled the frontier and opened up territory. Among them, farmers have the largest number and the strongest exploitation. When hearing the Qin case, Harry confronted Tan Lun at the post office and exhorted that "the greed of officialdom for ink originated in the imperial court". According to statistics, "Zhejiang saves 629,000 tons of grain and rice every year, but it costs1230,000 tons. Zhejiang has two years of grain reserves, and the royal government's rice supply for one year is not enough. " More pointed to "the royal family, * * * etiquette eunuchs, officials at all levels, and the merged grange accounted for half of the world without paying wages. Wang people can farm less than half of the world's land, but they have to pay world taxes. The people worked hard to enrich the national treasury, but the national treasury was squandered by the two classes. The land on which they lived was constantly deprived by the powerful classes, and the living space was constantly squeezed. There was no way to restrain each other, so they had to use their only and extremely lethal power-rebellion. The fundamental reason why the feudal dynasty in China eventually declined and perished was that land, the core means of production of the civilian class, was constantly annexed by the imperial power class and bureaucratic strongmen and finally rose.
In this way, the old ternary structure was overthrown and the winner established a new ternary structure. Then, after the initial stage, the common people cultivated themselves and improved their interests-the country prospered-the imperial power and bureaucratic strongmen continued to expand-the living space of the common people continued to deteriorate-the common people rebelled-and a new order was established. As the Monkey King said, "The emperor made it for everyone, come to my house this year". However, unlike the West, which developed from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, then to the Iron Age, and finally to industrial civilization, China's feudal dynasty just kept rolling in the quagmire of ebb and flow, repeating the futility of destruction-reconstruction-destruction for two thousand years, with no obvious progress in productivity and finally falling behind the world.
Xing, the people suffer; Death makes people suffer.