Zhang [1], word uncle, number Taiyue. My ancestral home is Fengyang, Anhui. Feng Zu Zhang returned to the state, and thousands of households returned to the state. Zhang's great-grandfather was born in an ordinary family, unable to inherit the hereditary official position, so he moved to Jiangling. Zhang was born on May 24th, 525, and died on July 9th, 582. He entered school at the age of five and could read the Six Classics at the age of seven. /kloc-was admitted to the scholar at the age of 0/2, and/kloc-took the provincial exam at the age of 0/3 and wrote a beautiful article. It was only because Guke, governor of Huguang, intended to let Zhang hone for a few more years that he did not win the election. 16 years old, won a scholarship. 23-year-old, in the 26th year of Jiajing (1547), he was a scholar, served as the editor-in-chief, and gave lectures on Hanlin. In the first year of Qin Long (1567), he served as the left assistant minister of the official department and a college student in Dongge. Qin Long and high arch together of the time, is the official department minister and build machine hall university student ZaiFu. In the early years of Wanli, the emergence of high arches was recorded. At that time, he was still young, and all military and political events were decided by Zhang. Around 10, China implemented a series of reform measures and achieved certain results. He inspected the hidden fields of landlords, implemented the whip law, changed the tax system, and improved the financial situation of the Ming government. Use Qi Jiguang, Li and other famous soldiers to train, strengthen the northern border defense, and guard the border town to pacify; Use Ling Yiyun and Yin Zhengmao to quell the rebellion of southern ethnic minorities; Strictly clean the court. When Zhang became famous, he targeted the class that had brought him great benefits-the civil servants. In addition to the flogging method, Zhang also collected taxes in a unified way, saving a lot of land and even implementing the assessment method. Its specific implementation method is similar to today's attendance. The method is as follows: For example, a county magistrate (five grades) should write a plan at the beginning of the year, not too little, and leave one for himself and one for Zhang after writing. If there are too few plans, they will be returned for rewriting. After the plan is passed, the governor will work hard to complete the plan next year. If at the end of the year, the magistrate is found to have unfinished business after inspection, then the magistrate will be demoted to magistrate of a county. If the county is still like this, then continue to fall until the county magistrate is cut down and go home to be a common people. On June 20th, the 10th year of Wanli (1582), Zhang, an official of the relay temple pavilion, a surname and a university student, died of illness at the age of 58. After his death, Zhu Guo and Shi Wenzhong were presented to him. Shortly after his death, he was attacked by eunuch Rizo and conservative bureaucrats and took his home. It was not until the second year of the apocalypse that his reputation was restored. He is the author of Collected Works of Zhang Taiyan and Classic Books. The civil servant in Ming Dynasty was the first official in the cabinet, and he made great historical achievements because he helped the emperor to govern the country effectively. After more than 200 years of ups and downs in the Ming Dynasty, Jiajing was riddled with diseases and crises. In the Forbidden City, altars are being built every day, filled with smoke. Emperor Jiajing, who dreamed of immortality, was intoxicated by the flowery words in Ode to Qingyun, and entrusted the state affairs to the traitor Yan Song with his eyes closed. Yan Song and his son took the opportunity to do evil, take bribes and pervert the law. In this context, Zhang, a cabinet official with a civilian background, was pushed to the front of history. With extraordinary courage and wisdom, he brought order out of chaos, consolidated national defense, and practiced whipping to revive the dying Ming Dynasty. As a talented politician, Zhang had a profound understanding of the problems faced by the Ming Dynasty. He believes that the lack of national strength and rampant thieves at that time were all caused by unclear official management. The corruption of officials and the annexation of landlords led to "the richer the private individuals, the poorer the public officials" (The Complete Works of Zhang Wenzhong, Volume 26, "Song Yangshan, Governor of Xu Tianchao, had enough to feed the people"), and the extravagant desire of the emperor made the people hungry and cold, becoming outlaws. Because Zhang objectively analyzed the social contradictions at that time and correctly grasped the essence and key of the problem, his reform was able to conform to the historical trend and was widely welcomed. Based on the above point of view, Zhang decided to start with the reform of official management. In November of the first year of Wanli (1573), Zhang Shangshu carried out the "examination method" to clarify its responsibilities. He controls six subjects with six subjects, and then controls six subjects with the cabinet. For the things to be done, from the cabinet to the six subjects, from the six subjects to the yamen, we should be aware of the exam. It has changed the procrastination in the past, that is, "the Lord is eager, and the listener is often reserved" (Complete Works of Zhang Wenzhong, Volume 38, Please check the chapter and test with the situation to improve the truth). The implementation of the assessment method has improved the work efficiency of departments at all levels, defined responsibilities and clearly defined rewards and punishments, thus making the decree issued by the court "go down one by one in the evening, even though it is thousands of miles away" (Biography of Ming Zhang). The main purpose of Zhang's rectification of bureaucracy is to "enrich". This red line runs through his reform, and the biggest gain of implementing the examination method is here. When Zhang carried out the assessment method, he took posthumous title as the assessment standard. In the four years of Wanli, it was stipulated that all local officials who did not try to levy were punished. In the same year1February, according to the report given by the Ministry of Housing, there were 7 local officials in Shandong/KLOC-0 and 2 in Henan. Two people in Shandong were dismissed, and nine people in Henan were dismissed. This makes officials at all levels afraid of reducing punishment and dare not slack off, supervising the heads of households to pay the taxes and grains of the year. As a result of changing the situation of owing taxes and food, the national treasury is increasingly abundant. According to the statistics of the household department in the five years of Wanli, the annual income is more than 4.35 million, and the annual income is more than 2.5 million (including money, food and salt, stolen goods, redemption cases, etc.). ) In Qin Long, it increased by 74% (Tong Mingjian, Volume 67). The fiscal revenue and expenditure were balanced, with a balance of more than 852,000, which reversed the long-term fiscal deficit. As Zhang himself said in April, 2009, "In recent years, the government has made no deficit, and the treasury has been enriched, all of which were conducted in the middle of the exam, and the results were solved as scheduled." (Volume 45 of the Complete Works of Zhang Wenzhong) It can be seen that although the implementation of the examination method is a political reform, it has played a great role in rectifying the land tax and increasing the national fiscal revenue. However, the income increased by examination alone is still limited, which is far from satisfying the infinite profligacy of princes and nobles. Zhang believes that people are "ancient financial managers, who save money without indulging in it, and save money without making profits". Financial management should still focus on saving money. Almost all the reforms he made revolved around this center. For example, by strengthening the assessment of officials, he reduced redundant staff and saved the salary expenses of the court. According to the regulation of "two big, one small, nine ladies and their families, those who abuse them severely will be cut off", the competition is "Redundant 23". Similarly, Zhang also cut the military expenditure of the imperial court through various channels. On the one hand, it was repaired with the Tatars, exchanged tributes, stabilized the border and reduced the cost of war. On the other hand, it has also been greatly reduced. By the second year of Wanli, in the north, "in the three towns and two years old, the cost was only more than 10,000 yuan, and the province was more than one million yuan." It also reduces expenses by reducing foreign soldiers and clearing grain. "If you save a year, you will get tens of millions of dollars." At the same time, Zhang also asked the emperor, the supreme ruler of feudal society, to tighten his belt and live a tight life with everyone. He not only repeatedly proposed to Zongshen to "save money and love the people" and "protect the country and defend the country", but also always paid attention to the luxury expenses of the royal family. In the seventh year of Wanli, Zongshen asked the Ministry of Finance for 100,000 gold to prepare the royal meal of Guanglu Temple. He believes that the revenue and expenditure of the Ministry of Finance have been insufficient. "At present, it is difficult to sustain. If there are floods and droughts in all directions and the battlefield changes unexpectedly, how can we give it? " He asked Zongshen to save "all useless expenses". As a result, the expenses of100000 taels of silver were not only exempted, but also the expenses of lanterns and lanterns in the palace were cancelled. Thanks to Zhang's efforts, the reconstruction of Ciqing Palace, Cining Palace and Wuying Hall was stopped, and the loss of money for reward was stopped, which saved the service cost and reduced the weaving in Su Song, thus restraining the extravagant consumption of feudal rulers. Even for fear of wasting lights and candles, Wan Li's evening classes were changed to daytime. For his own expenses, Zhang also tries to avoid extravagance. Make up A Record of the First Emperor, and have a banquet. Zhang participated in the restoration of the seal of his memoirs and offered his resignation to avoid the banquet. He said: "A banquet costs hundreds of dollars, so it is not necessarily a way to save money." He also requested that Ming Shenzong Day be held in the morning to avoid the cost of lighting at night. In the process of rectifying official management and practicing economy, Zhang is not only honest and honest, but also strict with his family. When my son returned to Jiangling for the exam, he told him to rent a car. On his father's birthday, he ordered his servant to take a birthday present and ride a donkey back to the village to celebrate his father's birthday. In the eighth year of Wanli, Zhang Ju, the second brother of Juzheng, was seriously ill and returned to his hometown for treatment. Zhang Lu, governor of Baoding, made an exception of "survey" (certificate of post office use), and Ju Zheng immediately returned it, with a letter saying that he should not set an example for the court to enforce the law. For the Ming Dynasty, Zhang was indeed a rare talent for governing the country. As early as when the cabinet was in chaos and political life was in jeopardy, he wrote: "I would like to serve the dust brake with the deepest heart and not seek personal gain." He did. As an outstanding financier, Zhang knows that saving money is not enough to solve the problem. In order to completely improve the national financial situation, it is necessary to further open up financial resources and increase income. However, Zhang is opposed to managing money through "Li Kaiyuan", because in his view, "there is only so much wealth generated by husband and soil, and we should try our best to acquire it skillfully, not increase it." In his early years, he had more contact with the lower classes, and he deeply understood that only by caring for the people can the country become rich. He pointed out: "The only meaningful thing is to ensure the safety of the people." So, how can we increase the national fiscal revenue? At that time, the huge machine of Ming dynasty was supported by land tax, and the income of land tax was difficult to increase because of land merger and uneven burden. To this end, Zhang put forward three measures: punishing greed, clearing debts and inspecting fields, among which the intensity of inspecting fields was enormous. In the sixth year of Wanli (1578), Zhang took Fujian as a pilot to clean up the fields. As a result, Fujian people think it is convenient. So in the eighth year of Wanli, Zhang was allowed to open up wasteland all over the country one after another, and redraw the fish scale atlas on this basis. Most parts of the country have been carefully cleared in accordance with the clearance regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, but some local officials have shortened their lunges and sought extra work. For example, Zhejiang Haiyan, "The water is cut by grass, the bow is empty, and the ancient burial is bleak, which is a tax that should be paid." As for those who connect fields and buildings, they are full of bribes and intellectual traitors, moving around and leaving one to the other. What's more, there are areas where bows have never been added. Maps and fans are both people and private pits. Therefore, the number of acres in the family has increased and the fields have narrowed. "However, due to the thorough liquidation of most counties, the number of fields has greatly increased. In the eight years of Wanli, the cultivated land in China was 7013,976 hectares, which was 2,336,026 hectares more than that in Qin Long in the five years (157 1 year). With the increase of cultivated land, coupled with the crackdown on tax evasion by nobles and gentry landlords, the income of land tax in Ming Dynasty increased greatly. Although Zhang's practice of clearing land and sharing taxes is considered by Hai Rui and others as the best policy, it can't really solve the problem of uneven civil tax. However, from the point of view of financial management, clearing up Zhang's land property played a positive role in the court's comprehensive and accurate grasp of the national land property and increasing fiscal revenue. More importantly, it has also created conditions for the recent implementation of the "one whip law" tax reform. Zhang knows very well that clearing land alone can't completely change the problems of uneven taxation and petty officials' exploitation. Without further reform of the tax system, it is impossible to ensure the steady growth of the central fiscal revenue, and more poor people will go bankrupt, which is not conducive to social stability. The reform of tax service is a very difficult thing. Once the interests of officials and local tyrants are violated too much, they will be strongly opposed, and all the hard work will be in vain. At that time, many regions were already trying out tax service reform schemes suitable for their own regions, such as Li Jiayin in Yingtianfu (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Junping Silver in Zhejiang and Guangdong, Yin Gang in Fujian, Ten Brocades in Jiangnan and one whip method in some regions. In the tenth year of Jiajing (153 1), Jiangxi first implemented a whipping method, which achieved good results. Yao, then an imperial envoy, once said, "Let's have a fight. ..... Give all the grain of a province to the corvee of a province. ..... and then the corvee is ok, and everyone sighs. " Since then, Yao from Jiangxi, Pan Jixun from Guangdong, Pang from Zhejiang, Hai Rui from Yingtian and Shandong have all practiced whipping. In Jiangning County and Shangyuan County, Yingtianfu County, Hai Rui "practiced whipping. Since then, people didn't know that farming was good, but the rich people in the city were willing to buy land, and the poor people in the countryside refused to give up the land lightly", so that "the land is not barren, people don't escape, and money and food are not in arrears". In the fifth year of Wanli, Dong 'e County, Shandong Province ordered Bai Dong to practice whipping, and all the money and food in the county were subject to Di Ding. However, because this practice violated the interests of officials and gentry, they created rumors. The fact said: "At the end of Jiajing, the whip was set, regardless of the wealth of each household, and the case was apportioned;" ..... But its method is still convenient in Jiangnan, and the most inconvenient in Jiangbei. For example, when Bai Dong, the magistrate of Dong 'e County, visited Shandong recently, people were panicked and wanted to abandon their land and avoid it. Please ask the competent department to give it to the third class and leave it to the household department to make Bai Dongji even worse. " Fortunately, Zhang Jishi sent people to inspect East Asia, only to know that it distorted the facts. So Zhang intends to reply: "What's the difference between North and South? Every stroke is well thought out, suitable for the place, convenient for the obedient people, and no one is allowed to force it. Bai Dong still encourages his work. "Li Shida, who supported Baidong Zuodu Empire, also wrote a book:" The method of flogging has done its best, and it is inconvenient to say. "The law should be suitable for the people, and politics should depend on the people. If the people are suitable, why can they be divided into north and south? " Zhang believes that the flogging law should not only be opposed, but also be widely spread throughout the country. After nine years of Wanli, he finally ordered the implementation of flogging throughout the country. Stripping is another major reform in the history of China's land tax system after the two tax laws in Tang Dynasty. It simplifies the tax items and collection procedures, integrates taxes, and presents a trend of "spreading land into mu". Later, the system of the integration of Diding and Diding in Qing Dynasty was an application and development of whipping. The implementation of a whipping method changed the extremely chaotic and seriously uneven tax system at that time. It lightens the unreasonable burden of farmers' labor, limits the fraud of petty officials, and especially cancels the heavy labor force, so that farmers have more time to engage in agricultural production. Of course, we should also see that there is no provision for the total amount of tax collected by a whip method, leaving opportunities for small officials to extort money, which is its main deficiency. Zhang's financial management is not limited to blindly benefiting the imperial court, but also attaches great importance to the actual life of the people. He tried to reduce the tax burden of the people through various channels, and sometimes even directly proposed to reduce the tax burden of the people. In the ten years of Wanli, with the completion of clearing fields and the implementation of a whip law, the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty was further improved. At this time, there are as many as four million and two thousand silver deposits in Taibu Temple, and with the silver deposits in Taicang, the total is about seven or eight million and two thousand. Taicang's grain reserves can also last for ten years. In February of this year, Shangshu Zhang requested to waive the money and grain accumulated in the provinces from the first year (1567) to the seventh year of Wanli (1579). In addition, Zhang also opposed the traditional concept of "attaching importance to agriculture and neglecting commerce", holding that both agriculture and commerce should be paid equal attention, and put forward the idea of "exploiting the province and investing in agriculture; ..... leave the city lightly, and benefit farmers with thick business. " Therefore, we are also opposed to arbitrarily increasing business tax and infringing on the interests of businessmen. These practices conform to the historical development trend, reduce the burden of the people to a certain extent, ease the class contradictions that are on the verge of exploding, and play a positive role in promoting the development of history. After living in an appropriate country for ten years, he gained the power of Zongshen, which is the need of living in an appropriate and effective country, but his power was the loss of Zongshen. In power, Juzheng and Zongshen became opposites. Being loyal to state affairs and taking power alone is a manifestation of contempt for the Lord in the mind of the gods. This is the logic of the emperor! Soon, the official pointed the finger at Zhang. So Zongshen ordered the looting of property and reduced the rank of officials in the palace, forcing him to seize the imperial edict given to him when he was living under the same roof as four generations, and to show the world his crimes. And Zhang also narrowly escaped the fate of being whipped. His family starved to death and went into exile. Later, Wanli stopped further persecution under the pressure of public opinion. A generation of families that can meet each other is thus over. Zhang's political reform eased the class contradictions and ethnic contradictions in China to a certain extent, and extended the life span of the Ming Dynasty for decades. His economic reform increased the income of Ming Dynasty and laid a good foundation for the further development of capitalism in Wanli period. Militarily, the consolidation of the northern frontier and the Great Wall enabled Sun Chengzong and other famous soldiers to rely on the Great Wall to resist the invasion of the late Jin Dynasty. However, it was not until the late Ming Dynasty that Manchu people first broke through the Great Wall and invaded Beijing. Politically, cleaning up bureaucracy requires officials to appease the people, persuade farmers and reassure the people to engage in agricultural production. However, after Zhang's death, Emperor Wanli finally countered him, on the one hand, his own greed for power and the extreme expansion of greed. At the same time, Zhang was strict with Emperor Wanli and warned him not to be extravagant and wasteful. After Zhang's death, someone reported that his family was rich. Emperor Wanli naturally flew into a rage when he learned that he had been down and out for ten years, but you are just my courtiers, but you can be so luxurious. So Emperor Wanli immediately sent someone to check his property, which further strengthened the determination of Emperor Wanli to further eliminate Zhang's influence. On the other hand, it is also Zhang's contribution to Gao Zhen. Gao Zhen was scolded for being drunk and rude before Wanli, and gave him a part of The Biography of Hanshu Huo Guang. Huo Guang, like Zhang, was an assistant minister in the Han Dynasty and once abolished the emperor. This move implies that if the emperor does not cultivate introspection, he will be deposed by Zhang, who is now in power in the ruling and opposition parties. Wan Li was scared out in a cold sweat at that time, and the relationship between teachers and students was basically cut off for several years. From then on, Emperor Wanli no longer regarded Zhang as a teacher and friend, but an enemy. [3][4] So, once the opportunity comes, Emperor Wanli will be eager to liquidate Zhang. Emperor Wanli ruined Zhang's political reform, in fact, he was digging his own grave for the Ming Dynasty. Officials who have lived under Zhang's "evil forces" for many years have since become unscrupulous in taking bribes and abusing power for personal gain. However, Chao Gang gradually fell back to the bad state that imperial decrees were not in waste paper during Jiajing. Wanli plundered people's wealth, hoarded gold and silver, annexed land, aggravated inflation, made people's lives more difficult, and finally led to financial collapse during Chongzhen period. Generally speaking, the final failure of the reform ruined the hope of the Ming Dynasty to usher in ZTE, and the accelerated demise of the Ming Dynasty was inevitable. Until the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), Zhang Cai, the great hero of the past, was remembered and reinstated. But it's too late, there are no more!