The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1033

“Zhang Juzheng’s reform measures have completely exposed the adverse consequences of excessive centralization. Until there are still many practical problems in lower-level administrative units that cannot be solved, the improvement of administrative efficiency will inevitably be slow and limited. Forcibly improving efficiency exceeds a certain limit. It will only cause unrest within the administrative system, the entire bureaucracy will be divided or gathered due to excessive pressure, and practical problems will turn into moral problems.”

“Looking at the actual procurement policy of today’s levy, the central government has forced the improvement of efficiency, while the lower-level administrative units have many problems, making it difficult to implement the decree effectively. This has caused the entire Chinese administrative system to be difficult to adapt, and the pressure on the middle-level and grass-roots bureaucrats is too high. It can be deceived in a brutal way. For example, in the acquisition of Henan, in order to complete the task, officials chose to conceal the facts of the famine from the central government, regardless of the people’s feelings. This brought a series of serious consequences, the government’s prestige was greatly lost, and the people suffered It was unbearable. Then it extended to a moral issue. The government held high the righteousness of the Anti-Japanese War and asked the people to dedicate everything to the country. If they did not support the requisition, they would not be patriotic. The people believed that the government was extortionate and did not consider the people, and the personal morality of leaders and officials was also questioned. “

“There is a saying in historical circles that ‘the Ming Dynasty taxed heavily and the people were poor’. It seems to be because corrupt officials were rampant at that time, and the people were apportioned excessively in taxes. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. In fact, this is not true. At the same time, the British tax revenue was similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, but the population was only one-thirtieth of the Ming Dynasty. How could the UK continue to grow and develop? The reason is not excessive taxation, but the incompetence of the government and laws. Even if the country The low tax rate does not benefit farmers, and can only encourage more exploitation by the landlords and additional exploitation by the bureaucracy.”

   “Morality is not omnipotent. The government cannot rely on the simple righteousness of the war of resistance, but requires the people to sacrifice their homes to serve the country. It is also necessary to improve the legal system, improve the administrative system, curb corruption, encourage and support advanced economies, and reduce the squeeze on traditional agriculture…”

   These are all commentary articles written by Chen Yinke. After they were written, he burned them and did not publish them.

  Chen Yinke never talks about politics, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand politics. From studying history to his level, many things can be seen more clearly than bureaucrats, but that’s all, it cannot change China’s status quo.

  Sit down and talk about how anyone can do it, the hard part is how to solve the problem.

   Can’t solve it!

  Chang Kaishen of course wants to improve the administrative system and improve the executive power of grass-roots officials. But this is impossible, unless a fundamental reform is carried out in China, and the internal and external conditions of the special period of the Anti-Japanese War do not allow him to do so.

   Therefore, Chen Yinke burned the article, and it was useless to publish it, but it would offend those in power.

   After burning the article, Chen Yinke quickly rewrote another one, analyzing “The Fifteen Years of Wanli” purely from the historical method. He first criticized Zhou Hexuan’s ignorance of certain historical materials, and thought that some of Zhou Hexuan’s thoughts were a little one-sided. At the same time, he praised “The Fifteen Years of Wanli” for its unique style and novel viewpoints, which opened up new forms and directions for the study of Ming history.

  …

   Chen Yinque’s second article has not been published yet, and Wu Han has already started to tout “The Fifteenth Year of Wanli”.

   Wu Han is also an expert on Ming history. Although he belonged to the liberals earlier, his character was very radical. As early as more than ten years ago, Wu Han wrote to Hu Shi: “Looking at the history of any country and any dynasty, you can’t find such a despicable, shameless and crazy government (Nanjing National Government).”

   Wu Han asked Hu Shi to point out a clear path, and Hu Shi asked Wu Han to “save the country with science”.

   At that time, Wu Han respected Hu Shi very much, and specially wrote Hu Shi’s famous words on the back of his graduation photo: “Bold assumptions, careful verification. Less empty words and more good books.”

   However, when Wu Han arrived at the Southwest Associated University, the corruption of the Kuomintang and the attitude of disregarding the life and death of scholars, coupled with the death of a good friend in poverty and illness, made Wu Han’s thinking completely turn to the left. His behavior was more radical than Wen Yiduo’s. Not only did he devote himself to various anti-Chiang activities, he also wrote a book called “From Sangha to Imperial Power”.

   This book was later renamed “Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang”, which was published almost at the same time as Zhou Hexuan’s “The Fifteen Years of Wanli”, which was specially used to insinuate Chang Kaishen.

   After reading “The Fifteen Years of Wanli”, Wu Han felt that he had found a confidant. Although one of them wrote about Zhu Yuanzhang and the other about the Wanli Dynasty, they both followed the path of “insinuating history” and criticized Chang Kaishen and the Nationalist government.

  Wu Han wrote several commentary articles in succession, and regarded “The Fifteen Years of Wanli” as “an unparalleled classic of modern Chinese history”.

  …

   Zhang Xueliang, who was far away in Guizhou, also read “The Fifteenth Year of Wanli” for the first time.

  The young marshal has been studying the history of Ming Dynasty all these years. If he is short of books, he will write to Song Meiling and ask for it. In 1945, Zhang Xueliang even claimed that he had become an expert on the history of the Ming Dynasty, and he asked to invite several experts on the history of the Ming Dynasty to have a face-to-face exchange – Dai Li was very embarrassed about this.

   When Zhang Xueliang read “The Fifteen Years of Wanli”, he did not think about insinuating Chang Kaishen. Instead, he replaced himself as the Wanli Emperor, and replaced his once competent subordinates as Zhang Juzheng, Shen Shixing, Hai Rui, and Qi Jiguang, and then reviewed and reflected on his mistakes in governing Northeast China and North China.

   Next, Zhang Xueliang compared the Wanli Dynasty and China in the 1920s and 1930s, reflected on the governance issues of the Beiyang government and the Nanjing government, and wrote a 20,000-word reading experience, which the guards spy handed over to Chang Kaishen.

  Chang Kaishen threw Zhang Xueliang’s article away and left it in the corner for decades, and it was not discovered until the 1980s when he was cleaning up junk materials.

  …

  Xie Guozhen is undoubtedly the most popular Ming history expert today. He followed Liang Qichao in his early years to study, and he was barely regarded as a fellow apprentice and brother with Zhou Hexuan. His “Late Ming Historical Records” was popular in the 1930s, and it attracted attention again during the Anti-Japanese War, because China during the Anti-Japanese War was too similar to the late Ming Dynasty.

  Xie Guozhen was stranded in the occupied area at this time. When “The Fifteenth Year of Wanli” was published, he had just read Zhou Hexuan’s article discussing the death of Shen Wansan.

   Zhou Hexuan’s opinion on Shen Wansan’s life experience comes from Mr. Gu Cheng, an expert on Ming history.

  Xie Guozhen disagrees with this. He believes that the historical data in “Wujiang Chronicles” may be wrong, and he produced a number of historical data, thinking that Shen Wansan may have died after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne. Of course, it was absolutely impossible for Shen Wansan to be exiled by Zhu Yuanzhang, but only suppressed by Zhu Yuanzhang.

  Xie Guozhen then wrote a rebuttal article, which was finally sent to Chongqing for publication after a few months.

   It was not until the end of 1944 that Xie Guozhen read “The Fifteen Years of Wanli” in the occupied area. He greatly appreciated the book, and after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he wrote three analytical articles in one breath, discussing the influence of the Wanli Dynasty on the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

  …

   As for most ordinary readers, they completely regard “The Fifteenth Year of Wanli” as a purely historical reading. They expressed regret for the failure of the reform of the Ming Dynasty, and hoped that the National Government would learn from it, and called for strengthening the legal system and punishing corrupt officials.

  Chang Kaishen also liked “The Fifteen Years of Wanli” very much. He did not substitute himself for Emperor Wanli and Zhang Juzheng, but for Shen Shixing. He feels that he has worked hard to develop the country, but only in exchange for all kinds of betrayal and suspicion, and at the same time restricted by the bad situation in China, he can’t really use his talents and abilities.

   At the same time, Chang Kaishen also sighed that there is no perfect person in the world, even Qi Jiguang is corrupt, flattering, and fond of women’s sex, and who can be compared with Qi Jiguang in the generals of the Republic of China? People should be casual, as long as they have outstanding abilities. Those generals who can really fight should be tolerated temporarily, such as Tang Enbo who made Henan a mess.

  The Fifteen Years of Wanli in the eyes of each reader has a different interpretation.

   This book is very popular. Not only is it popular in China, but Fairbank even brought back a copy of it and asked people to translate it and recommend it to American historians.