However, after watching Things of the Ming Dynasty and Fifteen Years of Wanli recently, and watching the movie The Last Emperor today, I suddenly feel that my attitude towards Historical Records may be too harsh. History is more than just a story. Emperor Hongwu established the Ming Dynasty and established various systems to stabilize dynasty rule, which laid the foundation for civilian rule of the dynasty. Who would have thought that it would eventually become the imprisonment of the development of the dynasty? From high school textbooks, we know that during the Wanli period, Zhang reformed the law and implemented flogging. As a result, he was robbed after death. At that time, I was puzzled: why didn't I implement a good policy at that time? The end of the dynasty is like a ship about to disintegrate. Why don't rulers think about how to transform and repair the hull? When we criticize the old dynasty system with modern thinking, it seems that we can always ask questions and find answers easily, but historical figures only exist in the specific historical environment, and their eyes can only be limited to their times and make changes within their power.
I used to think that all emperors were rigid monarchs, either brave figures like Zhu Yuanzhang or second-generation emperors who only knew pleasure. After reading history, I really understand that emperors are human beings, with different personalities, different ways of doing things and different experiences. Emperor Jiajing was clever and witty, but he experienced a fire and was almost strangled in the harem. When emperor Wanli was playing Tai Chi with his ministers because of the problem of building storage, it is estimated that he would not have thought that the life of the dynasty was counting down; Zhu Yuanzhang's paranoia, Judy's cruelty and Chongzhen's impatience, history is interesting and heavy, and there are always shackles that cannot be opened.