People have different views on Emperor Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty. Praise, saying that he is diligent and thrifty, makes great efforts to govern, and is not the king of national subjugation; The detractors think that he is willful and self-destructs the Great Wall, and he deserves it.

So, what does the real Emperor Chongzhen look like?

Then look at his enemies, Li Zicheng and the emperor shunzhi. Li Zicheng wrote an essay on Ming officials before entering Beijing, which mentioned:

"You are not very dark, very isolated, very isolated; I am not as loyal as the party. "

The translated meaning is "Emperor Chongzhen is not a bad king, but is isolated and deceived;" Ministers are selfish, and there are too few honest and fair people. "

After the Qing army entered the customs, the Qing court rebuilt the Chongzhen Cemetery. Later, the emperor shunzhi ordered a tombstone, which read:

"ZhuangLieJie Ming Di, night sorrow, the Lord of the immoral. The good reason is that you have a monarch without ministers and are isolated from the world. You will support the army without fighting, and the officials are greedy and selfish. "

Emperor Chongzhen made great efforts to govern, not because he was immoral, but because his ministers were isolated for selfish motives. Generals and soldiers were self-respecting and did not actively fight, and civil servants attacked and slandered each other, just forming a party for personal interests.

It can be seen that Li Zicheng and Shunzhi have a good evaluation of Chongzhen, especially Shunzhi, who is full of sympathy and recognition for Chongzhen. It is said that when he visited the Chongzhen Mausoleum, he burst into tears and shouted, "Big Brother, I have a monarch and no ministers!"

Generally, later dynasties tried their best to discredit previous emperors, such as Tang Dynasty to Sui Dynasty, Han Dynasty to Qin Dynasty. Getting such an evaluation from the enemy is enough to prove that Chongzhen is an excellent and competent emperor.

As the saying goes, "the person who knows you best is not your friend, but your enemy!" " "I believe that Li Zicheng and Shunzhi's evaluation of Chongzhen is the closest to the truth and relatively objective.

In fact, Chongzhen has a good reputation because he has three universally recognized advantages:

I. Diligence According to the Record of Diligence in Siling, Chongzhen works 14 to 16 hours a day on average, and often reads the memorial all night. In case of military emergency, he can't rest for several days and nights. During the reign of 17, he hardly missed a day to see the DPRK except the day of exemption from service until the day before his national subjugation. In daily life, he only has the word office. When he is free, he will attend daily lectures and banquets and never deal with people.

Shi Zhi called it "cock crow, sleepless at night, often from overwork", which led to white hair and long crow's feet in twenties. There are no singing and dancing performances in the court, almost no femininity, no time, no mind. On the degree of diligence, Chongzhen can definitely rank among China and san huang.

2. Frugality experienced the hardships of Ming Shenzong and Ming Xizong. By the time Chongzhen ascended the throne, there had been a huge deficit in Daming's finance and the national treasury was empty. So at the beginning of Chongzhen's appointment, he called on ministers to practise frugality and set an example. During the reign of 17, the palace did not carry out any new construction, and insisted on vegetarianism ten times a month.

In order to save money, Emperor Tang even wore patched clothes, so that he always walked slowly, for fear of walking too fast, and patched clothes floated out of his robe, making ministers laugh. Not only the emperor but also the queen is committed to thrift. Empress Zhou personally mended the clothes for Chongzhen, and led the ladies-in-waiting to weave and spin their own clothes, so as to save the court expenses as much as possible.

Third, there is integrity. "Don't kiss, don't pay compensation, don't pay tribute regardless of fields, the son of heaven protects the country and the king dies" is Daming's ancestral motto. Chongzhen remembered and practiced this ancestral motto with practical actions. Before Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he wrote a letter to Chongzhen to the effect that he was willing to divide the whole country into two kingdoms, continue to respect the Ming orthodoxy, and assist the Ming army to attack the 8th Jin Army.

In fact, this is definitely a good thing for Daming. If it is agreed, it will probably not perish, but Chongzhen cannot accept the condition of ceding land and resolutely opposes it. Before the city of Beijing was breached, he had the opportunity to flee to the south and set up another regime in Nanjing, but he chose to stay and protect his ancestors, and finally hanged himself, showing his unyielding attitude and responsibility of "the king and the country died".