In fact, what is the truth, Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen probably knows that if you are anyone, you can start from the big picture and start small, and the things you see are actually almost the same, for a country, it is like opening a company, it is like managing a small family, in fact, there is not much difference, that is, open source and reduce expenditure!

The so-called opening up sources and reducing expenditures is a metaphor for increasing revenues and saving expenditures in the financial and economic arena. From "Xunzi. Rich country", so the Lord of the Ming Dynasty will be careful to maintain its harmony, reduce its flow, open its source, and the time to deliberate, so that the world will have a surplus, and the upper is not worried.

An ancient Chinese financial management idea. Open source refers to promoting production and increasing social wealth; Throttling refers to light appropriation and austerity of expenditure. That is to say, he advocates that the way of financial management lies in actively developing production and cultivating financial resources, and at the same time paying attention to reducing the burden of the people and saving government expenditures, so as to achieve the goal of making the people rich and the country rich.

This idea was first put forward by the thinker Kong Qiu in the Spring and Autumn Period. He believes that the way to govern the country lies in reassuring the people, and if the people are poor, they will be resentful, and if the people are rich, they will be safe. The ruler should not abuse the power of the people, but should ensure that the agricultural time is used to develop production, increase the wealth of the people, and make the people rich to the wealth of the country. In the "Analects of Yan Yuan", it is said that "the people are sufficient, and the king is insufficient; The argument that the people are insufficient, and the ruler is sufficient" reflects Confucius's financial management thinking of attaching importance to cultivating financial resources. Mo Zhai, a thinker during the Warring States period, also attached great importance to the development of production and saving expenditures, and he believed that the abundance of crops determined the amount of social wealth and the joys and hardships of people's lives. At the same time, he vigorously opposed extravagance and waste, and advocated economizing.

In "Mozi's Seven Tribulations", the view that "its wealth is secret, and its use is the festival" reflects Mozi's idea of saving money and enriching the people. Later, Xun Guo took the ideas of Confucius and Mo Zhai and put forward the idea of financial management by opening up sources and reducing expenditure. The flow of open source and cost reduction mentioned by Xun Guo not only refers to saving money, but also includes the policy of light endowment and thin accumulation. He said: "The old field county despicable. The foundation of wealth is also; The one who is in the barn. The end of wealth; The people are in harmony with the times, and the cause is recounted. The source of goods is also; Those who wait for the treasury are also the flow of goods. Therefore, the Lord of the Ming Dynasty will carefully maintain its harmony, save its flow, open its source, and consider it from time to time" ("Xunzi Fuguo").

That is to say, the way to govern the country through financial management lies in starting from the fundamental principle of encouraging production, and it is necessary to make the people cultivate on time to expand their financial resources, and at the same time strive to save government expenditures. in order to replenish the treasury and leave a reserve in case of accidents. The idea of opening up sources and reducing expenditure has had a profound impact on the financial management ideas of China's feudal society, and has been respected by later generations of enlightened financial planners.

Emperor Zhu Youzhen of Chongzhen is very clear about the current Ming Dynasty, which are very heavy expenses, in the case of the continuous impact of the foreign economy on the Ming Dynasty, the agricultural crops in the rich provinces in the south, the crops related to the lifeline of the national economy, are constantly replaced by economic crops, and the famine of the Ming Dynasty is national! In this way, the economic pressure of the chaotic situation in Liaodong and the Central Plains is even more prominent!

At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was divided. In such troubled times, its disadvantages are even more prominent!

The "abolition of the Shiqing Shilu system and the implementation of the 20th class military merit system" is similar to the "salary" system implemented during China's reform and opening up, which replaced the "iron rice bowl" with the "salary of the piece commission".

When our country abolished the "iron rice bowl". How strong the opposition used to be. The deepest impression is that at that time, when people talked about it, the topic was this, and the tone was all worry. But what in the end? The "iron rice bowl" was abolished, the "salary" system was fully implemented, and people's voices of discussion disappeared.

Why is this so?

Quite simply, although the "iron rice bowl" means "not starving to death", it also means that you can't get more. In other words, those who have the ability eat as much as those who don't. The "salary" system means that those who have the ability can eat more. This will naturally be supported by people who have the ability.

It is precisely on the basis of the same principle that the "abolition of the Shiqing Shilu system and the implementation of the 20th-class military merit system" can be implemented.

The so-called "dragons give birth to nine sons are different", and the children of Xun Gui are the same, and they are also divided into three, six, nine and so on.

After the implementation of the "military merit system", the elite people who have the ability among the children of the nobles can easily get more benefits than under the old system, that is to say, these people will become the biggest beneficiaries of the reform, and these people will inevitably become strong supporters of the reform; And ordinary people with average ability among the children of the nobles can also get similar benefits as before, because there is not much difference between changing and changing the law, these people will only become "wall grass"; As for those mediocre people who have no ability among the sons and daughters of the nobles, they will oppose the new law, but how big of a wave can they make?

And the most important point is that in ancient China, "home" was greater than "country" and "world". The title of "Shiqing Shilu System" is awarded to "family", while the title of "Military Merit System" is awarded to "individual". This means that for a family, as long as there are a certain number of elite noble children and ordinary noble children, the interests of the family will not be damaged. That is to say, there are still a considerable number of children of mediocre nobles who will break away from the "opposition" and join the "supporters" and "wall-riding factions" due to "family" reasons, which invisibly further reduces the strength of the "opposition".

And don't forget that there is a clause in the Shang Dynasty Reform Law that "encourages the nobles of the clan to establish military merits". It also invisibly further reduced the resistance to change.

In this way, the "reformers" headed by Shang Ying won over the elite and noble children of the old interest stratum and divided the ordinary noble children of the old interest stratum.

It can be said that this is due to the differentiation of the old interest class and the establishment of the new interest class, so that the Shang Yang reform can be successful.

And what about the other variations?

Indeed, from the point of view of the measures taken to change the law, these changes are all "beneficial to the country and the people," but they have adopted the strategy of "beating them to death with a stick without asking for mercy" to the old interest strata, and at the same time, those who have changed the law have not cultivated a new interest stratum that is sufficient to compete with the old interest strata. Therefore, when the reformers themselves can no longer maintain the new law, there will be no resistance to the counterattack of the old interest class. Naturally, the change will fail.

In orthodox education, Shang Ying's killing was due to the "counterattack of the old forces".

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen felt that the reason why King Qin Hui "punished Shang Yang with 'car splitting' to Yu Tong and exterminated Shang Jun's clan" was because of the "personal grudge" between Shang Ying and King Qin Hui, rather than some "political struggle" such as "counterattack of old forces".

If Shang Ying's killing was really due to the "counterattack of the old forces", then there will inevitably be a protracted political struggle between the "reformers" and the "conservatives", and the new law will inevitably be in a state of "obsolescence and existence". Even if there is no such phenomenon as "the new law is abolished and the time is saved", the cruelty of the ancient political struggle will inevitably lead to the killing of many people.

However, this phenomenon has not occurred in history.

In orthodox education, the phrase "irreversible because it conforms to the trend of history" has eliminated the easy "river crab" of this problem.

In fact, the conditions for Shang Ying's reform boil down to one point: the success of Shang Ying's reform was due to the fact that his reform was based on autocratic rule under absolute power.

Because of the absolute power support of the monarch and the absolute obedience of the army, under such an autocratic rule, as long as the law changer made a decree, people must obey what they understand, and obey what they do not understand, regardless of their own intentions, only look at the results, coupled with the poor ideological and cultural level of the people at that time, the low ability to think critically and the ability to resist this autocratic rule, such a one-size-fits-all reform was succeeded by chance.

To put it bluntly, the autocratic rule coupled with the simplicity of the people's customs, as long as the law changers are not brain-dead and blind, they will achieve a certain degree of success. Under such a situation, the aristocratic and conservative stratum has neither military power nor a mass base, and will certainly not be able to make waves. In addition, Shang Ying's successful use of external threats to suppress domestic dissatisfaction with the reform of the law was also a factor in success. The contradictions caused by the change of law were delayed by the use of external threats to delay the outbreak time, which achieved a certain degree of success.

In comparison, Wang Anshi's later changes obviously copied some of Shang Ying's methods, absolutely controlling the government and government, and those who follow me prosper and those who oppose me perish. However, he overestimated the support of the highest power stratum of the state, ignored the level of ideological enlightenment of the masses, and did not take into account the opposition of the quasi-power stratum of intellectuals in the Song Dynasty, who were much more powerful than the Qin state, and especially did not have a pure reform team like Shang Ying...... In the end, it was a sad and tragic failure.

As for Zhang Juzheng's change...... That's almost his own variation. There were no measures to alleviate the contradictions between the reform of the law, nor did he win the support of the people at the top and bottom, on the contrary, because he offended too many political opponents because of his strong position, and failed in this regard. Of course, he also did the most dangerous thing in the Ming Dynasty - became a powerful minister. It is simply unreasonable not to fail by destroying the balance of power that the superior wants to maintain, offending people in all aspects, and failing to win the support of the goal of changing the law.

Whether or not the reform can succeed mainly depends on whether the reformer and his group are capable enough to control and control the process of reforming, and whether the final result of their reform can bring sufficient benefits to the state.

The reason why Wang Anshi's reform failed was that firstly, he did not have enough ability, and secondly, his group reform was not for the sake of national interests.

As for whether Shang Ying died as a result of the counterattack of the recalcitrant forces, one thing is very clear that Shang Ying's new law was still implemented after his death, and eventually helped the Qin State unify the world. (To be continued......)