Chapter 43: Zhu Yijun

Zhu Yijun participating in the monthly examination was also a form of performance assessment.

Zhang Juzheng's "Performance Assessment Method," even when piloted in the capital, was somewhat unsmooth; the opposition from the gathered officials was significant, and the methods of opposition were varied and numerous.

In the original historical trajectory, Zhang Juzheng's reform, in fact, often failed to achieve complete success.

To summarize, it was indecisive: he wanted to reform, yet he wanted to uphold the laws of the ancestors, and he also had to conform to the rites and laws of Confucianism. This desire to have it all—to reform, to uphold, and to conform—meant that this reform was always changing, yet it only changed a little bit.

Was Zhang Juzheng incompetent? That was not the case.

Gao Gong's "Memorial on Five Matters" demanded that the young emperor not issue internal rescripts at will, which provoked the Empress Dowager to directly issue an imperial decree to dismiss Gao Gong. Zhang Juzheng's reform, from beginning to end, never received the full support of imperial power.

Empress Dowager Li acted on behalf of imperial power, and Feng Bao protected imperial power, but they could not provide sufficient support for Zhang Juzheng's reform. Both Empress Dowager Li and Feng Bao harbored a fear that the Great Ming would produce another Gao Gong.

In a system design based on imperial rule, lacking the support of imperial power, Zhang Juzheng's reform was truly lacking in legitimacy and justification. In utter desperation, Zhang Juzheng shouted those words: "I am not a prime minister, but a regent."

When the ruler is young and the state is in doubt, the biggest problem under imperial rule is the absence of imperial power.

"Next time, it could be slightly more difficult." Zhu Yijun stood up, folded his hands, and looked around at the court officials. The smile on his face transformed into a bright and cheerful grin. He said quite peacefully: "I have been attending to government affairs and reviewing memorials recently, and I have discovered that the gathered officials have many doubts about the Grand Secretary's Performance Assessment Method, submitting memorials one after another to discuss its pros and cons."

"The ease with which I took the examination today is far inferior to the exhausting work of the officials of the Six Ministries, but the matters of supervision, oversight, and inspection are the weight of the state."

"In the future, the lecturers of the Imperial Lectures need not send the examination papers to the Grand Secretary anymore."

Zhu Yijun raised the requirements for himself. Having the lecturers set the questions and sending them to Zhang Juzheng for review was, in fact, a tacit admission that the emperor could cheat.

After all, Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao had joined forces to drive Gao Gong home to live in leisure. In the eyes of the gathered officials, Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao were in cahoots. If Zhang Juzheng knew, then Feng Bao knew, and the emperor would also know the content of the examination.

However, this examination tested rote memorization, interpretation, and summary. Even if the emperor knew, he still had to write it out. In Wang Xilie's view, being able to memorize and write it out was already quite impressive!

After all, the emperor was only ten years old.

The reason Zhu Yijun raised the requirements for himself and broke this tacit rule of cheating was to use his own imperial power to endorse Zhang Juzheng's Performance Assessment Method.

Without Zhu Yijun's endorsement, Zhang Juzheng could still push the Performance Assessment Method forward, but with the endorsement of imperial power, Zhang Juzheng had imperial authorization. The difference lies in whether it is upright and legitimate.

"Your subject thanks Your Majesty for your great grace." Zhang Juzheng frowned, glanced at Feng Bao, and then thought of the two Empress Dowagers in the palace. This was not the first time the Emperor had endorsed him. The first time was when the Emperor was hoeing the earth at Jingshan; the Emperor spoke up and dragged Ge Shouli into it. The second time was to stop the factional strife; the Emperor spoke up again, and with one clan faction, he left the gathered officials inside and outside the court speechless.

This was the third time. The implementation of the Performance Assessment Method had met with opposition from many court officials, and now Zhang Juzheng had forcibly suppressed it with his own authority.

The Emperor had come out again to endorse him.

Zhang Juzheng truly did not expect that the young emperor would use his own academic assessment to endorse his Performance Assessment Method. For a moment, Zhang Juzheng thanked him with great respect.

When the ruler is young and the state is in doubt, the most terrifying problem is the system design under imperial rule: the absence of imperial power. This terror is extremely fatal to the destruction of the Great Ming.

After Emperor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne at the age of nine, the country fell into a state where the ruler was young and the state was in doubt. Empress Dowager Zhang and Empress Dowager Sun were overly doting on the child. The Three Yangs assisted in the government, and the world had many words of praise for them.

But in Zhu Yijun's own view, the Three Yangs' assistance in government caused huge damage to the Great Ming's state affairs. In Zhu Yijun's view, the Three Yangs were far inferior to Zhang Juzheng.

In the ninth year of Xuande, the sixth voyage to the Western Oceans was completely stopped. The fleet that once dominated the ocean silently rotted at its berths. The Great Ming's maritime power was like the large ships quietly docked at the berths, rotting, sinking into the river, and being washed away by the river water, never to return.

In the first year of Zhengtong, the King of Annan received the investiture of the Great Ming Emperor, and the Kingdom of Annan became independent in legal terms. Accompanying the investiture of Annan was the plummeting influence of the Great Ming in Luchuan (Southeast Asia). Luchuan began to rebel, and the protracted Three Campaigns against Luchuan exhausted the Great Ming's national strength.

In the third year of Zhengtong, the Duke of Ying, Zhang Fu, a minister assisting the state, no longer attended court. The Great Ming's military nobility completely declined and was marginalized. The curtain rose on promoting literature and suppressing martial arts, and the military preparedness of the Capital Battalions became sluggish.

In the ninth year of Zhengtong, Yang Shiqi retired, and Emperor Yingzong took personal charge of the government, leaving behind a rotten court situation. Border troubles in the southeast, southwest, and northwest flared up everywhere, and Emperor Yingzong himself was a scoundrel who broke the bottom line of an emperor.

In the thirteenth year of Zhengtong, the Ye Zongliu-Deng Maoqi peasant uprising spread across Fujian, Huguang, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Jiangxi, with nearly a million peasants rising up.

In the fourteenth year of Zhengtong, the Tumu Crisis occurred.

And now, in the first year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun is ten years old, also a time when the ruler is young and the state is in doubt, and imperial power is absent. Zhang Juzheng is in charge of the state, but Zhang Juzheng's governance is different from the Three Yangs. Zhang Juzheng first aimed his gun at the civil officials, or rather, Zhang Juzheng aimed his gun at this rotten world, wanting to change it.

As the Grand Secretary of the Empire, does he not know how terrible this world is? Does he not know how serious the problems are? He knows clearly; he knows very well.

"Those who know are not moved" is a sober kind of pain—knowing it cannot be done, yet insisting on doing it.

With the halter of the Performance Assessment Method placed on the heads of the hundred officials, it seemed destined what kind of end Zhang Juzheng would meet.

Zhu Yijun was extremely respectful toward Zhang Juzheng. Yu Qian turned the tide when it was collapsing and supported the building when it was about to fall. Even when Emperor Yingzong was captured and became a foreign student in Oirat, he forcibly repelled the Oirat and rebuilt the Capital Battalions.

What kind of end did Yu Qian meet?

After Emperor Yingzong restored his throne, he unjustly killed Yu Qian on the grounds of "intent to act." Yu Qian sought glory but received humiliation.

Zhang Juzheng was a scholar; he clearly knew what kind of end Yu Qian met.

Zhang Juzheng could have chosen to be like the Three Yangs, colluding with the Jin faction, or even accepting Yang Bo's conditions, merging the Chu and Jin factions, and becoming a powerful minister with overwhelming influence, even making the emperor look sideways. That was not impossible.

Zhang Juzheng did not do that. He wanted to do something to make the Great Ming dynasty, which was going downhill, become a little better.

Zhu Yijun endorsing Zhang Juzheng was exercising imperial power, endorsing Zhang Juzheng's reforms, and making the pressure on him a little lighter.

After Zhang Juzheng's death, he was attacked and liquidated, the Performance Assessment Method and the Single Whip Law were abolished, and even Zhang Juzheng's son was starved to death. Would Zhu Yijun let such things happen?

As long as Zhang Juzheng did not turn his Zhang faction into a clan faction, Zhu Yijun would definitely not let such things happen.

"Let's have a court discussion." Zhu Yijun took out the "Direct Explanation of the Four Books," intending to continue as usual. He would read and attend to government affairs on the platform, while the court officials argued below.

Habits can be formed after being repeated for twenty-one days. Zhu Yijun had already become accustomed to this bizarre atmosphere. Let it be bizarre; at least in a situation where the ruler is young and the state is in doubt, the Great Ming dynasty can stumble forward.

"Your Majesty, today is the ninth day, a rest day." Zhang Juzheng looked at the gathered officials and said with his head bowed.

There was no reading in the Emperor's schedule today; the court officials' schedule was only to come to the Zhao Wenhua Hall to supervise the examination.

Today is a rest day. After the examination is finished, Your Majesty can rest for a day.

Previously, on every third, sixth, and ninth day, the emperor could rest for a day, and could rest for nine days a month. But ever since the "New Memorial on Five Matters" was submitted, the young emperor had to go to the Zhao Wenhua Hall every day to attend to government affairs. After Zhang Juzheng, Wang Xilie, Wang Xijue, and others discussed it, they finally decided to give a day off after the monthly examination.

Too much is as bad as too little. If the young emperor is stifled, what if the young emperor reverts to his old ways?

There needs to be a balance between work and rest.

Zhu Yijun was stunned and put away the "Direct Explanation of the Four Books." After the court officials submitted the memorial, Empress Dowager Li had specifically mentioned it, and Zhu Yijun had been too busy and forgotten.

His life was extremely fulfilling: attending to government affairs and lectures in the morning, practicing martial arts and farming in the afternoon, stamping seals in the evening, and reading agricultural books, summarizing, and taking notes at night.

"Why not go to my Hall of Auspicious Grain and take a look? I have been personally engaged in farming for over a month, and with Qingming approaching, why don't we all go and take a look?" Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and asked. Since there was nothing to do, he might as well go to Hall of Auspicious Grain and take a look, and let the court officials see what he had actually done.

It would also save the Minister of Rites, Lu Shusheng, and the censorate officials from using this to make a fuss every day, saying the emperor was not attending to his proper business. In the eyes of Confucian scholars, the proper business of the Great Ming Emperor was to cultivate virtue, which meant benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, and being gentle, kind, respectful, frugal, and yielding.

But the virtue explained by Zhang Juzheng was the virtue of practicing what one has learned, the virtue of walking the path and gaining from it, the virtue of theory guiding practice, and the virtue of practice supplementing theory.

Zhu Yijun felt that the Grand Secretary was right.

In half a month, Zhu Yijun's glass fire room had completed the breeding. In a few days, it would be Qingming, and after Qingming, he could start farming.

During this time, this was what Zhu Yijun had been busiest with.

The Grand Secretary, the Junior Grand Secretary, the officials of the Six Ministries, the Censorate, the Duke of Cheng, Zhu Xizhong, and others were all stunned. They really thought the emperor's personal engagement in farming was just for show. They didn't expect that they could actually go to Hall of Auspicious Grain to visit.

⊙￠O

Was this content that court officials could see?

Ever since the case of assassinating the king, the news coming out of the palace had been bizarre and absurd. It was unknown how much was true and how much was false. What the young emperor was doing after leaving the Zhao Wenhua Hall, the ministers were not very clear about.

"Your subjects are willing to follow Your Majesty." Zhang Juzheng hurriedly bowed his head and said.

Zhu Yijun stood up and said with a smile, "Let's go."

Zhu Yijun led the gathered officials to the Hall of Auspicious Grain at Jingshan. The Hall of Auspicious Grain was very small. The former orchard had been transformed into fertile fields, covered with a layer of decomposed compost. The half-acre glass fire room was still burning with fire. The young eunuchs were pulling open the thick straw mats, and the sunlight spilled into the sunroom, and also spilled onto Zhu Yijun's body.

"This is my seedling nursery." Zhu Yijun stood in the sunlight, holding his sleeves with his left hand and placing his right hand behind his back, lifting his head slightly, feeling quite satisfied with his masterpiece.