prosperous age

“I don’t fight for anything, doing my job well is fighting because I can put order into the court.

I don't fight because the court is too complicated now, and if I take over, I will have to deal with the mess left by my uncle."

Yes, according to Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng’s political reforms have actually left a mess that is difficult to clean up.

Even after Zhang Juzheng completed the performance evaluation system and most of the land survey work and implemented the Single Whip System before his death, it was still a mess.

Because until his death, the reforms that Zhang Juzheng implemented were not actually fully completed, it can only be said that most of them were completed.

This is also the reason why Emperor Wanli could easily deny everything with just one sentence.

This also shows how dangerous political reforms have been since ancient times.

Hearing Wei Guangde say this, Xu Jianglan was also slightly surprised.

But she knew that her man was a man of his own ideas and should have a way to solve the problem, otherwise she would not have asked.

“Besides, in the end, everything still depends on the attitude of the palace.

Even if I really want to compete for the position of Prime Minister, I still need the palace's approval in the end.

Although I still have some face in front of His Majesty and the Queen Mother, my uncle won at the beginning.

Between him and me, the two palaces should trust and rely on Uncle Zhang more.

When I came out in the afternoon, Chen Ju also told me the news that the two palaces and His Majesty were indeed inclined to seize the love, and he was also afraid that I would rashly get involved and cause displeasure in the palace. "

Wei Guangde said.

"Then let's not argue about it, just let it go."

Xu Jianglan finally spoke, and then told them about the gift from Duke Dingguo's Mansion and the invitation from Duke Yingguo's Mansion that she had received this afternoon.

Wei Guangde saw the invitation that Xu Jianglan handed over. He looked up and saw that it was an invitation to Mrs. Wei Xu to visit the mansion on a certain day. Wei Guangde narrowed his eyes and asked, "What's the matter with the Duke of Ying's mansion?"

"It seems that the second daughter of Duke Zhang has turned fifteen and is about to have her coming-of-age ceremony."

Xu Jianglan spoke.

"I see."

Wei Guangde nodded and said, "I see. Go ahead and be careful what to say if anyone asks."

The Ming Dynasty established the hairpin ceremony, a coming-of-age ceremony for ancient Han women. It originated from the "Book of Rites: Internal Regulations" which states "at the age of fifteen, one should wear a hairpin", symbolizing that a woman has reached the age to get married.

Ji, which means hairpin, represents the symbol of women's growth in ancient times.

The Ji Ceremony, which is the coming-of-age ceremony for Chinese girls, is one of the five ceremonies, and is named after the "jia ji" (a hairpin) that is worn on the head during the ritual.

Before this, little girls were not allowed to wear ornaments on their heads.

The royal family has their own grandeur, and the nobles have their own style, which is so magnificent that ordinary people can only sigh in admiration and never reach their level.

But no matter whether they were members of the royal family or common people, they all had to hold their own ceremony of coming of age to indicate that their daughters were promised in marriage.

In this way, families who want to get married can naturally start taking action.

In the popular terms of later generations, the Ji ceremony means that a girl can have the Ji ceremony when she is betrothed.

If a woman is already fifteen years old, she can have the coming-of-age ceremony even if she is not engaged.

The mother is the host of the coming-of-age ceremony.

The guests are forbidden to attend the ceremony three days before the coming-of-age ceremony, and stay overnight the day before. The guests are chosen from among the relatives who are virtuous and polite.

The ceremony of wearing a crown and hairpin is a ceremony of wearing a crown, a hairpin and a back.

The one who will get married with a hairpin will wear an additional set of clothes, double-braided hair style, and a shirt.

According to Zhu Xi's "Family Rites", the ceremony of wearing a hairpin only requires one addition, and the crown and clothes are worn with a jacket, which is a skirt.

According to the records of rituals, and with reference to the clothing system, fashion changes and related images of the Ming Dynasty, the first thing people did was to wear a crown and a jacket and skirt, and add a hairpin, bow shoes, and their clothes were neat and dignified.

Later, with the development of social economy, the three plus gradually formed.

Although for common people, the coming-of-age ceremony mainly expresses the meaning of "a girl waiting to get married", but the Duke's Mansion is certainly not so simple, and naturally the ceremony must be performed according to the etiquette system.

The adding of the hairpin during the hairpin ceremony is like the adding of the cap during the capping ceremony.

However, the three-added headwear of the capping ceremony corresponds to the clothes worn, but the three-added headwear of the hairpin ceremony, in addition to considering the correspondence with the clothes, also needs to consider the corresponding bun of each addition and the operability of the jewelry.

Taking into account the fashion of head jewelry and hair buns in the Ming Dynasty, the first headdress was worn on a bun shaped like a Di bun, and a flower hairpin was worn inside the Di bun headdress.

Wearing a jacket and skirt, this is also a general term for women's top and skirt attire in the Ming Dynasty.

A jacket refers to a padded jacket with a lining, while a single garment without a lining is called a shirt. A jacket and a shirt have the same shape, and a jacket skirt can also be called a shirt skirt.

The most popular skirt in the Ming Dynasty was the horse-faced skirt, which had pleats on both sides and two smooth surfaces on the front and back, hence the name.

According to aesthetics and needs, the skirt and edges of the horse-faced skirt can also be decorated. Due to its rich and varied decorative methods and patterns, it became the main style of lower body clothing for women in the Ming Dynasty.

It should be noted that when a man first wears a crown, he should wear a short jacket with a cross collar and a horse-faced skirt, as well as bow shoes.

In the Ming Dynasty, both men and women had coming-of-age ceremonies, but the ages were different, that is, women had their coming-of-age ceremonies at the age of fifteen and men had their coming-of-age ceremonies at the age of twenty.

The coming-of-age ceremony for men in the Ming Dynasty was also known as the capping ceremony. Because ancient people had no habit of cutting their hair, long hair became their main image.

As long hair is not conducive to movement, combing and decorating the hair became the reason for the coming-of-age ceremony.

Whether it is the capping ceremony or the hairpin ceremony, they are both auspicious ceremonies, that is, the auspicious ceremonies among the five Chinese ceremonies.

The five ancient rituals include auspicious ceremonies, inauspicious ceremonies, military ceremonies, guest ceremonies and auspicious ceremonies. Among them, auspicious ceremonies are sacrificial rituals, which mainly include sacrifices to gods in heaven, gods on earth and human ghosts.

The specific contents include offering sacrifices to the gods of heaven, such as offering sacrifices to the Lord of Heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars, offering sacrifices to the gods of earth, such as offering sacrifices to the land and grain, the Five Emperors, the Five Mountains, the mountains, rivers, forests and lakes, and offering sacrifices to human ghosts, such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, emperors, sages and teachers.

Funeral rites are mainly used for condolences and sorrow, and include funeral rites, famine rites, condolence rites and relief rites.

Military ceremonies are related to military activities, including the Great Master's Ceremony, the Great Equal Ceremony, the Great Field Ceremony, the Great Military Ceremony and the Great Sealing Ceremony.

Guest etiquette is the etiquette for receiving guests, including the etiquette of pilgrimage, the etiquette of meeting, the etiquette of princes paying homage to the emperor, and the etiquette of princes visiting each other.

Jiali is a kind of etiquette used to harmonize interpersonal relationships and communicate and maintain feelings, including etiquette of eating and drinking, etiquette of wedding and crowning, etiquette of guests and archery, etiquette of banquets and etiquette of celebrations.

It can be seen that both the capping ceremony and the hairpin ceremony are actually very important etiquette.

The Duke of England's invitation to Xu Jianglan to attend the ceremony naturally also represented respect for Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde had never considered whether the Duke of England had any intention of marrying into his Wei family. After all, the child was still young. Wei Fushou was almost fifteen years old, even younger than the maid of the Duke of England's family.

Perhaps it was more to do some favors in front of him who might soon become the Prime Minister. The next day, Wei Guangde saw Zhang Han's memorial in the duty room, and Wei Guangde also fulfilled his promise to Feng Bao and directly drafted "respectfully requesting the emperor's judgment."

Now that the memorial has been drafted, the cabinet has nothing to do. The rest depends on Feng Bao's methods.

And Feng Bao did not disappoint Wei Guangde. Within two days, news came from the palace that Emperor Wanli issued an edict to directly dismiss the Minister of Personnel Zhang Han and replace him with the Minister of Revenue Wang Guoguang as the head of the Ministry of Personnel.

Zhang Han was dismissed from office because he opposed Zhang Juzheng's "seizure of love".

Although Zhang Han's fate was doomed long ago, with the push of some people with ulterior motives, it became evidence that Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao instigated the young and ignorant emperor to crack down on dissidents.

At this sensitive time, the atmosphere in the capital seems even more weird.

It was also on this day that Zhang Juzheng submitted his second memorial requesting to resign and return to his hometown to observe the mourning period.

At this point, the whole drama had naturally come to an end, and Zhang Juzheng could only use this method to fight back against the rumors outside.

This time, Wei Guangde was summoned to Ciqing Palace, where the two Empress Dowagers and the young emperor were all present. The purpose was naturally to inquire about the matter of "seizing love".

In response to this, Wei Guangde stated that there had been precedents of depriving a person of his power in the previous dynasty, and if the emperor was interested, he could issue an order to retain Zhang Juzheng.

Wei Guangde did not stand up to oppose the "seizure of love", but he did not express support for it either, but this was enough for Feng Bao.

After Wei Guangde left Ciqing Palace, the palace issued another decree of "not allowed" in the afternoon of the same day, rejecting Zhang Juzheng's petition for mourning.

Perhaps because the inner court's attitude towards Zhang Han was too rude and direct, it affected the judgment of Beijing officials to a certain extent. So at this time, although no officials followed Zhang Han's example and stood up publicly to oppose him, public opinion did not improve, but instead intensified.

It can be said that the Prime Minister’s reputation outside has become extremely bad.

If Zhang Han had not been dismissed from office and expelled this time, others would not have wanted to repeat the same mistake and might have caused a commotion a long time ago.

A few days later, Zhang Juzheng submitted his third memorial to the palace, still requesting to return home to observe mourning.

In the past few days, the work of the cabinet has become less busy, because the documents sent to the capital from all over the country are not many, and most of them are about the affairs of the six ministries.

As for the affairs of the six ministries, the handling was naturally slow because the officials were all keeping an eye on the changes in the Prime Minister.

Examination method.

If the Prime Minister is replaced, it is still unclear whether the performance evaluation system can continue to be implemented. Who would care about this?

Because the number of memorials sent to the palace decreased, Wei Guangde and Zhang Siwei had some free time these two days. Without memorials from the six ministries, the official business that needed to be handled every day was reduced by nearly half.

That day, Wei Guangde finally finished drafting the last memorial, and looking at the empty desk, he sighed, "They don't do their work, but always think about trivial things.

Even if Uncle Zhang really resigned to mourn his father, what does it have to do with them?"

After all, the Performance Evaluation System was only introduced and had not yet become a legal system to constrain officials. No one took this system seriously and thought that if the prime minister was replaced, the Performance Evaluation System could be abolished.

However, Wei Guangde did not issue any instructions to the six ministries asking them to concentrate on their official duties.

Just relax and take it easy, because a big storm is about to start.

Wei Guangde guessed it and passed the message to everyone around him, which was just four words: "stand by and watch."

Wei Guangde didn't want the people around him to get involved, because he knew that Zhang Juzheng was most likely to stay in Beijing to observe the mourning period, so there was no need to let the people around him offend Zhang Juzheng.

It can be seen from the fact that Zhang Juzheng did not submit any petition for leniency in this punishment of Zhang Han.

After all, Zhang Juzheng was the Prime Minister. Although Wei Guangde was temporarily in charge of the cabinet, he was not yet the Prime Minister, so it was not his turn to come forward and plead for mercy.

A few days later, when Zhang Juzheng submitted his fourth memorial, he no longer insisted on returning to Jiangling to mourn his father. Instead, he requested to be deprived of his salary to observe mourning and take leave, planning to return home to bury his father the following year.

This time, everyone with a discerning eye understood that Zhang Juzheng really did not want to leave the position of Prime Minister and he still wanted to stay.

But no one knows how this memorial, which was two days late, was finally completed in Zhang's mansion.

Only those who were well-informed heard the rumor that things were not peaceful in Zhang's mansion.

Yes, Zhang Juzheng was not stupid. Once he submitted this fourth memorial, he would wonder how the outer court would view him.

To this end, Zhang Juzheng not only thought about it himself, but also summoned his staff to discuss it together.

Like all officials of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng had his own team of staff to provide reference opinions for their work.

For example, the previous performance evaluation method and land measurement method were not actually completed by Zhang Juzheng alone. Instead, he came up with the outline and listed the key points, and the staff in the government brainstormed together to complete it.

That is to say, it is only at the very end that he needs to be personally responsible for confirming the final draft.

However, this time, his fourth memorial caused quite a bit of dispute in Zhang's mansion.

Zhang Juzheng's retainer and tribute student Song Yaoyu analyzed Zhang Juzheng's reputation, integrity, and the current situation from Zhang Juzheng's perspective, and believed that it would be best for Zhang Juzheng to resign and observe the mourning period.

In fact, there were quite a few staff members who held similar opinions. Many of them saw that Zhang Juzheng's current position was awkward, so they had a heated debate in the mansion with Zhang Juzheng and the retainers who supported Zhang Juzheng's continued tenure.

However, what they didn't know was that it was not only Zhang Juzheng himself who decided whether Zhang Juzheng would stay or go, but also the opinions from higher levels.

Yes, Feng Bao brought news from the inner court that the empress dowager and the emperor hoped that he would continue to implement the new policy and thoroughly improve the financial difficulties of the court.

Therefore, even though Zhang Juzheng had a deeper understanding of his environment at this time, he was still powerless.

The objections of Song Yaoyu and others were not accepted, and Zhang Juzheng still chose to send this fourth memorial to the palace.

When the news came out, the officialdom in the capital was in an uproar.

Because of "propriety", warmth and modesty were regarded as virtues in ancient China.

When a new emperor ascends the throne, he must request and resign three times before the procedure is completed, and the same applies to the prime minister's request to return home to observe the mourning period.

It cannot be said that the emperor will agree to let you leave as soon as you make a request.

To outsiders, this makes the royal family seem very cold-blooded.

After the three requests and three resignations were completed, the fourth memorial was the time to truly express one's true intentions. However, at this time, Zhang Juzheng expressed that he would continue to stay in the official position, but requested to wear plain clothes and a corner belt to work in the cabinet, serve as a lecturer every day, and resign from his salary, observing the mourning period while in office.

However, Zhang Juzheng never expected that it had always been like this, but this time he had gone too far.

From a modern perspective, three requests and three declines, or three declines and three refusal, is not only a ritual form, but also a political strategy.

Through this ceremony, one can demonstrate one's humility, prudence, sincerity and noble qualities, thereby winning the respect and support of others.

But there are too many people in the court and the country who hope he leaves.

Their old trick of three requests and three resignations naturally could not be hidden from those political veterans. There were many officials in the court who were dissatisfied with Zhang Juzheng's love affair.

In the eyes of most scholars and officials, mourning is the foundation of filial piety and an unchanging ancestral law. Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the Zhengde Dynasty, strictly implemented the mourning system without any compromise.

Now, Zhang Juzheng, as the head of all officials, openly violates the rules. He neither resigns nor returns to his hometown. This is truly the act of a treacherous prime minister.

As a result, not only did many officials who were dissatisfied with Zhang Juzheng begin to collude, but even some officials who supported Zhang Juzheng began to turn against him. (End of this chapter)