The Ming Dynasty: A bookstore sells the history of the Ming Dynasty, leaving Emperor Chongzhen bewil

Land consolidation is back in full swing.

Emperor Chongzhen was somewhat shocked, and at the same time, somewhat confused.

Zhu Ziming said, "The dynasty was re-established, the old system was overthrown, and the land was redistributed. Those poor brothers who once had nothing followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world. Shouldn't they be rewarded? And besides promotions and titles, the most important reward is land."

"Doesn't this mean that they overthrew the old landlord and aristocratic class, only to become the new landlord and aristocratic class themselves?"

Emperor Chongzhen thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

That's absolutely right; Xun Gui of Huaixi is the most typical example.

Zhu Ziming said, "However, at this time, the dynasty had just been established, and the Central Plains had been through many years of war, resulting in a sparse population and a large amount of land being abandoned. This was a process of land redistribution, in which even ordinary people could participate. The court also encouraged people to reclaim wasteland. Therefore, at this time, as long as you were willing to work hard to reclaim wasteland, ordinary people could also own land."

"Abandoned land was reclaimed into fertile fields, and the population grew rapidly. During this period, the means of production were abundant, and the entire dynasty was thriving from top to bottom. When a society is in a period of rapid development, many problems and contradictions will be temporarily masked, including land annexation."

"Land annexation has never truly disappeared; it has merely gone into hiding, accumulating continuously, waiting for an opportunity to make a comeback."

Emperor Chongzhen listened very attentively, even to the point of being somewhat engrossed.

He knew about land annexation, but he had never heard anyone analyze the issue from this perspective in depth and comprehensively.

Reviving the Ming Dynasty was his lifelong wish.

This is actually a very good opportunity to look at and analyze the demise of the Ming Dynasty from the perspective of a later generation. As the saying goes, those involved are confused while bystanders are clear-headed. Even if he had the entire History of Ming, to be honest, he still wouldn't understand why the Ming Dynasty fell in his hands.

Was it a series of coincidences? Was it inevitable? Or was it destiny?

Therefore, he listened not only attentively, but also dared not miss a single word or phrase.

Zhu Ziming said: "As social production gradually recovers and develops, the population will increase rapidly. When the population increases to a certain extent, land is no longer a means of production that everyone can own. To put it bluntly, there are too many people and not enough land to go around. At this time, social development begins to slow down, and the problem of land annexation begins to emerge."

"Having arrived here, we still need a trigger. What trigger? Disaster!"

"A minor disaster every three years, a major disaster every five years—this was the norm in feudal dynasties, wasn't it?"

Emperor Chongzhen nodded.

In fact, the situation in the Ming Dynasty under his rule was even more serious.

Because at that time, the whole world was in a special period, the Little Ice Age. The climate response of the Little Ice Age was very strong in China. Since this period happened to be at the end of the Ming Dynasty and spanned the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is also called the "Ming-Qing Little Ice Age" in China.

It can be said that disasters plagued the entire late Ming Dynasty.

However, what Zhu Ziming wants to talk about now is not just the far-reaching disaster at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but a more general law of the rise and fall of dynasties.

"In feudal dynasties, most small peasant families had weak risk resistance capabilities and were easily plunged into debt or bankruptcy once they encountered disasters."

"At this time, nobles, bureaucrats, landlords and gentry began to stir. They used their political power and capital advantage to continuously expand their land holdings through purchasing, lending, encroachment, and seizure."

"As a result, some farmers began to lose their land and become tenant farmers, depending on the landlords for survival."

"To put it simply, the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer."

"At first, this phenomenon may not be obvious or may only be small in scope, but after several generations, it will become more and more serious. The final result is that the means of production, namely land, will become more and more concentrated in the hands of a small number of nobles, officials, landlords and gentry, while the land of the vast majority of people will become less and less."

"At this time, have the land annexations that were once concealed by the prosperity and development brought about by the change of dynasties quietly made a comeback?"

Zhu Ziming's words made Chongzhen nod silently.

"As the conflict over land annexation intensifies, more and more cases like Zhu Wusi's family will emerge, where they will either starve to death or take the path of rebellion."

"As a result, the struggles of tenant farmers against rent became more intense in various places, uprisings broke out everywhere, and military mutinies continued. The dynasty began to decline until it fell into crisis."

Emperor Chongzhen frowned and pondered for a moment before voicing his doubts: "But didn't any emperors or wise men throughout history discover and solve this problem?"

"Something has been discovered, but the problem remains unsolved."

Zhu Ziming replied: "Regarding land annexation, emperors and wise men throughout history have had many different decrees for regulation, such as the land limit system, the royal land system, the land occupation system, the equal land system, and even later Wang Anshi's reforms and Zhang Juzheng's Single Whip Law, etc."

"These laws, to some extent, alleviated the conflict over land annexation and enabled the dynasty to revive."

"However, land annexation has not been completely eliminated; it has only been mitigated. Soon, land annexation will resurface and make a comeback, even more violently than before, and the dynasty will once again face a life-or-death crisis."

"Take the Ming Dynasty as an example. The Ming Dynasty went through 15 emperors and experienced prosperity, decline, revival and then decline again. By the time of Chongzhen, land annexation had become extremely serious and the gap between the rich and the poor was unprecedentedly large. The rich owned vast tracts of land, while the poor had no place to stand."

"At this time, the entire Ming Dynasty was like a camel that was already overburdened. It only took one straw to break its back."

"Therefore, the Ming Dynasty was destined to perish, and what would happen after that?"

Emperor Chongzhen looked at Zhu Ziming blankly: "What happened?"

Zhu Ziming replied, "You will find that a new dynasty will be established again, the land will be redistributed, the new dynasty will once again reach its peak, and the contradictions of land annexation will be covered up..."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was stunned and speechless.

He seemed to understand something, but his thoughts were a bit confused, and he couldn't quite grasp the key point.

Zhu Ziming summarized it for him: "Indeed, we've entered another cycle of land annexation."

"Here, we can clearly see a cyclical pattern of the rise and fall of dynasties. In the first stage, the old dynasty is overthrown and a new dynasty is established. At this time, land is redistributed, the dynasty develops rapidly, and enters its prosperous period."

In the second stage, land annexation resurfaced, and the dynasty began its decline.

In the third stage, land annexation conflicts intensify, leading to a crisis for the dynasty. At this point, either land annexation escalates further, causing the dynasty to collapse, or a wise ruler or capable minister issues decrees to limit land annexation, alleviate the conflicts, and achieve a revival of the dynasty, thus entering the fourth stage.

In the fourth stage, land annexation returned, and the dynasty teetered on the brink of collapse, overwhelmed by the burden.

The fifth stage is marked by the fall of a dynasty, the establishment of a new dynasty, the redistribution of land, and the beginning of the next cycle…

"Therefore, you will find that the rise and fall of a dynasty is essentially a history of land distribution, annexation, and redistribution."

"And this cycle usually does not exceed three hundred years, which is why the reigns of dynasties throughout history have never lasted more than three hundred years."