Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 32 The Deplorable Donglin Party
During the Wanli era, Gu Xiancheng, together with local officials, rebuilt the Guishan Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty, renaming it Donglin Academy, and began lecturing and discussing politics. He put forward the political program of "family affairs, national affairs, and world affairs," laying the ideological foundation for the Donglin Party.

The Donglin Academy was destroyed by Wei Zhongxian as early as the fifth year of the Tianqi reign. The Donglin Party was essentially a loose alliance of interests among the bureaucratic landlord class in Jiangnan.

Under the impact of Wei Zhongxian and his so-called "eunuch faction," the Donglin Party has long since disintegrated and no longer has any capable leaders.

Seeing that Sun Chengzong had been given an important position again, the Donglin Party members tried to curry favor with him and make him their leader. However, Sun Chengzong completely ignored these scoundrels. Why didn't they speak up for him when he was impeached? Now that he has been appointed Governor-General of the Three Border Regions, they come to curry favor with him. How ridiculous!
Meanwhile, Qian Qianyi, the future leader of the Donglin Party, was still just a nobody. Before his dismissal, he only held the position of Junior Grand Tutor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and concurrently Reader-in-Waiting of the Hanlin Academy. But the problem was, Emperor Tianqi, Zhu Youxiao, had no crown prince, so he was left with nothing but loneliness.

Bi Ziyan's rise to prominence not only attracted the attention of Zhu Youjian but also won the favor of the remnants of the Donglin Party, who then sought to pledge allegiance to this Minister of Revenue in Nanjing. This was a desperate move, considering Bi Ziyan was from Zibo, Shandong.

In reality, neither the so-called "Donglin Party" nor the "Eunuch Party" were the kind of well-organized political parties that existed in later generations. If a truly mature political party were in control of the government, then Zhu Youjian should have stepped down and let them sit on the dragon throne.

Both the Donglin Party and the eunuch party were misrepresented: anyone who didn't explicitly oppose Wei Zhongxian was labeled a "eunuch party"; anyone who supported reform became a "pan-Donglin party." Zhu Youjian himself couldn't distinguish which party he belonged to.

The memorial submitted by Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Revenue in Nanjing, caused a great uproar among the court officials.

Guo Yunhou, the current Minister of Revenue, was naturally unwilling to step down, and other ministerial-level officials were also reluctant to see Bi Ziyan return.

Given Bi Ziyan's official rank and status, he would certainly be appointed as a minister-level official upon his return, or even directly enter the cabinet. Such positions are highly competitive, and since they conspired to oust Bi Ziyan and send him to Nanjing, how good could their relationship possibly be?
Guo Yunhou said, “Your Majesty, Bi Jingzeng’s plan may be feasible, but his reforms will take several years to show results and cannot solve the immediate problem. It would be better to let him try it out in Jiangnan first and then make a decision based on its effectiveness.”

"Indeed, Minister Guo's words are those of a wise and experienced ruler. During the Tang Dynasty, Yang Yan implemented the 'Two-Tax System,' first in Henan and the Jianghuai region; our dynasty's 'Single Whip System' was first implemented in Fujian and Jiangxi. Your Majesty, reform policies must be approached with caution, and we must not be too hasty!"

However, their words provoked strong opposition from the upright officials. It was clear that a large portion of Bi Ziyan's reforms were aimed at the border troops; to allow him to implement them in Nanjing was a joke! Guo Yunhou and others opposed the reforms, clearly out of greed for power and a desire to sideline Minister Bi!
"Let them argue, let them argue." The court was in an uproar, but Zhu Youjian's attention drifted outside the main hall.

In the open space in front of the palace, according to the original etiquette of the Ming Dynasty, there should have been six elephants standing guard there, but the Daoist Emperor canceled it. Perhaps the old Daoist preferred white cranes.

In the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign, an elephant went out of control and trampled the ceremonial guard outside the Meridian Gate. The Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial requesting that "elephants be removed from regular court audiences and only be used for grand ceremonies." Zhu Youjian felt that the officials of the Ministry of Rites were simply using this as an excuse to make trouble because they did not want to pay homage to the elephants every day. According to the requirements of the "Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty," officials should first pay homage to the tribute elephants when they went to court.

In the latter half of last night, Zhu Youjian vaguely heard elephants bellowing. In the morning, the commander of the elephant training institute came running over to congratulate him, saying that a baby elephant had been born last night. This was interesting, and Zhu Youjian planned to take his wife and sister-in-law to the elephant training institute to see it after get off work.

The court session finally ended, but the result of the controversy was that there was no resolution.

"This is the Ming Dynasty I know!" Zhu Youjian thought to himself. The previous court sessions had gone too smoothly, almost making him mistakenly believe that the Ming court was an efficient one. However, arguments in court were one thing, but the final procedure always returned to the same old three steps: the memorial was submitted to the Grand Secretariat, the Grand Secretariat drafted a proposal, and then the emperor approved and stamped it. So, arguing was useless.

"Your Majesty, the two consorts have been brought to the palace," Wang Chengen said.

"What Empress?!" Zhu Youjian was completely bewildered.

"It's Sun Chuanting's daughter!" "Ah, I remember now!" Zhu Youjian slapped his forehead; he had completely forgotten about it. "Where are they now?"

"In...in Kunning Palace, with Empress Yi'an, and the Princess Consort is here too," Wang Chengen said, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Hiss!" Zhu Youjian clicked his tongue, feeling as if a huge "danger" was looming over his head.

"I am the emperor, what do I have to fear?!" Zhu Youjian steeled his heart and strode towards Kunning Palace.

Before even entering the door, Zhu Youjian heard a subtle laugh, which made him feel a little relieved, as it seemed they got along quite well.

He pushed open the door and went inside, his laughter fading instantly. Zhou Yufeng looked at him resentfully, while Zhang Yan's gaze held reproach, yet beneath it lay a deeper, unspoken meaning.

The two girls, after a moment of stunned silence, bowed gracefully and said, "We are Sun Shiwan and Sun Shixiu, and we pay our respects to Your Majesty!"

"No need for formalities. Um, which one of you is the older sister and which one is the younger sister?" Zhu Youjian looked at the two girls who were about the same height and seemed to be the same age, and was a little confused.

“Your Majesty, I am a few months older than Shixiu,” Sun Shiwan said.

“Very good, since everyone is here, it saves me the trouble of looking for them one by one. A baby elephant was born at the elephant stable last night, let’s go see the baby elephant!” Zhu Youjian said.

"Huh?!" Zhu Youjian's words caught the girls off guard, but he didn't care. Rather than getting bogged down in this chaotic situation, he decided to flip the table and divert their attention.

"Elephants?!" Sun Shixiu's eyes lit up with excitement. Sun Shixiu was relatively calm, but elephants in the Central Plains had long been extinct, and she had never seen one, only heard of them. Her father had told her that the small countries in the southeast loved to send elephants as tribute to the Ming Dynasty; in fact, during the Yongle and Xuande reigns, so many elephants were sent that the elephant stables couldn't hold them all. Her curiosity was piqued.

“Great! Great! Let’s go see the elephants!” Sun Shixiu said, hugging Zhu Youjian’s arm.

"Huh?!?!" Sun Shiwan looked at her sister in disbelief, and everyone else was also confused by her actions.

"Shixiu, you mustn't be rude!" Sun Shiwan said in a deep voice.

"Oh." Sun Shixiu awkwardly let go.

"It's alright, ignorance is no excuse," Zhu Youjian said calmly. But did she really not know? Zhu Youjian planned to "interrogate" her properly later, asking her whether it was intentional or accidental.

(End of this chapter)