Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered: Forbidden future generations to take ginseng, the Ming Dynasty fell to the country, Chongzhen understood the ancestors' painstaking heart
Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the education of future generations, organized and compiled the "Ming Emperor's Ancestral Training", told posterity what can be done and what cannot be done, hoping that the Ming Dynasty he established can be passed down forever, "passed down from generation to generation and even to all generations".
Zhu Yuanzhang once issued a strict order prohibiting the royal princes and nobles from taking ginseng, and also strictly ordered future generations not to take ginseng.
Ginseng is a great tonic, known as the "King of Hundred Herbs", has the effect of prolonging life, light body and longevity, and is the favorite item of the royal family and princes and nobles of the past, so why did Zhu Yuanzhang ban such treasures? For two reasons, the people and the border guards.
Zhu Yuanzhang forbade posterity to take ginseng for the reason - the people
In ancient China, there were only two places where ginseng was produced, the Area around the Taihang Mountains in Shangdang, Shanxi and the Changbai Mountains in the Northeast, where ginseng liked shade, and most of them grew on cliffs and cliffs. In order to obtain such treasures, the royal family and the king of the clan bought ginseng in Shanxi Shangdang, and the local people went up the mountain to find ginseng in order to win extra money, and the people had to climb the mountain to avoid wild beasts. Zhu Yuanzhang was born to the low-level people, and he knew that the life of the low-level people was not easy, so he ordered that the royal family and the king of the clan be prohibited from purchasing ginseng to reassure the people.
After Zhu Yuanzhang gave the order, the king of the clan and the royal family did not dare to expropriate ginseng, but after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the royal family and the king of the clan continued to requisition ginseng from the Shangdang generation in Shanxi, and the people were miserable, according to the records in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", the people were miserable, gave up cultivating ginseng on the mountain, and even destroyed the ginseng on the mountain. Not long after, the ginseng of the Shanxi Shangdang disappeared, so the royal family and the kings of the major clans set their sights on another place rich in ginseng, the Changbai Mountain in the northeast.
Zhu Yuanzhang forbade posterity to take ginseng for the reason - border defense
At that time, most of the ginseng in the northeast Changbai Mountain was controlled in the hands of Nurhaci, Nurhaci saw the kannai royal family's fanatical demand for ginseng, so he began to organize people to cultivate and pick ginseng, because the only ginseng production party in Kannai has no ginseng, so Nurhaci has become an "exclusive supplier", increase the price, ordinary ginseng can be sold to 5 two silver a plant, the price of high quality will be more. The Jurchen tribes, which were dying under Zhu Yuanzhang's border policy, relied on ginseng income to get a breather. Nurhaci began to cultivate and cultivate ginseng on a large scale, and this income was used by Nurhaci for military expenses.
Although the Ming Dynasty royal family only knows to covet pleasure, it is not stupid, and will not sit and watch its opponents become stronger step by step, whenever the Jurchen clan has non-divided thoughts, the Ming Dynasty relies on the huge market demand in Guannei to firmly suppress the Jurchen tribe. For example, during the Wanli dynasty, the Ming Dynasty closed the trade market, and 100,000 kilograms of ginseng rotted in the hands of the Jurchens, directly losing 600,000 taels of silver. This made the Jurchen tribe more eager to settle in Kannai, and felt yearning for the strong productivity and demand in Kannai.
Ginseng helped the Jurchen tribe settle in Kannai
Although the Ming Dynasty banned the ginseng trade outside Guanxi, there were still people who secretly went to the northeast to buy ginseng and sold them to Guannei to earn the difference. Relying on the Ming Dynasty's demand for ginseng, Nurhaci built a powerful army, and finally defeated the Ming Dynasty and settled in Guannei. During the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, he tried hard to rectify the government and issued a strict order prohibiting the chinese people from buying ginseng from the northeast, but the Ming Dynasty ministers still secretly bought ginseng from the northeast in order to accumulate wealth and transported them to Guannei for sale. Therefore, although Chongzhen was one of the few good emperors of the Ming Dynasty, it was useless to rely on him alone.