A Young Emperor Under the Shadow of a Powerful Tutor

The Wanli Emperor ascended the Ming throne in 1572 at the tender age of nine, inheriting an empire that had enjoyed relative stability during the Longqing Emperor’s brief reign. For the first decade of his rule, the real power rested not with the child emperor but with his formidable tutor and Grand Secretary, Zhang Juzheng, who served as both regent and chief minister.

Zhang Juzheng’s approach to governance and imperial education was uncompromising. He maintained strict control over the young emperor’s studies and daily life, often reprimanding Wanli in a manner that bordered on disrespect for imperial dignity. This stern tutelage created deep psychological scars that would shape Wanli’s later reign. The emperor’s resentment grew alongside his humiliation, with the powerful eunuch Feng Bao, supported by the Empress Dowager Li, adding to the oppressive atmosphere surrounding the young ruler.

The Emperor’s Revenge and Political Purges

When Zhang Juzheng died in 1582, the twenty-year-old Wanli Emperor finally had the opportunity to exercise his imperial authority. The pent-up frustrations of a decade erupted in a wave of political retribution. Within six months, Feng Bao was exiled and his property confiscated. Soon after, Zhang Juzheng posthumously faced imperial wrath – his family suffered confiscation of property, his eldest son committed suicide, while younger sons and grandsons were exiled to frontier regions.

These purges fundamentally altered Ming political dynamics. The dual pillars of eunuch influence and grand secretarial power that had supported Zhang’s administration crumbled. Wanli maintained tight control over eunuchs throughout his reign, only granting limited authority to those serving as mining and tax supervisors. Subsequent grand secretaries, wary of Zhang’s fate, adopted obsequious attitudes, never daring to challenge the emperor as Zhang had done. The imperial court became Wanli’s personal domain.

A Brief Flirtation with Reformist Governance

Initially, the newly empowered Wanli Emperor showed promise as a conscientious ruler. From 1583 to 1586, his administration exhibited signs of reformist vigor. He worked diligently on state affairs, showed concern for commoners’ welfare, and initiated water conservancy projects near the capital. His appointments emphasized practical ability over connections, and he regularly consulted ministers on policy matters.

The emperor’s commitment appeared genuine. In April 1585, when Beijing suffered a prolonged drought, Wanli led officials on a twenty-li (about 10 km) round trip to the southern suburbs to pray for rain – an extraordinary act of humility for an emperor accustomed to palanquin transport. Witnesses, both officials and commoners, were deeply moved. Contemporary observers even compared this period to the prosperous Hongzhi era (1488-1505), seeing it as a potential new golden age.

The Descent into Neglect and Its Consequences

This reformist phase proved tragically brief. By late 1586, Wanli began withdrawing from governance, citing illness as pretext. His retreat from state affairs would become one of the most dramatic in Chinese imperial history. He stopped attending court sessions, refused to meet ministers, canceled imperial lectures, and even neglected ancestral temple ceremonies. Memorials piled up unanswered in what became known as the “retained in palace” (liuzhong) phenomenon.

Several factors contributed to this dramatic shift. The emperor grew frustrated with the tediousness of governance now that Zhang Juzheng no longer managed daily administration. Ministers, traumatized by Zhang’s posthumous disgrace, became risk-averse yes-men. Simultaneously, palace pleasures proved more enticing than bureaucratic drudgery, especially as personal disappointments mounted regarding imperial succession and favorite consorts.

Economic Exploitation and Popular Unrest

While neglecting governance, Wanli developed an insatiable appetite for wealth accumulation. Beginning in 1596, he dispatched eunuchs as mining and tax supervisors across 160 districts nationwide. These agents operated outside normal bureaucratic channels, funneling revenues directly into the imperial privy purse while pocketing enormous sums for themselves.

The economic impact was devastating. Eunuch tax collectors established arbitrary checkpoints, sometimes spacing them every 60-80 li along the Yangtze River. They ignored existing tax exemptions for small traders, driving many out of business. In Linqing, once a thriving commercial hub, over half the fabric shops and general stores closed. The textile industry in Suzhou collapsed as dyers and weavers stopped work under crushing tax burdens.

Popular resentment boiled over into violent protests. In 1599, Linqing merchants rioted, burning the tax office and killing thirty of tax supervisor Ma Tang’s underlings. Similar uprisings occurred in Huguang (1599), Suzhou (1601), Jiangxi, Liaodong, and Yunnan. The Yunnan protest proved particularly violent – miners executed hated eunuch Yang Rong and burned his corpse. When informed, Wanli reportedly lamented not the injustice but the breakdown of imperial authority.

The Wanli Emperor’s Legacy and the Ming Decline

Wanli’s reign (1572-1620) represents a critical juncture in Ming history. His early years under Zhang Juzheng’s tutelage created psychological scars that manifested in later authoritarian tendencies and eventual withdrawal. The brief reformist interlude demonstrated potential for renewal, but the subsequent decades of neglect allowed systemic problems to fester.

The emperor’s financial exploitation through eunuch tax collectors damaged commercial economies and alienated the populace. His inattention to governance created administrative paralysis – by the reign’s end, many government positions remained vacant while officials stagnated in unpromotable posts. This institutional decay coincided with the emergence of factional politics that would culminate in the notorious Donglin Party struggles and eunuch Wei Zhongxian’s dictatorship under Wanli’s successors.

Perhaps most damaging was Wanli’s failure to address the succession clearly, leaving court factions to battle over the “Three Cases” (the梃击案,红丸案, and移宫案) that would poison political discourse for decades. His reign’s contradictions – early promise versus later neglect, brief reformism followed by prolonged indifference – mirror the Ming dynasty’s own trajectory from relative stability to irreversible decline.