Study On The Activities Of The Scoundrels During The Mid And Late Ming Dynasty

As a special social group in the Ming Dynasty,the scoundrels experienced its own evolution from small to large and played an important role in social development.The reasons for the constant breeding of the scoundrels in the Ming Dynasty are various.For example,the weakening of the functions of the grassroots management system established by the government and the stimulation of the material desires of the commodity economy have accelerated the expansion of the club community.Taking the Jiajing Dynasty as a watershed,the early stage was the development stage of the scoundrel group.In the Jia(Jing)million(calendar)years,the scoundrel group formed a scale,and its organization and participation activities almost penetrated into the Ming Dynasty politics,economy,and military.At various levels,such as society,they borrowed the power of power and the power of the next,and disrupted the normal political and judicial order of the Ming Dynasty.Moreover,they used the law of arbitrarily taking advantage of the law,undermining the rules of commodity trading,embezzling salt classes,business tax,etc.The national interest;mixed into the ranks of the army,endangering military and political affairs,not only squandered military reserves,but also caused the military's combat effectiveness to decline to some extent,eroding the Ming Dynasty's defense system.Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty,the rulers have rectified the state order,strengthened their control over the society,and constantly improved the prevention and punishment mechanism for social unlawful activities.However,due to the gradual reduction of the efficiency of the state machine operation,these measures often have little effect and failed to achieve The will of the ruler.Until the end of the Ming Dynasty,various social contradictions intensified,further aggravating the activity of the club community.The Ming government has basically lost the possibility of controlling the activities of the scoundrels from the official level.It can be said that the activities of the scoundrels have had a negligible influence on the development of the Ming Dynasty society.Therefore,the study of the scoundrels also provides a different perspective for us to understand the social situation of the Ming Dynasty.