Understand the power game, and only then can you truly understand history!
What is politics? When reading any history book or watching any historical drama, you must first grasp the core of politics; otherwise, it will be hard to see through the characters’ motivations—equivalent to watching for nothing.
Politics is the power game and rule-making about “who gets what, when, and how.” It is both the lofty art of “governing the state and bringing peace to the realm” and the down-to-earth daily business of “dividing the cake and setting the rules.”
Reading Daming Wangchao 1566, the core is to understand its power architecture and factional strife; to fully grasp this, one must understand the Jiajing Emperor’s imperial statecraft. Ancient imperial statecraft can be grouped into three categories: the art of power balancing, the art of recognizing and employing people, and systems-governance thinking. The following interprets the book from these three points.
I. The Art of Power Balancing: The Chessboard of Four Major Factions
The core conflict of the book revolves around four major political factions: the eunuch group (the Directorate of Ceremonial), the Yan faction, the Qingliu faction, and the lone minister faction—each restraining and yet mutually dependent on the others.
The Eunuch Group (Directorate of Ceremonial): The Jiajing Emperor’s Instrument for Exercising Imperial Power
Eunuchs depended on imperial power for their survival; many emperors had grown up alongside eunuchs and easily formed deep bonds of trust with them. In the book, the early core of the Directorate of Ceremonial is Lü Fang (Director of Ceremonial), and the later core is Chen Hong (Palace Eunuch of the Brush), Huang Jin, and others. They exercised Jiajing’s “vermilion-endorsement power” on his behalf, were a direct extension of imperial power, and their core duty was to balance the Yan faction and the Qingliu.
Lü Fang was honored by the eunuchs as the “Old Ancestor.” He was kind by nature, and his protection of Gao Hanwen and Yunniang is especially moving—rare in the treacherous court. He advocated “smoothing things over” to preserve the overall situation, but lost power because he overstepped by trying to reconcile Yan Song and Xu Jie, having the two drink together to resolve their conflict—he did not understand the political iron law that “gold cups are shared with you, but bare blades show no mercy”: the conflict between the Grand Secretary and the Junior Grand Secretary was the emperor’s key balancing mechanism—how could a eunuch be allowed to reconcile them? Even more striking: although Jiajing was not present, he knew everything through the Eastern Depot’s network, showing the intensity of Ming surveillance over ministers and his absolute control over the court. In the end, Jiajing, out of old affection, sent Lü Fang to guard the imperial tombs, allowing him a peaceful end.
Chen Hong became Jiajing’s late-period “enforcer of imperial power” through ruthlessness; his core principle was “absolute obedience.” After years of enduring obscurity beneath Lü Fang, he finally rose, only to become the emperor’s “scapegoat,” specializing in offending people. Jiajing used only his ruthlessness, with no trace of tenderness; Prince Yu valued him considerably, but his end was most likely to be grim.
Huang Jin is the “odd one out” in the Directorate of Ceremonial—a pure “honest heart.” In an environment full of scheming calculation, he had no interest in power tactics; his loyalty was clear: first to Jiajing, then to his benefactor Lü Fang. As a personal attendant eunuch, he was closest to the core of power, yet always maintained plain loyalty and care—a rare source of “human warmth” beside the aloof emperor. When Lü Fang was demoted, he grieved sincerely and risked danger to see him off; after Hai Rui’s memorial, he worried for his life; he also looked after Feng Bao in many ways—like a “warm baby” in the freezing court. In the end he was banished to Chaotian Temple (where Jiajing practiced Daoist cultivation and alchemy)—seemingly a punishment, but in fact removing him from the court’s bloody strife, a kind of protection.
Yang Jinshui. “There is only one cloud above my head, and that cloud is in the palace.” This sentence captures the highest principle of political alignment—clearly identifying whom you depend on, never straddling the fence. The core of politics is uniting the majority, co-opting key figures, and dividing opponents, ensuring supporters enter the core decision-making circle. Whether it means ending his political career or holding him accountable according to law, you must carry it out resolutely, without hesitation. History is always written by the victors; the power of discourse rests with those who survive to the end and set the tone. Whether a loser was a good person does not matter, because only if I say you are good are you truly good; if I say you are bad, then even things that do not exist can be fabricated. Those who wield the pen exist precisely for this purpose. Yang Jinshui always understood clearly that he served the emperor, never deceived Jiajing, and could even cooperate tacitly with the emperor, revealing hidden truths. In the end he guarded the tombs together with Lü Fang and met a good end. In the TV series, Lü Fang’s lines—“Jin’er, from now on let us father and son live cleanly as honest men,” and “Three years. You have truly suffered. Now it is better. We are going to guard the tombs of the Taizu Emperor. The Taizu Emperor cannot speak, and will not get angry; no one will scheme against us anymore. Jin’er, wash your hair, your face, and this body of ours that has only half left. From now on, let us father and son live cleanly as honest men”—are deeply moving.
Feng Bao. Ambitious, enduring, and gifted, he endured for decades and finally became a great figure. Historically, he cooperated with Zhang Juzheng, toppled Gao Gong, and supported Zhang Juzheng’s reforms, extending the Ming dynasty’s life. Jiajing once predicted, “In the future, the one who can kill Chen Hong is probably this man.” In the drama, Lü Fang’s “three thoughts” maxim to him is memorable: but what I like most in the TV series are two lines Lü Fang says to Feng Bao. One is what the civil officials say: to be an official, one must “think three times.” What does “think three times” mean? It means “think of danger, think of retreat, think of change.” Knowing danger allows you to avoid it—this is “thinking of danger”; retreating to a place where no one notices you—this is “thinking of retreat”; after retreating, you have the opportunity to look slowly and think slowly about where you went wrong before and what to do going forward—this is “thinking of change.” “Thinking of danger” is knowing peril and avoiding it; “thinking of retreat” is hiding in plain sight; “thinking of change” is reviewing and refining—this captures the wisdom of official conduct and worldly affairs.
Supplementary note: Strictly speaking, the lone minister faction (Hai Rui, Wang Yongji) is not an organized “faction” but an individual moral force within the system—they have no common political program and do not participate in factional games. A more accurate formulation is “three major factions (Directorate of Ceremonial, Yan faction, Qingliu) + lone ministers as individuals.” The popular “four major factions” phrasing is retained here, but this distinction should be noted.
The Yan Faction (Jiajing’s Imperial Power Appendage): A Distorted Union of Corruption and Loyalty
Core figures include Yan Song (Grand Secretary), Yan Shifan (Vice Minister of Works, Yan Song’s son, chief writer of qingci—Daoist memorials), Luo Longwen, Yan Maoqing, and the highly controversial Hu Zongxian. The Yan faction was essentially an appendage of imperial power; through “converting paddy fields to mulberry” and “salt-patrol revenue extraction,” they squeezed the people’s wealth, satisfying both Jiajing’s private desires and their own interests—they were the core of court corruption. They stood in sharp opposition to the Qingliu faction.
Factual correction: The original claim that they “once attempted to install another prince (unsuccessfully)” has no clear plot support in the drama and is over-inference; it is better changed to “structurally opposed to the Prince Yu camp and having delayed Prince Yu’s accession.”
Yan Song held court power for twenty years, deep in statecraft, cunning and adaptable, able to make the emperor knowingly tolerate his evil while still willing to employ him. Unfortunately, his son Yan Shifan was impetuous and conceited, and ultimately crossed the emperor’s bottom line and was executed. Yan Song resembles He Shen and Qin Hui—all “scapegoats” for the emperor; many of his actions were either directly ordered or done by divining the imperial will. Ni Dahong’s portrayal of Yan Song is both spiritually and physically convincing, bringing the character’s complexity fully to life.
Hu Zongxian: loyal to country and people yet trapped in the dilemma of blind loyalty. To be loyal to imperial power, he could only turn a blind eye to the persecution of the people, his heart full of guilt; he once wanted to die for the country but was stopped by his subordinates, and instead achieved merit in resisting the Japanese pirates. In his position, he did his duty; anyone in his situation might not have done better—he was a true doer of the Great Ming, worthy of eternal respect.
The Qingliu Faction (Prince Yu’s Supporters): The Interweaving of Idealism and Succession Struggle
With Xu Jie (Junior Grand Secretary), Gao Gong (Prince Yu’s tutor), Zhang Juzheng (Prince Yu’s tutor), Zhao Zhenji, and others at the core, they raised the banner of “Confucian benevolent governance,” opposed the Yan faction’s corruption, supported Prince Yu’s position as heir, and advocated rectifying officialdom and alleviating the people’s hardships. In essence, they were a combination of “scholar-official idealism + struggle for the heir’s power,” and the core force counterbalancing the Yan faction.
Supplementary analysis: The Qingliu faction was internally very diverse—Xu Jie was a patient bureaucrat, Gao Gong a forceful reformer, Zhang Juzheng a practical power minister, and Zhao Zhenji more self-protective. They shared interests in opposing the Yan faction, but “supporting Prince Yu” was more a choice for political safety and should not be simplified into a “power-grabbing combine”; in the drama, the Qingliu’s positions on “converting paddy fields to mulberry” were also not monolithic.
Xu Jie endured for over twenty years, harboring the intention to avenge his mentor Xia Yan, hiding deeply in front of Yan Song, and ultimately became the first meritorious figure and chief planner in toppling Yan Song. At this time, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were still auxiliary; their glorious moment began after Prince Yu ascended the throne.
Prince Yu appeared patient and low-key on the surface, but in fact tacitly allowed the Qingliu faction to oppose the Yan faction and accumulate political power. Through confidants such as Xu Jie and Gao Gong, he connected with the court situation, both building a “benevolent ruler” image and gradually dismantling the Yan faction’s power, paving the way for succession. Prince Yu was weak in character but honest and kind, concerned about the people’s hardships and good at recognizing and employing people; although disliked by his father, he opened a new situation with the assistance of worthy ministers, focusing on harem affairs and imperial succession.
The Lone Minister Faction (Challengers of the System): The Lonely Resistance of Idealism
Represented by Hai Rui (from Chun’an County Magistrate to Ministry of Revenue Principal Secretary) and Wang Yongji, they stepped outside factional games, took “the Great Ming Code” and “people-oriented thought” as their core, and directly challenged the Yan faction’s corruption and Jiajing’s “governance by non-action.” They are the only purely “idealists” in the drama.
Hai Rui: the core representative of positive characters in the drama—upright, fearless, and principled, shaking the court and the country with his single strength. His loyalty underwent a transformation from “blind loyalty” to “wise loyalty”—early on he blindly followed feudal morality and imperial power; later he gradually awakened, taking the promotion of social justice as his mission, becoming a true wise man and loyal minister. As Dangnian Mingyue notes in Mingchao Naxie Shier (Those Things About the Ming Dynasty), the later Hai Rui had become a “star” pursued by the masses, showing the extent of his influence.
II. The Jiajing Emperor: The Ultimate Operator of the Power Game
The root of all struggles lies with the Jiajing Emperor. On the surface he single-mindedly pursued Daoism, but in reality he was a political fanatic, controlling officials through metaphor and maintaining the balance of all forces, with extremely deep political skill. Yet he was addicted to cultivating immortality and ignored the people’s hardships, ultimately leading to the decline of the court. An emperor who did not hold court for decades could still firmly control imperial power—his ability is beyond doubt; unfortunately, his talent was misplaced in the illusory path to immortality. As a ruler, if he can recognize and employ people well and balance all sides, he is already competent; if he also has a long-term strategy, he is a wise ruler for the ages—and Jiajing clearly failed to achieve this.
The father-son game between imperial power and succession power: Jiajing and Prince Yu appear to be father and son, but in reality they are in a balancing relationship between imperial power and succession power. As the only adult prince, Prince Yu was the default heir, but Jiajing had both familial affection for him and greater wariness—neither letting him take power too early nor allowing the Yan faction to suppress him excessively, avoiding any one side becoming too strong and threatening his own rule. Jiajing “used the Yan faction to control the Qingliu, and the Qingliu to check the Yan faction,” letting the two factions consume each other while he stayed behind the scenes controlling the overall situation; at the same time, through Lü Fang and other eunuchs, he sent “protection signals” to Prince Yu, ensuring the stability of the succession. As the saying goes, “The cruelest is the imperial family”—before power, even father-son affection must yield to balance.
Supplementary critical dimension: Jiajing’s balancing was essentially maintaining personal control at the cost of consuming the court situation—Yan faction corruption, Qingliu spinning in place, empty treasury; the “system” of checks and balances ultimately led to system failure. It is fine to call it “wisdom,” but one should add: this balancing was inefficient and against the public interest; otherwise it is easy to mistake power tactics for governance capacity.
III. The Art of Recognizing and Employing People: No Absolutely Worthy Minister, Only the Wisdom of Employment
Jiajing’s instruction to Prince Yu reveals the truth: “You are too weak; let the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers carry more of the burden, and let worthy ministers serve as Grand Secretary.” When Prince Yu asked “who are the worthy ministers,” Jiajing replied: “There is no such thing as a truly worthy minister; whether one is worthy or not is sometimes beyond their control. See clearly: when worthy, employ them; when unworthy, dismiss them.” His “Yangtze and Yellow River theory” is even more profound: “The Yangtze River’s water is clear, the Yellow River’s water is muddy, yet both can irrigate the fields; one cannot favor the clear and neglect the muddy, nor neglect the clear because of the muddy. When the Yellow River floods, it is managed—this is the reason for dismissing Yan Song and executing Yan Shifan; when the Yangtze River floods, it is also managed—this is the reason for dismissing Yang Tinghe and Xia Yan, and executing Yang Jisheng and Shen Lian.” Jiajing believed that “history books” and “the hearts of the people” are both empty names; maintaining imperial power is fundamental—employment has nothing to do with good or evil, only with whether one is useful to oneself; once beyond control, resolutely discard.
IV. Systems-Governance Thinking: The Millennia-Old Wisdom of Decentralized Checks and Balances
The core of ancient statecraft was “Confucianism on the outside, Legalism on the inside” (open Confucianism, hidden Legalism): on the surface, Confucian “kingly way” was the standard; in reality, Legalist “hegemonic way” was the foundation, supplemented by military-strategist cunning, switching flexibly according to circumstances. By setting up multiple authorities with overlapping powers (such as chancellor, censors, generals) to check each other, and emphasizing the design of power structures to prevent any single force from monopolizing power—this is precisely the core logic of systems governance.
Supplementary layer: What the drama highlights even more is Jiajing’s use of Daoist cultivation to construct legitimacy—“governance by non-action” was performative; cultivation was the surface, power tactics the core. This is the drama’s most distinctive political design beyond the “Confucianism outside, Legalism inside” summary, and should not be omitted.
V. The Book’s Distinguishing Feature: A Vivid Historical Group Portrait and Profound Insight into Human Nature
The charm of Daming Wangchao 1566 lies in its vivid character portrayals. Screenwriter Liu Heping is, in my view, a screenwriter of exceptional caliber; he drew three-dimensional portraits for each character, and characters with distinct personalities, in cooperation and conflict, form a vivid historical group portrait. I am especially fond of Shen Yishi—brave, resourceful, and brilliant, yet trapped in the whirlpool of his era, unable to act independently. As the richest man in Jiangnan, he was in fact exploited layer upon layer, ultimately driven to a dead end, reminding one of Shen Wansan and evoking the fragility of “wealth rivaling a nation” before imperial power. In the drama, each character is treacherous, loyal, weak, or resilient; personality and fate intertwine to compose this classic work. 
If you love history, neither the book nor the TV series of Daming Wangchao 1566 should be missed; few works can match its depth of discussion on power and human nature.
VI. A Collection of Political Quotes (Compliance-Selected)
“Politics is the art of the possible.” — Otto von Bismarck
Interpretation: Politics is not a choice between idealism and realism, but the exploration of the best possible through gaming and compromise within real constraints such as power, resources, and public opinion.
“Politics is not fighting, but the rules of fighting.”
Interpretation: Its core function is to establish rules and resolve conflicts of interest and differences of opinion through non-violent means.
“Politics is the distribution of power.” — Max Weber
Interpretation: All policies, institutions, and struggles are essentially about the acquisition, exercise, and transfer of power.
“War is the continuation of politics.” — Carl von Clausewitz
Interpretation: When political and diplomatic means fail, war becomes the most extreme political tool.
“Position determines cognition.” (Optimized folk saying)
Interpretation: Vividly explains that a person’s views and claims are often determined by their position and interests. A more accurate summary is “interests determine position.”
“Politics is how the resource cake is divided.”
Interpretation: Plainly points out the essence of politics—resolving the interest-distribution question of “who gets more, who gets less, and by what principle.”
“Shake hands on stage, kick feet under the table.”
Interpretation: Vividly depicts the normal state of surface cooperation coexisting with behind-the-scenes gaming in political struggle.
“Politics is the study of coordinating interpersonal relations and advancing affairs.”
Interpretation: “Coordinating interpersonal relations” is balancing power relations; “advancing affairs” is achieving policy goals—neither can be missing.
“Do not look at political issues through a moral lens.”
Interpretation: A realist reminder—political logic (especially international politics) is mostly based on interests and strength, not on simple moral good and evil.
Overall assessment: This interpretation takes “imperial power—succession power,” “balancing—factions,” and “recognizing people—employing people” as its main threads, with a clear framework and warm character commentary. Room for improvement lies in: distinguishing “dramatic presentation” from “historical fact,” using the concept of “faction” more strictly, and adding a critical dimension to Jiajing’s balancing tactics. After correcting a few factual hard errors, it can be published directly as a complete drama review.