Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-4923787-20130801180646/@comment-32656-20130804115501

Yeah, he really slipped in his later years - giving control of government to the eunuchs when he got old didn't do him any good. But he did do a lot of good things that helped the Ming last longer.

To say that he was the cause of the collapse is horribly inaccurate, quite frankly.