内容提要：

　　本书可说是自有为张居正立传以来最深入、最公正、最能“美恶不掩，各从其实”的巨著。（台湾学者徐泓语）

　　它不同于前人作品的最大特点，在于作者运用大量罕见的丰富史料，除实录、政书等官方出版品外，引用的私人笔记、文集、书信达150余种，以明代为主的地方志达65种。因此能深入许多以前学者所未谈到的细节。

　　对张居正在改革中所要面对的错综复杂的人际关系，作者分别立档，上有皇帝、太后，旁及宦阉权竖、外戚、各派言官，特别是与居正曾共事的历届内阁大学士、重要文臣僚佐都有叙及，涉及人物之多，探求研究之细，皆为同类著述所罕见。

　　同时，书中提出了“隆万改革”的新判断和新概念，重新审视后发现，高拱和张居正在隆庆时期已经联手进行重大的改革，在吏治、经济、军事上都取得过重大的成就，使垂危的明王朝出现了起死回生的希望。可以说，万历初叶张居正所进行的改革是隆庆改革的继续。这一成果无疑是研究明代中后期历史的新突破和新贡献。

　　尤其要指出的是，该书对张居正主持改革的过程作了动态式的叙述，不但写了张居正如何运筹帷幄、选贤任能、妥为部署，而且写出了他在改革和反改革的矛盾冲突中如何坚定指挥、鼓舞士气的实况。在充分肯定张居正的伟大历史作用的同时，对他的“失误、失律和失德”的一面也给以实事求是的直书。

　　张居正要推行改革，不得不集中权力，但权力集中在一人手中而无所制约，势必要引来皇权的反噬，酿成悲剧，张居正死后的凄惨正好诠释了此点。在个人专权独断的体制下，这也是必然结局。

　　作者简介

　　韦庆远（1928-2009），广东顺德人，中国人民大学档案学院教授。历任美国哈佛大学费正清东亚研究中心客座研究员、哈佛—燕京学社访问学者、英国牛津大学东亚研究系客座教授、圣安东尼学院兼职院士、香港科技大学人文学部客座教授、台湾政治大学历史系客座教授、香港城市大学中国文化中心客座教授、香港珠海书院史学研究所客座教授、台北“中央研究院”历史语言研究所和近代史研究所、香港大学中文系和历史系访问学者。

　　主要著作有：《明代黄册制度》、《中国档案史稿》、《康雍乾城乡人民反抗斗争资料》（主编）、《清代奴婢制度》（合著）、《明代的锦衣卫和东西厂》、《中国政治制度史》（合著）、《清代全史》（第四卷）、《明清史新析》、《隆庆皇帝大传》、《张居正和明代中后期政局》、《正德风云：荡子皇帝朱厚照别传（上下）》。

Summary of contents:

This book can be said to be the most in-depth, the most fair, the most able to "beauty and evil not hide, each from the truth" since the biography of Zhang Juzheng. (Xu Hongyu, Taiwan scholar)

The biggest feature of it is that the author uses a large number of rare and rich historical materials, in addition to official publications such as transcripts and political books, more than 150 kinds of private notes, anthologies, and letters are quoted, and 65 kinds of local Chronicles are mainly from the Ming Dynasty. So it can go into many details that have not been discussed by previous scholars.

The intricate interpersonal relations that Zhang Juzheng had to face in the reform, the author sets up files respectively, including the emperor, the empress, the officials, the relatives, and the various school officials, especially the cabinet senior scholars and important civil servants who had worked with Juzheng. The number of people involved and the detail of exploration and research are rare in similar works.

At the same time, the book put forward the new judgment and new concept of "Longwan reform". After re-examination, it was found that Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng had jointly carried out major reforms in Longqing period, and had made great achievements in official administration, economy and military affairs, which made the dying Ming Dynasty appear the hope of resurrection. It can be said that the reform carried out by Zhang Juzheng in the beginning of Wanli is the continuation of the reform in Longqing. This achievement is undoubtedly a new breakthrough and new contribution to the study of the history of the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

In particular, it should be pointed out that the book made a dynamic description of the process of Zhang Juzheng's reform, not only wrote how Zhang Juzheng strategize, select talented people, and properly deploy, but also wrote how he firmly commanded and encouraged the morale in the conflict between reform and anti-reform. While fully affirming Zhang Juzheng's great historical role, he also gives a straight book to seek truth from facts about his "mistakes, loss of law and loss of morality".

Zhang Juzheng to carry out reform, had to concentrate power, but the power concentrated in the hands of one person without restriction, is bound to attract the imperial power back, resulting in tragedy, Zhang Juzheng's death after the tragic interpretation of this point. This is also the inevitable outcome under the system of individual dictatorship.

About the author

Wei Qingyuan (1928-2009), a native of Shunde, Guangdong Province, was a professor at the School of Archives, Renmin University of China. He has been a visiting fellow at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Visiting Professor at the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Oxford, adjunct Fellow at St. Anthony's College, Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, visiting Professor at the Department of History, National Chengchi University, Visiting Professor at the Chinese Cultural Center, City University of Hong Kong, and a guest at the Institute of History, Zhuhai College, Hong Kong Professor, Institute of History and Language and Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Visiting Scholar, Department of Chinese and Department of History, University of Hong Kong.

His main works are: Huangshi System in Ming Dynasty, Draft of Chinese Archival History, Data on the Resistance and Struggle of the Urban and rural People in Kangyongqian (editor-in-chief), Slave System in Qing Dynasty (co-authored), Jinyiwei and East and West Factories in Ming Dynasty, History of China's Political System (co-authored), Complete History of Qing Dynasty (Volume 4), New Analysis of the History of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Biography of Emperor Longqing, Zhang Juzheng and the Political Situation in the Middle and Late Ming Dynasties "Zhengde Wind and Cloud: The Biography of the Emperor Zhu Houzhao (Upper and Lower)".