I disagree with your assessment of Ming emperors. The last Ming emperor might have worked hard, but working hard doesn’t make one a good emperor by itself. Like his ancestor the first Ming emperor, he was cruel and arrogant-in his short reign he killed 80% of top ministers and generals who also worked hard. The first Ming emperor started the misrule with exterminating pretty all of his top officials who won the empire for him, as well as starting the notorious Ming secret police. Any one of his top officials (e.g., ShuiDa) would’ve made a better emperor. Also being tough and cruel is not inevitable for an emperor to rule. The Northern Song dynasty by contrast to Ming was marked by much more tolerant and merciful treatment of its officials, virtually executing none of them (Yuifei was Southern Song, and the emperor who killed him Chaokuo was a chicken 💩 bastard). BTW, Jingyong didn’t just make Zhouyuanjan a treacherous schemer-he made Zhou’s main rival, Chenyolong, even more vicious. You can say that Jingyong disliked people who used ambitions indiscriminately and immorally, not that he had an antipathy toward emperors per se.