(Portrait of Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty)
In the twenty-seventh year of Zhizheng, 1367 AD, the year before Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty.
In this year, he named his fourth son: Zhu Di.
This year, Zhu Di is already seven years old.
Seven years ago, that is, in the 20th year of Zhengzheng, the night when Zhu Di was just born, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was in charge of Yingtian, suddenly received urgent military information from the front line. His powerful enemy Chen Youliang invaded Chizhou and intended to occupy Taiping County.
The soldiers who came from the front line not only sent a battle report, but also brought a document written by Chen Youliang to Zhu Yuanzhang. In the document, Chen Youliang's attitude was very arrogant and almost arrogant. He asked Zhu Yuanzhang to give up resistance and wash away the enemy. A clean neck is waiting for you.
After Zhu Yuanzhang read the document, of course he was furious. He immediately put on his armor and rushed to the front line to direct the battle. He even had no time to take a look at his newborn son, let alone mention his name.
However, today is different from the past. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang has basically eliminated most of his opponents, such as Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, and they have become defeated generals. Withered bones in the grave, his grand hegemony can be determined at a snap, so he finally found time to give himself The sons were named.
He named his fourth son "Di", and also formulated a 20-year hierarchy for Zhu Di's descendants, that is, "Gaozhan Qi Jianyou, Houzai Yi Changyou, Cihe Yi Bozhong, Jian Jingdi Xianyou" .
For Zhu Yuanzhang, whether it was the name "Zhu Di" or the seniority of Zhu Di's descendants, Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangements were extremely random. In his heart, it was difficult for him to place Zhu Di in an important position. , he is not his eldest son, nor is he his favorite son, nor will he become his heir, not to mention that things are rare and valuable. Although a son is not an object, in the eyes of the emperor, he is no different from an ordinary object. There were too many, and the number of Zhu Yuanzhang's sons increased rapidly. By the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu , in 1394 AD, including the heirs who died in infancy, the number of Zhu Yuanzhang's sons reached an astonishing twenty-seven.
In the overcrowded Zhu royal family, Zhu Di was obviously nothing.
However, what Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect was that the 20 generations he casually drafted would become the names of the masters of every era in the future of the Ming Dynasty.
(Battle of Jingnan)
In the fourth year of Jianwen , 1402 AD, it was the day when Zhu Di ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in the Fengtian Hall of Nanjing.
After four years of arduous Jingnan War, he now has the country and the world in his hands, but Zhu Di did not feel very happy or excited.
On the contrary, he looked at the officials who were kneeling on the ground in frustration, and thought very negatively that from this moment on, he would become an eternal thief.
Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, later created the Yongle prosperous age , and achieved feats in the prosperous age such as five expeditions to Mobei, six voyages to the West, and moving the capital to Beijing. Such an emperor is undoubtedly powerful and capable.
But for the emperor himself, no matter how many great achievements he had made, he would still be afraid of one thing, that is, he was afraid that the people of the world would not recognize the rationality and legitimacy of his throne.
How many times in the middle of the night did he dream back, he seemed to see the figure of his father, Taizu Emperor Gao , right in front of him. Zhu Yuanzhang was still so angry that he severely reprimanded him for why he wanted to take away the throne of the emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Yunwen .
Zhu Di promised Zhu Yuanzhang again and again in his dreams: I will be a good emperor, and I will do better than Zhu Yunwen.
Father, just watch!
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang had already understood the superiority and importance of Zhu Di among his many sons long before his death.
(Portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty)
Zhu Yuanzhang’s eldest son Zhu Biao died in the 25th year of Hongwu, 1392 AD.
Zhu Yuanzhang's second son Zhu Cang died of illness in the 28th year of Hongwu, 1395 AD.
Zhu Yuanzhang's third son, Zhu Fan, died of illness in the 31st year of Hongwu, 1398 AD.
In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, after the prince, the second son, and the third son died of illness one after another, the fourth son Zhu Di, who was originally undistinguished, suddenly became the eldest son among the sons.
One month after the death of King Zhu Fan of Jin, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized that the oldest and most capable son he could rely on turned out to be King Zhu Di of Yan, so Zhu Yuanzhang personally wrote a poem to Zhu Di. Edict:
" Chronicles of Ming Dynasty ":... Qin and Jin have passed away, and you are the leader. To fight against the outside world and keep the country in peace, who else is it but you...
The meaning of this sentence is that Zhu Yuanzhang said that Qin King Zhu Chong , King of Jin Zhu Fan has passed away one after another. You are now the eldest son among the princes. It depends on your efforts to quell the border troubles and stabilize the internal affairs.
Obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang at this time regarded Zhu Di as an extremely important pillar of the Zhu royal family and placed great expectations on him. However, the problem was that Zhu Yuanzhang's sudden awakening did not seem to be thorough enough. Although he understood Zhu Di Very excellent and very important, but what he didn't understand was that if you want to use an excellent and important person with confidence, there is a very necessary prerequisite, that is, this person must have a pious and loyal heart.
(Portrait of Ming Hui Emperor Zhu Yunwen)
Zhu Di was loyal to the Zhu royal family, but he was not loyal to Zhu Yunwen, the imperial successor chosen by his father Zhu Yuanzhang.
He neither hates Zhu Yunwen nor likes Zhu Yunwen. He generally has no feelings for Zhu Yunwen, because all Zhu Di's doubts, anger and dissatisfaction come from Zhu Yuanzhang's seemingly very poor arrangement.
Since his father himself admitted that he was the best among all the sons, why did his father pass the throne to Zhu Yunzhen?
Why should the young Zhu Yunwen do it? Just because he is the son of eldest brother Zhu Biao?
From a pragmatic perspective, Zhu Di will never be able to understand his father's arrangements, but from the perspective of perceptual thinking, we can easily understand what Zhu Yuanzhang intended.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang is one of the most legendary emperors in Chinese history and the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. However, his life, including after becoming the emperor, was spent in a kind of emotional misery.
He was born in Guzhuang Village, Taiping Township, Haozhou, Anhui. His ancestors had been poor farmers for eight generations, so for a long time after he was born, he did not receive any cultural education. This is called having no teachers at a young age.
In the third year of Zhizheng (1343 AD), under the corrupt and dark rule of the Yuan government, Zhu Yuanzhang's father Zhu Wusi and mother Chen Shijun were unable to receive proper resettlement and relief due to the flooding of the Yellow River and the drought in Haozhou. Starved to death, this so-called young man lost his parents.
In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, 1382 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang's first wife, Empress Xiaocigao, who had been with him since his difficult entrepreneurial period, Ma Shi, died of illness. This is the so-called death of his wife in middle age.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, AD 1392, Prince Zhu Biao occasionally caught wind and cold. After that, he fell ill and passed away. This is called losing a son in old age.
Zhu Yuanzhang experienced the four major pains of life: he had no teachers when he was young, lost his father (mother) when he was young, lost his wife in middle age, and lost his son in old age.
(Portrait of Queen Ma of Xiaocigao)
The death of Queen Ma caused Zhu Yuanzhang to make certain decision-making mistakes and greatly changed his temperament.
When Empress Ma was alive, Zhu Yuanzhang was not a person who was very fond of killing. Even if the old emperor wanted to go on a killing spree for political reasons, Empress Ma would always advise him in time to avoid the tragedy of bloodshed. After Empress Ma passed away, Zhu Yuanzhang completely lost his bottom line and began to slaughter his officials wantonly. This was the "Emperor's Sword, which never had a scabbard".
This can also reflect from the side that his feelings for Queen Ma and Zhu Biao are extremely complicated and heavy. This kind of reluctance and guilt for his wife and children made him defy all opinions many years ago and insist on his eldest son. According to the inheritance system, the honest but very blunt, kind but cowardly Zhu Biao was chosen as the prince. After Zhu Biao's death, he behaved very abnormally and bypassed all his sons, including his most proud son Zhu Di. The emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen was chosen as his successor.
Perhaps, even Zhu Yuanzhang himself would find such an arrangement too unbelievable, but even though it is unbelievable, it really happened.
Zhu Yuanzhang is not Tang Gaozong Li Zhi. He has absolute right to speak and make decisions.
However, the father and son duo of Zhu Biao and Zhu Yunwen are really too mediocre no matter how you look at them.
(Image of Prince Zhu Biao)
"Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty": Prince Yiwen used weakness to restrain the meaning of the text, which was not what Taizu meant.
The kind-hearted Zhu Biao was often passive in the political confrontations of the Ming Dynasty because he was too weak. Most of his political achievements revolved around the two points of "interceding for others" and "saying good things to others". As a result, he lost his management rights as the crown prince and was always led by the ministers. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was very dissatisfied with him.
The failure of the Jingnan Campaign was enough to prove that Hui EmperorZhu Yunwen's level was even worse than that of his father.
Zhu Yuanzhang was obviously foresighted about the dangers Zhu Yunwen would encounter after he ascended the throne, so he left an edict before his death:
"The Chronicles of the Ming Dynasty": When kings visit the country, they are not allowed to go to the capital. Where the kingdom is located, the civil and military officials are subject to the control of the imperial court.
The vassal kings from all over the country are not allowed to enter Nanjing privately without the emperor's order. The civil servants and generals under the vassal kings must also be controlled and managed by the court. This order seems to be aimed at all vassal kings, but in fact, After Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness, the only person who tried to rebel against Nanjing without receiving orders from the new emperor Zhu Yunwen was King Yan Zhu Di.
The founding king of the Ming Dynasty, when he was dying, may have vaguely anticipated that the situation would be bad and made some preparations in advance, but it still happened.
However, although Zhu Di won the throne, the mysterious disappearance of Emperor Hui Zhu Yunwen left him in a state of sitting on pins and needles, like thorns thorns in the back, and like a lump in the throat.
Zhu Yunwen's ignorance of life and death and his whereabouts means that Zhu Di's throne will always be unreasonable to some extent.
(Yumuchuan)
In his sleep, he will meet Zhu Yunwen, who is grinning and coming for revenge, and more gossip about the former emperor of the Ming Dynasty is constantly coming from all over the country.
Therefore, this seemingly powerful Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was actually a person who lived with insecurity and sensitivity every day.
Because of this, we can understand why the emperor was so keen on waging war, because leaving Nanjing and moving the capital to Beijing could not bring him peace of mind. However, the grandeur and magnificence of the Forbidden City could not bring him peace. In the end, , he tried every means, made many attempts, and finally found his inner peace on the scum battlefield, in the war, and amidst the sound of the horns of the armed and iron horses.
Yongle Twenty-two years, AD 1424, July 18th.
Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, passed through Yumuchuan on his way back from an expedition to Mongolia, which is today the northwest of Duolun, Inner Mongolia. He fell ill and died at the age of sixty-four.
Mount Kuril stands solemnly and solemnly in the distance, with clouds slowly passing by.
The Ergun River flows quietly under the Yumuchuan, emitting a gurgling lamentation.
All this is just like the night when Zhu Di was born in Yingtian Mansion , the Purple Mountain was shining brightly, and the Jinchuan River was trickling.
Everything seems to be back to the starting point.
