As the eleventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty , Emperor Jiajing had the highest number of concubines since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. According to records, he had a total of more than 80 concubines, comparable to the number of his ancestors Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di The sum of concubines. But even though he had so many women, he did not leave many heirs during his 45 years on the throne. When he finally died, he only had one son and one daughter left, leaving the throne with almost no successor.
So, why did Emperor Jiajing have so many women but so few heirs? This also starts with his married life.
1. After ascending the throne, he quickly got married in case he had no heirs.
Emperor Jiajing knew very well that because his cousin Zhu Houzhao had no heirs, he got a big advantage and became the heir to the throne. He was a smart man. In order to prevent what happened to Zhu Houzhao from happening again, he urgently needed to leave more heirs just in case. Therefore, when he ascended the throne, the 15-year-old Emperor Jiajing was in a hurry to marry a wife.
He will never allow himself to have no successor.
In the first year of Jiajing, Emperor JiajingZhu Houcong got married and married a queen and two concubines. But a few years later, there was no movement in the stomachs of these three women. At this time, he was already 21 years old. In ancient society, most people of this age already had children, let alone emperors.
Emperor Jiajing was a little panicked.
Not only Emperor Jiajing was panicked, but the ministers in the court were also panicked. After all, the emperor's family affairs were not only his own business, but also related to the fate of the country and the country. Therefore, after deliberation, the ministers decided to send Yang Yiqing, a bachelor, to advise Emperor Jiajing on the need to speed up the reproduction of heirs for the sake of the country and the country.
Emperor Jiajing obviously listened to these words. After that, he paid more attention to getting along with Queen Chen. As expected, the queen became pregnant soon. It is a pity that the child died in the queen's belly before she was born. The reason was Emperor Jiajing glanced at the hands of the other two concubines, but Queen Chen was not happy, perhaps because women during pregnancy usually She was quite sensitive, so she threw a cup in public and showed no regard for the emperor's majesty. This made Emperor Jiajing furious, and Empress Chen was frightened and went away with her unborn child.
From then until the tenth year of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing still had no children.
2. Selection of "nine concubines" across the country, and children were born
Nearly ten years after Emperor Jiajing got married, he began to worry about having no heirs. At this time, the bachelor Zhang Cong proposed to accept concubines. The concubine's suggestion suddenly woke up Emperor Jiajing.
He began to send people to select concubines for himself across the country. He first selected more than a thousand beautiful girls, and then the Ministry of Rites retained 30 people based on various requirements. Finally, the Empress Dowager Jiang, the biological mother of Emperor Jiajing, selected them from the Ministry of Rites. Nine of the 30 women were selected and named "Nine Concubines", hoping that the royal family would flourish.
Not long after the canonization of the Nine Concubines, Emperor Jiajing held a grand ceremony for praying for heirs and offering sacrifices to his children at Qin'an Hall . This ceremony was hosted by Taoist Taoist Shao Yuanjie and lasted for seven days. Such a grand ceremony was only for the emperor. Asking for a son. At this time, Emperor Jiajing's superstitious belief in Taoism had begun to take shape.
However, the appointment of the Nine Concubines did play an important role in the birth of the emperor's heir.
From August of the 12th year of Jiajing to July of the 18th year of Jiajing, a total of eight princes were born to Emperor Jiajing. The birth of each child was a great joy for Jiajing. Not only did he order people carefully They took good care of their children and also greatly rewarded the concubines who gave birth to children, which directly reflected the phenomenon of "the mother is more valuable than the child" in the feudal era.
It is a pity that these beloved children died one by one. Until his death, only one of the third princes among all the princes was still alive, which was the later Emperor MingMu ZongLongqing.
3. Moved to Xiyuan and had no children
As he grew older, Emperor Jiajing’s desire for immortality became increasingly strong. He would take the so-called "elixir of immortality" by Taoist priests every day. These elixirs were originally Red lead is refined from the menarche of an untouched girl.
In order to make the ingredients of the elixir pure, these women were required to eat only mulberry leaves and drink dew during menstruation. Many women died due to malnutrition and physical weakness. Those who were lucky enough to survive would also be exposed to the cruelty of Emperor Jiajing. Killed to death.
Finally, they couldn't bear it anymore, and they rose up late one night in the 21st year of Jiajing's reign, which was known in history as " Renyin Palace became ".
However, they failed in the end, and all the maids who participated were executed by Ling Chi. At this point, Emperor Jiajing moved to Xiyuan and never paid attention to the government affairs again. He devoted himself to Taoism every day and only sought immortality.
From this year on, although Emperor Jiajing continued to bring concubines into the harem and often favored them, he did not have a single child born in the next twenty years.
The reason for all this is probably related to his long-term use of elixirs. You must know that the so-called "elixirs" in ancient times were actually just a kind of feudal superstition. The elixirs taken by many emperors at that time contained large amounts of lead, mercury and other heavy metals, or some aphrodisiacs such as sheep and cattle whips. Not only would they not live long after eating them, they would also cause death due to body overload and heavy metal poisoning .
However, Emperor Jiaqing lived to be 60 years old, which was considered a long life among the ancients. This may rule out that his elixir contained heavy metals, but there must be some aphrodisiacs in it that caused him to indulge in sexual indulgences, which is why he often slept with his concubines at night. In the palace, due to physical reasons, no children were born.
Summary
Throughout history, Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty had the most concubines among the dozen or so emperors of the Ming Dynasty. However, both the children he gave birth to and the children who survived were very few. According to his long-term addiction to Taoism, Judging from his behavior, in addition to his own selfish desires, his inclusion of these concubines is probably related to the method of "harvesting yin and replenishing yang" that has been widely circulated in monasticism in the past dynasties. That is, Emperor Jiajing used these women to cultivate Taoism. This is why he had many concubines in his harem. There are many concubines but few children.
Especially after he was completely addicted to monasticism in the 21st year of Jiajing, no son was born.
