Ming Taizu After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, his grandson Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne in May of the 31st year of Hongwu (1398). His reign was Jianwen , known in history as Jianwen Emperor .
The biggest problem that Emperor Jianwen faced when he came to power was that the uncles of the vassal kings were respectful. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order before his death that all the princes could not go to Beijing (Nanjing) to mourn, fearing that these sons were not good for the new emperor.
Therefore, after Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, he vigorously implemented the policy of reducing the vassal states, finding reasons to depose the King of Zhou, King Dai, King Qi, and King Min, and forcing King Xiang to burn himself to death; in July of the first year of Jianwen (1399), King of Yan, Zhu Di, took the opportunity to rebel, known in history as "The Battle of Jingnan".
In June of the fourth year of Jianwen, Zhu Di invaded Nanjing, and Zhu Yunwen's whereabouts were unknown after the Jingnan Campaign. Jianwen's dynasty ended in just a few years.
So, from another perspective, why didn’t Emperor Jianwen implement the “ Promotion Order ” in a bloody way like Emperor Wu of Han to reduce the vassal states? If implemented, can we win under the circumstances at that time?
01
The so-called order of grace refers to the edict in 127 BC that Emperor Wu of Han issued an edict requiring all princes to share their fiefs and taxes to all his sons in order to weaken the vassal states and consolidate centralization.
Of course, this policy premise is that Emperor Wu of Han has a strong military force and has been in power for many years, and his foundation has been stable.
Before this policy, the inheritance rights of the vassal kings were only the eldest son, while the other sons had no right to be divided. Therefore, successive vassal kings have always threatened the central court. After the implementation of the order to forewarn, all sons can inherit land, taxes and military power. In this way, the powerful vassal kings instantly became dozens of small vassal lords, and the threat to the central government was immediately lifted.
Emperor Wu of Han successively enfeoffed more than 180 vassal states, and these vassal states no longer have the power to fight against the central government. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, he made unparalleled contributions to reducing the vassal states. In 1399, in the first year of Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty, Gao Wei and the Censor Han Yu wrote a letter to ask Emperor Jianwen to follow the example of the lord Yan of the Ming Dynasty, that is, to suggest Zhu Yunwen to implement the order to recommend the lord.
However, under the suggestion of Hanlin scholar Fang Xiaoru , Minister of War Qi Tai and others, this seemingly good method was not implemented.
At the beginning of the vassal of the Ming Dynasty, under Zhu Yuanzhang's personal inquiries, the court established the principle of "dividing feudals without tinning the soil, placing titles without supposing the people, and eating wealth without ruling affairs." The general meaning of this policy is: the Ming Dynasty granted titles to the vassal kings but did not reward land, gave titles but did not manage the people, enjoyed salary but did not handle local affairs.
In a word, the 25 vassal kings in the early Ming Dynasty had no land, taxation and administrative power in their territory. These vassal kings only have military power. Generally, vassal kings have 3,000 to 15,000 guards, and can also mobilize the rights of surrounding troops during wartime.
For example, Ningwang Zhu Quan's Yan Sanwei . The 80,000 iron cavalry has enough troops to make the court unable to sleep day and night. Therefore, the implementation of the order to promote grace during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han was not of great significance, but instead caused greater resistance from the vassal kings.
And Emperor Jianwen, who was young and competitive, strong and in his early 20s, was even more eager to reduce the vassal states by force to show his abilities. After Emperor Jianwen deposed several vassal kings including Zhou, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, officially rebelled in July 1399, and later known as the "Jingnan Battle".
Zhu Di put a lot of effort into how to seize the "command heights" of the Jingnan Campaign. He claimed to the public that it was based on the " Emperor Ming Zushu's Instructions " by Emperor Taizu Gao: "There are no righteous ministers in the court, and there are evil in it. We must train soldiers to stand by to clear the evils of the king." However, he quietly deleted the sentence "We must train soldiers to stand by" in detail.
Comrade Zhu Di changed it gently, and there was a world of difference. The original meaning of the ancestral teaching is: treacherous and slandering appeared in the court, and the vassal kings rectified their troops and waited for the emperor's edict to enter the capital to eliminate the traitors. If you change this, you will put a legal cloak on your own rebellion.
Let the world see that I, Zhu Laosi, did a dignified job and solved the emperor's difficulties according to the "Ancestral Teachings".
04
Let’s talk about the three main high-level actors around Emperor Jianwen: Emperor Teacher Huang Zicheng , and Lian Zining were both cousins in Jiangxi. He was a Jinshi. He was once a companion to the prince Zhu Biao . Later, he became Zhu Yunwen’s teacher. He had a good knowledge, but he had no practical management experience and was a nerd.
年0年后官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网官网He served as the head of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War. He accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang to inspect the border. He once memorized and quickly mentioned the geography and names of the guards of each pass. He was highly appreciated by Zhu Yuanzhang. He was promoted to the Minister of War within a few years, just a purely paper-based minister of War.
Finally, let’s talk about Hanlin bachelor Fang Xiaoru, who was known as the seed of scholars all over the world at that time. Although he was good at learning, he was not a qualified high-level scholar. According to historical records, just as the court retreated in the Jingnan Battle, Fang Xiaoru was instilling in Emperor Jianwen that restored the ancient rituals of King Zhou and the well-field system of slave society, which made Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, who were standing by, frightened.
To be fair, Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai are not capable enough, at least they are reliable; while Fang Xiaoru is a purely corrupt scholar, a "school master" who engages in theoretical knowledge and a pediatrician in management.
Of course, there are also many discerning people in the court. For example, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Zhuo Jing proposed to change Zhu Di's fiefdom Beiping to Nanchang , and then kill him again. Unfortunately, Jianwen did not adopt it.
05
In contrast, Zhu Di received a good education when he was young under the supervision of Zhu Yuanzhang; when he was young, he went to Fengyang, Zhongdu several times to understand the people's conditions and understand the situation of the grassroots people; when he was adults, 19-year-old Zhu Di and Princess Xu began to guard Peiping for 20 years.
Beiping was the northern gate of the Ming Dynasty at that time, and Mongolian cavalry often invaded the border. Over the past 20 years, Zhu Di has been on the horse and dismounted the officials and civilians, and has led the way with his sword and charged countless times, and has been worried about the people's lives.
20 has made Zhu Di deeply the hearts of the military and civilians in Peking, and also made Zhu Di's practical level reach its peak.
The result can be imagined. Emperor Jianwen lost all his good cards in three or four years, and Emperor Jianwen disappeared. In the end, it also made an opportunity to make a fortune and failed. Zhu Yunwen also disappeared in the long river of history in disgrace, and the throne was handed over to others.
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