He was born in war and died on a journey. This sentence is the most appropriate way to describe Zhu Di . Some people say that he is talented and has a great strategy, but he is comparable to Emperor Wu and Tangzong of Han, while others say that he is cruel and bloodthirsty and is very happy to be successful.
So Is he a peerless emperor or a tyrannical lord? Today, we will combine historical materials to see what kind of king , the Ming Chengzu , which has its own English name, is.
Zhu Di is the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang . He was born in April 1360 AD. When Zhu Yuanzhang was fighting with Chen Youliang , he was so busy that he didn't even give him a name. So he was born on the road. However, as Zhu Yuanzhang's son, he received rigorous civil and military education since he was a child. His father's training for Zhu Di, and later, he gave his father-in-law the gift of his father-in-law, all of which became the most important wealth in his life.
Hongwu 29th year, at that time, famous generals such as Fu Youde , Blue Yu had all fallen. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Zhu Di, who had become the King of Yan, to lead troops independently to the north. He calmly led his troops and captured more than a dozen commanders of Bolin Timur , including Boyuan , and chased to Urianha Tu City, defeating the defending general Halawu . Zhu Yuanzhang heard the good news from afar and said happily: "The one who clears the desert is the King of Yan!"
Later, with the death of Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son Zhu Biao , second son Zhu Ren , and the third son Zhu Li , Zhu Yuanzhang has tried the taste of giving black hair three times in a row. So, Zhu Yuanzhang gave a sage to the old four who were far away in Beiping . The general meaning was: Among my many sons, you are the only one who is wise and brave. Now your three brothers are dead. You are the oldest among the kings. In the future, you will lead your younger brothers to Pingfan Fortress and protect Ming Dynasty ! Only by doing this can you follow the will of heaven and rest assured my heart.
There is no doubt that at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already regarded Zhu Di as the first vassal king to assist Zhu Yunwen and , and regarded him as the pillar of the Ming Dynasty.
What Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect was that in just one year, Zhu Di failed Zhu Yuanzhang. He raised an army to calm down and took away his nephew Zhu Yunwen's throne. This also transformed Zhu Di from a heroic vassal king to a prosperous king.
As a usurper, if he wants to prove himself, his orthodox status does not have an advantage, so he will start from the governance of the country. After the Jingnan Campaign, , the northern region was starved and his productivity was severely damaged. Zhu Di demonstrated his love for the people through disaster relief and tax reduction, subsidies for agricultural tools, building schools, and promoting education. At the same time, he also allowed the people to recuperate, laying a solid foundation for the later prosperous era.
Later he did four things that had a profound impact on Ming Dynasty . Next, I will briefly take a look:
The first thing is to establish a cabinet system.
During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister and allowed the emperor to directly command the six ministries. One advantage of this approach is that it reduces the "intermediate link" of the prime minister and improves the efficiency of governance. At the same time, new requirements were put forward for the emperor: one must work diligently. As a workaholic Zhu Yuanzhang could do this, but Zhu Di was determined to be in the world and did not want to focus all his energy on handling the government. So he invented the cabinet system, which simply means asking a few secretary to help him handle government affairs.
Yongle years of cabinet was just a prototype. With the development of the "Renxuan" era, the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty lasted for more than 200 years and had a far-reaching impact on the Ming Dynasty.
The second thing is to move the capital to Peiping.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established the capital of Nanjing. Although he had also visited ancient capitals such as Luoyang , Kaifeng , and Xi'an, he finally decided not to move the capital.
Zhu Di has been operating in Peiping for many years. He believes that Peiping is the land of Wangxing, and it is also a trade center and a military base for all ethnic groups in the Han and Mongolian races. In addition, Peking has convenient transportation. If it can control Peking, it can resist the invasion of nomadic peoples in the north and remotely control the Central Plains in the south. Therefore, under Zhu Di's compulsory request, the Ming Dynasty officially moved the capital in the 18th year of Yongle.
Zhu Di's move of the capital basically changed the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was therefore re-dblocked, which can be said to benefit all people, and directly determined the pattern of "the emperor guarding the country" in the Ming Dynasty.
The third thing is parallel factory guard.
Not long after Zhu Di came to the throne, he immediately restored the Jinyiwei that had been abolished by Zhu Yuanzhang, and established the Dongchang , collectively known as the Factory Guard Agency, so that all the people in the world were under the supervision of the Factory Guard. It is undeniable that Zhu Di had a guilty conscience in monitoring the world due to his improper position, but the factory guard system did stabilize the emperor's rule. At this point, the factory guard system became a unique feature of the Zhu Ming Dynasty.
The fourth thing is to cut the feudal lordship.
Zhu Di launched an army to appease Jingnan mainly because Zhu Yunwen cut down the vassal vassal. Unexpectedly, he cut off the vassal even more severely after he came to the throne, because he knew the power of it. If he did not cut down the vassal vassal, the king's rule would be threatened. Therefore, Zhu Di adopted a more clever way to reduce the vassal state than Zhu Yunqi. Zhu Di actually only did three things in reducing the vassal state: relocation, weakening and abolition.
Among them, the most unlucky one is Ning Wang Zhu Quan. When Zhu Di raised his army, he promised to divide the world equally with King Ning. When Zhu Di came to the throne, King Ning found that he had been deceived. Not only did he not get any benefits, he was also ordered to move to Nanchang , and his strength was greatly reduced. Therefore, Zhu Di was labeled as a "liar brother".
Now that these four things have been talked about, let’s take a look at what other major things Zhu Di has done.
Zhu Di was an emperor. He had high military literacy, so he had higher requirements for opening up and expanding territory. Zhu Di made five northern expeditions to Mongolia and defeated the three major Mongolian tribes so that they did not dare to go south to herd horses. However, he was overworked and died of illness during the last northern expedition.
He sent troops to Annan and incorporated Vietnam into the territory of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Zhu Di garrisoned Hami to strengthen the rule of the northwest region; Liaodong resisted the Japanese, creating the momentum of the Ming Dynasty.
For the Chinese nation, Zhu Di is also a hero who cannot be ignored. In the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He led a huge fleet to go to sea. At that time, it was the largest in the world. They reached as far as the east coast of Africa. This huge voyage fleet predates Columbus by more than 80 years.
The most rare thing is that Zheng He's fleet has no record of colonization or plunder. Everywhere he went, he promoted Chinese civilization. He made seven voyages to the West, allowing the Ming Dynasty to establish peaceful and friendly relations with more than 30 countries.
In the prosperous age, the text must be revised again. In the first year of Yongle, Zhu Di ordered Jie Jin and others to collect books from all over the world and compile "Yongle Dadian". It took five years to complete it. The book is all-inclusive and is the largest encyclopedia in ancient China.
Zhu Di reigned for 22 years. He strengthened the centralization of monarchy, political stability, economic prosperity, the people gradually became rich, and the territory was expanded repeatedly. Thousands of countries came to the DPRK , making the comprehensive national power of the Ming Dynasty rank among the top in Asia and even the world. He seemed to have created a super prosperous age.
Liang Qichao once compared Zhu Di with Emperor Wu of the Han and Emperor Taizong of the Tang . Personally, I feel that in terms of political achievements, Zhu Di deserves this analogy.
Then, when later generations evaluate Ming Chengzu, they can't avoid his bloody usurpation of the throne. For example, he snatched the throne from his nephew, even slandered Zhu Biao, deceived his younger brother Zhu Quan, and crazily slaughtered loyal ministers. These are Zhu Di's dark sides. How do we view such an emperor who has "both reputation and reputation"?
In fact, political achievements and dark sides are important parts of Zhu Di's life, and there is no way to ignore it.
But these deeds do not prevent him from becoming a hero.
