Yongzheng killed his father and secretly changed Kangxi's edict to become emperor? Uncover the ultimate truth about the suspicious cloud in the history of the Qing Dynasty

How the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne has always been a mystery, and the debate in historians has never stopped.

The Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, known for his harsh ruling methods, named Aixinjueluo Yinzhen , was the third emperor after the Qing army entered the Pass. After Emperor Kangxi died, he won the throne after fierce competition with many brothers. After he became the throne, he implemented pragmatic reforms in many aspects-" share the income into acres", ending thousands of years of 's head tax history; " reforming the land and returning", abolishing hereditary chieftains, and increasing punishment of corrupt officials The strength of the country; repeated orders to ban gambling throughout the country, this move was called "a beautiful government that is not easy forever."

In contrast to Emperor Yongzheng’s diligence and love for the people, he used a series of tough and cruel methods to consolidate his throne soon after he took the throne, severely punishing a group of brothers and former pets including the fourteenth princes, either by dying or beating Enter the prison. Execution of Nian Gengyao and Longkodo , the fourteen princes were under house arrest for more than ten years. The purpose of cleaning up favorites like Nian Gengyao and Longcodor is to silence their mouths; the purpose of fighting against brothers is to eliminate contenders for the throne. From this point of view, it is extremely possible that the legendary Yongzheng forged Kangxi's legacy to win the throne. However, how to succeed to the throne is still a mystery. Whether to take the throne according to the edict or usurp the throne, there has been controversy during the reign of Yongzheng, and it has been fruitless so far.

Various rumors about the usurper of Yongzheng

Many people believe that the original intention of Kangxi was to pass to the fourteenth elder brother yinzhen . And Yong is the fourth son, so he designed to change the character "十" in the edict to "Yu"; some people think that Yongzheng changed "祯" to "禛" because the original name of the fourteenth elder brother was Yinzhen. Yongzheng was named Yinzhen, tampering with the edict and succeeding to the throne; some said that when Kangxi said "fourteen sons" when he was dying, because of his dry tongue, he paused when he said the word "ten" and then said "four sons".Long Kodo, the infantry commander in charge of the record, was Yongzheng's uncle. He deliberately preached that the emperor called the four princes to see him. He deliberately missed the word "ten" to help Yongzheng succeed to the throne. However, he was killed in the end.

The greatest threat to Yongzheng's succession was the Fourteenth Prince Yinzhen. When Kangxi was in power, he not only arranged for the 14 sons to march into Tibet, but also asked him to fight Junggar to provide him with the opportunity to make achievements. At the same time, Kangxi was also very concerned about the 14 sons during his tenure as the general of Fuyuan. Zhu Pian said a lot of meaningful and highly hopeful words, such as "people's heart is the most important, you must always keep this matter in your heart" and so on. This shows that Kangxi probably wanted to pass the throne to the fourteenth prince Yinzhen.

The descendants of scholars analyzed that because there was a ghost in the usurper’s heart, Yongzheng was afraid of being scolded by his father and ancestors in the underworld, so he had to violate the custom of "the son is buried with the father" and did not bury himself in Qingdong Tombs_ span4span accompanied his father and grandfather, but chose the mausoleum in Qingxi Mausoleum hundreds of miles away.

Others said that shortly before the death of Kangxi, Yongzheng sent a bowl of ginseng soup to Kangxi’s hospital bed, and soon there was news of his death.

Is there any fact of usurping the throne?

Although all kinds of rumors seem to be reasonable, they all have the opposite view.

First of all, the revised edict does not hold. Historians believe that there is a big doubt that the "fourteen sons of Chuanwei" was changed to the four sons of Chuanwei, because in the Kangxi edict, the Chinese character is "Yu" instead of "Yu", and there are more Manchu characters. Changing the edict is not as simple as changing "ten" to "yu". In the edict of Kangxi in China's First Historical Archives, it is written: "Yinzhen, the fourth son of Prince Yong, is of noble character. He bows deeply and will be able to overcome the great unification. When he succeeds to the throne, he is the emperor." From the will of the edict, there is no possibility of changing the word.

So why did Kangxi not choose the fourteenth prince in the end? Presumably, if Kangxi really wanted to pass the throne to him, he would not be sent so far away when he was old and sick.Some people say that in 57 years of Kangxi, the 14th prince sent the fourteenth prince to the northwest to command the battle against Gar, in order to make him meritorious. However, after Kangxi recalled him to Beijing to report for his duties in 60 years, Kangxi was frail and sick again in the second year. Letting him return to the front line clearly showed that the throne was not passed to him. After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he was recalled to Beijing and placed under house arrest. This was just a measure taken by Yongzheng to consolidate the imperial power. It cannot be said that Yongzheng was usurped.

As for Yongzheng's failure to follow the custom of "the son is buried with the father", it is not convincing as circumstantial evidence of usurpation. 顺治 The father’s Zhaoling was in Shenyang, but Shunzhi was not buried in Shenyang after his death; Yongzheng’s tomb was in the Western Tomb of the Qing Dynasty, but his next generation Qianlong’s tomb was in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty. relation.

And the saying that "Yongzheng enters the decoction of medicine and poisons" is even less valid. Kangxi had a lot of research on medical science. He has said many times that ginseng is suitable for southerners, but northerners are not suitable for eating. Therefore, even if Yongzheng had to use hands and feet, he would not be stupid enough to use ginseng soup.

How did Yongzheng inherit his father's inheritance and sit on the throne of the emperor? From the reign of Yongzheng to the present, there are still disagreements. Perhaps the mystery of the Qing emperor’s succession will continue to be discussed.