After the boiling ming dynasty's great ceremonial controversy, Emperor Ming Shizong Zhu Houxi began to hesitate and be full of ambition and make arbitrary decisions.
However, wanwan did not expect that soon a strange thing happened, 16 small palace women who had no power to tie the chicken were desperate to take the risk and made a move to murder the emperor, and this palace change suddenly changed the political direction of the Ming Empire.
Why did these palace ladies risk their lives to rebel? What happened to the Jiajing Emperor after the palace change?
The Jiajing Emperor was extremely filial to his father and mother, but he had no pity for the empress concubines and palace women.
Empress Chen, who was angry with the emperor, died of a panic miscarriage, and empress Zhang was cautious and cautious, and after only one plea for Empress Zhang, she was whipped and scolded in public, and died silently after three years of abandoning the Cold Palace.
The queen was trembling and walking on thin ice, not to mention a bunch of little palace girls?
Zhu Houxi was weak and sickly since childhood, his father died young and his heirs were not prosperous, leaving only his only seedling, in order to prolong his life and live forever, he favored Taoism and was keen on building a prayer.
He asked the Taoist priest of Artemisia Mountain to practice health maintenance, because this person was still in his eighties and still had a strong spirit and walked like a fly. Lan Daoxing said that the use of asahi to wash the stomach and intestines, and to take the dan medicine with asahi, will double the effect.
Zhu Houxi then ordered the palace maid to collect morning dew in the imperial garden every day for herself to take. The work of collecting dew was taken turns by the concubines, and when the emperor stayed in a certain palace, the concubines of the palace were responsible for the affairs of the dew.
There is also a saying that Zhu Houxi listened to the taoist monks and collected the virgin blood of the palace women to refine Dan, in order to keep the palace women clean, they could not eat during menstruation, they could only eat mulberry leaves and drink some dew.
Dew harvesting is not an easy job, especially in winter, when it is easy to get sick in the early morning against frost and cold wind. Later, Cai Lu evolved into punishment for the neglect of palace women and out-of-favor concubines, and Wang Ning Concubine was one of them.
Concubine Wang Ning knew the words, could recite the green words, and had invented the rosewood cake used in the ceremony, so she was very favored. However, Zhu Houxi later favored Cao Duanfei, who was beautiful and charming, and crowned the harem.
Concubine Ning gradually became jealous and competed with Duanfei for favors, but instead of Duanfei's opponent, she was beaten violently by Zhu Houxi and punished to collect nectar.
Concubine Cao Duan, who was favored by Zhengnong, was first a lady after entering the palace, and was quickly promoted to one of the nine concubines after being lucky, that is, Duan Concubine. In August of the fifteenth year of Jiajing, Concubine Duan gave birth to the eldest daughter of the Emperor.
At this time, Zhu Houxi was 30 years old, had a son three years ago but died prematurely, the birth of the emperor's eldest daughter soothed the mourning emperor, and coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, which made Sejong and his mother Empress Jiang very happy. Soon, Zhu Houxi set up a banquet in the palace to celebrate the birthday of the eldest daughter of the emperor.
Concubine Duan had the eldest daughter of the emperor and was often able to serve the emperor, thus attracting jealousy and resentment from the empress and other concubines.
In addition, Sejong Zhu Houxi took the so-called Yishou Dan medicine for a long time, so he was moody, and often blamed the palace women around him when the Dan medicine did not work, and often flogged them.
There were more and more disgruntled palace women in the Cailu team, all believing that the emperor would die if he did not die, and finally one day, a dozen small palace women led by Wang Ning concubine decided to rise up against the emperor and strangle him at night while the emperor was asleep.
In the Korean "Records of the Lee Dynasty", it is recorded: "Although the emperor of Gai yi favored the palace people, if there were slight transgressions, few were not tolerated, and he beat Chu with spite, so that as many as 200 people lost their lives, accumulated grievances and hardships, and committed this murderous plot." ”
Originally, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty had no fixed place, and it was difficult for ordinary people to know where the emperor slept, and it was not easy to strangle the emperor at night.
However, after Zhu Houxi favored Concubine Cao Duanfei, he often stayed at the Yikun Palace where Duan Concubine was located, and these close attendant palace ladies repeatedly secretly consulted and chose to do it in the early morning, and Duan Concubine had to go to the imperial dining room to get steamed nectar according to the custom, and there was only one emperor in the palace.
When Concubine Cao Duanfei took several palace women to the imperial dining room, more than a dozen palace women quietly slipped in, and the two palace women waiting outside the palace were designed to be transferred, and only the emperor was sleeping in the palace.
The palace ladies rushed up and pressed down on the emperor. Zhu Houxi woke up and was about to shout, but was gagged by a piece of cloth. This group of palace women had never killed anyone in ordinary times, and they wanted to kill the emperor desperately but did not have the means to kill the emperor, and they were in a hurry.
In a hurry, they found a thick rope and tied a knot around the emperor's neck, but they couldn't pull it anyway. Could it be that there are too few knots? So they tied another knot, but because of this knot, something bad happened, and the second knot could not be pulled down on the first knot. The palace ladies were anxious, and they pulled out their hairpins and pliers and stabbed at the emperor.
The period was very short, and it was estimated that it would only take a few minutes, but in the palace women, it was quite long. There was a little palace girl named Zhang Jinlian, who was afraid when she saw that the emperor was not dead and could not die, could it be that the True Dragon Heavenly Son could not kill him? So she quietly slipped out and ran to Empress Fang to turn herself in.
Empress Fang was shocked when she heard this, and she couldn't help it, but someone dared to kill the emperor, and immediately took the palace eunuchs around her to the Yikun Palace to rescue them.
A group of small palace ladies over there heard the noise of people and quickly scattered and fled to hide, but wherever they could hide, they were all inside the palace, and they were all arrested.
The Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi had great difficulty not to die, but after being tossed and turned by the palace women, he was strangled and pinched, full of blood, and his life was in danger and he fell into a coma.
The imperial doctors were called to heal the emperor, and when everyone saw the emperor's posture, they looked very badly injured, and they all trembled and did not dare to take the medicine, if they could not save the emperor, they would have to lose their heads.
At the critical moment, there was an imperial doctor named Xu Shen who risked death to drug the emperor, from the morning to the afternoon, removing a lot of purple blood, Zhu Houxi finally woke up slowly, and everyone was relieved. The imperial doctor was overly nervous in his emergency, and died of a serious illness shortly after his return.
The emperor woke up, and the little palace ladies who participated in the murder of the king were miserable. These palace ladies were all sent to prison for severe interrogation, and Empress Fang personally presided over it. Under torture, the delicate and poor palace ladies quickly confessed to Wang Ning's concubine as the mastermind.
Concubine Wang Ning was immediately arrested, and she confessed, but she pulled a cushion back and pulled on Cao Duanfei and the palace girls around her. Concubine Cao Duanfei was arrested again for interrogation, and she cried and cried that she had been wronged and had to see the emperor. Empress Fang may also see the hint of it, knowing that Duanfei is wronged, but in her heart she is also jealous of Duanfei's favor and wants to take advantage of the situation to get rid of her.
Empress Fang showed the confession to the emperor, and at this time, Zhu Houxi was lying sick in bed, terrified, and somewhat confused, and the execution plan of the other empress was approved one by one, and the next day she was immediately executed.
As a result, 16 palace women were kidnapped and executed by Ling Chi in the city well, which was an extremely cruel criminal law, and Cao Duanfei and Wang Ning Concubine were secretly executed in the palace, which was also executed by Ling Chi.
This palace revolt of the Jiajing Dynasty, unprecedented in the history of our country, is known as the "Change of the Palace of Nongyin". Zhengshi was very secretive about this matter, the record was very brief, and what the facts were, there were many opinions.
It is said that on the day of the execution, and for some time afterwards, there was a continuous stream of heavy fog in Beijing. The Wanliye Ye Zhizhi records: "At the time of the execution, the fog was thick, and those who did not understand the day and night were three or four days, and when there was an injustice, the cover referred to the cao concubines. ”
This record can be seen that people at that time believed that Cao Duanfei and several palace ladies around him were wronged. It is normal for the fog to occur in Beijing in the autumn and winter, but the people have associated the fog with this matter, indicating that the people sympathize with these palace women and think that it should be Zhu Houxi who should be damned.
This shocked the government and the opposition, and then the Jiajing Emperor thanked the heavens and the earth, the Zongmiao temple, and the hundred gods, thanking the heavens for their protection and escaping this disaster.
After this major change, Zhu Houxi, who escaped from death, always felt that the palace was haunted, and later moved to Xiyuan, no longer living in the Qianqing Palace where the emperor often lived and the palace of the harem concubines, away from the female color, and concentrated on cultivation.
So did Zhu Houxi learn some lessons from this and repent of his atrocities? There should be none. According to the "Compilation of Wan Liye", Later Zhu Houxi ordered more than three hundred women from eight to fourteen years old to enter the palace, and later selected one hundred and sixty people under the age of ten for use in alchemy.
The newly elected woman in the palace is younger, and Zhu Houxi still has to collect the so-called pure yin menstrual blood to refine Dan, indicating that he has not learned any lessons from the palace change, and is still addicted to the art of alchemy and immortality, the difference is that for safety reasons, the selected palace women are younger.
To sum up, the occurrence of the change in the palace was caused by the Jiajing Emperor's refining of elixirs of immortality, as well as his moodiness in his daily life, arbitrarily mutilating the palace women, and whipping the palace women to death at every turn, causing the palace women to be strongly dissatisfied and resentful.
At the same time, the palace change was also a harem dispute, and the disgruntled Concubine Wang Ning instructed Yang Jinying and other palace ladies to strangle the emperor to death in retaliation, putting the responsibility on Cao Duanfei, and Empress Fang took the opportunity to get rid of Cao Duanfei.
Zhu Houxi was very fortunate not to die, and he lived for another twenty years, which was a particularly fortunate thing for him, but for the people and the Ming Dynasty, the failure of the change of the Palace of Nongyin may have been a bad thing, because the later Jiajing Emperor was even more obsessed with cultivation, pondering immortality every day, engaging in special sacrifices, and even going to the court in a dignified place.
Text: Ten Mile Osmanthus (Follow me and tell you more interesting historical stories.) Originality is not easy, unauthorized please do not reprint, violators will be investigated! ）