When the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty was four years old, his birth mother (daughter of Liu Yingyuan of Wanping County) was killed by Emperor Taichang. For the next five years, Zhu Youjian was raised by an imperial concubine nicknamed "Xi Li" (who lived in the Western Palace); After the age of nine, Zhu Youjian was only sixteen years old when he was taken care of by another imperial concubine "Dong Li" who lived in the Eastern Palace, and perhaps because of the relationship he had lost since childhood, he did not have confidence in himself when he grew up, and he was indecisive and capricious in his work, and could not completely trust the cabinet. No wonder that during his reign as emperor, he had to replace a six-part Shangshu almost every year.
The Chongzhen Emperor had a total of seven sons and six daughters, and the eldest son, Zhu Cixi, was born to Empress Zhou and was made crown prince in the spring of 1631. Chongzhen's second, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons all died under the age of four. His third son Zhu Cijiong and fourth son Zhu Ciyi did not know their fate after the fall of Jingshi (presumably killed). Among the six daughters, Princess Kunyi was born to Empress Zhou and also died, and the other three daughters all died early, and there is no way to investigate. The remaining two daughters were Princess Changping and one was Princess Akihito.
When Princess Changping was fifteen years old, she was ready to marry Zhou Xian, but was suspended because the capital was surrounded by Li Zicheng's troops. After the fall of the city of Beijing, Emperor Qizhen hurried to Shouning Palace, while Princess Changping kept crying in her father's dragon robe. At this time, Chongzhen said the famous words of the ancient world: "Why did Ru give birth to my family?" In order not to let the thieves rape his daughter, Chongzhen drew his sword and swung at the princess, and the sword slashed her left arm when the princess raised her hand to cover it.
The Chongzhen Emperor then went to the Shōjin Hall and killed another daughter, Princess Shōjin, but five days later, Princess Changping revived. According to Shi Zai, Princess Changping once wrote to Emperor Shunzhi of the Great Qing Dynasty requesting: "Nine dead concubines, stomping on the high heavens, may the king of the air be crowned, and a little bit reckless." It means to cut and shave long and go out to be a nun. However, Shunzhi decreed that zhou xian would not be allowed to marry the princess, and also gave zhou xian and his wife land, houses, money, carriages and horses, and so on. However, there are many rumors about the whereabouts of Princess Changping, and there are many stories.
Empress Zhou had a strict personality and was often worried about the rebellion of the thieves, and once whispered to Chongzhen that her father still had a hometown to live in Suzhou, as if to persuade the emperor to move the capital to Nanjing. As for other political affairs, she never interfered. However, at this time, the world was hungry, the treasury was empty, the costs were all spent, the timing was quite difficult, the palace should be frugal and frugal in matters, and it was very hard for the Empress Zhou to deal with the personnel of the inner palace. Once, when Tian Guifei (a native of Yangzhou), who was slender and talented, saw Empress Zhou, she was arrogant, and the empress had to reprimand Tian Guifei with family law, so the two women began to have a grudge.
Since then, even during the Spring Festival, Empress Zhou has not spoken to Tian Guifei. Tian Guifei, who was very good at playing the piano and dressing up, hated the empress and complained to the emperor. Later, Chongzhen and Empress Zhou quarreled over Tian Guifei's affairs at the Jiaotai Palace. When Zhen Zhen was on fire, he lost his hand and pushed Empress Zhou to the ground. After this happened, the queen gambled that she would not eat for several days. Later, the emperor also regretted it, and ordered the eunuch to send a mink and greet the empress's living conditions. In this way, a pair of Mandarin ducks slowly reconciled. Princess Tian Guifei gave birth to a total of four sons for Chongzhen, except for Zhu Cizhao (chongzhen's fourth son), who was crowned Yongwang (1643), and the other three sons died. In the days that followed, the Tian clan was troubled at the QiXiang Palace, and began to fall ill, dying in the midsummer of 1642, and was buried in the Tian Guifei's bedchamber in Changping.
During Chongzhen's reign (1627.10.2-1644.4.25), except for the Qing army constantly developing in the north of the Great Wall and beginning to encircle Daming, social unrest and financial poverty made the emperor restless day and night. In The Shanxi and Shaanxi regions, famine caused by successive years of drought and locust disasters, Chongzhen raised taxes three times, and finally forced the tired and poor peasants to riot. In early 1644, when the ice and snow in northern China melted, Li Zicheng called the country the Dashun Dynasty, and his troops began to attack the Jing Division. Chongzhen was overwhelmed by the chaos, but Empress Zhou, seeing that her beloved husband was becoming sicker and sicker, often added food to the emperor's food.
Li Zicheng occupied Changping on April 19, 1644; When the city of Beijing was besieged, because many officers and soldiers had already surrendered and had internal responses, it took only two days to enter the capital. On April 24, Chongzhen said to Empress Zhou sadly, "Big things are going to happen!" The empress replied suddenly: I have served the emperor for eighteen years, and the emperor has never listened to me, which is what I am today. After speaking, Empress Zhou caressed her two beloved sons (Crown Prince Zhu Cixi and Dingwang Zhu Cijiong) with her thin fingers. After the mother and son hugged their heads and wept, Chongzhen handed over his son to the eunuch guards and ordered Empress Zhou to cut herself. Shortly after the queen entered the room, the palace people came out, wept and knelt down, saying: The queen has taken the will and hanged herself.
After Empress Zhou was sure to die, Chongzhen ordered Yuan Guifei to commit suicide. Yuan was the daughter of Yuan You, the Jinyi Weizheng Qianhu. When Chongzhen got married, in addition to Empress Zhou, she also married Concubine Tian (Judonggong) and Concubine Yuan (Juxigong), although Empress Zhou and Tian Guifei, who was good at makeup, had a heart and could not get along, but the empress and Yuan Guifei always got along like sisters. When Chongzhen ordered Yuan Guifei to hang herself, she was already wet with tears, but due to her fate, when the rope ring on the beam was broken, she did not lose her breath, and after that, she slowly woke up. However, Chongzhen still did not spare her, and kept slashing and killing Concubine Yuan and other concubines with his sword. Yuan did not die in the end, and after the Qing army entered the customs, the new government also assigned the house to Yuan Concubine and supported her for life.
The Ming Dynasty advocated Confucian moral education, attached great importance to honor and honored exemplary women. When this rebel army entered the palace, a palace man named Wei Shouted: "My generation will be defiled by thieves, and those who have lofty ideals have already made plans." So one or two hundred palace ladies jumped into the Royal River with her and drowned. In addition, there is a fifteen-year-old palace man surnamed Fei, who has committed suicide by throwing herself into a well, but has been pulled out of the hook by the rebels, and these soldiers see her posture and are all vying for her to be his wife. At this time, Fei said that I was the eldest daughter of the emperor. As soon as these words came out, none of these soldiers dared to force her and took her to Li Zicheng's tent. After Li Zicheng ordered the eunuch to examine it, he publicly announced that Fei shi was not a princess, so Li Zicheng rewarded her to the general Luo Rang. On the night that Fei shi and General Rojang chose an auspicious day, Fei Shi drunk General Luo, and then took a sharp blade from his arms and cut Rojang's throat several times in a row. Seeing Luo Rang's death, Fei Shi himself said in surprise: "Hey, with me a weak woman, I can be a hero, although I can't kill Li Zicheng, but I can even kill a marshal of the thief army." So he killed himself. Li Zicheng was shocked to hear the news, but ordered his subordinates to bury Fei.
The Ming Dynasty's inner palace system originally had six bureaus and twenty-four divisions, plus the Gongzheng Division, who was in charge of the punishment of the commandments, and a total of about a hundred female officials with positions and ranks, and female historians to take care of the emperor's many concubines and concubines. However, over time, the maids of the six officials were not enough, especially when the young emperor wanted to choose concubines, he needed more manpower. For this reason, next to the Qianqing Palace, where the emperor lived, a so-called "Qingxia woman" was built to live in it. The Qingxia woman was the emperor's concubine and concubine, and later this house was called "Qingxia". When Li Zicheng's army poured into the palace, all the nameless and nameless women living in Qingxia ran to the "Qingxia" house west of the Qianqing Palace, and then set themselves on fire and died.
On April 23, 1644, when the army of the King of Chuang broke into the Zhangyi Gate and occupied the inner city, the Chongzhen Emperor ascended Banzai Mountain (commonly known as Coal Mountain) to pray for the blessing of the ancestral gods and watch the beacon fire. Two days later, he ordered the eunuch Wang Cheng'en to send a message to all the Shangshu and the governors of the Five Armies to rush to the Zhengyang Gate to hold an emergency imperial assembly, but not even a cabinet minister came. At this time, the imperial palace artillery fire soared into the sky, and the arrows and stones were facing each other, and Chongzhen wanted to escape from the Anding Gate, but the door could not be opened, so he turned back to the Southern Palace, and then climbed the "Shouhuang Pavilion" on the coal mountain, and then hanged himself. In Chongzhen's clothes, I saw that the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty left a brief suicide note: "Shuo Liang De defied, and the heavens were blamed, but all the ministers were mistaken." Death without face to see the ancestors, remove the crown, and cover the face with hair. Let the thieves divide, and do not hurt the people alone. A moment later, Wang Cheng'en also went from martyrdom to the end of the totalitarian rule of the Two Hundred and Seventy-Six Years of Daming.
When Li Zicheng entered the Forbidden City, he captured Chongzhen's eldest son Zhu Cixi and made him the King of Song. However, after the Qing army drove out Li Zicheng, Zhu Cixi did not know the end. In this time of extreme chaos, the bodies of the Chongzhen Emperor and Empress Zhou were placed in two rough coffins, and on May 8, 1644, they suddenly appeared in a pile of sand outside the imperial city gate. At this time, a minor official of the imperial court named Zhao Yigui raised three hundred and forty copper coins from relatives and friends to transport the coffins of Chongzhen and Empress Zhou to Changping. On May 9, 1644, Zhao Yigui excavated Tian Guifei's tomb, placed Empress Zhou's coffin on the left, moved Tian Guifei's coffin to the right side of the tomb, and then placed Chongzhen's coffin upright between his two wives. On June 8, 1644, Dorgon, who had entered the Capital Division with Qing soldiers, decided to rebury Chongzhen with imperial etiquette, ordered his subjects to serve for three days, named the newly built tomb "Si Ling", and honored Chongzhen as Emperor Zhuang Lie.