In the great chaos of the late Ming Dynasty, many cruel facts and legends appeared, some of which were true, and some of which were purely legends or rumors. What upset later generations of researchers was that the records of the time often contained facts and legends, and it was difficult to determine whether it was true or false, whether it was fact or fabrication (after all, there was no journalist and the principle of journalistic authenticity at that time). In particular, the two "thieves" of the late Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, have many stories about their indiscriminate killing, and if any careful person counts it, in various records, the officials and people killed by these two "rogue thieves" may be more than the total population of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
Compared with Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng's story of indiscriminate killing is much less (perhaps Zhang Xianzhong's reputation as a demon head is too loud, and everyone is more willing to use him as the subject of creation), but he killed a person, but left the most tragic and bright red impression on the chaotic world. That is, according to legend, after Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, he killed King Damingfu, stripped off his flesh, and cooked a pot of "Fulu soup". To this day, many people still believe in this matter, thinking that it is a history of faith. This is not the case with historical truths.
Li Zicheng angrily rebuked King Fu
One
The Fu King's name was Zhu Changxun ,and he was the third son of Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun , and his mother was the famous Concubine Zheng Guifei. When it comes to politics during the Wanli period, people are very familiar with the matter of "contending for the foundation of the country". Guo Ben was the position of the crown prince, and originally everyone expected to be Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of Wanli, but Wanli was eccentric and bent on establishing Chang Xun, the son of The Princess. It was strongly resisted by the courtiers. In the twenty-ninth year of the Wanli Calendar, Zhu Yijun was helpless, so he had to make Chang Luo the crown prince and at the same time crown Chang Xun as the Prince of Fu. Although the name has been determined, Zhu Yijun and Zheng Guifei are still not dead-hearted, and have always kept the Fu King and not let him be the domain. The dispute over the foundation of the country turned into a group of courtiers resolutely safeguarding the status of Prince Changluo, among which the major cases of demon books and attacks were all derived from this.
The battle over the foundation of the country ended in the complete defeat of Zhu Yijun and Zheng Guifei, and in the forty-second year of the Wanli Calendar, King Fu finally left Beijing and went to his fiefdom of Henan Province, that is, Luoyang. When the emperor could not do it, his parents tried their best to satisfy him economically, searching for wealth and land in several provinces and giving them to Fufu, and once again in the context of the "mining tax dispute", there was a lot of commotion.
Therefore, Zhu Changxun, the Fu King, was a very well-known prince at that time. Although everything was not done by him, it was all around him, and he was always a focus of attention in the political situation in the late Wanli period.
Two
I didn't expect King Fu to die so tragically. Li Zicheng captured Luoyang and killed King Fu in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, which was of great significance. First of all, Fu Wangzun, who was the uncle of the Chongzhen Emperor, killed him, which would have a strong deterrent effect on the Ming Dynasty; secondly, Luoyang was the great domain and the key point of Shaanxi to the Central Plains, Li Zicheng went out of Guanzhong, after occupying Luoyang, both military prestige and momentum were unprecedentedly high, and from then on, there was no enemy in the world.
Probably from this time on, Li Zicheng had the consciousness of "fighting the country" for the first time.
So for a future monarch who aspires to establish his own dynasty, will he execute a prince in such a barbaric way as a thief?
As for the statement that Li Zicheng and the others will eat the flesh of the Fu King, there have always been those who believe and those who do not believe. Unbelievers can also cite evidence, as in the Biography of King Changxun of Ming Shi Fu:
"Chang Xun Zhen city out, hiding Ying'en Temple." The next day, the thief persisted and was killed. The two captives wept and the thieves went away. The confession said: "The king does not want to be born when he dies, and he begs for a coffin to collect the bones of the king, and the powder has nothing to hate." 'The thief is righteous and promised.' The coffin was one inch, carrying a broken car, and the two men hanged themselves next to it. ”
The Ming Dynasty palace set up a confessional division, and the two confessions in the biography should be the eunuch leaders of the Fu Wangfu. They wept as they lay down their corpses, and invited a thin coffin for King Fu, and Zhu Changxun was naturally not eaten. Such a record should also come from the notes of the history of the wild, but its credibility is relatively high.
In fact, King Fu was not eaten, not only supported by literature, but also by the epitaph of King Fu himself.
Three
The "History of Ming" says that the two eunuchs asked for a coffin, carried it in a broken car, and should have found a random place, dug a pit, buried the prince, and then committed suicide and martyrdom in front of the grave. Later, the imperial court sent people to rebury King Fu, which was written in the epitaph, saying that after the death of King Fu, the Chongzhen Emperor "sent special qi to supervise the ministers, inspected the government, and gave sacrifices and funerals to be superior, and all funerals were regarded as doubles of the clans."
The tomb of Fu Wang was stolen in 1924, and the tombstone was unearthed about 500 meters south of Miaohuai Village in Nanmatun Township, Mengjin County, Henan. In 1986, the Mengjin County Cultural Management Committee recruited Zhu Changxun(朱常洵圹志) entitled "Ming Fu Zhongwang Yuanzhi", written by Zhu Changxun's son Zhu Yousong, the Hongguang Emperor who later served as emperor in Nanjing for a year.
Epitaph partial
The epitaph describes the death of King Fu as follows: "On the twentieth day of the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, tens of thousands of thieves suddenly attacked the capital city, the nationalist army fled, and Wang Du stepped forward to resist the festival, accusing the thieves of scolding. On the twenty-first day, he died. For a while, the officials of the palace went to the righteousness, and more than a hundred people took the risk of throwing blades. ”
The son made tomb texts for Lao Tzu, naturally there are words of condemnation, and what "stand up alone to resist the festival, pointing out thieves and scolding" is naturally not credible, but saying that "the officials in the palace are leading to righteousness", combined with the two acceptances of martyrdom mentioned above, should not be a lie. According to the tomb text, King Fu was arrested on the twentieth day of the first month and executed the next day.
Li Zicheng was already determined to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, and it was inevitable that he would kill King Fu, especially if King Fu was indignant and put him to death in public, which had a greater propaganda effect. And it turns out that Li Zicheng did not eat the flesh of the Fu King like a beast. So why do literati's notes have to be written like this? I think there are two reasons: one is that the rumors of the chaotic world are more and more evil, and the author of the notes has included them without analysis; the other is that the author deliberately made up Li Zicheng to portray Li Zicheng as a man-eating demon.
Hu Dan
(Professor, Master Supervisor, School of Literature and Media, China Three Gorges University)
Proofread by Xu Heng
Source: Purple Cow News