Is Emperor Mingwuzong Zhu Houzhao's status as crown prince solid? It can be said that it is too stable, ten to ten stable, as long as he is alive, it is impossible for others to get involved in this position. This is not only because he is a concubine, but also because he is an only son, and he was once a wise only son. If he still had to struggle for his position as such an identity, then the patriarchy of the Ming Dynasty would be messed up. At this point, Zhu Biao, who only accounted for "concubine" and "long", was indeed no match for him, after all, there were more than twenty younger brothers behind him, of which the King of Yan and the King of Ning were still heroic figures.
So, what is the reason for Zhu Houzhao's status? He was very intelligent at an early age, so why is he so badly evaluated in history? Let's talk.
The mystery of Zhu Houzhao's identity
The reason why Zhu Houzhao was able to become the only crown prince in the Ming Dynasty that set "concubine, long, independent, and cong" had a lot to do with his parents. Zhu Houzhao's father, Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Youfan, was born in distress from an early age, and his mother, Empress Xiaomu, was killed by the favored concubine of Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen. Although Zhu Youfan could not repay this vendetta, it made him have a certain dislike for women. When he was crown prince, there were also two concubines, but Zhu Youfan never touched them. It was not until later that he married his own hair-tied wife Zhang Shi that he could be regarded as a serious feeling of sustenance.
Emperor Mingxiaozong and Empress Zhang then began a monogamous life in the harem, and the other concubines were all vacant. In this way, the emperor's son could only be born to Empress Zhang. Empress Zhang was also able to give birth to two princes and a princess for the Ming Dynasty, the eldest of whom was Zhu Houzhao. The second prince later died prematurely, and Emperor Xiaozong of Ming died suddenly in his prime, so Zhu Houzhao became the only legal heir to the throne who combined "concubine, long, independent, and cong".
Zhu Houzhao was clever and worthy of his throne. His absurdity is nothing more than black material that can be saved.
The Ming ancestor Zhu Houzhao was made crown prince at the age of two, began to study at the age of seven, usually liked to ride and shoot, and was often praised by his father as extremely intelligent. All this seems to indicate that he will be a generation of sages. However, when we open the History of Ming, we can find out how Zhu Houzhao was an after he became emperor: reusing Liu Jin and other eunuchs, causing the second eunuch disaster of the Ming Dynasty; several times going out of the palace to have fun and disregarding the family and the country; reusing villains, setting up leopard houses, and being absurd; starting a war with the Mongolian little prince Dayan Khan at the border pass, losing more than the other side and vainly claiming victory; insisting on re-countering the rebellion after the rebellion of the King of Ning was put down, giving disasters to the people...
At first glance, Zhu Houzhao's deeds are too numerous to read, and he really deserves the four words of "absurdity and no way.". In fact, however, there are some doubts that cannot be explained. The first is his courtesy name "Wu", which is considered to be of the middle and upper class in the ancient tantra. According to the "Table of Laws", "Strong and straight, strong and straight, mighty and strong, mighty and powerful, strong and strong "In history, the famous Emperor Wudi of Han and Emperor Wuzong of Tang were all heroic figures. However, if according to Zhu Houzhao's behavior, the bad words such as "spirit and falsehood" were completely qualified, and his successor was his cousin, and he had no feelings for him, and there was no need to cover up anything for him. Then, this "wu" word is very difficult to understand.
Secondly, it is Zhu Houzhao's famous "Yingzhou Great Victory". According to historical records, this battle lasted five days, and the Ming Dynasty alone invested 100,000 troops. However, the result of the battle was that the Ming Dynasty lost 52 people, while the other Side Mongols lost 16 people, which was simply the level of a civil conflict on the frontier. However, the effect caused was to make the Mongol Zhongxing lord "Little Prince" Dayan Khan dare not go south for decades, is this role exaggerated?
There is also a record of Zhu Houzhao's "absurdity". The "History of Ming" records that Zhu Houzhao set up a leopard room to recruit beautiful women from all over the world and sing songs every day. Even in the last stage of his life, he still forcibly spoiled women in extreme weakness and finally died on it. But is it possible that such an absurd emperor, who reigned for 16 years and lived for 30 years, did not leave a son and a half daughter?
So my conclusion is that Zhu Houzhao was blackened by later historians, and it was very thoroughly black. In fact, there is actually another explanation behind his practices: he reused eunuchs, probably to deal with the unruly clique of civil officials; his leopard room, which may have opened up a place for himself to perform martial arts and watch rare animals and animals, had nothing to do with women; he went out of the palace privately, perhaps because he wanted to really see his country with his own eyes; his Yingzhou victory may really be a great victory, with more than a hundred times more casualties than recorded in historical records; as for the rebellion of king Pingning, to be honest, Wang Yangming's biography itself is written contrary to human nature , unbelievable. Of course, the real historical truth still needs to be studied by experts in Ming history, and it is not ugly to learn in the next step.
Therefore, it is very likely that Emperor MingwuZong Zhu Houzhao was just a dimwitted emperor who was deliberately created by his descendants, and his practices seemed absurd, but in fact, they also hid wisdom. At least during his reign, the situation in the Ming Dynasty was still good. Ming Xiaozong said that he was "extremely intelligent", which did not seem to be an exaggeration.