In May of the thirty-first year of Hongwu, 70-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang lay on his sickbed and even lost the strength to breathe. The flower-like concubines usually have rare dragon pets, and at this time they are ordered to take turns to serve the imperial concubines, and on this day it is Concubine Weng and Concubine Li Shufei who serve Lao Zhu.
Princess Weng was a Mongolian Hongji Labu, and six years ago, when Old Zhu Ye read the "Yuan Clan", when she read about the strong past of the Hongji Labu, she couldn't help but ask the attendants: "Is there any descendant of the Hongji Labu?" ”
Hongjirabu is one of the five major tribes in the Mongolian steppe, known for its abundance of beautiful women, Mongolian nobles are proud to marry Hongjira women, Genghis Khan's mother and wife are Hongjira beauty.
The attendant understood the spirit and soon brought with him the 14-year-old girl of the Nanhai Weizheng Qianhu Urn Clan. Since then, The Weng girl has entered the palace and served Lao Zhu for six years, but she has not given birth to a son and a half daughter.
The aroma of Concubine Weng's body wafted into Lao Zhu's nostrils. Old Zhu, who had been sleeping for a long time, woke up and looked at her fixedly for a long time, and some vague sounds were emitted in his throat. The people around me analyzed for a long time before they heard clearly: "Can you serve for a long time?" ”
Does that mean you can serve me for a long time? Even if I don't want to say it in my heart, I don't dare to say it! So the two of them knelt down and cried out long live, meaning that it was the supreme honor for concubines to serve Your Majesty, and they were willing to serve you every day.
Old Zhu sneered: "It's really stupid, you can't understand the sound outside the words, does it mean that you are willing to go underground and serve you forever?"
Concubine Weng and Concubine Li Shufei were stunned for half a moment before they understood what the word "long" meant, and they were suddenly so frightened that they could not say a word.
Old Zhu Yi shook his face: Give Bai Lian, give it a martyrdom!
It is estimated that the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao on the side has been fooled: is the old man sick and confused? Emperor Wu of Han set up a son to go to his mother, and these two did not have sons, so why kill them?
This story is recorded in Cha Jizuo's "Record of Sin", and there is no explanation of how the "ChaotianNu" in the title stem is related to this story, and the "Biography of Ming Shi Houfei" explains:
"Taizu Beng, the palace people are mostly from the dead." When Jianwen and Yongle were born, they were successively honored. For example, the families of Zhang Feng, Li Heng, Zhao Fu, Zhang Bi, and Wang Bin are all hereditary Jinyi wei thousands of households, known as 'Taizu Chaotian Female Household'. This is true of the two sects of Chengzu, Ren, and Xuan. ”
It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang's martyrdom of Concubine Weng and Concubine Li had nothing to do with politics, it was purely a "personal hobby", and it was far more than just Urn and Li who were martyred. These women who were martyred were the "Chaotian women", and their families were called "Chaotian women", who would enjoy preferential treatment policies, a custom that later became the norm.
The bad practice of martyrdom, as the "prescribed action" of the funeral of the early nobles, was controversial as early as the Spring and Autumn Warring States, so it slowly withdrew from the stage of history, but Zhu Yuanzhang restored this cruel system.
Those literati doctors who are full of poetry books also know that it is easy to be struck by lightning, so they try to cover up in the historical materials, resulting in many details being unknown, and the author sorts out the following details from the fragmentary materials.
Who is qualified to be a "heavenly woman"?
There is a saying that "chaotian women" are concubines who have no children, but this statement may not be accurate. Taking Zhu Yuanzhang as an example, there are 46 women who were martyred for him (this number is controversial, there are more than a dozen, 38 and other theories), of which princess Baoqing's birth mother should be "Chaotiannu".
When Zhu Yuanzhang died, Princess Baoqing was only 3 years old and was the youngest child of Old Zhu. Folklore has it that his birth mother Zhang Meiren was thus pardoned from martyrdom, but it is recorded in the Records of Emperor Wen: "Lord, the sixteenth daughter of Emperor Taizu, was born and Taizu collapsed, and her mother Zhang Shi also died." ”
It means that Zhang Meiren also died when Old Zhu died, how did he die? Didn't give an account. Such a coincidence, there is a high probability of becoming a "heavenly woman"! After the death of Emperor Akihito, his favorite concubine Guo Guifei also became a "Chaotiannu", but she gave birth to three princes.
It can be seen from this that the so-called "concubines who have never given birth to children" is unreliable. So, what are the selection criteria for "ChaotianNu"? Who has the say?
Judging from the current historical data, there is no standard for the selection of "chaotian women", and all concubines and even palace women may enter the "honor list". Only one person was definitely excluded, and that was the Queen. It was the empress and the empress dowager who decided the list of "honor rolls."
What preferential treatment can the "Asahi Girl" get?
Survival is human instinct, these young women who do not stay in the world? What scares them even more is the death method of the "Chaotian Girl".
All the women who had been groomed and dressed were gathered in a large hall, and the rows of white aya had long been hung on the beams, and the women were crying and climbing on the stools, and at the urging of the eunuchs, they put the white aya around their necks. The eunuch kicked the stool away, and a living life disappeared in a painful struggle.
If she encounters a timid person, or is unwilling to cooperate, someone will help her and forcibly help her ascend to heaven.
It is said that they were poisoned or killed by mercury. But no matter which way of death, so many people cry out in the sky, watching the sisters around them disappear in an instant, who is not afraid? If there are children in the human world, wouldn't that kind of life and death tear your heart and lungs apart?
The only thing that makes the "Asahi Girls" happy is that their deaths will be compensated in three ways:
First, the line of fire promotion
Before dying, the rank of "Asahi Girl" was promoted, and even "promoted" by rocket, while rewarding a beautiful person. For example, Emperor Renzong of Song's Tan Zhaorong was promoted to Concubine Shun, with the courtesy name "Gong Qi", and Emperor MingXuanzong's Concubine He Xian was promoted to Noble Concubine, with the courtesy name "Duan Jing".
2. Sacrifice with food
Sacrifice was the most important thing in the minds of the ancients, and those who could not get sacrifices were "lonely ghosts". In addition to the empress, who were eligible to enjoy the sacrifice with the emperor, there were also a few important ministers and concubines, of course, they could only be called "matching", which means that the emperor and the empress sat on the throne, and they ate with them.
The women who were not eligible to "go to the table" were qualified to be paired because of their status as "heavenly women", and they did not worry about starving behind them.
3. Fuyin's father and brother
In the eyes of modern people, this is the most affordable, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with the "Chaotiannu" herself. The father or brother of the "Chaotian daughter" will be given a paid position in a thousand households or a hundred households, and can be hereditary.
Jinyi Wei Qianhu Zheng five pin title, hundred households zheng six pin title, not too low, the key is to be hereditary. But if you think it's a "permanent meal ticket," you're naïve. In ancient times, the so-called hereditary inheritance rarely exceeded three generations, and the imperial court had a way to deprive you of it.
Therefore, the so-called compensation is actually not very reliable, if women can have the right to choose, it is estimated that few are willing to be "heavenly women".
Who in the Ming Dynasty was eligible for human martyrdom treatment?
It is worth noting that the Ming Dynasty was not only an emperor, but also a prince who was eligible for human martyrdom. For example, Zhu You, the King of Zhou, and his princess Gong, as well as his wives Shi, Ou, Chen, Zhang, Han, and Li, were all martyred.
Because the Zhu family set a bad precedent, the trend of folk martyrdom has risen, but it has been marked with the fig leaf of "voluntariness", and public opinion has also encouraged the so-called "chaste and martyr women" to bury their husbands.
The end of the "Asahina" system
After the restoration of the martyrdom system from Zhu Yuanzhang, Chengzu Zhu Di, Emperor Renzong Zhu Gaozi, Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, and Emperor Daizong Zhu Qiyu all used the "Chaotian Daughter", and the five emperors' martyrdom daughters were more than a hundred.
No one expected that the abolition of the martyrdom system was actually the ming Dynasty's least effective Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen. Ming Yingzong was once captured by the Mongols at Tumu Fort, and was imprisoned by his brother for many years, probably after experiencing the calamity of life and death, and had a reflection on life.