In 1644, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor chose to hang himself at Coal Mountain. The Ming Dynasty also finally came to an end. With Wu Sangui's change of flag, the Qing Dynasty also entered the Central Plains under the leadership of the regent Dolgun, and through the battlefield attacks of Dolgun and others, there were also the suggestions of Han traitors such as Hong Chengyu and Fan Wencheng, and the implementation of policies such as Sun Zhizhuo's shaving order, the Qing Dynasty also quickly defeated Li Zicheng, and then pacified the Southern Ming Small Imperial Court, and finally realized the dream of Dingding zhongyuan.
However, as the "slave talent" of the Ming Dynasty, its founding king, Nurhaci once worshiped Li Chengliang as his righteous father, and his ancestors were even more subordinates of the Ming Dynasty, and the title of "slave chief" was even more accompanied, and the Ming Dynasty even killed Nurhaci's grandfather, grandfather, father and other relatives, the two sides can be said to have a feud with the heavens, since Nurhaci established houjin (the predecessor of the Qing Dynasty) in 1616, it is a decades-long war with the Ming Dynasty, as if it is an endless situation.
Then, as victors, why were their sons, the Kangxi Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor, able to abandon their feuds (of course, they were the obvious feuds, and their murder of Zhu Ming's heirs can be described as countless), but even more so, they performed three kneeling and nine prayers to the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, where zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, was buried, and even more the Kangxi Emperor also inscribed a plaque "Zhilong Tang Song"; the Qianlong Emperor "Picked Incense and Laid Down Wine"; the so-called Zhilong Tang Song can be said to be the Kangxi Emperor's evaluation of the grand situation of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Yuanzhang's merits, whether it is fair or not, naturally the benevolent see the benevolent and the wise. But what is the reason for such a high evaluation, such a heavy gift?
One reason, very meaningful. As a foreign nation entering the Central Plains, under the influence of Confucian culture, the deepening of the concept of home country has also made people in the Central Plains have a distinct exclusivity for the backward nomadic culture and concept. Even if it is as powerful as the Yuan Dynasty established by Kublai Khan, when the country was strong, the national territory was unprecedented, and the southern conquest and northern war were rarely defeated. But even the Battle of Yashan could force the little emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty to die in the sea, and then establish an empire. However, he implemented a racial hierarchy for the people of all ethnic groups, and it was this so-called hierarchical system and the wanton expropriation of the people that eventually led to the death of the Yuan Dynasty in only a hundred years.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty's entry into the customs, the high-pressure policy adopted was even more excessive, and the policy of Jiading Three Massacres, Yangzhou Ten Days, and leaving hair without leaving a head made it still have resistance forces in the hundreds of years that they lived in the Central Plains. The banner of the rebel forces is all "anti-Qing and restoration", with the intention of restoring the Ming Dynasty.
So how do you change people's fixed perceptions? Block this yo-yo mouth? As successors, while the Kangxi Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor continued to practice high-pressure literal prison, sacrifice became a necessary means smoothly.
The "Zuo Zhuan" says: "The great affairs of the country are in the worship and rong." It can be seen that the ancients put sacrifices in the same position as wars, and they can better see the importance of sacrifices, and as victors, dynasties change, and the change of lords in the country and mountains naturally has to find the reason for the legitimacy of their own regime. As a result, the Ming Xiaoling Tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, has also become the best source of Zhengshuo. The Ming Dynasty destroyed the Yuan and gained orthodox recognition, while the death of the Ming Dynasty died at li Zicheng, not the Great Qing; the great Qing entered the pass to defeat Li Zicheng's peasant army, but it was in accordance with the heavenly way, and the elimination of the rebels became the ultimate purpose of sacrifice.
And all this can be achieved through the "friendly and purposeful" act of worshipping Ming Xiaoling. As the land of Longxing, Jiangnan, as the most popular and economically developed area of the Ming Dynasty, is obviously the most appropriate and reasonable. These people in the areas with the most determined Ming Dynasty relics of the old and the young were also touched by the three kneeling and nine prostrations of the two emperors. "Tens of thousands of fathers and elders followed, and they all wept." Through this sacrifice, the two emperors even received praise for "the ceremony of the long and the long, the ritual of the regular ceremony, which is the act of virtue through the ages".
References: Zuo Zhuan, Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, etc