During the Yongle period, Emperor Zhu Di once built a pagoda called "Dabao'en", which was famous on the banks of the Qinhuai River for more than 400 years, and was known as a wonder dedicated to the world by Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty. However, this pagoda was criticized by later generations, and in the beginning, Zhu Di built the pagoda to repay the favor of Ming Taizu and Empress Ma, but some people believed that in fact, Zhu Di was to repent of the evil deeds he had committed.
So, why?
Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang was known for his brutality, which was mainly due to the severe punishment of corruption. And Zhu Di's brutality is more of a posture of "those who follow us prosper and those who oppose us perish". Zhu Di rebelled in the first year of Jianwen (1399), and then marched south with his division, known in history as the "Battle of Jingnan". When he led the "Jingnan" army into Nanjing, the civil and military officials ushered in an extremely terrible massacre. Moreover, Zhu Di was also much more cruel in his use of torture than his father Zhu Yuanzhang.
In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, a thinker and writer, Dai Mingshi, commented on Zhu Di this way: "Ming Chengzu was very cruel, and he pioneered punishments such as cutting open people's chests to dig out hearts, cutting off human skin and flesh to remove bones, cutting off social teeth, and peeling off last grass. Such an act is truly heinous. Fang Xiaoru, who was once known as the "seed of reading in the world", was punished by the Annihilation of the Ten Tribes because he was unwilling to write an edict for Zhu Di to ascend the throne.
None of the loyal and righteous people who had followed Emperor Jianwen had not been punished by Zhu Di, and even Zhu Di's brothers and those who had ties to the imperial family could not escape. In addition, in order to vent his selfish desires, Zhu Di also sent the female relatives of these people to the military camp, where they were insulted, toyed with, or sold to brothels, or as an object, rewarded to the slaves who raised elephants, and tortured to the end. Not only that, Zhu Di also created a very famous unjust case in history - "Gua Man Copy".
Jing Qing was a prominent figure in Hongwu's eighteenth year, and many articles say that he was killed because he took a sharp blade to the court and attempted to assassinate the emperor. However, according to official historical records, it was because after Zhu Di crossed the river, the garrison was at JinchuanMen, when all the officials came out to kneel to greet the new emperor, only Jingqing stood, and from time to time, some filthy words were spoken in his mouth, so he was beaten by the people around the emperor.
Later, because Jingqing did not obey Zhu Di's orders, Zhu Di had him chopped into meat sauce, but even so, Zhu Di still felt that he was not enough to relieve his hatred, so he ordered people to kill all the people in Jingqing's hometown, so the whole village became a ruin. Because the killing was too big, Zhu Di also felt some guilt, and he often dreamed at night that Jing Qing and others came to ask for their lives. The following year, Zhu Di ordered the construction of the Dabao'en Temple, and in the tenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di built the Dabao'en Temple Pagoda again.
Therefore, some people believe that Zhu Di nominally named the pagoda "Retribution", but in fact, he repented of the evil deeds he had committed, and in layman's terms, borrowed the power of the Buddha to eliminate the guilt of killing too much in his heart.
It is said that in 1777, a woodcutter dug up two stone tablets on the top of the hill near Zixia Lake, one of which was carved by the Ming Dynasty Taoist monk Liu Yuanran when he held the enthronement ceremony for Zhu Di, which was called the "Confession of Heaven". In this "Confession to Heaven", there is such a passage: "The hands and siblings are wounded before and after, and the feelings are mourned by death and life." Flesh and blood, almost to the fall of Pinghan; heart-wrenching litigation, fortunately the safety of the family country. ”
That is to say: royal brothers kill each other, loyal men are framed and killed, and I feel deep remorse in my heart. Later, these two stone tablets were sent to the Chaotian Palace by the government and stored in the statue seat of the Jade Emperor. During the Light Years of the Qing Dynasty, when the Imperial Court was renovating the Chaotian Palace, these two stone tablets were found again. At that time, Tao Shu, who was serving as the governor, also specially wrote a text for these two tablets. However, after more than 300 years of vicissitudes, this stone carving has been lost in war.
Later, in order to restore the original appearance of history, in August 1995, the Nanjing Sun Yat-sen Cemetery Administration Bureau, according to historical records, they rebuilt it in the same place, and the Ming Chengzu Tianshi Stone Inscription was erected in the center of a pavilion with a four-corner spire. The inscription was rewritten in Yan script by the famous contemporary calligrapher Mr. Hong Wei. Many years ago, the author climbed the mountain many times to visit the stone carving, and then was informed by the staff of the Sun Yat-sen Cemetery: After the monument was re-erected, it was pushed down by uncivilized and bored people, and I regret it.
Regarding the crimes committed by Zhu Di, we can give another example, such as a temple examination in the twenty-second year of Yongle. According to the past practice, the examiners would first recommend three examination papers, and then read them to the emperor, who thought that the writing was good, and nodded his head in approval. Then, the examiners removed the seal of the examination paper, revealed the candidate's name, so that the emperor could look over, decide on the title, the list eye and the tanhua, and finally, fill in the list form and publicize it to the world. At that time, Zhuangyuan was a man named Sun Yuegong, and his name was Xing Kuan.
In ancient times, because people's habitual method of writing was to write straight books from top to bottom, the word "Yue Gong" of Sun Yue Gong was very close. In addition, Zhu Di was old and a bit old, so he saw the word "Yue Gong" as a "violent" word, and Xing Kuan's "Xing" word was pronounced the same as the word "punishment", which sounded very much like "punishment leniency", that is, the meaning of using punishment leniency. This deeply touched Zhu Di's sore spot, and he immediately shouted loudly: "Xing Kuan" is only allowed in the current dynasty, not "Sun Violence".
Later, although the ministers repeatedly explained to him, he still felt that the name of "Sun Violent" was not as good as the name of "Xing Kuan", so he personally used the Zhu pen to make Xing Kuan a champion.
Resources:
["Collection of Sorrows", "Chronicle of Zhenze", "Wan Liye", "Biography of Ming Shi Jingqing", "Collection of Qing Poems", "Stone Inscription of Confession"]