As we all know, the ancient concept of concubines is very heavy, even if they are the sons of the same emperor, the queen born and the concubines are born, there is a world of difference. Even if it is an ordinary family, the concubine is always shorter than the concubine, and if there is any benefit, it is the concubine who gets first. Why did the ancients value the distinction between concubines so much?
The author believes that it is because the ancients valued identity. In ancient times, polygamous concubines were adopted, and no matter how many women a man married, there was only one wife. She is often the man's explicit media is married, and her birth is the right one for the man, and the concubine can be included in the man regardless of identity, as long as he likes.
In this way, the sons born to the wife have noble blood, and the sons born to concubines are naturally low in status. In the same way, the emperor's sons are the same, the ancient empresses, almost all of them are from famous and prestigious families, and have a strong family power behind them.
Generally, when the emperor is still an emperor, the emperor's father will decide to choose a daughter of a famous and prestigious family to marry him. In the future, the sons born to the two will not only have noble blood, but also have the support of the mother's and mother's family forces behind them, and their status will naturally be high. The origin of the emperor's concubines is uneven, and even the palace women may become empresses. They originally had no power, and their origins were low, and the sons they gave birth to were far less than those of concubines.
Among the concubines, the identity of the eldest son is the most precious, so the ancient emperors all wanted to make the eldest son the crown prince, one is because of their pure blood and the roots are red; second, if the eldest son succeeds to the throne, he will get the support of many forces and can make the country stable; the third is that the eldest brother succeeds to the throne, and the rest of the brothers have no objection (it is reasonable to say so).
Looking at the succession of emperors in ancient times, very few people really realized the transmission to the eldest son, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, there was only one Daoguang, who succeeded to the throne as the eldest son. What is the reason for this? The author puts forward his own opinion.
First, create and manipulate people
Just mentioned the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, only Daoguang was the eldest son of the concubine to succeed to the throne. In fact, as early as the Qianlong period, he was very eager to establish the eldest son, especially before that, the Qing Dynasty did not have the status of the eldest son to succeed to the throne, which made the Qianlong Emperor's idea very strong.
Qianlong had a deep affection for Empress Fucha, and the Fucha clan also enjoyed great grace at that time, and if the son of the empress could be made crown prince, it would be beneficial and harmless to the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, when Qianlong ascended the throne, he secretly established a crown prince at the first time and made his eldest son, Yong Lian, the crown prince.
He thought that his wish would come true, but he did not think that Yonglian died at the age of nine. Later, Empress Fucha gave birth to Yong Chun again, and Qianlong once again moved the heart of Li Yan, but Yong Chun died at the age of two. From then on, Empress Fucha never gave birth to a son again, and Qianlong's wish to establish the eldest son was ultimately disappointed.
Second, the rest of the concubines were not satisfied
The author said earlier that the establishment of the eldest brother as the crown prince can make the other brothers have no objection. Later, the author added a sentence, which is supposed to be so, which is the idea in the emperor's heart. But in fact, the other brothers will not be convinced at all.
To say that the eldest son of a concubine like Zhu Biao has both pure blood and the ability to govern the country, and has the support of his father Zhu Yuanzhang, the rest of the concubines naturally do not dare to have opinions. However, if you change to Li Jiancheng, you will be easily attacked by other brothers.
Li Shimin is no worse than his brother in both politics and military terms, but because he was born a few years later than him, he will give up the throne, which Li Shimin cannot do. Besides, Li Yuan was no better than Zhu Yuanzhang, and even if he had made the eldest son the crown prince, he had never firmly stated that he would support him, and he did not dare to give power to the crown prince like Zhu Yuanzhang did.
In this kind of situation, even if the emperor has no choice, he has no intention of establishing a concubine, but he does not have the ability to protect the eldest son. This situation is also common in history.
Third, the eldest son of the concubine seeks his own death
Although Li Shimin was not the eldest son of Concubine, after he ascended the throne, he still wanted to maintain this tradition, so he made Li Chengqian, the eldest son of the eight-year-old concubine, crown prince.
In fact, as long as he behaves well, he will definitely be able to inherit the throne in the future, but Li Chengqian is restless. He was jealous of his younger brother Li Tai and repeatedly had the intention of murder, causing his father to become more and more disappointed in him. After the assassination of Li Tai failed, Li Chengqian simply followed the example of his father and forced the palace to rebel.
But where is he Li Shimin's opponent, after all, the old father has experience in these things, so Li Chengqian was quickly subdued. Fortunately, Li Shimin loved his son and did not execute Li Chengqian, but his position as crown prince could never be taken back.
Speaking of Kangxi's eldest son, Yin Rong, his conditions were also like Li Chengqian's, not only born to empress Zhenggong, but also held in the palm of his father's hand since childhood. Kangxi was extremely fond of Yin Rong, and after making him crown prince, he never considered other sons.
When Yin Rong was abolished for the first time, although Kangxi was very angry, he did not think of giving up on him. Otherwise, those who took the opportunity to persuade Kangxi to change to crown prince would not be implicated, and the Eight Brothers would not be completely out of favor. (Note: Because the ministers all suggested that Yin Yu be established, Kangxi believed that Yin Yu had formed a party for personal gain, regardless of brotherly feelings, so he was disappointed in him.) ）
Kangxi was reluctant to be reinstated, and eventually restored him. However, Yin Rong not only did not know how to cherish, but also intensified his efforts and did a lot of things out of the ordinary, causing Kangxi to be intolerable. Between Aizi and Jiangshan, Kangxi chose the latter, and Yin Rong killed himself.
In this case, the main thing is that the eldest son himself died, and could have sat firmly in the position of prince, and when the old father died, he could inherit the unification. Who knew that they were restless, to challenge daddy's bottom line, the emperor had no way, for the sake of Jiangshan, he could only give up on them.
In addition to these three situations, there is also the phenomenon that the emperor has no heirs, such as the Zhengde Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who had no heirs when he died, and since there was no eldest son, let alone let the eldest son succeed to the throne.
There are also cases where the eldest son has no intention of taking the throne, such as "let the emperor" Li Chengqi.
After Tang Ruizong Li Dan ascended the throne, he wanted to make Li Chengqi, the eldest son of Tang Ruizong, the crown prince, but Li Chengqi said: "The deputy of the chu, the public instrument of the world, Shi Ping is the first to be the chief, and the national disaster is credited." He thought that his younger brother Li Longji was more meritorious than him, so he insisted on refusing to accept Li Dan's intentions.
In fact, having said so many situations, the author believes that it can be summed up in seven words: the plan cannot catch up with the changes. The emperor wants to establish the heart of the eldest son, we can understand, but in the ancient times when imperial power was supreme, we could not ignore its background.
People who want to be emperors, not only the eldest son, but in order to compete for the throne, brothers and sisters kill each other, which is a perfectly normal thing. In addition, the eldest son of the concubine may have died prematurely, such as Yonglian; perhaps died earlier than the emperor, such as Zhu Biao. These are all unpredictable circumstances, which is why the ancient emperor wanted to make the eldest son the crown prince, but it was rarely realized.
(References "New and Old Book of Tang", "Zizhi Tongjian", "Qing History Manuscript", etc.)