On March 19, 1644, Li Zicheng's Dashun army attacked Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor, in desperation, chose to hang himself and martyr himself, and the Ming Dynasty died.
Although the great unification dynasty after the Ming Dynasty was the Qing Dynasty, at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the world at that time thought that it was not the Qing Dynasty that was most likely to become the next Great Unification Dynasty, but li Zicheng's Dashun regime.
It is no exaggeration to say that at that time, Li Zicheng's Dashun regime could be described as a day in the sky, and when it marched into Beijing, it was like a bamboo all the way, and after conquering Beijing, it quickly ruled the entire Yellow River Basin and part of the Yangtze River Basin.
Surprisingly, after Li Zicheng was defeated by Wu Sangui and The Qing Dynasty Dolgun in the Battle of Shanhaiguan, he not only withdrew from Beijing, but also never rose to prominence, never set off any waves in the long river of history, and in 1645, Li Zicheng died ironically in Hubei by mistake by local villagers.
So why would Li Zicheng have experienced only one defeat and then be overwhelmed, and today Song Anzhi compares Li Zicheng and the Qing Dynasty's arrangements for the remains of the Chongzhen Emperor, and in this regard, the mystery of Li Zicheng's failure.
After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he could not find the Chongzhen Emperor at first, and he was very anxious, believing that the Chongzhen Emperor was hidden in the people, so he ordered the Chongzhen Emperor to be offered: "Bounty of ten thousand gold, the title of Earl."
After it was determined that the Chongzhen Emperor had died, Li Zicheng was relieved, and it was said that this was a great time to win people's hearts, after all, the chongzhen emperor who had died was no longer a threat to Li Zicheng, and the thick burial of the Chongzhen Emperor was undoubtedly showing his benevolence to the world and showing his demeanor as an emperor, but Li Zicheng did not do this, and it should be that for a while he did not change from the thinking of the peasant rebels to the idea of the common lord of the world.
According to the "History of Ming", Li Zicheng arranged the posthumous affairs of the Chongzhen Emperor in this way: "The thief moved the emperor and the Houzi Palace was in Changping. Changping people Qitian Guifei tomb for burial". It can be said that it is quite sloppy to deal with.
In the historian Ji Liuqi's "Northern Outline of the Ming Dynasty" at that time, the matter of how Li Zicheng arranged the posthumous death of the Chongzhen Emperor was even more detailed.
After the body of the Chongzhen Emperor was found, Li Zicheng arranged it like this: "The rebel thief sent money to Erguan, sent the eunuch city willow coffin, pillowed with soil blocks, stopped at the Shicha Nunnery outside the Donghua Gate, and covered with a peng factory." There were two monks chanting, four or five old eunuchs, and the king eunuch was very thin and had a coffin next to him." It can be said that it is quite shabby, and the things behind a generation of emperors are so sloppy that people are sighing.
Later, it was Li Guozhen, the bo of Xiangcheng, who cried and begged all his ministers to ask Li Zicheng to bury the Chongzhen Emperor with the imperial ceremony, and Li Zicheng agreed to bury the Chongzhen Emperor with the imperial ceremony.
Therefore, "It is the funeral of the first emperor, the second official, the funeral of the first emperor with Dan lacquer, and the funeral of the first emperor with lacquer." The same is true of the Crown of the Jiadi Wing, the Golden Boot of Gun Yu, and the belt of the back robe. Set up an altar for sacrifice, and make it its own, and weep in four prayers."
When the Chongzhen Emperor was buried on the fourth day of the first month, the coffin bearers were twenty or thirty people, and several horses were sent out from the Victory Gate, and they were hastily buried, and they were also buried in the tomb of Tian Guifei. It is said that it cost a total of more than two hundred taels of silver to bury Chongzhen, so although Li Zicheng agreed to bury the Chongzhen Emperor with imperial rites, he did not give the Chongzhen Emperor the treatment of burial, which is obviously a hasty matter.
Then compare how the Qing Dynasty arranged the affairs after the Chongzhen Emperor.
The Qing Dynasty entered the customs under the banner of avenging the Ming Dynasty, so it can be said that it is all-encompassing in related matters. Like the matter after the death of the Chongzhen Emperor, after the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing, the body of the Chongzhen Emperor was reburied in the imperial body, and the burial place was upgraded to SiLing, which was the last tomb of the Ming Tombs.
He also ordered his subjects to serve for three days of mourning, and for the Chongzhen Emperor to serve the Shaotian Emperor Gangming Gongming Jianjian Wen Fenwu Dunren Mao Xiaolie Emperor.
It can be said that the Qing Dynasty's arrangement for the body of the Chongzhen Emperor is that the emperor should have the treatment, although the Siling is built very simple, but how to say that the Qing Dynasty officially upgraded it to a mausoleum, rather than Li Zicheng's hasty affairs.
The locust tree that the Chongzhen Emperor hanged was even more identified by the Qing Dynasty as a "sin locust" and chained for many years.
Later, when the Shunzhi Emperor worshipped the Chongzhen Emperor, he even called "Big Brother Big Brother".
Judging from the comparison between the two sides on the arrangement of the body of the Chongzhen Emperor, it can be seen that Li Zicheng has failed, because after he conquered Beijing, he did not clear his position, not to deal with things with the idea of the common lord of the world, but to deal with things with limitations in his previous identity, turning a blind eye to the opportunities to win people's hearts, and having the reason for being undefeated?
And it is true that Li Zicheng did not only fail to arrange the remains of the Chongzhen Emperor, but also in other aspects, did not put himself in a clear position, lacked long-term strategic planning, and when the world was undecided, he attacked the gentry class at that time on a large scale through the policy of "pursuing and paying salaries" in Beijing, and did not get the affirmation of the gentry class representing the people's hearts, which was the fundamental reason why he did not win the world and could not afford it after he withdrew from Beijing.
Looking back at the Qing Dynasty, the arrangement for the remains of the Chongzhen Emperor can be said to be quite in place, which greatly enveloped people's hearts. From this point, we can see where the gap between the two sides lies, Li Zicheng is short-sighted, while the ruling class of the Qing Dynasty is long-term. Moreover, after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, every step was indeed good, not only in terms of placing the remains of the Chongzhen Emperor, which won the hearts of the people, like Li Zicheng to attack the gentry class, while the Qing Dynasty was to safeguard the interests of the gentry class, and the gentry class became a huge community of interests, so there was a situation of final unification of China.
Just as the so-called history is a mirror, a lot of history is actually very interesting, in addition to looking at a certain thing or a certain character through the big history, sometimes looking at how a certain person is in the details of history, in this way of looking at it in a small way, in fact, there is still a certain reason.
Thank you for watching Song Anzhi's exclusive original article, focusing on the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties and its great history of China, like to talk about those immutable histories from a different perspective, I think friends can remember to like and pay attention to Ha.