The Holy Will, simply put, is the official order of the Emperor. The holy decrees of all dynasties have been sealed in the secret archives of the court, which is difficult for ordinary people to access, but with the end of the feudal era, many cultural relics have flowed out of the palace, some of which have gone overseas for some historical reasons. Thirteen years ago, newspapers in the United States reported that the Chinese spent 20 million yuan to buy a Ming Dynasty holy will.
Because the other party refused to disclose his name, there was no way to know his identity. It is understood that this holy will was obtained by him from Christie's auction house, and he was willing to pay a high price out of his love of history and the psychology of cultural relics collection. The Holy Will looks a little old, about 185 cm long and about 30 cm wide when unfolded, covered with a large seal, and the dragon embroidery is faintly visible on the yellow silk cloth.
This news immediately attracted the attention of all parties, and some historians came to visit, hoping to understand the content of the Holy Will. After reading it, the experts were amazed, and although these 300 words only talked about some things that the emperor exhorted his subordinates, they subverted the consistent record of the "History of Ming". Quite simply, the person who issued this Divine Decree of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er was actually Zhu Houzhao, the famous "absurd emperor" in the History of Ming.
Zhu Houzhao, also known as the "Zhengde Emperor", had a prominent personality among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and was once suspected of being a crosser. About him, there are large records in the "History of Ming", in summary, Zhu Houzhao has nothing to do with the two words "Ming Jun", he is the only surviving son of Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youfan, Emperor Xiaozong does not like to have more children and more children, and died early, Zhu Houzhao set favors in one.
According to the History of Ming, when Zhu Houzhao was still serving as a prince, he was taken by a group of eunuchs. The chief eunuch was named Liu Jin, and he often played games with his young Zhu Houzhao, leaving him to waste his studies. Therefore, after the death of Emperor Xiaozong in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505) and the ascension to the throne by Zhu Houzhao, who was less than 15 years old, he did all kinds of absurd things, such as self-proclaimed general, coveting pleasure, and going out on patrol at every turn.
Others went out on a tour to observe the people's feelings, but Zhu Houzhao was to seek beauty and hunt beauty. The history books record that Zhu Houzhao would rob beautiful women and prostitutes every time he went to a place, and often went to the Qinglou! He did not like to live in the palace, felt bored, so he built a "leopard room", in which he raised a bunch of rare beasts, beautiful women and beautiful men, drank and had fun every day, forgot about it, and competed with tigers and leopards, and was injured because of it.
The ministers looked anxious in their eyes, and Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet, advised the emperor several times to restrain himself, persuading Zhu Houzhao to be impatient, and when Liu Jian threatened to "tell the old man to return to his hometown" for the last time, Zhu Houzhao waved a large pen and said you go! The old courtiers spread out such an emperor who did not play cards according to common sense, and everyone wanted to cry without tears. In the sixteenth year of Zhengde (1521), Zhu Houzhao died at the age of 31.
On the whole, Zhu Houzhao did nothing, only played greedily, and the cause of his death was also that he accidentally fell into the water and fell ill while playing on the boat, and gradually became serious and died. However, in this holy decree, Zhu Houzhao's tone was very serious, and he reminded the ministers to pay attention to restraining themselves, practicing virtue, and scrupulously fulfilling their duties, and he would only praise the meritorious courtiers and so on--"The Qunchen ministers cultivated the province."
If the Ming Wu Sect was really so absurd, why did it issue such a serious holy decree? It seems to be seriously inconsistent with his usual style. Based on this, many people began to speculate whether because the reigning Jiajing Emperor was estranged from Zhu Houzhao, the historians of the Jiajing Dynasty deliberately degraded Zhengde and promoted Jiajing in order to satisfy Jiajing. Or is it that the History of the Ming Dynasty was revised during the Qing Dynasty and modified for some reason? After all, a long time has passed, and what kind of emperor Zhu Houzhao is still to be examined.