In the early days of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the feelings for the Ming Dynasty were complicated. On the one hand, the Ming Dynasty was an enemy of the Qing Dynasty, and it was necessary to resolutely suppress the remnants of the Ming Dynasty. On the other hand, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not want to establish the Ming Dynasty as an antithesis, after all, they belonged to the minority, in order to alleviate the contradictions, they had to preach that the Manchu Qing dynasty was derived from Li Zicheng, not Chongzhen, and the Qing Dynasty entered the customs in order to avenge the Ming Dynasty. Based on this logic, after Dorgon entered the customs, he buried the Chongzhen Emperor, recruited the ming dynasty's widows, and appointed a large number of former Ming courtiers as local officials.
After Dorgon's death, the Shunzhi Emperor took the throne. Shunzhi strongly praised the Chongzhen Emperor, saying that he was a Ming Jun who worked hard to govern, saying that he hanged Coal Mountain as a "martyr of the society" and calmly and righteously, portraying the Chongzhen Emperor as a sad and sad last-day king, and at the same time preaching the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and actually died in Li Zicheng, rather than in the Qing Dynasty, and successfully transferred the contradiction to Li Zicheng, who was already dead.
After the image of the Chongzhen Emperor was beautified, the people around him were also beautified. Among them, there was a eunuch who was called "loyal martyr" by the Shunzhi Emperor, and he also specially erected a monument for him and gave him the nickname "Zhong".
Who is this eunuch?
He was Wang Cheng'en, a close eunuch of Chongzhen's side.
Wang Cheng'en was originally a small eunuch in the palace, and for a long time he was doing the dirty work of low-level eunuchs in the palace. His family was poor, he had no education, he did not have much cultural knowledge, and he did not do anything earth-shattering. After entering the palace, he served as an errand boy under the great eunuch Cao Huachun.
Wang Cheng'en's origins are very accidental.
In fact, eunuchs want to make a fortune, and chance accounts for most of the factors. For example, Feng Bao, such as Wei Zhongxian, was because of a chance, met the prince, gained the trust of the prince, and when the prince grew up, he inherited the throne, and the eunuchs who accompanied him for more than ten years would soon soar.
Wang Cheng'en's origins are also like this.
When the Chongzhen Emperor was young, he lost his footing and fell into a pond. When the little eunuch next to him saw it, he panicked and shouted, but no one dared to rush into the water to save the prince. Only Wang Cheng'en, when he saw that the little prince had fallen into the water, he jumped into the water and desperately protected the little master. After the little prince was rescued, he developed a good feeling for this brave eunuch and was very close to him ever since.
After the little prince grew up, he successfully inherited the throne and became the emperor. He was the Chongzhen Emperor. Chongzhen had great trust in Wang Cheng'en and continued to promote him, eventually making him a eunuch of Bingbi, the superintendent of ceremonies.
Wang Cheng'en was grateful to emperor Chongzhen for his promotion, and he was loyal to the emperor.
In the late period of Chongzhen's reign, the imperial court was in turmoil, and the Chongzhen Emperor had a very difficult life, not only thinking about resisting foreign enemies every day, but also fighting with the ministers around him. Wang Cheng'en accompanied him and relieved his sorrows.
Later, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, and the people around Chongzhen were scattered, and Chongzhen could not even find anyone to lead troops to the city gate to resist. Wang Cheng'en told Chongzhen to let him take his troops to the city tower to resist the peasant army.
Chongzhen was relieved to see that Wang Cheng'en was still by his side and took the initiative to ask to resist. However, the ideal is very full, and the reality is very bone. Of course, Wang Cheng'en could not resist Li Zicheng's army.
The city of Beijing was destroyed, and Li Zicheng led an army to attack the imperial palace.
On the morning of March 19, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644 AD), the Chongzhen Emperor, who was wearing a shawl, was not energetic and felt that time was running out. The eunuch Wang Cheng'en was still with him. Chongzhen was listless and walked straight towards the coal mountain. Wang Cheng'en followed him all the way to a crooked old locust tree under the pavilion on the mountainside, and Chongzhen made up his mind not to hold on any longer, and ended his life with a period of white practice. The crooked neck tree was the end of his life. Wang Cheng'en cried, did not leave, accompanied Chongzhen, and hanged himself from the begonia tree next to him.
At noon that day, Li Zicheng's army attacked the palace. Li Zicheng ordered the search for Chongzhen, but the entire palace searched and could not be found. Li Zicheng also issued an order that those who were offered the head of the Chongzhen Emperor would be rewarded with gold and made counts. If there is anyone who dares to hide, exterminate the clan. But to no avail.
It was three days before the soldiers found the bodies of Chongzhen and Wang Cheng'en on coal hill.
The story of Wang Cheng'en' hanging with Chongzhen in the face of danger quickly spread in the city of Beijing. After the rulers of the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing, they also heard about Wang Cheng'en's deeds. In order to establish the image of the Qing Dynasty as a defender of traditional morality, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty portrayed Wang Cheng'en as a martyr and praised him: "That is, how can the martyrs of the ancient loyal subjects be added to the martyrdom?" He also ordered that his deeds be publicized in a big way so that "the faithful may be persuaded, and the unfaithful shall be admonished."
The good intentions of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty were exchanged for the support of ordinary people. The Qing Dynasty thus gained more than two hundred years of national fortune.
— History Control —
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