There is an unwritten rule in ancient China, that is, after a dynasty replaces another dynasty, it will inevitably revise the history of the previous dynasty and sort out a history book, which is why China's history of more than two thousand years can be recorded in detail. In 1645, that is, in the second year of Shunzhi, not long after the Qing army entered the customs, an official named Zhao Jiding asked the Shunzhi Emperor to revise the History of Ming.
Although the Shunzhi Emperor did not agree at first on the grounds that the country was not yet stable, with the persistence of the officials at the bottom, three months later, he finally issued an edict to edit the History of Ming. This history book, which began in 1645 and was not finalized until 1739, is the longest edited history book in Chinese history, and it is also highly evaluated by later historians. However, with the passage of time, especially after entering the 21st century, there are more and more doubts about the "History of Ming", why is this?
People doubt the authenticity of the "Ming History" mainly because it was revised by the Qing Dynasty that destroyed the Ming Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty there was an official revision history book called "Ming Shilu", although the things recorded by the two are probably the same, but after careful comparison by netizens, many doubts in the "Ming History" were found. In fact, not only the "Ming Shilu", but even some local historical materials preserved by the people can find out many errors in the "Ming History".
In 1949, after the founding of New China, the ancient historical materials were reorganized, and in addition to the official revision of the history books, the genealogy of the folk generations also became important materials. In Fujian, China, there is a "Zhang Clan Genealogy", the ancestor Zhang Min's life recorded is different from the "History of Ming", and even let many people exclaim, "History of Ming" is used by the Qing Dynasty to smear the Ming Dynasty, and even experts also said that the Qing Dynasty may have really tampered with the History of Ming.
Zhang Min was a great eunuch during the Ming Dynasty, and the family tree records that he died in 1485 AD, while the "History of Ming" records that he committed suicide due to fear after Wan Guifei killed Concubine Ji, which happened in 1478 AD, and the "History of Ming" forcibly predetermined Zhang Min's death time to 10 years. According to the records, Wan Guifei was originally a nanny in the palace, and he was a full 17 years older than her husband, Ming Xiaozong, and almost forgot to marry.
Emperor Ming xiaozong was very fond of her, and In order to control the harem, Wan Guifei did not hesitate to kill the children born to other concubines. The "History of Ming" contains: "The Imperial Family of Ye Ting was fortunate to have a body, and countless people were injured by drinking medicine", that is to say, Wan Guifei used various means to let the unborn children die in their mother's womb. Not only that, Wan Guifei even extended her claws to the young crown prince Zhu Youji.
The "History of Ming" said that Zhu Youji's premature death was inseparable from Wan Guifei, which meant that the prince was killed by Wan Guifei, and later historians often used this matter to criticize Ming Xiaozong's incompetence, and even his favorite prince could not protect him, but was this really the case? However, regardless of whether Wan Guifei was in the harem to cover the sky, it was good that she was favored by the emperor, but killing so many princes in front of the emperor, and even finally killing the prince's birth mother, causing the eunuch Zhang Min to commit suicide out of fear, the whole thing seems to be very outrageous. In addition, in the Ming Shilu, no such record is seen.
Returning to the time of Zhang Min's death recorded in the "Genealogy of the Zhang Clan", people have to suspect that the "History of Ming" forcibly linked Zhang Min's death to Wan Guifei, and the real purpose was to make Emperor Xiaozong of The Ming Dynasty think that he was weak and incompetent, so he constructed these nonsensical things. The existence of historians is to "remove the false and preserve the truth", so although the "History of Ming" is an official history book and one of the "Twenty-Four Correct Histories", this does not mean that he must be completely true.