Foreword: The death of King Tan is definitely a suspense case in the early Ming Dynasty. Zhu Zi was the first prince of the Ming Dynasty to commit suicide, and it was also in the tragic way of self-immolation in the palace. What is more crucial is that after the death of King Tan, he did not even have a nickname, even if it was a bad name, which inevitably made people think of it.
As early as the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was already a legend that King Tan was the widow of Chen Youyi. From this point of view, it seems that the above facts can be justified. However, this statement is fatally flawed, and we will leave it to the analysis below. As for the "Records of The Record" and the "History of Ming", they invariably believe that the death of King Tan was related to his father-in-law's beating of the Hu Dang. However, the author thinks that Zhu Zi's death is hidden in many ways, and I am afraid that it is the product of the neutralization of various factors.
I would rather see the King of Yama than the King of Thieves
On the third day of April in the twenty-third year of Hongwu (1390 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor who was in Nanjing, received a report from Changsha that his eighth son Zhu Zi the Prince of Tan and Princess Yu had set himself on fire and died together. However, what was strange was that Zhu Yuanzhang, who had always been the most protective of calves, did not give the Tan King a nickname.
Zhu Yuanzhang stills
Just four months ago, Zhu Tan, the tenth son of Lao Zhu, the King of Lu, died of poisoning due to an overdose of medicinal stones. As the first adult prince to die in the Hongwu Dynasty, the death of King Lu brought a great blow to Zhu Yuanzhang. But for Zhu Yuanzhang, it is very important to build a coffin, even if you are my son, even if it is a bad word, it should be given or given. So in the end, King Lu was called "absurd", a complete evil.
Life seals death, classical clear. alack! Father and son, nature also. The law, the public opinion also. Although the father and son of the emperor were able to abolish justice by private grace? Now the Tembel is desolate, showing the indifference, and using the precepts to come. — Ming Taizu Shilu Vol. 198
If this is the case, then why didn't King Tan have a title after his death? The first to draw a gossip conclusion about this was Emperor Ming's Emperor Xiaozong's Hongzhi Dynasty. In his book "The Chronicle of the Emperor Ming Dynasty", he pointed out conclusively that King Tan was the widow of Chen Youyi, a rebel warlord at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, who raised an army to rebel after learning his true identity, and finally died of self-immolation.
Emperor Fu's writing is very good, and in just a few hundred words, there are twists and turns, and conflicts arise one after another. Especially when the imperial army surrounded the palace, the king of Tan threw out a bronze medal with eight big characters on it, "Rather see the king of Yan, not the king of thieves", which led the whole story to a climax, and it was a pity not to be a novelist.
Returning to The country, Emperor Gao sent the son of Fu Xuda to beg him. King Tan closed the city gate, carried his toddler around the city, and took the bronze medal and wrote it on the clouds: "I would rather see the King of Yama than the King of Thieves." Thrown outside the city, he set fire to the palace and threw himself to death with his son. - "The Emperor Ming Dynasty Scroll Down"
Chen Youyi stills
Zhu Zi, the King of Tan, was born on the sixth day of the first month of September in the second year of Hongwu (1369 AD). Chen Youyi died in August of the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Yuan Shun (1363 CE). The time of death and birth is six years apart, how can it be a widow? Whether Concubine Dading, the mother of King Tan, was Chen Youyu's concubine or not, there are still many opinions. However, Princess Dading also had a son, Zhu Yuanzhang, the seventh son of Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in November of the 24th year of Zhizheng (1364 AD). To say that the widow, the King of Qi can also fight for a pregnancy to be born in fifteen months, anyway, the King of Tan is definitely not the slightest possibility.
Is the father-in-law a Hu Dang?
Since King Tan was not Chen Youyi's widow, would it be true that he was implicated by his father-in-law?
In May of the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang was crowned princess of Tan, the daughter of Yu Xian, the former military governor of the military capital. In fact, as early as five years ago, the marriage had been confirmed. King Tan's fiefdom was Tan Prefecture (later renamed Changsha), and in the third year of Hongwu's reign (1370 AD), it was decided to use xuanmiao guanji in the capital to build the Tan King's Mansion.
In February of the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang officially ordered the construction of the TanWang Palace, and it was his future father-in-law Yu Xian who was in charge of supervising the work. However, on the seventh day of the first month of June of that year, the incident of "Thunder Earthquake Fengtian Gate" occurred, and Lao Zhu sent people to Changsha the next day to let Yu Xian suspend the construction of the palace.
Ding Di (丁卯), the envoys Wu Liang (吴良) the Marquis of Jiangyin and Hu Mei the Marquis of Linchuan ( Linchuan ) , and the governors Zhang Quan , Yu Xian , and Sun Ke said: "Yesterday, the heavens bowed down to the heavens, and the first thing to do was to think about governing the people, and all the services in his royal palace should be stopped." Shi Liang and other Dong Jianqi and Tan princes were in Shandong and Huguang counties, so they were edicted. —Ming Taizu Shilu Vol. 132
Ruins of the Ming Palace in Nanjing
Hu Weiyong's case occurred in the first month of hongwu's thirteenth year, but Yu Xian was not affected in any way and was elected as the father-in-law of King Tan. The History of Ming is not intended to be a biography of Yu Xian, and we can infer from the sporadic records in the Records of the Ming Dynasty that Yu Xian was a general of the Water Army. From the fifth year of Hongwu (1372 AD) to the end of the eighth year of Hongwu (1375 AD), Yu Xianhe Jinghai Marquis Wu Zhen and Marquis Zhu Shou of Baojia went to sea several times to pacify Wu Kou. After the completion of the Tan Dynasty, Yu Xian served for many years as a heavy duty to transport grain for the Ming army in Liaodong Province. From various angles, Yu Xian and Hu Weiyong seem to have a relationship that cannot be beaten by eight rods, so how could he be beaten as a Hu Dang?
The author said in a previous article that the Li Shanchang case in the twenty-third year of Hongwu (1390 AD) was actually a power grab by the crown prince Zhu Biao and the Jiangnan landlord clique behind him. Although the liquidated Huaixi Xungui was loyal to the emperor, could he be loyal to the crown prince? No one can guarantee it. But let us not forget that Zhu Biao is not fighting alone, and that what took the lead in impeaching Li Shanchang for him was a group of young zhuang bureaucrats with a Background in Huguang.
His father Zhan Tong served as a Hanlin scholar in the Han Kingdom of Chen Youyi. Shangshu Zhao Mian of the Punishment Department, a native of Huguangyi Ling. Zhang Tinglan, secretary of Dali Temple, is a native of Huguang Prefecture. The so-called "Hu Weiyong case" is just a basket, and everyone puts political enemies in it. Zhu Biao's enemy was The Huaixi Xungui headed by Li Shanchang, but people like Huang Bin, the Marquis of Yichun, and Zhao Yong, the Marquis of Nanxiong, were somewhat worth playing.
Huang Bin, Xu Shouhui's old subordinate, defected to Zhu Yuanzhang because he was not ashamed of Chen You's forgiveness of the lord. Zhao Yong, a water master from Chaohu Lake, was a key figure in the Battle of Poyang Lake to defeat Chen Youyu. For their reckoning, is it Zhan Hui and others who declare a personal vendetta to seek justice for the former Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty? Then we say back to Yu Xian, he is a native of Huangmei County, the capital of Puzhou, and he is also a water master, and he will inevitably be liquidated together.
The problem was that Yu Xian died on December 23, 1387, the twentieth year of Hongwu (1387 AD), when Zhu Yuanzhang also gave him the title of Founding Auxiliary Fortune Tuicheng Xuanli Wuchen, and posthumously created him the Marquis of Yingshan, Yu Xiangwu. Generally speaking, after death, they were beaten into the Hu Dang, and the impact on their children was relatively small, so why did King Tan and Princess Wang commit suicide?
Hu Weiyong stills
Is King Tan really dead?
Through the above combing, whether it is Chen Youyu's widow or his father-in-law Hu Dang, it seems that it is difficult to cause Tan Wang and his wife to commit suicide. In fact, there has always been a legend that the King of Tan hid in the mountains and forests by burning the royal palace, and in my opinion, there is no reason for this, and we will try to analyze one or two.
Guarded by the King of Tan
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the prince had to bear the responsibility of defending the border and protecting the country, so each royal palace had a powerful three-guard officer army. The TanwangFu was naturally no exception, and the names of its guards were called Changsha Guards.
According to the Records of the Record, after the death of King Tan, because he was childless, the country was removed, and it is reasonable that his guards should also be eliminated. However, in July of that year, the Ming Dynasty established the Yuezhou Wei (now part of Qujing, Yunnan), and when the officers and men of Changsha were transferred to Yunnan Shushou, their names were not revoked. The time when the Tanwang guards were really incorporated into the Yuezhou Wei was on the tenth day of the first month of February in the 26th year of Hongwu. This time is also very delicate, because there was also a big event that happened that day: the Death of Liangguo Gong Lanyu.
Yi Unitary, King of Shu Chunlai Dynasty. And guarded yu Yuezhou wei. Liangguo Gong Lanyu plotted rebellion and ambushed. —Ming Taizu Shilu Vol. 225
TanWang Palace
In April of the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu (1391 AD), Hu Guangbu reported to the imperial court that the official gate dongyu of the Tan Dynasty was damaged. Zhu Yuanzhang asked the Ministry of Works to send officials to Changsha to inspect, and if it could not be repaired, it would not be repaired. However, Lao Zhu also instructed the officials of the Ministry of Works to let them repair the Temple, sheji, and zhaifang of the Tanwang Mansion.
Restoration of the Ming Dynasty Prince's Mansion Sheji Altar
This is very strange, at this time it has been a full year since the death of King Tan. Zhu Yuanzhang not only did not give his son a title, but also continued to maintain the Wangfu Zongmiao and other places. Could it be that Lao Zhu knew that his son was actually not dead, and still held the hope that one day the King of Tan would be able to return again?
Conclusion: Through the combing of this article, as Zhu Yuanzhang's own son, Zhu Zi, the King of Tan, did not receive a title after his death, which may not be as simple as recorded in the history books. First of all, we can rule out the claim that he is Chen Youyou's widow, because this is really ridiculous. As for his father-in-law, Yu Xian, although he is not a Hu Dang, his dual background of Huguang and water division will indeed suffer from the pond fish in The Case of Li Shanchang.
In addition, although the "History of Ming" gave the tan wang an evaluation of "yingmin and studious, good at belonging to the text", in Zhu Yuanzhang's handwritten "Imperial Ji Feilu", Zhu Zi's performance was surprising. King Tan not only took people's lives and killed officials at will, but his personal conduct was also very inferior.
Therefore, when his father sent someone to summon him to Nanjing, King Tan, who knew that he was deeply guilty, artificially created a fire, but actually secretly fled. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang, an old father who was familiar with the inside story, did not give him a title, did not cut off the guards of the King of Tan, and continued to repair the palace, I am afraid that he was also waiting for his son to change his mind. Of course, judging from the final result, Zhu Yuanzhang must have been disappointed. However, the Zhu family did not abandon the King of Tan, and in the future, when Zhu Dijing successfully paid tribute to the deceased members of the royal family, there was the King of Tan in it.
Bing Shen, with the throne, sent Zhu Yanzhen, the chief of the Taichang Temple, to pay tribute to the ancestral tomb, to worship Xie Jingzhen to the imperial tomb, to worship Xu Hao and other kings, to honor Lang Peng Yongnian to sacrifice the emperor's maternal grandfather Xu Wang, to worship Ye Lianggui to sacrifice Yang Wang and other kings, to praise Lang Lin Guang to sacrifice the King of Chuyang, to the head of the household department Lu Qian to sacrifice the King of Qin, to sacrifice the King of Jin, to the chief of the Ministry of Works Lü Qian to sacrifice the King of Lu Huang, and to the Yuanwai Lang Tang Jian to sacrifice the King of Xiang and the King of Tan. - "Ming Taizong Records Volume 10"