In ancient times, although the inheritance system of the eldest son had been laid down from the Western Zhou Dynasty, not all emperors had ascended to the throne according to this rule. In history, by his own ability, emperors who had ascended to the throne except for their brothers and nephews abounded, and Zhu Di counted one of them. Recently, the costume drama "Daming Fenghua" is being broadcast, which shows the story of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di who led troops into Nanjing at that time through the Battle of Jingnan and seized the throne of his nephew Zhu Yunjiao. However, in the subsequent plot, there are many people who want to assassinate Zhu Di, who has become the emperor.
Zhu Di stills
Such a situation shows that many people at that time were very dissatisfied with Zhu Di's ascension to the throne. This is very consistent with historical records, and the historical Zhu Di did receive a lot of criticism after he ascended to the throne. Seeing this, one has to think of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, who ascended to the throne by killing his brother, but he was rarely criticized. Also relying on killing to ascend to the throne, Li Shimin and Zhu Di have received two completely different treatments in the folk, Li Shimin has become an emperor for thousands of years, but Zhu Di has suffered a lot of criticism, why is there such a big contrast?
Li Shimin stills
The main reasons why Li Shimin became an emperor throughout the ages, but Zhu Di was criticized, are as follows: First, no matter what the truth was at the beginning, Li Shimin found a fig leaf for himself, and Zhu Di was a naked rebellion. Second, after the Song Dynasty, under the influence of Cheng Zhu Lixue, everyone's requirements for benevolence were also higher. Third, judging from the situation at that time, Li Shimin beat his brother, while Zhu Di bullied his nephew, which was quite suspected of bullying the small, and Zhu Di at that time also did a lot of things to arouse the indignation of the people in order to sit firmly on the throne. Therefore, Zhu Di's reputation is far less than Li Shimin's.
First of all, from the face point of view, Li Shimin's murder of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji belongs to self-preservation. At that time, although Li Shimin contributed more when Li Tang was fighting the world, Li Yuan still made his eldest son Li Jiancheng the crown prince in order to inherit orthodoxy. Moreover, At that time, Li Jiancheng did not ascend the throne and claim the title of emperor. Therefore, from the perspective of the status of the two at that time, Li Shimin did not belong to the rebellion.
According to the New Book of Tang and the Biography of the Sons of Gaozu:
"Built, Yuan Ji to the Linhu Hall, feel the change, go back, the King of Qin followed the call, Yuan Ji drew a bow to shoot, can not be the third." The King of Qin was killed when he was finished, Yuan Jizhong left, and Jingde pursued him. ”
That is to say, no matter what the real situation was at that time, Li Shimin's fig leaf was still there. Moreover, because Li Shimin's merits in the anti-Sui era were extremely high, everyone's recognition of Li Shimin was also higher, and Li Jiancheng was completely suppressed by Li Shimin. Therefore, although Li Shimin killed Li Jiancheng to ascend to the throne, in the eyes of ordinary people, this has become the survival of the fittest.
Secondly, the social atmosphere of Li Tang and the Ming Dynasty was also very different. After experiencing the suicidal social development of the Sui Dynasty Emperor, the folk customs of the Tang Dynasty were open, and although people also advocated etiquette, feudal etiquette was not so deeply bound to people. The Ming Dynasty is different, after the development of Cheng Zhu Lixue during the Song Dynasty, people believe that the way to establish the country, shang li righteousness is not still a power plot, the development of all things in the world is inseparable from a "reason" word, and must follow the development rules of things themselves. And Zhu Di's behavior was an act of seizing the throne by conspiracy and means.
After all, Li Shimin, as the victor in the fraternal war, took the throne from his father and emperor, while Zhu Di drove away his nephew and seized the throne with rebellion. In the eyes of the world, there is a clear difference between the two. You know, since the Song Dynasty, the people have paid attention to "starvation is small, and loss of temperance is big." Loss of decency here does not only refer to the loss of virginity by a woman, it was originally to inform people that even if a person dies of poverty, he cannot lose his integrity. Therefore, after the Ming Dynasty, how could people easily accept an emperor who rebelled against the throne?
Moreover, in terms of generations, Li Shimin suppressed his brother's success and then accepted the throne. And Zhu Di will not be able to get Zhu Yuanzhang, can only take the position from the hands of the junior, such an act, is not a kind of act of picking soft persimmon pinch? Therefore, many people actually look down on Zhu Di's behavior of deceiving the small with the big. Moreover, in order to be able to "legitimately" ascend to the throne, Zhu Di not only concocted the Battle of Jingnan, but also killed the ten clans of the literary confucian Fang Xiaoru, and such a thing became a stain that Zhu Di could never erase.
However, although Zhu Di's means of ascending to the throne were not very glorious, didn't the ancient subordinates pay attention to the ability to take the upper position? Moreover, after Zhu Di ascended the throne, he also did a lot of ancient imperial deeds: editing the Yongle Canon, sending Zheng He to the West, and subjugating the surrounding small countries, these are also Zhu Di's great achievements. Therefore, in terms of Zhu Di's achievements, he is indeed a good emperor.