As the imperial residence of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City can be said to be the epitome of architectural aesthetics in Chinese history. As a symbol of royal rule over the world, the Forbidden City has always been based on seriousness and solemnity, and it is absolutely not allowed to have imperfect things in it.
However, now that we go to the Forbidden City, we can find that on the plaque of the Longzong Gate, there is an arrow suddenly inserted, which makes people wonder, who shot this arrow in this place?
From the map, the Forbidden City is exactly on the central axis of the old Beijing, while the Longzong Gate is exactly where the Forbidden City separates the inner and outer palaces. Outside the Longzong Gate, it is the duty room of the Military Aircraft Department, which symbolizes the affairs of the state.
Inwardly, it is the Cining Palace, which is often heard in various TV dramas, that is, one of the harems in which the empress can be eligible to live, symbolizing the life of the emperor himself. In the etiquette of the Qing Dynasty, Longzong gate was one of the important forbidden gates, and without the emperor's edict, even the emperor's important subjects were not allowed to enter.
The Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts mention: "Bian, the department also ... The text of the department portal also. "As a portal symbol of a building, the plaque directly represents the hierarchy of the building and its owner, and the plaque of longzong gate actually allows this arrow to remain on it for hundreds of years, and it is simply unimaginable to place it in the hierarchical Qing Dynasty." And all this must start from the Tianli Sect rebellion during the Jiaqing period.
The most powerful period of the Qing Dynasty was the kangqian dynasty, and the two generations of emperors, Kangxi and Yongzheng, stepped on the tide of the times, which improved the corruption of the Qing dynasty to a certain extent, and directly made the Qing Dynasty one of the few major powers in the world.
However, there is no unbroken feast in the world, and as soon as Qianlong ascended to the throne, the qing dynasty's rising national strength finally reached its highest peak, but after the peak, it was constantly declining.
Qianlong's most well-known title is the "Ten Perfections Old Man" he called himself in his later years, and this "Ten Perfections" records the ten victories that Qianlong fought in his life. On the surface, Qianlong's eastern expedition to the west and the settlement of the rebellion were a great achievement, but if we think deeply, why did the people of the Kangxi Yongzheng period not rebel, but after Qianlong ascended the throne, so many rebellions broke out one after another?
In the future, TV dramas or various network cultures are very respectful of Qianlong, but they are all viewed from the perspective of the palace, and if you change to the perspective of the people, I am afraid that you will not feel that your life can be so good.
During Qianlong's reign, he went to Jiangnan six times, and the people were mobilized, and there were officials like Hezhen who were greedy enough to be rich and enemy of the country, and they fought for many years abroad.
In the eyes of later generations, although they have made meritorious contributions, they are very good in the influence of maintaining national borders and expanding the ruling power of the frontiers, but in the eyes of the people at that time, this year's taxation to fight this, next year's conscription to fight that, year after year, but found themselves getting poorer and poorer year by year. If it is fine in the period of national strength, but once it falls, then the people will naturally be eager to move.
It is precisely in this way that in the late Qianlong period, there were uprisings in almost everywhere, among which the White Lotus Sect uprising was the most massive, and Qianlong, who was more than eighty years old, closed his eyes before he finished dealing with the uprising, and handed over this mess to his son Jiaqing. And Jiaqing is facing a situation in which contradictions are becoming more and more intense, and there are voices of uprisings at any time and anywhere, which really makes him anxious.
Even if he executed He Yan and used his family property for state affairs and people's livelihood, when the class contradictions were gradually sharpening, it was only a drop in the bucket, and the fall of the Qing Dynasty was already doomed. Its landmark event was the "Transformation of The DecayIng" that inserted the arrow on the plaque of the Longzong Gate.
As mentioned above, the White Lotus Sect uprising in the late Qianlong period has always been a major problem for Qianlong's confidants, which indirectly led to Qianlong's mental exhaustion. After Jiaqing came to power, he was naturally quite jealous of the White Lotus Sect, which played a leading role in the uprising, and after a few years on the throne, he actively suppressed it and completely eradicated the White Lotus Sect. However, although the White Lotus Sect was physically destroyed, its core was spread, forming countless rebel armies, and the Tenrikyo Sect was also one of them.
Since the White Lotus Sect continued to spread with the wave of uprisings, many people with hearts began to satisfy their ambitions by using this anti-Qing banner, and Lin Qing of the Tianli Sect was one of the more famous ones.
He was ostracized after joining the White Lotus Sect, so he joined his family and privately established the Tenrikyo Sect, which specifically contacted farmers everywhere to defraud them of money on the grounds of promising them happiness and land.
As his greed grew, Lin Qing called himself the "King of Tianli" and promised the disciples that as long as they paid the money, he would lead his troops to attack the Forbidden City to seize the throne, and after the fact, the believers would receive land and official positions in return.
The authorities are confused, the bystanders are Clear, and the peasants who have long been imprisoned have been oppressed, so how can they not be deceived? In a short period of time, the Heavenly Sect had really gathered hundreds of similar troops.
On September 15, 1813, the White Lotus Sect, which had long been mixed into the capital, took the palace eunuchs who had long been bought off as an internal response, and rushed into the capital early. The general who was supposed to be in charge of guarding Miyagi saw that there was actually a peasant army that could fight here, turned around and fled, and the reckless uprising that should have been hopeless really had a wonderful effect.
Hundreds of Tianli sects rushed all the way from the Noon Gate to the Longzong Gate under the leadership of Neiying, and after engaging the soldiers on duty, they broke into the emperor's living area, frightening the future Daoguang Emperor, empresses, and imperial concubines who were resting in the palace at that time.
If Daoguang hadn't calmed down and immediately called the firearms battalion that happened to be near the palace, I'm afraid that the rebellious peasants would have really been able to occupy the important area of the palace.
By the time Jiaqing returned, this reckless and hasty uprising had long since ended, and the follow-up was naturally the arrest that should be caught, the killing that should be killed, and the entire army of the Tianli Sect was destroyed. However, the gift they left for Jiaqing and the fading Daqing before they died was the arrow that flew to the plaque of the Longzong Gate in the midst of the chaotic battle.
This uprising stimulated Jiaqing so much that a few days after he cleaned up the mess, he issued the "Edict of The Crime of Encountering Change" to the whole world, directly stating: "More than seventy bandits of the Tianli Sect have violated the forbidden door and entered the Great Inner ,...... So that it became something that the Han, Tang, and Song Dynasties and the Ming Dynasty had never done"! In the compilation of the "Imperial Poetry Anthology" compiled by the elderly, Jiaqing also wrote with some trepidation: "There has never been anything wrong, but the Qing Dynasty has emerged." ”
In order to let future generations and hundreds of officials remember this shame, Jiaqing even ordered the craftsmen not to repair this place, and to treat it as a memorial to shame, so as to warn their children and grandchildren. This is also the origin of the arrow on the Longzong Gate that we see today.
Unfortunately, how can the general trend of the times be saved by one person? Although Jiaqing had a heart, the Qing Dynasty was already crumbling under the long-term tiredness and the eyes of external imperialism.
Although the tianli sect's uprising failed, it exposed the weakness of the Qing Dynasty and the external strength of the middle cadres, and under the internal and external troubles, the Qing Dynasty became a tool for the great powers to control China, and after a hundred years, it officially went to extinction. Time has passed, and only this arrow remains on the Longzong Gate, witnessing the changes in the past hundred years, and also witnessing the process of a country and a nation from strong to decaying, and then from darkness to light.