After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, in order to ensure that his descendants could succeed to the throne smoothly, the country and mountains were stable, and the heroes were almost slaughtered. Zhu Yuanzhang thought that this would allow the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao to sit back and relax, but he did not expect that his descendants would have a tragedy like that of his brother Ni Qiang. Zhu Di, the King of Yan, rebelled and engaged in a bloody battle with Zhu Yunjiao, and in the end Zhu Di won the victory and seized the throne. However, after ascending the throne, there was one thing that became Zhu Di's heart disease, and it was the whereabouts of The Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao.
The army besieged the city, and Zhu Yunjiao could not escape with his wings, but the ashes brought by a fire buried the truth. After the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Di attacked Nanjing, and Yan soldiers entered Beijing. During a scuffle, the palace was on fire, and after the fire was extinguished, several charred corpses were found from the ashes, and their faces could not be recognized. No one knows whether this is the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao, and this also makes the whereabouts of the Jianwen Emperor a suspense case.
There are many theories about the true whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen. According to official history books, the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao set himself on fire after Zhu Di, the King of Yan, entered the capital. The "History of Ming" records: "The fire in the palace was started, and the emperor did not know the end." King Yan sent the empress dowager's body into the fire. Moreover, the records in the Records of Emperor Taizong of Ming are also the same as those in the History of Ming, which clearly records that Emperor Jianwen died in the palace.
This statement is actually very credible, but it seems that out of sympathy for Emperor Jianwen, people did not want the benevolent emperor to die in the fire, so there are many sayings in the folk.
The most widely spread folklore is that Emperor Jianwen did not die in the fire, but became a monk. Wanli's "Chronicle of Qiantang County" records: "Dongming Temple was in front of Anxi Dasha Mountain, and Jianwenjun was a monk here, and there are statues. There is also a record in the temple chronicle of Dongming Temple: "At noon, Jinchuan changed, Qi Zhi de Yang should be able to do so and wear shaving tools, the Buddha knew that the number of fortunes was fixed, it was a monk's dress, from Wu Xing to Qiantang to live in Dongming Mountain, pro-moxibustion Under the ancestral seat, all six years, the traces gradually became resigned." “
These records show that Emperor Jianwen's coming to Dongming Temple to become a monk was not an empty thing, and the corpse in the fire may have been hidden, and the real Zhu Yunjiao had already come to Dongming Temple.
In addition, some scholars believe that after Emperor Jianwen escaped from the palace, he assumed the pseudonym Zhan Biyun and lived in seclusion on The Sanqing Mountain in Raoyu Mountain, Jiangxi, where he served as the presiding Taoist of the Sanqing Palace. The mausoleums on the mountain, the yanglian, and the stone carvings are the evidence.
For Zhu Di, the most terrifying thing is not that Zhu Yunjiao is still alive, but that he does not know whether Zhu Yunjiao is alive or dead. Although Zhu Di was firmly on the throne, he was after all a usurper, and Zhu Yunjiao was his defeated general, but he was also the only shadow in his heart. Therefore, even though the Forbidden Palace was already surrounded by the Yan Legion, the chances of Zhu Yunjiao's successful escape were very small, and even though there were indeed several corpses in the fire, Zhu Di still couldn't believe that Zhu Yunjiao was really dead. Coupled with the sympathy and contribution of the people to Zhu Yunjiao, Zhu Yunjiao's whereabouts have become a famous mystery, and Zhu Di has sent people to search for decades without an answer.
In fact, whether Zhu Yunjiao is alive or not can no longer pose a threat to Zhu Di, and what Zhu Di really fears in his heart is actually not Zhu Yunjiao, but the fact that he has usurped the throne.