The Ming Dynasty existed in The history of our country for 276 years, with a total of 17 emperors, which was the last unified dynasty established by the Han Chinese, and its influence on future generations was extremely far-reaching. But there was one thing that was incomprehensible about the Ming Dynasty over the centuries: most emperors were very short-lived.
Looking at the 17 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, except for The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (who died at the age of 71), Zhu Di (aged 65), and Zhu Houxi (aged 60), the ming Emperor Zhu Houxi (died at the age of 60), none of them lived to be 60 years old, and most of them died at the age of thirty or forty, of which the shortest-lived Emperor Tianqi only lived to the age of 23, directly reducing the average life expectancy of the Ming Emperors by a large margin.
Ming Emperor Stills
After reviewing the history books, we find that the average life expectancy of several dynasties next to the Ming Dynasty was higher than that of the Ming Dynasty. For example, the average life expectancy of a Tang emperor was 46.4 years, the Song Dynasty was 46.5 years, and the Qing Dynasty was 43.2 years old, which is very confusing. Many people may think that the overall standard of living at that time was too low, so the life expectancy of people in the Ming Dynasty was short. But this is not the case, taking the ministers as an example, their lives are far less than the emperor, but the number of Ming ministers over 60 years old is innumerable, and some even live to about 90 years old.
So why did the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have such a short life? What the hell is wrong with them? The mystery may have been solved, no wonder the history books dare not record it.
First of all, we found that natural weakness may be the main reason for the emperor's early death. In fact, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not weak at the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang gave birth to dozens of sons during his reign, except for Zhu Di, who became the emperor, the other sons became the king of the clan, and most of the descendants of these clan kings were very prosperous and healthy, for example, King Qingcheng had more than 100 descendants, and the number of descendants of King Su was even greater.
For example, when The Chenghua Emperor was only 30 years old, he felt that his body was decaying like a decaying dead wood; Emperor Xiaozong was even weaker since he was a child, and he had been suffering from illness when he became emperor, and several emperors who later ascended the throne were also extremely poor in physical fitness. Therefore, many people speculate that it is very likely that Zhu Di himself has some genetic diseases, so his descendants will be weak. However, the history books do not directly record such a reason, after all, the emperor is the head of a country, and the officials responsible for compiling the history books must all submit to the emperor, and the content written cannot have any possibility of smearing the emperor, so even if such a reason really exists, the history books do not dare to record it.
Secondly, overwork was also one of the reasons for the early death of the emperor. After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he abolished the system of beggars that had existed in China's ancient dynasties for thousands of years. Such a system made the power of the state more concentrated in the hands of the emperor, but it also led to the transfer of work that originally belonged to the chancellor to the emperor alone, which increased the burden on the emperor. Under the heavy state affairs day after day, the emperors' bodies accumulated into illness, which eventually led to early death.
However, not every emperor was so diligent and loving to the people, and there were many emperors in the Ming Dynasty, such as Emperor Renzong, Emperor Zhengde, and Emperor Tianqi, who never considered the country and the people, only cared about their own pleasures, indulged in wine all day, and eventually died of excessive indulgence.
A corner of the Palace Palace
The last conjecture comes from a recent discovery. When inspecting the Forbidden City, some experts found that the paint on the walls of the palace may also be one of the reasons for the early death of the emperor. After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he moved the capital to Beijing and built the world-famous Forbidden City. At that time, a large amount of cinnabar was used as a coating for palace walls and floor tiles, and we all knew that cinnabar contained a lot of mercury, which is a heavy metal that is toxic to the human body, and if it is just built and stays in such an environment for a long time, it is easy to have an impact on the body, especially on children.
Early Ming emperors such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di spent most of their lives working in Nanjing, while Ming Shizong, who lived to the age of 60, grew up in the south before he ascended the throne and did not live in the imperial palace since childhood. In contrast, those emperors who have lived in the imperial palace since childhood have lived in the red wall since childhood, and their bodies are slowly affected by too much heavy metal, and it is very likely that they will be chronically poisoned and eventually die early.
Seeing this, many people may wonder why the Manchu Emperor, who also lived in the Forbidden City, was relatively long-lived. One is because the toxic substances in these coatings have a certain release time. There is also the fact that the Manchu Emperors did not often live in the imperial palace, most of the emperors stayed in the Yuanmingyuan to deal with political affairs, and every summer the emperors would go to the summer resort to live for a period of time, so they were relatively not so affected.
The above conjectures are all analyzed based on historical facts, and the truth of history is far more complicated than we think. These conjectures may be able to solve the mystery of the short life of the Ming emperor, and if so, it is not surprising why even the history books dare not say it explicitly. Do you have any other ideas? Speak up in the comments section.
Reference: History of the Ming Dynasty