Foreword: "Daming Fenghua" is a rare historical drama of the Ming Dynasty in China, except for a certain heroine whose acting skills are difficult to say, it happened between Zhu Di and his three sons, Zhu Gaozi, the prince of Han, Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Zhao, and the grandson Zhu Zhanji, and even the brothers' disputes and uncles and nephews, all of which made people enjoy watching with relish, and even laughing heartily.
A large number of lines full of life are considered to be extremely grounded, especially when the three brothers of the Zhu family see Zhu Di mouth a "father", and the grandson Zhu Zhanji affectionately calls the Yongle Emperor "grandpa", all of which make people surprised that court dramas can also be interpreted in this way. But then again, can the emperors and grandsons of the Ming Dynasty really call the emperors of the dynasty "father" and "grandfather"? Is this the whimsy of directors and writers, or is there really a trace in history? Let's talk today.
Stills of the Prince and the King of Han
The provisions of the Imperial Ancestral Precepts
The name "father" has a long history, at least in the two Han and Three Kingdoms era, the ancients have called their fathers or fathers. During the Sui and Tang dynasties of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people used "grandpa" more to refer to their fathers. For example, the famous "Mulan Ci" has such a sentence as "Grandpa has no eldest son, Mulan has no eldest brother", and the "Grandpa" here naturally refers to Mulan's father. In addition, du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, had such a poem in the "Soldier Carriage Line": "Ye Niang's wife walked to send each other, and the dust did not see the Xianyang Bridge", and the "Ye Niang" here means "Ye Niang". However, in the Song Dynasty, people gradually began to use "daddy" to refer to their father. As for the reason for this change, even the Song Dynasty themselves could not figure it out.
Today's people call their fathers fathers, mothers as mothers, brothers as brothers, and the whole world is the same, and there is nothing to say when asked about their righteousness. - "Chicken Ribs"
According to the mid-Southern Song Dynasty poet Ye Shaoweng in his book "Records of the Four Dynasties", "Emperor Gaozong called Emperor Huizong his father", which shows that the princes in the imperial family of the Song Dynasty at that time also called the emperor. After the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, a very important task was to eliminate the so-called "Hu customs" left by the Yuan Dynasty, so would the Ming Dynasty royal family learn from the Song Dynasty royal family? Quite possibly!
However, before exploring this question, let's first look at how the emperor and his grandchildren should call the emperor in a formal setting. As early as the ninth year of Hongwu (1376 AD), the officials of the Ministry of Rites gave their opinions on how the emperor, the emperor's grandson, the emperor's brother, and the emperor's nephew were called emperors in the table notes, which was also recognized by Zhu Yuanzhang. The so-called table note is a document that the courtiers state things to the emperor during chen xie and celebration, and it is a very formal official document.
Zhu Yuanzhang stills
With the consolidation of the regime and the gradual reproduction of the dragon children and grandchildren, Zhu Yuanzhang, through years of efforts, presided over the revision of a "Imperial Ming Ancestral Training", which made specific provisions for the code of conduct of future generations. As for the titles of the imperial family members to the emperor and even the empress dowager in the table notes, it is even more important.
Whoever enters the congratulatory note, the crown prince and the prince call themselves the eldest son so-and-so, the first few sons, and the wang mou before the son of heaven; the heavenly son is called his majesty the father of the emperor, and the empress is called his highness. If the sun calls himself the eldest grandson, Feng X, the first few grandsons, Feng X; the Son of Heaven is known as His Majesty the Grandfather Emperor, and the Empress dowager is called The Grandmother Empress Highness. - "Imperial Ancestral Precepts and Etiquette"
Let's take Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son, Crown Prince Zhu Biao, and the fourth son, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, as examples, and of course, the two of them should call Zhu Yuanzhang "His Majesty the Father Emperor" in the table notes, and at the same time call themselves "The Eldest Son Biao" and "The Fourth Son, King Di of Yan". As for Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunzhi (Emperor Jianwen) and Zhu Di's son Zhu Gaozi (Emperor Mingrenzong), he had to call himself "Third Grandson Yunjiao" and "Fourth Grandson Yan Feng Gaozi".
Later, during the Tianshun period, Zhu Qizhen, who ascended the throne for the second time, was given the title of "Empress Dowager Cishou of the Holy Spirit" for his birth mother Sun Shi (yes, the great heroine of this play). However, many foreign royal palaces still refer to Sun Shi as "Your Highness (should be called Your Majesty)" in the notes of the Winter Solstice Festival, and Emperor Ming Yingzong was extremely angry and threw all the chief historians of the various royal palaces into prison. It can be seen that the wrong title is written in the table, and the consequences are very serious.
Empress Sun stills
According to the Records of Emperor Taizu
However, the above titles are too formal, and we cannot imagine that in daily life, Zhu Biao or Zhu Di will call Zhu Yuanzhang a serious title of "Your Majesty the Father emperor", which is also too blunt. So what should I call it in the palace? Can you shout "Daddy" and "Grandpa"? We'll start with a copy of Emperor Taizu's Records of Qin.
As we all know, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it was the Qing Dynasty that ruled China. After the last emperor Puyi announced his abdication in the third year of Xuanun (1912 AD), he was able to continue to live in the Forbidden City with the "Preferential Conditions for The Imperial Family". But in the 1920s, a major event occurred: Emperor Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang.
Since Puyi had previously sold a large number of cultural relics, the Republic of China government urgently organized a group of literati to go to the Forbidden City for inventory. In the process, the famous red scholar Yu Pingbo found a Ming Dynasty royal secret file from the imperial study of Jingyang Palace: "Emperor Taizu Qinlu". The book , " Blue-faced , Yellow-signed , Orthographic, All InScript, with Red Circle Broken Sentences " , records a large number of edicts issued by Zhu Yuanzhang to the princes and princes. These edicts are very colloquial, giving us a glimpse of the titles among the imperial families of the Ming Dynasty.
On the same day, the inner envoy, the little donkey, waited for the Shizi Qiben: "In the morning of the ninth day of the first month of May in the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, he worshipped his grandfather's holy will at the Fengtian Gate: 'You write the Qi ben to say that you know with your father.'" When Lu Hou and Shang Du returned, the two of them were fine. Daddy said not to bother with the two of them, and to teach him back better than Grandpa and Feng Xianghou. Xi Lianghou was aware of the fact that he did not want him to know, and sent people to prevent the future. Don't shackle him, don't imprison him, just do this good to prevent the future. Thanks. —Emperor Taizu Qinlu
imperial palace
In order to avoid being seen in the clouds, we will make a simple explanation of this text. The middle son of the above is Zhu Jixi, the son of Jin Shizi, the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang,the third son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Prince of Jin. The time point is in May of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393 AD), after the Blue Jade Case.
We all know that the famous "Blue Jade Case" occurred in February of that year, and a large number of nobles and senior military attaches, including Blue Jade, were executed in Nanjing. However, at that time, there was also a group of so-called blue jade henchmen who were training troops in Shanxi, and the burden of collecting them was handed over to the Jin king who was in taiyuan, and the person responsible for delivering the news in the center was Zhu Jixi, the son of the Jin Dynasty.
According to the records above, Zhu Jixi's address to Zhu Yuanzhang was clear: "Grandpa", and his title to his father, King Jin, was "Daddy". In addition, the "grandfather" in the text refers to Xie Cheng, the Marquis of Yongping, the father-in-law of the King of Jin, indicating that there was no such term as "grandfather" at that time.
Conclusion: As a secret file of the Ming Dynasty, the title of the emperor's grandson Zhu Jixi for the emperor's grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang recorded in the "Records of Emperor Taizu Qin" can obviously be used as a clear conclusion of this article, that is, the grandson Zhu Zhanji in the "Ming Dynasty" calls Zhu Di "grandfather", which definitely has a historical basis.
As for whether the emperor can call the emperor "daddy", there is no clear record. But since Shizi called the King of Jin his father and Zhu Yuanzhang his grandfather, I think that the King of Jin's call of Ming Taizu his father is probably not a fact that is difficult for people to accept. From this point of view, although the drama "Daming Style" has many magic changes, this grounded title is really not a nonsense.