"To be a king, to stop at benevolence, and to be honest with emperors." This is the evaluation of Song Renzong Zhao Zhen by the History of Song, and it is the highest evaluation that the emperor can get the word "Ren" as a title after his death, and there are only a few emperors in successive dynasties who have received this title, and the title of Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozong is the word "Ren", which in itself explains a lot of problems.
The "Ren" character is of course a coffin theory of Zhu Gaozi's life's deeds, but the "History of Ming" evaluates him even higher: "Reign for a lifetime, employ people for administration, and be good at books." Make the year of heavenly leave, the recuperation of Han Hao, the prosperity of virtue, and the prosperity of Wen and Jingbi Longya. "It should be known that Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han were both famous rulers of the world, and Zhu Gaozi not only received the same title as Song Renzong, but also governed the country comparable to the Second Emperor Wenjing, but he reigned for less than a year, and because of excessive obesity, he had a foot disease, even if he worked day and night to do much in state affairs, what did he do to make Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozi have such a good reputation in history?
The Battle of Jingnan remained in the rear of Beiping, so that the front line was worry-free
Zhu Gaozi was born in the eleventh year of Hongwu (1378), was the eldest son of Zhu Di the King of Yan and Princess Xu of the Xu clan, and it is said that Princess Xu dreamed of having a crowned ruler before giving birth to Zhu Gaozi, zhu Di thought that this was a good sign, so after Zhu Gaozi was born, he was very fond of him.
When Zhu Gaozi was slightly older, with a calm personality, a sense of words and deeds, and a penchant for reading, as the eldest son of WangFu and the future son of the Yan King, he received a formal education in strict Confucian classics and martial arts. In the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, the 17-year-old Zhu Gaozi was officially established by Zhu Yuanzhang as the son of the Prince of Yan, and after that, Zhu Gaozi showed good insight in several inspections facing Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang also praised this grandson many times and evaluated him as having "the knowledge of kings and men". It can be said that in the heart of Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the grandson Zhu Yunjiao, who inherited his throne, Zhu Gaozi, the son of the Prince of Yan, was the most important to him.
In the first year of Jianwen (1399), Zhu Yunjiao, who had just succeeded to the throne, ordered the cutting of the domain, and Zhu Di, the King of Yan, raised an army in Beiping, and the "Battle of Jingnan" broke out. At the beginning of the war, because Zhu Di had long been prepared, the imperial court army that surrounded Beiping was defeated miserably, and Emperor Jianwen urgently used Geng Bingwen, the Marquis of Changxing, as the main commander of the Northern Expedition, but although Geng Bingwen was a veteran general who had experienced hundreds of battles, he was only good at defending the city and not good at attacking the stronghold, so in the early stage, he encountered a small defeat in Zhending, and then he insisted on the city pool, Zhu Di saw that the main force of the imperial army was still there, and the city pool was even more solid, so he had no choice but to order the withdrawal of the army.
However, at this time, Emperor Jianwen did a stupid thing, after receiving the news that Geng Bingwen had been defeated and frustrated in the battle, he believed that Geng Bingwen was old and was not a rival to Zhu Di, so he adopted the suggestion of Huang Zicheng, the secretary of The Changqing, to replace Geng Bingwen with Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao, as a general, and led 500,000 troops north to attack the Yan army.
Just as Li Jinglong's army was moving north, Zhu Di, in order to avoid being caught in a two-front battle in the future, first defeated the imperial court defenders from Shanhaiguan, and then personally led his troops north to Daning, and ordered his son Zhu Gaozi to stay in Beiping before leaving. Because the main elite of the Yan army was taken away by Zhu Di, the towns around Beiping had limited troops and weak defenses, so that Li Jinglong's army drove all the way to Beiping City.
The outside of the city had been surrounded by 500,000 imperial army regiments, and the Nine Gates of Beiping were also being fiercely attacked, but at this time, Zhu Gaozi in Beiping City had only 10,000 old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers in his hands, and the enemy was outnumbered and the strength was very different, and the situation was very critical. However, the young Shizi Zhu Gaozi was not frightened, as early as Before Li Jinglong besieged Beiping City, he had actively prepared for the defense of the city and at the same time appeased the soldiers and civilians in the city, so the entire Beiping City not only did not see the slightest panic, but everyone showed the same hatred and full of fighting spirit.
Beiping City, as the original capital of the Yuan Dynasty, and after a hundred years of operation by the Yuan Dynasty, has long been one of the best fortified cities in the north, coupled with the stubborn resistance of the Yan army, Although Li Jinglong's army was large, it was difficult to break through for a while, so it had to continue to besiege. Zhu Gaozi, who was obviously weak, not only defended the city, but also ordered people to open the city gate several times to attack the enemy camp at night, Li Jinglong and others could not besiege the city for a long time and were harassed by the Yan army, not only could not rest at night and suffered heavy casualties, but had to retreat to the camp for more than ten miles outside the city to re-camp.
Just when Zhu Gaozi, who was defending the city, was relieved, Zhu Di, who was heading to Daning, took Zhu Quan, the king of Ning, and led the Duoyan Three Guards cavalry back and attacked Li Jinglong's army stationed outside the city.
During the entire Beiping Defense War, Zhu Gaozi was ordered to lead by example in every detail, and was calm and calm in the face of trouble, with the assistance of his mother Princess Yan, he successfully blocked Li Jinglong's 500,000 imperial army with more than 10,000 old and weak soldiers, saved the city of Beiping, and also enabled the Yan army to survive the greatest crisis. This is Zhu Gaozi's most dazzling battle achievement under the Jing Dynasty, because Zhu Gaozi is usually quiet and tired, so he prefers literature more than martial arts, and in the eyes of many people, he is inferior to his two younger brothers Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaoxuan, but the victory in the defense of Beiping proves that Zhu Gaozi is also very good at martial arts, which became one of the reasons why he was later made crown prince, and also because of this battle, Zhu Gaozi was supported and supported by many officials and people within the Yan King.
When Zhu Di led the army south to the Beijing Division, Zhu Gaozi still sat in the rear base camp of Beiping, providing grain and grass materials for the front in time, and when the war was unfavorable, Beiping became the last retreat and reliance of the whole army. It was precisely because Zhu Gaozi stayed in Beiping that Zhu Di could rest assured that he could lead a large army on the front line to attack the city and pull out the village, and finally win the victory in the Battle of Jingnan, of which the role played by Zhu Gaozi was beyond doubt.
The Eastern Palace supervised the administration of the country for twenty years, and there was no waste in the dynasty
After Zhu Di attacked Nanjing and became emperor, he hesitated about who to make him crown prince, according to the ancestral tradition, the head of the lishu should be the son of Zhu Gaozi, but the eldest son Zhu Gaoxu, who was relatively fat and happy, Zhu Di preferred yingwu and like his second son Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaoxu performed well in the Battle of Jingnan and made great military achievements, and was supported by a number of noble generals, which made Zhu Di's determination to make Zhu Gaoxu the crown prince was shaken.
Zhu Gaoxu was good at martial arts and brave in battle, and was supported by the military generals in the matter of establishing the crown prince, while Zhu Gaoxu liked to be literate and had the ability to govern, and usually the people around him were also civilian subjects, so he was supported by the civilian official clique. When Zhu Di consulted the opinions of the civil officials, they all advocated "establishing a concubine to be long", that is, making Zhu Gaozi the crown prince, and Zhu Di always did not comment on this and did not make up his mind.
When Zhu Di asked Xie Jin's opinion again, Xie Jin said: "The emperor's eldest son, Ren Xiaoxiao, the world returns to his heart." Then he stressed, "Good Saint Sun! Zhu Di's favorite of Zhu Di was Zhu Zhanji, the eldest grandson of Zhu Zhanji, so Aiwu and Wu decided to appoint the eldest son Zhu Gaoxu as crown prince, the second son Zhu Gaoxu as the King of Han, and the third son Zhu Gaoxu as the King of Zhao.
From the second year of Yongle (1404) when Zhu Gaozi was made crown prince, to the death of Zhu Di in the twenty-second year of Yongle, Zhu Gaozi was the crown prince for a full twenty years. During these twenty years, Zhu Di personally invaded Mongolia or went on tour many times, while the crown prince Zhu Gaozi handled the imperial government on behalf of Zhu Di in his capacity as the overseer of the Eastern Palace, and both inside and outside the imperial court, no matter how big or small, the prince led the civil and military officials to decide.
Zhu Di reigned for twenty-two years, did a lot of great things, and was definitely an emperor with great talent. However, whether he was conquering Mongolia five times, sending troops to Annam, sending Zheng He to the West, or repairing the Yongle Canon and moving the capital to Beijing, all of these required a lot of national strength, how to ensure that the state's financial resources were not lacking and organize the people's strength, how to comfort the disaster victims and the relocated people, and how to resettle the displaced people? These Yongle Emperors were all indifferent, and naturally handed over to zhu Gaozi, the crown prince of the jianguo, who handled these administrative affairs in an orderly manner.
It can be said that the reason why Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was able to achieve the "Yongle Prosperous Era" was inseparable from the fact that crown prince Zhu Gaozi sat in the middle of the country for twenty years, and their father and son had a clear division of labor, the Yongle Emperor was in charge of the general planning and major policies but he was a treasurer, and the crown prince Zhu Gaozi stayed in the capital to handle specific administrative affairs.
In the face of brotherly conquest and the high pressure of the monarch, he won the hearts of the people of the government with sincerity
When Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was the King of Yan, he had commanded the army to fight many times, and was a military general who had undergone battlefield training, although he followed the ancestral system and established the eldest son Zhu Gaozi as the son of the King of Yan, but he was more and more displeased with the eldest son who was happy with Wen and had difficulty in moving due to obesity, but instead favored the younger and more martial sons Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaoxuan, especially the second son Zhu Gaoxu, who looked heroic and brave in battle, much like himself, so he took them with him every time he went out to fight.
The Zhu Gaoxu brothers, who fought for their father's favor, did not have much respect for Zhu Gaoxu, the eldest brother, and even constantly designed rumors and framed in order to compete for the son of the world and the throne.
When the Battle of Jingnan broke out, Zhu Di led an army south to order his son Zhu Gaoxu to stay in the rear of Beiping City, and Zhu Gaoxu bribed Zhu Di's close eunuch Huang Yu (黄俨) to tell Zhu Di during Zhu Gaozi's guarding of Beiping, saying that Zhu Gaozi was close to the imperial court and "would hold Beiping for the imperial court to reject his father". All this was originally designed by Zhu Gaoxu, so he immediately fell into the well and said, "Brother cheng filial piety, but in Taizu Shiguo and Taisun Shanye." Zhu Di thus became suspicious of Zhu Gaozi.
Just at this time, Zhu Di suspected that Zhu Gaozi's affair had been learned by Fang Xiaoru in the imperial court, so he wrote a letter to Zhu Gaozi and sent someone to Beiping, Xu Yifeng the King of Yan, and won Zhu Gaozi's submission to the imperial court, trying to use this counter-plot to separate the relationship between Zhu Gaozi's father and son, and deliberately publicized the matter. Sure enough, the eunuchs who remained in Beiping quickly informed Zhu Di of the matter on the Shandong front, saying that Zhu Gaozi was conspiring with Emperor Jianwen and that the envoys of the imperial court had arrived in Beiping. Just when Zhu Di was suspicious of the letter, Zhu Gaozi decisively sent the unopened letter and emissary to the front of the army, which dispelled Zhu Di's doubts and allowed Zhu Gaozi to continue to defend Beiping City.
When Zhu Gaoxu became the crown prince, Zhu Gaoxu, who had been crowned the King of Han, was still not dead-hearted, and he was eyeing the throne. Originally, the fiefdom of Zhu Gaoxu, the King of Han, was in Yunnan, but he suspected that the fiefdom was far away, so he insisted on relying on the capital division and openly arrogantly declared: "What crime am I, rebuke me for thousands of miles?" He often compared himself to Li Shimin and named his guard Tiance Wei, in fact, he did not want to stay away from the center of power and lose the opportunity to seize the wife.
Although Zhu Di was sometimes very disgusted with Zhu Gaoxu's arrogance, out of his doting on him and his merits in the jing dynasty, he did not investigate it in depth, and Zhu Gaoxuan, the king of Zhao, saw this and did many illegal things, and the crown prince Zhu Gaozi had to intercede for his two younger brothers in front of Zhu Di many times in order not to embarrass and suspect Zhu Di.
Zhu Di was fond of and doting on zhu gaoxu, the king of Han, and Zhu Gaoxuan, the king of Zhao, and dissatisfied with the performance of the crown prince Zhu Gaoxu, on the one hand, there were indeed reasons for Zhu Gaoxu's physical defects (obesity, foot disease), and many of the ruling ideas were not in line with his own wishes, on the other hand, Zhu Di personally invaded Mongolia and went on tour, the prince sat in the capital to supervise the country, the power was in his hands and was unanimously supported by the wenchen, which made Zhu Di very worried and jealous, so he suppressed Zhu Gaozi at every opportunity, weakened his strength and influence, and made the government not out of his control. Therefore, his favor and support for Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, may not have no purpose in balancing the crown prince.
Zhu Di favored the King of Han even more, and his reward and courtesy treatment even exceeded that of the crown prince, and Zhu Gaoxu saw that his father was so spoiled of himself that he thought that he was hopeful, so he acted more fearlessly, stepping up the framing of the prince and the subordinate officials of the Eastern Palace to compete for the throne.
Among them, the first unlucky was the university scholar Xie Jin, in the eighth year of Yongle (1410), Xie Jin was ordered to enter the capital to play, just happened to encounter Zhu Di's northern expedition and did not return, so Xie Jin first went to see the crown prince Zhu Gaozi, and then returned home. When Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, received the news, he took the opportunity to slander Zhu Di and said: "Xie Jin was waiting for the emperor to meet the crown prince Zhu Gaoxu privately when he was not in the capital division, and there was no courtesy from anyone. Zhu Di was originally dissatisfied with Xie Jin's previous interference in the dispute over the throne and the separation of the royal flesh and bones, and this time he secretly visited the crown prince, so he was immediately angered by Zhu Gaoxu's instigation, and ordered Xie Jin to be arrested and imprisoned and tortured, and was soon executed.
After Zhu Di returned from the Northern Expedition, he was dissatisfied with the political affairs handled by the crown prince Zhu Gaozi, and Yang Shiqi, a scholar of Hanlin, naturally defended the prince, saying that there was nothing improper about the prince supervising the administration of the country, and the right hand man of Dali Temple, Geng Tong, also repeatedly played Zhu Di and said: "The prince has no major mistakes in handling affairs, and there is no need to replace the prince." Geng Tong's blunt words made Zhu Di very unhappy, and coupled with the fact that Zhu Gaoxu, the King of Han, and Zhu Gaoxuan, the King of Zhao, were constantly attacking the prince, Zhu Di had the idea of changing the prince in his heart.
Ten years after Yongle, Zhu Gaoxu sent people to falsely accuse Geng Tong of being entrusted by the crown prince to defend the prince and excuse the prince many times in front of Zhu Di, and Zhu Di was furious, believing that Geng Tong had formed a princeling party with Yang Shiqi and others and plotted against him, so Geng Tong was also killed. Not long after, the crown prince Zhu Gaozi's confidants, Huang Huai, Yang Pu, Jin Wen, and other officials of the Eastern Palace were framed by the King of Han and imprisoned by Zhu Di, until Zhu Di died ten years later and Zhu Gaozi succeeded to the throne.
During Zhu Gaozi's tenure as crown prince, he was always framed and calculated by Zhu Gaoxu the King of Han and Zhu Gaoxuan the Prince of Zhao, coupled with Zhu Di's suspicion and suppression, Zhu Gaozi's position as crown prince was always in danger of being deposed, but Zhu Gaozi did not lose his mind, but instead handled state affairs more attentively, showing loyalty and filial piety to his father, so that Zhu Di had no reason or excuse to depose the crown prince, of course, the existence of the emperor's grandson Zhu Zhanji was also the reason why Zhu Di did not easily replace the crown prince.
When Zhu Gaoxu's plot to seize the crown prince and many illegal deeds were exposed, Zhu Di could not bear it, and was furious that he wanted to depose him as a commoner, and at this time it was the crown prince Zhu Gaoxu who wept and pleaded for him to be spared. Zhu Gaozi interceded for his brother, Zhu Di was naturally very satisfied, and it was also what he was willing to see, and the prince won the hearts of the courtiers with his usual sincerity.
After less than a year in power, he abolished the harsh government and reused the civil servant Shi Renzheng
In July of the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424), Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, died of illness on the way back to Beijing during the Northern Expedition, and the crown prince Zhu Gaozi succeeded to the throne as Emperor Akihito.
Although Emperor Akihito Took the throne as the new monarch, he had been the crown prince of the jianguo for twenty years, and he was already familiar with how to deal with state affairs, and at the same time, he also had a set of national policies and guidelines in mind for the future planning of the Ming Dynasty, and he had held back for twenty years during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, and now he could finally put it into concrete practice.
He first pardoned Emperor Jianwen's former ministers, and the families of officials who had been exiled to the border in the Yongle Dynasty and returned to their original places, and then rehabilitated the unjust prisons, so that many unjust cases of the Yongle Dynasty could be unjustly settled and some ministers were restored to their official titles. In the late reign of the Yongle Emperor, due to Zhu Di's long-term high-handed rule policy, there was instability and division within the ruling class, and Akihito's move greatly alleviated the contradictions within the ruling group.
In order to ease the state's finances and solve the dilemma of the long-standing emptiness of the national treasury, he adopted the suggestion of Hubu Shangshu Xia Yuanji at the beginning of his reign, stopped the treasure ships from going to the West, and also stopped sending missions to Yunnan, Jiaotong, and other places to purchase gold and jewelry.
In response to administrative policies, Zhu Gaozi also carried out a series of reforms: he reorganized the cabinet, so that the cabinet members who were originally only responsible for the work of the emperor's advisers and confidential secretaries served as Hanlin bachelors and university scholars, and let them work part-time in the six ministries, raising their ranks to one product. In this way, the cabinet was no longer an irresponsible advisory body, not only had executive power but also could participate in decision-making, and the status of civil servants was greatly improved, and a regular civilian government was established in the imperial court and at the local level.
Emperor Akihito took Emperor Taizong of Tang as a model, cultivated the Ming Dynasty, and loved the people like a son; he selected the wise and capable, laid off a large number of redundant officials, abolished the ancient palace punishment, commuted the punishment to avoid unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and ordered tax reductions and exemptions so that the people could get full rest and recuperation. A month before Zhu Gaozi's death, he also planned to move the capital from Beijing back to Nanjing, the purpose of which was to alleviate the burden of maintaining the daily cost of maintaining The city to the southeast, but unfortunately he died suddenly before this action was implemented.
On May 29, 1425, Emperor Akihito died, reigning for only ten months, at the age of 48.
Although the Hongxi dynasty lasted less than a year, during Zhu Gaozi's reign, he abolished the harsh administration of the Yongle Dynasty and effectively adjusted some of the shortcomings of the state since Yongle, alleviated the internal and social contradictions of the rule, enabled the people to recuperate, and achieved unprecedented development of productive forces, and the Ming Dynasty entered a period of stability and prosperity. At the same time, it laid the foundation for the arrival of the later "reign of Ren Xuan", and it was precisely the various deeds of Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozi during his reign that made him highly praised in history.