The previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty all had a very good relationship with their original partners, such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, Zhu Yunjiao and Empress Xiaoma, Zhu Di and Empress Xu, and even Zhu Gaozi and Empress Zhang, although they were not deeply in love with each other, but the good villains also respected each other. Only when zhu Zhanji came here, he could not even respect Rubin, but instead abolished his own wife and set up his favorite person, Sun Shi, as his queen.
Zhu Zhanji's favorite Empress Sun was the mother of Emperor Mingying's Zhu Qizhen, and in some TV dramas, Empress Sun's personality was a domineering heroine who was strong and indomitable and saved Daming from water and fire. So in history, has she really been that capable?
Empress Sun's father, Sun Zhong, was the chief of Yongcheng County, and Lady Peng Chengbo, the mother of Empress Zhang (Zhu Gaozi's original wife, Zhu Zhanji's mother, and then the crown princess), was also from Yongcheng. Once When Mrs. Peng Chengbo entered the palace to see her daughter, she talked about a daughter in the Sun family who was very virtuous, and that was it, and Sun Entered the Palace.
Sun Shi was only ten years old when she first entered the palace, she was the same age as Zhu Zhanji, and since Sun Shi's entry into the palace was related to the mother of the crown princess, Zhu Di ordered the crown princess Zhang Shi to be responsible for teaching sun shi. Because of this, Zhu Zhanji often met with Sun Shi, and the two gradually had a foundation of affection.
In the fifteenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di ordered the selection of a concubine for the imperial grandson Zhu Zhanji, and Zhu Zhanji naturally wanted Sun to be his concubine, but the elders all took a fancy to Hu Shanxiang, who was famous for his sage. There was no way, Zhu Zhanji could only marry Hu Shanxiang as a concubine, and Sun Shi was wronged as a concubine.
Before Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, Hu Shanxiang bore him two daughters, and Sun Shi gave birth to one daughter. In the second year of Xuande, the Sun clan, who was already a noble concubine, gave birth to Zhu Zhanji's eldest son Zhu Qizhen, and there has always been controversy about whether Zhu Qizhen was born to The Sun clan, for example, even the "History of Ming" records: "Concubines have no children, and the yin takes the son of the palace as his own son, that is, Emperor Yingzong." ”
That is to say, Sun Shi originally had no sons, and in order to ascend to the throne, she hugged the son of the palace people. It is precisely because the "History of Ming" also insists on this statement, leading many people to firmly believe in it, but in fact, as long as you think about it, you know that this matter cannot withstand scrutiny at all.
First of all, if Sun Shi had planned to hold someone else's child earlier, she would have to pretend to be pregnant in advance, but pretending to be pregnant in the harem was so easy to achieve? Secondly, even Zhu Zhanji knew that he agreed to let her do this because he liked Sun Shi, but could Zhu Zhanji hide from his wise mother, Empress Zhang?
Moreover, if Empress Zhang knew, she would never allow Sun To use such a sinister method, after all, if she could not give birth, there were concubines in the harem who could give birth to a son for Zhu Zhanji. And even if she really wanted to hold the child, Empress Zhang was also hugging Hu Shanxiang to raise, because she had always liked Hu Shanxiang and did not like the Sun family.
Therefore, as a noble concubine, Sun Shi could not cover the sky with one hand under the circumstances at that time, and concealed everyone from holding a child. Therefore, there is no need to argue about anything at all, Zhu Qizhen must be that she was born right, otherwise Zhu Zhanji would abolish it and change the emperor's eldest son and mother as the queen, why didn't Empress Zhang object? It is because the Sun family has the trump card of sons.
It was precisely because he gave birth to a son that Sun Shi had an idea and began to blow the wind next to Zhu Zhanji's pillow. Zhu Zhan basically loved her, so he gradually moved his thoughts of abolishing the queen.
Zhu Zhanji first summoned the important ministers of the DPRK and China for consultation, and it was not so much a consultation as for him to try to persuade everyone. He said that he was 30 years old and had a son, so he should reward Sun Guifei, who gave birth to a son for him. Then he said that the queen had been childless for many years and was often ill, and that she was not a qualified queen.
However, these reasons, where to convince the rational ministers, Sun Shi saw that the situation was not good, and immediately resigned: "After recovering from illness, I have a son, and my son dares to have a son?" "From here, it can be seen that the difference between Sun Shi and the previous Ming Dynasty empresses is that she has a careful machine.
And the more Sun Shi pushed back, the more Zhu Zhanji felt wronged by her, so he directly persuaded Hu Shanxiang himself and asked her to take the initiative to resign from the empress. Hu Shanxiang also had no choice but to do as her husband wanted. Three years after Xuande, after Zhu Zhanji officially announced his abolition, he let Hu Shanxiang become a Daogu and gave him the title of "Jing Ci Master".
Sun Shi finally got his wish and was made empress, and her son Zhu Qizhen also became the crown prince. As we all know, Zhu Zhanji only had two sons, Empress Sun gave birth to the eldest son, and the second son Zhu Qiyu's birth mother, Concubine Wu Xianfei, was also not favored, so no one could shake the status of Zhu Qizhen. That is to say, as long as she lives well, sooner or later she will be able to sit in the position of empress.
On the third day of the first lunar month of the tenth year of Xuande, Zhu Zhanji died. At this time, the crown prince Zhu Qizhen was only 9 years old, and everyone was worried that the lord was suspicious of the country, so the news came that Empress Zhang wanted to support the Xiang King Zhu Zhanyuan (Zhu Zhanji's half-brother) to ascend the throne. It was still Empress Zhang who stood up at a critical moment and supported Zhu Qizhen to sit on the throne. After Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, Empress Zhang was honored as empress dowager, and Empress Sun was honored as empress dowager.
In the relevant records of the previous empresses of the Ming Dynasty, we can always see how they assisted the emperor and how many outstanding political achievements they had. For example, Empress Ma interceded for her ministers, advised Zhu Yuanzhang to cherish talents, taught the harem to know how to be frugal, and so on; Empress Xu personally put on armor to boost morale during the Battle of Jingnan, and as a result successfully saved Beiping; after Zhu Gaozi took the throne, Empress Zhang did not know much about the internal and external affairs of the dprk and China, and so on. Even Hu Shanxiang has such a record: "After each multiplication, there is no flattery and smoothness, and it is often served by the attendants. ”
These are all empresses who can help their husbands, but when they come to Empress Sun, we have not heard of her assisting Zhu Zhanji or anything. On the contrary, Empress Zhang often taught her son, and when Zhu Zhanji encountered major events, he also went to consult his mother, rather than consulting with Empress Sun.
This is enough to show that Empress Sun's political ability is not enough, so when her mother-in-law is there, she has no sense of existence. It was not until the seventh year of orthodoxy, when the empress dowager died, that the Sun clan became the highest-ranking person in the harem. But what happened after that? It was a change in the civil fort of the fourteenth year of orthodoxy.
The first thing to emphasize is that during the tumu fort change, Zhu Qizhen was captured, and the reason why he was personally driven was due to the instigation of the eunuch Wang Zhen. Wang Zhen was the first generation of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, but when Empress Zhang was still alive, the historical records recorded it like this: "Although Wang Zhen favored the emperor, he did not dare to rule in the end of the empress dowager." ”
That is to say, when Empress Dowager Zhang was still alive, Wang Zhen did not dare to be too arrogant, but why did the former die, and Wang Zhen became more and more favored, even to the point where he could persuade the emperor to mobilize the army to march in person? The answer is that Sun Shi's deterrent power as an empress dowager is seriously insufficient, and people do not pay attention to her at all, which is also evidence of her lack of political means.
After Zhu Qizhen was captured, Empress Sun could not think of any way, so she had to work with Empress Qian of Zhuqi Town to plan to rescue Zhu Qizhen. Naturally, the minister could not pin his hopes on two women who had no opinion, so they consulted with each other and formed the southward migration faction and the main war faction.
At this time, Empress Sun, as the highest-ranking person, had to make a decision, and in the end she chose to support Yu Qian and other main battle factions, and ordered Zhu Qiyu, the king of Qi, to oversee the country. Many people regard this as one of The merits of Empress Sun, but in fact, she also made a decision, the final victory still depends on Zhu Qiyu's leadership ability, as well as Yu Qian, these capable ministers, if in the end the Defense of the Beijing Division loses, I think the last person to be scolded the most is Empress Sun who made the decision.
Moreover, at that time, Empress Sun did not want to give power to Zhu Qiyu, after all, the latter was a competitor of Zhu Qizhen, and if she helped him up, then her son's position would be dangerous. Therefore, at the beginning, Empress Sun ordered someone to take the Xiangguo Golden Charm into the palace, and she wanted to ask the King of Xiang to preside over the overall situation. However, due to the fact that King Xiang was still in the fiefdom, it was too time-consuming to toss and turn, and he himself pushed hard to resign, and the situation was tense, Empress Sun had to take the advice of Qunchen and agree to let Zhu Qiyu ascend the throne.
However, for the sake of safety, Empress Sun gave the quid pro quo that Zhu Qizhen's eldest son, Zhu Jianshen, must be appointed crown prince at the same time. Such a request itself is also reasonable, and everyone naturally has no opinion, just like this, Zhu Qiyu ascended the throne and honored Zhu Qizhen as the Emperor Taishang. Therefore, these are just a series of decisions that Empress Sun had to make under the situation at that time. It can only prove that she is not yet confused about the situation, but it is not necessarily possible to say how strong the political ability is.
Later, Zhu Qizhen was released, and Zhu Qiyu was imprisoned in the Nangong because he was unwilling to return to the government. But at this time, Empress Sun could not do anything, only when it was cold, she sent her son a few cotton coats to protect herself from the cold.
Later, Zhu Qiyu even deposed Zhu Jianshen's position as crown prince, and some people said that Empress Sun allowed Zhu Qiyu to depose the crown prince in order to protect her son and grandson who were imprisoned. I just laughed, what is there to protect, can Empress Sun still prevent Zhu Qiyu from deposing the crown prince? If she had this ability, she would have rescued her son long ago.
Therefore, in fact, Empress Sun could not do anything at all, and she could only hope that Zhu Qiyu would one day "find out in conscience" and release Zhu Qizhen.
In the eighth year of Jingtai, Empress Sun finally ushered in hope, but it was not Zhu Qiyu's conscience that found out, but Shi Heng and others planned to launch a coup d'état to help Zhu Qizhen restore the throne. In the "History of Ming", it is recorded: "Shi Heng plotted to seize the door, and secretly bai yu empress dowager, Xu Zhi." ”
Thus, this became a major achievement of Empress Sun, because the change of the door was successful, Zhu Qizhen was successfully restored, and she eliminated another crisis in the politics of the Ming Dynasty. I just want to say that Shi Heng and others are helping her own son to reset, can she disagree?
Besides, this is also the plan of Shi Heng and others, this matter was approved by the empress dowager, if it succeeded, they would become heroes, if they failed, this matter was directed by the empress dowager, they just did what they were told. Therefore, Empress Sun was only a pawn in the coup d'état, and how she became a female politician who saved Daming.
If she really had these skills, she might as well have educated her son well in the morning so that he would not spoil the eunuch, and there would be no "change in the earth fort" nailed to the pillar of shame.
However, it has to be said that Empress Sun's luck was excellent, she chose to believe yu Qian and others, and as a result, the defense of the Beijing Division was successful. Later, she chose to believe Shi Heng and others, and as a result, the change of seizing the door was also successful, and her position as empress dowager was stable.
Although there was no great achievement, but also personally experienced many major events, Sun Shi finally died in the sixth year of Tianshun, at the age of 64, which is not worth it. After his death, Zhu Qizhen was buried with Zhu Zhanji in Jingling with his mother", "Empress Xiaogong Yi Xian Ci Ren Zhuang Lieqi Tianqi Tian".
(References "History of Ming", "Records of Ming", "Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of the History of The Victorious Dynasty")