Emperor Mingxianzong Chenghua Zhu Jianxuan (formerly known as Emperor Jianshen, renamed crown prince after the change of the gate in the first year of Tianshun (1457), was the eldest son of Emperor Mingyingzong Zhu Qizhen, born in the imperial palace in the first nine days of December in the twelfth year of the reign (1447), and was originally named Zhu Mishen; in July of the fourteenth year of the reign (1449), before Emperor Yingzong was about to march on the imperial conquest of Vala, Zhu Jianshen was made crown prince at the age of two.
In the same year, the Tumu Rebellion occurred, Emperor Yingzong was captured, and Zhu Jianshen's uncle Zhu Qiyu (朱祁钰), the Prince of Qi, was in danger and urgently succeeded to the throne as Emperor Jingtai of Daizong. Emperor Jingtai and the minister of the main war faction, Yu Qian, and others led the Daming army and people to carry out the defense of the Beijing Division, repelling the walled army that had entered the Kou, and turning the Danger of Daming Sheji into safety; in this sudden disaster, zhu Jianshen, a two-year-old ignorant child and crown prince, also spent an unusual fourteen years of orthodoxy with the Ming court without feeling anything.
After the crisis was lifted, in August of the first year of Jingtai (1450), Yingzong, who had been "honored" as emperor of Taishang, was able to return from mobei through negotiations between Daming and Wa La, and then was arranged by Emperor Jingtai to go to the Nangong to "rongyang", which was actually house arrest. Three years later, in May of the third year of Jingtai (1452), the crown prince Zhu Jianshen was single-handedly managed by his uncle Emperor Jingtai, who "ceded" the position of Crown Prince of Daming to his cousin Zhu Jianji, the son of Emperor Jingtai, and changed his title to King Yi and left the palace to live separately.
At that time, Zhu Jianshen was only six years old (imaginary age, actually four and a half years old), and his parents were not around (his father Yingzong was under house arrest in the Nangong, and his birth mother Zhou Guifei also accompanied Yingzong to live in the Nangong), and his grandmother Empress Sun could not always wait by his side to take care of him. Fortunately, Wan Zhen'er, the palace maid who was assigned to take care of him at that time, did not leave, and has always accompanied Zhu Jianshen, and with the care and protection of this palace girl who is seventeen years older than him, the young Zhu Jianshen only felt a little comfort and warmth, and was able to grow up relatively peacefully.
In the first month of the eighth year of Jingtai (1457), the "Change of The Gate" occurred, zhu Jianshen's father Emperor Yingzong of Taishang was re-established and restored to the throne, and the throne was changed to the first year of Tianshun in that year; while the uncle who deposed Crown Prince Zhu Jianshen, Emperor Jingtai of Daizong, was demoted to the position of King of Qi, placed under house arrest in Xi'nei, and the Ming Emperor was once again returned to the Yingzong clan. Zhu Jianshen, the King of Yi, who had spent more than four years in anxiety, was finally able to regain his status and no longer had to live in fear and fear.
After the restoration, Emperor Yingzong deposed Emperor Jingtai's father and son as emperor and crown prince (Emperor Jingtai's crown prince Zhu Jianji died in Jingtai in the fourth year of Jingtai), and re-established his eldest son Zhu Jianshen as crown prince; however, when issuing the edict, due to the negligence of the official and Emperor Yingzong himself failed to personally examine the edict, the name of the crown prince was mistakenly written as "Zhu Jianxi". The Emperor's holy will could not be changed, so the Crown Prince changed his name to "Zhu Jianliang" and used it for the next thirty years.
Because when he was deposed as the King of Yi and left the palace to live elsewhere, it was the palace maid Wan Zhen'er who took care of and protected the young crown prince, so after Zhu Jian'er was restored as the crown prince, he insisted on taking Wan Zhen'er with him and trusting and pampering him; over time, the crown prince actually had feelings for Wan Zhen'er, who was seventeen years older than himself, and even wanted to make Wan Zhen'er a princess.
Of course, such an uncivilized matter, Yingzong would not approve of it, in the middle of the seventh year of Tianshun (1463), Yingzong personally presided over the selection of concubines for the crown prince, and selected three women of the right age and qualifications of the Wu, Wang, and Bai clans, and prepared to select one of them as the crown princess in the next year, and the other two were made crown concubines, as the palace dependents of the crown prince, and also let the crown prince discourage the idea of establishing Wan shi as a princess.
However, in the first month of the eighth year of Tianshun (1464), Emperor Yingzong suddenly fell ill and died, and there was no time to hold a big wedding ceremony for the crown prince; the crown prince Zhu Jianfeng ascended the throne by his will, that is, Emperor Chenghua of Mingxianzong. After Emperor Xianzong ascended the throne, in July of the first year of Tianshun (1464), under the auspices of his mother-in-law Empress Qian and his biological mother Empress Zhou, wu was made empress, and a grand wedding ceremony was held with Wang and Bai as concubines. And the most favored Wan Shi, because of the opposition of the two empresses, did not get any titles, or an ordinary palace girl.
In August of the first year of Tianshun (1464), Empress Wu, because she was not accustomed to Wan's pampered style and proud of herself as an empress, took advantage of the reason to severely punish Wan. But what Empress Wu did not expect was that after Emperor Xianzong learned of it, he was actually furious, not only completely towards the Wan clan in this storm, but also borrowed the title to play and directly deposed Wu's empress. Since then, everyone in the palace knows that Wan Shi is the emperor's favorite woman, and even the empress cannot compete with it.
Originally, after Emperor Xianzong deposed the empress, he wanted to immediately make Wan Shi a new empress, but Empress Qian and Empress Zhou resolutely refused to allow it, and moved out of the ancestral family law to suppress the emperor; finally, as a compromise method, Xianzong reluctantly established Wang Shi as a new empress to ease the relationship with his mother-in-law and birth mother, but Wan Shi was still favored, and Empress Wang had the lessons of the past as a wake-up call, and did not dare to directly confront Wan Shi.
In February of the second year of Chenghua (1466), The long-awaited moment of Emperor Xianzong finally arrived, and wanshi, who was Chinese New Year's Eve seven years old at the time, lived up to the expectations of the people and gave birth to the emperor's eldest son; Emperor Xianzong, overjoyed, made Wanshi a noble concubine, and intended to make him crown prince after the emperor's eldest son grew up a little.
However, contrary to his wishes, in November of the second year of Chenghua (1466), the emperor's eldest son died prematurely, and Xianzong's wish to establish a crown prince was disappointed; for a long time afterwards, Xianzong was depressed and lost, and did not have a happy face. And Wan Shi was also too old and physically damaged during childbirth, and he could no longer bear children for Emperor Xianzong.
Three years later, in April of the fifth year of Chenghua (1469), Concubine Bai of the Xian dynasty gave birth to emperor Xianzong's second son, and took the name Zhu Youji. At that time, Emperor Xianzong was already aware of the fact that Princess Wan Guifei could no longer have children, and in order to ensure the inheritance of the Great Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xianzong made the second son of the emperor, Zhu Youji, crown prince in November of the seventh year of Chenghua (1471) to stabilize the foundation of the country. However, only two months later, in the first month of the eighth year of Chenghua (1472), the crown prince Zhu Youji fell ill and died at the age of three. Emperor Xianzong was very distressed by the death of the crown prince and posthumously honored the crown prince as "Prince Gonggong".
Because she could not have children, out of jealousy, she did not want to see other concubines in the palace conceived and gave birth to a prince, so even at this time, Xianzong already knew that her third son was born in July of the sixth year of Chenghua (1470), but she did not want Wan Guifei to know, so she secretly arranged the third son of the emperor and his birth mother, the palace lady Ji of the Library Cabinet, to live in the Xinei Anle Hall outside the palace in advance, so as not to be sad and lost after Wan Guifei knew about it (about this matter, the historical records are different, and the relatively more accurate ""The historical records here are used here." Ming Shilu - Records of Emperor Xianzong," based on emperor Xianzong's knowledge of the birth of the emperor's third son).
In April of the eleventh year of Chenghua (1475), because the imperial palace was struck by lightning and the Qianqing Gate was burned down, Emperor Xianzong believed that the heavens were using this method to warn him of the long-term failure to become a prince, resulting in the instability of the country. Therefore, Emperor Xianzong took the third son of the Emperor from Anle Hall to the imperial palace and handed him over to Wan Guifei to raise him on his behalf, which was recorded in the "Ming Shilu - Xianzong Shilu" in the cabinet assistant Minister ShangRui.
On May 19, 1475, in the eleventh year of Chenghua (1475), Emperor Xianzong ordered his cabinet ministers to name the third son of the emperor, and in this way announced to the courtiers and the world that he had already had a prince who had reached the age of six. On May 22, the third son of the Emperor lined the Wenhua Hall and was officially named "Zhu Youfan", and in November, Zhu Youfan was made crown prince, which was also the second crown prince of Emperor Xianzong. The crown prince's birth mother, Ji Shi, had died of illness at this time and was posthumously honored as a lady concubine.
After Zhu Youfan's identity was made public and he was made crown prince, in order to take care of the mood of the childless Wan Guifei, Emperor Xianzong promoted Wan Guifei to the title of Imperial Concubine in the twelfth year of Chenghua (1476), second only to the empress dowager and empress dowager in the harem (in fact, second only to the empress dowager, Empress Wang never dared to oppose Wan Guifei), in order to comfort Wan Guifei.
And Wan Guifei also knew that she could no longer have children, and for the sake of the effective inheritance of the Great Ming Society, she would not be able to prevent the emperor from getting closer to other concubines; since she could not stop it, she simply let nature take its course. Therefore, starting from the eleventh year of Chenghua, Wan Guifei was unusual, no longer blocking Xianzong from favoring other concubines, and since then, more princes have been born in the palace, and the Ming Emperor's unity is no longer in danger of being broken.
Among all the concubines, there was a Hangzhou Changhua man Shao Shi, because of his poor family, he was bought by the Hangzhou Zhenshou eunuch in the eighth year of Chenghua (1472), and then in the tenth year of Chenghua (1474), the Zhenshou eunuch arranged to enter the capital to be selected. Shao's beauty and wisdom, good conversation, in one fell swoop, into the palace to become a talented person.
In the eleventh year of Chenghua (1475), after Emperor Xianzong made crown prince, Wan Guifei no longer prevented the emperor from favoring other concubines, and Shao soon won the attention of Emperor Xianzong with his good looks and the character of Zhishu Dali, and was favored one after another. Beginning in the twelfth year of Chenghua (1476), Shao Gave birth to Emperor Xianzong's fourth son Zhu Youfu, emperor's fifth son Zhu Youzhuo, and emperor's eighth son Zhu Youfeng, and for this merit, he was made a concubine by Emperor Xianzong.
In addition, when Concubine Chen gave birth to children continuously, the other concubines in the palace did not want to show weakness, and endured the grace to continue to give birth to princes for Emperor Xianzong, among which Princess Zhang gave birth to the emperor's sixth son Zhu Youbin and the emperor's seventh son Zhu Youkai; An Concubine Yao gave birth to the emperor's ninth son Zhu Youyi; Concubine Wang gave birth to the emperor's tenth son (premature death and no name); Gongfei Yang gave birth to the emperor's eleventh son Zhu Youyi, the emperor's twelfth son Zhu Youxu, the emperor's fourteenth son Zhu Youkai; and Duanfei Pan's birth gave birth to the emperor's thirteenth son Zhu Shu.
The princes born to these concubines, together with the eldest son of the emperor who was born before Wan Guifei, the second son of the emperor born of Princess BaiXian, the "Prince of Mourning Gong" Zhu Youji, the crown prince Zhu Youji, the birth of Ji Shufei, Xianzong received a total of fourteen princes, this number, among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, can rank second (second only to taizu's twenty-six princes).
In the first month of the twenty-third year of Chenghua (1487), the Princess Wanhuang died in the same month due to old age and frailty, at the age of fifty-eight. After Wan's death, Xianzong was depressed, depressed, and his physical condition began to deteriorate. In April, Emperor Xianzong beat the spirit and held a grand wedding for the crown prince, and Zhang Luan, the daughter of The State Supervisor of Xingji County, Hejian Province, was made a princess.
In July of the twenty-third year of Chenghua (1487), Emperor Xianzong accomplished the last major event of his reign (although he did not know that he was about to die): he made several princes in the long line the prince of the domain: the fourth son Zhu Youqi was the King of Xing, the fifth son Zhu Youzhu was the King of Qi, the sixth son Zhu Youbin was the King of Yi, the seventh son Zhu Youyu was the King of Heng, and the eighth son Zhu Youfeng was the King of Yong (the ninth son, Zhu Youyu, was not yet eight years old, so he was not crowned king for the time being. ）
In early August of the twenty-third year of Chenghua (1487), Emperor Xianzong fell bedridden and became critically ill; so Emperor Xianzong, who knew in his heart that time was short, ordered the crown prince to come to the Wenhua Palace from now on to handle government affairs instead of himself; on August 22, Emperor Xianzong died at the Qianqing Palace at the age of forty-one. Crown Prince Zhu Youfan ascended the throne at the Fengtian Temple on September 12, with the next year as the first year of Hongzhi, that is, the ninth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming.