Zhu Houzhao was extremely greedy all his life, and Wenzhi martial arts were not bad, but one of the biggest fatal shortcomings was that he died too early, and the key was that he had not left any heirs, so after Zhu Houzhao's death, who should be chosen to be the emperor became the most important thing at that time.
Before Zhu Houzhao died, he gave the choice of heir to Yang Tinghe, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Empress Zhang, and later after careful consideration, they chose Zhu Houzhao's cousin Zhu Houxi to succeed to the throne, which is what we often call the Jiajing Emperor.
Zhu Houzhao's last words played an important role
Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen lived for 41 years, reigned for 23 years, gave birth to 13 sons, these sons gave birth to 21 grandchildren to Zhu Jianshen, it can be seen that the number of Zhu Jianshen's descendants is indeed huge, because the eldest son and the second son died early, plus Zhu Jianshen's empress Wang Shi did not give birth to a son, so Zhu Jianshen did not have a concubine, and the heirs who chose that year were selected as the third son Zhu Youxian as the crown prince according to the principle of "no concubine and standing long", that is, the ming xiaozong who succeeded to the throne later.
Emperor Xiaozong of Ming gave birth to only two sons in his lifetime, and as a result, the second son died prematurely, leaving only Zhu Houzhao to live to adulthood, and after Zhu Youzhao's death, the throne could naturally only be inherited by his only son, Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Houzhao has lived in an environment of fine clothes and jade food since he was a child, plus he is an only son, and thousands of pets have come together to develop an arrogant personality, which is even more vivid after becoming an emperor.
After Zhu Houzhao became emperor, he was very greedy for fun, the civilian official group had no way to take him at all, in order to be able to enjoy himself better, he also built a leopard room for play, you think Zhu Houzhao is so greedy, it must be an emperor who has done nothing, in fact, it is not, during his reign, Wenzhi martial arts are still quite good, especially the military achievements, whether it is the great victory of Yingzhou or the rebellion of the King of Dingning, they are much stronger than the emperors in the later period.
Overall, Zhu Houzhao was a more bloody and capable emperor in the late Ming Dynasty, but unfortunately he still did not escape the tragedy of his untimely death, and he fell seriously ill after falling into the water, and eventually died of death. Because Zhu Houzhao was only 31 years old at the time of his death, and he had not left any heirs after a lifetime of greed, the important issue of choosing a successor became something that Zhu Houzhao had to consider before his death.
Although Zhu Houzhao was absurd, but the consideration of the issue of choosing a successor was actually quite thoughtful, he first told Yang Tinghe, the first assistant of the cabinet, that the choice of successor after his death should follow the ancestral training, the so-called ancestral training is the "Huangming Ancestral Training" compiled by Zhu Yuanzhang in that year, according to the provisions of the ancestral training, the choice of successors should follow the principle of "brother and brother, there is a concubine, no concubine".
Before Zhu Houzhao's death, he left a special last word, saying that after his death, the choice of successor was given to Yang Tinghe, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Empress Zhang, combined with the ancestral training provisions mentioned by Zhu Houzhao before, the criteria for selecting successors had basically been determined, and then Yang Tinghe and Empress Zhang only needed to choose successors according to this standard.
Yang Tinghe and Empress Zhang chose successors according to their ancestral instructions
According to the ancestral training, if Zhu Houzhao had no heirs, he would first follow the principle of brother and brother, but Zhu Houzhao and his father Zhu Youzhao only had one only son, so naturally there would be no brothers to succeed him, and this principle obviously could not be selected.
Since there are no brothers and no heirs, then push Zhu Houzhao's father Zhu Youshen's generation, among that generation, continue to choose the successor according to the principle of "brother and brother, no concubine and long", Zhu Youzhuan ranked third among Zhu Jianshen's sons, the first two brothers died early, Zhu Jianshen also had no concubines, so according to the ancestral training, the most suitable candidate was Zhu Youfan's younger brother Zhu Youfan, and as a result, Zhu Youfan died two years before Zhu Houzhao, so it was impossible to let Zhu Youzhao succeed to the throne.
Since it was impossible for Zhu Youxi to succeed to the throne, he could only choose from zhu Youcang's descendants, Zhu Youbi had two sons, and as a result, the eldest son also died early, and only the second son Zhu Houxi survived, so the best successor was only Zhu Houxi.
Pushing here, the basic thinking is very clear, according to the ancestral training, the most suitable person is Zhu Houxi, and at that time Zhu Houxi was 15 years old, from the age point of view, not too big or small, just right, neither because of the young can not succeed to the throne and be opposed by everyone, nor because the elderly have too much ideas and affect the fundamental interests of Yang Tinghe and others, so everyone unanimously decided to let Zhu Houxi succeed to the throne.
Zhu Houxi is not a simple person
After choosing a successor, Yang Tinghe arranged for someone to go to Anlu Prefecture to welcome Zhu Houxi to Beijing to ascend the throne, and at that time, the people who went to greet Zhu Houxi were the eunuch Gu Dayong and Cui Yuan, the eunuch of the Ceremony Supervisor, and cui yuan, and the team was very large, giving Zhu Houxi enough face, and after Zhu Houxi bid farewell to his mother Jiang Shi, he followed the large team to Beijing to ascend the throne.
After arriving in Beijing, the cabinet officials asked Zhu Houxi to enter the city from Dong'an Gate as Zhu Houzhao's crown prince, but Zhu Houxi thought that he had obviously ascended the throne as the son of his father Zhu Youzhao, so why should he be Zhu Houzhao's prince, so he refused the cabinet official's request and stopped outside the door and did not advance.
Seeing that Zhu Houxi and the cabinet officials were deadlocked, Empress Zhang had no choice but to reconcile with each other, saying that Zhu Houxi had entered the city and ascended the throne in the form of the persuasion of hundred officials, and in order to go through the process, she really let the hundred officials persuade three times in a row, and Zhu Houxi was satisfied to enter the imperial palace from the emperor's special Daming Gate and ascended the throne as the emperor, known as the Jiajing Emperor.
At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, the Jiajing Emperor was hindered by the pressure of the cabinet and various civil official groups, and could only temporarily call Zhu Houzhao the imperial brother, Zhu Houzhao's father Zhu Youzhao was the emperor's father, and his father Zhu Youzhao became the emperor's uncle, which has always made Jiajing quite dissatisfied, in order to be able to change this title, Jiajing spent decades to carry out the "great ceremonial discussion dispute", and finally won the victory.
The victory of the Great Ceremony Controversy was not only Jiajing's change of his father's title, but also a symbolic event of the jiajing emperor's highly mature power strategy, and from then on, Jiajing played the emperor's power and strategy to the fullest, becoming the emperor who was the best at power and strategy in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
epilogue
Zhu Jianshen did have many grandchildren, but according to the ancestral precepts of the Ming Dynasty, after Zhu Houzhao's death, the best heir to the throne was Zhu Houxi, no one had more patriarchal legitimacy than him, it was not surprising that he became emperor, as for the Jiajing Emperor later took over Yang Tinghe and others, that was another matter!
Remarks: The picture comes from the Internet, infringement must be deleted, welcome to comment to leave interesting ideas.