In Chinese history, there are many famous empresses, some empresses, who have replaced the emperor as protagonists on the political stage, such as Empress Lühou of Liu Bang of Han Gaozu, Empress Wu Zetian of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and Empress Cixi of Emperor Xianfeng. Some empresses, on the other hand, do not have such great ambitions and desires, are willing to be the women behind the emperor, and strive to be an empress who is both virtuous and artistic and thinks of the people, like empress Ma of the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who will be said next, is one of the representatives.
Zhu Yuanzhang has a strong personality, cruel and irritable, after becoming emperor, sometimes because of the handling of things is very angry, a word does not agree with the people want to kill, Empress Ma is of high moral character, benevolent temperament, love the people like a son, as far as possible according to the reason of the euphemism to dissuade, or think of various ways to save people, for example, once Zhu Yuanzhang used the word "Fu" as a mark to kill people, Empress Ma was very anxious after knowing it, secretly issued an order, so she saved the whole city.
Once during the festival, Zhu Yuanzhang dressed up in disguise, conducted a private visit in the streets of Beijing, walked to a market in the south of the city, saw a New Year painting in front of many people watching, so Zhu Yuanzhang also stepped forward to see a lively, only to see that the New Year painting was painted with a barefoot woman, holding a watermelon in her arms. This New Year painting was originally a new year painting that represented the joy of the people's harvest, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not think so when he saw it, because Empress Ma was a big foot, and she was a Huaixi person, and "Huaixi" was in harmony with Huaixi, and Zhu Yuanzhang secretly thought: This is probably the people laughing at their own empress bigfoot.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry, and after returning to the palace, he asked his subordinates to inquire everywhere who had painted this New Year painting, and he must find out, and arrest all the people who were watching the New Year painting for good interrogation, and then use the word "Fu" as a secret note to prepare for murder. After Empress Ma received the news, in order to eliminate this scourge, she secretly ordered all the people of the city to put the word "Fu" on the door before dawn, and no one dared to disobey Empress Ma's will, and the people also always loved the empress, so every household had the word "Fu" on the door.
The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to the street to arrest people, and the soldiers found that every household had the word "Fu" posted, and there was no way to start for a while, but one family was illiterate and posted the word "Fu" backwards. Empress Ma, who was beside her, was anxious and dissuaded: "That family knows that you are visiting today, and deliberately pasted the word "Fu" upside down, isn't it the meaning of "Fu to"? ”
Zhu Yuanzhang listened to the music, although he knew that the empress was excusing the family, but the meaning of this "blessing" was good, so he pardoned the family, and the matter of the New Year painting was no longer pursued, and a catastrophe was eliminated. Since then, when people post "Fu", they will paste the word "Fu" upside down, one is to seek good fortune, and the other is to commemorate Empress Ma.