Among the founding emperors of the past dynasties, the most worth mentioning is Zhu Yuanzhang, who is the most self-made. This old Zhu was really depressed in his early years, even worse than ordinary civilians. I believe that everyone knows that Zhu Yuanzhang once became a monk, and the reason why he chose to become a monk was not that he really believed in Buddhism, but just wanted to make a mouthful of food to eat. If he couldn't even eat, you could see how poor he was back then.
Zhu Yuanzhang fell into disgrace in his early years, and his parents had nowhere to bury
Zhu Yuanzhang's early years of downfall, speaking of it, is very related to the background of the times at that time. At that time, it was the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and the Han people were the lowest ethnic group in the Yuan Dynasty, and the life was naturally the most bitter.
When Zhu Yuanzhang was seventeen years old, a plague broke out in his hometown, and his parents and eldest brother were unfortunate to die of illness within a month. The loss of his relatives was already a great blow to Zhu Yuanzhang, but what was even more tragic was that after the death of his parents and brothers, he was so poor that he did not even have a piece of land to bury his relatives.
Since ancient times, China has always paid attention to "going into the soil for safety", people suffer from sin alive, as long as they can have a piece of land to bury after death, at least they can find a little comfort.
The landlord Liu De was ruthless, but fortunately his neighbor Liu Jizu reached out to help
However, Zhu Yuanzhang's family is really too poor, not to mention good land, not even a piece of land for burying the dead, in desperation, he can only go with the surviving second brother to find Liu De, a landlord in the same village who works as a short-term worker on weekdays, hoping that the other party can be kind and give him a piece of land to bury his relatives.
However, Liu De was not willing to show this kindness at all, and even sent someone to drive Zhu Yuanzhang's brothers far away. Just when the brothers were desperate, Liu Jizu, one of Liu De's brothers, could not look down and gave Zhu Yuanzhang a piece of land to bury his relatives.
According to historical records, Liu Jizu's table character Daxiu, in that era, the Han people who had a regular name and a table character were probably not badly mixed. In contrast, Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestors for several generations, even himself, are named after numbers, and as for the table characters, it is even more impossible.
Liu Jizu himself is a small landlord, perhaps a person with some culture, he helped Zhu Yuanzhang, and did not want anything in return, let alone know that the poor boy he helped would become emperor in the future. In his eyes, this was just a small act of kindness, but for Zhu Yuanzhang, it was a great favor, and this favor has always been remembered by Zhu Yuanzhang in his heart.
After ascending the throne, he did not forget his kindness and made Liu Jizu the Marquis of Yihui
After becoming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang personally ordered Liu Jizu to be rewarded and made him the Marquis of Yihui, and his wife Lou Shi was also Made Lady Hou. However, at that time, Liu Jizu had already died, and he himself did not enjoy the reward of Zhu Yuanzhang, but his wife and descendants were blessed by this, and it is said that until the end of the Ming Dynasty, his descendants enjoyed knighthood and fenglu.
Not only that, his son Liu Ying was also a very important person in Zhu Yuanzhang, although this person had no ability, he could always be a high-ranking official. If it weren't for this favor that his father had given to Zhu Yuanzhang in his early years, would Liu Ying have been treated so well?
Judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's return to Liu Jizu, although he was cruel and did do a lot of bloody things, he still knew zhi en Tu. In fact, even Liu De, who was cold to him at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang did not retaliate, but rewarded him with thirty acres of good land. This move will probably make many people wonder, rewardIng Liu Jizu is what it should be, it is the performance of Zhi En Tu, but why would he even reward Liu De?
The art of the Son of Heaven to control people is more popular than to blame in the past
This actually reflects Zhu Yuanzhang's unique ability to win people's hearts, and although Liu De did not help Zhu Yuanzhang like his own brother Liu Jizu, his failure to help is just an ordinary person's action.
In that era, why did non-relatives have to help each other? If Zhu Yuanzhang killed him because of this, I am afraid that he would end up with an evaluation of "blind eyes must be repaid". On the contrary, if he forgives Liu De, or even rewards him instead, it will make people feel that he is "magnanimous", so that rewarding Liu De, even more than rewarding Liu Jizu, brings him higher benefits, quite like the effect of Liu Bang taking the lead in rewarding Yongya.
However, in general, Zhu Yuanzhang's reward to Liu Jizu is still far more than Liu De's, and his reward for the latter is mostly a show, to win people's hearts, and the reward for the former can be said to be sincere.
Resources:
"Wan Li Ye Ye Zhi Zhi" and so on