Confucius may not have imagined that his descendants would also cause contradictions between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, even to the point that the emperor could not solve them.
The matter should start from Yu Shi, the wife of Kong Xianpei, the seventy-second generation of the Confucius Dynasty.
First, Mrs. Yu, who is foggy
According to historical records, Lady Yu was the daughter of Yu Minzhong, a university scholar and Hubu Shangshu during the Qianlong period, and the yuanbi of Kong Xianpei, the Duke of Kongfu.
Regarding the identity of Lady Yu, some people believe that she is actually the biological daughter of the Qianlong Emperor, and Qianlong is very fond of her. Only because a mole grows on her face may bring disaster to her family, so she must marry the richest and most honorable family in the world to avoid the disaster.
Obviously, such a family, in addition to the royal family, is the Yansheng Gongfu of Qufu. At that time, Manchu and Han could not intermarry, so Qianlong made the princess Yu Minzhong's daughter and then married to the Yansheng Gongfu in the name of the Yu family.
However, there is no historical record to confirm this.
Qianlong had ten daughters, each of whom had a detailed account of her life, and in these records, she did not marry the daughter of Yan Sheng Gong at all. Therefore, the claim that Lady Yu is Qianlong's daughter is not very credible.
Not the emperor's daughter is nothing, as a scholar of the dynasty, Hubu Shangshu Qianjin, Lady Yu is still prominent. In order to marry her, Kong Xianpei deliberately expanded the back garden of Kong Mansion and specially allocated part of the proceeds of the farm as Mrs. Yu's daily pocket money. Her dowry is also very rich, in addition to Aya silk satin, jewelry and jewelry, there are also coral, agate, Ganoderma lucidum and other rare treasures.
Confucius Back Garden
On the day of the wedding, Kong Xianpei personally entered Beijing to marry, and Qianlong and the empress dowager summoned them one after another, and the reward was very rich. Later, when Qianlong had a big birthday, Lady Yu specially presented two embroideries of her own to celebrate the emperor's birthday. These two paintings are gorgeous and exquisite, and embroidered with Qianlong's poems, showing the royal style. The embroidery is now in the national palace museum in Taipei.
Lady Yu gave birth to two daughters for Kong Xianpei but did not survive, and nothing has been produced since then. Under normal circumstances, Yuan Pei had no heirs, and the Yan Sheng Gonghui remarried to the side chamber or concubine, but Kong Xianpei did not remarry until his death at the age of 38. Now that I think about it, it should be that this lady is too powerful, so that Kong Xianpei dispelled the idea of remarrying.
Kong Xianpei no longer married, but the title of Duke of Yansheng had to be inherited, so he succeeded Kong Qingrong, the son of his brother Kong Xianzeng, as his heir.
In 1793 (the fifty-eighth year of Qianlong), Kong Xianpei died, and the following year, Kong Qingrong attacked the knighthood and was awarded the title of Guanglu Doctor.
Kong Qingrong has been intelligent since childhood, talented, and eloquent; he also knows etiquette, respects his elders, and is simple and generous. He regarded his wife as his birth mother, "filial piety and sincerity, serving her mother, going in and out of the house and not daring to violate it; ”
Second, the contradiction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law broke out
Kong Qingrong was only eight years old when he inherited the title, and the power to administer the Kong mansion naturally fell into the hands of Lady Yu. If Lady Yu is smart enough, she should support the Kong family's children to assist in management, so that it will not only envelop the Kong family, but also will not give people a handle. But Lady Yu did not, she felt that she was far away from her mother's family, her relatives and friends had nothing to rely on, and the only thing she could rely on was the servant who was married, the nephew of the mother's family, Yu Gongzhu; such a servant, Lady Yu actually let him be the housekeeper of the Confucius Palace. Seeing that the power of the Confucius Mansion had fallen into the hands of the Yu family, another hostess, Lady Cheng, was very dissatisfied.
Kong Zhaohuan, the previous generation of YanshengGong, had two wives: Lady Yuan and Lady Cheng, and Kong Xianpei and Kong Xianzeng were both born to Lady Chen, so Lady Yu did not respect this stepmother very much. When Kong Xianpei was alive, there was a contradiction between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law; after Kong Xianpei's death, Lady Yu took power, and the housekeeper Yu Gong took advantage of his work to secretly sell the land for the sacrifice of Kong Province. After Mrs. Cheng knew about it, she was greatly enraged, and the contradiction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law finally broke out. Lady Cheng forcibly reclaimed the Great Seal of Confucius as the grandmother of Yan Shenggong, revoked Lady Yu's management of Confucius, and let Kong Xianzeng manage the affairs of Confucius on her behalf.
Although Lady Yu was unwilling but helpless, Yu Gongzuo instigated her to take the opportunity to return to her mother's house, and took Xiaoyan Shenggong Kong Qingrong with her, and lived in the capital for several years.
Lady Cheng did not think much of this, and without Kong Qingrong, she could also report to the imperial court to establish another Sheng Gong. But Lady Yu couldn't stay, she wasn't willing to lose everything in KongFu.
3. Sue the mother-in-law the emperor for mediation
In the third year of Jiaqing (1798), Lady Yu came uninvited and returned to Kong Mansion with Kong Qingrong. This time, instead of making peace with her mother-in-law, she ran to the Shandong provincial government yamen to complain to her mother-in-law at the instigation of another nephew, Yu Xijia, and her servant Liu Daxin, demanding that she take back the seal letter from Kong Fu and regain power.
Lady Yu was a lady of the Yipin Commandment, and Yi Jiang'a, who was then the governor of Shandong, did not dare to be sloppy, and while sending someone to send Lady Yu back to Qufu, he ordered the Confucius government to agree to Lady Yu's request. He also pointed out that Lady Yu was the mother of Yan ShengGong, and all affairs of the Confucius Family should be reported to her, and the rest of the Kong family was not allowed to interfere.
After regaining power, the two nephews of the Yu family, Yu Gongshu and Yu Xijia, did not stop. They used Zhao Yu, a hundred households with whom they had been stealing fields and embezzling the sacrificial money (sacrifice costs) and being expelled by the Confucius government, and framed Yang Tianxiang, the housekeeper whom Lady Cheng reused, for embezzling the ancestral silver and wanted to send him to the Ministry of Punishment for questioning. Kong Qingrong, who is already eleven years old, understands the inside story and does not want to pursue it.
Yu Xijia forced the hand of Kong Qingrong to issue a message.
Cixi wrote the word "Shou" in her own handwriting
Madame Cheng was completely angered by such a bad act. In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), Lady Cheng sent her son Kong Xiankun [kūn] to the provincial capital Yamen to accuse Lady Yu. At this time, the Inspector of Shandong had been replaced by Chen Dawen. After understanding the inside story, he did not dare to specialize and reported the matter directly to the Jiaqing Emperor.
Upon receiving the report, the Jiaqing Sentencing Department, the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau, and the Inspector of Shandong formed a working group to jointly investigate and verify, and according to the results of the investigation, the royal approval was as follows:
"The Daughter of Ding Minzhong, a former college student, is well known. Now, because Kong Qingrong was young, he listened to the instigation of the family slaves, trusted the mother's family, and interfered with the affairs of the Kong clan with the people of the Yu clan, which was really incompatible. "It is necessary to temporarily entrust the household affairs of Yan Sheng Gong to Kong Xianzeng, and kong Qingming will be in charge of the elderly kong." The Yu clan was bound by the Yigu Cheng clan and did not allow disputes. ”
——(Archives of Confucius)
Jiaqing asked Kong Xianzeng to continue to administer the Kong Mansion and ordered his wife to obey Lady Cheng's supervision and not to refrain from any more disputes. In the present view, this judgment is clearly correct.
Jiaqing Emperor
But will Madame Yu be obedient? Obviously not. The two sensational lawsuits not only brought great negative effects to the Confucius Government, but also made this contradiction between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law deeper and deeper.
Fourth, a strong daughter-in-law who dares to resist the will
In the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803), only three years after Jiaqing's last judgment, Lady Cheng wrote to Jiaqing again, accusing her daughter-in-law Of Lady Yu's various misdeeds. The allegations are as follows:
Lady Yu not only pretended to be ill on a festival like New Year's Day and did not ask her for peace, but also did not allow Kong Qingrong to accept the teachings of her biological father Kong Xianzeng and her teacher, and connived with servants to seduce Kong Qingrong;
Lady Yu even did not allow Kong Qingrong to enter the family school for several months, Kong Xianzeng repeatedly reprimanded Kong Qingrong's court, and Lady Yu actually thought that she was bullying their orphans and widows, so kong Qingrong asked Kong Qingrong to hang the remains of Kong Xianpei on the hall and offer incense at dawn and night;
Kong Xianzeng blamed Kong Qingrong for not being lucky for his unruly statues, and for not going to study for a long time, and beat him several times with a ring ruler, and Lady Yu immediately quarreled with Kong Xianzeng, and summoned Kong Qingrong into the inner room, put away all the books, and said that he would never let him read again in the future, and demonstrated to Kong Xianzeng.
It can be seen from this that Lady Yu not only did not pay attention to her mother-in-law and little uncle, but even the housekeeper appointed by the emperor and the holy will that made her accept the mother-in-law's discipline were not taken seriously, and if she did not want to listen, she would not listen.
The Jiaqing Emperor didn't know what to do with it this time, he couldn't always arrest Lady Yu and beat the board, right?
In the eleventh year of Jiaqing (1806), Lady Cheng died, and there was no opponent, and Lady Yu could finally do whatever she wanted.
I don't know what Mrs. Yu will think in her heart when she sees this warning of abstinence from greed every day
V. Comments from later generations
In the third year of Daoguang (1823), Lady Yu completed her strong life, and the story about her was also passed down. People are willing to believe that she is Qianlong's daughter and add material to this powerful woman, otherwise how dare she be so arrogant and domineering? Regarding Madame Yu's behavior, some people believe that she is rebelling against feudal oppression and fighting for freedom and rights.
This is obviously a bit hard to raise, right and wrong.
The dispute between Cheng Yu and their mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is no different from that of ordinary people's families, except that they are both the wives of The Duke of Kongfu Yan, a lady of the Yipin Dynasty, with a noble status and a prominent status. Confucius's family rules are strict, and they are respected by the people of the world for their filial piety, observance of etiquette, and reverence for Confucius's filial piety ideas. Although Lady Cheng was not Lady Yu's mother-in-law, she was an elder after all, and there seemed to be no major mistake in the whole incident; however, Lady Yu not only disrespected her mother-in-law, but also connived with slaves to embezzle family wealth, interfered in the education of Yan Shenggong, and even openly disobeyed the Holy Will, and did everything in her power to obtain the power of the housekeeper.
In her eyes, Kong Qingrong, the Duke of Yansheng, was not a son, but a tool for her to fight for power, a means to blackmail Lady Cheng and Kong Xianzeng, otherwise how could Kong Qingrong not study for several months at the age of study? Where is the shadow of filial piety and etiquette in such character and behavior? What virtues are there to speak of? What about completely arbitrary, domineering, and selfish behavior, and what about fighting for freedom and resisting oppression?
If Confucius is still alive, with his explosive temper, it is estimated that he will have to say: "Is it tolerable, or can it not be tolerated?" Then he slapped Mrs. Yu and slapped her...
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