Does the emperor live long? This question seems to be not difficult to answer, after all, the emperor sits on the resources of a country, hungry has the taste of mountains and treasures, has the taste of the sea, has a good doctor when he is sick, and it is natural to have a longer life span, such as the life expectancy of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty and the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty is more than 80 years old. However, the fact is that most emperors did not live long, for example, the average life expectancy of the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty was only 42 years, including Zhu Zhanji, the Ming Xuanzong who created the "Rule of Renxuan", who died at the age of 36.
Emperor's grandson Zhu Zhanji
Zhu Zhanji's birth is quite mysterious, it is said that at that time, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, dreamed on the night of Zhu Zhanji's birth that Zhu Yuanzhang handed him a big gui and left a meaningful sentence, "Pass on the descendants of the descendants, forever qichang". It should be known that Dagui represented power in ancient times, only the emperor was eligible to use it, and when Zhu Di was still figuring out the meaning represented by this dream, Zhu Zhanji was born, which made Zhu Di very happy, thinking that the birth of a good grandson Zhu Zhanji just confirmed what his father said in his dream.
So how could Zhu Di pass the throne to his grandson? The answer was simple, that is, the rebellion to seize the throne of his nephew Emperor Jianwen, so Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingnan, no matter what the process, and as a result, Zhu Di really ascended the throne.
As we all know, Zhu Gaoxu could not ride a horse to fight due to physical reasons, which made Zhu Di, who immediately fought the world, very dissatisfied with him, and even had the idea of making his second son Zhu Gaoxu the crown prince, but Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, acted recklessly and recklessly, not like Ming Jun, which made Zhu Di hesitate to make up his mind. Unlike his father Zhu Gaoxu,who was physically weak and his uncle Zhu Gaoxu acted recklessly, Zhu Zhanji seemed to have gathered the strengths of the two men, benevolent and heroic, which also added a lot of points to Zhu Gaozi's ascension to the throne.
Later, Zhu Di made Zhu Zhanji's father Zhu Gaozi crown prince, and then zhu Zhanji was made the emperor's grandson. Logically, the emperor Li Chu generally only considered the issue of his own heir, and would not cross the line to help his son choose an heir, but Zhu Di did so, which was enough to see Zhu Di's preference for his grandson Zhu Zhanji.
According to the "Ming Shi Xuanzong", "In November of the ninth year, he was made the grandson of the Emperor and crowned. Self-righteous, the patrol is obedient. Hu Guang, a scholar of the Imperial Household, and others, lectured on the history of scripture for taisun in the army. ”
In order to cultivate Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Di can be said to have spared no effort, whether he travels or fights, he must take Zhu Zhanji with him, not only that, Zhu Di also invited Hu Guang, the great Confucian of the world, to teach him cultural lessons. It can be seen from this that Zhu Di not only wanted Zhu Di to learn how to fight, but also wanted him to read more, with the intention of making Zhu Zhanji an all-rounder of literature and martial arts.
He reigned for 10 years and created the rule of Renxuan
After the deaths of Zhu Di and Zhu Gaozi, Zhu Zhanji became the fifth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but he inherited a "mess", when the Annan Rebellion of the Ming Dynasty had not yet been settled, and the huge war expenditure made the imperial court's finances increasingly stretched, and the kings of the various feudal lords in the country were eager to move, threatening the imperial power at all times.
After ascending the throne, Zhu Zhanji first took the king of the domain to "open the knife", personally led a large army to quell the rebellion of his uncle Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, and in order to cut off the military strength of the kings of the various domains, he dispatched the royal guards in the name of expanding the guardhouse. In addition, he also formulated a stricter code of conduct for the king of the clan, and the king of the clan was punished severely for the slightest violation, which made the status of the king of the clan plummet, thus making the imperial power more stable.
In terms of government affairs, Zhu Zhanji gave the cabinet greater powers, and at the same time established a system of joint auxiliary administration of ceremonies and supervisors, which on the one hand improved the communication efficiency between the emperor and the six ministries, and on the other hand, weakened the power in the hands of the ministers. Zhu Zhanji was well aware that it was not easy to supervise corruption in the localities, so he set up a patrol system to strengthen the investigation and punishment of corruption among local officials, and because the local inspectors were not under the jurisdiction of the yousi and were directly responsible to the emperor, the inspectors later became the actual highest local officials. This system effectively rectified the corrupt practices of Daming officials and allowed Xuande to rule clearly.
In the civil field, Zhu Zhanji inherited the benevolent government of his father Zhu Gaozhi who loved the people and anmin; in order to express his attention to agricultural production and popularize the policy of reclamation, he even personally went down to the fields to plow the land, and also sent heavy ministers to the Jiangnan region to solve the tax problem. Not only that, Zhu Gaozi intended to move the capital to Nanjing before his death, and Zhu Zhanji believed that at this time Daming needed more recuperation and was not suitable for major construction, so he shelved the plan to move the capital.
In the military field, Zhu Zhanji practiced a relatively moderate border defense strategy. On the one hand, it negotiated peace with Annan, saving a lot of manpower and material resources every year, on the other hand, it increased the defense against Mongolia and no longer took the initiative to attack, this strategy made the Daming border maintain a relatively stable situation, and won valuable development time for Daming.
"History of Ming": "The rule of Ren Xuan, the official called his office, the government was peaceful, the Gang Ji Xiu Ming, the Cangyu Chong envy, the Lu Yan Leye, the years can not be calamity." ”
Although Zhu Zhanji reigned for only 10 years, his exploits were no less than those of his ancestors Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, and he created the "Rule of Renxuan" of great significance to Daming, so that the society in the early Ming Dynasty was stable, the officials were clear, and the economy was further restored and developed.
His untimely death laid hidden dangers for Daming
At the beginning of his reign, Emperor Xuanzong set up a department in the inner palace to teach eunuchs to read and write, and then established a ceremonial supervisor and appointed eunuchs to assist the emperor in handling government affairs. The system of ceremonial supervision and auxiliary government did reduce the amount of tasks of the emperor and effectively limit the power of the cabinet ministers, but his favored eunuchs also left hidden dangers for the later eunuchs to interfere in politics, after all, he was a wise lord himself and could control these eunuchs, but the future kings did not have this ability, and even in the late Ming Dynasty, the eunuchs became the actual controllers of the court.
The Ming Shi Xuanzong records: "In the spring of the tenth year, the first month of the first month of the tenth year, regardless of the dynasty, ordered the Qunchen to appoint the crown prince yu Wenhua Hall." ”
In 1435, the 36-year-old Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji suddenly fell seriously ill and died, making the crown prince Zhu QiZhenji emperor, because his death was too sudden, Zhu Zhanji did not have time to cultivate Zhu Qizhen, and the reform of the cabinet and eunuchs was not completely completed.
The ministers had high hopes for the new Tianzi, but they did not expect that Ming Yingzong was close to the eunuchs, and when he invaded the border, he listened to the eunuch Wang Zhen's rumors, and led the troops to conscript under insufficient preparation, which led to the "Change of Tumu Fort", which caused more than 200,000 elites of Daming to sacrifice their lives for the country, and almost all the military generals they brought with them died on the battlefield.
On the whole, Zhu Zhanji is worthy of a generation of Ming Jun, Zhu Gaozi reigned for 10 months, Zhu Zhanji reigned for 10 years, who has a greater role in the "rule of Benevolence" is obvious, and his contributions in military affairs, government, and civil affairs are even more indelible; if he can live for 10 more years, he may be able to eliminate eunuch maladminism or cultivate a qualified daming son, then Daming may be able to go to a higher level.
Reference: Ming Shi Xuanzong