In "Daming Fenghua", it is Liang Guanhua who plays the prince Zhu Gaojie, who believes that the sharp-eyed audience will see early on that he is Di Renjie in "Detective Di Renjie". Zhu Gaozi's only promise contrasts with the wise and decisive Di Renjie, and in addition to lamenting the actor's good acting skills, it is inevitable that people will feel that Zhu Gaozi is cowardly and weak, and he is also a little more cute.
But in fact, after watching a few more episodes, you will find that Zhu Gaozi is not so simple. First of all, he behaved so "cowardly" because he did not want to make mistakes, so that Zhu Di could find a reason to abolish the prince, and at the same time avoid the second brother from finding an opportunity to frame. Secondly, judging from the open and secret struggles between him and his brother, Zhu Gaozi was actually the one who knew Zhu Di's routine the most.
However, his performance made Zhu Di very dissatisfied, in contrast, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaoxuan were even more satisfied with Zhu Di. The second and third elders advocated fighting, but the prince always refused to pass on the pretext of not having money. So Zhu Di simply let the second elder supervise the country and let the bill pass, which shows that he is on the side of the second and third elders.
Zhu Gaozi was not liked by Zhu Di, and even his own son Zhu Zhanji gradually despised himself a little. Moreover, after Zhu Gaozi succeeded to the throne, he died after only ten months as emperor, and even his plan to move the capital to Nanjing had not yet been implemented. Even so, Zhu Gaozi was still quite well received in later generations, why is this?
In ancient Chinese history, Zhu Gaozi can only be regarded as a short-lived emperor, but after only a few months of reign, he can have the temple title of "Renzong", which is enough to prove that he is better than many emperors in history. So where is his excellence?
The history books record Zhu Gaozi: "The young end is heavy and calm, and the words and movements are scriptured." A little longer to learn to shoot, the hair is all hit. Good learning, from the Confucian lecture never quit. Because of his benevolence and elegance, he was loved by his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang from a young age, so the situation of the Ming Dynasty's generations did not start with Zhu Di.
Zhu Gaozi has a different personality from his father, he likes to be quiet and does not like to move, resulting in a gradually obese figure and needs support to move. Because of this, Zhu Di believes that he does not have the instrument of heavenly son, and he is also afraid that obesity will affect his health, and once forced him to lose weight.
Although Zhu Gaozi once disgusted his father, and was not as good at fighting as his brother, he did not give up on himself, but always thought about how to improve himself and help his father at the same time. Every time Zhu Di personally marched, he let Zhu Gaozi stay in the capital to supervise the country.
During the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Di led troops to attack the city of Nanjing, and Zhu Gaozi supervised the state in Beijing. At that time, Li Jinglong led an army of 500,000 people to attack the city of Beijing, while Zhu Gaozi led an army of 10,000 people and successfully blocked the enemy army. This battle became Zhu Gaozi's most brilliant feat in the Battle of Jingnan.
In addition, Emperor Jianwen also sent someone to send a letter to Zhu Gaozi. The letter said that if Zhu Gaozi could take the initiative to submit to the imperial court, Emperor Jianwen promised to make him king. However, Zhu Gaozi did not even look at it, and directly delivered the letter to Zhu Di and made another contribution.
Because of his outstanding performance this time, Zhu Di knew that Zhu Gaozi had the ability to supervise the country, so every time he went to war, he was relieved to take his other two sons. During this time, Zhu Gaozi began to cultivate his own forces, and Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, Yang Pu, and Huang Huai all became loyal supporters of Zhu Gaozi during this period.
During Zhu Di's reign, Zhu Gaoxu, the King of Han, always wanted to compete for the crown prince's throne, and thanks to the support of the civilian clique, Zhu Di did not waver. It can be seen from here that Zhu Gaozi is actually very capable, and if he only one-sidedly evaluates him as "cowardly", it will be too arbitrary.
Through his own ability, Zhu Gaozi sat firmly on the throne of the crown prince, and finally succeeded to the throne smoothly. However, he was not cruel, and zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, always wanted to seize the throne, but after Zhu Gaoxu took the throne, he did not dispose of his brother, but always wanted to persuade him to return to the right path.
Although Zhu Gaozi reigned for less than a year, his contribution to the Ming Dynasty was enormous.
On the political front, Zhu Gaozi reorganized the cabinet, and the famous clique of civil officials of the Ming Dynasty entered the political arena during this period. However, at this time, the civilian bureaucracy was not as pedantic and rigid as in the later period, and most of them were talented people.
At the same time, Zhu Gaozi rehabilitated the Jianwen Yu Party, including the grievances of Fang Xiaoru and Xie Jin. Zhu Gaozi did not emulate Zhu Di, or even Zhu Yuanzhang, he took Tang Taizong as a model, always loved the people like a son, and practiced Ming Gangji everywhere. Thus began the "reign of Benevolence".
In terms of economy, Zhu Di's conquest cost a lot at the beginning, and Zhu Gaozi also thought of many ways to solve this problem. But he did not be harsh on the people, he exempted the people affected by natural disasters from their land endowments, and provided them with food for free. If the minister's release was delayed, Zhu Gaozi would still be furious because of it.
As for culture, this is Zhu Gaozi's strength. Zhu Gaozi admired Confucianism, so he had great respect for civilian officials, and he also established the Hongwen Pavilion and often talked with Confucian courtiers about the history of scriptures.
In addition, most of the people who participated in the scientific expedition before were southerners, and Zhu Gaozi believed that there were also talents in the north, and they could not lose sight of one or the other. In order to ensure that the talents in the north can pass the scientific expedition to embark on the career path, Zhu Gaozi also specially stipulated that the annual scientific expedition will be listed as "60 in the south and 40 in the north." Later, the Qing Dynasty also followed this rule.
Zhu Gaozi was an enlightened monarch who was kind and simple and won the hearts of the people. It was only a sudden end to his life that prevented him from fulfilling all his ambitions, but his contributions to the Ming Dynasty and the legacy he left behind were clear. Thus, although his reign was short, it was because of this that he was able to make a deeper impression.
The temple title of "Renzong" is not worthy of all emperors. In addition to Song Renzong's unanimous affirmation by later generations, I am afraid that only Akihito can bear this temple name.
(References "History of Ming", "Ming Shilu")