What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Among all the "Ming Tombs", the Ming Tombs of Emperor Chongzhen of Ming Dynasty, whether in size or in magnificence, are the most "shabby", and even inferior to the tombs of some local clan kings during the Ming Dynasty.
One of the main reasons for this is that the tomb was not built by the Chongzhen Emperor himself, but by his favorite concubine Tian Guifei, and Chongzhen became an extremely rare emperor buried in the tomb of the concubine in the history of China's feudal dynasty.
What is even more "ironic" is that the two most important hostile forces in his lifetime, namely Li Zicheng's Dashun peasant military regime and the subsequent Qing Dynasty, were also buried and his mausoleum was repaired.
The predecessor of Chongzhen Mingsi Mausoleum, the tomb of Tian Guifei.
In the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), Emperor Mingxizong's Emperor Zhu Youxiao died, and his younger brother Zhu Youjian, with the full help of the emperor's sister-in-law Empress Zhang and the British prince Zhang Weixian, broke through the obstacles set by Wei Zhongxian and was able to ascend to the throne smoothly, which is the historical Chongzhen Emperor.
However, after ascending the throne, Chongzhen faced a Ming Dynasty that was in the midst of internal and external troubles and turmoil.
In the courtroom, officials were rampant in corruption and party strife, which was already a miasma of smoke and darkness; militarily, while resisting the invasion of the Qing Dynasty in the north, Chongzhen also organized and suppressed the surging peasant uprisings, and was always in an unfavorable situation of "two-front combat"; and the most fatal thing is that since Chongzhen ascended the throne, the entire country has long been plunged into a huge financial deficit, and it is impossible to make ends meet every year, and with the continuous tightening of the war, the state finances have reached the brink of collapse.
The national situation is already like this, coupled with the fact that Chongzhen is indeed very frugal in life, and he is in his prime at this time, and his physical condition is also very good, so during Chongzhen's reign, he did not build a mausoleum for himself at a very early age like other monarchs during the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, there was another important factor, that is, the "unlucky" Chongzhen Emperor never found a suitable piece of "Ji Lang" to use as his mausoleum.
"In the early years of Chongzhen, he prayed for heavenly longevity and had no auspicious soil. By the thirteenth year, Liu Chengyi Kong Zhao and Zhang Zhenrenjia were summoned to cooperate with the land and obtain The Fengtai Mountain in Jizhou. Yundi is good and rare to cure the auspiciousness of the tomb, and ji is not in time after Jiashen. ”
In this way, Chongzhen's construction of a mausoleum for himself was never implemented.
In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642), Chongzhen's favorite Tian Guifei died, but this time was the most dangerous time for Chongzhen and even the entire Ming Dynasty.
In this year, the largest decisive battle between the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Battle of Songjin, ended, the Ming Dynasty was a loss of troops, the nine-sided elite that was carefully built with national strength was lost, and Hong Chengzu, Zu Dashou and other generals surrendered, making the Ming Dynasty completely lose the ability to resist in the northeast battlefield, and could only hold a few isolated cities such as Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan. In the Central Plains, li zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, two peasant rebel armies, continued to attack the city, and the Ming army was gradually defeated and retreated, and a large area fell.
But even under such circumstances, out of love and longing for Tian Guifei, Chongzhen still decided to build a mausoleum for Tian Guifei in Tianping Shoushan.
The construction of tian guifei's tomb took two years and was completed in the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), and Chongzhen buried Tian Guifei in it. But perhaps even the Chongzhen Emperor himself did not expect that while he was building a mausoleum for his favorite concubine Tian Guifei, he was actually choosing a burial place for himself after a hundred years.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng arranged for Chongzhen to be buried.
In the seventeenth year of Ming Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng led the Dashun peasant army to conquer Beijing, but the courtiers opened the city gates and surrendered to Li Zicheng in line, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian hanged himself on the coal mountain, and the orthodox Ming Dynasty was destroyed.
After Li Zicheng entered the imperial palace, he did not find the Chongzhen Emperor himself, nor did he find his body, so he ordered a search throughout the city of Beijing and posted a notice:
"The emperor giver, the bounty, the earl; the hidden one, the exterminator."
Later, the body of Chongzhen, who hanged himself in Coal Mountain, was found and handed over to Li Zicheng. So Li Zicheng ordered that Chongzhen's body be simply collected on the side of the Donghua Gate and a temporary spiritual shed was built.
At this time, the Ming officials were afraid that they would be implicated by the Chongzhen Emperor, and no one dared to go to mourn, only Li Guozhen, the bo of Xiangcheng, went alone, and it was
"The mud head went to the temple, staggered to the ground, and knelt in front of the palace and cried."
Li Zicheng admired Li Guozhen's courage and loyalty very much, so he patiently persuaded him to surrender, hoping that he could serve himself, and Li Guozhen immediately prescribed his own three "conditions":
First, for the imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty, not only can not be destroyed, but also to be defended and protected;
Second, Chongzhen's body could not be damaged, and it was also necessary to properly bury it in accordance with the imperial etiquette;
Third, Li Zicheng could not harm The Chongzhen Crown Prince Zhu Cixi, who had already been captured by him, and the other two princes, Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cizhuo, but wanted to treat him kindly.
In response to the above three requirements, Li Zicheng took care of it and began to prepare for the burial of the Chongzhen Emperor, and since Chongzhen had not built a mausoleum for himself before, Li Zicheng immediately decided to bury Chongzhen in the tomb of Tian Guifei.
However, the burial of the Chongzhen Emperor, Li Zicheng, and the entire Dashun peasant military regime was not prepared to pay for it, and he only allowed Ming officials and local gentry to raise their own money for burial.
However, after years of war and natural disasters, the local treasury has long been empty, and the former officials of the DPRK and China are now shunned, so the officials responsible for burying Chongzhen have to harden their scalps and ask their grandfathers and grandmothers to raise loans from the local gentry and people, and the final funds raised are also very small, and even the walls are built after they are raised.
In this way, relying on these only silver two, the coffins of Chongzhen and his wife Empress Zhou were buried in the tomb of Tian Guifei, and a very simple and shabby burial ceremony was also held, and Chongzhen was able to settle down.
After the Qing Dynasty established the capital of Beijing, the Ming Si Mausoleum was officially repaired.
After the hasty enthronement ceremony was held, Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing overnight, followed by the Qing Dynasty's then regent Dorgon who led the Qing army to capture Beijing, and welcomed the Shunzhi Emperor to complete the relocation of the capital, and Beijing became the capital of the Qing Dynasty.
And because when the Qing army entered the customs, it was under the slogan of "eliminating thieves and avenging Chongzhen", and the Qing Dynasty has always regarded itself as the "successor of the Ming Dynasty", so it repaired the mausoleum for the Chongzhen Emperor, which became an extremely important measure for the Qing Dynasty to prove the "legitimacy" of its rule and thus gain positive public opinion support.
At the same time, many former Ming officials who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, especially a group of eunuchs represented by Cao Huachun, who had served as the eunuch in charge of the imperial eunuchs, also expressed a strong desire to build a mausoleum for Chongzhen:
"Grace believes in the will and the righteousness is revealed, and the world is full of life and there is no death."
Therefore, the imperial court also issued an order to pay close attention to the construction of the mausoleum of the Chongzhen Emperor, and officially named the tomb of Tian Guifei as "Ming Si Ling":
"Si Ling is doing speedy business, and has already been ordered, so why should the prison play leaks?" Ran Weizhao and others did not investigate, and immediately went to work, opening the tunnel first, and the rest came to the spring to report the completion. If the curse is prolonged, it will be re-cured. ”
Although the entire construction process of the Ming Si Tomb encountered many difficulties, such as the slow progress of the construction, the difficulty of raising silver and silver, and the lack of attention paid by the supervising officials, the Qing Dynasty ruling group headed by Dolgun still paid enough attention to it and repeatedly urged it to be completed, and during this period, Cao Huachun actively ran, contacted, and effectively coordinated the relations between all parties, contributing a lot to the smooth completion of the Ming Si Tomb.
Finally, in September of the second year of Shunzhi (1645), the construction of the Ming Si Tomb was completed, and Chongzhen was given his own new mausoleum, but its specifications could not be compared with the imperial tombs of other Ming emperors.
Since then, the Ming Si Mausoleum of the Chongzhen Emperor has also been repaired many times, especially during the Qianlong Dynasty, Qianlong has twice repaired the Ming Si Mausoleum on a large scale, so that the Ming Si Tomb has been renovated and expanded.
"During the Shunzhi period, the Siling Tomb was rebuilt, and all the Ming Lou and the System of Enjoying The Hall were not prepared. Rebuilt, as if it were a tomb. And the Puli God Brand Wood Lord is enshrined in order to properly enjoy the worship. ”
However, with the turmoil of the situation at the beginning of the qing dynasty, the Ming Si Ling also suffered a catastrophe, and after several destructions, it was already devastated, and only the tombs, the ruins of the pavilion, the stone carvings of the Five Offerings, the stele and other buildings and relics were preserved.
Nowadays, as part of the "Ming Tombs", the Ming Tombs have been fully protected and have become an important national tourist attraction and cultural relics protection unit for people to visit and visit. In this way, Ming Siling also told the world about the helplessness and sadness of the Chongzhen Emperor, the "king of the subjugation of the country".