There are many emperors in Chinese history who can be called "obsessed", but the only one who really has only one woman in his life is Only One Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youfan, and the only woman around him is his empress Zhang. However, Empress Zhang, who was loved by thousands of people, completely lost power after the death of her husband and son, and Emperor Mingshizong arrested her two younger brothers and imprisoned her despite her bitter pleas. Empress Zhang fell ill and died of desolation, and after her death, her brother was also executed, which can be described as "late desolation".
Empress Zhang was extremely honored in the first half of her life
After more than 260 years, the Ming Dynasty never had a dictatorship of concubines or foreign relatives, which is not accidental, but is closely related to an "ancestral system", that is, the concubines of the Ming Dynasty can only be selected from the "good family".
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, although the imperial family took the Xunchen family as the main object of marriage selection, and used this to explain that "the monarch and the subject are in harmony", after Xuande, with the expansion of the eunuch's power, the right to choose marriage was "the eunuch temple of the commission, the city well of the city". The queen concubines came from the people, naturally had no connection with the ministers, and although their family members could be given gifts, they were often only false titles, so "in the Ming generation, foreign relatives are the weakest.". Without the support of foreign relatives, the concubines of the Ming Dynasty naturally had no basis for dictatorship.
Benefiting from the ancestral admonition that the empress dowager was born as a "good family son", the Zhang clan, who was not prominent in birth, was selected by the Chenghua Emperor Zhu Jianshen in 1487 and married the crown prince Zhu Youfan and became a crown princess. In the same year, Zhu Youfan succeeded to the throne as Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, and Zhang shi was made empress.
Exactly what kind of charm Empress Zhang has, we don't know, but she did charm Xiaozong, and the two must be sleeping together every day, reading poetry and painting, listening to the piano and watching dances, talking about the past and the present, and sharing the day and night. Once, Empress Zhang had a secondary mouth sore, and Emperor Xiaozong personally brought her water and medicine, because he was afraid of disturbing her rest, and Emperor Xiaozong did not even dare to cough loudly.
In Emperor Xiaozong's life, except for Empress Zhang, there was no other woman, and she was the only one in the harem. This is not just a matter of thousands of pampering, but "monogamy" in the true sense. Moreover, Emperor Xiaozong was extremely fond of Empress Zhang, and in everything related to Empress Zhang, Emperor Xiaozong did not ask the reason and unconditionally favored Empress Zhang.
In 1505, after Empress Zhang and Emperor Xiaozong had spent a sweet eighteen years together, Emperor Xiaozong died, and the only adult son of the two, Zhu Houzhao, succeeded to the throne, that is, Emperor Wuzong of Ming, and Empress Zhang was also promoted to Empress Zhang. Emperor Wuzong was the most "playful" emperor in the History of the Ming Dynasty and even China, and during his reign he trusted the eunuchs Liu Jin, Yizi Jiang Bin and others, and did a lot of absurd things, but he was very filial to his mother, Empress Zhang, so during his time as empress dowager, Zhang Shi was still very moist.
During the sixteenth year of Emperor Wuzong's reign, in 1520, Emperor Wuzong accidentally fell into the water, fell ill, and died in the first month of the following year, leaving no heirs before his death. Since Emperor Wuzong himself was an only child and had no brothers, he left a will before his death, asking his mother Empress Zhang and the first assistant Yang Tinghe to consult and choose one of his brothers and nephews to succeed to the throne.
After Emperor Wuzong's death, the situation in the imperial court at that time was still relatively complicated, and Emperor Wuzong's righteous son Jiang Bin held all the military power in the capital, supervised the East Factory, Jinyi Wei, and led tens of thousands of border troops, "the power is incomparable", and there was a major threat to the change of imperial power. In the face of Jiang Bin's threats, Empress Zhang consulted with Yang Tinghe in secret, and Xuan Jiangbin entered the palace to see the empress dowager, took the opportunity to arrest him, and then raided his home and sentenced him to death.
After stabilizing the situation, Empress Zhang presided over the selection of the new Tianzi and confirmed Emperor Wuzong's cousin Zhu Houxi as the new monarch, which ensured the legitimacy of the new monarch's succession to the throne, thus allowing a smooth transition between the old and new regimes. ”
However, Empress Zhang absolutely could not have imagined that this new jun, whom she had personally chosen, would become her biggest nightmare in the future.
Empress Zhang's miserable second half of her life
Emperor Ming Shizong Zhu Houxi, known as the most intelligent emperor in Chinese history, is true, when he entered Beijing at the age of fourteen to take over the throne, he already had enough heart and ability to fight with the empress dowager and the first assistant.
Since Sejong succeeded to the throne, according to the tradition of "entering the great sect with a small sect", he wanted to recognize Zhu Youfan as his father and Empress Zhang as his mother. However, after Sejong succeeded to the throne, he always wanted to overthrow this matter, and the way to do it was to posthumously crown his father as emperor and appoint his surviving mother Jiang Shi as empress dowager.
This battle was later known as the "Great Ceremonial Controversy", which lasted for more than ten years, countless ministers were killed and demoted to the court staff, the first assistant Yang Tinghe was forced to pay tribute, his son Yang Shen, one of the three talents of the Ming Dynasty, was degraded, and finally Sejong won the victory, one of the landmark victories was that his smooth birth mother Jiang Shi was the empress dowager of the Xingguo.
Emperor Sejong honored Empress Zhang as Empress Dowager Zhaosheng cishou, and her status was above Empress Jiang, but after all, the emperor was Empress Jiang's biological son, so whenever there was a conflict between Empress Zhang and Empress Jiang, Sejong always favored his birth mother, which made Empress Zhang very dissatisfied. Soon after, Sejong took the opportunity of empress dowager Zhang's faults to reduce empress dowager Zhang's treatment and renamed her "aunt", completely leaving her aside.
The Ming Dynasty established five governments and six ministries without a chancellor, and the system of dividing power and checking and balancing each other, as well as the internal and external dual-track system of cabinet voting and si li approving Zhu, not only eradicated the threat of xiang power to imperial power, but also effectively restricted the formation and expansion of the power of the empress. Therefore, although Empress Zhang "made a great policy and made great contributions to an security society", when she proposed to change her will to a holy will and take the opportunity to establish and expand her own power, she was immediately resolutely opposed by Yang Tinghe and others, and could only give up. When the situation stabilized, Empress Zhang could neither interfere in the cabinet nor control the celebrant, and was soon squeezed out of the center of power by Sejong and the new upstarts.
Later, Empress Zhang's younger brother made a mistake, and Sejong arrested him and imprisoned him. In order to save her brother's life, Empress Zhang had to go to Shizong with her scalp. Later, the bitter kneeling and interceding was fruitless, and Empress Zhang was too sad to be sick. Finally, in August of the twentieth year of Jiajing, this woman, who had been favored by Emperor Xiaozong of Ming for a lifetime, left this world. Shortly after Empress Zhang's death, the Jiajing Emperor executed her brother.
Empress Zhang's loss of morality
As an empress and empress dowager who has gone through three dynasties, Zhang Shi has made meritorious contributions. The so-called gong was mainly during the succession of emperors Wuzong and Sejong, who killed Jiang Bin and stabilized the situation. The so-called passing is too much to protect and indulge the two younger brothers.
The record of Empress Zhang in the "Ming Shilu" is still good on the whole, a relatively capable and shrewd, reasonable, and insistent on love, relatively humble to people, considerate of subordinates. However, the reason why Empress Zhang could not be called "Empress Xian" was because she was too protective of her two maternal brothers.
Empress Zhang was a veritable "brother-in-law demon", and Xiaozong was a veritable "wife-protecting demon", so a lot of things were caused, and the original good historical image of the two couples was also covered with a layer of ashes.
Empress Zhang had two younger brothers, Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling, who recruited rogues, committed misdeeds, and robbed the people's land, and even their domestic slaves dared to be powerful outside. Li Dongyang, a servant of the Punishment Department, could not bear it and wrote a letter exposing the bad deeds done by Empress Zhang's two younger brothers. Unexpectedly, after Empress Zhang found out, not only did she not punish her brother, but instead instigated Emperor Xiaozong to kill Li Dongyang, and finally Emperor Xiaozong punished Li Dongyang, but the Zhang brothers did not receive any punishment.
The Zhang brothers treated the palace as if it were their own home, very casually, and once even wore the emperor's hat. It is said that in ancient times, this was a capital crime of beheading, but when Emperor Xiaozong knew about it, he just laughed it off. Another time, Erzhang actually raped the palace maid in the palace, and the eunuch He Ding, holding a golden melon, tried to beat Erzhang to death, but was stopped by another eunuch. Afterwards, He Ding exposed the matter to Emperor Xiaozong with Erzhang as a "courtesy without a courtesy", and as a result, Erzhang was fine, and He Ding was instead captured and imprisoned by Jinyiwei, and afterwards Empress Zhang instructed others to beat He Ding alive in prison.
During the reign of Emperor Wuzong, one of Zhang Yanling's closest confidants, using his power to treat his father Cao Zu slowly, so an angry Cao Zu went to sue Empress Zhang's two younger brothers for torturing and killing monks and slaves, as well as plotting rebellion, and other things, and after investigation, it was found that everything other than rebellion was true. However, before Emperor Wuzong could deal with it, Cao Zu, as a witness, suddenly died in prison. Because of the story of He Ding at that time, some people suspected that it might be Empress Zhang's poisonous hand.
In short, under the protection of Empress Zhang, the Zhang brothers became more and more lawless and did countless bad things. However, when Sejong succeeded to the throne, Empress Zhang gradually lost power, and the Zhang brothers also lost protection, and in October of the twelfth year of Jiajing (1533), Sejong imprisoned the two and died. The ministers argued and changed it to a long prison.
In order to save her two younger brothers, Empress Zhang disregarded her dignity and knelt down in front of Sejong to intercede, but Sejong was not moved after all. Empress Zhang, who was angry and anxious, fell ill because of this, and after a few years of suffering, Yu Jiajing died of illness for twenty years. After Empress Zhang's death, Sejong buried her directly in the Tailing Tombs, but did not let her enter the ancestral temple.
Twenty-five years after Jiajing, Emperor Sejong ordered Zhang Yanling to be beheaded in Xishi, and before that, Zhang Heling had died in prison. At this time, it had been just five years since Empress Zhang died of illness.
To sum up, during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, Empress Zhang was favored by all kinds; during the reign of Emperor Wuzong, Empress Zhang was extremely honored; during the reign of Emperor Sejong, Empress Zhang lost her power and became a passerby, and the evening scene was desolate. The main reason why he fell to such a point was that Emperor Wuzong did not leave him a grandson, Sejong and her were not related by blood, and the nominal mother-son relationship alone could not maintain long-term respect and cooperation, and it was inevitable that they would be left aside. As for her two younger brothers doing wrong, it can only be said that Empress Zhang's face was blackened, in fact, the foreign relatives at that time were all of that virtue.