Zhu Zhanyuan, the Xiang King of the Ming Dynasty, was the most bullish prince in the history of the Ming Dynasty, he was the concubine of Emperor Mingrenzong Zhu Gaozi, the half-mother brother of Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, and the uncle of Emperor Mingying Zhu Qizhen. He was quite famous in his life, and he also had three opportunities to rub shoulders with the throne, and such a person who was infinitely close to the throne and threatened the throne could finally pass through seven dynasties and six generations of emperors.
Zhu Zhanyuan's life is extremely legendary, and among the captive Ming Dynasty kings, he is a very famous and accomplished prince in the history of the Ming Dynasty, but Zhu Zhanyuan also had a dark side of human nature that advised the emperor to "dig up the grave of the family and knock on the widow's door".
Zhu Zhanyuan set a precedent for the Ming Dynasty's vassal king to oversee the state, and he both times stabilized the political situation and avoided the country from falling into turmoil
Zhu Zhanyuan was the youngest son born to Emperor Akihito's wife, the later Empress Chengxiao, Who had three sons and a daughter, the eldest son was later Emperor Mingxuanzong Zhu Zhanji, the second son born to Empress Zhang was also the third of Emperor Mingrenzong's sons, and the younger son born to Empress Zhang was Zhu Zhanyuan, who was the fifth of Emperor Akihito's sons, and the other daughter born to Empress Zhang was Princess Jiaxing, the eldest daughter of Emperor Zhang.
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was not satisfied with Zhu Gaozi as the heir to the throne as the crown prince, and once wanted his second son Zhu Gaoxu the Prince of Han to inherit the throne, but Zhu Di did not change the candidate for the crown prince out of his love for his eldest grandson Zhu Zhanji. Zhu Di later directly appointed Zhu Zhanji as the emperor's grandson, and directly designated an heir for Zhu Gaozi.
Since Zhu Zhanji's name had long been fixed by Zhu Di, and his title of heir to the throne was very stable, Zhu Gaozi's other two concubines, Zhu Zhanyong and Zhu Zhanyuan, did not have much idea about the throne from an early age.
Zhu Zhanyong was loyal, tolerant, and extremely filial to his parents, but his ability was relatively mediocre, although his character was very good, he was an honest man, but he lacked wit and opinion, so Zhu Zhanyong did not do much in politics, and left people with more of the image of a generous prince in history.
Compared with Zhu Zhanyong's generosity and honesty, Zhu Zhanyuan is the same, but Zhu Zhanyuan is more talented and more resourceful than his brother Zhu Zhanyong. Zhu Zhanyuan had both the generosity of Zhu Zhanyong and the talent of the eldest brother Zhu Zhanji, so Zhu Gaozi and his wife also loved Zhu Zhanyuan very much.
After Zhu Di's death and Zhu Gaozi succeeded to the throne, he crowned his eldest son Zhu Zhanji as crown prince, and all his other sons were also crowned kings, and Zhu Zhanyuan was made the Prince of Xiang. After dividing the sons, in order to temper Zhu Zhanji's ability to handle government affairs independently, Zhu Gaozi decided to send Zhu Zhanji to Nanjing as the crown prince to supervise the country.
At that time, all the courtiers of the imperial court dissuaded Zhu Gaoji from sending his crown prince Zhu Zhanji to Nanjing to supervise the country, but Zhu Gaozi always believed that only zhu Zhanji could truly gain training if he left him, so he insisted on sending Zhu Zhanji to Nanjing, and so Zhu Zhanji arrived in Nanjing.
However, Zhu Gaozi did not expect that his life expectancy would be so short, he only became the emperor for ten months and died, Zhu Zhanji did not sit hot in Nanjing, and his father Zhu Gaozi died.
Zhu Gaozi died very suddenly, it did not matter if he died, but the situation at that time became complicated and changeable, it should be known that Zhu Zhanji was in Nanjing at that time, and the capital of the Ming Dynasty had been moved to Beijing as early as the Zhu Di period, and it took a relatively long time for one south and one north to arrive in that era, and Zhu Gaoxu's two younger brothers Zhu Gaoxu the Prince of Han and Zhu Gaoxuan the King of Zhao were ambitious, and Zhu Gaoxu even wanted to assassinate Zhu Zhanji and take advantage of the chaos to usurp the throne.
At that time, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, had no owner, and the heir to the throne, Zhu Zhanji, was not yet in Beijing, so the situation was very unfavorable, and there was a situation that if it was not handled well, the country would fall into turmoil. At this time, Empress Zhang, Zhu Gaozi's wife, stepped forward, and in order to prevent Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaoxuan from plotting against wrongdoing, she forbade anyone to announce Zhu Gaozi's death to the outside world, secretly sent someone to Nanjing to report the news of Zhu Gaozi's death to Zhu Zhanji, and asked Zhu Zhanji to secretly return to Beijing as soon as possible to succeed to the throne.
At the same time, Empress Zhang was worried that there was no one in charge of the capital, so she declared that she was seriously ill in the name of Zhu Gaozi, and specially appointed Zhu Zhanyuan, the Prince of Xiang, to be the overseer of the state, and the Hubu Shangshu Xia Yuanji assisted the government.
The reason why Empress Zhang chose her younger son Zhu Zhanyuan to oversee the country was because she knew Zhu Zhanyuan very well that he was generous and intelligent, so she ordered Zhu Zhanyuan to supervise the country.
This was Zhu Zhanyuan's first supervision of the state, and also created the first special case in the history of the Ming Dynasty, because Zhu Zhanji did not formally take the throne at that time, his identity was the crown prince overseer, and Zhu Zhanyuan's identity was the Xiangwang supervision state, which was also the only time in the history of the Ming Dynasty that two people supervised the country coexisted in the north and south of the two capitals.
Although he was in charge of the country as the king of the domain, Zhu Zhanyuan was very wise, he knew that the closer he got to the throne, the more vulnerable he was to the suspicion of his brother Zhu Zhanji, so when Zhu Zhanji arrived in Beijing safely, Zhu Zhanyuan, in order to dispel his brother's concerns, ran out of the city with the Manchu Dynasty Minister of Culture and Military Affairs for the first time to welcome his brother Zhu Zhanji back to Beijing.
After seeing Zhu Zhanji's first face, Zhu Zhanyuan immediately gave Zhu Zhanji a kneeling prostration and returned the power of the state of supervision, and implored Zhu Zhanji to ascend the throne as soon as possible to reassure the world.
Zhu Zhanji's sincere or pretentious performance made Zhu Zhanji very satisfied, so Zhu Zhanji did not immediately let his younger brother Zhu Zhanyuan go to the fief to take the domain, and Zhu Zhanyuan continued to stay in the capital.
Zhu Zhanji's succession caused dissatisfaction from his uncle Zhu Gaoxu, who decided to emulate his father Ming Chengzu Zhu Di to usurp his nephew's throne again in the "Battle of Jingnan", and the news of Zhu Gaoxu's rebellion in Shandong made Zhu Zhanji very angry, and the important minister Xia Yuanji strongly advocated that Zhu Zhanji personally march, so Zhu Zhanji decided to personally lead troops to quell the rebellion of his uncle Zhu Gaoxu, but if he led the troops out on the expedition, who would decide on the big and small affairs of the capital?
It should be known that at that time, Zhu Zhanji had not yet given birth to heirs, and his son Zhu Qizhen, the "God of War of daming", was born in the second year after Zhu Gaoxu's rebellion was put down, and there was no son left to supervise the country, so Zhu Zhanji thought of his younger brother Zhu Zhanyuan, after all, Zhu Zhanyuan had previously supervised the country and made Zhu Zhanji very satisfied.
Therefore, during the imperial conquest, Zhu Zhanji specially ordered his younger brother Zhu Zhanyuan to stay in the capital to supervise the country, of course, he did not fully trust Zhu Zhanyuan, he also specially let the second brother Zhu Zhanyuan the Prince of Zheng cooperate with the supervision of the country, but even so, Zhu Zhanji in the history of the Ming Dynasty can also be regarded as a great trust in his younger brother Zhu Zhanyuan.
It should be known that Zhu Zhanyuan has the status of a concubine, and once supervised the country, which is very close to the throne, and Zhu Zhanji did not suspect his brother because of this, and he can once again entrust him with the heavy responsibility of supervising the country, which shows that he still trusts his younger brother Zhu Zhanyuan more.
Zhu Zhanyuan also perfectly fulfilled the second heavy task entrusted by Zhu Zhanji to supervise the country, and after Zhu Zhanji put down Zhu Gaoxu's rebellion, Zhu Zhanyuan was sincerely afraid of returning the power of the supervision state, and took the initiative to apply to go to Changsha Province to take the domain.
However, Zhu Zhanji retained Zhu Zhanyuan quite a bit, and it was not until the fourth year of Xuande (1429) that Zhu Zhanyuan went to the feudal state of Changsha Province.
Zhu Zhanyuan's two times of supervision of the country can be said to be at the time of the turmoil of the Ming Dynasty, he did not take the opportunity to seek the throne, but honestly completed the heavy task of supervising the country, so his brother Zhu Zhanji did not suspect him.
Zhu Zhanyuan had three opportunities to inherit the throne but gained the trust and courtesy of his nephew Zhu Qizhen
Although Zhu Zhanji was very successful in his ten years of reign, he died young, and Zhu Zhanji died at the age of 38 in the tenth year of Xuande (1435), and before his death, Zhu Zhanji left his mother Empress Zhang to have the right to handle state affairs.
At the time of Zhu Zhanji's death, his eldest son, the crown prince Zhu Qizhen, was only 9 years old, the prince was young, and the lord was suspicious, and at that time, the imperial court was discussing that the young lord could not succeed to the throne, and even some courtiers suggested that Empress Zhang use empress dowager Yi to let the elder and well-known Xiang king Zhu Zhancheng succeed to the throne.
However, these suggestions of the courtiers were rejected by Empress Zhang, who, after Zhu Zhanji's death, pointed at the 9-year-old Zhu Qizhen in front of all the courtiers at the main hall and said: "This is the new king, and all the courtiers quickly worship." ”
Therefore, Zhu Qizhen, who was only 9 years old, was able to succeed to the throne smoothly, and it was for Ming Yingzong. After he succeeded to the throne, he honored his grandmother Empress Zhang as Empress Dowager Zhang, and his biological mother Empress Sun as Empress Sun.
At that time, Zhu Zhanyuan had already taken the throne in Changsha Province, but although he was in Changsha, he was always concerned about the situation in the capital, and when he learned that the courtiers had a call for his succession, and his mother Empress Zhang insisted on supporting the news that The crown prince Zhu Qizhen had succeeded to the throne, Zhu Zhanyuan quickly wrote a sincere letter to his mother Empress Zhang in order to avoid the suspicion of his future nephew Zhu Qizhen, which was to express his lack of intention to the throne and resolutely approve of his mother's intention of supporting Zhu Qizhen's succession.
Empress Zhang was also very satisfied with her son Zhu Zhanyuan, and since then she has kept this letter and showed it to Zhu Qizhen, instructing him to treat his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan kindly in the future.
This is the first time that Zhu Zhanyuan has been supported by courtiers and has the opportunity to inherit the throne, but don't worry, Zhu Zhanyuan still has two more opportunities to inherit the throne.
At the beginning of Zhu Qizhen's succession, due to his young age, he was assisted by Empress Zhang, and the decision-making power of military affairs was in the hands of Empress Zhang, and Empress Zhang continued to follow Zhu Zhanji's policy line, reusing Yang Shiqi, Yang Pu, Yang Rongsanyang, and other important ministers of the "Rule of Renxuan", which enabled Zhu Qizhen to maintain the prosperous situation of "the rule of Renxuan" at the beginning of the succession.
Later, with the death of Empress Zhang, Sanyang and others, Zhu Qizhen also gradually grew older and pro-government, and he began to reuse the great eunuch Wang Zhen, which also laid the evil consequences for zhu Qizhen, the "God of War of Daming", which later "the change of Tumu Fort".
After Zhu Qizhen pro-government, he had the ambition to emulate his great-grandfather Zhu Di and his father Zhu Zhanji in conquering Mongolia, so the Mongol Wallachians would receive rewards from Daming after paying tribute, and Zhu Qizhen just wanted to fight Walla, so he deliberately reduced the rewards for Walla, and the Wallachians also used this as an excuse to attack Daming.
Zhu Qizhen was very happy to hear that he had also led his troops to attack first, and he had long thought of wanting the imperial conquest so that he could show his fists in the military, but the idea of Zhu Qizhen's imperial conquest was unanimously opposed by his mother Empress Sun and all the courtiers, but only the great eunuch Wang Zhen repeatedly instigated Zhu Qizhen to march in person, so Zhu Qizhen ignored dissuasion, enthusiastically went up, and insisted that the imperial conquest of Vala was also the first.
So later, the "Great Ming God of War" Zhu Qizhen paid the price of not listening to the old man's words and suffering losses in front of him, and in the "Change of Tumu Fort", Zhu Qizhen perfectly interpreted what is called sending heads from thousands of miles, and the gift is light and affectionate. The Daming army was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of Tumu Fort, the Great Eunuch Wang Zhen also died in the rebellion, and the "Daming God of War" Zhu Qizhen was captured alive by Ye Xian's Vala army.
Emperor Zhu Qizhen was captured alive by the enemy, and when the news reached the capital, it immediately caused a lot of discussion among the courtiers, and the emperor was arrested, then Daming was really leaderless, and the Army of Wallachia also immediately rushed to the capital, which made Daming how good it was.
Therefore, at that time, the courtiers in the court were roughly divided into two factions, one was the fleeing faction, suggesting that Empress Sun yi move the capital to Nanjing to preserve her strength, and the other faction was the main war faction led by Yu Qian, Wang Wen and others, who suggested that Empress Sun should now establish a new monarch and organize an army in the name of the new jun to resist the Wallachian army.
What kind of person Empress Sun was, she was a woman who had followed Zhu Zhanji for more than twenty years, and she and her mother-in-law, Empress Zhang, were both outstanding female politicians of the Ming Dynasty, and she had certain views and decision-making power in politics, so she listened to the suggestions of Yu Qian and others to establish a new monarch and organize an army to resist The Wallachians.
But who will be the emperor? Although Zhu Qizhen had already given birth to the crown prince Zhu Jianshen at that time, Zhu Jianshen was only 2 years old at the time, and if he became emperor, who could obey him, and he did not have the prestige to organize an army to resist Vala.
At this time, Empress Sun thought of zhu Zhanyuan, the prince of Xiang, who had been supervising the country twice, after all, Zhu Zhanyuan was known for his virtuous name and was deeply supported by courtiers, so Empress Sun sent someone to Changsha Province to ask Zhu Zhanyuan to come to the capital to discuss how to deal with the Army of Vala, in fact, this time if Zhu Zhanyuan entered the capital, it was very likely that he would be proclaimed emperor.
But Zhu Zhanyuan did not enter the capital, he was very cautious and wise, he knew that this time he was looking for himself to put out the fire, and Zhu Qizhen's ass was very difficult to wipe, the situation in the capital was very chaotic at that time, in case he was not careful, it was possible to be thankless, so he politely refused the request of his sister-in-law Empress Sun. This was also the second time that Zhu Zhanyuan had the opportunity to inherit the throne, but out of caution, he rejected the idea of his sister-in-law Empress Sun to let him succeed to the throne.
Zhu Zhanyuan also deliberately thought out a way for Empress Sun to deal with the situation, and he suggested that Empress Sun should not establish a new monarch, but make Zhu Jianshen the crown prince, and at the same time order zhu Qiyu, the half-brother of Zhu Qizhen, to supervise the country, summon an army into The King of Jingqin in the name of Zhu Jianshen and Zhu Qiyu, and then resist the Wala army waiting for an opportunity to rescue Zhu Qizhen. If Zhu Qizhen could not be saved, let Zhu Qiyu supervise the country as a regent until Zhu Mishen became an adult and then personally govern.
In fact, Zhu Zhanyuan's method was also reasonable, and Empress Sun also felt that what he said was reasonable when she received a reply from Zhu Zhanyuan, so she summoned Yu Qian and Wang Wen and other important ministers of the main war faction to consult, and Yu Qian and other important ministers thought that instead of letting Zhu Qiyu supervise the state, it was better to let him directly succeed to the throne than to supervise the state, so under the persuasion of Qian, Wang Wen and other important ministers, Empress Sun ordered Zhu Qiyu to succeed to the throne as emperor, still making Zhu Jianshen the crown prince, and changing Yuan Jingtai to be The Jingtai Emperor.
After Zhu Qiyu succeeded to the throne, he reused qian and other ministers of the main war faction, relying on them to organize an army to win the defense of the capital, repelled the Mongol Wallachian army, and united the people's hearts. After Wa La was defeated, he also wanted to repair his relationship with the Ming Dynasty, so he took the initiative to release Zhu Qizhen.
However, Zhu Qizhen's identity has become extremely embarrassing, Zhu Qiyu has succeeded to the throne, who became emperor does not want to easily let it out, Zhu Qiyu is the same, he does not want his brother Zhu Qizhen to return, but Vala has released Zhu Qizhen, and Zhu Qiyu has to accept Zhu Qizhen's return on the surface.
However, Zhu Qiyu later put Zhu Qizhen under house arrest, and later he also abolished Zhu Jianshen's position as crown prince in disregard of the agreement with Empress Sun and installed his son Zhu Jianji as crown prince, which made Empress Sun and Yu Qian, who had originally supported him, very disappointed and dissatisfied. It also laid the groundwork for the later "change of seizing the door".
Although Zhu Zhanyuan was in Changsha at that time, he was always concerned about the situation in the imperial court, and after he heard that Zhu Qizhen was under house arrest, he immediately wrote a letter to Zhu Qiyu and advised Zhu Qiyu to treat and respect his brother Zhu Qizhen in the tone of his uncle, after all, his throne originated from Zhu Qizhen and could not be deferential to him.
In fact, Zhu Zhanyuan is also for the good of Zhu Qiyu, and treating Zhu Qizhen well can also help Zhu Qiyu win people's hearts, and can also get a good reputation in the world.
However, Zhu Qiyu did not listen to the words of his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan, and he was more and more closely monitored by Zhu Qizhen. Finally, in the eighth year of Jingtai (1457), when the 29-year-old Zhu Qiyu was seriously ill, the generals Shi Heng and Yushi Xu Youzhen, as well as the eunuch Cao Jixiang, with the permission of Empress Sun, led troops to release Zhu Qizhen from house arrest and launched the "Change of The Gate", which restored Zhu Qizhen to the throne as emperor.
In fact, Shi Heng, Xu Youzhen, Cao Jixiang and others launched the "change of seizing the door" just to try to support the merits of the new king, on the eve of launching the "change of seizing the door", some people within them thought that Zhu Qizhen had been captured by Wallachia, and his prestige was greatly damaged, and he was already the emperor of Taishang, which belonged to the past tense, and should support Zhu Zhanyuan, who was known as a sage, to succeed to the throne, but Shi Heng and the other three still thought that Zhu Qizhen was better used in front of him.
This was also the third time that Zhu Zhanyuan had the opportunity to inherit the throne, but this time it was only the discussion of the parties involved, and he himself did not know it.
Immediately after Zhu Qizhen was restored to the throne, a political reckoning was launched against Zhu Qiyu, but Zhu Qiyu was put under house arrest by him, after which he inexplicably died of illness.
Zhu Qizhen later also began to carry out political liquidation of the courtiers who supported Zhu Qiyu, Yu Qian and Wang Wen were angrily killed by Zhu Qizhen for this, and then Zhu Qizhen remembered that at that time, Empress Sun wanted to make Zhu Zhanyuan emperor, plus when she was young and succeeded to the throne, there were courtiers who suggested that Empress Zhang support Zhu Zhanyuan as emperor, and on the eve of the "change of the door", there was news that Zhu Zhanyuan was proposed to be emperor, which made Zhu Qizhen, who was very sensitive and suspicious after the restoration, very suspicious of his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan.
Zhu Qizhen originally wanted Jinyiwei to secretly monitor Zhu Zhanyuan, look for his faults, and find excuses to kill him, but later this matter was learned by Empress Sun, and Empress Sun quickly showed Zhu Qizhen the reply letter that Zhu Zhanzhen had written back to her, and mentioned that her mother-in-law, Empress Zhang, wanted Zhu Qizhen to treat Zhu Zhanyuan kindly.
Later, Zhu Qizhen found Zhu Qiyu's letters from Zhu Qiyu, at this time Zhu Qizhen remembered the letter that his grandmother Empress Zhang had read to himself when he was a child, plus the letter displayed by his mother Empress Sun, and now Zhu Zhanzhen's letters advising Zhu Qiyu to treat Zhu Qizhen kindly, which greatly touched Zhu Qizhen, and he realized that whenever he was in danger, his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan was a person who insisted on defending himself, so Zhu Qizhen completely dispelled his concerns about his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan.
So Zhu Qizhen invited Zhu Zhanyuan to Beijing, and he wanted to thank his uncle in person. After Zhu Zhanyuan entered Beijing, he was solemnly treated by Zhu QiZhen, and Zhu Zhanyuan also put forward many suggestions for the advantages and disadvantages of innovation to Zhu Qizhen in person, which were directly adopted by Zhu Qizhen.
After that, Zhu Qizhen invited Zhu Zhanyuan to Beijing again, this time the uncle and nephew did not talk about state affairs when they met, only about family customs, and on the occasion of parting, Zhu Qizhen personally sent Zhu Zhanyuan to Lugou Bridge, along the way Zhu Qizhen only let Zhu Zhanyuan's carriage walk in front of the emperor's royal car, which was completely different from the behavior of the emperor's courtesy, Zhu Zhanyuan insisted on not daring to go, Zhu Qizhen said: "Wang (Zhu Zhanyuan) is highly respected, today it is not a king to send a subject, but a nephew to send an uncle, what chaos! ”
Zhu Qizhen meant that he sent Zhu Zhanyuan not as a courtesan, but as a nephew to bid farewell to his uncle, so he did not mess with the etiquette. Since ancient times, kings have uncles and uncles, and successive emperors would rather reuse their own uncles than reuse their own uncles, just because the uncles are the bloodline of the royal family, which poses a certain threat to the imperial throne, and the emperor usually dilutes the division of uncles and nephews after succeeding to the throne, emphasizing the etiquette of the monarch, and Zhu Qizhen can strengthen the uncle and nephew division for his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan, which shows that Zhu Qizhen has a very high level of trust and courtesy to Zhu Zhanyuan.
After that, Zhu Qizhen also summoned Zhu Zhanyuan to Beijing many times to meet him, Zhu Zhanyuan was cautious, worried that the number of times he went to the capital would easily cause suspicion, so he declined Zhu Qizhen's invitation after that, Zhu Zhanyuan did not come, then Zhu Qizhen only had to give him a big reward, and Zhu Zhanyuan also became the king of the domain who was most rewarded by the emperor at that time.
Zhu Qizhen also allowed Zhu Zhanyuan to take Shizi to lead the prince's escort out of the city to go hunting, it should be known that since the Ming Dynasty Ancestor Zhu Di has been monitoring the kings of various domains very strongly, every move of the Ming Dynasty king is under the supervision of local officials, especially the random dispatch of escorts out of the city to hunt, which is a crime that is easy to be given death by the emperor, so Zhu Qizhen can allow Zhu Zhanyuan to take the escort out of the city to hunt, which shows his trust in Zhu Zhanyuan.
It can be said that Zhu Zhanyuan's prudence and wisdom enabled him to gain the trust and courtesy of his eldest nephew Zhu Qizhen.
Zhu Zhanyuan also has a dark side of human nature
Although Zhu Zhanyuan was known for his virtuous name and generous personality, he also had a dark side of human nature, and when Zhu Qizhen first summoned him to Beijing, he felt the emperor's suspicion of him, so after seeing Zhu Qizhen, he had said that he would destroy Zhu Qiyu's mausoleum of Empress Hang.
Empress Hang was the biological mother of Zhu Qiyuli's crown prince Zhu Jianji, who later died at the age of 3, and Empress Hang also died soon after, and her mausoleum was a standard extinct grave. Zhu Zhanyuan believed that Zhu Qiyu had already been abolished as an emperor, and that Hang's mausoleum should not have the specifications of an empress, which was an act of trespassing, so it should be abolished.
This suggestion coincided with Zhu Qizhen's intentions, so Zhu Qizhen ordered soldiers to destroy the tomb of Empress Hang, and Zhu Zhanyuan also wanted to express his support for Zhu Qizhen.
Later, Zhu Qizhen died, and his son Zhu Jianshen succeeded him as Emperor Mingxianzong. Although Zhu Qizhen trusted and treated Zhu Zhanyuan very much, but Zhu Qizhen died, and his son Zhu Jianshen would have an attitude toward Zhu Zhanyuan, which made Zhu Zhanyuan himself have no number in his heart.
So Zhu Zhanyuan made another suggestion, that is, to suggest that Empress Wang of Zhu Qiyu's deposed queen move away from the palace of the emperor, Zhu Zhanyuan believed that Zhu Qiyu had died, and there was no descendant, the palace should be taken back, and Empress Wang should move back to her mother's house, which was a typical act of kicking the widow's door.
However, Zhu Qiyu was deposed because Empress Wang was firmly opposed to the abolition of Zhu Jianshen's crown princeship, and Empress Hang replaced her, and later Zhu Qiyu was demoted to the position of King of Qi, and Empress Wang was also released from the Cold Palace to become Princess Qi. After Zhu Qiyu's death, Empress Wang devoted herself to the Buddha and had no quarrel with the world.
Until Zhu Jianshen succeeded to the throne, because Empress Wang insisted on maintaining Zhu Jianshen's position as crown prince, he was very grateful to Empress Wang, and saw that she was childless, so Zhu Jianshen was filial to Empress Wang like her son filial piety to his mother, so Zhu Zhancheng's proposal was directly rejected by Zhu Jianshen.
From this, Zhu Zhanyuan also saw that Zhu Jianshen was a generous and generous emperor, so Zhu Jianshen would certainly not have too much suspicion of him, and he would rest assured that he would retire.
Indeed, Zhu Jianshen was a generous and benevolent person, and he was still courteous to his uncle Zhu Zhanyuan, and he was constantly favored, and Zhu Zhanyuan also enjoyed the master of heaven and age, and in the fourteenth year of Chenghua (1478), Zhu Zhanyuan died at the age of 73, and was posthumously posthumously honored by Zhu Jianshen as the King of Xiangxian.
In his later years, in order to show loyalty to the emperor, Zhu Zhanyuan violated his conscience and proposed to the emperor to dig up the grave of the family and kick the widow's door, which was also his last resort, after all, he still had to choose the latter in the face of conscience and survival.
Write at the end
The Ming Dynasty's official evaluation of Zhu Zhanyuan is very interesting: Wang was cautious and devoted to filial piety, especially empress Dowager Xiaozhao (that is, Empress Zhang, The birth mother of Zhu Zhanyuan). However, if he can abide by the etiquette and the law, he is far from suspicious, so although there are objections, he is not suspected by the upper and lower levels, and he can live in peace and life to live forever. (From the Records of Emperor Mingxianzong).
"Observing etiquette and being suspicious" is a portrayal of Zhu Zhanyuan's life, he supervised the country twice and had the opportunity to inherit the throne three times, but each time he could restrain his ambitions, so he could finally let himself enjoy his old age in peace.
Such a legendary life as Zhu Zhanyuan, many times infinitely close to the throne, but can not be suspected by the emperor, but also through the seven dynasties and six emperors to enjoy the high life of the people are extremely rare in history, just by virtue of this Zhu Zhanyuan is enough to be called the most "cattle" prince of the Ming Dynasty.