In the "History of Ming", the death of the Hongwu Emperor is recorded in more detail, and the date of birth and death is clear. However, the matter of Zhu Yuanzhang's death is deliberately covered up, only mentioning that the time of his death was in May, and the specific date is not specified. Why? Why deliberately cover up?
And what is interesting is that less than seven days after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he was buried by the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao.
It is reasonable to say that when the ancient emperor died, he would stop for seven days before being buried. However, Zhu Yunjiao did not follow the system, but buried Zhu Yuanzhang's body as soon as possible.
Image: Stills from the Seven Days of Cessation
Many people think that it is a hot weather, worried that the corpse will rot and breed a foul smell, affecting the majesty and image of the emperor. It was May, and the weather in Nanjing was hot, and if the body was parked for seven days, it might decay. Zhu Yunjiao naturally considered this, but this was not the main reason.
Zhu Yunjiao's rapid burial of Zhu Yuanzhang will surely cause public anger and bad influence. And he still did this, in fact, he obeyed Zhu Yuanzhang's own opinion.
According to relevant historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang made a decision before his death: so he was buried on the throne, and on the same day, he was buried at the same time, and all of them were left by the Emperor Gao, and they were buried quickly.
In ancient times, people would stop for a few days after death for relatives and friends to mourn. Then why did Zhu Yuanzhang unusually take the initiative to ask for a rapid burial?
Photo: Zhu Yuanzhang's burial stills
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was worried about Zhu Yunjiao's throne. His sons were ambitious, and he feared that someone would usurp the throne after his death, so he asked Zhu Yunjiao to handle his funeral and bury him as soon as possible to ascend the throne.
Some wild histories record that after Zhu Yunjiao buried Zhu Yuanzhang, he ascended the throne the next day. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was worried about it. Zhu Di was very ambitious, and eventually provoked the "Battle of Jingnan" and made a big fuss on the grounds of "Qing Jun's side".
However, in the text, the first day is related to Zhu Yuanzhang's burial. Because of the seven days of non-stop spirits, many princes were unable to run to the funeral, which violated filial piety! Zhu Yuanzhang's act of making up his own mind brought danger to Zhu Yunjiao.
Photo: Stills of Zhu Di and Zhu Yunjiao
The ancients attached great importance to filial piety, and the death of a generation of emperors is a major event for a country! It should be done in a big way, and inherit the previous royal funeral system. However, Zhu Yunjiao quickly buried Zhu Yuanzhang and held an enthronement ceremony the next day.
In this regard, the "Ming Emperor's Great Political Record" gives an explanation: and the first Yu sacrifice, which is equivalent to a number of altars, is still called the Emperor's grandson. Would you rather have the principle of burying the emperor without an heir? After Zhu Yunjiao buried his grandfather, if he did not succeed to the throne, it would be a violation of etiquette.
However, although this imminent move successfully helped him ascend to the throne, it was also criticized, and he was buried less than seven days later, which is in line with the etiquette? Therefore, this also left an excuse for Zhu Di to start an incident.
Image: Stills of Zhu Di's uprising
Zhu Yuanzhang was a Ming Emperor, from a grassroots to a generation of emperors, of which suffering was known only to himself. He knew that this emperor was not easy to come by, so he was still thinking about this matter before his death, how to make Zhu Yunjiao ascend to the throne as soon as possible.
There is only one way, that is, to bury his body as soon as possible, and then immediately ascend the throne, so as not to change.
Therefore, Zhu Yunjiao's burial as soon as possible was mainly due to two reasons, the first was that the temperature was high and the body was afraid of corruption; the second was to obey Zhu Yuanzhang's will and ascend the throne as soon as possible.