Emperor Mingwuzong Zhu Houzhao, the tenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was the eldest son of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, with the era name Zhengde. There are many legends about his life in history. Some people say that he is greedy and lustful, absurd in his work, and is a ruthless and unscrupulous monarch, while others think that he is resolute and decisive in his dealings, and that he has cursed Liu Jin with a flick of his fingers, the rebellion of the King of Ping'an and the King of Ning, the defeat of the Little Prince of Mongolia in Yingzhou, who is proficient in Buddhism and Sanskrit, and is an emperor with great personality. It is these mixed reviews that make his short life quite legendary.
Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao
In October of the twelfth year of Zhengde (1517 AD), the little prince of the Mongol Tatars led 40,000 Mongolian iron horses to break through the Daming border, cross the Yellow River and attack all the way to Yingzhou, directly to the capital of the Ming Dynasty. A young man named Zhu Shou was appointed governor of the military mighty general and led an army of 50,000 men to fight against the Mongol army. Zhu Shou was dressed in battle armor and armed with spears, and marched forward with the warriors, and after more than a hundred battles between the Ming army and the Mongol army, Zhu Shou repeatedly rushed into the enemy position in disguise. During the battle, Zhu Shou personally led troops to rescue the Ming army besieged by the Mongols, ate and lived with the soldiers, and personally killed the enemy, the soldiers admired the young general, morale was high, and finally the Ming army defeated the little prince of Mongolia, known in history as the "Great Victory of Yingzhou". After this battle, the Mongols did not invade again during the Zhengde years. Zhu Shou was made the Duke of Zhenguo because of his outstanding military achievements, and later became a Great Master Taishi, and it was long before people learned that this Zhu Shou was Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty. It is really incomprehensible that an emperor would go out under a pseudonym, go into battle to kill the enemy, eat and live with the soldiers, and add himself to the rank of knight.
Zhu Houzhao was the eldest son of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming and Empress Zhang, and was the righteous heir to the throne. Because Emperor Xiaozong only had one son, Zhu Houzhao, survived, he was very fond of him. According to historical records: Zhu Hou
When he was a child, he was more pure than ice jade, radiant, benevolent and generous, and quite an imperial style.
Zhu Houzhao left the cabinet to study at the age of eight, and when he was young, he was known for his cleverness, and the book given by the lecturer the day before yesterday, the next day he was able to cover up and recite it, and within a few months, he was able to understand the tedious etiquette in the court. Emperor Xiaozong and his ministers thought that Zhu Houzhao must be a wise prince in the future, but things were not as simple as imagined. Zhu Houzhao was active by nature, and he admired the ancestors Zhu Yuanzhang and Ming Chengzu Zhu Di very much, and often practiced riding and shooting on weekdays. His father, Emperor Xiaozong, also wanted to cultivate him to be a saintly prince with both culture and martial arts like Zhu Yuanzhang, so he was also very tolerant of him practicing riding and shooting games. However, as time went on, Emperor Hyojong felt that it would affect his studies, so he strengthened his discipline.
In 1505, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming was seriously ill, and on his deathbed he summoned the university scholars Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang to the Warm Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. Emperor Xiaozong said to them:
“
The Eastern Palace is smart, but still young, and he is happy, and his generation often advises him to read, supplemented by the sage. ”
On the seventh day of May in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming died, and Zhu Houzhao took the throne with the era name Zhengde. Emperor Wuzong, who had just ascended to the throne, was still decent at first, and after a long time, without his father's discipline, Zhu Houzhao's playful and active nature was exposed. In order to make Emperor Wuzong relax, the eunuch Liu Jin entered the eagle dog fox rabbit every day, and secretly took him out to play and coax him to be happy. At first, the ministers still thought that Wuzong was a teenager, and it was normal to play greedily, and it would be changed later, but the more Wuzong played, the more outrageous it became, first of all, let people build a lot of shops in the palace, let the eunuchs play the role of merchants and ordinary people, play the rich merchants to have fun, and later imitated the brothel, let the palace women pretend to be prostitutes, go in to listen to music and erotic music, and for a time the palace was miasma.
Seeing that the emperor was so unprofessional, the ministers felt intolerable, and officials such as the Five Provinces and Six Ministries played the game one after another, and Yang Yiying said in a sparse speech:
"A man must not have his hobbies, and it is especially inappropriate to rush to the bow and arrow."
In the face of the ministers' rotational performances, and even the threat of resignation, the little emperor was a little frightened, but he did not want to return to the previous boring life, so he said:
"The Emperor cannot be blameless, the secretaries of state are so advised, well-intentioned, and the words of the secretaries of state are faithful and sincere, and they should act accordingly."
Although the little emperor superficially gave the ministers a satisfactory answer, he did his own thing behind his back.
In the third year of Zhengde (1508 AD), the eighteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao left the Forbidden City and lived in the new residence of the Leopard House northwest of the Imperial City. The leopard house used to be a place for nobles to raise tigers and leopards and other beasts for fun, the new house Zhengde began to be built in the second year, to Zhengde seven years, a total of more than 200 houses were built, costing more than 240,000 silver, which had a labyrinth-like secret room, a school yard, a Buddhist temple, etc., as well as western dancers, Goryeo beauties, Yangzhou maidens and even prostitutes and widows and other women. Although Emperor Wuzong was lustful, he had a disagreement with Empress Xia and never left any heirs. In the eleventh year of Zhengde, Ma Ang, who was idle at home, befriended Jiang Bin, a red man by Emperor Wuzong's side, in order to resume his post and promote his official position. Jiang Bin vigorously praised Ma Ang's sister Mei Ruo Tianxian in front of Emperor Wuzong, and was also skilled in riding and shooting and singing and dancing, and Emperor Wuzong was very happy at the sight, and despite the fact that she was pregnant, he took her back from Xuanfu to the leopard room and promoted Ma Ang to a higher position. Emperor Wuzong did this because he realized that he might not be able to have children, and he planned to use it to hide the sky from the sea. After the ministers heard the wind, they saw Ma Ang's promotion to an official, and knowing that the rumors were true, they went up to Emperor Wuzong to expel Ma Shi to avoid any trouble. Emperor Wuzong also woke up at this time, and later gradually alienated ma shi.
In June of the sixth year of Zhengde, Liang Chu and others from the university went up to dissuade him:
"The Japanese eavesdropped on the holy car from the West Gate of Xi'an, and returned through the accommodation, not knowing where they were fortunate, stealing it as a necessary dharma for the Son of Heaven to enter and exit, and he would pass on the warning." The son of Fu Qianjin still refuses to sit down in the hall, and His Majesty is the lord of the Zongmiao Society, even if he does not pity himself, he is not the only one who is not for the Zongmiao Society. ”
In his omission, Liang Chu also asked Emperor Wuzong to choose two or three of his close relatives and princes to be trained in the palace as candidates for future crown prince, and if Emperor Wuzong had his own children, he would send them back. This practice not only stabilized people's minds, but also ensured the smooth and smooth inheritance of imperial power, so it was approved by many ministers. Emperor Wuzong ignored this, when he was not yet thirty years old and did not believe that he would have no heirs. If you choose the child of the king of the clan as the crown prince, won't it confirm that you can't have children, and the beauty of the leopard room is like a cloud, maybe one day someone will be pregnant with a dragon species. With this mentality, Wuzong continued to live an unbridled and promiscuous life in the leopard room. Finally, the unscrupulous Martial Sect caused a big disaster.
On the sixteenth day of the first month of the ninth year of Zhengde, Emperor Wuzong caught fire while setting off fireworks in the palace and damaged the Qianqing Palace, a major area of the imperial palace. In the Records of Emperor Wuzong, it is recorded that:
When the fire is blazing, Shangyu looks at the leopard room, looks back at the candle days, and jokes about it: it is a good shed of fireworks.
The Qianqing Palace symbolizes imperial power, and it is naturally a great ominous omen that it was burned, according to ancient sayings, it was the ancestral gods who were angry. Emperor Wuzong also knew that he had caused a big disaster, so he honestly did it for a few days and blamed himself. But within a few days, he was back to his previous state.
People thought that Emperor Wuzong, who was indulging in the leopard room, had forgotten that he was the emperor, and the power seemed to have fallen into the hands of Liu Jin, but this was not the case. Although Emperor Wuzong did not enter the Imperial Household, he still went to the imperial court to listen to the government's approval and answer the chapter, decide on major state affairs, and when he did not want to go to the court, he conveyed his holy will through the celebrant and ordered the cabinet to carry it out. Even when he was far away in Xuanfu, he particularly emphasized that he should send a lot of pieces to Xuanfu. It can be seen from this that although Emperor Wuzong did a lot of absurd things, he grasped power very firmly, and Liu Jin's rapid extermination is a good example. Although Liu Jin was exterminated, Emperor Wuzong did not learn any lessons, and he still favored the eunuchs he liked, and even accepted them as righteous sons, and one hundred and twenty-seven people were given the surname of Zhu by Emperor Wuzong in the seventh year of Zhengde.
In the fourteenth year of Zhengde (1519 AD), Emperor Wuzong planned to tour the south, and in the early dynasty, he announced the Holy Will and decided to send Zhu Shou, the Duke of Zhenguo, to tour the south himself. The ministers who had not seen the emperor for more than half a year could not tolerate it, so they collectively knelt outside the noon gate and advised the emperor to take back his life. Emperor Mingwuzong, seeing that he could not travel, was very angry, and he sent thirty ministers kneeling outside to relieve his anger, and eleven of them died. Three months later, a long-planned rebellion gave Emperor Wuzong the opportunity to parade in name only. On June 14, Zhu Chenhao, the king of Jiangxi Ning, killed the imperial court officials and led his troops to rebel. On July 13, the Nanjing garrison, counselors and other officials brought Zhu Chenhao's rebellion to the imperial court. Emperor Wuzong took advantage of this opportunity to issue a personal conquest on July 26, pointing out that Zhu Chenhao's guilt had stripped him of his title and general title, but when Emperor Wuzong first arrived in Zhuo County, Hebei (present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei), Wang Shouren captured Zhu Chenhao's success, but he asked Wang Shouren not to go north to offer prisoners, but to march south and see the beauty of the south. So Emperor Wuzong led tens of thousands of counterinsurgency troops, stopping and going, and enjoying the jiangnan style.
On the sixth day of the first month of February in the fifteenth year of Zhengde (1520 AD), Zhu Chenhao and other Qin prisoners were taken to Nanjing, where they performed a captive ceremony at the Nanjing martial arts field. Emperor Mingwuzong dressed neatly, let the generals stand in line, watched him personally knock Zhu Chenhao to the ground, left and right guards stepped forward to tie Zhu Chenhao strongly, Ming Wuzong officially announced to the hundred officials that he had succeeded in counterinsurgency and returned to the dynasty, at this time it had been a year since Emperor Wuzong had set out from the capital.
In October of the fifteenth year of Zhengde (1520 AD), when the army returned to Beijing and traveled to Qingjiangpu, Jiangsu, Ming Wuzong played a big game, wanted to play a fisherman to fish on the boat, after casting a few nets, Wuzong, who was on his head, plunged into the river, although he was quickly fished, but the autumn water was cold, plus he was frightened, and he fell ill. On the tenth day of the first month of December, after Emperor Wuzong returned to Beijing, his illness became more and more serious, and in March of the sixteenth year of Zhengde (1521 AD), the thirty-one-year-old Zhu Houzhao died, and in early May, the eighth Emperor Yi, the temple number Wuzong, was buried in Kangling on September 22.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Records of Emperor Wuzong
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