The temple number is the nickname of the temple after the emperor's death, according to the analysis of historians, China has had a temple number since the beginning of the Shang Dynasty. For example, King Wuding was called Emperor Gaozong. At that time, the temple number had strict norms, and it must be a meritorious ancestor and a sect with virtue, otherwise the temple number could not be raised.
When King Ji Fa of Wu ascended the throne, he abolished the system of temple numbers, and used the titles of deceased monarchs and ministers, such as King Zhou Cheng, Duke Wen of Jin, etc. Later, Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, and abolished the system of titles, calling himself the First Emperor, so that the world called the future emperors as the first, second, and third emperors, and the inheritance was endless.
In the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang restored the temple number and the title, but the Han Dynasty was very cautious about the temple number, still following the principle of ancestors having merit and virtue, so there were not many emperors in the Han Dynasty who obtained the temple number, and at that time, people still called the emperor the main title, such as Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Wu of Han and so on.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial power gradually increased, almost to the point where there was no emperor and no emperor, except for a few short-lived emperors, almost all emperors had temple names. Such as Tang Taizong, Tang Xuanzong and so on. For example, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's nickname is Chengzu Qitian Hongdao Gao Ming Zhaoyun Shengwu Shen Gong Pure Ren to Emperor Xiaowen, which is really long enough, and the wrong name will kill the head, so people at the beginning adopted the temple number as a way to call the emperor.
So what exactly does the word in the temple number mean, is it derogatory or praise, is it an evaluation of the emperor's life or is it just a honorific title? The following small editor will take the temple number of the Sixteen Emperors of the Ming Dynasty as an example to explore with you the meaning of the words in the temple number.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang
Zhu Yuanzhang's temple name is Taizu, according to the rules of the Seven Temples of Tianzi, that is, one ancestor, two sects and four relatives temple, of which the ancestor is the first recipient, Taizu is the first recipient of the Mandate of Heaven, Zhu Yuanzhang, as the founding emperor, is both the recipient and the ordained, so it is called Taizu. There are many similar situations, such as Song Taizu, etc., all of which use Taizu as the temple number.
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di
It is worth noting that Zhu Di's initial title was not Chengzu, but Taizong, the so-called Taizong is the harvest of the King of Glory, it can be said that Zhu Di is fully worthy of this title, but why did it change later.
The reason was that the Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was the king of the clan who ascended the throne, but he wanted his father to also attach the temple to the temple, but in this way, Zhu Di did not have a worthy of the zongmiao (the temple of the four relatives), and obviously the ministers would not be satisfied with this practice. Therefore, Zhu Houxi forcibly promoted Zhu Di to a higher rank, believing that Zhu Di was difficult to fengtianjing, which was a rectification of chaos and could be called an ancestor, so he changed Zhu Di's temple name to Chengzu. Poor Zhu Di, in order to prove the legitimacy of his throne, positioned his temple number as a sect, and as a result, he was changed to an ancestor by later generations, and the fact of his usurpation of the throne was already clear to the world.
Akihito Zhu Gaozi
The emperor with the title of Ren in the general temple can be called Ming Jun, Zhu Gaozi is one of the representative figures, although he reigned for only ten months, but during this period he rehabilitated the ministers who were wronged during the Jing Dynasty, which was actually a very courageous decision, after all, his father Zhu Di had just died, and he was now rehabilitating the Jing Dynasty unjust subjects, which was equivalent to directly declaring that his father was wrong, but Zhu Gaozi still did it without hesitation, so he was absolutely worthy of this temple name.
Emperor Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty
Nengbu Lingde Yue Xuan, Li Shi Si Fang Yue Xuan. Generally, the emperor with the temple name Xuanzong had the talent of the heavens and the earth, and was the master of the harvest, such as Tang Xuanzong, who created the "rule of the great middle", and the same Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was also a Ming jun who had the material of the heavens and the earth, during his reign, Zheng He carried out the last voyage, making the four parties come to the dynasty and all the countries obeyed.
At the same time, Zhu Zhanji also knew that people were good at their duties, and there was no doubt about the employment of people, such as Yang Tinghe, Yang Yiqing and other famous ministers who were the elite of the DPRK at that time, and under his leadership, the economy and strength of the Ming Dynasty developed rapidly, and history called the rule of Renxuan.
Ming Yingzong Zhuqi Town
Virtue and wisdom, talent and martial arts. The experience of Emperor Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen would probably sell well if he wrote a book. If it is summed up in one sentence, it is to use the wrong person, fight the wrong battle, kill the wrong person.
The so-called wrong person is to use the wrong Wang Zhen, Wang Zhen is a famous traitor (eunuch) in the history of the Ming Dynasty, in the early years of Zhu Qizhen's reign, reused Wang Zhen, resulting in political corruption in the court. The wrong battle refers to the change of Tumu Fort, in which Emperor Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen was captured, served as a prisoner for two years, and was placed under house arrest for eight years after returning home. After the change of the gate, Emperor Mingying was restored to the throne, and in order to make the gate famous, he killed Yu Qian, a famous minister of thousands of years.
In this way, it seems that Ming Yingzong Zhu QiZhen is really not worthy of the temple name of Ying, but throughout history, in fact, the emperors who used Ying as the temple number did not have very good political achievements during their reign, such as Song Yingzong and so on.
Emperor Zhu Qiyu of the Ming Dynasty
The word Dai is actually very easy to understand, because when Zhu Qizhen was captured by the wattle, Zhu Qiyu was pushed out to become a temporary emperor, so Zhu Qiyu's temple number was positioned as a dai (in fact, he did not enter the Zong Temple), and there are also references in history, such as the Tang Dynasty. However, it should be noted that in fact, the temple name of The Tang Dynasty Emperor is Tang Shizong, in order to avoid the secret of the word Li Shimin, it was changed to the Tang Dynasty Sect, so the meaning of the Zhu Qi Yu Temple number is still untestable.
Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu saw deeply
Doing good deeds can be remembered as constitutional, and administrative four parties can be remembered as constitutional. Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Mishen was a bitter man, and when he was crown prince, because Zhu Qizhen was arrested, his position as crown prince was also deposed. As a result, he was terrified every day. He could only live under the cold eyes of the palace people, until Zhu Qizhen regained power, and he was only crown prince. This childhood made Zhu Jianshen weak.
During Zhu Jianshen's reign, he trusted ministers such as Li Xian and others, but he also trusted Xiao Xiao, such as Wang Zhi. At the same time, Zhu Jianshen founded the West Factory, which made the political environment at that time harsh, but overall, Zhu Jianshen was still a good emperor, and he also deserved the constitution of "doing good deeds and remembering".
Emperor Mingxiaozong Zhu Youfan
Loving-kindness forgets to work and filial piety, and practices filial piety. In history, the emperors with the temple name of filial piety were generally Ming Jun. For example, Song Xiaozong, even if Zhao Shuo is not his biological father, he can treat him like a father and son. And Ming Xiaozong is obviously a model of this.
Because Zhu Youfan lost his mother at a young age, he adopted Zhu Youfan for a period of time after Wu was deposed, and when Zhu Youfan became emperor, he served Wu Youfan as a mother, and Wu was moved by the snot after his abolition. In addition, Zhu Youfan is also a generation of Ming Jun, he is not only diligent in the government, but also does not have the affairs of the harem, he only has one concubine in his life, Empress Zhang, and he really can afford the temple number of filial piety.
It can be seen that the so-called temple number is not completely determined according to the life of the emperor. In fact, when the imperial power was gradually strengthened, the temple number had lost the meaning it should have represented, such as the emergence of several emperors in the Qing Dynasty who used the ancestor as the temple name, which is the best proof.
References: Book of Rites, Spring and Autumn, Zizhi Tongjian, History of Ming