In the fifteenth year of Yongle (1417), the Emperor's grandson Zhu Zhanji had just turned 19 years old.
According to the calculation of the ancients, Zhu Zhanji, as an adult, should also get married and have children.
In March of that year, the Ministry of Ceremonies arranged wedding ceremonies, costumes and a newlywed residence for Zhu Zhanji.
Soon, Zhu Di specially issued a canonization order, and Hu Shanxiang, the daughter of Hu Rong, the secretary of the Guanglu Temple, was crowned as the imperial concubine.
Later that month, the Ming court held a welcoming ceremony for Zhu Zhanji in accordance with the etiquette of the prince.
In addition to the Hu clan, Zhu Zhanji also married Sun Shi, the daughter of Sun Zhong, the chief of Yongcheng County, as a concubine.
However, compared to the first lady Hu Shanxiang, Zhu Zhanji prefers the bright and intelligent Sun family.
Stills of Zhu Zhanji and Sun's big wedding
Speaking of the Sun family, it is still Zhu Zhanji's mother, Zhang Shi, who is the wife of Zhu Gaozi in the hit drama "Daming Fenghua".
Previously, the mother of the Zhang clan and the wife of Sun Zhong, the chief bookkeeper of Yongcheng County, were very good, and the two families were indispensable to each other.
One day, Mother Zhang found that Sun Zhong's third daughter, Sun Shi, had grown up and was very intelligent and beautiful, so she mentioned it in passing when she visited her daughter in the palace.
The speaker is unintentional, listening intentionally. Zhang Shi was busy asking her husband Zhu Gaozi to ask the Yongle Emperor for approval and bring Sun Shi, who was only more than ten years old, to the palace to raise him.
Zhang's stills
When Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne and became emperor, the concubine Sun Shi, who had a daughter, also rose to prominence and was made a noble concubine by Zhu Zhanji.
But Sun was not satisfied with her current status, and she set her sights on Hu Shanxiang's position as empress.
At first, Zhu Zhanji was a bowl of water for these two ladies, and neither of them favored them.
With the passage of time, Zhu Zhanji gradually had an opinion on Hu Shanxiang.
It turned out that after the "Taiping Heavenly Son" Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he was quite good at parade, and Hu Shanxiang, as an empress, felt inappropriate and often advised Zhu Zhanji to restrain himself a little.
However, Sun Shi never advised Zhu Zhanji, she always picked up Zhu Zhanji's nice words and never did anything that upset Zhu Zhanji.
Seeing that the sick and crooked Hu clan had not given birth after marriage, Zhu Zhanji became more and more dissatisfied and bored with him, and slowly snubbed the Hu clan.
Zhu Zhanji stills
Sun Shi was cunning in nature, and although she had the intention of seizing the throne, on the surface she did everything to please Empress Hu, Empress Zhang, and other nobles who were above her.
In addition, Sun's attitude towards eunuchs and palace women was also very kind. Soon, the whole palace praised the Sun family.
Zhu Zhanji naturally understood Sun's thoughts, and he also wanted to make the intelligent and considerate Sun clan empress, but he knew that this matter could not be rushed.
According to the ancient system, the empress could not be dismissed without sufficient and suitable reasons.
After pondering bitterly, Zhu Zhanji finally thought of a trick to test the empress dowager Zhang Shi and the Manchu Dynasty's minister of culture and martial arts: to give Jinbao. (Note: The ancestral legal system of the Ming Dynasty stipulates that the empress has both a gold book and a gold treasure, and the noble concubines below can only be awarded a gold book)
In her early years, Empress Zhang had accompanied Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozi to oversee the country, and had already cultivated the ability to handle great things well, so Zhu Zhanji's careful thinking did not hide from her at all.
Thinking that Sun Shi had been raised by herself for several years, the relationship between the two had always been good, and Empress Zhang agreed to Zhu Zhanji's request after thinking about it again and again.
In this way, the Sun clan did not have the name of empress, but also won the golden treasure.
In this way, the palace eunuchs with a keen sense of smell began to move closer to the Sun clan, and Empress Hu suddenly appeared to be alone.
Stills of Hu Shanxiang
After winning the first set, Sun began to plan the second and most critical step.
Shi Zai: In the second year of Xuande, the Sun clan "took the son of the palace as his own son, that is, Emperor Yingzong, and was favored by his relatives" and became very important.
Why did sun try to "take the son of the palace as his own son"?
As mentioned above, Empress Hu Shanxiang was childless due to illness, and Sun Shi was unable to bear a son except for the birth of a daughter.
Therefore, if the Sun clan wants to seize the throne, it must have to give birth to a prince.
At that time, Zhu Zhanji would naturally make his son crown prince.
Since the son was made crown prince, the Sun clan, who was "mother and son", would naturally become empress.
It should be noted that Zhu Zhanji, who lived with the Sun family day and night and was inseparable, not only knew that the Sun family was not pregnant, but also knew that the Sun family "yin hugged the palace son as his own son".
Of course, this "son of the palace" must also be Zhu Zhanji's son.
Because the court has a detailed record of the emperor's living and going, such as staying in He Palace at night, concubines in Lucky He Palace, and gifts to whom people are given.
However, although Sun's planning was meticulous, there were still rumors of the wind.
In the end, it was Zhu Zhanji who intervened to solve the rumor spread, and Shi Zai "made Xi An sit and slander and slander himself in the long period."
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Seeing that Sun had a son, the foreign officials understood that Sun's gain of power had become an established fact, and the civil and military officials headed by the British gongZhang Fu handed over folds one after another to ask the eldest son of the emperor to be crown prince.
Therefore, on the tenth day of the birth of this prince, Zhu Zhanji officially approved the ministers' request for Li Chu.
Twenty days later, Zhu Zhanji set the time for the crown prince to be crowned prince.
In February of the third year of Xuande, Zhu Zhanji officially appointed Zhu Qizhen as crown prince.
Seeing that the ministers of the wind made the rudder see that Sun Shi was a given fact, they once again went up to the song and asked the crown prince's biological mother, Sun Shi, to be empress.
At this moment, Sun Shi twisted and began to push away in a melancholy manner.
Zhu Zhanji did not have time to take care of her, and he was busy giving the minister's recital to Empress Zhang, hoping that Empress Zhang would express her support.
Empress Zhang saw that the facts and the outside public opinion were favorable to Sun Shi, so she had to agree to Zhu Zhanji's request.
Although Empress Zhang agreed to Zhu Zhanji's request to become empress, his first assistant minister Yang Shiqi not only refused to take a stand, but also advised Zhu Zhanji to think twice about being reviled by his descendants after Emperor Renzong of Song deposed Guo.
Zhu Zhanji could not, so he had to carry out Empress Zhang to suppress Yang Shiqi and ask him how to handle the matter.
Yang Shiqi saw that Zhu Zhanji had made up his mind, and in desperation, he gave Zhu Zhanji a trick: to guide the empress to submit a request for resignation herself.
Soon, Empress Hu was moved out of the main palace, and Sun Guifei ascended to the throne of the empress.
So far, the first time in the history of the Ming Dynasty, the storm of empress dowager abolition has finally calmed down.
(Follow-up: In the seventh year of orthodoxy, Empress Dowager Zhang died.) Soon, Hu Shanxiang also disappeared after the abolition. According to the system: Hu Shanxiang should be buried as an empress at Zhu Zhanji's Jing mausoleum. Sun disagreed, and Hu Shanxiang was buried by the Ming court as a concubine)
Reference: History of the Ming Dynasty