A righteous son is a relationship between two people who are not related by blood and voluntarily form a father-son relationship. This relationship is somewhat similar to the worship of the master, the righteous knot Jinlan, that is, people who are not related by blood, freely combined together and become relatives. But the difference is that the worship of the son is the brotherhood, and the recognition of the righteous son is the father and son. In fact, this kind of behavior also exists in modern society, to put it bluntly, it is to recognize a dry relative, a dry son, a dry girl, a dry father and so on.
When I watched "Sui and Tang Dynasty Yanyi" when I was a child, I was more impressed by Yang Lin, who was the eighth good man and loyal to guard the Great Sui River, but did not pay attention to his martial arts, but was curious about his behavior of widely collecting righteous sons. Once he saw which young general had outstanding martial arts, wisdom and potential for development, he adopted him as a righteous son, and even Qin Qiong, a hero of the Tang Dynasty, served as his thirteenth Taibao.
In the Guandi Temple, we will see the statue of Guan di next to the statue of two other generals, one of which is Guan Yu's personal bodyguard Zhou Cang, and the other is his most important son, Guan Ping, who is also Guan Yu's adopted righteous son.
In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, the rule was incompetent, the society was turbulent, and various tyrants emerged one after another, and rebel armies were formed in many parts of the country. Although the place where the rebels are located may be different, the generals of these rebels have a common habit, that is, they like to adopt yoshiko. Among them, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, also loved to adopt a righteous son when he first made a revolution.
His adopted righteous son, no less than a dozen people before and after, are more familiar with: Mu Ying, Ping An, Zhu Wengang, Xu Sima , Zhen Tong, King Kong Nu and so on.
Among Zhu Yuanzhang's many righteous sons, two are the most famous, one is his nephew Li Wenzhong, and the other is Mu Ying, who has been stationed in the border area of Yunnan.
After Zhu Yuanzhang embarked on the road of rebellion from the Huangjue Temple, it was a day when the tip of the knife licked blood and his head was hung on the waistband of his pants. Although there are also relatives in the family, due to the continuous war and chaos, there is no way to care about life and death. In addition, natural and man-made disasters, birth, old age, illness and death, the brothers and sisters of the Zhu family died almost the same. In 1354, Zhu Yuanzhang's revolution bore fruit, and the ranks continued to grow, becoming a rebel force that intimidated one side.
This year, his nephew Wen Zheng and nephew Wen Zhong came to him. Zhu Yuanzhang's sister and brother were dead, and because Zhu Yuanzhang had military power in his hands at that time, the two children came to defect, hoping to have a hope of survival. At that time, although his nephew was already fourteen years old, he did not even have a big name, only a nickname "Bao'er".
After he saw Zhu Yuanzhang, he had been dragging his uncle's clothes with his hands to play, perhaps because he had not seen his relatives for too long, and the child was worried that his uncle would leave, so he did not dare to leave him.
The child's innocent behavior made Zhu Yuanzhang, who has always been cold, also sigh: "Nephew sees uncle as if he sees mother!" "First, the children of my sister and brother's family naturally have to be taken in; second, to catch up with the war years, the demand for talents is relatively large." Therefore, at this time, the heavens sent nephews and nephews who were almost adults, and Zhu Yuanzhang naturally had to cultivate them well as a general to rely on.
In addition, many people like to adopt righteous sons, and there is a reason for the traditional Chinese social system and the influence of ideas. As the saying goes: "Fight the tiger and the brothers, fight the fathers and sons", in ancient times, it was a patriarchal society, and the closeness of people and people was maintained by blood relatives or in-laws. In the cruel battlefield, this relationship is more important, and his own son is most at ease.
However, a person's fertility is limited, and even if he takes a wife and concubine, he cannot have too many sons. Moreover, social unrest, even if a son is born, it is not known whether he can raise an adult. Like Zhu Yuanzhang, who has given birth to dozens of sons, it is already amazing. Moreover, these sons are either too young, or they may be stupid children who cannot be worthy of great responsibility.
What's more, in the war years, death and injury are common things, and going to the battlefield is equivalent to risking your life. Therefore, as a father, watching his son charge into the battle and be in danger is naturally unbearable. Therefore, it is most appropriate to find a righteous son to fight for himself.
So, where to find so many "sons"?
The orphans who lost their loved ones and survived in the melee became good adopters. These orphans can be said to have grown up in a very harsh environment and have a strong ability to survive. Such a person, after meticulous and patient training, can become a general who shoulders heavy responsibilities. Because, since they were young, their parents died, they wandered around alone, and in order to have food to eat and save their lives, they were bullied and drifted, so such people will be more grateful to those who are kind to themselves.
In addition, such a person, once adopted by a certain leader and recognized as a righteous son, will basically swear allegiance to the death. Therefore, later generations gave an evaluation of the behavior of many leaders at the end of the Yuan Dynasty in accepting the righteous son, "thinking that the reserves of the generals, or the supervision of the army, all value their loyalty".
Recognizing the father and receiving the righteous son is a very common phenomenon in traditional Chinese society. This is actually to fix people who are not related by blood in the way of "quasi-blood affinity" and "quasi-blood affinity".
For example: in the countryside in the past, the two families got along very well, so wouldn't it be good to be friends? No, the friendship relationship is too unreliable, always feel not very strong, so, or set a doll kiss, your girlfriend promised to match my child.
What if the two parties do not have the conditions to form a family of children and daughters?
Then recognize the dry relatives, your children call me dry father, the two families have a virtual blood relationship. In short, it is to use artificial methods to "build" two families that are not related by blood into a kinship relationship, otherwise, even the best friends will not be assured.
Zhu Yuanzhang received so many righteous sons, and it was also for this reason. However, in order for those adopted orphans to give their lives in a down-to-earth manner, it is not enough to give them favors, they must have the name of father and son. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang not only let his nephew follow his surname Zhu, but also gave a new name according to the Zhu family tree, called "Zhu Wenzhong".
This nephew was originally close enough, but after all, the nephew was a foreigner, so if he became a righteous son, it would be even closer. In addition, Mu Ying and He Wenhui were originally called Zhu Wenying and Zhu Wenhui, but after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, because of their hard work and high achievements, the emperor specially restored their original surnames. As we all know, restoring their original surnames is a very great honor in the era of imperial power, which is equivalent to giving them the opportunity to honor their ancestors.
But after all, the "righteous son" was not born by himself, and in the war, let them lead the troops to fight, naturally they were more open-handed, and they could not worry about their safety like their own sons. Therefore, at the time of Zhu Yuanzhang's uprising, these righteous sons of his charged into battle and died a lot. However, when it came time to achieve fame, these righteous sons, who had died nine times and were lucky enough to survive, became the heart of the royal family after reunification.
Why?
Because, those who can save their lives in such a fierce battle and obtain meritorious achievements must be the material of the generals. However, the credit is too great, and it is inevitable that people will be worried that the merit will be high and the lord will endanger the country and mountains of their own son. Li Wenzhong ranked third among Zhu Yuanzhang's heroes, second only to Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, and he was the relationship between the emperor's righteous son and his nephew, but he was low-key and never showed off.
However, after his death, his son Li Jinglong was still involved in the struggle for imperial power, engaged in a fight with the Zhu family, and finally failed. Mu Ying was one of the many righteous sons who had a good death, and he went to guard the frontier very early, away from the court struggle, away from the disaster. When The Horse Queen died, he cried to the point of vomiting blood. A few years later, the crown prince Zhu Biao died again, he cried bitterly, and then fell ill and died.
In the early years, when Mu Ying was accompanied by Zhu Yuanzhang, Gan Dad's requirements for him were very strict. Therefore, the righteous sons were often punished for doing wrong things, and it was only by interceding with the kind empress dowager and the benevolent eldest brother Zhu Biao that the punishment was mitigated. It can be said that these two people, Mu Ying has already regarded them as relatives, and their deaths will naturally hit them very hard.
Of course, there is another reason, that is, once these two people die, in this great court, there are fewer heavyweights who speak to themselves and protect their own interests. And how irritable Zhu Yuanzhang was, as a righteous son, he must know it well. Although Mu Ying had been stationed at the border for many years, he was still very afraid of this moody father.
It can be seen from Zhu Yuanzhang's wide collection of righteous sons that in ancient times, receiving righteous sons was really a matter of great profit. When employing people, it is used to kill the enemy on behalf of the father, and in peacetime, it is really miserable to think about these righteous sons.
Resources:
[Ming Shilu Taizu Scrolls, Cambridge History of the Ming Dynasty of China, Ming Shi Mu Yinglie Biography]