Anyone who has been to the Ming Tomb in Nanjing will find a large stone stele standing in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb. On the stone stele, 4 big characters are written: Zhilong Tang Song.
The meaning of these 4 words is that Zhu Yuanzhang's governance of the country is better than that of the Tang and Song dynasties. The tang and Song dynasties were prosperous and famous in history, and after Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he rectified the rule of officials, opposed corruption and tigers, and governed the country in an orderly manner, which was better than the tang and Song dynasties. From whom did such praise come from? The person who wrote these 4 words was no one else, it was the Kangxi Emperor.
At first glance, it is a bit confusing. Smearing the former dynasty and elevating the current dynasty is the practice of most emperors of the current dynasty. Moreover, the Qing army entered the customs and seized the Ming Dynasty, and the manchu-Han distinction once caused it a headache. Under such circumstances, it is already rare not to belittle the emperor of the previous dynasty, how can he still praise Zhu Yuanzhang so much?
Zhu Yuanzhang, as the founder of a 300-year-old unified dynasty, is certainly not an ordinary person, and can basically be called an emperor throughout the ages. Zhu Yuanzhang was also the best of the Ming emperors, much better than his descendants, so the Manchu rulers had some admiration for his fact, and when they went to Nanjing to worship, it was natural to worship Zhu Yuanzhang.
You must know that before the Manchu Qing Dynasty was only a nomadic origin, and even a slave society in all aspects, there was no advanced system at all. After entering the Central Plains, the Manchu Qing dynasty in fact copied some of the political and cultural systems of the Ming Dynasty completely. In the Manchu court, there were a large number of officials from the original Ming Dynasty, so in order to bribe these officials Kangxi, the emperor also had to do a model, and paying homage to Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, was a very good way. Because Zhu Yuanzhang had a very lofty position in the minds of Ming Dynasty officials and even the entire Han people. By paying homage to Zhu Yuanzhang, you can legitimize your unpopular rule, or at least get the approval of more people.
Another point is that the Manchu Qing Dynasty won the world. It was not directly contested with the Ming Dynasty, because Li Zicheng, the king of Li Chuang, first destroyed the Ming Dynasty, and then the Manchu Qing, under the banner of avenging the Ming Emperor, led the troops of Wu Sangui, the general of Shanhaiguan, into the customs, and finally defeated Li Zicheng and seized the world. When they first entered the customs, many Han landlords even praised Wu Sangui very much, and even thought that the Manchu Qing had come to save them. After the Manchu Qing dynasty entered Beijing, in order to maintain its rule, it also repaired the mausoleum of Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty. All this was done to buy people's hearts and minds, thus benefiting Manchu rule.
By the time of the Kangxi Emperor, the Manchu Qing had been in the Central Plains for a while, and the rule was becoming more and more stable, so as the Kangxi Emperor said in the Luding Book, he was ready to establish an unbeatable foundation. The first thing to do to build such a foundation is to buy the hearts of the subjects. At that time, although the Ming Dynasty had been destroyed, many Han people still missed the Ming Dynasty very much in their minds, and the anti-Qing restoration was still very marketable in people's minds. The Kangxi Emperor, on the other hand, suggested that he was the inheritor of Zhu Yuanzhang by paying homage to Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial tomb, which could slow down resistance from the Han chinese.
Of course, in this scene of kneeling, the Kangxi Emperor also played a very wonderful performance, because in the process of worship, there were many former Ming Dynasty subjects around, they saw that the Kangxi Emperor had such respect for the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and naturally they were willing to obey the rule of the Manchu Qing. In short, the Kangxi Emperor was brilliant, and he must have done this for his own purposes, that is, to maintain the long-term peace and stability of the Manchu Qing rule, not to mention that the deception of this trick was still very strong, and many people were indeed confused by him.