As we all know, the Ming Dynasty was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, but in the second generation of emperors, there was a change, which is also the famous Battle of Jingnan in history, which was a battle for the throne between uncles and nephews, which ended in the victory of Zhu Di, the King of Yan, who was later Ming Chengzu, although the way he seized the throne was not glorious.
However, it is undeniable that he also made great achievements during his reign, and under his rule, the Ming Dynasty had a better development, and it can be regarded as a generation of Ming monarchs, but there is one thing that makes people wonder, that is, Zhu Di, as an emperor, reigned for twenty-two years without leaving offspring, which is undoubtedly very abnormal.
After all, in ancient times, let alone the royal family, even the common people attached great importance to the inheritance of incense, so why did this happen? At that time, a palace maid explained the reason for this before she died, so what was the reason for this?
Uncles and nephews fought and seized the throne
As the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the King of Yan, Zhu Di had a relatively high status at that time, but he did not receive Zhu Yuanzhang's attention when he was just born, because at that time Zhu Yuanzhang was busy recruiting other reactionary forces in the world and had no time to take care of his son, plus Zhu Di was not the eldest son but a collateral concubine, so Zhu Yuanzhang naturally did not care too much, and even gave him a name when Zhu Di was seven years old, which shows how neglected Zhu Di was at that time.
However, Zhu Di did not give up on himself because of his father's neglect, but instead followed his father and his uncles to the south and the north when he grew up, in the long-term conquest process Zhu Di learned a lot of military theory and practical combat experience, which also made it stand out among many brothers, and he was also in order to be able to get his father's attention and recognition, and constantly participated in various battles, just because of his efforts as he wished, he was also appreciated by his father, and then later he was crowned as the king of the clan because of his military achievements. The town guards the frontier.
But even so, he had no chance to inherit Zhu Yuanzhang's throne, because Zhu Yuanzhang had a more outstanding son, that is, Zhu Biao, the concubine born to Empress Ma, who could be said to be the most outstanding of all of Zhu Yuanzhang's children, not only literate and martial, but also had both moral integrity and ability, and was officially established as the crown prince by Zhu Yuanzhang as the heir, but it was a pity.
Because he was too worried about state affairs, he died young in his twenties, and it was reasonable to say that the throne should be passed to other princes, but in the end, Zhu Yuanzhang had the final say, and in the end he chose to pass the throne to Zhu Biao's son, that is, his own grandson Zhu Yunjiao, and his choice also laid the groundwork for the later Battle of Jingnan.
Because in the eyes of Zhu Di and other clan kings, although his nephew was the eldest grandson of the concubine, but these uncles, whether seniority or ability were far above him, naturally did not want him to be the emperor, plus later after Zhu Yunjiao succeeded to the throne, in order to avoid these clan kings usurping the throne, they cut the clan.
This measure directly angered Zhu Di, the King of Yan, so he directly raised an army to revolt and launched the Battle of Jingnan without stopping, which ended with Zhu Di's victory in the course of the three-year confrontation, in which Zhu Di successfully forced his nephew to abdicate and himself inherited the throne of Daming.
He reigned for 22 years and left no heirs
After Zhu Di, the King of Yan, successfully ascended to the throne and became Ming Chengzu, he began to rule the Ming Dynasty, but in the 22 years of his reign, there were only those four sons, and two of them died prematurely at a very early age, and the remaining two were the well-known Zhu Gaozi and Zhu Gaoxu, such a situation had to make people wonder, how to explain that Cheng zu was also an emperor with three palaces, six courts and seventy-two concubines, coupled with the royal family's emphasis on the inheritance of heirs, why Ming Chengzu has not been able to have more children and daughters for so many years?
Some people say that it may be that Ming Chengzu was busy with state affairs all year round, coupled with the confrontation in the Northern Yuan at that time, there was no free time to think about these things, and when Zhu Di wanted to have children, he did not have too much energy because of his age, so it made sense, but at that time, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was only about 40 years old.
Although it is not as good as the prime-age period, it is not difficult to pass on the heirs, not to mention that if you push forward ten years, even when he did not conquer the four sides, he could not have many children! Therefore, there are many doubts in this, there must be a certain reason, and this reason was told by a palace maid at that time
What is the reason why Ming Chengzu had difficulty keeping heirs?
Ming Chengzu had a total of nine children in his lifetime, but these nine children were all born before he became emperor, and the last child was born ten years after he became emperor, after which Ming Chengzu was never able to pass on other heirs, and the reason for this was from the bloody case that occurred at that time.
According to the yeshi records, during the reign of Ming Chengzu, something disgraceful happened in the harem, and it is rumored that a concubine had an affair with a eunuch at that time, which undoubtedly gave Judy a big green hat, which made him as an emperor how could he tolerate it? In a fit of rage, along with the concubines and more than a thousand palace eunuchs in the harem, all executed, and from this incident we can find a suspicious point, that is, why did the concubine risk being killed to have an affair with the eunuch? After all, this was the great sin of the Nine Tribes.
The answer to this question was that a palace maid at the time said that if it were not for Ming Chengzu's own ability, why did the concubine have to have an affair with the eunuch, from his words we can understand that the reason why Ming Chengzu was unable to give birth to more children after he ascended the throne was because of his own fertility problems.
This also caused infertility, so that the truth that Ming Chengzu reigned for so many years without children also came to light, of course, the palace maid said this sentence is also a broken jar, knowing that she is a person who is about to die, and before dying, she explained the reasons for it.
However, the truth of this incident is not clearly recorded in the main history, and the relevant statements are only mentioned from some wild histories or other historical materials, even if this matter is true, Ming Chengzu, as the emperor, naturally does not allow the historian to write this kind of thing in the history books, which undoubtedly greatly damages his image as an emperor, which makes future generations of people how to look at him as a man, so whether it is true or false has finally become a mystery.