What happened to Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunjue is a very interesting topic, only during the Ming Dynasty, people's records on this matter, there are "dozens of hundreds of kinds", of which there are also more than twenty kinds of "inventory" included in the Four Libraries, which one is the truth?
Zhu Di's superficial statement
Zhu Di, as a victor, ascended the throne and became emperor, so his statement is actually the statement of Zhengshi.
Among the historical materials, there is a distinction between the correct history and the wild history, the main history is officially compiled, the wild history is written by the folk literati, in general, the positive history is relatively more authoritative, and the credibility of the wild history is lower.
However, when it comes to royal secrets, the record of the main history will often be very vague, but the wild history is very detailed. This is because the royal secrets are often known to very few people, and there is no deliberate mutual corroboration of the information, and the writers of the main history often do not write uncertain historical facts, so it is easy to pass them. The authors of wild history often learned about the situation at that time through various channels, but after layers of transmission, coupled with the addition and subtraction of different authors' imaginations, there were often many versions.
According to the ancient Chinese custom of revision of history, it is often the later dynasties that repair the history of the previous dynasties, such as the "History of Ming" edited by Zhang Tingyu of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, each dynasty will also record its own history, specific to the Ming Dynasty is the Ming Shilu, usually a later emperor for the previous emperor to compile. Both of these books belong to the canonical history.
After the death of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the successor was the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao, so the "Ming Taizu Shilu" should have been compiled by Zhu Yunjiao, but after Zhu Di became emperor, he ordered people to revise the "Ming Taizu Shilu" compiled by Zhu Yunjiao, so the "Ming Taizu Shilu" that we see now records Zhu Yunjiao's ending:
"JianwenJun wanted to come out to greet him, and scattered left and right, but only a few people were served inside, but he sighed: 'How can I see you!' The palace set itself on fire. ”
When Zhu Yunjue is mentioned in the text, he does not say "Emperor Hui", nor does he say "Emperor Jianwen", but calls it "Jianwen Jun", which can be seen that it must be Zhu Di's revised writing.
According to this statement, it was Zhu Yunjiao himself who felt that he did not have the face to see Zhu Di, so he set himself on fire in the palace, which belonged to "suicide in fear of sin".
The following description reflects Zhu Di's high wind and bright festival:
"When I saw the smoke rising in the palace, I sent the messenger to the rescue, but it was too late, and the middle sent his body out of the fire, and it was white, and it cried, and sure enough, if it was dementia!"
Zhu Di meant that he heard that Zhu Yunjiao had set himself on fire and quickly sent someone to rescue him, but it was too late, and only the body was rescued. He cried and said that he had originally helped Zhu Yunjiao, but Zhu Yunjiao actually set himself on fire, wasn't he stupid?
However, this kind of small-minded Spring and Autumn brushwork has caused great difficulties in the compilation of historical materials in the future, because a lie must be rounded by countless lies, so in many places it is inevitable to expose the horse's feet.
In the Records of Emperor Taizong of Ming, Zhu Di's account has changed again. After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he wrote in an edict to the king of Joseon:
"Unexpectedly, Jianwen was coerced by power and treachery, and the palace burned itself."
The statement here, from "suicide in fear of sin" to "he kills", is the result of being "coerced and coerced by power and adultery".
More than a hundred years later, when the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun talked to the cabinet scholars at the Wenhua Hall, he mentioned Emperor Jianwen, and the Records of the MingShen Sect recorded the scene at that time.
Emperor Mingshenzong asked, "Emperor Wen Jianwen fled at that time, did he?" ”
Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, replied: The history of the country does not contain this matter, but it was passed down from generation to generation, and when Yan Jianwen entered the city when the Jing Dynasty was a teacher, that is, he cut his hair and walked out of the middle road, and no one knew. To the orthodoxy, a poem is inscribed on the postal wall of Yunnan, with the sentence "Decades of Autumn in the Rivers and Lakes". There is a royal history that feels that it is different, and asks it. The old monk sat on the ground without kneeling. "I want to return to my homeland." "It is known as Jianwen ye. Yu Shi heard about it, so he summoned him to Beijing and entered the palace to test it, and Liang was. It is seventy or eighty years old. I don't know the end.
When Zhang Tingyu of the Ming Dynasty wrote the History of Ming, he thought that Zhu Di's account was unreliable, but there was no other more accurate statement, so he had to write vaguely:
"The fire in the palace is raging, and the emperor does not know the end." King Yan sent the empress dowager's body into the fire. ”
The historical materials mentioned above are all correct histories, but there are also contradictions in them, so everyone has a more legendary explanation of Zhu Yunjiao's solution.
According to Ye Shi, it is generally believed that Emperor Jianwen escaped from the city of Nanjing
Xia Xie of the Qing Dynasty was very dissatisfied with Zhang Tingyu's vague remarks in the History of Ming, and he wrote in the Ming Tongjian:
"Since the cloud 'the emperor does not know the end,' and how to read the following and the phrase 'the emperor is in the fire,' it is inevitable that there will be contradictions between the upper and lower levels."
So, Xia Xie made changes:
"The governor of Shang (Emperor Jianwen) could not do anything, set fire to the palace, and the horse died. Rumor: The emperor said that more than forty people such as Cheng Ji and Yushi Ye Xixian of the Hanlin Academy came from. ”
Literati scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties believe that "the emperor does not know the end" is the presence of a large number of people, the most eye-catching is Shi Binzhong's "To the Body" and Cheng Ji's "Essay from Death".
Because the text is too long, I will not quote it here, and I will directly introduce it to you in the vernacular.
When Emperor Jianwen learned that the Jinchuan Gate had fallen, he sighed and prepared to commit suicide, and the ministers advised him to flee, at which time a eunuch knelt down and said, "Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang left a box before his death, saying that it was opened when there was a great disaster, and now it is hidden in the Fengxian Hall." Everyone ran over to look for it, and sure enough, they found a red box and locked it with two locks.
Opening the box, it contained robes, a hat, shoes, and a razor, three copies (equivalent to a monk's identity card), and ten silver ingots. At the bottom is a letter detailing where to escape from, what route to take, and where to meet.
Miraculously, the names of these three books are written on them, one should be Wen, one should be able, and one should be Xian. There was no doubt that "Ying Wen" was prepared for Zhu Yunjiao, so Cheng Ji, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, took a razor and shaved the hair of Emperor Jianwen. There happened to be a person named "Yang Yingneng" among the ministers, who corresponded to the degree of "Should Be Neng", so he also shaved his hair. Another inspector, Yushi Ye Xixian, said, "My name has a sage character, and Ying Xian must be talking about me." "I also shaved my hair.
At that time, there were fifty or sixty people in the main hall, all of whom had to follow Emperor Jianwen, but the number of people was easy to expose, and in the end only nine people escaped from Nanjing with Emperor Jianwen, and soon After, Yang Yingneng, Ye Xixian and thirteen other people also arrived, so that a total of twenty-two people.
The above statement seems to have a strong legendary color, but it is not impossible. Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware that the ascension of the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao to the throne was bound to cause dissatisfaction among the kings, especially the King of Yan, and might trigger a palace coup (his will did not allow the kings to go to the capital to cry for funerals for the same reason), and it was reasonable to arrange a retreat for Zhu Yunjiao in advance.
After Emperor Jianwen escaped, he first went to Shudi, and then to Southern Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places, and has been committed to temples everywhere.
In the fifth year of orthodoxy, Cen Ying traveled to Si'en Zhizhou, and an old monk sat down and said, "I am Emperor Jianwen, and when You Fang arrives here, he is already old and can't run, please send my skeleton back to my hometown." Cen Ying was taken aback, hurriedly reported the matter layer by layer, went to Emperor Zhu Qizhen, sent a eunuch to check it out, and before the result arrived, the old monk died. After the body was transported back to Beijing, "he buried Xishan with his life, and did not seal the tree." ”
Even in the historical materials written by the Ming Dynasty, most of them believe that Emperor Jianwen did not die, but escaped, "Emperor Ming Zizhi Tongji" was written in Jiajing thirty-four years, Zheng Xiao's "Wuxue Compilation" was also written in the Jiajing years, he wrote "Jianwen XunGuoJi" also holds this view, due to the length of the article, it is not quoted one by one, interested friends can go to check the original book.
Zhu Di's true thoughts
Zhu Di publicly declared that Emperor Jianwen was dead, of course, in order to reflect the legitimacy of his succession, but in fact, he did not believe this in his heart, but has been secretly sending people to find it.
In order to find Emperor Jianwen and get rid of this confidant, Zhu Di sent a close confidant named Hu Qi to travel all over the county of Tianxia prefecture in the name of Zhang Sanfeng, who was looking for Taoism, but never found.
Later, Zhu Di heard that Emperor Jianwen had fled to the sea by boat, so he sent the eunuch Zheng He to the West many times, nominally to buy goods for the royal family, but in fact secretly looked for Jianwen, but there was still no result.
"Emperor Hui's collapse in the fire, or the words disappear, the old ministers are many followers." Emperor Zhizhi, for five years, sent Hu Xi to issue imperial books, and visited the immortal Zhang Sloppy, traveled all over the county and township of Tianxia Prefecture, and concealed the Jianwen Emperor An in... Before Hu arrived, it was rumored that Emperor Jianwen had gone to the sea, and the emperor dispatched his internal minister Zheng He for several generations to float to the sea and go to the West. In the end, the doubt begins to be released. "The Biography of Ming Shi Hu Xian"
The Book of Stone Kui also mentions Hu Hao's search for Emperor Jianwen:
Emperor Wen (Zhu Di) was suspicious, sent Hu Hao to tour the world, visited Zhang Sloppy, also known as searching for suicide notes, and traveled throughout the counties to observe people's hearts. It is also rumored that Jianwen was in southern Yunnan, and It was in southern Chuhu for a long time. Twenty-one years still in the Dynasty. Emperor Huiwen was stationed in Xuanfu, and he went to the temple at night. Emperor Wen had gone to bed, smelled the rain, and the cloak hurriedly summoned in, and Lao Xi gave him a seat and a word.
You see, Zhu Di knew that Hu Xi was coming after he was asleep, got up immediately, summoned him in, and gave him a seat to talk. It can be seen that the things that Hu Qian came to talk about are not trivial, and at this time, Hu Qian has been wandering around the local area for several years, what would be such an urgent and important thing? The only possibility is that it is related to the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen.
Mr. Meng Sen believed in the "Jianwen Xun National Examination" that Hu Hao should have found Emperor Jianwen, but Emperor Jianwen had no intention of restoring the country, so Hu Xi specially returned to report to Zhu Di.
However, Zhu Di went to great lengths to "travel all over the Great Suo for more than twenty years" and never found Emperor Jianwen.
To sum up, I think that Emperor Jianwen did not set himself on fire in the palace, but was just a lie that Zhu Di made up in order to make his ascension to the throne appear more legitimate, and this lie even he did not believe. Not to mention that in the many notes of the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the situation of Emperor Jianwen's escape is recorded in detail, that is, in the "Records of the Ming Dynasty", Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, personally said that Emperor Jianwen "cut his hair and walked out of the middle road", which is enough to prove it. Except for Zhu Di's tampered "Records of Ming Taizu", almost all historical sources believe that Emperor Jianwen was not dead, so are these historians recording absurd statements of "pseudo-books"?
We have reason to believe that the ming Dynasty's record of Emperor Jianwen's fugitive career is not fiction.