In Xiao Jue's recent "Biography of Ming Concubine" series, it is often mentioned that "the change of the tumu fort". This flying disaster not only changed the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the pattern of the imperial court underwent tremendous changes, but also involved the harems of the three dynasties of Ming Xuanzong, Ming Yingzong and Ming Dynasty. If you add the "door-grabbing change" that happened later, it is even more dazzling, and there are some joys and some sorrows.
The harem women whose fate has changed because of these two major events are not only the mothers of Ming Yingzong and Ming Mingzong that I mentioned in the previous article, but also the Qian Empress of Ming Yingzong. She suddenly fell to the bottom of her life, and eventually became the focus of everyone's attention, and the ending was miserable and bleak. Although most of her life was spent in the royal family, it reflected the helplessness of ordinary women in ancient times.
Qian's ability to become empress was chosen by Empress Dowager Zhang, the grandmother of Emperor Mingyingzong Zhu Qizhen. Empress Zhang was a daughter-in-law who was highly regarded by Zhu Didu, and she helped her husband Zhu Gaozi win the throne, trained Zhu Zhanji, and also sent Zhu Qizhen to the throne, and held the military and political power in the early ming Dynasty. For the marriage of her grandson, Empress Zhang was naturally very concerned, not to mention that this was the first time that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty married an empress. In the past, several emperors already had wives before they ascended the throne, and there was only a ceremony of canonization.
Zhu Qizhen married the Qian clan and held the most grand and grand wedding. Although it was an arranged marriage, Zhu Qizhen was very satisfied with the Qian family, and the relationship between the two was very good. But the only fly in the ointment is that Qian has not had children. Although Zhu Qizhen already had three sons at this time, he had never been made crown prince, but patiently waited for the good news of the Qian clan.
However, the change in the Earth Fort changed all that. The young Zhu Qizhen was instigated by the eunuch Wang Zhen and personally marched, and the result was a complete defeat and the entire army was destroyed. Not only did he lose all the Ming elites, but even he himself was captured by Vala, becoming one of the few captive emperors in history.
When the bad news came, Qian Shi panicked, and she took out all her jewelry to redeem her husband. At the beginning, the ministers were also ready to give everything they had to rescue Ming Yingzong. However, when The appetite of Vala grew, the ministers of the imperial court sobered up, and they were afraid of ruining the foundation of the Ming Dynasty for the sake of an emperor. Therefore, with the support of Yu Qian and others, Ming Yingzong's younger brother ascended the throne.
In other words, Emperor Mingying was abandoned by the people of Daming. This is a very wise move, but for The Qian Queen, it is extremely cruel. She fell from a high queen, like the stars holding the moon, to the earth. Even more cruelly, she also lost her beloved husband.
She only got a ridiculous title of Empress Taishang and lost everything. After being abandoned by the whole world, the only thing That Empress Qian could do was to pray to the gods and Buddhas like a folk woman. She knelt day and night on top of the cold hall, muttering reverently, only to lose even one leg and leave her disabled. Not only that, but when she spent her days washing her face with tears, one of her eyes was also blind.
I don't know if Empress Qian's behavior touched the heavens, and Ming Yingzong was inexplicably released by Vala after a year. However, he only met with his wife and was immediately placed under house arrest. His younger brother Zhu Qiyu was originally reluctant to sit on the throne, but with the consolidation of power, he also enjoyed the benefits of imperial power.
For Zhu Qizhen, it was just jumping from one cage to another, but for Empress Qian, she was satisfied, and she was finally able to see her husband. During the time under house arrest, she made some handicrafts, handed them to the palace people to sell, exchanged some food, and lived a life of fear.
Until another eight years later, Zhu Qizhen took advantage of the opportunity of the Ming Dynasty's serious illness to launch the "Change of Seizing the Door" and successfully restored. At this time, Empress Qian also became a righteous empress again. Although she was no longer dazzling, but a falling disability, it was obvious that Zhu Qizhen and her feelings were deeper. Because her son became crown prince and spied on the empress's throne, Concubine Zhou instigated her close eunuchs to persuade Zhu Qizhen to abolish the Qian clan, who was unable to have children and was disabled. As a result, Zhu Qizhen was furious and drove the eunuch away.
Qian Shi did not have children, not only her heart disease, but also Zhu Qizhen's heart disease. His health deteriorated rapidly, and he was also worried that his wife would be bullied in the future, so he clarified the status of the Qian clan in his will, instructed the prince not to change it, and repeatedly confessed:
After Empress Qian lived for a long time, she was buried with Yuan.
The person on the throne was Emperor MingxianZong Zhu Jianshen, and his mother Consort Zhou Guifei hated Qian in every way and tried every means to obstruct her name, or the ministers read the emperor's will and sympathized with this woman to preserve the empress's honorific title, forming a situation in which the two palaces were respected at the same time. After that, Qian's life can be imagined, and she also died depressed after four years.
However, after she died, she was put together by Empress Zhou. The burial of Emperor Ming was an ancestral system, and it was Ming Yingzong who repeatedly confessed, but Empress Zhou forced the emperor not to let Empress Qian be buried together. This incident provoked a strong resistance from the Ming dynasty scholars, and 470 ministers jointly wrote a letter in favor of Empress Qian and Ming Yingzong's joint burial. In the end, Empress Zhou reluctantly agreed, but she used a conspiracy to seal the passage between Empress Qian's century-old tomb and Ming Yingzong's tomb with bricks. The passage where she herself would be buried in the future was very spacious, directly communicating with Ming Yingzong.
I really don't know why such an infatuated empress would have such a tragic ending.