So hateful! The issue of Zhu Yuanzhang's brutal killing of heroes has been discussed many times before. However, there are not a few such situations in ancient and modern China and abroad, and there are always people who defend them.
But today, to say that Zhu Yuanzhang killed a palace maid at will, this makes people a little angry. You said that Zhu Yuanzhang worked overtime until late at night, and the palace maid was kind enough to send him hot porridge, how did he attract the disaster of killing himself?
Is there something hidden behind this? And what does that make sense?
That being the case, let's take a look back at this past and see what's going on.
1. What happened
It happened in 1383 AD, three years after hu Weiyong's case. However, after the deposing of the prime minister, all the major military and state affairs also fell on Zhu Yuanzhang alone, and staying up late and working overtime has become the norm.
One day at night, Zhu Yuanzhang, as usual, flipped through the mountains of chapters under the bright candlelight of the Fengxian Hall.
These recitals were all submitted from all over the country, some of them were announcing good news, some were holding on to their worries, which made Zhu Yuanzhang happy for a while and sad for a while.
Unconsciously, it was late at night, zhu Yuanzhang also felt a little tired, but just about to stretch his waist, he heard the door of the Fengxian Temple being opened, and then a palace maid carried a bowl of hot porridge on a tray, saying that the empress had asked her to send it.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not speak, but only called out to the eunuchs outside the door, and as a result shouted several times, the eunuchs outside the door hurried in.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked the palace maid to leave the hot porridge, and then asked the eunuch to bring a silver needle and insert it into the hot porridge.
Sure enough, the silver needle turned black after a while, which showed that the porridge was poisonous.
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he saw the situation, and immediately ordered someone to take him to prison, and if the palace maid refused to admit the cause and effect, then he would be directly beheaded. In the end, the palace maid was beheaded for refusing to confess.
On the other hand, when such a big thing happened, it was natural to investigate thoroughly to the end, and all the relevant people were arrested and awaited interrogation, and even Empress Ma was implicated.
2. There is no solid evidence
After investigation, it was learned that the eunuch who was keeping vigil at the door did not respond for a long time because he was anxious at the time, and he was afraid that if he could not hold back and pollute the Fengxian Temple, it would be a capital crime.
So the eunuch trotted all the way and went to the convenience.
Coincidentally, at this time, the palace maid sent by the empress to deliver porridge arrived, and more coincidentally, soon after this palace girl entered the palace, Zhu Yuanzhang was not familiar with her, and the palace maid who usually served the empress temporarily let the new palace maid deliver porridge because of illness.
The hot porridge is made in the imperial dining room, and there are still many left in the pot, and after testing, the porridge in the pot is also highly toxic.
In this way, it was not the palace maid who wanted to poison the emperor, but the imperial cook.
So Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that if the imperial cook did not explain clearly, then let him drink poisonous porridge.
However, to everyone's surprise, the imperial chef took the initiative to drink poisoned porridge in the absence of tricks, and prepared to die Mingzhi.
Everyone thought that the imperial chef would undoubtedly die, but a few days later, the imperial chef was still safe and sound.
Could it be that the imperial kitchen took the antidote beforehand?
But the imperial chef cried out, he really did not poison, did not eat the antidote, he just put some more white radish when making porridge.
Yes, radish porridge is a medicinal diet made of white radish and japonica rice, which was eaten by ancient emperors.
It is said to be medicinal food, because since ancient times, there has been a saying of "going to bed radish and getting out of bed ginger". Due to the cold nature of radishes, after a tiring day to the evening, eating more radishes can clear the heat of dryness, which is very conducive to sleep.
Therefore, when the chef made radish porridge, he deliberately put more radish.
Could it be that too much turnip will become poison?
For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that the imperial dining room specially burn two pots of porridge, one pot more white radish, one pot less.
Sure enough, the silver needle tested the pot of porridge with more white radish and turned black. However, what is surprising is that even if the porridge that is poisoned by the silver needle test will not be poisoned after drinking.
Is it true that the silver needle probe recorded in the "Collection of Washed Injustices" is wrong?
However, many people are skeptical about this, is this story of Zhu Yuanzhang fabricated?
The story is not a fabrication, but we are caught in a misunderstanding. The blackening of the silver needle probe is the inevitable result of the reaction between silver and sulfide.
The reason why Song Ci used the silver needle as the basis for poison detection is because arsenic cream contains sulfides. Sulfide is not a toxin, it is a safe substance.
In fact, many foods, such as white radish, egg yolks, leeks, garlic and kiwi fruit, contain a lot of sulfides.
Therefore, after the silverware comes into contact with these foods, it will turn black, but the ancients did not understand this, which made the palace maid die in vain.
3. Event analysis
The truth of the incident has been revealed, but through the process of the incident, we found that the cause of the incident was very simple, because Zhu Yuanzhang found that there was "severe poison" in the hot porridge, thinking that the palace girl wanted to murder herself, so she beheaded it.
So the palace maid only sent a bowl of porridge, how did he conclude that the palace maid had evil intentions?
First of all, because according to the regulations, if you want to see the emperor, you must inform. However, the palace maid directly entered the Fengxian Hall without notification.
Secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang shouted several times in a row, and the eunuch outside the door came in, which aggravated the suspicion of the palace maid, and even thought that the palace maid and the eunuch had already colluded.
Again, the palace maid claimed to have been sent by the empress, but he knew all the palace women around the queen, not to mention how could the queen let someone she didn't know come?
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang determined that the palace lady was suspicious, and the silver needle probe also "confirmed" his guess.
Although the cause of the matter was finally ascertained, the palace maid was wronged.
But this shows a problem from the side, Zhu Yuanzhang is very alert, and he is also very sorry for his life.
As an emperor, the necessary vigilance can indeed save him from persecution.
More than 20 emperors, including Emperor Hanping, Emperor Hui of Jin, Emperor Xiaoming, and Emperor Aizong of Tang, were poisoned to death.
Zhu Yuanzhang came from a humble background, he had seen too many deceitful people, and after one step to the heavens, his heart would inevitably produce instinctive vigilance.
It's just that Zhu Yuanzhang's vigilance is too much, he is suspicious all day long, worried that the heroes under his command will rebel. Therefore, he single-handedly created the hu weiyong case, the Lantian case and other four major cases of the Ming Dynasty.
Because of this, Zhu Yuanzhang killed a total of more than 100,000 people. It can be said that he killed a lifetime, killing one-third of the officials in the early Ming Dynasty.
Such a crazy killing is an extreme lack of security in his heart, an infinite maintenance of the emperor's throne, and an infinite expectation of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, don't look at the hundreds of thousands of people who died under Zhu Yuanzhang's butcher's knife, in fact, the real poor person should be himself.
Reference: Ming Shilu