In ancient Chinese society, the emperor was the most powerful person under the heavens, and he would not bow to anyone except to worship his parents and the ghosts and gods of heaven and earth. However, during the Qing Dynasty, the famous Kangxi Emperor once knelt down to a person, not only three kneeling and nine prayers, but also kneeling as many as 5 times. But because of the Kangxi Emperor's kneeling, it was the 200-year iron barrel of the Qing Dynasty that created the Qing Dynasty, which can be said to be the most expensive kneeling in history. So who was this person on Kangxi's knees?
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing army entered the customs, and the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide and martyrdom, and for a large number of Ming remnants, it was not enough to let them recognize the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Kangxi Emperor adopted the method of worshipping the Ming Tomb to subdue the people of the former dynasty. Because in the eyes of the people of the previous dynasty, worshipping the Ming Tomb is to remember and remember the former dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the worship of the Ming Tomb became a means for the emperors and rulers of the Qing Dynasty to buy the hearts and minds of the Han people.
When the Kangxi Emperor first went to the Ming Tombs, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang's cemetery to worship, he bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, with the great gift of three kneeling and nine prostrations. Subsequently, he rewarded the guards of the Ming Tomb and ordered that no one was forbidden to destroy every grass and tree in the Ming Tomb, so that local officials could protect the Ming Tomb well. The people in Nanjing, seeing this move of the Kangxi Emperor, were moved to tears.
After this, Kangxi came to the Ming Tombs to worship five more times. It should be known that the Manchus were very afraid of the Han people's rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, so the Kangxi Emperor who wanted to unify the world must win the hearts and minds of the people, and it became an imperative to worship the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Kangxi went to Jiangnan 6 times for this purpose.
In the end, the Kangxi Emperor did succeed, and his kneeling not only showed his broad-mindedness and sincerity, but also broke the hearts of the remnants of the former dynasty who opposed the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty, in exchange for the 200 years of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, this kneeling of his is also called the most expensive kneeling in history.
