She is known as one of the "Five Yan Queens" beauty queen, and she is also a generation of empresses who have continued to live for the Ming Dynasty for 17 years, so what is the origin of this empress? What exactly did she do? Why can it be called a generation of sages?
This legendary empress is the Ming Dynasty's Yi'an Empress Zhang Yan, speaking of Zhang Yan, everyone may think of the empress of Liu Ying, the Han Hui Emperor mentioned in previous videos, but there is also an empress with her name in history, she is the empress of Emperor Mingxi Zhu Youxiao. Zhu Youxiao's father is the famous "January Heavenly Son" - Ming Guangzong Zhu Changluo, Zhu Changluo died less than a month after reigning, and then the eldest son Zhu Youxiao succeeded to the throne, at this time the 16-year-old Zhu Youxiao also reached the age of marrying, so the imperial court began to recruit 13-16-year-old good family women nationwide to choose concubines for the emperor's big wedding, this audition has a total of more than 5,000 people, Zhang Yan is one of them, after a fierce competition, finally Zhang Yan and two other women successfully shortlisted, in the final final selection, Zhu Youxiao took a fancy to Zhang Yan at a glance and made Zhang Yan empress.
Zhang Yan is indeed a rare beauty, according to the "Biography of Empress Ming Yi'an" recorded: "Zhang Yan (qí) xiufeng, face like Guanyin, eyes like autumn waves, mouth like Zhu Cherry, nose like hanging gall, hao teeth fine", so it was also known as one of the "Five Great Yan Queens" by later generations, in the first year of the Apocalypse (1621 AD), Zhang Yan was made empress, Zhang Yan although not very old, but very sensible, quite as an empress mother of the world style, in the chaotic situation in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Yan can always remain sober, She often spoke bluntly to Emperor Mingxi, so what did she do? Can it continue to live for the Ming Dynasty for 17 years?
Zhang Yan was a righteous person, as an empress, she was not as busy with the harem as others, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian and Ming Xizong's nursing mother Keshi, the two were in cahoots with adultery and chaos in the court, Zhang Yan was disgusted by the actions of the two, so she often advised Ming Xizong to "be close to the sages and far away from the little people", and even when the emperor came to his own palace, he also read the "Zhao Gao Chuanji" aloud in front of Ming Xizong, and gently advised Ming Xizong not to trust the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, so as not to follow in the footsteps of Qin II. Wei Zhongxian became angry after knowing this, and repeatedly looked for opportunities to get rid of Zhang Yan, but did not succeed, so during Zhang Yan's pregnancy, he colluded with Keshi to replace all the maids around Zhang Yan, and then framed Zhang Yan for abortion, so that she could not have children for life, and the other concubines of Emperor Mingxi did not have a prince to stay, so Wei Zhongxian and Keshi's despicable means indirectly led to the extinction of Emperor Mingxi.
In the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), Emperor Mingxizong Zhu Youxiao accidentally drowned due to rowing a boat, and died shortly after, at the age of 23, when Emperor Mingxizong was critically ill and preparing to choose an heir to the throne, Wei Zhongxian and Keshi colluded again to secretly mix a pregnant palace girl into the palace, intending to impersonate Mingxizong's heir, Zhang Yan strongly opposed it after learning about it, and urged Emperor Mingxi to pass the throne to his younger brother Zhu Youjian, so that Zhu Youjian could successfully sit on the throne and become the later Chongzhen Emperor, although he was the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty. However, the Chongzhen Emperor himself was still very capable, and after succeeding to the throne, he had been ruling diligently and devoted all his energy to saving the cause of the Ming Dynasty, and it was under his rule that the Ming Dynasty could continue to live for 17 years, which proved that Zhang Yan's recommendation was still very correct, if the imperial throne had been handed over to Wei Zhongxian's party at that time, the Ming Dynasty would have been destroyed long ago.
So how did the Chongzhen Emperor, who sat on the throne, treat this imperial concubine? What is the final outcome of Zhang Yan?
When Emperor Mingxi was planning to pass the throne with his younger brother Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youjian originally wanted to resign, and it was also under the persuasion of Zhang Yan that Zhu Youjian was willing to inherit the throne, it is said that before Emperor Mingxizong died, he took the hand of Zhu Youjian, the king of letters, and asked him to treat Empress Zhang Yan well in the future, and finally The Chongzhen Emperor did not renege on his word, for this imperial concubine who helped him to take the throne, the Chongzhen Emperor was very grateful and respected, so after he succeeded to the throne, when Zhang Yan was named "Empress Yi'an of the Emperor's Sister-in-law", in the Chongzhen dynasty, Zhang Yan has always been fully respected. However, the good times did not last long, and in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng led a rebel army to attack the city of Beijing, and after ordering the empress and a number of concubines to hang themselves, he sent eunuchs to order the emperor's sister-in-law Zhang Yan to hang herself, and finally hanged herself at Coal Mountain.
There are many theories about the cause of Zhang Yan's death, according to the "History of Ming", Zhang Yan hanged herself in the palace, another theory is that the Chongzhen Emperor sent someone to persuade Zhang Yan to hang herself, and there is also a theory that Zhang Yan did not hang herself, and was saved by Li Zicheng's general Li Yan, so that the palace daughter helped Empress Zhang to sit on the throne, performed the nine prayers, and let people guard, but in the end Zhang Yan still hanged herself and died. From then on, a generation of peerless beauties died of incense and jade, until the first year of shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Shunzhi Emperor ordered that Zhang Yan and Ming Xizong be buried together in Deling, Zhang Yan not only had the virtue of a virtuous queen, but also had the beauty of the country, but her life was full of ups and downs, and she was repeatedly calculated by adulterers and almost lost her life, and finally martyred herself, which is really regrettable.
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