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preface
Lin Sheng's "A Preliminary Study of Chinese Plaque Culture" mentions that "the study of history with plaques can be used as corroboration; Study poetry with plaques, and you can get poetic eyes; Learn the book with a plaque, and you can write the pith. ”
In ancient Chinese architecture, the plaque is an indispensable and important part, with unique representation, it often bears the façade of a building, but also symbolizes the identity of the owner of the building.
As the most symbolic existence of the 2,000-year-old feudal imperial system, the Forbidden City's important political significance and profound cultural connotation are self-evident. But in this golden and solemn imperial city, there is an out of place. On a plaque in a palace is an arrow sticking an arrow, and although the arrow is rusty and the hole is rotten, it still stands firmly on the plaque on a blue background in the gold edge, which is extremely abrupt.
As the masters of the Forbidden City, why did the generations of emperors who lived in it not remove this unsightly arrow, but save it for future generations, leaving us with this historical mystery? Where did this arrow come from?
White lotus flourishes and falls
According to historical records, the origin of this arrow began with a political crisis during the Jiaqing period, the Luyou Change. The protagonists who caused this turmoil were the Tianli Sect. Perhaps everyone has heard little about the Tianli Sect and is a little unfamiliar. However, most of the references to its predecessor, the White Lotus Sect, have been heard. This "historical Xiaoqiang" spanning the four dynasties of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties has a deep relationship with its later development fate and a famous "soil emperor" in Chinese history. Who is he?
According to the Northern Song Dynasty Chen Shunyu wrote the "Lushan Records Volume 1": "Less emphasis is given, and when I see the Duke of Yuan, I am solemn and convinced." It is the temple turning over the Nirvana Sutra, because the chiseled pond is the back, planted in the white lotus pond. ”
Hence the name White Lotus Sect. Founded by the Southern Song Dynasty monk Mao Ziyuan, the early teachings advocated Amitabha Buddha, and the followers were called the White Lotus Taoists. Later, it developed into the Yuan Dynasty, was recognized and rewarded by the imperial court, and gradually entered its heyday. However, in the late Yuan Dynasty, the rulers feared that their power was too great and ordered a ban, and the White Lotus family and the official government gradually became hostile.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was still a poor monk, was instructed by others to first believe in the White Lotus Sect, and then joined the increasingly powerful Red Turban Sect. And with the help of his father-in-law Liu Ziyi, he developed and grew step by step, and began to stand on his own, his ambition gradually revealed, and he officially embarked on the legendary road to becoming emperor.
But at this time, the son of Han Shantong, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, Han Lin'er, did not measure his strength and vainly tried to use the power of religion to claim the king and the emperor, which was undoubtedly a great provocation for Zhu Yuanzhang, who was pointing at the supreme throne at that time.
This future emperor has since decided to ban the White Lotus Sect, dealt a big blow to it, and finally achieved hegemony, in the face of the coercion of the rising Daming Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect was constantly hit, even if Ming Taizu died, in the face of his son Zhu Di, the famous domineering emperor in history, Ming Chengzu, the White Lotus Sect can only tremble and steal life.
The White Lotus Sect came back from the dead
This situation continued until the death of the Ming Dynasty, when the Qing troops entered the customs and established the Great Qing. The White Lotus Sect took advantage of the momentum, but its name was "Anti-Qing and Restoration of Ming", which is really ironic. As a reactionary force active during the reign of the Qing Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect has always caused headaches for the rulers.
In the later period of Qianlong, the activities of the believers were rampant, and Qianlong finally couldn't bear it anymore, and sent the elite of the Eight Flags to suppress it strongly, and the White Lotus Sect, which had been severely damaged, was really honest for a while. After the Jiaqing Emperor took the throne, he finally eradicated most of the forces of the White Lotus Sect. Emperor Jiaqing originally thought that he could be considered pure now, but he never expected that the hundred-footed worm would die without stiffness.
Since the official establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect is like gummy candy on the Great Wall of History, and it is extremely sticky. Even if the dynasty is changed and the suppression is carried out layer by layer, it can make a comeback in another form. Although the White Lotus Sect is dead, it still has a certain force, and this force, as the doppelganger of the White Lotus Sect, named the Tianli Sect, waits for an opportunity in the shadows.
Later, he was led by a city man named Lin Qing, who called himself the "King of Heaven", incited peasant households, and was active in the Hebei area of Shandong Province, and also had influence in Beijing. The slogan was "If you want to eat white noodles, unless Lin Qing sits in the temple". And launched the famous event of the Qing Dynasty, the Luyou Change, which shocked the whole country.
This is also the highlight of the existence of the Tianli Sect. But at the same time, the cost is enormous.
Sudden confusion
On September 15, 1813, a group of uninvited guests suddenly broke into the palace, they were disorderly, only more than 200 people, but in this Senran Imperial Palace like no man's land, straight to Longzongmen, in the chaotic battle, a feather arrow shot straight at the Longzongmen plaque, extremely powerful, deeply inserted in the face of the Qing ruler. Emperor Jiaqing was afraid that he would never dream that he would not think that the remnants of the White Lotus Sect who scoffed would retaliate in such a form, and slapped himself in the face extremely loudly.
On September 15, the eighteenth year of Jiaqing, the palace eunuchs were busy waiting within the palace walls, the Jiaqing Emperor was hunting in the Chengde Summer Villa, and the imperial city was temporarily under the temporary control of Min Ning the Prince of Zhi (the future Daoguang Emperor), everything was going on in an orderly manner, and no one could have imagined that a shocking conspiracy was quietly underway at this time.
More than 200 strong men entered the capital through the Dongxihua Gate under the care of Liu Decin, the eunuch of the inner eunuch who had been arranged earlier, and the guards of the city were horrified when they saw that so many menacing people suddenly poured in at the city gate, and after a few seconds of stunning, they made the most cowardly and stupid choice of the general who guarded the noon gate, and abandoned the city and fled! At this time, the great Han people were even more rampant, as if they were in no man's land, until at the gate of Jingyun, they were meeting the coal sellers who provided the necessary materials for the royal family and nobles to live a luxurious life.
These big men who suddenly broke in competed with the coal men pushing the coal carts. Seeing that the dispute could not be done, the anxious man actually took off his shirt on the spot, and the guard looked at it intently, only to see that everyone had knives and arrows hidden in their arms, and then looked at them one by one with fierce faces, their expressions were panicked, and their hearts were not good, and they hurriedly sent someone to report to them. At this point, this majestic imperial city was finally completely awakened.
The strong men and the soldiers fought and marched while fighting, because of the suddenness of the incident, the soldiers were defenseless, and they were temporarily defeated, allowing them to attack the Longzong Gate, and behind this Longzong Gate is where the concubine lives, which is the deepest place of the palace. It can be said that this gate is the last layer of guarding the face of the Son of Heaven.
At this time, the guards had closed the gate of Longzong, and the remaining forty or fifty people who had broken into this place saw this situation, and with the support of their accomplices, they tried to climb over the high wall, and they were menacing. And the soldiers behind the door are only a dozen people, how can this be good!
The Son of Heaven was furious
Qing History Manuscript. Volume XVI. Renzongji: "On that day, dozens of traitors Chen Shuang broke into the Forbidden City and forced the inner palace, and the second son of the emperor killed one of them with a gun." ”
Prince Shang Weizhi's future Daoguang Emperor Min Ning would not have thought that he would face the first danger of his life on this day, and this adventure also laid a good foundation for his future accession to the throne.
When the news came from the guards who hurriedly reported the letter, Min Ning and the harem concubines were all shocked. Fortunately, the future emperor quickly calmed down from the panic, quickly analyzed the situation, and summoned the nearest firearms battalion to defend and counterattack with the clan minister. They arrived at Jingyunmen as quickly as possible, and Min Ning showed his rare spirit of being a pioneer at this critical moment, personally carrying a musket, aiming at the intruders climbing on the wall, and successfully killing two people one by one.
Everyone then fell into a melee, and for a while, the sword light and shadow, the random arrow flying over the strange arrow that existed in the future life was also left at this time. In the face of the firearms and well-trained counterattacks of the palace guards, the big man with cold weapons such as swords and swords, even if he looked at death as if he were dead, and the killing intent was rampant, it was difficult to match, and he was completely annihilated in the area of Wuying Hall.
This sudden and farcical "raid" finally ended and failed in the early morning of the next day. At this time, the real owner of the Forbidden City, the Jiaqing Emperor, was hurriedly ending his hunting activities in the summer villa and rushing back to the imperial city overnight.
When I first heard the news, I was afraid that it was difficult to hide the horror in my heart, but I was away from home for a few days, and if it weren't for the reliability of my son, I almost even took the lair. This is really ridiculous. Throughout the dynasties, there is such a strange thing. The huge imperial city, layers of palace gates, the Son of Heaven's family residence, but the guard is lax to this point, let such a small night go straight into the deep palace, ridiculous!
The Jiaqing Emperor on the road was frightened in his heart while enduring the sudden change, and at the same time could not suppress the vigorous anger of the grand palace, but raised a group of incompetent waste. This churning anger finally reached its peak when he saw the sharp arrow on the plaque of Longzongmen.
As one of the important forbidden gates in the palace, Longzong Gate divides the inside and outside of the palace. Outside is the duty room of the Military Aircraft Department, where the emperor handles important matters. Not far from the inside is the Cining Palace, where only noble women in the harem, the empress or the empress dowager can stay, and it is the emperor's private life.
Ministers may not pass through here unless they need urgent matters and are ordered to enter here, although princes and ministers are not allowed to enter without permission. It can be seen that Longzongmen's important position in the Forbidden City and the symbol of imperial power. And at this moment, after the chaotic battle, the arrow was not so much inserted into the plaque as pierced into the dignity of this emperor.
After finding out that the initiator of the matter was more than 200 followers of the Tianli Sect, the Jiaqing Emperor ordered that Lin Qing, the leader of this event, be sentenced to death and be punished by a thousand cuts. The rest of the remnants and those who abandoned them were all executed, and all efforts were made to eradicate the Tianli Sect.
The Son of Heaven introspected
But after the Jiaqing Emperor slowed down and investigated deeply, he only felt that his back was cold, and the person who received the thief was actually a eunuch in the inner circle, and before the incident, Lin Qingzhi's plan had already been reported, but such important news was delayed again and again by the princes and ministers, and blamed each other until the incident.
Yufeng the Prince of Yu said even more bluntly: "It's still a few days away, what's the hurry, wait for the emperor to come back." ”
Compared with these absurd acts, the abandonment of the city by the defenders of the city is nothing. Thinking of this, looking at the arrow on the Longzong Gate, this emperor only felt a chill raging in his heart, and a deep sense of powerlessness surged in his heart. What kind of city and what kind of country he guarded.
The heartbroken Jiaqing Emperor ordered that this arrow of humiliation should not be removed, always alerting himself to today's shame, and also let future generations take it as a warning. and issued an edict of guilt, stating that "the unprecedented changes in the Han, Tang, Song and Ming dynasties actually happened in the current Great Qing Dynasty. It can be seen that this incident dealt a great blow to this emperor.
Although the Qing Dynasty, which had experienced the prosperous era of Kang Yong, seemed to be a powerful and powerful country, in fact, in the late Qianlong period, the imperial court was resting on its laurels, corruption was prevalent, peasant riots were everywhere, and the entire Qing Dynasty was like middle-aged and elderly people suffering from terminal illnesses at the beginning. In the face of the mess left by Qianlong, the Jiaqing Emperor had the intention to save, but his ability was limited and his mental strength was insufficient.
epilogue
Hundreds of years since the founding of the Great Qing Dynasty, from the world's fame and great power to today's vicious changes, the humiliation of imperial power, and even the century-long history of humiliation in the last years, from prosperity to decline, this step by step is not only the cause of the corruption and incompetence of the ruling class, but also the inevitable result of the collapse of the feudal system under the tide of the new era.
Water can carry a boat or capsize a boat. Today, the arrow on the plaque of the Longzong Gate has been given a spiritual symbol of the peasant class's courage to resist the ruling class.
The feudal imperial system disappeared in the long river of history, and the critical moment when the two hundred reckless men and the prince guarded the bloody battle on that day also became a thin page in the history books. Things are different from people, and all that is left for our descendants is this rusty and mottled arrow, waiting alone for that unknown experience in the lonely night in the Forbidden City.
Reference reference:;
1. Fan Lizhou, "On the Relationship between the "Vegetable Eating Demon" and the Ming Sect and the White Lotus Sect in the Southern Song Dynasty"
2. Fang Qingying, "The Origins of White Lotus Religion and Its Relationship with Manichaeism"
3. "Ming Shi Chengzu Benji"
4. "Qing History Manuscript. Volume XVI. Renzongki"