Author 丨 Mu Bingsen
There are too many strange things in the Ming Dynasty Imperial Palace, and the emperor's approach alone can be described as nothing strange. Some of them fight crickets, some play leopard rooms, some work as carpenters, and some of them have not been in charge of the government for decades. What's more, he simply engaged in sister-brother love, and even made an old woman with a poisonous scorpion heart a noble concubine. This is the famous Wan Guifei during the time of Emperor Chenghua of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jianshen (Emperor Xianzong of Ming), and today we will talk about her.
Speaking of Wan Guifei, as long as people who know the history of the Ming Dynasty are very clear, and they will change color, why? Because she was too vicious, in order to get the favor of Emperor Zhu Jianshen, she wantonly mutilated the royal heirs to an outrageous point.
Why did Princess Wan Guifei want to kill the imperial heir in a frenzy? Only because she once had a child with Emperor Zhu Jianshen, she was also crowned as a noble concubine. However, the child died soon after, because she was already an elderly woman and never became pregnant. In order to maintain her position in the palace, Wan Guifei did not allow others to give birth to children for the emperor, and if she learned which woman in the harem was pregnant, she used various means to make her abort. In this way, Zhu Jianshen did not get a crown prince for many years.
There is also a sparseness in the hundred secrets, although Wan Guifei is strictly guarded, there are still fish that have slipped through the net. Zhu Mishen accidentally spoiled a palace girl, and soon became pregnant, and her stomach grew bigger day by day. When the news reached Wan Guifei, she was furious and angry, and she tried to find a way to kill the child. So Princess Wan Guifei assigned a eunuch to drug Lady Ji and wanted to poison her mother and mother. There are two versions of this matter: one is that the eunuch Zhang Min pitiful Xianzong has no heirs, and has cut the amount of medicine in half, so he saved the life of Ji Girl's mother and son.
The second theory is that Wan Guifei asked Ji If she was pregnant, and the palace maid said that she had a tumor and her stomach was large in order to protect her. After deceiving Wan Guifei in this way, Lady Ji was able to give birth to the child.
These claims are not found in the canonical history, and we do not know. Anyway, Lady Ji struggled to give birth to the eldest son for Zhu Mishen, who was also the later Emperor Xiaozong of Ming.
In order to avoid the persecution of the hard-won eldest son of the emperor, he has lived with Empress Zhou in the Renshou Palace since birth, and has been cared for by his grandmother every day.
Not only did some people have to ask, why did Wan Guifei still get the favor of Emperor Xianzong because she was so arrogant and arrogant and wreaked havoc in the harem? Is it that she is from a famous family, and her mother's family is powerful, or is she amazing in appearance and beautiful as a heavenly immortal? She was just an ordinary palace girl, and she was a full seventeen years older than Zhu Mishen. To solve this mystery, it is necessary to understand the life and life experience of Wan Guifei.
Wan Guifei's name was Wan Zhen'er, and she was born in Zhucheng, Shandong Province, to a well-to-do family, and her father, Wangui, was a county official. When Wan Zhen'er was four years old, she was exiled because her relatives were implicated in the crime of her father, so she had to be sent to the palace to work as a maid. Wan Zhen'er began to serve Empress Mingxuanzong in the harem, and when she grew up, she was sent to take care of the two-year-old crown prince (Emperor Yingzong's son) Zhu Mishen. At that time, Wan Zhen'er was already nineteen years old, and she was the same age as Zhu Jianshen's birth mother, Empress Xiaosu Zhou.
In 1449, the Famous "Tumu fort incident" occurred in the Ming Dynasty, when Emperor Yingzong was defeated and plundered to the northern kingdom by Wa La, and his brother Zhu Qiyu was established as emperor under the initiative of Yu Qian. Zhu Jianshen was then deposed as a "prince", demoted to the position of Prince of Yi, and imprisoned.
It should be known that after Zhu Jianshen was deposed as the crown prince of the previous dynasty, not only was there no guarantee in his life, but his life was also difficult to protect, and in such a difficult day, Wan Zhen'er did not abandon Zhu Jianshen and took good care of him. Since then, the fates of the two have been linked, for Zhu Jianshen, Wan Zhen'er is not only his mother, but also his sister, or a lover, the two have a deep affection, no one can be separated from the other. In this way, they lived with each other for many years, until the "change of the door" occurred, and after Emperor Yingzong was restored, they returned to the palace.
Zhu Jianshen ascended to the emperor's throne after his father's death, and in order to repay Wan Zhen'er's kindness, he wanted to make her empress, but this proposal was opposed by the empress dowager and her ministers, and he was not canonized. Soon, Wan Zhen'er gave birth to a son for Zhu Jianshen, and the emperor was so surprised that he immediately made Wan Zhen'er a noble concubine. Unfortunately, the crown prince died before he was one year old, and Zhu Mishen was in great pain, and since then he has rarely had contact with other concubines, and only favored Wan Guifei alone, but because of her age, she has never been pregnant again.
Wan Guifei's delusion of wanting to be an empress and empress dowager was shattered, and in order to maintain her position, she began to run rampant in the harem with the emperor's favor for her, and did something wrong. First of all, he found a head to let Xianzong beat Empress Wu into the cold palace, and then used means to make all the pregnant concubines abort. Since then, Wan Guifei has done whatever she wants in the harem, saying that it is not two, people are afraid of her three points, and even the new empress Wang is obedient to her.
Wan Guifei was acting arbitrarily in the harem, and the emperor was forgivable for turning a blind eye, so did the empress dowager not care? Once Empress Dowager Zhou asked Xianzong: This woman is so much older than you, and she is the same age as me, and she has not given birth to a prince, is she worthy of your pampering? Xianzong replied to his mother: The emperor has a hernia disease, and only the massage of the noble concubine can make me feel better. For the sake of her son, the empress dowager did not care more.
Whether Emperor Xianzong had a hernia or not, the history books do not record it, we do not know. It is speculated that Wan Guifei has followed Zhu Jianshen for so many years, and she is still familiar with his physical condition, where Xianzong is uncomfortable, Wan Guifei knows how to deal with it, this is indeed a fact, no wonder she is in love with her, pampered.
In the first month of the twenty-third year of Chenghua, the fifty-eight-year-old Wan Guifei died of illness, which made Zhu Jian deeply sad and bitter, and not only did he order her to be buried according to the specifications of the empress, quit the dynasty for seven days, and posthumously honored her as an imperial concubine, but also threatened: "When the chief of ten thousand attendants has gone, I will also go." Because of the death of Wan Guifei, Zhu Jianshen suffered a major blow, causing him to overthink, overwork, and deteriorate, and he died in September of the same year at the age of forty-one.
Did Wan Guifei have an influence on the government?
Although Wan Guifei, for the sake of her own selfish interests, held favors and played tricks and covered the sky with one hand, it was only in the harem and did not interfere in the affairs of the dynasty, so it did not have an impact on Zhu Jianshen's implementation of good policies for governing the country. During Zhu Jianshen's reign, he first rehabilitated Yu Qian, favoring his descendants, and at the same time restoring his uncle Zhu Qiyu to the title of Emperor Of the Emperor, and posthumously honoring him. Then the appointment of a wise minister to govern the country, exempt taxes, reduce punishment, so that the atmosphere of the times is clear, the social economy is gradually restored, and the country begins to show signs of ZTE. Therefore, Zhu Jianshen's deeds were praised by later generations, and he also appeared in the image of Ming Jun.
From the above description, we can know that there is a reason why Wan Guifei can be so favored by Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen. Although Zhu Jianshen was an emperor, he was first and foremost a human being, and all people had feelings. Moreover, in that harsh environment, Wan Guifei did not abandon him and took care of him in every way, so that Zhu Mi was deeply moved by his true feelings, and after taking the throne, he repaid her with "pampering". In this way, it is not surprising that Wan Guifei is so arrogant.