What is the plaque and what is the secret?
Today's Forbidden City still hangs a plaque of righteousness and brightness, which was inscribed by Emperor Qianlong and used to describe the important position of the imperial political and cultural center in the palace at that time.
This plaque was mentioned in the ending of the film and television drama "The Legend of Zhen Huan", and it was said that the edict of Lichu was placed behind the Zhengda Guangming plaque, this plot was not randomly arranged by the TV series, and it was real in history.
Moreover, the Zhengda Guangming plaque does not only witness the enthronement of one emperor, there are many emperors who ascended the throne in history, and the Zhengda Guangming plaque has played an important role.
The earliest time this plaque was made was in the Kangxi period, Emperor Kangxi was a famous Ming monarch in history, during his reign has been deeply for the sake of the people, after the throne of the palace was greatly transformed, and the plaque is the landmark plaque of the south gate of the palace.
However, the plaque at this time did not play a major role, and during Kangxi's reign, the country has been stable and stable.
During Kangxi's reign, he has not made up his mind about the selection of the prince, Kangxi understands that if the prince is established too early, then the prince must have made a lot of enemies, which is not a good phenomenon for the prince's future.
Moreover, Kangxi was influenced by Confucianism and wanted to make his son-in-law the crown prince.
In ancient times, people have always said that there is a difference between respect and inferiority, and the distance between the concubine and the concubine is very different, and this difference is more obvious in the royal family.
Although Kangxi had other older and better children at that time, he still set up his two-year-old sister-in-law Yinren to become the prince.
But the subsequent development was something Kangxi didn't expect, because Yinren was relatively young, so he quickly became the target of persecution by other princes, and the situation in the court became chaotic.
Because many emperors in history have set up their sons-in-law as princes, ministers who have been influenced by such ideas have supported their son-in-law Yinren is the behavior of the prince, but because Yinren is too young, some princes already have their own power in the court.
The ministers of the court and the central government co-opted each other, and several princes wanted to control their own power, and attacked Yinren's support party, and were very dissatisfied with his position as the crown prince.
Kangxi saw that such a situation had gradually become uncontrollable, and later Emperor Kangxi in order to ensure the stability of the status of the DPRK and China, only then did the situation of two sides and two abolitions occur.
This situation made Kangxi understand that the candidate for the crown prince could not be made public, otherwise he would definitely be persecuted, and later Kangxi no longer established the prince openly.
After Kangxi, Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, Kangxi left an edict, and let Yongzheng inherit the throne after his death, but at first many people were suspicious of Yongzheng's succession, and Yongzheng effectively proved that he was the successor to the throne.
Later, Yongzheng also imprisoned several brothers who were embarrassed by his succession, but Yongzheng also saw that it was not the right thing for his father to appoint his son-in-law as the crown prince.
During Yongzheng's reign, the minister also appealed many times about the establishment of the crown prince, hoping that Yongzheng could establish the "national capital" as soon as possible, but Yongzheng did not want to set up a son-in-law, but wanted to choose a capable son.
Later, Yongzheng secretly left an edict and put it behind the Zhengda Guangming plaque, but there were two copies of such an edict, one Yongzheng put on his body, and later after Yongzheng died, people doubted that the four princes would inherit the throne.
But after taking out the edict behind the Zhengda Guangming plaque and comparing it with the edict around the emperor, it was found that it was indeed left by the emperor, and the fourth prince became the new emperor.
Subsequently, several emperors of the Qing Dynasty saw that such a way of establishing a prince could maintain a good relationship between the princes, and this method of secretly setting up a prince candidate was laid a firm foundation by the emperors Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng.
But in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi held the imperial power, and the prince's behavior began to gradually become invalid.
She squandered money in the palace, which directly led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, but the plaque of Zhengda Guangming was not destroyed and still remains in the Forbidden City.
But it can also be seen from this that the phrase that the most ruthless emperor in ancient times is true, and the emperors of all dynasties attached great importance to their thrones.
All the emperor's sons hoped that they could become crown princes and emperors in the future, and in order to ensure their imperial power, they even killed their own siblings after ascending the throne, all in order to consolidate their positions.
Therefore, the fact that several emperors of the Qing Dynasty secretly appointed princes did reduce the number of brothers killing each other. And even if some people guess that there may be an edict after the Zhengda Guangming plaque, they don't dare to look at it rashly.
Because very few people had access to the plaque, and the emperor was always heavily guarded, the plaque has now become an important historical relic, but it has also witnessed the process of the Qing dynasty from prosperity to corruption.
