Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know that Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, made all his 24 adult sons the vassal kings and became feudal fiefs. Without the permission of the emperor, they were not allowed to leave their fiefdoms at will, and they were not allowed to return to Beijing at will. Of course, this is not absolute, there is such an article in "Emperor Ming Zu Xun":
"If there is no official in the court, and there is treachery in it, he will raise troops to punish him, and he will clear the king's side. ”
If there are traitors in the court, the vassal king can lead his troops to "clear the king's side".
In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, the 71-year-old Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness, and the imperial grandson canonized by Taizu himself sat on the throne justifiably. When Emperor Jianwen was the emperor's grandson, he was very jealous of the uncles who were crowned vassal kings, especially the eldest Yan King Zhu Di (in addition to the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang's second son Zhu Fan of Qin, and Zhu Di, the third son of King Jin Zhu Di, all died of illness before Zhu Yuanzhang).
Therefore, after Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, he discussed with his henchmen Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng how to cut the domain, and finally Emperor Jianwen listened to Huang Zicheng's suggestion: first cut off several vassal kings who had a good relationship with Yan King Zhu Di, and then get rid of Yan Wang when Yan Wang had no one to help.
It is precisely because of Huang Zicheng's "great help" that Zhu Di has time to prepare for the army.
In July of the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Di officially raised troops in Beiping, under the name of "Qingjun side". And the traitors in the court are Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai who helped Emperor Jianwen give advice, although Emperor Jianwen is the power of the entire Ming Dynasty, but still lost to King Yan. In June of the fourth year of Jianwen, after four years of Jingjing, the battle finally ended with Zhu Di leading the Yan army into Nanjing.
Emperor Jianwen knew very well that he could not wait for reinforcements, but he did not want to be humiliated, so he set fire to the palace, and he was nowhere to be found. It is said that after Zhu Di entered the palace, he hurriedly sent people to find the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, and found the body of Queen Ma, but Zhu Di pointed it out as the body of Emperor Jianwen, so he cried at the corpse:
Silly boy, why are you so troubled!
Immediately afterwards, Zhu Di buried Emperor Jianwen according to the emperor's specifications, making the world believe that Emperor Jianwen had died in the fire, and he could rightfully succeed to the throne. As for whether Emperor Jianwen escaped or not, it has become a mystery for the ages, but what we can be sure of is that Emperor Jianwen's empress Ma has indeed been buried in the fire.
In this article, let's take a look: What kind of existence was Queen Ma, who was finally buried in the sea of fire, in the early days of the Ming Dynasty?
01 The imperial concubine chosen by Taizu himself
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he chose a princess for his son or a husband for his daughter, and there was a very important criterion: he was born in a meritorious family. This is not only not to want to wronged his sons and daughters, but also to marry the family of heroes, after all, these founding heroes are all generals who have fought in the south and the north and made great achievements, and Taizu does not want to wronged them; of course, this is also a strategy for Emperor Taizu to make these heroes loyal to him.
But those who know Zhu Yuanzhang should know that during Zhu Yuanzhang's 31 years on the throne, he successively launched the Hu Weiyong case and the Lan Yu case, implicating more than 40,000 people and killing them. Among them, there are many founding heroes, meritorious heroes and meritorious heroes' in-laws, after which, whether it is the queen, the crown princess, the concubine or the princess's forehead, most of them are not high.
For example, Zhu Di's eldest son, the wife of Zhu Gaochi, the crown prince Zhu Gaochi, and his father Zhang Lin is just a small commander
Another example is Zhu Di's eldest grandson, Hu Shanxiang, the wife of Zhu Zhanji, the imperial grandson who was personally canonized, his father was just a small brocade guard, and because his daughter was named the imperial concubine, he was promoted to the position of Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple.
Zhu Yunwen is the second son of the crown prince Zhu Biao, and his biological mother was originally the side concubine of the prince Zhu Biao. Four years after Chang's death, Zhu Biao's eldest son Zhu Xiongying also died of illness, so Zhu Yunwen became a veritable eldest son.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, the crown prince Zhu Biao died of illness, and the Taizu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was 65 years old at this time. The loss of his eldest son made him "white-haired people send black-haired people" is really sad, but there is more important thing to do for Taizu: that is, to determine the new crown prince. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was already old, was not sure how long he could sit on the throne, so Taizu summoned his ministers to discuss who he would make the crown prince at the East Pavilion Gate, but suddenly thought of his eldest son Zhu Biao, and he was sad and sad, so he cried.
Liu Sanwu, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, suggested to Taizu: Let his grandson inherit the throne.
"History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Liu Sanwu": "The Emperor and the Grandson inherit the lineage, and the rites are also"
All of Zhu Biao's sons are sons-in-law, but they are not born to one mother. Among them, the eldest is the second son Zhu Yunwen, although Zhu Yunwen is not the most satisfactory grandson of Emperor Taizu, but Zhu Yunwen served his father Zhu Biao when he was seriously ill, so filial piety made Taizu quite satisfied, and he also believed that his filial grandson could become a benevolent emperor.
So he listened to Liu Sanwu's suggestion and made Zhu Yunwen, who was only 15 years old, the emperor's grandson.
In the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu selected an imperial concubine for the imperial grandson, who was Ma Shi, the daughter of Ma Quan, the Qing of Guanglu Temple (not related to Zhu Yuanzhang's wife, Ma). Guanglu Siqing was only a fourth-rank official in the Ming Dynasty, which shows that Taizu did not want the Ma family's maiden family to help the grandson sit on the throne, but to prevent the power of his relatives from being too large and affecting the imperial power.
For Taizu, Concubine Taisun, that is, the future queen, does not need the status of her mother's family to be high, she only needs to be able to have both ability and political integrity, and her mother can be the world.
In this year, Ma married Zhu Yunwen and was canonized as the princess.
Zhu Yunwen still likes Ma's more, after all, it was the grandson concubine selected by the emperor for himself, Zhu Yunwen was moved by the emperor because of his benevolence and filial piety, and was made the emperor's grandson. On weekdays, he is lenient and benevolent, and naturally treats his wife with eyebrows and respect. Ma and Zhu Yunwen are of the same age, gentle and virtuous, and they take care of their husband's diet and daily life very carefully.
A good wife is like this, why doesn't Zhu Yunwen love her?
Of course, the Ma family also knows very well that even if the imperial grandson pampers himself, it is better to give birth to a son-in-law to stabilize his position. And Ma's belly is indeed very competitive, and she gave birth to her eldest son Zhu Wenkui in the second year after becoming the princess.
With the eldest son, Ma's position is naturally very stable.
02 Died in the fire
In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness, and Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne and sat on the throne, known as Emperor Jianwen in history. Emperor Jianwen honored his biological mother Lu as the empress dowager, and his wife Ma as the empress. Regarding the harem of Emperor Jianwen, there are very few records in history, and only Queen Ma is recorded. Even Emperor Jianwen's only two sons were born to Queen Ma.
Of course, this has something to do with Emperor Jianwen only being on the throne for four years, after all, since Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, he began to cut the domain, and the following year after his accession to the throne, there was a battle of martyrdom, Emperor Jianwen is not a person who is addicted to women, plus the emperor's uncle King Yan threatened his throne, how could he have the heart to enrich the harem?
At the same time that Emperor Jianwen canonized Ma as the queen, he also named his eldest son, Zhu Wenkui, who was only 3 years old, as the crown prince.
In the third year of Jianwen, Queen Ma had another son, Zhu Wengui, the second son of Emperor Jianwen.
In June of the fourth year of Jianwen, Zhu Di led his troops into the city of Nanjing, and Empress Ma died in the fire; while Emperor Jianwen and the crown prince Zhu Wenkui were nowhere to be found, some people may say: If Emperor Jianwen really fled with his eldest son Zhu Wenkui, why didn't he take the queen with him? After all, he was the wife who had accompanied him for many years.
Maybe Emperor Jianwen really wanted to take away his wife, but in the face of the Yan army that had entered Nanjing City, it was difficult for Emperor Jianwen and his son Zhu Wenkui to escape, not to mention that the most common saying was that Emperor Jianwen was dressed as a monk and fled, how could he take a woman?
Since Ma loves his husband and son deeply, he naturally doesn't want to be a burden, not to mention that his youngest son Zhu Wenkui is still less than two years old, how can he follow him to escape for his life?
Of course, this is only our assumption, but it is certain that the crown prince Zhu Wenkui is indeed as missing as his father Emperor Jianwen. There is also a theory that the crown prince Zhu Wenkui did not escape, but was executed by Zhu Di. After all, Zhu Di rebelled in the name of "Qingjun side", even if Emperor Jianwen has been buried in the fire, and the crown prince Zhu Wenkui is here, according to the law of the ancestors, it is natural that Zhu Wenkui is the new emperor. Zhu Di wanted to sit on the throne, so he couldn't keep Zhu Wenkui.
Whether Zhu Wenkui escaped with his father or has been executed by Zhu Di, he has disappeared and is only 7 years old.
It is said that when Zhu Wenkui, the great-grandson of the eldest grandson, was born, Taizu said something like this:
"The sun and the moon are at the end, the image of great evil. ”
So Taizu was not very happy about the birth of his great-grandson.
03 The son was imprisoned for 55 years
Emperor Jianwen, Crown Prince Zhu Wenkui, and Empress Ma have all disappeared, and the only thing left is Zhu Wengui, the second son born to Empress Ma. This year, Zhu Wengui was still less than two years old, not only what happened, but also did not know that his father, mother and eldest brother had disappeared, and he did not know that as the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he soon became a prisoner of his uncle Zhu Di.
Zhu Wengui fell into the hands of Zhu Di, and Zhu Di abolished him as a concubine and imprisoned him in Fengyang Guang'an Palace, known as "Jianshu people".
In this way, Zhu Wengui went from a noble prince to a concubine without freedom.
After the five dynasties of Yongle, Hongxi, Xuande, Zhengzheng, and Jingtai, Zhu Wengui lived a life of captivity. It wasn't until Yingzong Zhu Qizhen re-sat on the throne that Zhu Wengui was free.
But why did Zhu Qizhen dare to "violate" the will of his great-ancestor and release Emperor Jianwen to freedom?
In fact, this has something to do with what happened to Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Qizhen is Zhu Di's great-grandson, who ascended the throne at the age of 9. Because Zhu Qizhen was young, the affairs of the court were presided over by the Empress Dowager Zhang (the empress of Renzong) and the "three Yangs" (Yang Rong, Yang Pu and Yang Shiqi); Zhu Qizhen was 17 years old in the eighth year of orthodoxy and officially began to govern himself. And Zhu Qizhen was very fond of the eunuch Wang Zhen, which led to the eunuch's dictatorship.
Even Zhu Qizhen followed Wang Zhen's advice and personally conquered Warat when the Wara army continued to invade the border of the Ming Dynasty.
As a result, Zhu Qizhen and the 500,000 army were all wiped out, and Zhu Qizhen was also captured alive by the Warat people, and stayed in Warat for more than a year before returning to Daming. However, after Zhu Qizhen was captured, in order to prevent the Warat people from gaining an inch, the courtiers discussed letting Zhu Qizhen's younger brother Zhu Qiyu sit on the throne. Although Zhu Qiyu did not covet the throne at first, he was even very reluctant to sit on the throne.
But after sitting on the throne for a long time, he changed his mind.
Even if his brother Zhu Qizhen returned to the capital, Zhu Qiyu had no intention of giving way, and even imprisoned his brother in Nangong.
Although Zhu Qizhen and the queen Qian were not free, Zhu Qiyu was still not at ease, first abolished the crown prince of Zhu Qizhen's eldest son Zhu Jianshen, and named his son Zhu Jianji as the crown prince, and then made Zhu Qizhen embarrassed in every way, making Zhu Qizhen's life in Nangong very difficult.
Zhu Jianji died of illness in the second year after he became the crown prince, and after that, although Zhu Qiyu was obsessed with women, he did not give birth to a son, and his health became worse and worse. When Zhu Qiyu was seriously ill, Zhu Qizhen launched the Nangong Revolution and sat on the throne again.
Zhu Qizhen, who sat on the throne again, thought of his previous experience of being imprisoned, and began to pity the "Jianshu people" who had been imprisoned for 55 years, but the people around him thought it was impossible, so they persuaded Zhu Qizhen not to do this. But Yingzong said:
"Those who have a destiny are left to their own devices. ”
Li Xian, a university scholar, praised Zhu Qizhen: The emperor has the heart of Yao Shun.
Zhu Qizhen reported the matter to the Queen Mother, and after obtaining the permission of the Queen Mother, he issued an order to release the "Jianshu people" to freedom.
In the first year of Tianshun (1457), Zhu Qizhen ordered Niu Yuzhu, the minister of the interior, to personally go to release the "Jianshu people", and the "Jianshu people" were released to freedom together with the "Wu Shu people" (the son of Zhu Yunxi, the half-brother of Emperor Jianwen, King Wu). The "Jianshu people" and "Wushu people" who were released to freedom could not only enter and leave Fengyang freely, but also get married. Zhu Qizhen rewarded him with 20 gatekeepers and more than 10 maidservants. At this time, Zhu Wengui can be said that although he is still a commoner, he does not need to do everything himself.
However, Zhu Wengui, who has been imprisoned for 55 years, was 57 years old when he was released, and he didn't even know the cattle and horses, so he naturally did not adapt to the life of being released to freedom. He died of illness not long after, but fortunately, although Zhu Wengui was not free, he had descendants left.
In the third year of Chenghua (1467), ten years after Zhu Wengui's death, Qin Bao, the eunuch of Nanjing, and others played Xianzong Zhu Jianshen: There were eighteen people in the Jianshu and Wushu families, and there was a shortage of clothing, so five of them died, and the six slaves bought by the two families were also short of clothes. Xianzong issued an order to let the Ministry of Industry supply.
Zhu Wengui and his descendants are collectively referred to as "Jianshu people", and the descendants of Zhu Yunxi, the king of Wu, are collectively referred to as "Wushu people".
It can be seen that at this time, the "Jianshu people" and "Wushu people" have the freedom to buy slaves, and in October of this year, the governor of Huaiyang played Xianzong: the Jianshu people and the Wushu people were guarded again, but Xianzong did not agree.
In the Hongzhi period, Buyi Miaogong asked Ming Xiaozong to make Zhu Wengui's descendants the vassal king to comfort Zhu Biao, the prince of Yiwen. After the General Administration Department learned of this matter, he directly arrested Miao Gong. When Xiaozong learned about it, he ordered Miao Gong to be released.
Although Zhu Wengui's descendants have been freed, it is impossible for him to be crowned king again as a descendant of Emperor Jianwen. After all, Zhu Di replaced his nephew Emperor Jianwen and sat on the throne, how could Zhu Di's descendants dare to profess the descendants of Emperor Jianwen against the wishes of the ancestor Zhu Di?
epilogue
As the saying goes: Win the king and lose the king!
Although Zhu Di robbed his nephew Emperor Jianwen of the throne, as the winner of the Battle of Jingyan, Zhu Di naturally took the lead. He did not recognize the legitimacy of Emperor Jianwen's status, so after he ascended the throne, he changed the first year of Jianwen to the fourth year of Jianwen to the thirty-second year of Hongwu to the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu, and regarded himself as the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so that his name was justified.
Naturally, Emperor Jianwen did not have a temple number and a nickname, and as the queen of Emperor Jianwen, Ma naturally would not be posthumously sealed.
The emperors of the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Di are all descendants of Zhu Di, and naturally they will not posthumously crown Empress Ma and Emperor Jianwen.
It was not until Emperor Chongzhen was from the coal mountain that Emperor Hongguang of the Southern Ming Dynasty posthumously named Emperor Jianwen as Emperor Rang, and the temple number was: Huizong. And Ma is posthumously called "filial piety to the queen", this year, Ma has been dead for 242 years before he got the honorific title.
In fact, the most pitiful thing is not Queen Ma, nor Zhu Wenkui, who disappeared at the age of 7, but Zhu Wengui, the youngest son born to Queen Ma. He was imprisoned for 55 years, and after he was freed, he didn't even know how to know cattle or horses. If it weren't for Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, maybe Zhu Wengui would not have been released until he died.
But fortunately, Zhu Wengui has descendants left, so that Emperor Jianwen's lineage can be continued.