Many people are very puzzled by Zhu Yuanzhang's practice of canonizing the emperor's grandson, because at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had many heirs, the eldest son was gone, and there were many other sons, even if there were still several sons-in-law, but after Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang ordained the 15-year-old eldest grandson Zhu Yunwen.
If you look at Zhu Yuanzhang's heirs, there are more than a dozen of them who are older than Zhu Yunwen, and the range of choices is still very large, no matter what, it will not be possible to set up a 15-year-old grandson. However, Zhu Yuanzhang just didn't take the usual path, but he did this, and later generations analyzed Zhu Yuanzhang's starting point and purpose from all aspects.
In fact, at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already walked the road to death, and there was no other way to make up for the death of the prince, and he felt that the father-son love for the eldest son overwhelmed everything. Or that the surviving son is at the top of the rankings. So I had to set up a grandson. In fact, this statement is difficult to stand, and it is difficult to justify the wanton killing of heroes after Zhu Yuanzhang succeeded to the throne, and he is definitely a cold-blooded and ruthless political machine.
Moreover, if you have affection for the eldest son, the other sons are the same as father and son, why is there no affection. It's all his sons, and they don't look like ruthless from the perspective of the king of the Great Feudal Domain, even if they have an inseparable love for Queen Ma, then the other concubines still have them, why don't you choose?
Zhu Yuanzhang was able to establish the emperor's grandson, precisely because the father-son love for other sons is still there, of course, the love for the eldest son is strong, and the love for other sons is not rare. It is necessary to put an end to the possible ghost fetus of careerists. For the sake of his son, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to hand over the throne to Zhu Biao's family and put an end to the thoughts of other vassal kings. This will protect these vassal kings.
If, if you choose other sons, these adult sons, it is foreseeable that they cannot tolerate other vassal kings, and then they will kill each other, and even if the successor can tolerate it, the local vassal kings are all the emperor's sons, and you are not the eldest son, then who is not qualified, and it is also predictable to call the army to rebel.
Whether it is the emperor cutting the feudal domain or the feudal king rebelling, it is inevitable that his sons will kill each other, and setting up a young grandson may be avoided, if he does not plan to protect his son, then Zhu Yunwen will not be able to take his turn. Zhu Yuanzhang wantonly killed the heroes after Zhu Biao's death, but also to protect his son, without these heroes, the successor to the throne would be powerless if he wanted to cut the domain. This strikes a delicate balance.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Sima Yan faced the same situation, and the approach was the same, they both pinned their hopes on the Taisun, after these two won the throne, they both wantonly canonized the clan, and they were semi-real, and the vassal kings had huge power, especially military power. When Zhu Biao died, there were already several vassal kings outside, who had been in the domain for many years, and there were not only a large number of private soldiers in their hands, but also a bunch of palace staff.
If it wasn't him, how could this son be served? He had soldiers in his hands and was qualified to inherit the throne, and he didn't fight for anyone, and with the instigation of a bunch of careerists around him, it was a matter of immediate time to say that the rebellion of the soldiers was a matter of immediacy, and if a certain son was established, at this time, he would definitely regard his brother as an enemy, and the metaphor would be eliminated quickly, because his great position was congenitally weak. A two-way rush of the clan was carried out, drawing swords against each other.
Of course, if there is no vassal king with military power, in fact, the operability is still possible, precisely, Zhu Yuanzhang gave his sons all real seals, Zhu Biao's early death made him have no way out, and gave the vassal king considerable power, and Sima Yan is the same as the real seal, a son is dead, a son is a fool, how can he guarantee that there will not be a rebellion of the eight kings?
With the example of the predecessors, it is much easier for the descendants to do it, if you don't want the good things of the Sima family to repeat and avoid the result of the chaos in the world that the clan is killing the world, then you can only put an end to the hope of the sons and weaken the power of the successor. As the prince's die-hard loyalist, Lan Yu, the prince was killed after his death is also for this reason.
When people encounter problems, they often take care of the head and the tail, Zhu Yuanzhang imitated Sima Yan's method, and may also refer to Sima Yan's method later, but another important problem is that the capital of Nanjing and the emperor and grandson have always been short-lived dynasties.
The Eastern Wu, Song, Qi, Liang, Chen, and Southern Tang and Eastern Jin dynasties that built the capital of Nanjing were all short-lived. And Eastern Wu, Southern Liang, Southern Qi, etc. were all crown princes who died early. The successor of Taisun Xiao Zhaoye was usurped, and Wan Yan Dan, Wan Yan Jing, Yuan Chengzong, etc. all led to the chaos of the inheritance of the throne and died early. Zhu Yuanzhang referred to history, but he couldn't take care of it at that time.
The carefully cultivated prince died early, and his plan to move the capital was abandoned. As a result, the early kings of the Guangfu domain became unexploded bombs, and they were afraid that they would rebel, and they were afraid that their successors would kill them, and the huge power given to them could not be recovered for a while, and they did not dare to take it back, and they also had to prevent the heroes from rebelling, and they also had to prevent them from cutting the domain, so they adopted a compromise method in many problems, hoping that all parties would be safe.
The loss of a child in old age is a big blow to anyone. To be able to deal with it in this way was already quite appropriate in his situation at the time.