In fact, there were no tortures for three generations of emperors, the main torture was Emperor Kangxi, because Emperor Kangxi reigned for sixty-one years, and when Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, "Third Prince Zhu" would be eighty or ninety years old even if he was alive, how much impact could it have?
It is even more impossible during the Qianlong Emperor's period, because during the Qianlong period, the grave grass of the "Third Prince Zhu" had to grow into a big tree, and then using the name of "Third Prince Zhu" is completely against the laws of nature!
In fact, the third prince of Zhu himself does not have much strength, the real third prince Zhu may have died a long time ago, or he may be incognito, and it is the name "Third Prince Zhu" that tortures the Qing Dynasty, because under this flag, it can cause a lot of impact and threaten the rule of the Qing Dynasty!
On March 17, 1644, Li Zicheng's peasant army surrounded Beijing, and on the evening of the 18th, Emperor Chongzhen and the eunuch Wang Chengen climbed the coal mountain to look outside the city together, and found that the beacon fire was everywhere, and could only sigh with a sigh.
Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, and the eunuch Wang Lian urgently told Emperor Chongzhen, who drank in the palace and sighed: "Bitter for my people!"
Emperor Chongzhen then summoned the concubines and princesses of the harem, and first forced Empress Zhou and Yuan Guifei to commit suicide, but Yuan Guifei failed to commit suicide, Chongzhen slashed several swords and fell in a pool of blood.
Emperor Chongzhen slashed his Princess Changping again, and said in tears before chopping: "Why did you want to be born into the emperor's family!" It's just that Princess Changping fainted to death at that time, and Chongzhen thought she was dead, so he didn't care about her anymore. Emperor Chongzhen hacked several concubines to death, and sent people to force Empress Yi'an Zhang to commit suicide.
After killing many people, Chongzhen began to sober up, so he sent someone to send his three sons, namely the crown prince, Yongwang, and Dingwang, to take refuge in the homes of Xunqi Zhou Kui and Tian Hong.
In the early morning of the 19th, Emperor Chongzhen climbed the coal mountain and hanged himself, only the eunuch Wang Chengen was by his side before his death. Li Zicheng's army then entered the Forbidden City and completely occupied Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty fell.
Although Li Zicheng succeeded in destroying the Ming Dynasty, due to strategic problems, Li Zicheng failed to recruit Wu Sangui, resulting in Wu Sangui and the Qing army defeating Li Zicheng in a stone, Li Zicheng only stayed in Beijing for 42 days before fleeing in panic, and when he fled, he carried away a large amount of gold and silver looted in the capital.
After the Qing army entered the customs, the capital was moved to Beijing, and the war of national unification began. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the struggle of the Southern Ming in the south against the Qing Dynasty continued for several more decades. By the time of Emperor Kangxi, the whole country was basically unified.
However, the end of the Qing Dynasty's National Unification War did not represent the end of the people's idea of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty".
Even during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, there were more than a dozen activities under the name of "Third Prince Zhu" to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, and it is obvious that the vast majority of these so-called "Third Prince Zhu" are descendants of the fake Ming Dynasty. Emperor Kangxi is also very concerned about the case of the "Third Prince Zhu", and it can be said that Kangxi has been looking for the real Third Prince Zhu.
Question 1, why did no one carry out anti-Qing and Ming restoration activities under the guise of "Third Prince Zhu" after the fall of the Ming Dynasty?
The reason is simple, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, some Ming generals in the south supported Zhu Yousong, the grandson of Mingshenzong, as emperor. Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide on March 19, 1644, and then the Ming Dynasty fell, and in May of the same year, Zhu Yousong became the emperor, and the year name Hongguang.
Therefore, Zhu Yousong can be said to be seamlessly connected with Emperor Chongzhen, since there is a regular regime, there is naturally no need to look for Emperor Chongzhen's prince, and few people care about this matter at this time.
The Hongguang regime lasted only one year, and because of the party strife, the anti-Qing strength was greatly reduced, and when the Qing army went south, Zuo Liangyu was still fighting with Ma Shiying, so that Shi Kefa in Yangzhou City did not have the troops to stop the Qing army. The city of Yangzhou was broken, and a tragedy such as "Yangzhou Ten Days" occurred. Nanjing was occupied by the Qing army, the Hongguang Emperor was later captured, and the Hongguang regime fell.
Later, there was the Longwu regime, the rulers were Tang King Zhu Yujian and Zheng Zhilong and others, at the same time Lu King Zhu Yihai was also in Shaoxing to supervise the country, the two sides did not cooperate, but once again infighting, and finally were defeated by the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Longwu was shot and killed by an arrow in the Tingzhou Mansion, and Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, fled overseas.
After the end of the Longwu regime, the Yongli regime was established, with Zhu Youlang as the emperor, during which he also cooperated with the peasant rebel army. The famous general Li Dingguo, who turned out to be Zhang Xianzhong's general, defected to the Yongli regime, repeatedly fought against the Qing army and won a lot of battles, but in the end he still failed to recover the rivers and mountains. In 1662, Zhu Youlang was hanged by Wu Sangui in Yunnan, and the Yongli regime ended. At the same time, Nanming also ended.
It can be seen from the above that after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, there were too many regimes, and the courtiers who had the heart of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty did not need to use the banner of Emperor Chongzhen at all, because there was a ready-made banner.
It wasn't until Emperor Yongli was killed and the royal family of the Ming Dynasty was almost slaughtered that there was a saying of "the third prince of Zhu".
Question 2: Why do you want to use the banner of "Third Prince Zhu"? What is the strength of "Third Prince Zhu"?
The third prince of Zhu is actually not the third son of Emperor Chongzhen, but also the third son of Emperor Chongzhen, anyway, as long as it is the anti-Qing activities during the period of Emperor Kangxi, most of them are under the banner of "Third Prince Zhu".
The third prince of Zhu himself has no strength, but this name is too loud, because the son of Emperor Chongzhen is too legitimate.
So since Emperor Chongzhen's son has a call to action, why didn't anyone oppose the Qing Dynasty in the name of the crown prince? The main reason is that Emperor Chongzhen's crown prince may have died.
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", Emperor Chongzhen had seven sons, namely: the first son Zhu Cihong, the second son Zhu Cixuan of Huaiyin, the third son of Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong, the fourth son of Yongwang Zhu Cijiong, the fifth son of Zhu Cihuan, the sixth son of Huai Wang, and the seventh son of the emperor.
There are only three sons who lived to adulthood, namely the crown prince Zhu Cihong, King Yong, and King Ding.
But many people question the "History of the Ming Dynasty", because about the son of Emperor Chongzhen, what is recorded in other historical books is different from the "History of the Ming Dynasty".
For example, what the "Jiashen Chuan Xinlu" says:
Emperor Daxing had four sons and two daughters, the crown prince Yan Cihong, and was sixteen years old when the Jiashen Kingdom changed. The second eldest princess, the second eternal king, Yan Cixu, four years younger. After the week, Wang Cichan was set to be six years old, and Concubine Tian came out. Princess Cikunyi, Concubine Yuan. The second Huai Yin Wang Cizhi, Concubine Tian came out.
It can be seen from here that the eldest is Zhu Cihong, Yongwang Zhu Cixuan is the second, and Dingwang Zhu Cican is the third.
It is recorded in the "Record of Sins" that Sizong's third son, Yongwang Cihuan, and the fourth son, Dingwang Cijiong (a Cican), came out of Jutian Guifei, so it became Cihuan and Cijiong. It's exactly the opposite of the official history.
Anyway, what we can be sure of is that Chongzhen's eldest son is called Zhu Cihong. Let's take a look at Zhu Cihong's ending first.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the crown prince Zhu Cihong was caught by Li Zicheng, treated with courtesy, and was named the king of Song by Li Zicheng.
"Ming Ji Nanluo" records:
Since becoming the east, people saw that the prince was followed by the tail, and he was defeated and returned, losing the prince. As a result, the whereabouts of the prince are unknown.
It can be seen that "Ming Ji Nanluo" also records that the whereabouts of the prince are unknown.
But soon after, the "North and South Prince" case occurred, and many people felt that the "North Prince Case" was the real prince.
The content of the case of the northern prince is probably that after the prince took advantage of the chaos to escape, he fled back to his grandfather Zhou Kui's house, and Princess Changping was also at Zhou Kui's house at that time. However, the prince's grandfather, Zhou Kui, was afraid of being affected, so he dedicated his grandson directly to Dolgon. Obviously, this should be the real prince, but Dolgon is reluctant to say that he is real, because if he says that this is the real prince, it is a hot potato, and it is not okay to keep it, let alone kill it.
Zhou Kui didn't dare to hide, tied the prince to the regent, and ordered the governor Xie Hongyi to take care of it. The people heard that the prince of the first emperor was still there, and there were many people who gave livestock and money. The regent was afraid that he would change, so he ordered the old speaker Xie Shengzhi to recognize him. Ascend to the will, and say that it is not. The palace master recognized it, and the palace master cried when he saw the prince; Zhou Kui slapped his cheek, and the palace master was shocked away, but he didn't say it. "The Prince's Chronicle"
Dolgon came up with a way to get people to identify the prince as a fake, so that he could directly kill the real prince in the name of "fake prince".
At that time, some people said that this was the real prince, and he was directly punished and even threatened. So they all changed their words and said that this was a fake prince. Princess Changping went to identify the prince, but she saw the prince crying, and it was obvious that this was the real prince.
Zhou Kui saw that the situation was wrong, and directly slapped his granddaughter, and Princess Changping could only say that it was a fake prince. Dolgon then killed the real prince under the pretext of "pretending to be the prince".
There is also the case of the southern prince, that is, there is a person from the north who claims to be the prince and defects to the Hongguang regime, but at that time they all said that this was not the real prince, because he didn't know the things in the palace, including the name of his uncle (Zhu Youxiao).
Regarding the case of Prince Nan, many historical books record that this is a fake prince, originally named Wang Zhiming, because he looks like a prince, so he faked.
The end of this false prince was also miserable, Emperor Hongguang did not kill him, but after the Qing army occupied Nanjing, they killed him.
Of course, there are many legends of the prince, but there is no basis, for example, the prince absconded to Luanchuan, disguised as a Taoist in Laojun Mountain for more than 30 years, and was secretly respected as the emperor by the remnants who followed him, until he died at the age of 51.
There is also a legend that the prince was brought back to his hometown of Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, by Li Shichun, one of the lectures of the East Palace, and was able to die a good death.
However, these were all legends later, and judging from the environment of the Qing Dynasty at that time, there were absolutely no such legends. Therefore, during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, many people believed that the prince had been killed by Dolgon, and no one started an incident under the banner of the prince.
Who is the third prince of Zhu?
There are discrepancies in the historical records of Emperor Chongzhen's sons, but their consistent record is that Emperor Chongzhen had three sons who lived to adulthood, and in addition to the crown prince, there were also King Yong and King Ding.
Although there is controversy over the names of King Yong and King Ding, and the order is also controversial, it can be seen that Chongzhen did have two other sons (except for the crown prince) who escaped.
In the hearts of the Han people at that time, Chongzhen had a son who escaped, the prince was dead, and the Nanming regime was gone, anyway, a total of three sons escaped, so he started an incident under the banner of "Zhu Sanzi", and the effect was the best.
During the Kangxi period, there were as many as a dozen incidents with the third prince of Zhu, for example, on December 22, the twelfth year of Kangxi, Yang Qilong gathered the people in the capital in the name of "the third prince of Zhu" to oppose the Qing Dynasty, and established the name of Guangde, but it failed immediately. After the defeat, Yang absconded.
Until the nineteenth year of Kangxi, there was another person who claimed to be the third prince of Zhu in Hanzhong and Xing'an, Shaanxi, and secretly carried out anti-Qing activities. However, the Qing court failed to capture him.
It lasted until the forty-sixth year of Kangxi, and some people pretended to be "the third prince of Zhu". But these are not the true sons of Emperor Chongzhen, because the true son may have been hiding a long time ago, where would he dare to make trouble!
Wang Shiyuan's case is a case in point.
Basically, there is an old man, all seventy-five years old, and his children's names have some symbols of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, which are very strange, such a name has attracted people's attention, his name is Wang Shiyuan.
In the end, an official interrogated Wang Shiyuan, he told the truth, saying that he was Zhu Cihuan, the son of Emperor Chongzhen, who was only eleven years old after the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
When he was thirteen years old, General Mao heard that the Qing soldiers were arresting the remnants of the Liukou Party, so he abandoned him and fled himself. He walked to Zhu Yuanzhang's former residence in Fengyang, and met an old squire surnamed Wang, who was a counselor of the Ming Dynasty, and asked about the situation, Mr. Wang stayed at home to adopt him as an adopted son in order to be grateful to the Ming Dynasty, and changed his surname to "Wang" and named "Wang Shiyuan".
Later, Mr. Wang died, and Wang Shiyuan was driven out by the descendants of the Wang family, and Wang Shiyuan became a monk to live. There was a man surnamed Hu, who was a descendant of Ming Dynasty officials, who met Wang Shiyuan, admired his talents, persuaded him to return to the world, and married his daughter to Wang Shiyuan.
Since then, Wang Shiyuan has made a living by teaching, and has moved repeatedly, where the wind is tight, he left, and changed his surname to Zhang. By the time the government caught him, Wang Shiyuan was seventy-five years old.
Wang Shiyuan said: "I have no anti-Qing thoughts at all, and I am grateful to the Qing Dynasty for repairing the tombs of my ancestors, and I also defeated the rebel army and avenged my father!"
I have to say that Wang Shiyuan's desire to survive is very strong, and he also said that he didn't cause any trouble in the rebellion of the three feudatories, nor did he make weapons and armor, so he didn't want to rebel at all, he just wanted to be obedient to the people.
The official also felt that what "Wang Shiyuan" said was reasonable, so he reported to Emperor Kangxi, and Emperor Kangxi said: "Although Zhu has no rebellion, he has not been without the intention of rebellion, and he should plan to open up a big deal to put an end to the chaos." ”
In the end, Zhu Cihuan and his children and grandchildren were beheaded for the crime of treason, it can be seen from here that "Zhu Sanzi" is Kangxi's heart disease, even if Kangxi rules the world with benevolence, but he is still unwilling to let go of the descendants of the royal family of the previous dynasty.
These records are recorded in "Qing Barnyard Banknotes", but it is recorded in "Qing Shilu" that it is the fourth son of Chongzhen, and it must be embarrassing to directly record that Kangxi killed the prince of the previous dynasty. It's just that according to the history books of the previous dynasty, the fourth son of Emperor Chongzhen had died of illness in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, so Wang Shiyuan was a fake prince, so he was beheaded.
As for Jiuqing and other repeats: Zhu San is the fourth son of Chongzhen. Cha Chongzhen's fourth son died 14 years ago. He also summoned the elderly eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty who did not know him. Zhu Sanming is a fake. Zhu San's father and son should be executed by Ling Chi. "Qing Shilu"
Because of this, many people say that the Qing Dynasty deliberately involved the deceased prince and Wang Shiyuan, so as to create a false impression that the fourth son of the emperor had died.
Some people even say that the "History of the Ming Dynasty" of the Qing Dynasty has also tampered with the order and name of Chongzhen's son, but I think there is no problem with the "History of the Ming Dynasty", because the "Qing Shilu" records that Wang Shiyuan said that he was the fourth son of the emperor, and the fourth son of the emperor in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" ended up with an unknown whereabouts, called Yongwang Zhu Cizhi, so that the Qing Dynasty did not justify itself at all!
Therefore, it can be said that when Kangxi killed "Wang Shiyuan", he deliberately confused the deceased prince with the fourth prince, but it cannot be said that the Qing Dynasty tampered with the order of Emperor Chongzhen's heirs in the "History of the Ming Dynasty".
To sum up, the strength of the "Third Prince Zhu" is not strong, maybe the real Third Prince Zhu (Zhu Cijiong) has long been scared and hidden, such as Wang Shiyuan (Zhu Cijiong) A Chongzhen son. Anyone who started an incident under the banner of "Third Prince Zhu" was not a real prince, but the brand of "Third Prince Zhu" was too loud, so it was liked by anti-Qing people.
And Emperor Kangxi, of course, hated the name "Third Prince Zhu", because it was this name that made his rule unstable, so whether it was the real Third Prince Zhu or a fake, Kangxi would kill him.