The three major sorrows of life: the loss of parents when you are young, the loss of your spouse when you are middle-aged, and the loss of your son when you are old. Although Zhu Yuanzhang finally sat on the throne after more than ten years of southern and northern wars and established the Ming Dynasty, he experienced the "three sorrows" of his life, and his life was still relatively bumpy. Especially the "loss of children in old age", Zhu Yuanzhang has experienced many times:
In the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Qi, the ninth son of the emperor, was named King of Zhao, but died at the age of 2;
In the 22nd year of Hongwu, Zhu Tan, the king of Lu, died of poisoning due to excessive use of the elixir of "pursuing immortality"; Zhu Yuanzhang was angry and sad, and named his son "King of Luhuang".
In the twenty-third year of Hongwu, Zhu Zi, the king of Tan, and the princess Yu were buried in the fire at home, because the elder brother of the Tan princess Yu was executed because of the Hu Weiyong case, and Yu's father was listed as Hu Weiyong's party; Zhu Zi and the princess were too frightened, and when they received the will of Taizu to Zhu Zi to return to Nanjing, they were overly afraid, and took the princess to commit suicide and die. After learning the news, Zhu Yuanzhang felt sorry for his son's death.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, the crown prince Zhu Biao, who had been cultivated by Emperor Taizu for twenty-five years, died of illness, and Zhu Yuanzhang was grief-stricken, after all, he lost not only a son, but also a future emperor.
In February of the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, died suddenly in the palace;
In March of the 31st year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was already over seventy years old, lost a son again, this time losing Zhu Di, the king of Jin. Hearing the news of Zhu Di's death, Zhu Yuanzhang was grief-stricken and burst into tears.
It can be said that whether it is the death of Zhu Qi, the king of Zhao, Zhu Zi, the king of Tan, Zhu Biao, the prince Zhu Biao, or the king of Jin, Zhu Yuanzhang is very sad, after all, it is "a white-haired person sends a black-haired person". But with the death of two sons, Zhu Yuanzhang was more angry, one was Zhu Tan, the king of Luhuang, and the other was Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin. Zhu Tan was only 22 years old when he died, and it is indeed incredible to pursue immortality at such a young age, and it is no wonder that after Taizu learned about it, he patted the case and said: Ridiculous, really ridiculous!
What about Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin?
It stands to reason that Zhu Rong, as the second son of the concubine, is the eldest of all the vassal kings, and he was born to Queen Ma; Zhu Yuanzhang should be grieved when Zhu Fan died, but Taizu felt that he was innocent of death!
Although you are dead, Yu Gu is obvious.
You must know that Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, did not have the slightest intention of rebelling, why did he "die innocently"?
01
Zhu Fan was the second son of Empress Ma of Xiaoci Gao, born in 1356.
In 1368, when Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor in Nanjing, Zhu Fan was already 13 years old;
In 1371, that is, the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Fan was named the king of Qin, and Zhu Fan was 16 years old this year.
Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty know that Zhu Biao, as the first son born to Queen Ma, the former son of King Wu, and his father Zhu Yuanzhang was the undisputed prince after the emperor. Except for Zhu Biao, among Zhu Yuanzhang's many sons, Zhu Fan is the second son of the prince and the head of the vassal king, and Zhu Yuanzhang naturally has high hopes for him.
Therefore, when dividing the feudal king, Zhu Zhang's fief was selected in the important town of Xi'an. Moreover, Zhu Fan was given the title of "King of Qin".
Who is the first thing that comes to mind when you mention the title of "King Qin"?
King Yingzheng of Qin, who established the Great Qin Empire
Or is it Li Shimin, the king of Qin?
No matter who it is, the title of "King Qin" is very noble and ranks first among the kings.
In fact, at the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's ascension to the throne, all the ministers in the court opposed Zhu Yuanzhang to divide his sons into vassal kings, after all, the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" in the Western Han Dynasty was a lesson from the past; Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang also has his own reasons for doing this:
If many older princes stay in the capital, it will inevitably threaten the status of the crown prince Zhu Biao, and the "Wumen Change" in the Tang Dynasty is a lesson from the past, and the "Nine Sons Seize the Inheritance" in the late Kangxi Dynasty is also the best illustration.
The second is that the Northern Yuan Dynasty still threatens the borders of the Ming Dynasty, and if you want the borders to be stable, you need someone to lead troops to defend them. Compared with many founding heroes who have made great achievements, Zhu Yuanzhang trusts his sons more.
The north is the top priority, so Zhu Yuanzhang put several of his older princes in the north, along the Great Wall. Zhu Fan also became one of the "Nine Great Vassal Kings" in the early Ming Dynasty, and he was also the head of the group of vassals, holding heavy troops and shouldering heavy responsibilities.
Zhu Fan has been very smart since he was a child, and he is heroic, and he is an all-round talent in civil and military affairs.
In the eleventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Zhang, who was already 23 years old, took the princess and her family to the fiefdom of Xi'an.
Zhu Di was 21 years old this year, and Zhu Di went to Beiping two years later to take up the domain, and Zhu Di was 21 years old when he became a vassal when Zhu Di became a vassal with Zhu Di. Only Zhu Fan did not become a feudal domain until he was 23 years old, and the age of the feudal domain was relatively older. In fact, there are two reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang did this:
Queen Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang are both over half a hundred years old, so they are naturally reluctant to let their sons stay away from them;
The second is that Zhu Yuanzhang is not fully prepared for the vassal king's taking up the domain, and he still needs to plan how to make his son play the greatest role in the fief.
When the time was ripe, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the two older vassal kings to become vassals.
Zhu Yuanzhang instructed in the seal letter to Zhu Zhang: The people in the Guannei need to recuperate due to years of war, and when you arrive at the fiefdom, if the Qin Wangfu has been built, the others will be stopped for the time being, don't be in a hurry to start construction.
As an emperor from the grassroots, Zhu Yuanzhang loves the people like a son, and he hopes that his son can treat the people like himself. At this point, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang is still very commendable.
But Zhu Fan did not take his father's words seriously, and after arriving in Xi'an, he began to build a large number of buildings, and often did not obey his father's orders, which made Emperor Taizu very dissatisfied. Admonished Zhu Zhang:
"Now that the palace and city where you live have been completed, the army and the people will have a reason to rest if they want to see you, and when will they be ignorant and not remember the hardships of the army and the people... If the descendants of the Han and Tang dynasties did this in the past, the traitor is easy to use as an excuse, and the king's life is not guaranteed. ”
Zhu Yuanzhang meant: Since your palace has been built, why do you need to build a lot of land and mobilize the people? If you look at it lightly, you really don't think it, but if you look back at the royal descendants of the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, if you do this, you will definitely be attacked by traitors under this pretext, and if this is the case, it will be difficult to save the lives of your prince and your family.
As the head of the feudal domains, Zhu Fan not only did not set an example and care for the people, but on the contrary, he was really ashamed of Emperor Taizu's entrustment and expectations for him. But as the eldest of the many vassal kings, Zhu Yuanzhang still hopes that Zhu Fan can make a difference.
02
In the twenty-second year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang changed the main courtyard of the Great Sect into the Zongren Mansion, and appointed Zhu Rong, the eldest of the vassal kings, as the Zongren Order.
The Zongrenfu is the clan register in charge of the emperor's old family, and all the information of the children of the clan is recorded; the Zongren Mansion must regularly report to the emperor on the situation of the children of the clan, select talents, and record the merits and demerits of the members of the clan
As the second son of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Fan is the most suitable to serve as the Zongren Order.
Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangement at this time should be: After the crown prince Zhu Biao ascended the throne, Zhu Zhang, as the head of the group, was second only to Zhu Biao in prestige in the clan, and it was most appropriate for Zhu Fan to manage the clan.
Whether it is to crown Zhu Fan as the king of Qin, or let Zhu Fan be in charge of the Zongren Mansion, it can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang actually has high hopes for Zhu Zhang, the second son of Zhu Zhang, so he gave Zhu Fan a very high status, second only to the crown prince Zhu Biao.
It's just that Zhu Fan finally disappointed Zhu Yuanzhang:
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang recalled him back to Nanjing with "too many mistakes of the King of Qin", and at the same time, the crown prince Zhu Biao went to inspect the area around Guanshan. After Zhu Biao returned to Beijing and interceded for his younger brother, Zhu Yuanzhang agreed to Zhu Zhang's return to the fiefdom.
In the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu, Zhu Fan was ordered to lead his troops to conquer the rebels, and won a complete victory, Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy when he learned about it, praised his merits, and rewarded Zhu Zhang, but soon after returning to the fiefdom, Zhu Fan was poisoned by three palace people.
After Zhu Yuanzhang learned the news of his son's death, he was not sad, but angry, and then issued an order to the Ministry of Rites, and the name of Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, was "Sorrow". Zhu Yuanzhang's move is actually the same as the nickname "Wild" given to Zhu Tan, the king of Lu, which is satirizing his son.
夫何不良于德，竟殒厥身，其谥曰愍。 ”
Even so, Zhu Yuanzhang still killed the remaining anger and was unable to get rid of it, and ordered to lower the specifications of the burial of Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, and called him "innocent of death" in the sacrificial text!
What did Zhu Fan do to make his biological father hate him so much?
03
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang loves his son very much, not to mention that Zhu Fan is the head of the kings, and Zhu Yuanzhang is even more fond of him, and there is a small thing that can see Zhu Yuanzhang's beloved son's heart:
Zhu Fan has lived in the south since he was a child, but his fiefdom is in Xi'an, and Zhu Yuanzhang is worried that Zhu Fan will not be used to eating there after going to Xi'an, so he asked the cabinet that has served him for many years to follow him north. But Zhu Fan was brutal and whipped his cupboard whenever it didn't go his way.
When Zhu Yuanzhang learned about it, he hurriedly wrote a letter to Zhu Fan and sent it to Zhu Zhang: All your meals are from the cook, so don't treat the cook as an ordinary person; if you offend the cook, even if he puts something in your meal, you won't know. I heard that you often beat the cook, although the cook is a small person, but if you fight too much, he will also give up and ask for your life.
"Diet, life, non-food and other things are not fine"
It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang is still very concerned about his son's life and safety.
But what Zhu Fan did in the fiefdom made even his biological father Zhu Yuanzhang hate it so much, which shows how excessive Zhu Fan is.
The reason why Zhu Fan did not follow his father's advice and started to build a large number of buildings after going to the fiefdom was actually to please his second concubine. Zhu Zhang's second concubine is the daughter of Deng Yu, the founder of the country, and the main concubine is Guanyinnu, the sister of Wang Baobao, a famous general of the Yuan Dynasty.
Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know how much of a threat Wang Baobao posed to the Ming Dynasty.
Such a famous general Zhu Yuanzhang naturally wanted to surrender, in order to let Wang Baobao return to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang married his sister Guanyin Nu to his second son Zhu Zhang. In the fourth year of Hongwu, Guanyinnu was named the princess of Qin and married to the king of Qin.
In fact, at that time, Guanyinnu's maternal grandfather Aluwen (whose son was the famous general Chahan Timur of the Yuan Dynasty) had just died of illness, but Tao Kai, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang should immediately let Guanyinu marry the King of Qin.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's move was for Wang Baobao.
In the canonization of Guanyinnu, Guanyin Nu was called a "famous and virtuous woman", and hoped that after Guanyin Nu married Zhu Zhang, she would be able to "follow the way of women and be a good helper to the King of Qin".
However, the relationship between Guanyin Nu and Zhu Fan is not good, so Guanyin Nu has not given birth to a son and a half daughter for many years.
And Zhu Fan favored the second concubine Deng, and the Deng family relied on the favor of the King of Qin to him, not only did not respect Guanyinnu, but also instigated Zhu Fan to let Guanyinnu, the concubine of the King of Qin, live elsewhere. Guanyin slaves, who are not free, eat and drink in old and broken bowls every day, and fruits and vegetables are not fresh.
And Zhu Fan's preference for the second concubine is not limited to this:
In order to make the Deng family happy, Zhu Fan built pavilions and ponds in the palace, and together with the second concubine, he took pleasure in torturing the palace people.
He also sent people to the coastal political department to buy Zhucui, which caused many people's families to be ruined.
Even in order to coax the Deng family, he also made a special costume for the queen to make for the Deng family to wear, and the bed in his room was a five-clawed dragon bed.
Zhu Fan is so arrogant for the second concubine Deng, which is equivalent to rebellion, which is really ridiculous.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that Zhu Rong's move was not really to covet the crown prince or the throne, but it was just an absurd move to make the Deng family happy. Therefore, after learning of this, he did not imprison Zhu Zhang, but recalled him to Nanjing and reprimanded him severely, and gave the second concubine Deng to death, so that Zhu Fan could treat Guanyin slave well.
"Rudeness is a great sin"
However, even though the second concubine Deng was dead, Zhu Fan still did not release Guanyin slaves to freedom.
Of course, these sins did not make Zhu Yuanzhang scold after the death of his son Zhu Zhang: "There is more than innocent death!" Zhu Zhang's actions in the fief are even more absurd, and "brutality" should be the most appropriate:
Zhu Fan had people buy gold and silver in the fiefdom year after year, even the soldiers of the domain, and they suffered greatly, so that the local people had to sell their sons and daughters to barely cope with the Qin Palace. The desperate people went to the Qin Palace's palace to beg for mercy, hoping that Zhu Fan would show mercy to his subordinates. However, Zhu Fan not only did not have the slightest mercy, but let the guards of the palace fight against the people, and an old man was killed on the spot, and hundreds of people were arrested.
After pacifying Tufan, in order to appease the local area and no longer rebel, Zhu Yuanzhang tried all kinds of ways to settle the local people, soldiers and civilians. However, when Zhu Fan set out on the expedition, he took many pregnant women to the palace and separated them from their husbands and wives, and directly captured more than 150 young girls and 155 boys in Tufan, and castrated these boys directly into eunuchs. Many boys died soon after their wounds did not heal well.
In his Qin Palace, Zhu Fan often abused the death penalty in private:
Cut off the tongue of the palace man
In winter, the palace people were buried in the snow and directly froze to death
Or tying people to trees and starving to death
Or just burn it with fire
....
According to the Ming law, even if someone from the Qin Palace's palace made a mistake, they should be escorted to Nanjing to be punished by the imperial court. But Zhu Fan was worried that his father would find out about his actions in the fiefdom, so he simply executed these people in advance.
It can be said that being on an errand in the Qin Palace, it is a luxury to be able to live in peace.
Therefore, the palace people in the Qin Palace's mansion are naturally in danger, worried that they will offend the King of Qin and lose their lives if they are not careful.
Of course, paper can't hold the fire, and after a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally knows what his son is doing in the fiefdom. In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang recalled Zhu Fan back to the capital, but did not punish Zhu Fan severely, but did not plan to let Zhu Fan return to the fief in a short time.
Zhu Biao, the crown prince who returned from Hongwu's twenty-fifth year of inspection, interceded for his younger brother, and Zhu Yuanzhang let Zhu Fan return to the fief.
However, "the nature of the country is easy to change and difficult to change", after all, the palace people of the Qin Wangfu did not want to endure the cruelty of the Qin King anymore, and after Zhu Fan returned from the expedition, the three palace people poisoned Zhu Fan to death.
Zhu Rong was poisoned and killed, and Zhu Yuanzhang naturally wanted to execute the murderer who poisoned his son and avenge his son; however, Zhu Yuanzhang still thought: Zhu Zhang's death is a death that is innocent! What you have done is really unprecedented in the ages, and the crime is unforgivable!
After Zhu Fang died, the princess Guanyin was buried.
Guanyin slave is a tragic figure, because of the needs of the government to marry the son of the enemy Zhu Yuanzhang; after marriage, because the husband and wife are not good, the king of Qin prefers the second concubine, and the life is very bad; but even if it is a bumpy life, it is not easy to wait until the death of the king of Qin, you can be freed; but before that, Wang Baobao has died of illness, for Zhu Yuanzhang, Guanyin slave has no use value, so he ordered Guanyin slave to be martyred Zhu Zhang, it is a pity!
epilogue
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, after the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang had to consider a new candidate for the prince. Zhu Yuanzhang once mentioned that "King Yan is as heroic as me", that is to say, Zhu Yuanzhang actually considered making Zhu Di, King of Yan, the prince, the prince, but in the end, under the persuasion of Liu Sanwu, Zhu Yuanzhang finally established Zhu Biao's second son Zhu Yunwen as the emperor's grandson and inherited the throne in the future.
Whether it is Zhu Di, the king of Yan, or Zhu Yunwen, the grandson of the emperor, it shows that Zhu Yuanzhang has never considered Zhu Fan as the future emperor.
Even if Zhu Fan is the second son, after the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao, he is the most qualified candidate for the crown prince.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on "having a grandson and establishing a grandson, but no grandson establishing a long-term son", and as soon as Zhu Biao died, Zhu Fan was a veritable eldest son; even if it was according to the order, Zhu Fan should be the crown prince.
But Zhu Fan was not in Zhu Yuanzhang's consideration at all, which shows that in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes: Zhu Fan is not a person who is a king.
If the really violent and cruel Zhu Fan was the emperor, wouldn't the Ming Dynasty be a traitor?
Zhu Fan can be a vassal king in peace, which is already very good.
However, Zhu Fan did not die well in the end on the throne of the vassal king, and was poisoned by the palace people.
This shows that Zhu Zhang's actions have reached an intolerable point. For these three palace people, even if they cost their own lives, they must get rid of the misbehaving King Qin, so that the people of Qin will no longer suffer.
From the perspective of the people, these three palace people are eliminating harm for the people.
If Zhu Yuanzhang could discipline his son as soon as possible and restrain him, his son would not become the object of hatred and want to get rid of everyone in the palace of Qindi.
Of course, Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, is just a microcosm of many vassal kings in the history of the Ming Dynasty. It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang divided the feudal kings into feudal kings, but also had disadvantages; after all, the power of the feudal kings was too great, and if the feudal kings could keep to themselves and care for the people, it would naturally be a blessing for the people of the fiefdom; but if they met a feudal king like Zhu Zhang, it would be a disaster for the people of the fiefdom.