In December of the eighth year of Tianshun (the year when Yingzong Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne for the second time), Yingzong, who was only 38 years old, was sick in bed and could not go to the court in just one month. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Yingzong knew that his time was numbered when he was seriously ill, so he summoned the cabinet ministers and his close attendants to his bed to draw up an edict.
For Yingzong at this time, the crown prince Zhu Jianshen has reached the age when he can be in power, and he has also been married, and the candidate for the crown princess is the Wu family personally selected by Yingzong, which is enough to serve the world; the courtiers in the court are loyal and will assist the prince to ascend the throne.
The only thing he can't let go of is his queen Qian, and he can protect the Qian family when he is alive, but what if someone bullies the Qian family after death? I planned to protect the queen for the rest of my life, but I didn't expect that I would run out of oil when I was only 38 years old.
What if after his death, the crown prince's biological mother, Emperor Zhou, will take revenge?
And what Yingzong can do when he is dying is to leave an edict and protect his wife as much as possible. There are four articles in Yingzong's testament, except for the first article "Crown Prince Zhu Jianshen succeeds to the throne", the other three are all related to Empress Qian.
"The queen's name is fixed, and she should be filial piety all year round. ”
"Don't be a concubine"
"After Queen Qian lived a thousand years, she was buried with me. ”
Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know that since Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, restored the funeral system, the first five emperors of the Ming Dynasty would have concubines buried after their deaths. Since Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, this system has been abolished. Yingzong dared to directly disobey his ancestors and cancel the funeral system, if nothing else, he was worried about Queen Qian. Empress Qian had nothing to do, and according to the funeral system, she needed to be buried in the emperor.
However, even if he left an edict, Yingzong was still not at ease, worried that after the crown prince Zhu Jianshen succeeded to the throne, he would have to listen to the words of his biological mother Emperor Zhou Guifei because of "filial piety", and embarrass Queen Qian. Yingzong tightly held the hand of Li Xian, the minister of Gu Ming, and told him many times: "After Queen Qian dies, she must be buried with me."
What kind of woman is Queen Qian, who can make Yingzong infatuated all her life, and she can't let go of it when she is dying?
However, it is a pity that although there is Yingzong's edict and thousands of instructions, in the end, under the influence of Empress Xiaosu Zhou (Zhu Jianshen's biological mother), she was not able to be buried with Yingzong in the end.
What's going on here?
Empress Dowager Zhang was personally selected, and Yingzong was infatuated with a person all his life
Empress Qian of Xiaozhuang was born in the family of Jingnan heroes:
Great-grandfather Qian Quan, in the Hongwu Dynasty, served as a deputy thousand households in the three guards of Yanshan, and was loyal to Zhu Di, the king of Yan;
His grandfather, Qian Tong, achieved the position of the commander of the right guard of Jinwu and was given to General Zhaoyong;
After his father Qian Gui inherited the family's position, he followed Yongle Emperor Zhu Di and Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji on expeditions many times, and achieved the position of commander of the affairs with his military exploits.
It can be said that the Qian family is a family of heroes who have made great contributions to the martyrdom, and they are full of loyalty. It is precisely because of this that in the seventh year of orthodoxy, the Qian family was selected by Empress Dowager Zhang (Empress Zhang, the wife of Renzong Zhu Gaochi, and the grandmother of Zhu Qizhen) as the empress of Yingzong Zhu Qizhen.
The big wedding between Yingzong and Qian was very grand. Because Yingzong was the first emperor to hold a big wedding during the reign of the Ming Dynasty, the five emperors before Yingzong were all married before they ascended the throne, although they would hold a ceremony after ascending the throne, but it was far less grand than the first wedding of the emperor and the empress.
This year, Qian was only 16 years old.
It is worth mentioning that although the Qian family was not the queen personally chosen by Yingzong himself, he fell in love with the Qian family at first sight and liked it very much.
Although the Qian family is a family of heroes who have contributed to the martyrdom, the titles of the Qian family's maiden family are too low, so Yingzong plans to follow his father Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji and crown the queen's maiden family to improve the status of the Qian family in the court.
Since it is justified to follow, it is only natural for Yingzong to do so.
However, the Qian family understood the righteousness and did not want to let his mother's family increase his official rank for no reason because he was the master of the harem, which would definitely damage Yingzong's reputation, so he politely rejected Yingzong. Yingzong thought that Qian was humble at first, but when Yingzong mentioned it again, Qian still refused, which did not seem to be polite at all. Only then did Yingzong understand Qian's thoughts, and he respected Qian more and more in his heart.
Wife "Good Mother"
In ancient times, it was normal for men to have three wives and four concubines, not to mention that Yingzong was the king of a country, and the natural harem was "three thousand beauties". As the queen of the world, the Qian family naturally knows very well that her husband is not her alone, and she is very generous and never prevents Yingzong from going to other concubines' palaces. It is under the generosity of the Qian family that Yingzong's harem constantly has concubines pregnant and giving birth to children:
The daughter of the folk family, Zhou (Empress Xiaosu), first gave birth to a princess, and then gave birth to Zhu Jianshen, the first prince of Yingzong, in the twelfth year of orthodoxy
In addition, Concubine Chen Wan gave birth to the prince Zhu Jianyan, and in the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another prince;
After Concubine Hui gave birth to a princess, she became pregnant again in the fourteenth year of orthodoxy and gave birth to the prince Zhu Jianchun in the first year of Jingtai
Yingzong keeps having princes and princesses born, but he just doesn't see the queen of the middle palace happy. Qian has been married to Yingzong for six or seven years, and has been favored, but he has never been pregnant.
Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know that Yingzong's father, Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, abolished the original queen Hu Shanxiang because he was "sick and childless". If the Qian family has not been able to give birth to a prince, will it end up being abolished like Hu Shanxiang?
It turns out that this is not the case!
Yingzong loves his wife deeply, even if the Qian family has never given birth to a son and a half daughter, he has never had the intention of abolishing the queen.
According to the Emperor Ming's ancestral motto "There is a grandson, but there is no grandson", the Qian family has never given birth to a son-in-law, so Yingzong can establish his eldest son Zhu Jianshen as the crown prince. After all, there is reason to follow: Yingzong was born when his biological mother Sun was a concubine (Sun was not crowned queen at this time), and he was already named the crown prince when he was an infant.
As the eldest son Zhu Jianshen grew up, Yingzong still had no intention of making the eldest son the crown prince, and wanted to wait for the Qian family to give birth to a son-in-law for himself, so that he could justify the name and make the son-in-law the crown prince.
However, before the good news of the Qian clan arrived, Yingzong became a prisoner of the Warats.
As the wife of the king of a country, Qian is actually happy. As the emperor's harem beauties "three thousand" is a normal thing, and the emperor can't make the decision in most cases, and the elders need to choose for themselves. If it is the empress chosen by the elders, it is normal for the emperor not to like it. For example, Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji did not like Hu Shanxiang, the queen chosen by the emperor Zhu Di, but preferred the Sun family. However, although Qian and Yingzong are married first and then loved, the relationship between them is indeed very touching. And even if the Qian family has never been pregnant and has given birth to a child, Yingzong has not disliked it, and has never changed his deep affection for the Qian family.
Those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know that Yingzong's life was still relatively bumpy, first he was captured by the Warat people, and then he was imprisoned by his younger brother for many years; in this case, the Qian family not only did not "fly separately when the catastrophe came", but really became a troubled couple with Yingzong. Because of this, Yingzong's feelings for the Qian family became deeper and deeper.
For the sake of Yingzong, the Qian family is blind and lame, and the style is no longer there
In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, the Warat people led troops to invade the border of the Ming Dynasty, and at the instigation of the eunuch Wang Zhen, Yingzong decided to take the royal car to conquer Warat. However, the 200,000 troops led by Yingzong were all wiped out, and Yingzong was also captured alive by the Warats.
After Yingzong was captured, the Ming court decided to exchange his belongings for the emperor. Empress Qian took out all her treasures, but after seeing so many treasures, Wara's appetite became bigger and bigger, and she wanted to use Yingzong in her own hands to force the Ming court to compromise step by step.
In the face of the "discontentment" of the Warat people, and "the country cannot be without a king for a day", the Empress Dowager Sun pushed Zhu Qiyu, who was not a parent, to the throne for the sake of the imperial court, and was known as the Ming Dynasty Sect in history. For Qian, this news is like five thunderbolts. What Qian cares about is not whether his position as queen can be kept, but that his husband's return date is undecided, and he doesn't know whether he is alive or dead.
Moreover, Qian's father and brother also died in Tumubao, and Qian was helpless at this time.
Qian, who was already powerless, knelt down to pray for her husband, and if she was really tired, she would rest for a while, and then kneel again. She hopes that her sincerity can be exchanged for her husband, since Daizong succeeded to the throne, the Qian family is no longer the queen, but the imperial sister-in-law, naturally there is no previous food, clothing, housing and transportation. In addition, Qian knelt and prayed for her husband every day, crying all day long, and in less than a year, Qian was blind in one eye and lame in one leg. Even so, Qian still refused to seek medical treatment, and she was willing to exchange one of her eyes and one leg for her husband.
In the end, in the first year of Jingtai, Yu Qian and Shi Heng and others won the battle to defend Beijing and kept the capital of the Ming Dynasty. made the Warat people have to put Yingzong back, but at this time, Zhu Qiyu, the emperor of Daizong, has already sat on the throne, and obviously has no intention of abdicating, and he also regards his brother Zhu Qizhen as a big trouble.
Daizong not only directly refused the courtiers to give his brother the courtesy, but also locked him up in the South Palace after his brother returned to the palace.
Qian, as the imperial sister-in-law, had already been driven to live in Nangong. When Yingzong saw his wife, he was taken aback, but he didn't expect that after only a year, his wife was already like this, and she didn't have her previous demeanor at all. Originally, he lost the throne and was not free, Yingzong was hit hard, and when he saw his wife, Yingzong felt even more uncomfortable.
After experiencing so many things, Yingzong not only did not dislike the Qian family, but cherished it even more.
I have to say that "adversity sees the truth", and I have to say that Yingzong is indeed an infatuated man with a conscience.
Since Yingzong returned to the capital, he has lived with the Qian family and the concubines in his harem.
When Empress Dowager Sun put Zhu Qiyu on the throne, she named the eldest grandson Zhu Jianshen as the crown prince; but Daizong did not want to pass the throne to his nephew many years later, so he tried every means to abolish the position of his nephew Zhu Jianshen as the crown prince and named his son Zhu Jianji as the crown prince; and the elder brother and sister-in-law who imprisoned Nangong became more and more excessive, and they were not allowed to take a step out of Nangong.
The snobbish eunuchs and palace maids in the palace saw the emperor like this, so naturally they would not treat Yingzong of Nangong well. As a result, it will be difficult for Nangong's food, clothing, housing and transportation to continue. Faced with such a predicament, the Qian family not only did not complain, but appeased Yingzong, and took Nangong's concubines to make embroidery together in exchange for some food or use.
In this way, Qian, Yingzong and others spent a difficult seven years of captivity.
Finally regained his freedom in the eighth year of Jingtai, and Empress Dowager Sun conspired with Shi Heng and others to launch the Nangong Rebellion and welcome Yingzong back on the throne
Do not abandon the wife of the chaff
Yingzong returned to the throne, and according to the rules, of course, he needed to be canonized as queen again. As Yingzong's wife, Qian has never done anything wrong, and is naturally a well-deserved queen. However, the Qian family was already disabled as early as the first year of Jingtai, and because of the illness, he had no ability to give birth, and it was impossible to give birth to a prince and princess.
What's more, Yingzong's eldest son Zhu Jianshen has been named the crown prince, and his biological mother Zhou was named the imperial concubine by virtue of her son.
Zhou wanted to be like his mother-in-law Sun, replace Qian, and become the queen.
At this time, the Empress Dowager Sun was still alive, and a eunuch named Sun Mian said: Empress Qian did not give birth to a prince and was disabled, so she was no longer suitable to be a queen; Emperor Zhou's concubine was the biological mother of the crown prince Zhu Jianshen, and she could be canonized as the queen, so that the Ming Dynasty would not lose face.
Empress Dowager Sun felt that Sun Mian's words were not unreasonable, but Yingzong, who had never had the idea of abolishing the queen, was furious when he learned about it, and directly reprimanded Sun Mian fiercely, and the position of the concubines remained the same.
Even if the wife of the chaff is no longer in style and has not had children, Yingzong does not dislike it at all, and is still willing to let the Qian family come to the world. In this way, under the protection of Yingzong, the Qian family was able to live a stable and comfortable life for a few years.
Yingzong originally planned to shelter the Qian family for the rest of his life, but what Yingzong himself didn't expect was that he was only 38 years old and was already dying, and the only thing he couldn't let go of before he died was the Qian family.
In this way, there is the opening scene, Yingzong not only left an edict to protect the Qian family, but also told the minister to let the Qian family be buried with him in the emperor's tomb after a hundred years.
However, without the protection of Yingzong, the Qian family not only had a hard time before his death, but even failed to be buried with his husband after his death.
In the end, he failed to be buried with his husband
After Yingzong died of illness, the crown prince Zhu Jianshen ascended the throne, known as Ming Xianzong in history, and the year name was Chenghua. In addition to canonizing the queen and concubines, the most important thing for the new emperor to ascend the throne is to set the honorific title of the queen mother. As the biological mother of the new emperor, Emperor Zhou's concubine is naturally the justifiable queen mother, and Qian, as Zhu Jianshen's mother-in-law, should be above Zhou's status
But without Yingzong, Emperor Zhou's concubine relied on her son to be the emperor, interfered in this matter, and directly issued an edict:
Empress Qian was a sick person and should not be respected as the empress dowager; the emperor's biological mother, Emperor Zhou's concubine, should be respected as the empress dowager alone; not to mention that the Qian family had no children and was not qualified to be respected as the empress dowager, so she should follow Xuanzong's move to abolish the queen mother's throne and abolish the Qian family.
Yingzong left an edict to protect Empress Qian, and Emperor Zhou's concubine was naturally very clear about this matter.
But even so, Emperor Zhou's concubine still wants to use the identity of the new emperor's biological mother to honor the position of the queen mother.
As soon as the edict of Emperor Zhou and Concubine Zhou came out, the courtiers were very dissatisfied with it, and the first to object was Li Xian, the minister of Gu Ming:
The edict of the first emperor is very clear, how can it be changed at will?
University Shi Peng Shi also supported Li Xian:
The emperor rules the world with filial piety, how can he only respect his biological mother and not his grandmother?
Since the two important ministers of the court raised objections, the other courtiers naturally followed suit and raised objections.
Emperor Zhou's concubine was finally unable to defeat the ministers, and wanted her son Zhu Jianshen to stand up and support herself, but at this time, Zhu Jianshen was still well aware of the righteousness, and persuaded his biological mother to "respect the concubine and the inferior", and to accept the fact that the queen mother of the two palaces respected together.
Emperor Zhou had to compromise, and when Emperor Zhou was bullying, Qian was immersed in the grief of losing her husband, and had no intention of planning for her future. But the ministers couldn't see that the Qian family was so wronged, so when they decided on the title of the queen mother of the two palaces, they proposed:
Although the empress dowager of the two palaces is respected, there is a difference after all, and the honorific titles of Empress Qian and Emperor Zhou's concubine should be different.
Xianzong still supported the suggestion of the ministers, and in this way, Empress Qian was honored as the "Empress Dowager Ciyi", while Emperor Zhou was honored as the "Empress Dowager".
(Call Zhou the Empress Dowager Zhou, and Qian as the Empress Dowager Qian)
However, although it has become a fact that the queen mother of the two palaces is respected, the queen mother of Zhou is still unwilling.
When the ministers saw that the Empress Dowager Zhou was like this, they knew very well that if the Empress Dowager Qian died of illness and wanted to be buried with Yingzong, the Empress Dowager Zhou would definitely get in the way, and naturally she was unwilling to let her own emperor's biological mother not be buried with the first emperor after her death. Therefore, it was suggested that three tombs should be built when the tomb of Emperor Yingzong was built.
But the Empress Dowager Zhou resolutely objected, and cried in front of her son, Xianzong was really helpless, and the matter was shelved.
Although the status of the Qian family is higher than that of the Zhou family, the Qian family never fights for power, but even so, the Zhou family still does not let go, and when he finds an opportunity, he will oppose the Qian family.
Xianzong's wife, Empress Wu, was personally selected by Yingzong for him, but Xianzong didn't like it, but liked Wan Zhen'er, who was 17 years older than him. Wan Zhen'er was extremely scheming, and Xianzong decided to abolish Empress Wu under Wan Zhen'er's bewilderment.
Qian knew very well that Empress Wu was not at fault, so he objected;
And the Empress Dowager Zhou originally had no dissatisfaction with Empress Wu, but when she saw that the Qian family opposed the abolition, she deliberately stood on the opposite side of the Qian family and supported her son to abolish the queen. After this incident, Xianzong had a grudge against his mother-in-law, Qian.
When Xianzong Dafeng was in the mother's house, he didn't mention his mother's mother's family at all, which made Qian's life in the harem even more sad.
In the fourth year of Chenghua, four years after Yingzong's death, Qian also died of depression at the age of 42.
After Qian died of illness, there is no doubt that he was buried with Yingzong in accordance with Yingzong's will.
However, the Empress Dowager Zhou resolutely objected and asked her son Zhu Jianshen to choose another cemetery for his mother-in-law, and the person who was buried with Yingzong could only be herself. At this time, Xianzong has been a bitter mother for a long time, so he will naturally look to his biological mother, and he has already figured out how to mention this matter to his ministers.
As soon as Xianzong mentioned this matter, how could the ministers not understand what was really going on? Before Xianzong could finish speaking, the scholar Peng Shi directly objected, and the ministers vigorously persuaded Xianzong to be filial and righteous. In the face of the ministers, you said a word to me, Xianzong held back for a long time, and finally said a word: I don't even listen to my biological mother's words, am I still a filial son?
Hearing Xianzong say this, Peng Shi proposed again: build three tombs, Empress Dowager Qian is on the left side of Yingzong, and Empress Dowager Zhou is placed on the right side of Yingzong after her death. Other ministers chimed in, so to speak.
But the Empress Dowager Zhou said that she would not say anything, and Xianzong thought that as the king of a country, he could make decisions on this matter.
Unexpectedly, the ministers objected, and they were all asking for the Empress Dowager Qian's life.
Even so, the Empress Dowager Zhou still disagreed, and directly issued an edict: choose another cemetery for the Empress Dowager Qian.
In the face of Empress Dowager Zhou's move, a total of 80 ministers knelt outside the Wenhua Hall and cried, crying from morning to Shen Shi (3 o'clock to 5 o'clock) in the afternoon. Seeing that the ministers insisted so much, the Empress Dowager Zhou was worried that something would happen, so she had to agree and allow the Empress Dowager Qian to be buried with Yingzong. Xianzong was called the Empress Xiaozhuang for his mother, and ascended to the temple, and buried the Empress Dowager Qian in Yuling and Yingzong in September.
I thought that the Qian family could be buried with her husband smoothly, and they would never be separated after death.
However, how could Empress Dowager Zhou be willing to share her husband with the Qian family after her death?
When Yingzong Yuling was built, the location of the queen's tomb was not left in advance, so it was necessary to rebuild two tombs, and then open a passage to Yingzong's tomb from the underground.
The Empress Dowager Zhou deliberately asked the eunuch who built the tomb to dig the passage of the Empress Dowager Qian's tomb in the wrong direction, and then blocked the passage. As for the tomb of the Empress Dowager Zhou, there is a very wide passage leading directly to the tomb of Yingzong.
In this way, although the tomb of Empress Dowager Qian was built by Linyingzong, there was no passage between the tombs, so it could not be considered a joint burial.
Not only that, but the Empress Dowager Zhou never allowed Empress Dowager Qian's divine card to be enshrined next to Yingzong's divine card.
In this way, the Qian family will be separated from her husband after her death, if Yingzong Quanxia knows, I don't know how much he hates Zhou and his son Zhu Jianshen.
Although after Xiaozong ascended the throne, he discovered the passage of the tomb of Empress Qian of Xiaozhuang, and decided to open the passage for it, but it was abandoned because it might affect the theory of feng shui. However, Xiaozong can also be regarded as a "breath" for Queen Qian, after the death of his grandmother Zhou, he did not enshrine Zhou's god card to Taimiao, next to his grandfather Yingzong's god card, but to worship and worship the Ci Temple
epilogue
The love between Queen Qian and Yingzong is indeed very touching, no matter what the Qian family becomes, Yingzong has never thought of abandoning his wife, but cherishes it more and more. And Qian's feelings for Yingzong are also unswerving, no matter what position the husband is in, the Qian family is willing to be with the husband. It is precisely because the two of them have suffered together for many years that Yingzong was so reluctant to give up the Qian family before he died.
The Qian family is like a beam of light in the dark life of Yingzong, which gives Yingzong the courage to persevere.
The Qian family has the love of her husband and her life, which is indeed a blessing for being a wife;
However, Qian's life was very bumpy:
Because her husband was captured, he was lame in one leg and blind in one eye, and he did not give birth to a son and a half daughter in his life;
Because of this, she almost lost her position as queen;
Because the new emperor is not his son, the queen mother has been in office for four years, but it is extremely desolate;
Even after death, it is not stable, and it is not easy to be buried with her husband, but the passage is not opened, Zhou's move is really ruthless, and people have to feel sorry for Qian.