During the Xuande period, there was such a family in the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, although they were born in the royal family, they did not have real power, and they could only live by eating royal money. But they are not ordinary princes and nobles, but a family with a difference. They have noble status, but they have ordinary ambitions, like an elegant life, do not seek meritorious deeds, and only hope to enjoy peace and happiness. This family is the Shen Wang family in Luzhou. So, what kind of life did this seemingly lazy but shrewd royal family live back then? How do they manage the government and the opposition to maintain the glory of the family? All the mysteries are hidden in the archives of the Xuande Dynasty. Follow us as we unravel this mystery......
King Shen, who is not from a sufficient "background" in the royal family
Shen Wang Zhu Mo was born on the second day of August in the thirteenth year of Hongwu, and his biological mother was Zhao. According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", he was frail and sickly since childhood, and was neglected, and finally was canonized as the king of Shen in April of the 24th year of Hongwu, and the country was named Shenyang, Liaodong. It can be seen that Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang does not pay enough attention to this little son.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang originally canonized the three princes to sit in Liaodong, and his intention was to include the entire northeast region into the territory of the Ming Dynasty. With the Liao kings of Guangning, the Han kings of Kaiyuan, and the Shen kings of Shenyang, plus a powerful royal army, Zhu Yuanzhang planned to gradually annex the Liaodong region. It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, Taizu died in the first year of Hongxi, and Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen repeatedly cut the feudal domain after coming to power, which eventually led to the Liao King Zhu Zhi having no choice but to return to Beijing. As for King Shen and King Han, they did not even participate in the founding ceremony, and they did not have the opportunity to go to the feudal kingdom to become a vassal domain.
Zhu Yuanzhang's plan for northeast expansion ran aground. In order to consolidate the imperial power, the successor Yongle Emperor Zhu Di adopted a "free-range" policy for many princes in Beijing and dismissed them from Beijing. However, for Shen Wang Zhu Mo, the future is uncertain. He was only nine years old at the time, and even if Zhu Di intended to crown him as a prince, Shenyang obviously could not be his feudal state.
Just when Zhu Di was in a dilemma, the political envoy of Shanxi finally opened a way out. Just as Zhu Jixuan's Qingcheng palace was idle in Luzhou, it was better to allocate this palace to Zhu Mo, the king of Shen. So Zhu Di issued an edict, and Zhu Mo's feudal state was arbitrarily designated as Luzhou, Shanxi. This decision doomed the low-key style of the entire Shen family in the Ming Dynasty.
Luzhou is not too far from the capital, but its geographical location is by no means excellent compared to the northeastern border. With such a meager background of a prince, it is destined that it will be difficult for him to get ahead in the Ming Dynasty in the future, and the family will gradually decline. However, for Zhu Mo, a prince with a gentle temperament, perhaps it was this "lack of background" that made him content with the status quo later.
King Shen's high-end "life" is difficult to satisfy
Although Shen Wang Zhumo's background is ordinary, as a prince, he should live a privileged life. But the reality is far from that. During the Yongle period, Zhu Mo's age was only 3,000 stones, and it was really stretched to support the big family of eight sons and five daughters. Even in the reign of Renzong Zhu Gaochi, the number of years increased to 10,000 stones, of which 6,000 stones were converted into rice and 4,000 stones were converted into money, and life was by no means rich.
One of the reasons is that Zhu Mo's three eldest sons, Zhu Jixuan, King of Wuxiang, Zhu Jixuan, King of Lingchuan, and Zhu Jixuan, King of Pingyao, failed to obtain Suilu. Zhu Jiyan and others have not been crowned kings, so naturally they have no money to receive, so they can only live in King Shen's mansion. This is undoubtedly worse for family expenses.
On the other hand, Shen Wang Zhu Mo never arranged the marriage of several sons and daughters as he wished. Zhu Di was indifferent to Zhu Mo during his reign and never held a canonization ceremony for his children. After Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne, he issued a decree in the third year of Xuande to canonize most of Zhu Mo's sons as county kings and give them marriages. But the process is also long and tortuous.
In February of the third year of Xuande, Zhu Mo said that his seven sons were about to leave the palace and ask the imperial court to help build seven county palaces. At the same time, the four daughters also need a house, and they hope to renovate it from the house of the government officials. In the following year, the imperial court successively arranged ceremonies to marry Zhu Jixuan, the king of Wuxiang, Zhu Jixuan, the king of Lingchuan, and Zhu Jixuan, the king of Pingyao, and married the daughters of the court officials to the new county kings.
In addition, Zhu Mo's palace itself is also very simple. The Shen Wangfu was originally just the old Qingcheng Mansion in Luzhou, and the scale was small. Zhu Mo always wanted to expand the mansion, but because the surrounding area was full of private houses, it needed to be demolished before it could be expanded, and the Ming Dynasty at that time was unwilling to risk causing public resentment. Therefore, the scale of Shen Wangfu has not been expanded for a long time, and the living environment has always been very poor.
An overview of the living conditions of the Shen family, it can be seen that although they were born in the aristocracy, the family has a large population, limited resources, and the imperial court ignores and neglects, so life can only be said to be passable, and it is by no means high-end luxury. This is one of the important reasons why the Shen family has a gentle temperament and does not fight for power.
King Shen has an ingenious way of "making a living".
Although life is poor, Shen Wang Zhu Mo is not without ideas. In order to get more money for his family, he ingeniously proposed a "reform" plan: he converted the rice in his annual 6,000 stone years into polished rice.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty gave the kings a lot of rice in kind, and these rough "rice" were actually brown rice with bran and aleurone layers, and the taste was far less delicious than the polished rice after these two layers were removed. Zhu Mo believes that if a part of the rice can be changed to polished rice, although the quantity will be reduced, the actual nutritional value and market value will be higher, which can offset the lack of family income to a certain extent.
In September of the first year of Hongxi, Zhu Mo finally got his wish, and the imperial court approved his request to change 500 stone of 6,000 stone rice to polished rice every year. Since then, the food in Shen Wangfu has a delicate dish made of polished rice, and life is naturally much better.
In addition to Yulu, Zhu Mo also tried his best to open up other sources of income. He found that a unique glutinous rice is abundant in the Luzhou area, which can be processed to make soft and delicious "gold powder wrapped in purple jade" rice dumplings, which are quite popular with the locals. So Shen Wang Zhu Mo ran this special snack business in his own mansion, not only to support his family, but also to open up a new situation in Luzhou's popular cultural life.
In addition, Zhu Mo is very fond of learning that can be applied to the world. He strongly advocated the establishment of academies and classrooms in Luzhou, recruiting local talents, and cultivating cultural people in Luzhou. At the same time, some idle prose people were also asked to edit the scores and proofreading classics for Shen Wangfu, and give rewards to support them. This undoubtedly helped to increase the prestige and influence of the Shen family in the local area.
It can be said that through the above-mentioned series of business methods, although Shen Wang Zhu Mo is a prince, he is much more shrewd than many arrogant and lascivious families who do nothing. Faced with his family's predicament, it was wise for him to choose to alleviate the difficulties in an efficient and pragmatic way, rather than blindly hoping for a short-lived royal reward.
King Shen, who is difficult to find in the "power" of the royal family
Although Shen Wang Zhu Mo has done a lot in terms of livelihood, he is far from reaching in terms of power in the government and the opposition. As a little prince who is full of private pockets, Zhu Mo has no other military power in his hands from the beginning. The importance of the imperial court to him can also be imagined.
During the Yongle period, in order to prevent the threat of other members of the royal family, Zhu Di adopted a "free-range" policy for most of the princes in Beijing, and dismissed them from Beijing one by one. And Zhu Mo was naturally among the exiled princes. The imperial court arbitrarily assigned him to Luzhou, Shanxi, which was a kind of house arrest, intentionally or unintentionally.
Even if Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne later, he did not pay attention to the Shen Wang family. In March of the sixth year of Xuande, Zhu Mo requested to send two supervisors to supervise the military affairs of King Shen's mansion, but the court delayed and did not approve. It can be seen that King Shen did not have the opportunity to be reused by the imperial court and military and government at all.
Compared with the struggle for power, contradictions within the clan rarely occur. Zhu Mo has been in the Shen Wangfu all his life and has not caused any turmoil. This is of course related to his mild temperament, but it also reflects his helpless situation of lacking the strength to meddle in the rights and wrongs of the government and the opposition.
And in the matter of marriage, the initiative of the Shen Wang family is even more impossible. When the Xuande Dynasty canonized Zhu Mo's sons as county kings, they were all arranged by the imperial court, and the royal daughters were appointed to serve as their wives. Not only that, but even the dowry Ayara at the wedding was all prepared by the imperial court. It can be seen that the matter of marriage is completely at the mercy of the imperial court.
Even the establishment of the palace was not decided by the Shen family. In the third year of Xuande, Zhu Mo once asked the government to select official houses to build mansions for the county kings, but was rejected by the imperial court. It was not until the following year that the imperial court accommodated his request and opened 15 official rooms of the palace as the residence of the county king. It can be seen that even trivial matters must be under the command of the imperial court.
In short, as a royal family, the Shen family's power is so small and its status is so low that it is no longer enough to support it in the government and the opposition. has no military power, no real power, even some basic life events, all rely on the words of the imperial court. This kind of elevated royal fate is destined for the Shen family to only spin in the small world of Luzhou.
King Shen is poor and self-guarding the "Small Qualification Bureau"
Under the hierarchical dynastic system of the Ming Dynasty, a small prince such as Zhu Mo, the king of Shen, could naturally only survive on a narrow stage. However, from another point of view, it is precisely because of the ordinary situation of the family that King Shen can enjoy his "small qualification bureau" in Luzhou.
First of all, in terms of integrity, the Shen Wang family can be described as excellent. Zhu Mo has never had any power and money struggles in his life, and he abides by the bottom line of royal status. Even in the face of livelihood difficulties, he only tried to increase his income, and never touched anything else. His descendants are even more indifferent to fame and fortune, and have no ambition to expand their territory.
Secondly, in terms of life style, Shen Wangfu can also be called Qing Xiu. Zhu Mo is well aware of the hardships of supporting his family, and naturally cherishes food. Luzhou folk legend that he never wastes rice grains at home, and the old rice balls are not abandoned, and they are repeatedly soaked and baked for dry food. The sacrificial wine and food in the house are also simple and simple, and they are never extravagant and wasteful.
Let's look at Zhu Mo's way of governing the family. He had many children, but he never shared a house. Even when his sons were older, he insisted that the big family stay in the same house. Maybe it's to maintain the family style, but it may also be because the house is too small to separate. Because of this, the whole Shen Wangfu can unite as one and avoid the family being torn apart.
Even when it comes to choosing a mate, Zhu Mo has followed the rules and has never acted out of the ordinary. The marriage between Zhu Jixi, the king of Gaoyang County, and the Lu family also caused questions from the court because of his father's attempt to match the concubine. It can be seen how strictly he abides by the royal rules in what he does.
Finally, King Shen is quite humble and educated. They are not proud of the fertile Central Plains of Luzhou, but after all, they hide their wealth from the people, not show off to the world. Zhu Mo's enthusiasm for cultivating literati and scholars was also out of the promotion of Luzhou culture, not because of any ambition to support the people of the dynasty and the wilderness.
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In general, although the Shen Wang family has a humble status and a poor life, it is this kind of "small qualification bureau" that has created their character of keeping to themselves. Compared with those arrogant and lascivious royal relatives, King Shen retained the last royal integrity. In other words, only a family with a light material can carry forward the frugality and self-respect. This kind of "small qualification bureau" may be the best destination for an unappreciated prince.