John Tang records the death of Chongzhen

The Jesuit missionary John Tang was the only missionary who had contact with both the supreme rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

When the Chongzhen Emperor was hanged, John Tang was by his side, and John Tang later published a book to give a detailed account of this history.

In 1644, Li Zicheng led a rebel army through Datong and Xuanfu to the Ming capital of Beijing, besieged the city on March 18, and attacked the city the next day. At this time, the Chongzhen Emperor in the Forbidden City was completely unaware of this.

John Tang wrote: Unfortunately, the people in the palace still conceal this chaotic situation from the emperor, and in the face of the revolts that are raging throughout the country, they explain to the emperor that this is purely a matter of fiction and calf pulling.

However, the rumbling of cannons and shouts of killing that sounded in his ears every day finally made the Chongzhen Emperor understand that things were not good, although it was too late, he still thought that as long as he went all out, he could still overcome the danger.

According to John Tang's account, he still told the Chongzhen Emperor that the disaster was coming, and this was the only thing he could do for the emperor.

However, after conveying this bad news, John Tang did not get any reply, and when he returned to the court, he found that everything had fallen into despair, and only the Chongzhen Emperor himself was determined to deploy fortifications to defend the palace.

At the same time, John Tang also frankly said to the Chongzhen Emperor that although society should pay attention to morality and Christianity has fraternity, as a priest, he can no longer help anything.

As for why the eunuchs were reluctant to tell the emperor the truth, Tang Believe believed that Chongzhen was able to reach the final desperate situation mainly because the eunuchs had been deceiving the emperor, and this was not negligence, it was deliberate.

John Tang believed that the eunuchs even had a very vicious conspiracy to bring down the emperor. These eunuchs, who were no longer men in gender, still could not control their fanaticism, and they did not think about how to protect their monarch, but looked forward to his demise.

Perhaps this was because the emperor had punished them before, and in order to avenge themselves, they colluded with the enemy, and even did not consider that they would perish with the emperor.

John Tang said: One moment they hid the treasures of the palace, the next they buried the grain used for war to provoke an uprising, and then they secretly colluded with the rebellious robbers to conceal the resulting losses, so that the emperor did not pay attention to the obviously looming danger.

They allowed the poor monarch to act entirely according to his own judgment, and the emperor had indeed punished them by thinking that eunuchs were not good people. Finally, the eunuchs opened the gates of the city in treachery as the rebels approached the palace, bearing the brunt of welcoming the enemies.

In fact, in the last moments, the Forbidden City was equipped with enough weapons and equipment, and almost every section of the city wall was lined with newly forged artillery, staring at the invading bandits.

The rebellious bandits even admitted afterwards that they were really very afraid of the advanced weapons. However, the day after the rebels entered Beijing, the eunuchs opened the main gate of the impregnable city for them.

At this time, the emperor suddenly found himself in the double prison of eunuchs and robbers. He stepped onto a horse, protected by only 600 cavalrymen, and recklessly rushed to the front of the city, which was already under the pressure of the enemy.

This gate is the site of the original Jesuit chapel from which the Emperor tried to escape. But it was these people who stood in his way, for they had taken the emperor as a trophy and were ready to offer it to the enemy.

The emperor could only bypass the priests' houses and run toward another door. But in order to prevent the people in the palace from escaping, the places that were originally used to protect the city gates have been burned. Desperate, the unfortunate monarch was forced to return to the Forbidden City, where he was to listen to fate's final verdict.

John Tang has a very detailed description of the Chongzhen Emperor's hanging and suicide: when the emperor returned to the palace, he was completely desperate, and he persuaded the empress to end his life with a rope. As for his three sons, he encouraged them to save themselves by fleeing.

Moreover, he hoped that his only, adult daughter would be able to draw her sword and kill herself so as not to be ravaged by the robbers. But his daughter refused, and when she tried to escape, the emperor cut off her hand. Now there was nothing else he could do, so he walked out of the palace again and walked toward a hill behind the palace, where he had recently visited the newly forged artillery.

In this place where he had witnessed a turn in a man's fate, he stopped, picked up a brush Chinese replaced the feather pen, and wrote the following words in his characteristic, beautiful calligraphy on the folded edge of the yellow robe. It is said that he wrote it with his own blood after injuring his left arm:

"Salute to the future Emperor Surnamed Li!" I sincerely implore you: Do not harm our people, do not use our subjects. ”

The meaning of this last sentence is: "Do not oppress my people, and do not appoint my ministers again!" ”

These words, which flowed out during the painful turning point of fate, fully demonstrated the noble heart and experience of the emperor. After writing these words, he took off his boots, threw away the emperor's crown, and wrapped a sack around his neck in an empty field.

According to John Tang's account, Chongzhen was not hanged from a crooked neck tree, but from a prominent pillar in the arcade.