Empress Xiaochengjing of the Zhang clan, empress dowager of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming and the biological mother of Emperor Mingwu of Zhu Houzhao, entered the palace in 1487 and was crowned as a crown princess, and in the same year Emperor Xiaozong succeeded to the throne and was crowned empress.
Empress Zhang and Zhu Youfan were a loving couple, and the degree of affection was rare in the imperial family in history. Emperor Xiaozong of Ming did not appoint other concubines for her sake, and like ordinary folk couples, he stayed with Empress Zhang for life.
Empress Zhang was fortunate to be able to get the favor and dependence of a generation of emperors, but she was unfortunate, her husband and son died early, she died alone in the deep palace, after losing her patron, she was desolate in the evening of Jiajing Dynasty, and even knelt down to plead with her nephew Emperor Jiajing for the sake of her two younger brothers.
If you want to summarize the fate of Empress Zhang's life, it can be said that it is the beginning of a comedy and the end of tragedy. Empress Xu of Zhu Di and Empress Qian of Zhu Qizhen both received the favor of the emperor and were able to restrain their foreign relatives in order to start and end well. But Empress Zhang is not arrogant and arrogant, self-disciplined, and will not end up with a desolate ending.
What's going on here?
01 Empress Zhang was favored by Emperor Mingxiaozong
Empress Zhang was a native of Xingji (present-day Cangxian County, Hebei Province), and her father, Zhang Luan, was a student of Tai. According to the Ming Dynasty's system of electing empresses, in order to prevent foreign relatives from interfering in politics, empresses were mostly selected from commoner families.
Emperor Mingxiaozong had a bumpy life in his childhood, and he was always frail and sickly, and he experienced hardships since the fetus, hiding in the Anle Hall and growing up, until he was six years old, when Ming Xianzong issued an edict to the world to disclose his life.
Due to the bumpy experience of his childhood and the early death of his mother, Xiaozong's personality was somewhat weak, and Empress Zhang was the first woman who made him fall in love, so Xiaozong especially cherished this feeling and obeyed Empress Zhang.
"If there is a father, there must be a son", Ming Xianzong fell in love with Wan Guifei, who was 17 years older than himself, but did not stop canonizing concubines, ming xiaozong, actually set a precedent of monogamy, and only married one woman in his life.
If Xiaozong is an ordinary person, and loving and loving with his wife is also a beautiful thing, but he is the supreme of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, and such love seems very abnormal.
The ministers were worried, how could the emperor practice monogamy? The thinness of the heirs endangers the foundation of the state, and Emperor Xiaozong has never had children after marriage. Therefore, the ministers continued to go up and persuade Emperor Xiaozong to accept concubines to continue the incense, but Emperor Xiaozong ignored them.
Empress Zhang was lively in nature, not as vicious as Wan Guifei, but she was too protective of her family, especially her arrogant two younger brothers. Because Emperor Xiaozong favored her alone, many people began to point the spearhead at her, believing that she was too domineering, occupying the emperor every day, seducing and controlling the emperor, and not listening to the suggestions of the courtiers to take concubines to reproduce.
In the first few years after Emperor Xiaozong's marriage, he did not get a prince, and he was also very anxious, so he built a large shrine in the palace, burned incense to worship the Buddha, and asked the gods to ask for advice, hoping to obtain heirs.
In the fourth year of Hongzhi, Empress Zhang finally gave birth to her first son, the later Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Houzhao grew up with a beautiful face and was very intelligent, and Emperor Xiaozong loved this son very much, and he also loved Empress Zhang even more. The ministers who were worried about Emperor Xiaozong marrying only one wife had to shut up.
Like folk couples, Xiaozong and his wife lived together every day, read poems and paintings, talked about the past and the present, and shared the day and night, which obviously violated the system of the Ming Dynasty, which was very rare in the private life of successive emperors.
Later, Empress Zhang gave birth to a son and a daughter for Emperor Xiaozong, but died prematurely.
02 Emperor Xiaozong connived at Empress Zhang's cousins
Emperor Xiaozong was a rare ruler of the Ming Dynasty, but there were also failures, that is, he did not manage his "small family", mainly the bottomless connivance of Empress Zhang's mother's family and the indulgence of his only son, Zhu Houzhao.
Empress Zhang did not have any major faults, and most of the criticisms she was criticized by posterity were related to her excessive protection of her two younger brothers.
After Empress Zhang became a nobleman, in order to repay her parents, she built a high-profile family temple in the first house, which attracted everyone's attention.
Her father was given the title of Marquis and had a good reputation during his lifetime, but her two unconscious brothers used their sister's power to be arrogant and arrogant, did a lot of illegal things, annexed a large amount of land, set up an imperial palace, and sold official salt.
At that time, there was a rumor that the Zhang brothers had indulged the rebellion of the family slaves to rob the mintian, and xiaozong sent the eunuch Xiao Jing to investigate and verify, hindering Empress Zhang's affection, and preparing to make the zhang brothers' household slaves suffer the crime.
Xiao Jing returned to the palace to resume his life, empress Zhang was furious when she learned of it, and Emperor Xiaozong was embarrassed and had to pretend to be angry, and the matter was finally resolved. Privately, he found Xiao Jing again, comforted him with kind words, and gave him many gifts.
Emperor Xiaozong did not restrain foreign relatives, which made foreign relatives more unscrupulous, and even the situation of foreign relatives touching cars appeared. Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling soon fought with the empress dowager's family over the land and constantly defended each other over the land.
The absurdity of the Zhang brothers did not stop there, they had the support of their sisters, got special permission to enter and leave the palace early, and openly acted recklessly in the palace.
According to the "Wan Liye Compilation", once the Zhang brothers entered the palace to watch the lanterns and participate in the banquet, the two brothers actually stole the crown when Emperor Xiaozong went to the toilet; another time Zhang Yanling insulted a palace maid after drinking. The eunuch He Wending was very disgusted by what the Zhang brothers had done, and was armed with a large melon and prepared to beat the two brothers, and later Empress Zhang's close attendant Li Advertisingmi, Zhang Yanling fled in a hurry.
The next day, He Wending exposed the Zhang brothers to Emperor Xiaozong, but was retorted by the Zhang brothers, who sent him to the Jinyiwei Prison for severe torture. Later, Empress Zhang sent Li Guang and others to put him to death in prison. Emperor Xiaozong knew that he had wronged He Wending, ordered a burial with a ceremony, and personally wrote the sacrifice text.
Two months before Emperor Xiaozong's death, Li Mengyang, the head of the Hubu Langzhong, criticized the shortcomings of the imperial court in many aspects, especially Zhang Heling's abuse of power.
Zhang Heling found that there were words in the song "Your Majesty Hou Zhang", and immediately informed his sister, saying that Li Mengyang was disrespectful to the empress and dared to call the empress Zhang Shi, and it was obvious that Zhang Heling wanted to borrow his sister's hand to get rid of Li Mengyang.
Empress Zhang was furious and asked Emperor Xiaozong for his guilt. On the one hand, he loved his wife and on the other hand, he was loyal, and Emperor Xiaozong was deeply embarrassed, but he still took into account the feelings of his beloved wife and threw Li Mengyang into prison. In the end, Emperor Xiaozong released Li Mengyang and only punished Li Mengyang for three months.
Empress Zhang was not satisfied with Emperor Xiaozong's handling, and the eunuchs advised Emperor Xiaozong to scepter Li Mengyang to relieve the hatred in the empress's heart, but Emperor Xiaozong did not agree, and he said to Liu Daxia, the shangshu of the bingbu, "Someone wants to take the opportunity to kill Li Mengyang with a staff, how can I kill the zhichen for the sake of the happiness of the people around me?" ”
Li Mengyang became famous after this incident, and soon he met Zhang Heling on the road, and even went forward to scold Zhang Heling and knocked out two of his teeth.
Emperor Xiaozong understood that the Zhang brothers were arrogant and unable to do so, but took into account Empress Zhang's affection, so ordinary small faults could not be pursued without being pursued. After all, the empress was originally born in a commoner's family, and her mother's family was punished, and she would give people a handle and make it embarrassing.
Later, Emperor Xiaozong took a compromise approach. Once, when he and the empress's mother's family and crown prince You Xingnan Palace, he called Zhang Heling alone to talk, and since then, the Zhang brothers' deeds have converged a lot.
Emperor Xiaozong so indulged the Zhang brothers, no doubt for Empress Zhang, and in his heart, he had always longed for a family affection of his own, which was related to his early experience of human warmth and cold.
Emperor Xiaozong grew up in the Cold Palace, his birth mother died early, and his biological father was almost easy to save. After Emperor Xiaozong ascended the throne, he struggled to find his mother's relatives but was always deceived, and the brothers successively took the throne, the great palace, a lonely heart, can only feel a trace of comfort from the empress.
Therefore, for the sake of this affection, Emperor Xiaozong tolerated the Zhang brothers again and again.
03 Empress Zhang's evening view is bleak
In 1505, Emperor Xiaozong died, and Empress Zhang's son Zhu Houzhao succeeded to the throne, that is, Emperor Wuzong of Ming, and Empress Zhang was promoted to Empress Zhang.
Emperor Mingwuzong was absurd, and he died after sixteen years of reign, leaving no heirs. Empress Zhang, along with Yang Ting and Emperor Wuzong's cousin Zhu Houxi, was made the new emperor for Emperor Ming.
When Empress Zhangsheng, the biological mother of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, first entered the palace, Empress Zhang still regarded her as a princess of the clan and put up shelves everywhere, thus offending Empress Zhangsheng and causing dissatisfaction to the Jiajing Emperor.
When Emperor Ming shizong was married in the first year of Jiajing, he had originally planned to pass on his grandmother Empress Dowager Shou'an's will, but was stopped by Yang Tinghe, who believed that it should be Passed on by Empress Zhang.
Yang Tinghe's move made the Jiajing Emperor believe that the foreign courtiers and Empress Zhang were allied, and thus became more resistant and disgusted with Zhang.
As the son of the king of the clan, the Jiajing Emperor inherited the throne, and he wanted to recognize Emperor Xiaozong and Empress Zhang as his parents, and call his own parents uncles and aunts. At the beginning of the succession, there was a lot of "great etiquette disputes".
It is conceivable that the Jiajing Emperor was anxious to honor his biological parents and grandmother, and naturally did not have any good feelings for Empress Zhang.
In the third year of Jiajing, Empress Zhang sheng celebrated her birthday, and the Jiajing Emperor held a grand ceremony of pilgrimage. Soon, when it was Empress Zhang's turn for her birthday, the Jiajing Emperor spared Chaohe, a move that caused dissatisfaction among his courtiers.
The emperor and his ministers were on the line again, and although the courtiers demanded a more solemn ceremony, the Jiajing Emperor ignored it and lowered the guilt of Shangshu's officials.
The Jiajing Emperor was a master of power tricks, and he knew that in order to win the battle of great etiquette and honor his biological father as emperor, he must suppress Empress Zhang's power and influence.
Therefore, Empress Zhang's brother lay down with a gun, and after the Jiajing Emperor learned of the Zhang brothers' wrongdoing, he tried his best to confirm the crime of rebellion between the two and use it to suppress Empress Zhang. In order to save her two younger brothers, Empress Zhang knelt down and pleaded bitterly with her nephew, but was rejected.
In the end, Zhang Heling was imprisoned and died, and Zhang Yanling was killed in Xishi.
It can be seen from this that the Jiajing Emperor resented Empress Zhang, and there was the factor that she treated the Jiajing Emperor's biological mother poorly, and there was also the factor that Jiajing was angry with Empress Zhang in the early years of the great ceremonial dispute. Concerned about Empress Zhang's identity, the Jiajing Emperor had nowhere to go, and could only pass on his anger to the Zhang brothers.
In her early years, Empress Zhang had all kinds of protection from Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, but she was pampered and arrogant, and did not restrain her family like Empress Xu of Zhu Di and Empress Qian of Zhu Qizhen, although the scenery was infinite for a while, she eventually harmed her family, and she also fell into a desolate end.
Text: Ten Mile Osmanthus (Follow me and tell you more interesting historical stories.) Originality is not easy, unauthorized please do not reprint, violators will be investigated! ）