The Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu was the seventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he was born in the third year of Xuande (1428 AD), and his biological mother was Concubine Wu xian of Zhu Zhanji of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming.
Born in the thirtieth year of Hongwu (1397 AD), two years older than Zhu Zhanji, Wu Xianfei was a native of Dantu County, Zhenjiang.
According to the records of the Rong Sixian Concubines, in August of the tenth year of Yongle (1412 AD), Wu Shi was elected to the court, when she was sixteen years old, her personality was gentle and quiet, presumably her appearance was also outstanding, and soon she was selected and went to the Eastern Palace to serve the emperor's grandson Zhu Zhanji.
Zhu Zhanji was made the emperor's grandson by his grandfather Zhu Di in the ninth year of Yongle, when he lived with his father, Crown Prince Zhu Gaozi, in the Eastern Palace.
In August of the third year of Xuande (1428 AD), Wu gave birth to a boy, who was named Zhu Qiyu, who was the second son of Zhu Zhanji, nine months younger than Zhu Zhanji's eldest son Zhu Qizhen, and Wu's mother was crowned as a concubine.
When Zhu Qiyu was born, his brother Zhu Qizhen had been made crown prince.
Zhu Zhanji had only these two sons, and three months after Zhu Qizhen was born, Zhu Zhanji issued an edict appointing him as crown prince, and deposed the original empress Hu Shanxiang, and appointed Zhu Qizhen's birth mother, Sun Guifei, as empress.
Comparatively speaking, Zhu Zhanji's reaction to Zhu Qiyu's birth seems to be flat, when Zhu Zhanji died, Zhu Qiyu was seven years old, but Zhu Zhanji never crowned Zhu Qiyu as the king of the domain.
When Zhu Yuanzhang first divided the seals, even the prince who had just been born a few months ago was named the king of the domain.
According to the Records of Sin, the mother and son lived outside the palace for a long time, and Zhu Zhanji did not recognize their identities until his death.
According to the Records of Sin, Concubine Wu Xian was originally a palace official of Zhu Gaoxu, the King of Han, and after Zhu Zhanji personally led troops to quell the rebellion of his uncle Zhu Gaoxu, he enslaved all the female dependents of the Han King's palace into the harem.
In February of the tenth year of Xuande, a month after Zhu Zhanji's death, Zhu Qizhen decreed that Zhu Qiyu be crowned the King of Qiyu and the Capital of the Imperial Household, and at this time the major affairs of the imperial court were presided over by Zhu Zhanji's biological mother, Empress Zhang, perhaps this was Zhu Zhanji's last wish, which seemed to verify the speculation that Concubine Wu Xian was a member of Zhu Gaoxu's palace.
In the capacity of Wu Xianfei, under normal circumstances, Zhu Qiyu is unlikely to have anything to do with the throne, but the development of things is unexpected.
In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (1449), the Wallachian army invaded, and Emperor Mingying Decided to take the imperial conquest, at this time Zhu Qiyu was twenty-one years old, and he had not yet gone to the field to take the domain.
Due to the humble status of the birth mother, Zhu Qiyu did not have the strength to covet the throne, perhaps because of this, Zhu Qizhen did not have much precaution against this only brother at this time, and had always let him stay in the Beijing Division, and the feelings between the two brothers at this time may be good.
On August 15, the tumu fort changed, the Ming army was defeated, and the town of Zhuqi was taken captive by the Wala people.
When the news came, the government and the public were shocked, and in the early morning of August 17, the Hanlin attendant proposed to move the capital to Nanjing, and many people echoed it, with Yu Qianli advocating the War of Resistance, and the official Shangshu Wang Zhi and the cabinet scholar Chen Xun supporting Yu Qian's proposal.
On August 18, at the imperial council, Empress Sun, Zhu Qizhen's biological mother, Ordered Zhu Qiyu to oversee the country.
On August 22, Empress Sun decreed that Zhu Qizhen's eldest son, Zhu Jianshen, would be made crown prince, and Zhu Jianshen was only two years old at this time.
At the moment of crisis, the state of Changjun, Yu Qian, Wang Zhi and other ministers jointly asked Empress Sun to agree to Zhu Qiyu's ascension to the throne as emperor.
On the sixth day of the first month of September, Zhu Qiyu was proclaimed emperor and Concubine Wu Xianfei was honored as empress.
Zhu Qiyu promoted Yu Qian to the rank of Shangshu of the Army, organized the defense of Beijing, and repelled the Wallachians in November.
Although she was the same empress dowager as Empress Sun, Empress Wu was far less shrewd and assertive than Empress Sun, and it is said that her personality was meek and quiet. Empress Wu did not have the opportunity to understand what was going on with the government affairs of the imperial court, and it was impossible for her to become a woman like her mother-in-law, Empress Zhang.
In the Daming Palace, she was powerless in the face of power struggles, and could only passively endure the impermanence of the world. Perhaps, if she had the choice, she might not be willing to marry into the royal family.
In the first month of the eighth year of Jingtai (1457 AD), the change of the gate occurred, and Zhu Qizhen became emperor again, and Zhu Qiyu was deposed as the King of Qi and died shortly after. There is a theory that Zhu Qiyu was killed by Zhu Qizhen. Empress Wu was demoted to Concubine Wu.
Zhu Qiyu was only twenty-nine years old when he died, watching his loved ones die but unable to do anything, Wu Xianfei's inner pain can be imagined, mourning is greater than heart death, maybe Wu Xianfei is already dead at this time.
Four years later, Concubine Wu died silently, and Zhu Qizhen gave her the title of Rongsi.