"Anecdotes of Chinese Emperors" unveils the mask of Chongzhen's hypocrisy - Ming Sizong Zhu Youjian
Emperor Mingsizong Zhu Youjian (1611-1644), era name Chongzhen, so also known as Chongzhen Emperor. The sixteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the last emperor. As a prince, Zhu Youjian was fortunate to be able to become emperor. However, what he inherited from his brother Zhu Youjian was a mess, became the king of the subjugated country, and finally had to hang himself in Coal Mountain at the age of 34, which was unfortunate again.
Zhu Youjian was a controversial emperor, and some say that he was the Ming Emperor, who at the beginning of his reign, Tao Guang was obscure and cleverly evaded the sharp edge of the castrated party led by Wei Zhongxian. Wait for the right opportunity to eradicate the castration party. He also personally selected a group of officials to rehabilitate the officials of the previous Wei Zhongxian period. He was also diligent in political affairs, working day and night for a long time, living frugally, and personally taking the lead in wearing old clothes.
Those who believe that Zhu Youjian was a Ming Jun blamed Zhu Youjian for the death of Ming, and that Zhu Youguan had inherited the mess of Zhu Youguan's school, and that during his reign there was a drought of many years, and there was a plague of locusts, and Zhu Youjian was powerless to return to heaven. In the end, when Coal Mountain hanged himself, he took off his crown, covered his face with his hair and wrote a blood book on his clothes, so that the thieves could only damage their own bodies and not harm the people.
These are all mingjun deeds, but is this really the case?
In fact, Zhu Youjian was just a conceited and selfish and hypocritical emperor. After he personally eliminated Wei Zhongxian's party, he obviously overestimated his political ability, and for more than ten years, Zhu You's prosecutors decided to act arbitrarily and obstinately.
Chen Xinjia's case is enough to see Zhu Youjian's hypocrisy, fainting and coldness. The course of events is as follows: Zhu Youjian secretly assigned The Soldier Shangshu Chen Xinjia to negotiate peace with the Qing army, but his handwritten edict was accidentally made public. The courtiers were in an uproar and opposed. Zhu Youjian was ashamed and angry, and ordered that Chen Xinjia be executed immediately. The mistakes he made made were made and others were responsible, and Zhu Youjian was too selfish.
The impact of Chen Xinjia's case was not great, but Zhu Youjian's unjust killing of a generation of famous generals Yuan Chonghuan was unforgivable. According to legend, the Qing Taizu Nurhaci was injured by Yuan Chonghuan's artillery during the battle with Yuan Chonghuan, and then died of illness and depression. For resisting the Qing army, Yuan Chonghuan played a huge role, but Zhu Youjian had no ability to distinguish between them, credulously believed rumors, arrested Yuan Chonghuan at the most critical moment of the war, and then executed Ling Chi, resulting in the defeat of the Ming Dynasty.
At the beginning of 1644, Li Zicheng approached Beijing, and the situation in the capital became increasingly critical. However, Zhu Youjian ordered lords and hundreds of officials to donate money, but there was no positive response. This is by no means what a Ming Emperor should look like in a critical moment, which indirectly shows that Zhu Youjian, the emperor, could not even control the civil and military officials.
Zhu Youjian's most brutal act was when Li Zicheng invaded the city of Beijing. Seeing that the general trend had gone, Zhu Youjian sighed endlessly. Empress Zhou said, "In these eighteen years, you will not be able to listen to me like this." Zhu Youjian was furious and immediately ordered Empress Zhou to commit suicide. After sending away the three princes, out of some perverted psychology, Zhu Youjian did not let the other concubines escape, but demanded that all of them commit suicide. Among them, Yuan Guifei committed suicide and did not die, Zhu Youjian immediately drew a knife and slashed at Yuan Guifei, and then went crazy and took the knife and slashed randomly in the palace. For his daughter Princess Changping, Zhu Youjian was also mad and drew a knife and cut off one of her arms. In Jin Yong's novel "Deer Ding", Ah Ke's master, the one-armed god Ni, is based on this. Another daughter, Princess Shōjin, was hacked to death by Zhu Youjian. Zhu Youjian's cruelty can be seen, the tiger poison does not eat children, there are countless tyrants in history, but there are very few who poison their children and relatives, and Zhu Youjian is one of them.
When Coal Mountain hanged himself, Zhu Youjian refused to admit that he had perished because of his own death in a blood letter written on his clothes. He said, "The defiance of the emperor is defiant, and there is no blame for the work, and all the ministers are mistaken." "Putting the blame on the ministers, he also pretended to be distressed by the people and asked not to hurt the people." After Zhu Youjian's death, people found a large amount of silver in his imperial treasury, weighing more than 18 billion taels. If Zhu Youjian was really a Ming Jun, he should have used this money to calm the famine, relieve the victims, and use it for war.
But Zhu Youjian was hypocritical, selfish, greedy, conceited and brutal, and it was he himself who brought the country to its demise step by step. It also directly led to the end of his life by hanging himself.