Japan's history has "copied" a lot of Chinese history, China has "Warring States", Japan also has "Warring States", China has "Southern and Northern Dynasties", and Japan also has "Southern and Northern Dynasties". However, Japan's Southern and Northern Dynasties did not span a long time, only about 50 years. The one we are familiar with is the son of the Fujiwara clan, a noblewoman of the Southern Dynasty, who married Emperor Go-Komatsu of the Northern Dynasty.
So how did the Southern and Northern Dynasties begin and end? What is the descendant of the current Japanese imperial family?
This matter has to start from the four major families of Japan's "Genpei Fuji Tachibana".
The reason why Japan's emperors have been able to pass on the "lineage of all generations" is mainly because the power is sidelined, and the above four major families are the powerful ministers who actually control the government.
Both the Gen" family and the "Hei" family came from the imperial family, and the Emperor gave his descendants the surnames of these two surnames, and the generations were officials, the most famous of which were genrai dynasty, Hei Kiyomori, etc., and the Takeda family and the Tokugawa family in the later Sengoku period were said to be the descendants of the "Gen" family (of course, these are their own words, if you don't believe it, you can do it), and Oda Nobunaga is a descendant of the Heian family. The so-called "Genji Story" and "The Tale of the Heike Family" refer to these two families, and the history of Japan can be the history of the struggle between the Genji and the Peace Family.
"Fuji" refers to the "Fujiwara clan", although this surname is not from the royal family, but it is like a fake exchange of nobles and powerful courtiers, it can be said that it is the first surname of the civil subjects. The "Tachibana clan" is a surname from the harem.
These four major families and their branches have always been important forces that control the government of the dynasty.
In 1318, Emperor Go-Uta (the greatest event during the emperor's reign was the "Mongol attack") abdicated as Emperor Taishang, and Emperor Go-Daigo ascended the throne and began to govern in 1321. However, the government was in the hands of the Hojo clan, the shogun of the Hei clan.
In order to change the phenomenon of power and subjection, Emperor Go-Daigo made great efforts to govern, select the meritocrats, and innovate politics, and the history books record that he listened to the people's suffering day and night, solved problems for the people, and won the support of the people.
In 1324, the 58-year-old Emperor Go-Uta died, and the 37-year-old Emperor Go-Daigo rolled up his sleeves and secretly contacted Hino Shigeki, Hino Toshiki, and others to gather the disgruntled shogunate samurai in the imperial domain to Kyoto to prepare for a coup against the shoguns.
However, the situation was not secret, and the shogunate sent to Kyoto to supervise the emperor's agency, The Rokupoloro Detective, learned about it, and the shogunate immediately arrested Hino and others, and also mobilized samurai from all over the country to strengthen kyoto's security guard, and the emperor's conspiracy similar to the "Jade Belt Edict" of the Han Xian Emperor ended in miscarriage.
Hino et al. were eventually exiled, and the emperor was forced to declare that he had not predicted the incident, an incident known as the "Emperor's Rebellion." In just five words, it tells how much the emperor's heartache is.
The emperor's rebellion against the shogunate is called rebellion, and the concept of master servant has been completely reversed.
In 1326, When Emperor Go-Daigo's crown prince died of illness, the shogunate ignored Emperor Go-Daigo's request and instead made Go-Daigo's older brother, Prince Motohito, the son of Emperor Gofushi, crown prince. As a result, the relationship between Emperor Go-Daigo and the shogunate and the deposed emperor (Emperor Go-Fushimi) deteriorated day by day.
In 1331, Emperor Go-Daigo more resolutely planned a counter-shogunate, however, before the action, Yoshida Tsunebo, who was involved in the plan, informed the shogunate, and the Hojo shogunate sent ashikaga Toshinobu to immediately lead an army to control the capital, and Emperor Go-Daigo fled to Kasaji Temple in Nara in disguise as a woman carrying the emperor's three artifacts (Tenkō Cloud Sword, Hachishi Joku jade, and Yatsumi Mirror).
Even without the artifact, the shogunate still put Prince Tsunehito on the throne for Emperor Hikari. Thus appeared two emperors, one in the south and one in the north.
The shogunate then sent troops to besiege Kasaji Temple, and at this time, a great man who was praised by later Generations of Japan appeared, the military general Nanmu Masanari from Hanoi.
This man raised the banner of honor and righteousness against the shogunate, and for a time received a response from many samurai and civilians.
Unfortunately, he was soon defeated and killed, and eventually the main force of the Hojo shogunate, the Ashikaga Clan, captured Emperor Go-Daigo. Nanmu Masaaki was revered by posterity as a model of honor for practicing righteousness with practical actions.
Under the pressure of the shogunate, Go-Daigo had to hand over the artifact, and he himself was exiled to The Island of Hideki. However, emperor Go-Daigo, who was becoming more and more frustrated, still took it as his duty to defeat the shogunate and restore imperial power, and taking advantage of the situation of the king who had been inspired by the death of Nangi Masamune, he once again fled The island of Hideki, landed at the Izumo area, raised the banner of righteousness, and for a time heroes gathered and marched to Kyoto.
Seeing that the Kamakura shogunate of the Hojo clan had rebelled against each other, the Ashikaga Clan secretly contacted Emperor Go-Daigo, fished in the waters, counterattacked, and issued a crusade against the Hojo clan, claiming that they were descendants of the "Gen" clan and fleeing from the Hojo clan.
In May 1333, Hojo Takashi committed suicide and the Kamakura shogunate collapsed. After June, Emperor Daigo returned to Kyoto, where the restoration was successful and the yuan was changed to "Kenmu". History is called "Jianwu Zhongxing".
After the restoration, Emperor Go-Daigo hung the Ashikaga clan high, only high-ranking officials and no real power, but sealed many old nobles who did not have much power, and at the same time, in order to build the imperial palace and increase income, they adopted tricks such as increasing taxes and issuing paper money, which caused prices to soar, and the samurai and the people did not benefit from "ZTE", but complained bitterly.
Seeing the opportunity, the Ashikaga Clan re-raised an army and reoccupied Kyoto, forcing Emperor Go-Daigo to abdicate in favor of Emperor Hikari in 1336. In November, the Ashikaga clan opened the shogunate in Muromachi, Kyoto, as the "Muromachi Shogunate".
In December, Emperor Go-Daigo escaped again, and Mount Yoshino, south of Yamato, once again ascended the throne, calling himself "Southern Dynasty" and referring to the Emperor of Kyoto as a "pseudo-dynasty". Kyoto, on the other hand, called itself the "Beijing side" and regarded the south as a "pseudo-dynasty", and the situation of confrontation between the north and the south was formed, and the so-called "two emperors in one day and two emperors in southern Beijing" lasted for about 50 years.
When Emperor Go-Daigo abdicated this time, he did not give the real artifact to the new emperor, but hid it himself, and fled with the artifact when he ran, so he took out the artifact as a sharp weapon to call on the world, and organized an army to march to Kyoto again. However, after several battles, the Confederate army was repeatedly defeated.
In 1338, the Ashikaga clan was awarded the title of "Shogi Shogun" by the Northern Dynasty.
In 1339, at the age of 52, Emperor Go-Daigo died with the Hokage Sutra in his left hand and a sword in his right hand, breaking with convention and deciding on his own nickname, "Go-Daigo", in the hope of recreating the grand situation of the Emperor Daigo's reign without a shogunate, without a court (Emperor Taishang's politics), and without a regent Sekibai during the daigo period. It is a pity that the day is not a holiday, and the ambition is not rewarded. When he died, he should be unwilling, so he had to hold a sword in one hand and go to the underground mansion to continue fighting.
After the death of Emperor Go-Daigo, the 12-year-old Crown Prince Yoshira succeeded to the throne as Emperor Go-Murakami. Since then, there have been constant struggles between the southern and northern dynasties, and wars have been frequent, and Kyoto has changed hands several times, and after the death of Emperor Gomuragami of the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Nagayoshi and Emperor Go-Kameyama have successively taken the throne. After the death of Emperor Guangyan and Emperor Hikari of the Northern Dynasty, there were Emperor Sogo, Emperor Go-Hikari, Emperor Go-Enrong, and Emperor Go-Komatsu. After the death of the shogun Ashikaga Tsunade, his son Yoshitomo and his grandson Yoshiman (shogun in The Wise One) successively served as shoguns and controlled the imperial court.
In the end, the strength of the Southern Dynasty was greatly reduced, and Ashikaga Yoshiman surrendered the Southern Dynasty on the condition that "as long as the Southern Dynasty handed over the artifact, it could be given preferential treatment", and the Emperor Go-Kameyama of the Southern Dynasty surrendered the artifact, entered the Daikaku-ji Temple in Kyoto, and was crowned emperor by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the 100th emperor of the 100th generation, Go-Komatsu, became the only emperor in the world. At this point, Japan's Southern and Northern Dynasties ended.
Originally, Ashikaga Yoshiman and the Southern Dynasty also agreed that the future generations would be alternately passed on by the southern and northern lineages, but later the imperial lineage was always controlled by the northern dynasty. To this end, there have also been a series of open and dark struggles. To this day, there are still Japanese civilians who claim to be the emperor of the Southern Dynasty.
Kumazawa Hiromichi, a grocery store owner who claims to be a descendant of Japan's Southern Dynasty
Not only did the southern and northern regimes refer to each other as "pseudo-dynasties" during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but to this day, there is still a lot of debate about which of the Southern and Northern Dynasties is orthodox. The reason for advocating the Orthodoxy of the Southern Dynasty is that the artifact symbolizing the throne was always in the hands of the Emperor of the Southern Dynasty, while the reason for advocating the Orthodoxy of the Northern Dynasty is that the Emperor of the Northern Dynasty is a descendant. Because the throne has always been in the hands of the Northern Dynasty, the Orthodox faction of the Northern Dynasty has always been the mainstream opinion, and Southern Dynasty loyalists such as Nanmu Masamune have also been listed as "enemies of the Dynasty".
But in the 16th century, the time suddenly took a turn. When the Tokugawa shogunate edited the history books, although it advocated the orthodoxy of the Northern Dynasty, it recognized the juxtaposition of the two dynasties. In the "History of Japan", the Southern Dynasty was listed as orthodox, and The case was overturned for Nanmu Masanari, promoting his spirit of loyalty and righteousness, so as to maintain the increasingly disintegrating feudal system. It's a bit like the chinese historians about the cao wei and shu han disputes and the worship of Guan Yu.
During the Meiji Restoration, there were still three propositions of southern orthodoxy, northern orthodoxy, and the juxtaposition of the two dynasties.
In 1911, when the Japanese persecution of hundreds of socialists, the Kotoku Akisui Incident occurred, and when the judge judged that Yukitoku Akimizu was rebellious, Yukitoku Akimizu asked contemptuously, "Isn't the current Emperor the descendant of the usurper who snatched three kinds of artifacts from the Emperor of the Southern Dynasty?" ”
This generous statement immediately caused an uproar in Japanese society and internationally, so that the political patriarch Yamagata Aritomo had to ask the emperor for adjudicate on this issue.
Finally, Emperor Meiji, a descendant of the Northern Dynasty, was forced by the situation to rule on the orthodoxy of the Southern Dynasty, and the emperors of the Northern Dynasty were not included in the Emperor Algebra, but the status of the Emperor and other aspects of the treatment remained unchanged. As a result, the Ashikaga clan was regarded as a traitor, Andagi Masanari became a model of loyalty to the country, the feudal idea of loyalty to the monarch was further developed, and Japan's imperial militarism was further strengthened. The "brick family beast" who advocated the juxtaposition of the northern and southern dynasties was removed from the university, and even the cabinet of Katsura Taro at that time fell as a result, and was jokingly called "Death Zhengcheng knocked down the living prime minister".
After World War II, the academic atmosphere gradually became freer, the dispute between the North and the South was reversed again, and the "doctrine of the juxtaposition of the North and the South", which respected objective facts, once again became the mainstream view of academic circles, and the feudal orthodoxy that was beautified by the Tokugawa shogunate and the Japanese militarists was corrected, and at the same time the feudal emperor system of The so-called "one lineage of all generations" in Japan was corrected.