In the thirty-third year of the Wanli Calendar, the earthquake in Qiongshan (Haikou), Guangdong, collapsed the houses in Fuxian County, killing and injuring thousands of people; in this year, Wanli's beloved son Zhu Changxun was ready to take over the domain, and the 2,800 hectares of support fields allocated by the direct subordinates were already in place; in this year, a baby cry came from the Eastern Palace, and the emperor's grandson Zhu You was born.
imperial palace
In the 47th year of wanli, the imperial court sent more than 100,000 troops to encircle and suppress Nurhaci in liaodong in four ways, and was defeated, known in history as the "Battle of Salhu"; in this year, Zhu Changrun, the sixth son of Wanli, and Zhu Changying, the seventh son of Gui, were married, costing a total of 280,000 taels of silver; in this year, Zhu You's mother Wang Shi died, and Zhu Was raised by Li Xuanshi.
In the forty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar, in July, Wanli died, and before his death, Zhu Youxiao was made the Emperor's grandson; in August, Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo succeeded to the throne, and in September, Zhu Changluo died; in the same year, the sixteen-year-old Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne as emperor, and in a few months, completed the identity conversion of the emperor's grandson, the imperial grandson, the crown prince, and the emperor, and changed the year of the apocalypse.
<h1>Cowardly closure - the shadow of childhood brought by the original family</h1>
Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Apocalypse was a famous "carpenter emperor" of the Ming Dynasty. Later generations were not friendly to him, and the rise of Hou Jin, the formation of the castration party, and the withering of the people's livelihood economy seemed to be more violently accused than Chongzhen, the king of the fallen country.
In the impression of everyone, Zhu Youxiao was a faint and incompetent emperor with a cowardly personality. The idea of fainting and incompetence, Chao Shi Twilight wanted to retain his point of view, and cowardice was indeed a major character flaw of Zhu Youxiao.
All this must start with his father and grandfather.
Ming Shen Sect Zhu Yijun statue
We know that Wanli (Emperor Mingshen) did not like Emperor Guangzong Zhu Changluo, but always wanted to make Zhu Changxun the Prince of Fu. Because of Zhu Changluo's status as the eldest son, Empress Wang was unable to give birth to a son, so Zhu Changluo was supported by his courtiers, and for this reason he and Wanli engaged in a "dispute over the origin of the country" with Wanli for nearly thirty years.
During this period, Zhu Changluo's situation has been not good, and it can even be said that he is precarious, living in fear every day. Even though he later became a prince, he didn't even have the basic study and reading intermittently. The father is still like this, and Zhu Youxiao, as a son, naturally feels the same way.
When Zhu Youxiao was very young, he knew that his imperial grandfather did not like his father, and not liking his father also meant that he did not like himself; in Zhu Youxiao's eyes, most of the time, it was his father's sad face, and the fear after meeting the imperial grandfather. Even the news of the death of the father's woman, the father had to hide it, and did not dare to let the imperial grandfather know.
And the mother Wang Shi is equally miserable. Li Xuanshi was pampered and arrogant, and often bullied the Wang clan, and we read in more than one historical material that the death of Zhu You's biological mother Wang Shi was the consequence of Li Xuanshi's beating. After the death of his mother, Zhu Youxiao was actually handed over to Li Xuanshi to raise. This matter, after Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, was still grumpy and was taken out to complain to the courtiers.
Ming Dynasty harem concubines Stills
This is the original family environment in which Zhu You grew up. Obviously, Zhu Changluo did not take on the responsibilities and obligations of his father, nor did he fill Zhu Youxiao's young soul with the confidence and reliance of his father's love. The tragic situation and premature death of his mother Wang Also created Zhu Youxiao's relatively closed personality.
From the "palace transfer case," we can perceive this personality trait of Zhu Youxiao.
After the death of Emperor Mingguang Zhu Changluo, Li Xuanshi remained at the Qianqing Palace. Obviously, when the old emperor collapsed and the lord was suspicious, Li Xuanshi wanted to gain his own political capital by controlling Zhu Youxiao, such as being the empress dowager, such as hanging the curtain to listen to the government.
The civilian-official clique naturally saw the signs, and they planned to snatch the young lord from Li Xuanshi's hands, perform the enthronement ceremony, and expel Li Xuanshi from the Qianqing Palace. The specific process chao Shi Hui wanted not to repeat here, the general situation is that a group of ministers with an average age of fifty or sixty years old snatched Zhu Youxue out of the Qianqing Palace, and then personally carried a palanquin for Zhu Youxiao to meet with hundreds of officials, and clashed with Li Xuanshi and his eunuch forces several times in the middle.
Ming Dynasty official
After the ceremony at the Mandarin Palace, the courtiers sent Zhu Youxue back to Ciqing Palace. At this time, Zhu Youxiao said to the eunuch Wang An beside him:
Companion, today's safe future? To have your hair with me is not to be feared. - "Ming Shilu"
Companion refers to the eunuch Wang An, and The Companion refers to the chancellor Liu Yijing. It is believed that Zhu You's proofreading Liu Yijing at that time was not familiar with Liu Yijing, just because Liu Yijing had a long beard and looked mighty, it brought Zhu You's school enough sense of security.
From this, we can know that throughout the process of the "palace transfer case", Zhu Youxue has actually been in a state of panic. Judging from the description of the historical materials, Zhu Youxue just blindly "followed the crowd."
Before Emperor Guangzong died, he summoned the chancellor TouGu, and Zhu Youxiao once sent a message on behalf of Li Xuanshi to indicate his intention to be the empress; the courtiers looked for Zhu Youxiao in the Qianqing Palace, and he obediently obeyed Li Xuan's arrangement and hid in the warm cabinet; the ministers found him and rushed out of the Qianqing Palace, and he did not have any major reaction, feeling that the whole process was a state of "following fate".
Ming Xi Zong Zhu Yu school portrait
This cowardly and closed personality is also why Zhu Youxiao often showed a kind of "slacking off" appearance when handling government affairs later. He is not indifferent, nor does he not understand, but it is purely a posture of indulgence. In the overall situation, I am only willing to control it a little, and the rest is almost let go. This became an important reason for his subsequent criticism.
<h1>Good judgment – a monarch who has been severely degraded</h1>
I don't know when Zhu Youxiao was labeled a "stupid emperor", as if he had always been just a puppet of Wei Zhongxian, in addition to doing carpentry work in the palace. Friends who hold this view are actually not comprehensive enough to understand Zhu You.
Let's start with the castration of the Party.
When Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, the civilian-official clique made great efforts, especially the Donglin Party members, and in the early days of the Tianqi Dynasty, because Zhu Youxiao's vote was repaid, his power swelled very rapidly, and at one time he almost gained control of the korean situation, forming a situation of "zhongzheng Ying Dynasty".
Donglin College Archway
But the Donglin Party has a very fatal flaw – spiritual purity. In their eyes, there is only right and wrong in everything, only right and wrong, not our party, and their hearts will be different. Everything exists dialectically, and a world that pursues the so-called perfect Taoist system has itself lost the criterion of The Taoist system. There is no black, there is white, this is the truth.
Therefore, in addition to constantly flaunting the nobility of their own moral standards, the most important thing the Donglin Party did was to crack down on dissidents and make the liquidation of the "aliens" in their eyes the primary responsibility of Kuang Fu Daming. The party struggle intensified, and the situation in the DPRK became more and more chaotic, so that it eventually developed to the point where everyone struggled for the sake of struggle, without any concern for the economy and livelihood of the country.
Zhu Youxiao was a witness to this history, and he soon discovered that the momentum was wrong. Yes, you Donglin Party members seem to be of high morals, and you have made great efforts to get on the throne for me, but you have also messed up the situation in the DPRK, and you have not seen any real things you have done, and all day long you are clamoring to destroy this and drive that. What about the Liaodong problem? What about financial problems? How to deal with the civil unrest?
So Wei Zhongxian appeared.
Wei Zhongxian Stills
Wei Zhongxian's appearance was used by Zhu Youxiao to solve the chaotic situation in the korean situation. Do you really believe what the civil official said, Wei Zhongxian went straight up because he took Zhu Youxiao's nursing mother Keshi? No, it was Zhu Youxiao who wanted to use Wei Zhongxian. In a short period of time, Wei Zhongxian integrated a large number of resources, including the various parties that had been suppressed and scattered by the Donglin Party, all of which were gathered under his own banner to form an emasculated party against the Donglin Party.
This integration of resources was a sublimation of the late Ming party struggle. Castration, it does not exclude your origins, does not mind your original subordinate faction, but ask your character, as long as you have the use value, the ability to influence the situation, obey the organizational arrangements, it will accept you, tolerate you.
There is no doubt that in the face of this force, the Donglin Party has no chance of winning, because the emergence of the castration party is a pragmatic embodiment. Yes, pragmatic. And what Zhu Yu wants is also this. During the Apocalypse period, Wei Zhongxian's popularity was actually deliberately supported by Zhu Youxiao. The advantage of such a monopoly is that there are finally people working in asahi. And the people who work do not have to be afraid of being wearing small shoes and being shaded, because there is a big boss- Wei Zhongxian, who controls the overall situation.
Ming Dynasty eunuch image
From this perspective, can we understand Zhu You's good intentions? Can you understand why the whole country is building a shrine for Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youxiao doesn't care at all?
Another example is the issue of Yuan Chonghuan. Although Yuan Chonghuan was already quite famous at that time and was also respected by his courtiers, Zhu Yu still did not reuse him.
Yuan Chonghuan: Give me soldiers and give me money, I can trap Nurhaci; Zhu You: What should I do after Jin Wei point to help? What should I do if I cut off the grain and grass? Yuan Chonghuan: ...
Yuan Chonghuan: Give me soldiers and give me money, and I will give you a Qingping Liaodong; Chongzhen: Well, you go.
The above conversation, although it is a joke, is also true. Zhu Youxue admired Sun Chengzong's defensive strategy rather than blindly believing yuan Chonghuan's radicalism, which also showed his ability to understand people.
Nurhaci statue
Finally, let's bring the topic back to the question of whether Zhu Youxiao is Wei Zhongxian's puppet.
Chao Shi Hui thought about it, and many people regarded Zhu Youxiao as a incompetent, incompetent, incompetent, and incompetent child who was arbitrarily swayed by Wei Zhongxian and Keshi.
The Biography of Ming Shi Wei Zhongxian records:
Imperial ingenuity, good pro-axe saw paint things, accumulated years of tireless. Every time the rope is cut, the loyal generation plays a role. The emperor is disgusted, and the fallacy is known: The decay has been learned, and the Ru generation is good to do it.
Zhu Yu liked to do carpentry work and reached the level of obsession. Every time Wei Zhongxian picked a time when zhu you were working at the school, he reported on the work and was often approved. This description, many people see as evidence that Wei Zhongxian controls the situation and Zhu Youxiao faints.
Zhu Yu School Stills
However, in the eyes of Chao Shi Twilight, things are just the opposite. If Wei Zhongxian had really reached the point of controlling the situation, why should he pick Zhu Youxiao to report on his work when he was working energetically? He's completely on his own.
There is another thing that also illustrates this problem. When Empress Zhang and Wei Zhongxian were in a state of fire, Wei Zhongxian consulted the eunuch Wang Tiqian on how to get rid of Empress Zhang. Wang Tiqian's answer:
The Lord is troubled in everything, alone with his husband and wife, and not thin between brothers. If I am not careful, my generation has no exhaustion. - "Ming Shi Banknotes"
This means that Zhu Yu looks confused, but the relationship with his family is extraordinary, and if you sue, we all have to finish playing. Judging from Wang Tiqian's worries, Wei Zhongxian could not tell Empress Zhang what to do, and it could also be seen that as long as Zhu Yu thought, the so-called castration party could be overthrown in an instant.
Dragon chair
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao was not only not a puppet, but always controlled the supreme power. The reason why Wei Zhongxian could wreak havoc so much during the Apocalypse years was because Zhu Youxiao was using him. So much so that before Zhu Youxiao's death, he warned his successor Zhu Youjian (Chongzhen), the king of letters, that Wei Zhongxian should use it or use it. Obviously, Chongzhen did not grasp this deep meaning.
<h1>Illiterate? ——Zhu Youxiao is illiterate or not</h1>
Now people's perception of Zhu Youxian is that he, like Wei Zhongxian, has no culture, and does not even know a few words. And he was able to become emperor only because of the feudal succession system.
This statement is also slightly biased. Zhu Youxiao was the imperial grandson personally selected by Wanli before his death. In fact, at that time, Zhu Youxiao was not the only heir to the throne. At the same time, when Zhu Youxiao was a child, he received an enlightenment education in the palace.
Another proof that Chao Shi Hui wanted to say that Zhu Youxiao was not illiterate, that is, the later Chongzhen. As a half-prince, later generations never said anything about Chongzhen's stupidity, I would like to ask, at that time, as an ordinary prince, Chongzhen could receive a certain education, as the emperor's grandson, how could Zhu Youxiao be illiterate?
Di Jiantu said
Chao Shi Twilight thought that he could admit that zhu you should not have a high level of education. Because after he ascended the throne, he still read basic textbooks such as "Emperor Jian Tu Shu". His father, Zhu Changluo, did not even finish reading the Four Books and Five Classics after he ascended the throne. Judging from this situation, Zhu You's studies are not very good, at least not the same grade as Grandpa Wanli.
After Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, there were also sutra feasts (reading seminars for the emperor and his ministers) and Lectures on the Day. According to the statistics of the "Ming Xi Sect's Commentary on the Feast Day", during the reign of Ming Xi Sect, there were more than 160 daily lectures, of which 44 times in the first year of the Apocalypse, 19 times in the second year of the Apocalypse, 33 times in the third year of the Apocalypse, 33 times in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, and 20 times in the sixth year of the Apocalypse.
Generally speaking, the content of the feast is on the high-end, combining academic and practical government affairs, and if Zhu Youxue is illiterate, it is impossible to participate in so many times.
For the statement that Zhu Youxiao is illiterate, to a large extent, it should be an exaggerated description derived from various popular novels. It was intended to belittle Wei Zhongxian and disgust Zhu Youxiao by the way.
Up to now, we can still find some edicts and some autographs issued by Zhu Youxue in that year, and judging from the level of sentence making, it is definitely not the kind of illiterate who cannot even read "Water Margin".
And Zhu You's school studies are not refined, and the initiator of the late study in the cabinet is still Wanli. Similarly, his father Zhu Changluo also came out to study very late, and intermittently, also due to Wanli's lack of attention. From this point of view, the father and son are indeed connected by fate.
Ming Guangzong Zhu Changluo statue
Emperor Zhu You of the Ming Dynasty, the fifteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, ascended the throne at the age of sixteen and reigned seven times, which was when various social problems and contradictions in the late Ming Dynasty began to erupt in a concentrated manner. At the beginning of his succession, in the face of the chaos of the korean situation and the crisis of power and power, Zhu Youxian cleverly used Wei Zhongxian, connived at the formation of the castration party, suppressed the civilian official clique, and reintegrated the political resources of the imperial court to cope with the increasingly decaying situation.
Zhu Youxiao's character is cowardly and closed, stemming from the psychological shadow of his original family from childhood. This kind of personality is projected onto the government, that is, he is "not attentive" to many things and immersed in his own world. But this is not to say that Zhu Youxiao is an incompetent and stupid person. On the contrary, in many government affairs, he can have his own unique views and always control the highest power. And he is good at understanding people and judging things, compared to the hesitation and hesitation of Chongzhen later, only this one, I don't know how many times smarter.
In general, Emperor Mingxi Washi Was a seriously despised emperor by later generations.
Asahina thinks, there are always some dry goods that can be excavated in history.
References: "History of Ming", "Records of Ming", "Notes on Ming History", etc.