On July 13, the fourth year of Jianwen (1402), the Battle of Jingnan came to an end, and The King of Gu, Zhu Qi, and Li Jinglong, the Duke of Caoguo, opened the Jinchuan Gate of Nanjing City to welcome the King of Yan into Beijing, at this time Emperor Jianwen was already cornered and sat still. But history tells us that Zhu Di did not find any trace of Emperor Jianwen, so whether Emperor Jianwen was alive or dead became the biggest mystery in the early Ming Dynasty.
Although there is much controversy about the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, Emperor Jianwen's escape from the city of Nanjing is mostly in favor. As for how he escaped from the capital, there are also many theories, among which the saying that "Zhu Yuanzhang left an iron box to save his life" was the most widely circulated.
The story goes like this. After the Jinchuanmen Incident, Emperor Jianwen had suicidal thoughts, and the old minister Cheng Ji saw that Emperor Jianwen was cornered, and he immediately calculated a fortune, and found that Emperor Jianwen could only escape this catastrophe if he went to the south. Although Emperor Jianwen did not have much recognition of Cheng Ji before, he was still convinced of the "divine calculation" that he had always been good at.
At this moment, the eunuch Wang Yutong, who had been by Emperor Jianwen's side, knelt on the ground with a loud voice and said to Emperor Jianwen, "Emperor, there is something small to tell you. In the past, when Emperor Taizu gao ascended the immortals, he once left you an iron box, and ordered Xiao Xiao to quietly place it in the Fengxian Hall, and specially instructed: 'You can only open it when the great calamity is imminent'."
As soon as the ministers heard that there was such a thing, their anxious mood immediately eased, and they hurriedly urged Wang Yu to bring the iron box. After a while, Wang Yu brought the iron box, and suddenly all the eyes of the entire hall were locked on this iron box, only to see that all around them were watered with iron juice, and even two locks were also watered to death.
Emperor Jianwen cried loudly when he saw the iron box, and after a while, he eased up and ordered the palace to be set on fire. The "Divine Operator" could not wait for Emperor Jianwen to issue an order, so he took it upon himself to order people to quickly take the iron weapon and smash the iron box, and after a while it was smashed open, and everyone opened their eyes to see what life-saving treasure Emperor Taizugao had left for his grandson.
But to the disappointment of everyone, there were no treasures in the iron box, and some of them were the "magic weapons" that he used to survive when the monks were begging: 3 du mu (the monk's identity card), on which were written names: Ying Wen, Ying Neng, and Ying Xian; there were also robes, shoes and hats, and a razor: ten ingots of silver.
The most surprising thing is that there is also Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial pen in the box: "Ying Wen comes out of the ghost gate, Yu walks from the water pass royal ditch, and Bo Twilight will be in the west room of god's optimism." The meaning of this is that Ying Wen went out of the ghost gate, and the rest of the ministers sneaked in from the Shuiguan Yugou and gathered at dusk in the optimistic West Room of the Gods in the south of Nanjing.
Seeing this, Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunjue suddenly understood everything, and he kept chanting in his mouth: "The number of days! Oh the number of days! Cheng Ji couldn't take much care of it, and immediately shaved for Emperor Jianwen, so that Zhu Yunjiao became a "Yingwen" monk. Then, who does Zhu Yuanzhang refer to when he says "should be able" and "should be xian"?
Among the ministers of the Jianwen Dynasty, there was really a man named Yang Yingneng, who was a teacher in the palace of Emperor Jianwen's third brother, Zhu Yunxi, the King of Wu. Yang Should be able to see the name on du mu, so he automatically came out and recognized it, and he also shaved his head as a monk, willing to follow Zhu Yunjiao to the end of the world. At this time, a supervisor named Xi Xian also resolutely walked out of the crowd and said to Emperor Jianwen: "Wei Chen Mingxian, Taizu's 'Ying Xian' should refer to me, and Wei Chen is also willing to shave and follow His Majesty!" In this way, Ying Wen, Ying Neng, and Ying Xian all fell, and they shaved their hair one by one, and this scene was extremely tragic and miserable.
So, how did Emperor Jianwen escape from the palace?
This is the most concerned issue for People for 600 years for Emperor Jianwen, and there are two theories that dominate:
The first statement
Emperor Jianwen fled through the secret passages in and around the palace. Tan Qian, a famous historian of the Ming Dynasty, said this: After Emperor Jianwen sent away some ministers on the main hall of the Ming Palace, he and Cheng Ji, Liang Liangyong and others quietly walked out of the Xihua Gate through the secret passage, came to the Qinhuai River, walked south along the Qinhuai River, found an empty boat, Emperor Jianwen and his party boarded the boat, Liang Liang rowed desperately, driving in the direction of the south of the city, and after a while they arrived at the South Gate, they abandoned the boat and landed on the shore, changing the escape route and direction.
At this time, there was a tragic scene again, after Emperor Jianwen came ashore, Liang Liang said to Emperor Jianwen with tears: "Your Majesty, the subject will never say goodbye to you!" After saying this, he went to the Suzaku Bridge and threw himself into the river. There were a total of 8 people from Liang Liang's clan who served as officials in the jianwen dynasty, all of whom were loyal subjects and warriors, and only 5 of them committed suicide and martyrdom by throwing themselves into the river.
Moreover, after Emperor Jianwen and his party landed at the South Gate, they sneaked out of the Jubao Gate (Nanjing Zhonghua Gate) and quietly came to the northeast of the Jubao Gate by night. Soon, more than a dozen other ministers also came to meet one by one. That night, Emperor Jianwen stayed with the Taoist priest Wang Sheng's god and secretly discussed the matter of escape.
The second way of saying it
The greatest influence of this statement is from the famous scholar Gu Yingtai in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. He said: Emperor Jianwen and the nine ministers escaped through the secret passage of the palace through the ghost gate. There is a question that needs to be explained, what exactly is the "ghost gate" that Zhu Yuanzhang said?
For a long time, there has been no clear statement about the place of "Ghost Gate", but many people believe that the Ghost Gate should be the north side of the Imperial Palace. Because in ancient times, people walked through the north gate when they came out of the funeral, so it is speculated that the ghost gate is on the north side of the imperial palace, which specifically refers to the Taiping Gate.
According to Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions, Emperor Jianwen and nine ministers met Wang Sheng, a godly Daoist priest, on their way to Shen optimism, and Emperor Jianwen was very surprised. After Wang Sheng met, he quickly knelt down and explained, "Your Majesty should not be surprised, poor Dao already knew that His Majesty was going to come here. Last night Emperor Gaozu gave a dream to the poor Dao, and let the poor Dao wait here! ”
After Shen Optimistic made specific arrangements, emperor Jianwen finally agreed that everyone should act separately, and it would be most appropriate for Emperor Jianwen to go to the direction of Pujiang in Zhejiang. Because the Zheng clan in Pujiang, Zhejiang is a large family, it has always ruled the family with "loyalty and filial piety", and since the founding of the dynasty, they have always been loyal to the Ming monarch. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes, and Emperor Jianwen still went to Wujiang to take refuge, and then to Yunnan, so that Emperor Jianwen's whereabouts were uncertain, and posterity could not know specifically.