Except for his birth mother, Empress Jiang, Emperor Ming did not seem to love any woman, and he was relatively indifferent to the three empresses and concubines before and after the harem, and did not have any deep feelings.
Among them, the tragic situation of his previous two empresses was related to Empress Zhang, what was going on?
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Death of Empress Chen</h1>
Empress Chen was his empress dowager, and during her pregnancy, because the emperor was jealous of the wrists of Concubine Zhang and Concubine Fang, who had come to serve tea, he placed the teacup in his hand heavily on the table, which angered Sejong, and he was horrified and aborted. Before she died, Sejong was still angry and forbade her to see her biological parents.
Empress Chen died soon after, and Sejong and the scholar Zhang Xuan talked about the death of the empress, and went so far as to say that the marriage between the two was presided over by the evil woman Empress Zhang in the palace, and the words showed a relaxed mentality towards Empress Chen's death, and shifted the hatred for Empress Zhang to dissatisfaction with Empress Yuan.
Who is Empress Zhang? She was the mother of Emperor Mingwu Zhu Houzhao, the only wife of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, and after half a lifetime of honor, she ended up with a desolate end.
Why Zhu Houxi hated Empress Zhang was caused by the controversy over the great ceremony.
After Emperor Wuzong's death, because he was childless, Yang Tinghe, the head of the cabinet, and Empress Zhang, after careful consideration, welcomed Zhu Houxi, the son of King Xingxian, who was closest to Emperor Wuzong, to succeed to the throne.
According to Emperor Wuzong's edict "Emperor Si" rather than "Emperor Si's throne", Zhu Houxi resolutely refused to recognize Emperor Xiaozong and Empress Zhang as his parents, believing that he would inherit the throne as the emperor rather than the crown prince.
In his opinion, the biggest beneficiary of recognizing Xiaozong as his father was Empress Zhang, and it must be that she instructed hundreds of officials to do this. In addition, In the early years, Empress Zhang still regarded Zhu Houxi's biological mother, Empress Jiang, as a princess, and treated her with princess etiquette, which made the little emperor unable to let go for a long time.
Therefore, Zhu Houxi angered Empress Zhang because of the dispute over the great ceremony, and transferred his hatred for Empress Zhang to his first and second empresses.
Zhu Houxi was married shortly after he ascended the throne at the age of 15, and Empress Zhang hosted a wedding for him in the most honorable position of the harem, and did not want to cast a shadow on this marriage that should have been beautiful.
The little emperor was a great filial piety, and he did not want outsiders to officiate the wedding, but wanted his birth mother or grandmother to preside, but he gave up due to the strong opposition of the hundred officials.
Therefore, after Empress Chen's death, Zhu Houxi had no marital love for his wife, and only said lightly that this marriage was presided over by a wicked woman, and the chosen empress was not the lady she wanted.
Not only that, Zhu Houxi also disregarded the opposition of hundreds of officials, and handled Empress Chen's funeral with extreme simplicity, which was completely inconsistent with the identity of the empress, and had a strange nickname, which was absolutely evident!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 Empress Zhang is very hard</h1>
If the first empress was chosen and presided over by Empress Zhang, which was an excuse for Zhu Houxi to show that she did not care, then the second empress was always determined by himself, and it should be treated well.
In the second month after Empress Chen's death, Empress Jiang urged her son to become empress again, because the little emperor had been married for seven or eight years, and there were many concubines in the harem, but he did not have a son and a half daughter. This is also her heart knot, in the early years she and the Xingxian King gave birth to the children died one after another, and finally only one son and one daughter were left.
Zhu Houxi was also a little anxious at this time, he was anxious to get rid of the shadow of the Yuan Queen, although he did not care about Empress Chen, he still cared about the baby in her belly. However, after the new funeral, he was in a hurry to set up a book, but he could not go against his mother's wishes.
When discussing with Zhang Xuan, he said that after the election, He must not allow Empress Zhang to participate, otherwise it is better not to choose.
Finally, more than two months after Empress Chen's death, Zhu Houxi ordered Concubine Zhang to be made empress, and the book praised her for her courtesy and virtuousness. Zhang Shi was indeed docile in character and very generous in her treatment, plus she was originally chosen by Empress Jiang as a concubine, and naturally became the best candidate to succeed the empress.
This time, the Empress Zhang chosen by Zhu Houxi seems to have been chosen specifically for her mother, because she was her mother's favorite daughter-in-law.
It was difficult to be the empress of Ming Shizong, not only to deliberately serve his mother-in-law and the emperor, to deal with the favor and love of many concubines in the harem, but also to follow the emperor's study of etiquette step by step.
Zhu Houxi read more ancient classics because of the controversy over the great ceremony, and gradually became addicted to the study of etiquette, and vigorously engaged in suburban worship, sacrifice to Confucius, etc., and also studied many new tricks, such as engaging in the "Pro-Silkworm Ceremony", the ministers speculated on the holy will to propose that the queen kiss the silkworm, and the ceremonial department followed closely followed by the "Queen's Pro-Silkworm Ceremony", and the pro-silkworm ceremony was followed by the cocoon ceremony.
These ritual procedures are very complicated, and just reading the rituals is dizzying, but Empress Zhang, as the mother of a country, can only perform them meticulously, almost like a marionette.
In the ninth year of Jiajing, in order to satisfy his mother's spiritual pursuit, Zhu Houxi promulgated Empress Jiang's "Female Training" in the palace, which became an urgent matter for Empress Zhang.
On the sixth day of the first month of each month, Empress Zhang would lead concubines and other imperial relatives to Empress Jiang's palace to listen to the preaching, the etiquette was very complicated, and Empress Zhang had to kneel down over and over again to let Empress Jiang live a full play.
In addition, on the sixteenth and twenty-sixth days of each month, Empress Zhang also organized a study at Kunning Palace and led the six palaces to stand up and listen.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 Empress Zhang was deposed</h1>
Empress Zhang was virtuous and cautious, did not ask for grace and rewards for her mother's family, and was a good daughter-in-law in the eyes of Empress Jiang, but she had only been an empress for more than five years.
The cause of the incident is still related to Empress Zhang. Empress Zhang had two younger brothers, Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling, and during the years of Hongzhi and Zhengde, they used their sister's power to do evil, but when they arrived at the Jiajing Dynasty, they just bumped into Zhu Houxi, who hated Empress Zhang, could there be a good result?
Empress Zhang is very protective of her mother's family, and her brother's current precarious situation is also connived at by her, she knows that this is not the past, only to intercede with the emperor, and her brother may still have a glimmer of life.
Therefore, Empress Zhang tearfully begged Empress Zhang, hoping that she would intercede with Sejong and let her two younger brothers have a way to live, Empress Zhang was loyal in temperament, and seeing the scene of Empress Zhang who was extremely honorable in the past, she agreed to it as soon as her heart softened.
She knew that Sejong's majesty was unpredictable and his temperament was violent, but she was entrusted by Empress Zhang to find a suitable opportunity to intercede.
Fast forward to the first month of the thirteenth year of Jiajing, a banquet was about to be held in the palace, and Empress Zhang took advantage of Sejong's happiness to gently mention the matter of Empress Zhang's brother. Unexpectedly, Zhu Houxi's face suddenly changed, and he was very angry, so he immediately ordered Empress Zhang to be stripped of her crown and whip herself, and beat the empress fiercely in front of her attendants.
On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Houxi deposed Empress Zhang as empress dowager and charged the soft and generous empress with the charge of "disrespect and inferiority". It can be seen that in Zhu Houxi's eyes, he did not have the slightest affection for Empress Zhang, and once he went against his will, he did his best to insult and scold, and did not regard her as his family at all.
Just two days later, Zhu Houxi was made empress by Concubine Fang, and Zhang shi was from then on, known as Zhang Quanhou, imprisoned in the Cold Palace, washing his face with tears every day, and died three years later.
What was the end of the later Empress Fang? Although she had a life-saving grace for Zhu Houxi, she was hated by the emperor for executing Duan Concubine, and eventually died in the palace fire, and what was even more tragic was that the emperor could not save her when she saw death.
The harem women were so unfortunate that when they met Zhu Houxi, an emperor who was happy to play with power and devoted himself to cultivation, it was even more the sorrow of the harem women, so that later there was a "change in the palace of Nongyin", and Zhu Houxi was almost strangled to death by a group of small palace women who rose up to resist.
His grandmother, Empress Shao, once said such a sentence: In the future, if you choose a woman to enter the palace, you will not go down to Jiangnan, so I will leave a great favor for the women in Jiangnan.
The harem is really a dangerous and unpredictable place, so are the palace women, the concubines are so, and so are the queens!
Text: Ten Mile Osmanthus (Follow me and tell you more interesting historical stories.) Originality is not easy, unauthorized please do not reprint, violators will be investigated! ）