What I want to share with you today is the biggest historical mystery of the Ming Dynasty - the whereabouts of The Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao. Zhu Yunjiao was Zhu Yuanzhang's grandson and the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and if it were not for the early death of his father, the then crown prince Zhu Biaoying, Zhu Yunjiao would have been the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty if he had followed the normal order of succession.
As we all know, Zhu Yunzhi ascended the throne at the age of 21 and only served as emperor for four years, when he was overthrown by his uncle Zhu Di in the Battle of Jingnan, and since then his whereabouts are unknown, and Zhu Di has become the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Although Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's achievements are remarkable, his life has always been plagued by a mystery, that is: where did the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao go?
Emperor of the Ming Dynasty
On June 13, 1402, Zhu Di led the Jingnan division into Nanjing, and after a scuffle, a raging fire broke out in the palace.
Ming history records that Zhu Di, who stepped into the palace, saw several remains that had been burned beyond recognition, and several eunuchs identified them as Emperor Jianwen and Empress. Eight days later, Zhu Di arranged a funeral for Emperor Jianwen and ordered hundreds of officials to worship for three days.
Subsequently, Zhu Di said in an edict to the king of Korea: "Unintended Jianwen was coerced by power and adultery, the palace burned itself." In this passage, Zhu Di skimmed the responsibility completely, and he said that I did not expect that Emperor Jianwen would set himself on fire because he was forced by adultery, which means that Emperor Jianwen's death had nothing to do with him.
History is always written by successful people, so the record of zhengshi can only be written to death by Emperor Jianwen, and his death must not have much direct relationship with Zhu Di, so as to ensure the legitimacy of Zhu Di's succession.
Both the Ming History and the Ming Shilu record that Zhu Di buried Emperor Jianwen, but no one has seen the tomb of Emperor Jianwen for more than 600 years. Therefore, no matter how Zhu Di and his historians covered it up, people all over the world inevitably had to suspect that the death of Emperor Jianwen and Zhu Di were inseparable.
Therefore, Ming Shi gave another version: entering the palace, Cheng Ji went away from the water gate royal ditch. In this version, when Zhu Di broke into the palace, an official named Cheng Ji gave Emperor Jianwen a set of monk's clothes and then helped him escape from a secret underground passage.
Then this version is more common in later novels and movies, of course, this statement is also exonerating Zhu Di's responsibility, intending to tell the world that Emperor Jianwen did not die at the hands of Zhu Di. Since Zhu Yunjiao may still live in the world, then Zhu Di naturally cannot be indifferent, so there is a later Zheng He going to the West, which is a major move by zhu Di to find the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen.
At the same time, the History of the Ming Dynasty also recorded another event: in the fifth year, he issued various imperial books, traveled throughout the counties and townships of Tianxia Prefecture, and concealed the presence of Emperor Jianwen. That is to say, from the fifth year of Yongle, Zhu Di sent an official named Hu Qi to search around the people for the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen.
Of course, whether it is Zheng He's secret search to the West or Hu Qian's secret search, no definite result has been given in the history, and the whereabouts of Zhu Yunjiao have become the biggest mystery.
Then, a hundred years later, in the Jiajing Dynasty, a widely circulated strange book suddenly appeared, which was called "The Remains of Emperor Jianwen". The book records all the experiences from the time Zhu Yunxiong was made the emperor's grandson when he was a child, until he escaped from the palace and died at the end of his life.
Then the author of this book, who signed himself as "Dayue Shanren", still has the original version in the world, and historians have long been skeptical about the authenticity of its contents, but after examination, most of the content in the book is consistent with historical facts, and in the details of many specific events, even far more detailed than the records of the main history.
If the content is purely fabricated, I am afraid that it is difficult to restore it in such detail and accuracy, and more importantly, the book also fully reveals the mystery of the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen. The book records that after Emperor Jianwen escaped from the tunnel, he did change his appearance and wander around as a monk, and later formally converted to Buddhism in a temple in Jiangnan.
He did not secretly return to the capital until 1425, after Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne, when Zhu Yunjiao was already 48 years old, and according to the generation, Zhu Zhanji should call him an uncle. Zhu Yunjiao wrote a letter to Zhu Zhanji, saying that he had been a monk for more than twenty years, and he had already seen through life and death and had no intention of competing for the throne again, and now that he was physically and mentally exhausted, he was afraid that there would be no more days, and he only hoped that the leaves would fall back to their roots.
Zhu Zhanji could not confirm the identity of the other party, so he found the old eunuch to identify, and finally determined that the weak old monk in front of him was indeed the Jianwen Emperor of that year, and then placed him in a secret Buddhist hall in the deep palace, only a few eunuchs knew of Zhu Yunjiao's existence and honored him as "Old Buddha". Soon after, The Old Buddha died, and Zhu Zhanji secretly buried him in the suburbs, and at this point, Emperor Jianwen's life finally came to an end.
"Jianwen Emperor Relics" is difficult to distinguish, but it provides the most complete version of the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, although later historians have indeed examined some clues that are in line with the facts according to its contents, but so far, there is still not enough evidence to confirm that "Jianwen Emperor Relics" has 100% authenticity, perhaps, Zhu Yunjiao's whereabouts will eventually be the biggest mystery in the history of the Ming Dynasty.