In 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, it was not his son who succeeded to the throne, but his grandson Zhu Yunjiao. Zhu Yunjiao was the eldest son of the former crown prince Zhu Biao, and Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a long time before deciding to make him emperor. However, some people did not do this move of Zhu Yuanzhang, especially Zhu Yuanzhang's sons who were still alive, they were not very happy. Originally, everyone was not happy for Zhu Yunjiao to be emperor, and as a result, Zhu Yunjiao began to cut the domain after succeeding to the throne, which caused more people to be dissatisfied, one of which was Zhu Di.
In 1399, Zhu Di raised an army in Beiping and attacked Zhu Yunjiao under the banner of Jingnan. After three years of hard work, Zhu Di attacked Nanjing in 1402 and overthrew Zhu Yunjiao's rule. Although Zhu Yunjiao's whereabouts are unknown, in any case, Zhu Di has sat on the emperor. However, although Zhu Di was the emperor, he knew in his heart that his throne was not right no matter what, and there must be many people who would gossip. Therefore, after Zhu Di became emperor, he tried everything to justify his name.
In 1424, Zhu Di fell ill and died during the Northern Expedition. After his death, his descendants gave him the temple name Taizong. This temple number can be said to be the temple number that Zhu Di wants the most, which is an affirmation of him. However, what Zhu Di did not expect was that Zhu Di spent a lifetime to get the temple title of Taizong, but it was changed to Chengzu during the Jiajing period. If Zhu Di knew about this, the coffin board would be lifted.
The temple number originated from the Shang Dynasty, which attached great importance to sacrifice. Simply put, after the death of the monarch, future generations will sacrifice them. The sacrifices are carried out in the temple, and the temple number is what these people call in the temple. Because the ancients did not directly call the names of their ancestors, which was disrespectful, they were given the temple number. However, in the beginning, not all monarchs were eligible for temple numbers after death. Only those who made a significant contribution to the dynasty could use the temple name, and they were worthy of the sacrifices of the hereafter. So in the beginning, a dynasty could only have a maximum of seven temple numbers. However, since the Jin Dynasty, this has been played badly. In the Tang Dynasty, an emperor could have a temple number after death, which was completely different from the original intention of the temple number. However, despite this, there are still some rules in the temple number that have been observed.
Generally speaking, the founding emperor temple numbers are all ancestors, and the latter are basically zong. Zu means the founding king, and the zong are all the kings of shoucheng. Of course, some dynasties also have many ancestors, for example, the Qing Dynasty has three ancestors, Qing Taizu, Qing Shizu, and Qing Shengzu. It is the chaos of these dynasties that has led to many ancestors being worthless. Look at the Sect again, in the Sect, the most valuable one is Taizong. Too means first, which means that this is the first sect. Since Taizu was the first ancestor, Emperor Taizong and Taizu echoed each other. To a certain extent, Emperor Taizong completely inherited the cause of the founding emperor. After the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong was generally the second emperor of the dynasty. Even if not second, it is nominally the second emperor. This is to show that he is inheriting the status of the founding emperor.
Now look at Zhu Di's temple number again, you can see why The temple number of Taizong is so important to him. As mentioned earlier, Zhu Di was the one who launched the Battle of Jingnan and sat on the throne. In any case, his throne was not legally inherited from Zhu Yuanzhang. That's why Zhu Di tried everything to convince everyone that his throne was legitimate and had been obtained through legal means. And the temple number of Taizong is the greatest affirmation of him. According to Emperor Taizong, to have this temple title is to legitimately inherit the throne of the founding prince. Even if you are not legally inherited, nominally as long as you are Taizong, you are legally inherited. This is the greatest affirmation of Zhu Di. In order to get this affirmation, Zhu Di really did not idle in his life.
After Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, politically: strengthen the centralization of power and carry out the cutting of the domain. Reform the official system, re-establish the Jinyi Guard, add the East Factory, and increase the control of the group of ministers. The capital was moved to Beijing and a new capital was built; militarily, five expeditions to Mongolia, all of which ended up dying on the way to Mongolia. Capture Annam and regain control of Annan. In the northeast, the Nuer Gandu Division was set up, the Northwest was set up hamiwei, and the Guizhou Chengzheng Political Envoy Division was set up in the southwest, actively operating the South China Sea region. Strengthened control over Tibet; economically, zhenghe was sent to the West to expand exchanges with other countries. Dredging the Grand Canal to facilitate north-south exchanges, culturally, the Yongle Canon is known as the largest encyclopedia ever written in the world.
It can be said that these are all contributions, and he has not been idle since he became emperor. The reason for this is that I want to be recognized by future generations after death. Let others recognize his contributions, and recognize that his throne was obtained through legal means. In any case, after his death, he did receive the temple title of Emperor Taizong. This would have been a foregone conclusion and would not have changed. It is estimated that he would never have thought that his descendants actually changed the temple number for him, and this person was Zhu Houxi, the Ming Dynasty Emperor, whose era name was Jiajing, and he was familiar with the Jiajing Emperor.
Zhu Houxi was the second son of Zhu Youzhao the Prince of Xingxian, the fourth son of Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen, the nephew of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, and the cousin of Emperor Mingwu of Zhu Houzhao. The throne had nothing to do with him. However, after the death of Emperor Mingwuzong, he had no heirs and no brothers. Therefore, he left a will and testament to make Zhu Houxi emperor. It would have been a good thing, pie in the sky. But it didn't go well.
Since Zhu Houxi was the king of the domain who entered the capital as emperor, the ministers in the court wanted to take the opportunity to control the power and control Zhu Houxi. When he entered Beijing, he was not allowed to enter through the Daming Gate on the grounds that Zhu Houxi was not an emperor. The two sides stalemated for a long time, and finally Zhu Houxi first ascended the throne before entering Beijing from daming gate. Later, the chancellor wanted Zhu Houxi to pass on to Emperor Mingxiaozong, which was normal and wanted to leave an heir to Emperor Mingxianzong. However, Zhu Houxi did not do it, if I were to pass on to him, my father would not be my father, and he would become an uncle. Even those who are killed are unwilling to succeed. Not only did he not succeed, but he later tried everything to posthumously crown his father Xingxian Wang as emperor, and also made his mother empress, so that they could enjoy the royal treatment after death.
After Zhu Houxi posthumously gave his father to the emperor, he gave him a courtesy name, and then wanted to give him a temple number. However, at this time, there was a problem, because according to the previous custom, a dynasty normally had only seven temple numbers, and in the Western Zhou Dynasty, two ancestors were added to it, and there were only nine temple numbers. Although only eight emperors in the Ming Dynasty had temple numbers, it was okay to put his father in. But he feared that after his death, if there was not enough time to release him, the ministers would definitely remove one from it. According to blood ties, the possibility of his father being removed is very high. So he didn't stop promoting Zhu Di to Zu.
After Zhu Di's temple number became an ancestor, he could not be "killed" and could not participate in the dispute over the location of the temple. After that, you can slowly give the other emperors a "qi" out. In this way, his father Xingxian King's throne could be saved. After referring to Zhu Di's contribution, he gave Zhu Di the temple number of Chengzu. Cheng Zu did not have any special meaning, it was roughly that Zhu Di also re-hit the world, and he could also be regarded as the founding prince. Since Zhu Yuanzhang was Taizu, he could not give Zhu Di the temple number of other ancestors.
In doing so, Jiajing seemed to have changed Zhu Di from a prince of Shoucheng to a founding prince, and his rank had risen, but it seriously violated Zhu Di's original intentions. You know, once the temple name is "Ancestor", it means that his world is fought by himself. This invisibly implies that Zhu Di is rebellious, which is the last thing Zhu Di wants to see. Zhu Di wanted his descendants to say that his throne was inherited, so he wanted the temple name of Taizong. Moreover, Emperor Taizong was the second emperor to some extent, and he could also ignore the existence of Zhu Yunjiao, which showed his legitimacy even more. In this way, although Jiajing kept his father's "throne", Zhu Di became the biggest victim.
Although only the temple number has changed, the meaning of this is very different. The temple number that Zhu Di had worked hard to get all his life was changed because of Jiajing. For the sake of his father, Jiajing really laid down blood, and Zhu Di was really shot lying down.
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty
![The grandchildren have not been in the dynasty for half a century, and the imperial power has not fallen by the wayside, which is really thanks to the old ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang![fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)