In ancient Chinese history, Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo was an emperor with a very low sense of existence. In fact, if we examine his life, it is even easy to find that he almost existed as a foil for the "dispute over the origin of the country", "the case of the attack", the "case of the demon book" and the "red pill case".
So, what kind of person is the real Zhu Changluo? His experience of "January Heavenly Son" was a sad act or a great blessing for the Ming Dynasty? Trying to answer this question was the impetus for Yogi to write this article.
The ancients said: "The Son does not teach, the Father's fault." Zhu Changluo was talentless and virtuous, in fact, to some extent, Zhu Changluo could not be blamed, which needed to be found from his father, Ming Shenzong.
Zhu Changluo was born in the tenth year of the Wanli Calendar, when zhonggong had no heirs, and although he was the eldest son, Emperor Mingshenzong first disliked his mother's status as a "duren" and because he loved Zheng Guifei's mother and son, so his favor for him was almost zero.
Even Emperor Shenzong once wanted to make Zhu Changxun crown prince, and for this reason, he also launched a 15-year-long "dispute over the foundation of the country" with his courtiers, which to a large extent directly affected the cultivation of Zhu Changluo by Emperor Mingshenzong.
In fact, Zhu Changluo's study of leaving the cabinet was also dragged on until the twenty-second year of the Wanli Calendar, along with the "dispute over the foundation of the country". Because if you agree to the eldest son of the emperor to go out to study, you are actually acknowledging the eldest son of the emperor as the crown prince, which is exactly what the Divine Sect tried to avoid.
Moreover, even if the Divine Sect, under the continuous advice of the courtiers, finally agreed to let him go out of the cabinet to give lectures, he did not pay much attention to this, and the relevant guards and honor guards were all simple.
According to the lecturers at that time, after the previous lectures, as a rule, they were to be rewarded with wine and rice, and the gifts were more exquisite than the regular feast. Twenty-two years after the Wanli Calendar, when lecturing to the eldest son of the Emperor, the lecturers brought their own lunch boxes and never rewarded wine and rice; the rewards that were often given earlier such as silver coins, pen and ink, and money savings had become a great success.
In terms of morality, Zhu Changluo's performance is also unflattering, and we will not say that he was lustful in the "Red Pill Case", let's talk about the death of his three empresses.
According to the "History of Ming", the ending of Zhu Changluo's first two empresses was a "Xue" character, and the ending of the birth mother of the third empress Zhu Youjian had a few more words: "Has, lost the light of the Sect's will, was sent, Xue", poor Zhu Youguan did not even dare to personally perform the sacrifice in public.
The three empresses all died of unknown causes, so did they really have nothing to do with Zhu Changluo? Simu even thought that the reason why the cause of their death was unknown was most likely because Zhu Changluo was worried that after these things were known to the Divine Sect, he would justifiably abolish his position as crown prince.
If Zhu Changluo is not satisfactory in talent and morality, we can understand, we can even mourn his misfortune, but he is so lacking in backbone, which makes people angry.
As we all know, Zhu Changluo's series of misfortunes are closely related to the demon behind Wan Guifei, so from the several times he has dealt with Zheng Guifei, we can see Zhu Changluo's indisputable side.
One day in the forty-third year of the Wanli Calendar, a man in his thirties actually broke into the Cining Palace where the crown prince Zhu Changluo lived with a jujube stick in his hand, and when he saw people, he beat and injured several people, all the way to the eaves in front of the palace.
After the incident, after interrogation, it was clear that the real culprit behind the scene was Zheng Guifei. In desperation, Princess Zheng had no choice but to cry to the emperor, and the Wanli Emperor was also embarrassed and asked her to intercede with the prince herself.
So, in the face of this matter, how did the victim Prince Zhu Changluo behave? Concubine Zheng Guifei knelt down to worship the prince, and the prince hurried back to worship, as if he had made some mistake.
At that time, all the public opinion was on Zhu Changluo's side, as long as he had the courage to go to a showdown with Zheng Guifei. However, after he saw his father's attitude, he took the initiative to become a peacemaker, and as a result, all the faults became that the courtiers were instigating their father and son discord.
"Return to worship", "peacemaker", people are unreasonable to fight for three points, but it is reasonable to retreat three points, nest to this extent, should be angry enough, right? More infuriating is yet to come!
On July 22, 48 of the Wanli Calendar, on the last night before Emperor Mingshenzong's death, he left a last word to Zhu Changluo, asking him to inform the Rebbe to crown Consort Zheng as empress.
After the group of courtiers discussed, they unanimously opposed, and the officials of the Ministry of Ceremonies asked him to first posthumously crown his birth mother, Princess Gongfei, and the matter of Zheng Guifei's promotion was shelved.
In less than a month, Zhu Changluo was overindulged because of the eight beautiful women sent by Zheng Guifei, who were seriously ill, and had to make a will for himself, and what was unexpected was that he still did not forget to crown Zheng Guifei as empress in his serious illness.
Later, Yang Lian really couldn't look at it anymore, pointing out that Concubine Zheng Guifei was neither the empress of the previous emperor nor the birth mother of the current emperor, so how could she be given the title of empress? How did this woman hurt you before, you forgot? Does this mean the feelings of our descendants?
Even the courtiers felt that this matter after Zheng Guifei's sealing did not make sense, and Zhu Changluo was obsessed with it. In the end, he also died in the "Red Pill Case", which was not resolved under the manipulation of the Qunchen.
Then, the question arises one after another, should Zhu Changluo's death be the sorrow of the Ming Dynasty or the luck of the Ming Dynasty?
After Zhu Changluo's death, his eldest son Zhu Youxiao succeeded to the throne, what kind of court was the imperial court at that time? The answer is simple – the world of the Donglin Party.
If Zhu Changluo continued to be emperor, the imperial court was still under the control of the Donglin Party, why? Because whether it is the "dispute over the foundation of the country", "the attack case" or the "demon case", the Donglin Party is behind him, so Zhu Changluo will definitely repay the favor if he continues to be the emperor, and even has to repay the favor.
The same is true of Colonel Zhu You, who initially attached great importance to the Donglin Party, but over time, he discovered a big problem: these large numbers of civilian officials who pretended to be upright gentlemen were either criticizing this or fighting that every day, and they could not come up with any solution to the problems facing the real country (the collapse of Liaodong and the loss of all Liaodong).
This has greatly affected the administrative efficiency of the country and caused serious internal friction. Therefore, after four years, Zhu Youxiao finally made up his mind and let Wei Zhongxian and others suppress the Qingliu of the Donglin Party under tremendous pressure and infamy. Although the means are somewhat poisonous, they are also a last resort for the sake of social security.
Just think, if Zhu Changluo continued to be emperor, would he be able to handle the problems of the Donglin Party with his ability and character? If it is not handled well, the external situation of the country is in danger, and the internal friction of insiders is too large, where is the hope of the Ming Dynasty?
If you don't believe it, and we push back the time, we might as well look at the practice of Zhu Youjian, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who took the throne and took wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs into a nest as soon as he came to power, but what about later? Daming has no one to use, no money to use, people and money to empty, how not to die?
In fact, one of the root causes of the ming dynasty's demise was the government's financial crisis. The financial crisis leads to a military crisis, which leads to an even greater financial crisis.
In other words, at that time, the government did not have enough finances to solve the problem of the survival of the peasants, so there would be a popular uprising, and the civil uprising needed to be suppressed by the army, but the suppression lacked military expenditure, which would lead to a military coup, and an increase in agricultural taxes would lead to a greater civil unrest, and successively there would be a greater military coup, which in itself was a vicious circle.
Wei Zhongxian's active advocacy of increasing the commercial tax in jiangnan rather than agricultural tax can be said to be a wise move to solve the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, when Zhu Youxiao was dying, he also asked him to reuse Wei Zhongxian, but unfortunately Chongzhen did not listen to it at all, and it was not until he died that he realized that "all civilian subjects can be killed."
Having said all this, let's go back to Zhu Changluo, with his ability and character, if he continues to make him emperor, he may not be able to deal with the problem of people, nor can he deal with the problem of money, and perhaps the demise of the Ming Dynasty will be earlier. It is also in this sense that we can say that the January Heavenly Son was indeed a tragedy for Zhu Changluo of the Ming Guang Sect, but for the entire Zhu Ming Dynasty, it was not necessarily a fortunate thing!
Mourning its misfortune, angering it, the text is exhausted here, the words of the family, throwing bricks and jade.
References: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of the Ming Dynasty", "Records of the Ming Dynasty", etc