Text: Kou Yan (Columnist for Reading History)
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang wrote the principle of primogeniture into the ancestral training, but less than a year after his death, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, launched the "Battle of Jingnan" to attack Zhu Yuanzhang's emperor, the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao.
Four years later, Zhu Di successfully replaced his nephew as emperor and became the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. As a great monarch, Zhu Di spent his life conquering the north and conquering the north, expanding the territory, expanding the imperial field, and realizing the prosperity of the wanbang dynasty.
But in those years of tireless struggle for his great cause, throughout his life, Zhu Di did another thing without stopping: looking for Zhu Yunjiao, the young emperor who was forced to jump into the sea of fire by his uncle, like a ghost, always wandering above the Ming Dynasty, lurking in Zhu Di's imperial soul.
01
Zhu Di, from the King of Yan to the Ming Chengzu, the glory of his life began with a fire in the Nanjing Imperial Palace.
In June 1402, the fourth year of the "Battle of Jingnan", Zhu Di finally entered the Jinchuan Gate in Nanjing. At this time, Zhu Dilema looked far away, born into death for four years, and finally victory was in sight. Just when he was infinitely free, he saw a fire rise up in the Nanjing Imperial Palace, and the fire was fierce, reflecting the sky a blood red.
The golden and splendid palace was instantly reduced to ruins, and when the fire was weakened, the palace people dragged out several scorched corpses from it. The corpse was beyond recognition, but Zhu Di did not hesitate, rushed up to look at one of the corpses and cried, "Nephew, why are you so stupid, I will help you eliminate the traitors, why are you so bitter?" (Sure enough, if it's stupid!) I have come to support the wings for the sake of not being good, and I have not meant to forgive and have come to this point! ）
Regarding this scene, most historians believe that Zhu Di is suspected of being a showman. The rush to confess to a scorched corpse is nothing more than to make the people of the world believe: first, Emperor Jianwen is dead, and second, Emperor Jianwen is not killed by him.
In July, Zhu Di took the throne. When he slaughtered Emperor Jianwen's supporters and was busy cleaning up the traces of the existence of the "former emperor", rumors spread inside and outside the palace.
People secretly spread the message that Emperor Jianwen was not dead. There are three widely circulated sayings:
First, the fire at the Nanjing Imperial Palace was real, but it was doubtful whether Emperor Jianwen had been burned to death. The corpse identified by Zhu Di was the crown prince Zhu Wenkui. Although Zhu Di personally made a memorial to Emperor Jianwen, he did not build a tomb for him.
Second, the city of Nanjing was destroyed, and Emperor Jianwen originally wanted to commit suicide, but was stopped by his cronies. Through the secret passage, Emperor Jianwen finally escaped to heaven. In this version, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, appeared on camera. It is said that this secret passage was actually excavated by Taizu in the past, in case of emergency: "The gutter in the palace leads directly to the outside of tucheng, two feet high, eight feet wide, with one person and one horse, ready to sneak out in the face of disaster." ”
Third, after Emperor Jianwen fled, he cut his hair and became a monk, wandering around and avoiding disasters. The footprints are mostly in southwest China, where mountains and rivers are deep and inaccessible, such as Yunnan, Sichuan Dazhou and other places, and left the "Red Cliff Heavenly Book" in a village in Guizhou. Finally, Emperor Jianwen fled overseas.
As a result, the legend has been that after several years, the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, together with the whereabouts of the Chuanguo Yuxi and Shibi, the Wu Zetian He Li Wu monument, and the death of Song Taizu, became the "Four Great Strange Cases in Chinese History".
But let these legends grow into a complete story, the initiator is Still Zhu Di himself. After usurping power and ascending to the throne, the imperial throne was not sitting steadily after all, and for the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, in line with the principle of preferring to believe in his existence, zhu Di soon called the emperor, and Zhu Di successively sent many people and horses to inquire about the traces of Emperor Jianwen.
Among them, the two most famous teams of men and horses were zheng he fleet sent overseas, and the other was the troops that let Hu Qian search for immortals in famous mountains and rivers throughout the country.
02
Zheng He was not originally named Zheng He, his name was Ma Sanbao, and he had a life-saving grace for Zhu Di in the army, and later he was greatly favored by Zhu Di and given the name Zheng He.
The year 1405 was the third year of Zhu Di's reign as emperor. At that time, the Jianwen Emperor's vassals were purged, the throne was slightly stable, and with the "Battle of Jingnan" in previous years, the uncle and nephew were in urgent need of taking the concubine, and there was no time to take care of the people's lives and deaths, the people were displaced, and there were many complaints. As an ambitious emperor, Zhu Di should vigorously restore the national economy at this time to gain popular support. However, Zhu Di spent a huge amount of money to fund Zheng He's envoy to the West.
On this voyage to sea, the specially manufactured large ships, each "forty-four zhang long and eighteen zhang wide", this ship alone is as many as sixty-two, the ship carries a large number of gold and silver treasures to meet the royal families of the countries along the way, and there are more than 27,800 professional soldiers...
This dazzling grand scale of going to sea has greatly confused historians. Some people believe that this contingent of more than 20,000 elite soldiers is clearly not only for diplomacy, but to prepare for war.
Zheng He's first voyage to the West lasted more than two years, and he returned to Nanjing in 1407. Although Zheng He brought back the message that many countries were willing to make friends with Daming, and there were many new stories and new things, Zhu Di was not satisfied in the end.
Therefore, Zheng He only repaired in Nanjing for about ten days, and Zhu Di could not wait to order him to send an envoy again.
The second mission lasted a year, and Zheng He lobbied a group of small countries to come to "pay tribute", but Zhu Di was still very dissatisfied. This time, when Zheng He's fleet had not yet arrived in Nanjing on their return trip, Zhu Di issued an edict asking him not to come back and directly began the third mission...
From 1405 until Zhu Di's death, the entire Yongle Dynasty, Zheng He and his fleet were spent at sea.
In the first month of 1421, Zheng He was ordered to send an envoy to the West for the sixth time. According to the itinerary, the fleet should return in August of the following year, but some of the ships were scattered from the group and drifted to the sea until Zhu Di died in July of the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424). In 1425, Akihito succeeded to the throne. This year was changed to the first year of Hongxi, and this mysterious fleet of ships drifting on the sea still pursued the "Twenty-three Years of Yongle" that did not exist in the universe.
In 1430, the Ming Dynasty entered the era of Ming Xuanzong. Zhu Zhanji was the crown grandson that Zhu Di was extremely spoiled at that time, and even because of this capable grandson, he did not depose his fat father as the crown prince. Zhu Zhanji wanted to inherit his grandfather's ambition, continue to open up the navigation cause of the Ming Dynasty, and once again send Zheng He's fleet to the sea. Helplessly, due to insufficient funds, the mission was finally completely stopped after three years.
As a result, the era of great navigation pioneered by Zhu Di lasted 28 years, through the three dynasties of Yongle, Hongxi and Xuande, and forever stopped at the "Seven Voyages of Zheng He to the West" that we had memorized since childhood.
Every time Zheng He's fleet returned from an expedition, it would receive a rich reward from Zhu Di. Zhu Di, who was very happy to do so, saw the "Ten Thousand Nations Coming to the Dynasty" that he personally created, and he must also have a very sense of accomplishment. But during his 22 years of rule, he ordered Zheng He to send non-stop missions to the West again and again, or he may not be really satisfied with the results of the mission.
Perhaps in The Heart of Zhu Di's ghost struggle with Emperor Jianwen, diplomatic success, although it is a good story, cannot soothe the fear in his heart.
There is a song that sings "I want to find you, no matter what is north or south, east or west", perhaps this is also Zhu Di's voice. As early as Zheng He's first mission did not bring back satisfactory answers, Zhu Di opened the second search route.
03
Just like the rumors that Emperor Jianwen had fled overseas, the rumors that Emperor Jianwen had become a monk also left a deep mark on Zhu Di's heart.
In 1407, Zhu Di sent Hu Ke to visit various religious sites. If Zheng He was looking for Emperor Jianwen in the name of diplomacy, Hu Hao was looking for a well-known figure to top the pot. He is Zhang Sanfeng.
The legend of Zhang Sanfeng began in the Hongwu period, and it is said that Zhu Yuanzhang was very interested in this strange person, and he also sent people to find it, and finally did not get rid of it.
The special working group led by Hu Qian sent by Zhu Di, like Zheng He's fleet on missions to the West, lasted for several years.
In 1416, after ten years of hu's visit, he also reported to the court, but it was all hearsay, there was no reliable information, and Zhu Di was not satisfied. In this year, Hu Qian's mother died, and according to the custom, Hu Xi should leave his post "Ding Worry" and guard the funeral for his mother. However, Zhu Di "snatched affection" and did not let him go home.
Among the ancient monarchs and courtiers, only particularly important and important things could "win affection". It can be seen from this that the ghost of Emperor Jianwen devoured Zhu Di's heart.
However, just as Zheng He repeatedly sent envoys to the West and accidentally created a flash in the pan of the dynasty's great navigation era, Hu Qian's visit in the name of looking for Zhang Sanfeng unexpectedly brought about the prosperity of Taoist culture in Wudang Mountain.
During several years of visits, although Hu Xian did not see Emperor Jianwen, he obtained many legends about Zhang Sanfeng and reported them to Zhu Di. The legend has been heard a lot, and Zhu Di is also interested in this person. Zhu Di, who was not short of money, decided to overhaul the Taoist Temple of Wudang Mountain.
Zhu Di ordered the recruitment of more than 300,000 migrant workers and began this huge project. Taking the Imperial Palace as a reference sample, the Taoist Temple of Wudang Mountain has two main architectural complexes of Yuxu Palace and Yuzhen Palace, around which more than 1,000 halls, ancestral halls, temples, altars and rooms have been built. Among them, the main hall of the True Immortal Hall enshrines Zhang Sanfeng, a strange man who has no head or tail of this divine dragon.
During the construction process, some people reported that they saw five-colored clouds on the top of Wudang Mountain, so auspicious, and let Zhu Dile hehe for a while, and this music, he ordered that in addition to the Yuxu Palace and the Yuzhen Palace, several halls such as the Yuanhe Temple, the Fuzhen Temple, and the Zixiao Palace be added, and a bronze golden hall was built on the top of the narrow Tianzhu Peak of Wudang Mountain. The statue of Emperor Zhenwu enshrined in the temple is said to have been designed by Zhu Di himself...
As a result, the Wudang Mountain Royal Taoist Temple building, which was built by countless financial and human resources throughout the country, has become the most representative Daogong complex in the history of Chinese architecture because of its grandeur, huge scale and gorgeous layout.
However, when Zhu Di incarnated as the True Martial Emperor and stood on the top of Wudang and overlooked the land of China, the shadow in his heart was still not driven away. In 1419, Zhu Di appointed Hu Xi as the left attendant of the Rebbe and went out to tour the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas. This search is another four years.
When Hu Xi returned to the dynasty again, it had been less than a year since Zhu Di's death.
04
In July 1423, Zhu Di led an expedition of 300,000 troops to Tatars, and while staying at Xuanfu, Hu Went to visit him. It is reported that the two men spied all night, although the content is not recorded, but the people of the time and later generations speculated that it was just a matter of the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen.
According to folk legend, when Hu Qian saw Chengzu, he said: "A certain is fixed, but the mandate of heaven has been gone for a long time, and there is nothing he can do." If you do not leave it alone, in Your Majesty, accomplish holiness. In the other, it was obtained for many years. ”
The meaning of this passage is: Even though Emperor Jianwen is in the human world, but this matter has been in the past few years, the great cause of the kingship you created by Your Majesty has proved that you are a child of the Mandate of Heaven, so it is better to let it go. In you, it is the holy virtue, and in him, it is the rest of the year.
After a long twenty-one years of searching, the exhausted Zhu Di was finally willing to reconcile with the ghost that had plagued him and his dynasty. After this secret talk, Zhu Di's spirit was greatly relaxed, and he issued an edict to Shangshu Lü Zhen, the head of the Imperial Household Department, and issued an edict to pardon the relevant personnel involved in the case of Emperor Jianwen and return the land property.
Eight months later, Zhu Di died of illness during the expedition and was buried in the northern grasslands.