At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Wen Bing, the son of Wen Zhenmeng, a senior official of the Donglin Party, after the death of the Ming Dynasty, was determined not to cooperate with the Qing court since the "remnants of Zhuwu", and finally in the eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1669) in the early Qing Dynasty. Wen Bing once wrote the book "Little Knowledge of the Emperor Lie", which is a chronicle of history, consisting of eight volumes. The book begins with Chongzhen ascending the throne, and ends with Li Zicheng's death at the end of the Nine Palaces Mountain. Wen Bing, in the self-prologue of the book, claims that "over the years, there have been guests who have passed each other and consulted about old things", which shows that his main historical source is relayed by others, and his credibility is doubtful.
The "Little Knowledge of the Emperor Lie" records a very strange thing, saying that there is a secret vault in the Daming Palace that cannot be opened, and one day the Chongzhen Emperor suddenly went and wanted to open it to see, and the great eunuch who was waiting around him "never opened it" and wanted to dissuade the emperor. However, Chongzhen was very determined and must be opened, and the eunuch was also "afraid to rebel." In the end, the secret vault was opened by the emperor, but it was "empty", only "a small red box on the back shelf", which impressively wrote "Chongzhen opened on a certain day in a certain month of a certain year". The Chongzhen Emperor "with his predetermined also benefited from the difference", and immediately ordered people to open the small red box and found that there were only three paintings inside.
"The Emperor's Little Knowledge"
The first painting is "Countless soldiers and civilians, standing in opposite directions", and the Chongzhen Emperor immediately said, "This is a statement that the military and civilians are rebelling against Ye? The second painting is "Countless officials and people, all like a hasty escape", Chongzhen looked at it and sighed, "Chaos is not far away". The third painting is "When there is only one person who has been stripped naked, his appearance is like a royal appearance", and the person who wears the red body is actually Chongzhen himself, "the crowd looks at each other and moves", no one dares to speak, and the Chongzhen Emperor "comes out unhappy".
Regarding the matter of the Chongzhen Emperor opening the secret cabinet and obtaining the ancient paintings, Ye Mengzhu, a reader in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also had a similar account in his notebook "Reading the World":
(Chongzhen) Ten years of Ding Ugly, went to a secret cabinet in the palace, the old castration was sealed by the previous dynasty, do not move, the upper order to enlighten, get several ancient paintings, there are seven people brought into the crown of the sages, known as "officials and many law chaos", there are dozens of people across the river crying, known as "military and civilian crying". The vain man gets the rumors, the shape of the chapter, the upper and the Buddha, and the people think they believe.
Reading the World
The "Reading of the World" is much the same as described in the "Liehuang Xiaozhi", except that the "Reading Of the World" records only two paintings, while the "Liehuang Xiaozhi" records three paintings, and the content is slightly different. The above two books are all historical materials, and the content described is mostly mysterious and strange, and it is more likely that future generations will be attached. However, chongzhen's entry into the palace vault to read the ancient paintings was not a figment. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Qing, who had served as a criminal, official, and engineering minister in the Chongzhen Dynasty, recorded such an event in his "Notes on the Three Walls":
There is a secret room in the palace, which has not been opened for a long time. On the special order to qizhi, see that there is a volume of the Yuanren's "Chaohui Map" in the basket, and the Hu people and Chinese are all sitting in separate branches, and the upper see is not happy. This Wu Quan Cao Chang was personally a waiter within the mouth, and the external transmission of the painting of the three axes, non-also. The northern army has entered Yan, and its words have been tested, and Shi Changshi has died for a long time.
The incident recorded in the "Notes on the Three Walls" seems to hint at the Entry of the Qing People, but "the Hu people and the Chinese are all sitting in separate branches" shows that the elders of the late Ming Dynasty still fantasized about the separation of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, thinking that the Southern Ming would have the luck of the Southern Song Dynasty. The events recorded in the three books are one thing, although the content is different, and there are also differences between real and fictional appendages, but they all hint at a basic fact: the fortunes of the Ming Dynasty will end!
Notes on Migaki
Looking at the many historical records of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, it is not difficult to see that "the national fortune will end" is a general consensus, and many records of so-called "disasters" point to this information. It is also Ye Mengzhu's "Reading the World", which records an ominous omen at chongzhen's ascension to the throne:
In August of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, standing on the south side, and would be on the throne, and the loud voice would be sent to the west of the temple, if the heavens collapsed. The horses were shocked, the hundreds were shocked, and the upper part was also shaken. What's the matter with the Day of the Wise, the West? This drum demon also.
Regarding the ominous omens of Chongzhen's ascension to the throne, many Ming Dynasty notes are recorded in historical materials, and even the more serious "Guo Yu" records a strange event:
King Xin is the emperor... At noon, the imperial palace was accepted, and the courtiers were ordered not to celebrate. Toward the time, the sky is singing.
The unprovoked appearance of the drum sound of "if the heavens collapse" or the inexplicable "heavenly sound" is enough to frighten the Manchu monarchs, which is definitely not an auspicious omen for the enthronement ceremony! The beginning was so terrifying, the Chongzhen Emperor's imperial career was destined to be full of thorns, and the history that followed was indeed the same. When the time reached the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Daming's public opinion field was already filled with an atmosphere of subjugation.
Chongzhen Emperor
Wu Meicun, who composed the famous "Yuanyuan Qu", once had a historical work of a historical nature, "Suikou Jiluo", which recorded many visions full of subjugation during Chongzhen's sixteenth and seventeenth years:
(Chongzhen) On the second day of the first month of the sixteenth year, the wind was obscure, and the latch at the front door of the Wufeng Building was cut off three times. The wind also blew the eaves of the Pole Hall and the roofs were broken, and the temple tiles were shattered. (Chongzhen) Seventeen years of Jia Shen Zheng Yue Shuo, heavy rain and fog, there is occupation: the wind from dry, the main storm troops broke the city. More than ten days before the city was destroyed, the wind and haze were in full swing, and from the beginning to the end, the flagpole in front of the Guandi Temple and the big tree of the glass factory were pulled out. In the first month of the seventeenth year, the throne of Si Tiansong moved down. (Press: There are five thrones, The Northern Hub Ziwei, Taiwei, Tianshi, Dajiao, and the Center of the Heart, all of which are the residences of the king.) When the eighth month of September was deceived by the offender too micro, the occupant was the court of the heavenly son of the ether. In the spring of the eighth year, Liu Kou invaded the ancestral tomb of Fengyang and burned the temple, and the heavenly elephant did not guard the mausoleum, and the thief would enter the palace of the Son of Heaven. And if the throne moves downwards, then its sign has been fulfilled and cannot be done. ） (Chongzhen) Seventeen years of Nanjing Xiaoling night crying.
If these records are all appended to later generations, I am afraid it is a bit unrealistic, in the sixteenth and seventeenth years of Chongzhen, the ming dynasty has exhausted the number of people has become the consensus of most people, but it is not convenient to tell it publicly, it can only be seen in private writings, and the public discourse still has to shout long live the mountain, after all, the Jinyi guard is still there, and the embroidered spring knife is still there.
Chongzhen committed suicide
On March 19, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor cut himself to a crooked neck tree on Coal Mountain. The "Diary of Yandu" records a very strange celestial phenomenon on this day, "It is noon, and the white light rises to the northeast and flickers for a long time." Everyone thinks that the emperor's aura reaches the heavens", and the meaning of the collapse of the emperor is self-evident.
Six years before the ming dynasty was destroyed, that is, in the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638), Zhang Xianzhong's Liukou clique, which had always been regarded as a serious problem, accepted Xiong Wencan's solicitation, and Li Zicheng was defeated by Hong Chengyu and Sun Chuanting. It seems that Daming's worries are only left with the "Jianfu" outside the Guanwai, and the Manchu Dynasty Gonggong gonggong would never have thought that the destruction of the country would come so quickly. The old system, which was full of pus, went to great lengths to extinguish the great crisis in the superficial sense, but it was not known that the timetable for its demise would not be postponed.