The tenth monarch of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhengde of Mingwuzong: Zhu Houzhao.
He was the only son of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming and the most controversial emperor in history.
Some people say that he is resolute and decisive, brave and good at war, talented, humble and courteous.
But more people say that he is a greedy cup, extravagant, absurd and violent, grotesque and shameless, and a rare and unscrupulous person.
Greedy cup?
Most of the people who say that he coveted cups were based on a passage recorded in the Records of Emperor Wuzong: "Drinking heavily, he often follows himself with a cup, and he wants to take advantage of his drunkenness to disrupt the administration of the city, and often prepares a bottle poppy, when he is drunk and awake, he always advances." Or not warm, but also cold drinks, drunk all day long, its upside down and confused, which is why. ”
Through the records, we see a long-term alcoholic. However, the "Ming Shilu" said that soon after, when Emperor Wuzong inspected the northwest frontier and marched along the way, he said: "From Xuanfu to the west, thousands of miles back and forth, riding horses, waist bows and arrows, rushing the wind and snow, preparing for adventures, there are tools to follow, and there are no royals." The eunuchs are sick and sick, and the upper ones do not think that they are laborious. ”
The Ming Wu Sect that appears here is a completely different image. Just imagine, if Ming Wuzong was a drunkard who only knew how to indulge in wine and could not extricate himself, how could he suddenly become a powerful and physically healthy warrior! This can only be seen by the benevolent and the wise.
ruthless?
Zhang Qin's "retreat and three evacuations" is a historical allusion that everyone is familiar with.
In the twelfth year of Zhengde, Ming Wuzong wanted to go out and play. The imperial history of Shouju Yongguan was named Zhang Qin, and he was advised by two consecutive disciples. He said: The Northern Kou is rampant, and can only send soldiers to conquest, how can the emperor personally go to conquest and kill? At the beginning, Emperor Yingzong did not listen to the advice of his ministers, which eventually led to the change of Tumu Fort.
"And if Pifu is not self-effacing, why would His Majesty take the risk of the unforeseen in the form of the Zongmiao Society?" Zhu Houzhao ignored it, and in early August, he left Beijing and arrived in Changping, and then passed on the order to let Juyongguan switch and release it.
Zhang Qin locked the closed door, hid the key, and refused to open and close.
Zhu Houzhao summoned sun xi to meet the driver, and Sun Xi said, "Yushi is here, and I can't leave without permission." ”
Zhu Houzhao then summoned Liu Song, the eunuch who was supervising the army. Liu Song said to Zhang Qin, "I am the emperor's house slave, and I dare not go." ”
Zhang Qin put the seal on his back, sat in front of the gate with a sword in his hand, and worked hard to write a book and draft the third passage.
It is said that the Son of Heaven must first issue an edict to seek the opinions of the ministers; on the way out, there are six guards, a hundred officials and subordinates, the military flag is unfurled, and the drums are noisy. Today everything is silent, saying that the emperor's car is going to pass through the customs, and this must be someone pretending to be His Majesty's name to go out of the customs to collaborate with the enemy, and His Majesty should punish him.
If Your Majesty must go out, "the treasures of the two palaces will be used, and the subjects will dare to open" - as long as the empress dowager and the empress agree and stamp their golden seals, I dare to open the door. Otherwise, "all deaths will not be commanded" - death will not be opened. Whoever dares to drive, I will kill him!"
Zhu Hou took a look at it, knew that he would definitely not be able to go out, and had to go back in sorrow.
The second time out of the customs, or take advantage of Zhang Qin's absence, sneak out. In fact, in order to get out of Yongguan, Zhu Houzhao also had the most direct and quickest way to kill Zhang Qin directly.
But he didn't.
He knew it was wrong.
Zhu Houzhao was not a violent monarch.
He's not going to kill innocents.
Compare the Kangxi and Qianlong, and the records of the "Chronicle of the Qing Dynasty" at the end of the book:
"In the name of borrowing the river, the Kangxi Dynasty had six degrees of southern patrols, and in the Qianlong Dynasty, according to its old practice, the southern tourers were also six degrees, the eastern tourers were seven, and the western tourers were five."
Kangxi and Qianlong's southern tour is praised as a good story, and even now some people mention that the so-called Qianlong Grandpa's lower Jiangnan is really a flying eyebrow dance, spit everywhere, but in fact, these two emperors every time they tour the south, they are laboring and hurting the people, and the people along the way are miserable, and even the Cao family, the richest man in Jiangnan, is bankrupt.
There have also been people who have been advised, but what is the result?
At that time, there were no unhindered courtiers who invited luang to return, but once they resisted, Si Yan reprimanded him,...... Yin Hui looked at Jiangsu and also played the last two southern tours, folk suffering, complaints, strict edicts: "Ru means folk suffering, try to point out who is suffering, complain about the road, try to indicate who complains", sit who is in charge. Yin Hui's son, Yin Jiaquan, asked for him and was hanged.
The same is the outing, one sneaky, one with great fanfare, and the people and the money. One did not accept the courtier's obstruction and then pinched his nose to admit it, and the other was directly killed after the courtiers persuaded him. As a result, the former was scolded as a violent emperor, and the latter was praised by thousands of people.
dissolute?
In the Records of Emperor Wuzong, it is recorded that in the twelfth year of Zhengde, XingxuanFu, Bin was the first to build the town of the state house, and the leopard room was treasured and played, and the female imperial real was among them. Bin Congdi, several nights into the house, Suo mother and daughter. Emperor Da Lezhi, forget to return, called home.
There are also historical records: Wang Baonu, The Number Mei Mountain. When Emperor Wuzong marched south to jinling, he chose ten people to prepare offerings, headed by Bao Nu, with a magnificent posture, and counted the number of squires, close to the supreme. Emperor Wuzong rode around, each with his own gifts, and there was no way out. Bao Nu not only returned the old books, but also called them nobles.
There is a record in the "Old Man's Man's Pen of the Jie'an": One day into the twilight, the secret rumor wants to be lucky for Lin's family, and Lin and the near attendants: "Late at night, you can't cure it, why not?" The crowd said: "Ru Shusheng, you can serve tea." Emperor Yue: "There are fruits, but there are few wine ears." So he sang a song of wine. Xu Lin's family is also a rich family, entertaining the emperor is just tea fruit, Zhengde even brings his own wine.
Look at Yang Yiqing's transcription of the people's dictation: the words are very harmonious, so they cook tea to offer.
The patron receives the fruit cake, eats two pieces of it himself, and takes two pieces to give to the old man. One by one, the ordinary people only offered tea to the emperor, and Zhengde brought his own dry food, accepted the tea and gave the master two cakes in return.
Zhengde Nan toured for more than a year, the record of him to the people's homes are polite, a person who eats a cup of tea to return two cakes, has never opened his mouth to ask the people for anything, a person who has not even taken away the ten famous prostitutes carefully selected by the Nanjing Jiaofang Division, you say that he is absurd and likes to go to the people to rob mothers and daughters?
Luxury?
The leopard house built by Emperor Mingwuzong was the strongest evidence of his extravagance. In the 3rd issue of the "Bulletin of the Palace Museum" in 1988, there was an article by James Chinese, a researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies of Princeton University in the United States: The article "Ming Wuzong and the Leopard Room" written by Gai Jiemin made a rather in-depth debate and analysis of this, and pointed out the untruths and distortions and exaggerations of the vilification of Ming Wuzong in traditional historical materials. "In doing so, Emperor Wuzong was also trying to restore a way of life and political atmosphere that had almost completely disappeared in the early sixteenth century," he said. His hunting of animals and leopards was actually to restore the military strength of the Ming Dynasty and the brave and martial style of the emperor. ”
Emperor Wuzong did train soldiers personally, as clearly recorded in the Ming Shilu.
However, this record, like other records of Emperor Wuzong's deeds, was distorted by the Ming Shilu (明實錄) as a child's play. ”
According to the location of the leopard house and the map of the ancient capital, some scholars have examined that the scale of the leopard house covers an area of about 4 hectares and consumes about 200,000 taels of silver. Compared with the Yuanmingyuan and Chengde Summer Resort of the Qing Dynasty, it is not worth mentioning at all.
According to the "Qing Dynasty Chronicle", the total area of the Yuanmingyuan is 350 hectares, which is 90 times that of the leopard house, and the silver consumption is as high as 30 million silver.
The summer resort covers an area of 564 hectares, which is 141 times that of a leopard house, and the cost of silver is about 100 million taels.
Abandoned government?
What shows that Emperor Wuzong abandoned the government means that he favors the eunuch Liu Jin and does not ask about the affairs of the court.
Although Emperor Wuzong of Ming was not as diligent as Emperor Mingyingzong, he still often went to the court to listen to the government, approved the answers, and decided on major national events.
Historical records show that when he did not want to go to the court, he did not ask about the affairs of the court, but conveyed his will through the celebrant of ceremonies and ordered the cabinet to carry it out. Even when he was far away in Xuanfu, although he did not need ministers to come to discuss politics, he still stressed that the song chapter should be sent to Xuanfu one by one.
All this shows that he did not waste the government, he may be negligent in small things, and major things are absolutely careful.
However, however?
In fact, Emperor Mingwuzong was resolute and decisive in his handling of things, killing Liu Jin with a snap of his fingers, rebelling against the king of Ping'an and the king of Ning, defeating the little prince of Mongolia, and repeatedly relieving disasters and relieving himself of disasters, and there were many talents under his subjects during his reign, which also reflected from the side that this emperor was not a person who did nothing and achieved nothing.
In October of the twelfth year of Zhengde (1517), the Mongol prince Boyan led an attack, Ming Wuzong led 50,000 or 60,000 people to meet the battle, the two sides fought for a few days, Ming Wuzong personally came to the front line to fight with the enemy, this battle was very fierce, the Ming army was once divided and surrounded by the Mongol army.
Ming Wuzong was in the midst of the rebel army, always maintaining his composure, running back and forth in the formation to boost morale.
His fearless move greatly boosted the morale of the Ming army, and the soldiers fought bravely and launched countless tidal attacks on the Mongol army before the Ming army broke the siege.
During the more than 100 wars between the two sides, Ming Wuzong always ate and lived with ordinary soldiers, and also killed an enemy with his own hands. At the end of this battle, the retreat of the little prince was the end, and the history called it "Yingzhou Great Victory". After this battle, the Mongols did not dare to invade the territory of Daming for a long time.
Zhu Ming was originally a Jiangshan laid down by the Iron Horse of Jinge, Ming Taizu hegemony established the country, Ming Chengzu five times of northern expedition, the emperor after that was much weaker, although the governance of the country mainly depended on wen rule, but compared to these two ancestors, it still lacked a bit of domineering, and even Zhu Qi town was captured in front of the enemy.
In the great victory of Yingzhou, he personally commanded the arrangement, the tactics were correct, and the command was appropriate, which reflected his outstanding military command ability.
Ming Wuzong's life was a life of serious smear. He should not be hidden in the dark corners of history, he should be known to more people.
Objective commentary, for Wu Zong's complicated life, it can only be said that although he is not as good as his father, he is by no means a pathless emperor!