Wen 丨 "Those Years" little that
In 1368, the last emperor of the Yuan dynasty fled the capital Beijing.
He ran and never came back. Since then, the Yuan Dynasty, a unified dynasty that was once extremely powerful, has completely withdrawn from the Central Plains and gradually fallen apart and is heading for its demise.
And this runner who abandoned his family and business was the last king of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Shun Emperor.
Ironically, Emperor Yuanshun's real name was Bo'er Only Jin Tuohuan Timur, which means "iron pot" in Mongolian. Who would have thought that this cauldron of the demise of the Yuan Dynasty would eventually be held on his head impartially.
What kind of emperor was Emperor Yuanshun? Why did he flee Beijing? The cauldron of the subjugation of the country, did he betray it unjustly?
Although Emperor Yuanshun was born in the imperial family, his childhood situation was really not good. At the age of nine, his father Emperor Mingzong ascended the throne as emperor, only to be poisoned by his uncle, later Emperor Wenzong of Yuan. At the age of ten, he was sent by his uncle Moonmunjong to Goryeo (present-day Korea) and imprisoned without contact. A year later, he was labeled by his uncle Wenzong as "not the biological son of Emperor Mingzong" and exiled to Guangxi.
If the plot continues to develop like this, the throne should have nothing to do with him. Unexpectedly, Yuan Wenzong did not live long, and in 1332, Wenzong died of illness at the age of 29. Before his death, perhaps his conscience found that he insisted on passing the throne to Emperor Mingzong's son. However, at this time, the courtier of the court was Yan Timur, and he did not abide by Emperor Wenzong of Yuan's edict, and Emperor Mingzong's eldest son, Tuo huan Themuer, instead established Emperor Mingzong's younger son to succeed to the throne, for Emperor Yuanningzong. Unexpectedly, in November of that year, Yuan Ningzong died. At the insistence of the empress dowager, Yan Timur had no choice but to take Tuohuan Timur, who was exiled in Jingjiang, Guangxi, back to Thejing Division. When he arrived in Liangxiang, Yan Timur personally came to greet him. The two men marched together, and Yan Timur gave him chen yingli's intentions. Tuhuan Timur was still a thirteen-year-old child at the time, and he was too frightened to answer for a while, which made Yan Timur very suspicious, and did not appoint him as emperor after arriving in the capital, plus the Taishi of Si Tianjian also said that Tuoba Timu'er could not be established, and the world was in chaos, so the throne of the Yuan Dynasty was vacant for half a year. It was not until after Yan Timur's death that the empress dowager consulted with the ministers and formally made him emperor.
In 1333, the thirteen-year-old Yuan Shun Emperor ascended the throne as emperor. However, because of his young age and long-term exile, he was still difficult to control the power of the government for a while. A minister took the opportunity to advise: "If the affairs of the world are serious, it is advisable to entrust the prime minister to make a decision, and he can blame him for his success; if he listens to himself, he will bear notoriety." The young Shun Emperor was convinced, and from then on he "lived deep in the palace, and did not specialize in everything."
Emperor Yuanshun promoted Boyan, a meritorious servant who had established himself to the throne, to the position of Right Chancellor of Zhongshu and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. But where could he have imagined that this appointment would have left him completely out of control of the court.
After Boyan gained power, he swept away the remnants of Yan Timur's forces, and even Yan Timur's daughter, the empress of Emperor Yuanshun, was not spared. In order to expand his own power, Boyan planted a wide range of cronies in the court and excluded dissidents, resulting in "the provincial taiwan officials all went out of his door, and every time the dynasty retreated, the imperial court was empty." He also used the power in his hands to "arbitrarily knight people, forgive death penalties, allow evil to be committed, and kill innocents" to take all the elite guards for his own use. He embezzled at will, stipulating that "the treasury of the treasury should listen to its cashiers", resulting in "more tribute from the world to the Boyan family". In addition, he also suppressed the Han people to the extreme and cancelled the imperial examination... As Boyan's perverse actions intensified, rebels rose up all over the country, and the Central Plains fell into chaos. However, Boyan constantly asked Emperor Shun to add an official to himself, and the official title was once as high as 246 words. The history books record that at that time, the world did not even know that there was an emperor, "only that there was a Boyan".
All this, Emperor Yuan Shun naturally saw in his eyes. Although it seems to be indifferent on the surface, privately it is not idle at all. He gradually accumulated his strength, and at the same time co-opted a powerful assistant, Bo Yan's nephew Shedd. In 1340, emperor Yuan Shun united with the defectors to launch a coup d'état. Taking advantage of Bo Yan's outings on a safari, they closed the gates of the capital and expelled him from Beijing. This year, Emperor Yuan Shun was twenty years old.
The puppet emperor, who had been dormant for seven years, finally regained his own power.
Emperor Yuanshun's pro-government once brought hope to the Yuan Dynasty.
In the second year of pro-government, Emperor Yuanshun changed his era name to "Zhizheng", and together with the famous courtiers, he launched the vigorous "Zhizheng New Deal". In this new policy, Emperor YuanShun abolished all kinds of harsh policies formulated by Boyan, reopened the imperial examination, rehabilitated unjust prisons, exempted the people from all kinds of taxes owed, and relaxed many restrictions on the Han people, which made the government and the opposition have a new atmosphere.
Especially in terms of employing people, Emperor Yuan Shun made a model of Ming Jun. At the suggestion of Detuo and others, he not only reopened the imperial examination, but also restored the policy of selecting talents in the Shizu period regardless of origin, and issued an edict that "the southern people have talented scholars, according to the old system of the ancestors, the Zhongshu Province, the Privy Council, and the Imperial Observatory are all used." Moreover, Emperor Shun paid special attention to "honoring the old ministers" and "requisitioning the old ministers", so a group of former dynasty widows were able to shine again. In the selection of local officials, Emperor YuanShun also advocated a comprehensive investigation. According to the "History of Gengshen Wai", "Whoever chooses to make a person an official must ask: 'This person has done all the things before, and if he is good at everything, he knows chen zhike for me'" Emperor Yuanshun once said to a group of newly appointed county guards: "The duty of Ru Shou Ling, such as shepherding sheep, hunger is also with grass, thirst is also with water, hunger is full of labor, and there is no loss of time, then the sheep rest." If you shepherd this people for me, you will not lose your place, but if you are hungry and thirsty, you will be a good shepherd. ”
Starting from the regulation of the employment mechanism, this reform involving political, military, cultural, legal, agricultural and other fields has given another life to the Yuan Dynasty, which is surviving.
In the early days, Emperor Shun did everything in his power to try to save the Yuan Dynasty from the crisis of rule.
However, due to the deep social shortcomings, as well as some mistakes in the reform (such as the chaotic reform of the banknote law in order to solve the financial crisis, etc.), coupled with the continuous occurrence of natural disasters, this reform did not really save the Yuan Dynasty from fire and water. The contradictions of the decadent dynasties finally broke out in 1351.
At that time, the Yuan Shun Emperor sent people to control the flooding of the Yellow River, and Liu Futong, Han Shantong and others took the opportunity of governing the river to mobilize migrant workers to control the river, setting off a huge red turban army uprising. Since then, the whole country has risen together, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youyu... Many familiar names have also appeared on the stage of history.
At this time, the Yuan Shun Emperor, under the internal and external difficulties, no longer had the vigor of the beginning of the pro-government, and instead indulged in the sound and color of dogs and horses. In 1354, at a critical moment when he led his troops to suppress Zhang Tucheng and other anti-Yuan forces, the powerful minister Hama slandered and framed Him in order to seize the position of prime minister. Emperor Shun did not know whether it was true or false, and deposed him.
The dethronement can be said to be a landmark event in the runaway life of Emperor Yuan shun. After that, emperor Yuan Shun became more and more "sluggish in political affairs and wasted on banquets".
Emperor Yu built a dragon ship in the inner garden, and the internal officials enshrined the young supervisor Ta Si and did not spend supervision. The emperor made his own example, the bow and tail of the ship were one hundred and twenty feet long, twenty feet wide, the front tile curtain shed, the corridor, the two warm pavilions, the rear hall building, the dragon body and the temple with multicolored gold makeup, and the front had two claws. Twenty-four sailors, dressed in purple shirts, golden lychee belts, and four turbans, held one pen on each side of the boat. From the harem to the front palace mountain under the sea, back and forth games, when traveling, its dragon head eyes, claws and tails are moving. He also made his own palace leaks, about six or seven feet high, half wide, made of wood for the sake of the poor, hidden in the pots, and transported water up and down. There are three western temples on the top of the temple, and the jade women on the waist hold the moment to raise, and when the time comes, they float up the water. Left and right column two golden armor gods, a hanging bell, a hanging hammer, the night god man can press the change and strike, no difference. When the bell chimes, the lions and phoenixes dance on the side. There is the Sun Moon Palace in the west and east of the kui, and the six people of the Fei Immortals stand in front of the palace, and when they meet the meridian, the Fei Immortals can be coupled, the Duxian Bridge, and the Three Sacred Temples, and have retreated to stand as before. Its exquisiteness is rare in the previous generation. Emperor Shi was sluggish in political affairs, absurd in feasting, and danced with sixteen people, including the three holy nuns of the palace, Miao Le nu, and Manjushri, named the Sixteen Heavenly Devils, with their hair hanging down several braids, wearing ivory Buddha crowns, and their bodies were covered with tassels, big red silk gold long and short skirts, gold miscellaneous jackets, cloud shoulders, sleeved heavenly robes, and ribbon shoes and socks, each holding a gabara-like instrument, and one of them holding a bell pestle to play music. Eleven women in the palace, practicing hammer buns, Lepa, often dressed, or with tang hats, narrow shirts, the music played with dragon flutes, head pipes, small drums, kites, flutes, pipas, sheng, huqin, castanets, clapboards. The eunuch Chang'an Didi did not take care of the collar, and when he met the praise of the Buddha in the palace, he played music according to the dance. Palace officials who are secretly ordained are allowed to enter, and the rest cannot be predicted. - "History of the Yuan"
It was not until 1368, when the Ming army swept away the Central Plains and approached the Yuan capital (present-day Beijing) step by step, that the Yuan Shun Emperor woke up like a dream. In the face of the ministers' request to stick to Dadu, Emperor Yuanshun sighed and said, "Do I want to be Emperor Huizong of Song and Emperor Qinzong of Song?" Eventually he gave up his resistance, like a frightened bird, and fled Beijing overnight. This meant that the Yuan Dynasty completely ended its rule over the Central Plains. Two years later, Emperor Yuanshun died in Yingchang.
From the founding of the Yuan Dynasty by Kublai Khan (1271) to the last Yuan Shun Emperor fleeing Dadu (1368), the Yuan Dynasty passed down the throne for ten generations, less than a hundred years after the founding of the country, and the Yuan Shun Emperor reigned for thirty-six years, accounting for one-third of the entire history of the Yuan Dynasty! Then, as the emperor who reigned the longest in the Yuan Dynasty and personally destroyed the State Zuo, he naturally had to bear the main responsibility for the death of the Yuan Dynasty.
Of course, we cannot erase the many explorations and efforts made by Emperor Yuan Shun in the early days of his pro-government. At that time, the corruption of the Yuan Dynasty was already accumulating and could not be reversed by one person. But if this gesture of effort can be maintained forever, the Yuan Dynasty may not die in his hands. As it is said in the "Outer History of Gengshen": "Holding his heart to emperor Gengshen (Emperor Yuanshun), often as at the beginning of the beginning, he will eventually maintain the throne, why go far away, and be a prisoner."
Unfortunately, Emperor Yuan Shun "never paid attention to political affairs, but eventually had no ambition for excellence", and finally in the midst of sinking and degeneration, he led the Yuan Dynasty to a catastrophe. And fleeing Beijing is only the last decency of this last emperor.