The 26 princes of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to enter Beijing, and the princes of the Qing Dynasty were not allowed to leave Beijing, and the pros and cons were clear at a glance
According to historical records, 26 of Zhu Yuanzhang's royal children were sent to guard the frontier far from the capital.
However, the Qing Dynasty after the Ming Dynasty could not leave the capital for any reason, and all life could only be confined to the imperial city, which is why the two dynasties were so different.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang used to be a shepherd boy and was born in the common people, so he attached great importance to power, and he tried every means to firmly hold power in the hands of his family, including continuing to purge the ** due after ascending the throne, but also to consolidate his power.
Every Ming emperor became a vassal king.
Like most other emperors, Zhu Yuanzhang also had many wives and concubines, and when he had more wives, he naturally had more children. According to some information, Zhu Yuanzhang had a total of 42 children in his life, including 26 princes.
The sons of the emperors of the previous dynasty had fewer problems, but they also had more problems. After all, if half-children only have the throne and no feelings between them, then there will inevitably be a struggle for imperial power, and the net will be broken.
In order to avoid this situation, Zhu Yuanzhang's sons became vassal kings because they were not yet adults.
When the sons of the vassal kings grew up a little, Zhu Yuanzhang sent them to guard the frontier, which meant that each of Zhu Yuanzhang's sons had military power in their hands.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also allowed them to rule the people on the territory under their own management, which can be described as"Under the whole world, it is not the king's land"。
Zhu Yuanzhang sent his sons out for no reason and forbade them to enter Beijing, mainly for the following reasons:
The first point, as we just said, is to put all the power in the hands of the Zhu family, so that even if there is turmoil in the future, it can only be in their hands, after all, the ruler of the Ming Dynasty is still surnamed Zhu.
The second point is that in order to allow the crown prince to ascend to the throne unimpeded, the rebellion of the Tang Xuanwumen Dynasty has not been quelled, and Zhu Yuanzhang certainly does not want history to repeat itself.
In order for the crown prince Zhu Biao to ascend the throne smoothly, he could only send his other sons to remote areas, so that even if they had the intention to disobey the emperor, this situation would not occur at the same time.
In this way, after Zhu Biao's death, his son Zhu Yun could ascend to the throne unimpeded.
The third purpose was to stabilize the political situation in the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty has been established, the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty are still strong, and some border areas are still not peaceful.
If civil strife breaks out in the Ming Dynasty, other forces will definitely want this piece of fat and wait for the opportunity to send troops to attack the Ming Dynasty.
In order to avoid civil strife, Zhu Yuanzhang smashed Huanglong, but many princes were nowhere to be seen, each guarding his own one-third of land. Even before Zhu Yuanzhang died, he ordered his sons not to enter the palace.
Because of this policy, when Zhu Yuanzhang was there, there were indeed no major disputes between his sons, but after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Yunwen could continue to reduce conflicts in order to consolidate his throne.
This convinced many of his sons that Zhu Di rebelled in self-defense and succeeded in seizing power.
It can be said that this policy of Zhu Yuanzhang was largely to prevent the children of the imperial family from despairing, but if they were allowed to have too much power, each of them would become a threat to the new emperor.
The sons of the Qing emperors were not allowed to leave the capital.
In contrast, in the Qing Dynasty, the children of the imperial family were not allowed to leave the capital without a reason, and each of them had to be under the control of the emperor. The main reason for this policy in the Qing Dynasty was the precedent of the Ming Dynasty.
In addition to all the royal children living in the palace, the children of the Qing Dynasty were not allowed to have jurisdiction, let alone the residents under their jurisdiction, and their mansions could only be built in the capital.
In order to better serve a warning role, the Qing monarch even proposed"Outside Beijing, there is a crime of 60 miles of officials for no reason", it is enough to see the control of the Qing Dynasty over the children of the royal family.
Although the royal children of the Qing Dynasty did not have power, they lived a nutritious life, and their annual salaries were 10,000 taels for the prince, 6,000 taels for the shell, 5,000 taels for the county king, 3,000 taels for the eldest son, and 2,500 taels for the bailer, which was enough to make them worry about food and clothing.
The policies of the Qing Dynasty may have prevented the children of the imperial family from joining the army, but they also had some negative effects.
Many of the emperor's sons were concentrated in the capital, having nothing to do, and naturally began to covet the throne. In order to maintain supreme power, the princes began to collude with each other, which led to repeated conflicts in the Qing Dynasty.
The last years of Kangxi"Nine sons take the heir"At that time, Emperor Yongzheng, who was still the fourth son of the emperor, also stepped on the corpse and ascended the throne hand and foot, hesitating whether to let his sons hold hands, he secretly decided to establish a prince.
It can be said that the policies of the Ming and Qing dynasties had their own advantages and disadvantages, but the main purpose of the rulers was to maintain their rule and avoid civil strife.
The Ming Dynasty's approach was to keep all power in the hands of the Zhu family, while the Qing Dynasty's approach was to keep power in the hands of the Son of Heaven.
But regardless of policy, this is a test of humanity. In the face of the great interest, how many people can clean themselves. Not to mention half-brothers, even the fight between brothers who are related by blood will only become more tragic.
What's more, the next person in power often ruthlessly squeezes the interests of the brothers, which further intensifies people's desire for power, after all, if the new emperor does not ascend the throne, he is likely to become the target of public criticism, and then he will be self-defeating.
The twenty-six emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to enter Beijing, and the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were not allowed to leave Beijing, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, in short.