One of the core systems of the patriarchal system, the primogeniture inheritance system, was established in the Western Zhou Dynasty and continued unchanged until the end of the Ming Dynasty. However, due to the influence of the idiot emperor Sima Zhen and other incidents, there have been many criticisms of this system in recent years, and some people even believe that it is an outdated and backward system, which is one of the main reasons for the turmoil of the dynasty.
However, in Ah Yue's view, this system embodies the wisdom of the ancestors, and is the most realistic and error-prone choice they have selected from many inheritance schemes, otherwise it would not have been used for nearly 3,000 years.
This system emphasizes the order of the descendants and the eldest and youngest, and does not look at other factors, which seems simple and direct, but in the era when the rise and fall of the world are closely linked to the Son of Heaven alone, this simple and direct way is precisely the best choice for the establishment of the reserve.
Because it can make everyone in the world clearly understand who is the future prince, it is conducive to stabilizing people's hearts and enabling a smooth transfer of power.
Revealing the innovation of the imperial succession system in the Ming Dynasty: the order of the branches. In the Ming Dynasty, although the primogeniture system was the mainstream, it was not absolute. The outbreak of royal turmoil is often associated with the destruction of this system.
The Ming Dynasty innovated in this regard, extending the "son" to the branch of the prince, and implementing the branch order, as long as the eldest son has no heir, even if he himself goes first, his heir will automatically replace him as the new first heir.
This system was not only applicable to the royal family, but also to the upper clans. Ah Yue wants to tell an interesting story today, that is, the story of Zhu Congdian, the king of Lingqiu. He is the sixth son of Zhu Gui, the thirteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the thirteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the king of Jian, who likes to read all his life, is cautious, and has made great achievements in medicine.
However, three generations of his descendants died one after another, and he had to be succeeded by his eldest grandson. This may be the only case in the Ariake generation in which a great-great-grandson directly succeeded to the title. The story of Zhu Congdian shows the uniqueness of the Ming Dynasty's branch order, and also proves the rationality and feasibility of this system.
Zhu Congdian, the king of Lingqiu in the Ming Dynasty, was born in the ninth year of Chenghua. In December of the eleventh year of Hongzhi, he inherited the title as the eldest son of King Lingqiu, and his wife Wang was also named Princess of Lingqiu.
Zhu Congdian inherited the fine tradition of the Lingqiu Palace, and was keen on literature and reading. He asked the imperial court for the classic book "Shu Chuan" about the commentary on the scriptures and meanings of the "Book of Shang", and received the gift of Ming Wuzong.
After Ming Shizong ascended the throne, he obtained another copy of the "Encyclopedia of Sexual Principles". In the ninth year of Jiajing, he obtained one copy of "Enji Hanchun Tang Poems" and one copy of "Imperial Respect for One Zhen and Five Proverbs".
Zhu Congdian knew very well how to be a good clan that satisfied the court and the emperor, and his methods were several ranks higher than that of his cousin, Zhu Chengqi, the king of Daihui.
The following year, he was rewarded for his filial piety.
Zhu Cong. 
Zhu Conghao, a descendant of Zhu Xunxuan, was not satisfied with his life in Jiangzhou. He believes that Jiangzhou is "unstable, barren and poor", and has always wanted to move to Pingyang Fucheng to enjoy the comfortable life of a big city.
However, his idea was not realized, and Ming Shizong ordered him to expand the city of Jiangzhou and warned him not to leave without permission. However, his longevity is legendary, and he lived to be 83 years old, the longest-lived of all Lingqiu kings in all generations.
Zhu Junge is an eight-sided exquisite person among the courtiers, and his keen political sense makes him stand out in the "Great Rites Discussion" dispute, and he presents the poem "Elegy for the Emperor and Empress", which not only has a full sense of existence in front of Ming Shizong, but also wins the emperor's favor for the Lingqiu Palace.
Unfortunately, Zhu Junge had a limited lifespan and died in the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing (1545), Zhu Cong.
The Sun King "Louis XIV may not have imagined that although Zhu Congdian, the king of Lingqiu, was not a monarch and reigned for a shorter time than Louis XIV, he lived longer than Louis XIV, and there was no member of the longest-lived family of the same clan Shu Xiangyuan King Zhu Chengjun among his descendants, which caused three generations of his descendants to be boiled to death on the way to wait for the attack.
In this case, the imperial court created the title of "Xuanchangsun" for the first time in history. If there had been a Guinness Book of Records at the time, Zhu Naiyao might have been on the list. I wonder if the Prince of Wales in Britain will raise his arms and shout when he sees this, "Is there a prince in the world who has been in the world for 70 years?" ”
Zhu Congdian died on the 16th day of the 11th month of the 34th year of Jiajing (1555) at the age of 83. His great-great-grandson Zhu Naiyao manages the affairs of the government, and because the difference between the generations of the two is too great, Ming Shilu also deliberately sorted out the family genealogy of the two.
Ding Chou, Lingqiu Wang Cong, and his eldest grandson Naiyu managed government affairs. Clever.
During the Ming Shizong period, the Lingqiu King had an outlier in the clan of the first generation. The three good clans of Zhu Xunxuan, the first feudal monarch, influenced the three generations of county kings after him, and they all acted cautiously, were good at writing, famous for filial piety, had high literary attainments, and even won many awards from the imperial court for their filial piety.
However, this good family image was broken in Zhu Naiyao. One day in the third year of Longqing, Zhu Naiyao was living his life in the palace, but this day was destined to be extraordinary.
The royal servants told him that three members of his clan had come to ask him for justice. These three people are Zhu Congyuan, the general of Fengguo, Zhu Junyu and Zhu Junyu, the lieutenants of Zhenguo, they have a special identity, from the perspective of titles and characters, they are the descendants of a certain heir of the first generation of Lingqiu King Zhu Xunxuan, and they are the distant relatives of Zhu Nai.
Although the seniority is very high, they are all from a side lineage, Zhu Congyuan is even the same generation as Zhu Congqiu, the king of Lingqiu, and is the ancestor of Zhu Nai's high uncle, and Zhu Junyu and Zhu Junyu are his great-uncles.
What's more special is that Zhu Congyuan, Zhu Junyu and Zhu Junyu are father and son. When they came to Zhu Nai, they made a discord between father and son over the family's property disputes, and they accused each other of wrongdoing, and even poured out the broken things about Chen Guzi's rotten sesame seeds.
As the patriarch, mediating conflicts within the family and making the family peaceful and peaceful is an important responsibility of the Datong Dynasty Palace. When Zhu Congyuan's father and son asked him for help, Zhu Naiyao blackmailed Zhu Juncheng in a property dispute, and even did not hesitate to use violent means.
This shocked Zhu Juncheng very much, but he still stuck to his position and was unwilling to compromise. Seeing the seriousness of the matter, Zhu Congyuan decided to sue Zhu Nai. Although Zhu Naiyao has the protection of "Emperor Ming Zuxun", the crime of killing the same sect cannot be easily forgiven.
And Zhu Junyu took advantage of Zhu Nai's panic and designed to trick him into his own mansion, beating his cronies Wang Cheng to death, trying to fight his life with his life. This incident attracted the attention of Ming Muzong, who ordered the Shanxi Governor to investigate the matter thoroughly in order to understand the truth of the matter.
In March of the third year of Longqing, Ming Muzong deprived Zhu Naiyi of his title and deposed him as a concubine on the grounds that Zhu Nai's "torture and torture to death of the elder", and sent him to an idle house and imprisoned. The Lingqiu County Kingdom has been inherited for nearly 150 years, and was expelled from the country because of this.