Xu Miaojin (1380-1440), a native of Zhongli, Haozhou (now northeast of Fengyang, Anhui). The third daughter of Xu Da, the founding father of the Ming Dynasty. Her father is Xu Da, the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, and her mother is Mrs. Jia, and she also has two older sisters, namely Empress Xu of Ming Chengzu Renxiao, Princess Xu, and a younger sister is the princess of King An.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was born in a reckless manner, and Xu Da, who was also from a poor background, got mixed with Zhu Yuanzhang since he was a child, and later became one of Zhu Yuanzhang's most powerful assistants. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang changed to the fourth son Yan Wang Zhu Di to marry Xu Da's eldest daughter, the second daughter married Zhu Gui, the thirteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, and the fourth daughter married Zhu Yuanzhang's twenty-second son, Anwang Zhu Ying.
Xu Miaojin is proficient in calligraphy and painting from Xiaoqin, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and is intelligent and well-informed, and is a woman who integrates beauty and talent. Although she was born noble and grew up in a prince's family, she has an indifferent temperament and has seen through the warmth and coldness of the world. After her second sister married Zhu Gui, the two lived not happily. Zhu Gui had a violent personality and was unkind to his subordinates and subjects, and later Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen demoted him to a concubine in order to cut the domain. After Xu Miaojin learned about it, he "told Tianya that he was not suitable for people, and he refused to propose marriage to his relatives", and in the face of those princes and nobles, Xu Miaojin has been unmoved, determined to be single.
In the fifth year of Yongle (1407), Xu Miaojin's eldest sister and Zhu Di's queen Xu Miaoyun died of illness. Zhu Di was sad about this, and later Zhu Di heard that Xu Miaojin was gentle and virtuous, and beautiful as jade, and he was determined to welcome Xu Miaojin into the palace and fill the empty bed left by her sister, so he issued a holy decree to make her the queen, and ordered the internal envoy and the six female officials to go to announce the decree and propose. After Xu Miaojin found out, he began to say that he was sick and couldn't leave the house, and the female officials had to kowtow and beg, Xu Miaojin had no choice, so he said that the reason why he didn't marry was because of his ugly appearance and pockmarks. As she spoke, she pointed out her own pockmarks, and the female officer went back to her life. Xu Miaojin also asked the female official who proposed marriage to bring Zhu Di a handwritten letter "Letter to Emperor Yongle", after saying that, Xu Miaojin decided to cut his hair as a nun, often accompanied by the ancient Buddha of the green lantern, from morning to night to look at the void to worship the Buddha, without a day of slackness.
We all know that in the ancient era of getting married at the age of fourteen or fifteen, it was already very strange for a girl who had not yet married at the age of twenty-eight, so why did Miaojin reject Emperor Zhu Di in the face of the emperor's marriage proposal?
This is related to her stance on things, in the power struggle between Zhu Di and Emperor Jianwen, Xu Miaojin supported Emperor Jianwen. And Zhu Di is her brother-in-law, Zhu Di's wife Queen Xu is Xu Miaojin's half-sister, so Xu Miaojin is reluctant to marry him. And the eldest brother Xu Huizu, who was only 40 years old at the time, had just died of depression, and Zhu Di asked people to propose marriage, which made her even more emotionally unacceptable.
After Zhu Di knew, he didn't embarrass her anymore, and he didn't set up the position of queen again. Until he died seventeen years later, Zhu Di really did not become the queen again. Some people speculate that Zhu Di is to show his expectations for Xu Miaojin. After Zhu Di's death, Zhu Gaochi succeeded to the throne as emperor for Ming Renzong. Xu Miaojin grew her long hair again. After Empress Zhang heard about Xu Miaojin's deeds, she announced that Xu Miaojin had entered the palace to meet her. I saw that Xu Miaojin was generous and polite, and Renzong and his wife were in awe of him.
In the fifth year of orthodoxy, that is, in the first month of 1440 AD, Xu Miaojin died at the age of 61.