is talking about the first emperor of the ages, who ascended the throne at the age of eight and was in power at the age of fourteen, he is Xuanye, Emperor Kangxi.
He has been in power for 60 years, and in internal affairs, he punished Aobai, pacified the rebellion of the three feudatories, implemented benevolent government, paid attention to both ability and political integrity, and used a large number of Han people to promote economic development and make the people live and work in peace and contentment.
Diplomatically, he recovered Taiwan, thwarted the invasion of Tsarist Russia, and maintained the unity of the country. Such merits made him worthy of the name "Emperor of the Ages".
Emperor Kangxi's excessive benevolence led to the nine sons vying for the throne, which had a profound impact on the political situation of the Qing Dynasty, which is famous in history"Nine sons take the heir"。In the end, the fourth elder brother Yinzhen legitimately succeeded to the throne as Emperor Yongzheng by virtue of Emperor Kangxi's edict.
However, for hundreds of years, the legitimacy of Emperor Yongzheng's throne has been controversial, and various rumors have been heard, especially the usurpation of the throne by the fourth elder brother.
It turned out that it was not until 2013 that the real edict of Emperor Xuanye of Kangxi was announced, solving a mystery in history. So, what exactly is written in this edict?
Today, let's take a look at the famous "Nine Sons Seizing the Inheritance" incident in history and the story of Yongzheng Emperor Yinzhen. It is said that a total of 24 sons were recorded in Emperor Kangxi's life, of which 9 sons participated in this fierce struggle for succession, namely the eldest brother Yinzhen, the second elder brother Yinren, the third elder brother Yinzhi, the fourth elder brother Yinzhen, the eighth elder brother Yinzhen, the ninth elder brother Yinzhen, the tenth elder brother Yinyu, the thirteenth elder brother Yinxiang, and the fourteenth elder brother Yinyu.
The second elder brother Yinren was the most promising of the nine princes at the beginning, and he became the crown prince of Emperor Kangxi at the age of two, and was deeply loved by the emperor. However, due to the stammering and pandering of the princes and ministers, Yinren gradually formed an arrogant and domineering character, and began to form parties for personal gain and cultivate power for himself, including colluding with the important ministers of the court.
However, Emperor Kangxi was troubled by the party's alliance with his ministers when he inherited the throne at a young age, so he hated any party-forming behavior for personal gain. After mastering the evidence of Suo Etu, Emperor Kangxi killed Suo Etu in 1703 A.D. and used it to warn the crown prince Yinren.
However, Yinren continued to go his own way, and was eventually deposed as crown prince in 1708 AD. After that, many elder brothers began to covet the right to inherit the throne.
The eldest brother Yinhe is the eldest son of Emperor Kangxi, but because he is inferior to his younger brother in all aspects, he is not liked by his father. In order to ensure his future, he recommended the eighth elder brother Yinxi to Emperor Kangxi many times, and quoted the prophecy of the physiognomist Zhang Mingde.
However, his frequent mentions annoyed Emperor Kangxi, and his proposal to kill the deposed prince Yinren made Emperor Kangxi even more angry. After the third elder brother Yinzhi revealed the truth that Yinzhi cursed the prince with witchcraft, Emperor Kangxi imprisoned Yinzhi and kept him vigilant against the eighth elder brother.
Emperor Kangxi canonized the second elder brother Yinren as the crown prince again in 1709 AD, but he was still obsessed and colluded, which angered Emperor Kangxi. As a result, Emperor Kangxi again stripped him of the crown prince in the following year and imprisoned him until death.
This made the third elder brother Yinzhi feel that the world was cold and frustrated, so he chose to withdraw from the battle for the throne. With the deposition of the crown prince, the eighth elder brother Yinzhen chose to support the fourteenth elder brother Yinzhen, and the fourth elder brother Yinzhen united to support his brother and ministers, and began the battle with the fourteenth elder brother for the prince.
As a result, the Fourth Elder Brother Party and the Fourteenth Elder Brother Party were formed in the imperial court, fighting for the throne.
In 1722, Emperor Kangxi died in Changchun Garden at the age of sixty-nine. At that time, the fourteenth elder brother was in the northwest, and the fourth elder brother Yinzhen was in the capital. The country cannot be without a king for a day, Emperor Kangxi's confidant Long Keduo and Yinzhen became friends, so Long Keduo led his troops to control the situation, read out the edict of Emperor Kangxi, and supported Yinzhen as the emperor, that is, the later Yongzheng Emperor.
After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he began to liquidate the henchmen of the fourteenth elder brother, and the famous "Nine Sons Seize the Inheritance" ended with Yinzhen succeeding to the throne as emperor. Although Emperor Yongzheng's succession seemed legitimate, because the four elder brother party led by Yinzhen was weak at that time, no one expected that Yinzhen would suddenly and quickly succeed to the throne after the death of Emperor Kangxi, which aroused people's doubts about the origin of Yinzhen's throne, and was even recorded in the wild history.
After the death of Emperor Kangxi, Long Keduo, as his confidant minister, began a conspiracy operation. He first killed people, then took over the palace, and took the fourth elder brother Yinzhen, who was good friends with him, to Changchun Garden.
The two began to discuss how to tamper with the edict, because they believed that Emperor Kangxi must have left a testament. After rummaging through all the corners of the palace, they finally found the edict, but only the two of them had seen it.
Yinzhen thought that even if he tampered with the edict, no one would find out, so he changed the word "ten" to the word "Yu" in a hurry. As a result, the edict showed "Passed on to the fourth elder brother".
Long Keduo read the edict in front of the ministers and the elder brothers, and the fourth elder brother Yinzhen inherited the throne logically. Yinzhen, who was originally weak, became the emperor in a leap, but the powerful fourteenth elder brother had nothing to do.
According to this account, some people believe that Yongzheng Emperor Yinzhen was a typical conspirator, and his throne was taken from Emperor Kangxi, and some people even rumored that he took the Fourteenth Elder Brother to the northwest, and then imprisoned Emperor Kangxi in Changchun Garden and killed him.
These people say that Emperor Yongzheng was a shameless emperor.
There is obviously more than one loophole in the edict. First of all, the character "Yu" was changed to "Yu" after the simplification of Chinese characters, so the question is, if the edict really has the character "Yu", then how did Long Keduo and Yinzhen change the character "ten" to "Yu"?
You must know that the edict cannot be altered at will. Secondly, the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty was the Manchus, but the Manchus received strong support from the Mongols when they entered the customs, and the position of the Mongols in the Qing Dynasty was very important.
Therefore, as long as it is an edict of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, whether it is a posthumous edict or a daily edict, there will be three copies, one each in Manchu, Mongolian and Chinese. It obviously doesn't make sense to rely only on the sentence "Fourteen elder brothers" in the edict.
In ancient times, in order to prevent unnecessary trouble, the emperor usually wrote the name of the heir into the edict when passing on the throne. Even though the names of the Fourth Elder Brother Yinzhen and the Fourteenth Elder Brother Yinzhen are easily confused, their Manchu and Mongolian writing are completely different.
Therefore, even if Yinzhen and Long Keduo have great powers, they can't change all these three edicts with different ways of writing. This proves that the records of the wild history are not credible.
Finally, the most important evidence has emerged, and that is the "Edict of Emperor Kangxi". In order to prevent usurpation and false acts, Emperor Kangxi made a total of four copies of the edicts.
The Edict of Emperor Kangxi was an important document of Emperor Kangxi before his death, containing praise for his martial arts and his designated successor, Yinzhen, the fourth son of Prince Yong.
At present, the edict is kept in the Palace Museum in Taiwan Province of China, the Historical Archives in Beijing, and the Liaoning Provincial Archives in China, and the last copy is sealed in the Royal Museum in London.
In 2013, the Liaoning Provincial Archives publicly displayed this edict, which attracted the attention of many audiences. The edict adds up to more than 1,700 characters, written on gold silk paper, with clear fonts and detailed content.
The last part of the edict recorded the most crucial passage in Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese, designating Yinzhen, the fourth son of Prince Yong, as his successor, and highly praising his character and talents.
There is no word "Yu" recorded in the wild history in this passage, and the honorific name of the fourth elder brother can also be seen, which means that the record of the wild history is obviously not credible.
In addition, even the edict of Emperor Kangxi has been published, and presumably the legitimacy of Yinzhen's throne is undisputed. However, some historians still insist that Yinzhen had enough time to forge such an edict after he succeeded to the throne, because it is impossible to determine whether the edict was written by Emperor Kangxi.
So, we can't help but ask, why did Emperor Kangxi choose the fourth elder brother Yinzhen as his heir? What kind of person is Yinzhen? What is certain is that Emperor Kangxi's choice was completely correct, and he chose Yinzhen as his heir.
Although it cannot be said that Emperor Yongzheng was the most virtuous and sage emperor, he was probably the most diligent emperor in Chinese history! Yinzhen's work attitude and workload after succeeding to the throne are enough to prove this.
Yinzhen, a middle-aged man who only ascended to the emperor's throne at the age of forty-five, showed amazing diligence and perseverance. After he became the emperor, he worked harder than before, which is why Emperor Kangxi had high hopes for him.
However, Yinzhen's reign was only thirteen years, which was extremely short compared to the sixty-one years of his father Emperor Kangxi and the sixty years of his son Emperor Qianlong.