Historically, it was a high honor to be able to receive the ministers who were worthy of the Taimiao, and it was also the emperor's highest respect for him after his death. However, not everyone understands what it means to be worthy of the temple and what kind of place it is.
Below, let's introduce the treatment of the ancient Taimiao.
Taimiao is not a monk's temple, but a place for royal ancestors. It is not an ordinary temple, there are no monks chanting scriptures, and there are no idols to worship. The temple is dedicated to the ancestors of the emperors of the past dynasties, which is similar to the ancestral hall of the common people.
In ancient times, the social status was exquisite, and the ancestral hall of the common family, the family temple of the official family, and the royal temple had their own names. The Taimiao system originated from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, went through the Qin and Han dynasties, and was named Taimiao and has been used to this day, inheriting the tradition of royal worship of ancestors for thousands of years.
Before the Western Jin Dynasty, the Taimiao only accepted the ancestors of the emperor's family, and outsiders were not allowed to enter, and even if the queen died, they were not allowed to be enshrined in the Taimiao. However, after Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty Sima Yan unified the Three Kingdoms, in order to commemorate his wife, Empress Yang Yan of Wuyuan, he broke this tradition and introduced Yang Yan's tablet of the god to the Taimiao, and enshrined some of the heroes who helped him unify the whole country.
Since then, successive emperors have imitated Sima Yan and put the tablets of the queen, meritorious heroes and meritorious emperors into the Taimiao Temple. Over time, the emperors discovered that allowing meritorious persons to enter the temple after death to receive offerings was a very efficient way to win people's hearts and reward meritorious persons.
In this way, you only need to put an extra tablet of the god in the temple, which is neither expensive nor cost-effective. Therefore, the enjoyment of the temple became a cost-effective reward for the emperor.
Enjoying the Taimiao is an important way for the ancient emperors to encompass the heroes, using the psychology of the ancients to regard death as life, and regard the reputation, honor and status after death as particularly important.
Therefore, the emperors grasped this psychology and turned the use of the temple from the original sacrifice to ancestors to a tool to win people's hearts. The range of figures enshrined in the temple has also expanded, including not only the emperors of a dynasty and their ancestors, but also the meritorious royal relatives and ministers with foreign surnames.
Ancient people attached great importance to rituals and ancestor sacrifices, especially in the worship of ancestors. When worshipping ancestors, people usually bow down and bow down, because only people kneel to worship the emperor, and only the gods and ancestors of heaven and earth want the emperor to kneel.
And those ministers who can enjoy the Taimiao, after death, can not only accept the emperor's bowing ceremony, but also enjoy the emperor's personal incense sacrifice, which is a very great honor.
Therefore, the enjoyment of the Taimiao is undoubtedly a supreme honor and attraction for the ministers of ancient times, making them feel that it is the highest honor after death.
Enjoying the temple is a great honor, and it can inspire ministers to serve the royal family wholeheartedly. They worked hard in the hope of being able to qualify for the temple after death.
However, in fact, the enjoyment of the temple is only a glamorous honor on the surface, and in fact it does not have much substantive significance. It was only a way for the names of the ministers to be engraved on the tablets of the gods for future emperors to bow down and worship, but it did not have any practical benefit for himself and his descendants.
Therefore, although the Taimiao represents the highest honor after the death of a minister, it is not of much significance in reality, it is just a kind of empty honor that satisfies the vanity of future generations.
Taimiao, as a place for royal worship of ancestors, because of its relationship with the emperor and the co-lord of the world, the emperor's sacrificial behavior has become a major event of national concern. And being able to enjoy the Taimiao is undoubtedly the highest honor after death for the minister, and it is also an important means for the emperor to win people's hearts.
Through this illusory treatment, the minister was motivated to serve the royal family desperately, which was undoubtedly extremely cost-effective. Therefore, being able to enjoy the Taimiao has also become the highest honor pursued by ministers.
Since Sima Yan, the qualification to enjoy the Taimiao must be recognized by the emperor for ministers with foreign surnames. This is a highly respected treatment, so the qualified minister must be someone of exceptional merit or who has made a significant contribution to the country.
In the Qing Dynasty, for example, although the state lasted for 272 years, only 26 ministers were eligible to enjoy the temple. Understanding these 26 ministers of the Qing Dynasty who are worthy of enjoying the Taimiao can understand what kind of people can obtain such honors.
There is quite a story about the origin of the Taimiao Temple in the Qing Dynasty, which was originally the Taimiao during the Ming Dynasty. After Shunzhi entered the customs, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty changed the Taimiao of the Ming Dynasty to their own Taimiao in order to save resources, but replaced the original ancestral tablet of the Ming Dynasty and changed it to the ancestral tablet of the Qing Dynasty.
Now, the main hall of the Qing Dynasty Taimiao ** enshrines the tablets of the gods of the Qing Dynasty emperors, and the side halls on both sides are dedicated to the royal relatives and ministers who are allowed to enjoy the Taimiao.
In the east hall of the Taimiao Temple of the Qing Dynasty, there are fourteen royal family members, among which there are many well-known figures, such as Nurhachi's sons Daishan and Dolgon, Huang Taiji's sons Haoge and Yue Tuo, as well as the thirteenth brother of Emperor Yongzheng Yinxiang and the sixth brother of Emperor Xianfeng.
These people basically belong to the Aixin Jueluo family, but there are two exceptions.
The Mongolian princes Monk Grinqin and Celeng did not belong to the Aixinjue Luo clan, but they were both royal relatives of the Qing Dynasty. Celeng was the son-in-law of Emperor Kangxi, who defeated the Qing Dynasty's old enemy Mongolia, the Dzungar Khanate, and was named Prince Chaoyong; Monk Gelinqin was succeeded to the sister of Emperor Daoguang, who made great contributions to pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and was named a prince.
Although Celeng and Seng Lingqin are Mongolian nobles, they are both relatives of the Aixinjue Luo clan, so they are enshrined in the east hall. The west hall of the Taimiao Temple in the Qing Dynasty was originally dedicated to 13 meritorious heroes with foreign surnames, such as the founding heroes of the country, Fei Yingdong, the bachelor Tu Hai who helped Kangxi pacify the rebellion of the three feudatories, and the bachelor Zhang Tingyu, who assisted Yongzheng to lay the foundation for the "Qianlong Prosperous Era", as well as the brother-in-law of the Qianlong Emperor, Fu Heng, the love generals Fukangan and A Gui and others.
Some people will ask, the Qing Dynasty Taimiao enshrined a total of 26 people, the east hall enshrined 14 people, and the west hall enshrined 13 people, how did it become 27 people? In fact, because the west hall originally enshrined 13 people, one of whom was removed from the temple, so the west hall actually enshrined 12 people in the end.