Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen, the first unsolved case in the history of the Ming Dynasty, is it dead or alive? This question has plagued people since the fire of the Ming Dynasty palace in 1402.
The Records of Ming Taizu and the Records of Ming Taizong are two of the most important official archives of the early Ming Dynasty, and they record the death of Zhu Yunwen. According to the historian's recount, Zhu Yunwen wanted to go out of the city to meet Zhu Di, but the people on the left and right fled, and there were only a few attendants around him.
The young emperor grieved and blamed himself, and then closed the palace**. Although Zhu Di saw the raging fire and ordered someone to rescue him, it was still too late. Finally, the eunuch pulled out a charred corpse from the fire and reported it to Zhu Di.
He cried and expressed regret for Emperor Jianwen's choice. But is this the truth? The dark corners of history often hide more secrets. The death of Emperor Jianwen does not seem to be so simple.
The power of power cannot be underestimated, it can change facts and shape history. After Zhu Di successfully seized the throne, he used the power in his hands to revise and delete the historical archives of the current and previous dynasties.
According to official historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, intended to pass on the throne to his fourth son Zhu Di before his death, but Zhu Di failed to return to Beijing in time for some reason, so his nephew Zhu Yunwen tampered with the edict and ascended the throne.
But what does the real history look like? Zhu Yuanzhang had already considered that Zhu Di might become a threat to the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen before his death, so he forbade his sons to return to Beijing for funeral.
But Zhu Di still went south to hang his filial piety and was sent back to Beijing by Qi Tai, the secretary of the Ministry of War. Later, Zhu Yunwen listened to the advice of his advisers to cut the domain, and Zhu Di launched the "Battle of Jingyan" in the name of "Qing Jun's side".
After the civil war, Zhu Di seized the highest power. In order to prove his legal status, he instructed his subordinates to destroy the archives of the Jianwen Dynasty and revise the "Records of Ming Taizu".
At this time, the year name of Emperor Jianwen was changed to "Hongwu 35 years", the Jianwen Dynasty was "disappeared", and the first year of Yongle was seamlessly connected to the 35 years of Hongwu. This wave of operations changed Zhu Di from the third emperor to the second emperor.
History is always written by the victors.
Truth is often revealed in constant reveals. The Yongle Dynasty once disguised Zhu Di's usurpation war as helping his nephew get rid of the traitor, and the ** statement of Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen was also out of deception.
However, when the harsh political environment ended, historical materials about Emperor Jianwen gradually emerged, causing later historians of the "History of the Ming Dynasty" to fall into confusion and had to vaguely record them.
During the Qianlong period, the "History of the Ming Dynasty" revised the statement of Emperor Jianwen**, saying that Zhu Di sent envoys to find the body of Emperor Jianwen and pretended to be Emperor Jianwen. Zhu Di used this method to announce that Emperor Jianwen was dead, and justifiably ascended the throne.
Although Emperor Jianwen may have been reinstated, Zhu Di still designated it as a fake and suppressed it. In order to make the world believe the truth, Zhu Di conducted a large-scale funeral and buried the body of the so-called "Emperor Jianwen" according to the level of the Son of Heaven.
However, what is puzzling is that there is no record of the tomb of Emperor Wen in history.
Some people speculate that it may be because Zhu Di and the ministers knew that the burial was not the real Emperor Jianwen, but only for the purpose of announcing to the world that "Jianwen is dead", so the mausoleum was ordinary in scale, and then gradually disappeared due to neglect of sacrifices.
Zhu Di nominally held a grand funeral for the "deceased" Zhu Yunwen and dropped out of the court to mourn, but in private he began a brutal silent killing. In the historical archives of the Yongle Dynasty, these facts are not recorded.
Zhu Yunwen's younger brothers either died in accidents or died in Fengyang Prison.
His crown prince Zhu Wenkui mysteriously disappeared after Zhu Di invaded Nanjing, while his youngest son Zhu Wengui was imprisoned by Zhu Di in his hometown in Fengyang until the Ming Yingzong period, but he was intellectually inferior and could not even distinguish between cattle and horses.
Zhu Di was extremely cruel to the Jianwen Dynasty, and after becoming emperor, more than 400 Jianwen Dynasty ** fled collectively, and only more than 20 people paid tribute to him. Zhu Di carried out a ruthless big ** on them, including "melon vine copying", "Zhu Shi clan" and so on.
However, why are the courtiers of the Jianwen Dynasty so loyal and do not care about the two monarchs? This may be because they firmly believe that Emperor Jianwen did not ** and did not die.
Although this was a rarity in the history of the Ming Dynasty, these die-hard ministers firmly believed that the old lord was still alive and that it was their basic discipline not to serve the new king.
Zhu Di knew this, and he went on a killing spree, on the one hand, to make an example of chickens and monkeys, and on the other hand, to eliminate those who knew the truth.
Zhu Yuanzhang left escape tips for the emperor's grandson, and Emperor Jianwen fled according to the instructions.
Zhu Di announced that Jianwen was dead on the surface, but in his heart he always doubted that he was still alive. He sent Hu Hui to visit Zhang Sanfeng, but in fact he wanted to find the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen.
Hu Hui did not return for a long time, and finally returned with news in the twenty-first year of Yongle (1423), which dispelled the doubts in Zhu Di's heart.
At the same time, Zheng He did not take action after his sixth voyage to the West, which also indicates that Hu Hu may have found Emperor Jianwen.
According to Zhu Di's reaction and decision-making, there are only two possibilities for Emperor Jianwen's condition: he is dead, or he has given up resistance to reinstatement.
In either case, Zhu Di finally let go of the stone in his heart.
After Zhu Di's death, the political environment gradually relaxed, but the rehabilitation of Emperor Jianwen was long and tortuous. As the favorite monarch said earlier, Zhu Di erased the history of Emperor Jianwen's four-year reign, and did not admit that this person had been the emperor at all.
This led to Zhu Di's descendants and later successors, until the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and they did not recognize Zhu Yunwen as the emperor. For a long time, rehabilitation work could only be carried out around the perimeter.
After the restoration of Zhu Di's grandson Ming Yingzong, he ordered the release of Zhu Yunwen's youngest son, Zhu Wengui, who had been under house arrest.
After more than 100 years, in the Wanli period, Mingshenzong, under the impetus of the ministers, began to rehabilitate the loyal ministers who died in the Jianwen Dynasty, and identified Fang Xiaoru and others, who had been characterized by Zhu Di as "traitorous ministers", as loyal ministers, and built a loyal shrine for them in Nanjing.
He then agreed to reinstate the Jianwen era and recognize the history of the Hongwu Dynasty, but the throne of Emperor Jianwen was still not officially recognized. It was not until the Hongguang Dynasty of the Southern Ming Dynasty that Emperor Hongguang was requested by his courtiers to complete the records, titles, temple numbers and rituals for Emperor Jianwen.
At this point, Emperor Jianwen's imperial status was fully restored. Erasing a piece of history, so easily; But recovering a piece of history is even more difficult. Due to the long-term lack of historical truth of the Jianwen Dynasty, rumors have spread in the streets.
With the passage of time, there are more and more rumors, so that the history of the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, which was originally clear and clear, has finally disappeared in all kinds of true and false legends. The first unsolved case of the Ming Dynasty was caused in this way.
The most bizarre version took place during the Ming Yingzong period. One day, in a monastery in Si'enzhou, Guangxi, an old monk ran to the office of Cen Ying, the lord of Zhizhou, and shouted: "I am Emperor Jianwen." ”
also recited two poems to prove his identity: imprisoned in the southwest forty autumns, Xiao Xiaohua has already made a fortune. Qiankun has hatred, where is the family, Jianghan is ruthless and artesian. The clouds in the Changle Palace dispersed, and the rain on the Chaoyuan Pavilion was sad.
The new pu willow is green every year, and the wild old man swallows and cries endlessly. After reading the words, he knocked lazily, and smiled at the yellow house to send a group scoop. The south comes to Zhangling thousands of layers, and the north looks at Tianmen thousands of miles away. The section has long forgotten the flying phoenix, and the robe has been newly changed into a dragon robe.
Where do the officials know today? Only a flock of birds will come to an end sooner or later. Cen Ying was frightened, it was indeed a poem of the emperor, and she didn't dare to slack off, so she sent the old monk to Beijing. Seeing that he was about to eat and drink as Emperor Jianwen, and enjoy the glory and wealth, it was a pity that the old monk did not learn history well and was exposed.
Yushi: Are you old this year? Old Monk: More than ninety. Goshi: Isn't that right? Jianwenjun was born in the tenth year of Hongwu, and he will be sixty-four this year. Old Monk: Then I'm his father.
Yushi: Drag it out and cut it down. The old monk confessed the truth. It turned out that his real name was Yang Yingxiang, and he met a roommate in the temple, and the weather was extraordinary. One day, I saw the two poems inscribed on the wall by the roommate, and I was scared to pee like Cen Ying, the emperor's poem.
After peeing, I calmed down and thought about it, and the opportunity came, so I went straight to Cen Ying's office. After the official executed the fake Jianwen, he found the real Jianwen according to his description, verified the correct body and then welcomed him into the palace, and continued to worship the Buddha until he died of old age.
The people in the palace call him "Old Buddha".