Chapter 10 Move palace
The Yigong case is the last of the three cases. There are two cases before and after it. The former one happened before the Hongwan case.The latter one is very close to the Hongwan case, and the involvement is more serious, so it can be regarded as a positive case.
The so-called moving the palace means that some people who should not occupy the Qianqing Palace occupy there, and some people want them to move out for the sake of the system, and many things happen because of this, and this becomes the case of moving the palace.
According to Zuo Guangdou's words, this Qianqing Palace is: "There is the Qianqing Palace in the inner court, and there is the Huangji Palace in the outer court. Only the emperor can live in it, and only the empress can live in it together with Tian. The second time you enter the imperial court, you are not allowed to live permanently, not only to avoid suspicion, but also to differentiate your dignity." Since Qianqing Palace has such an important status, it is often the place that many concubines yearn for. After entering the palace, the biggest wish is to be able to settle down there.In the forty-eighth year of Wanli, after the death of Queen Wang, Wanli was also sick. Concubine Zheng also lived there in the name of serving her illness.By July 19th, Wanli had passed away, but she still lived there by herself, and she had no intention of moving out at all.She knew very well that it was a symbol of imperial power and the place where the emperor should live. She relied on it because she wanted to make a deal and get some benefits from it.At that time, she had a close relationship with Li Xuanshi, who was most favored by the eldest son of the emperor, and often colluded, so she partnered with her and planned to do this business together.The eldest son of the emperor had already planned to ascend the throne on the first day of August, but he still lived in his Ciqing Palace and failed to move into the Qianqing Palace.It is an intolerable event in the feudal dynasty that the new emperor cannot live in the Qianqing Palace. The officials are very anxious, but Concubine Zheng still refuses to move out. As the empress dowager, Li Xuanshi was granted the title of empress before she was willing to move out.Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, valued Concubine Zheng's opinion, showing some helplessness, so he had no choice but to agree to her idea.But it was refuted by everyone: If you want to be a queen mother, you must be a queen first. How can the emperor collapse and stand up as the latter?The most urgent ones for this matter were Zhou Jiamo, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou, the censor of the military department, who directly exerted pressure on Concubine Zheng's family.At that time Zheng Guotai, Zheng Guifei's brother, had passed away. Zhou Jiamo sent someone to call her nephew, Zheng Yangxing, to inform him of his interests. , It's too late to regret.Concubine Zheng was frightened, so she had to move to the Palace of Compassion.In this way, the new emperor, who had been on the throne for several days, had to live in the Qianqing Palace.Some people say that Zhou Jiamo's action is like a prelude to the palace transfer case.
When the emperor who reigned for only one month moved into the Qianqing Palace, there was no queen. Guo Shi, who was the crown princess when he was the prince, had passed away in the forty-first year of Wanli (1613), so those who followed him into the Qianqing Palace, It is his favorite servant Li Xuan.At that time, there were two servants named Li Xuan, who lived in the east and the west, so they were called Dongli and Xili.Dongli is honest and not to be favored; Xili is beautiful and spirited, so he is the favorite of the eldest son of the emperor as a servant.What people call Li Xuanshi refers to only Xi Li.It is difficult to know exactly when Li Xuan entered the palace. Hui Shiyang said in the article "Fang Congzhe has ten crimes and three can be killed" that "Li Xuan is a private person of Zheng's family", so some people think that she is probably the One of the eight beauties given by Concubine Zheng Gui to the crown prince.She and Concubine Zheng had a lot of connections, and they praised each other, saying that she was a private person of the Zheng family, and they were probably not far away.Li Xuanshi not only colludes with Concubine Zheng, but also has a very similar style of work, and is far more aggressive and aggressive.Zhu Changluo's eldest son Zhu Youxiao's biological mother, Wang Xuanshi, fell ill and died because of her beatings.This Zhu Youxiao was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty for seven years, and his reign name was Tianqizong. Li Xuanshi beat his biological mother. Therefore, the people who talked about Li Xuanshi later took "beating the Virgin Mary" as one of her crimes.
In order to seize power for himself, Li Xuanshi did his best.After she followed Zhu Changluo to live in the Qianqing Palace, she already knew that the emperor who had just ascended the throne would soon pass away, and that the emperor's eldest grandson, Zhu Youxiao, would soon be established as emperor.For this reason, she first clasped the child tightly and brought him with her, trying to hold him completely in her hands.In addition, she was very careful about what Zhu Changluo summoned the ministers to talk about, and she always hid nearby and secretly eavesdropped.The emperor became ill soon after he came to the throne, so he prepared conditions for her to do this.At that time, she had already been conferred the title of Concubine Kang, so she was naturally unsatisfied, she only wanted to be a queen, and she had told the new emperor many times that he should hurry up to seal her.It turns out that according to the usual practice, only the wife of the crown prince can be called the concubine, and everyone else is not qualified to be called a concubine, and can only be called "chosen servants".Once the crown prince comes to the throne, the crown princess will naturally become the queen, and the ceremony is relatively simple, and the new emperor will give the book treasure as usual.Selected servants can also be promoted according to the rules to become ordinary concubines. If you want to become a noble concubine or an imperial concubine, you must discuss and draft a decree with the cabinet ministers before you can be registered, and there are many procedures.Zhu Changluo's concubine, Guo Shi, had passed away long before he ascended the throne. When he ascended the throne, there were no empresses in the palace. However, after the election, it was a big event in the feudal society, and one must pay attention to character and family background. , Li Xuanshi's request is really difficult to meet.But Li Xuanshi didn't care about these, and always insisted on it.One day, the emperor summoned the ministers while lying in the warm pavilion, and talked about her, saying that he wanted to make her a royal concubine.Attendant Li Xuan overheard it while hiding in the room of Tonglian Nuange, and hurriedly pushed Zhu Youxiao, who was with him, into the Nuange, asking him to go there and declare on her behalf: "I don't want to be a concubine, but a queen!" But the Minister of Rites Sun Ruyou pushed away the matter of conferring the imperial concubine, he said that there is no time to discuss the posthumous titles of the two empress dowagers and concubine Yuan, and the matter of conferring the imperial concubine in Jin Dynasty has to be postponed.Not long after that, the new emperor died, and Li Xuan not only failed to become a queen, but he didn't even get the title of imperial concubine.
The case of moving the palace started after Zhu Changluo's death.According to the rules, once Zhu Changluo died, Li Xuan, who was not eligible to live in Qianqing Palace, should move out of the palace, and the new emperor who succeeded him as king should live in it.But Li Xuanshi has learned the skills of Concubine Zheng, and she insists on not giving up, hoping to take advantage of it.For this reason, she had a quarrel with Yang Lian, who was also one of Gu Ming's ministers, for a while, and many accidents occurred as a result.The whole story of this incident is known as the "moving palace case".
Yang Lian's official position is not high, so it is said that he is not qualified to be a minister of life.But he mentioned Li Xuanshi and Cui Wensheng when he talked about Concubine Zheng's invitation to be the queen mother, and he said it very straightforwardly.He said: "There are rumors in the outer court that your Majesty lives without restraint and serves as a bewitcher. Wen Sheng must use the excuse to cover up his treachery with medicine, and Wen Sheng's party instigates it to pre-empt the mouth of the outer court. It is detrimental to the holy bow, It is also a loss of holiness and virtue, and the crime does not tolerate death. As far as the title of imperial concubine, she is especially obedient. How about honoring the mother-in-law, if you are the queen of Daxing? Respecting the mother, what if you are the queen mother? Please order before going to bed." There are some words in this sentence. , was once considered to be too offensive to Tianwei and criticized Chengyu.But the sick emperor felt very good after reading it.Three days later, he summoned the ministers and specially ordered Yang Lian to be included in the list.As far as Yang Lian's position is concerned, he is still far away from being called in for an interview. Therefore, many people think that if there is something wrong with his prose, he will be called in for a face-to-face reprimand, and he may even be called in by the court. stick.Everyone went to ask the chief assistant Fang Congzhe to try to save him. Fang Congzhe thought it was best to go to the court to apologize quickly, and maybe he could still be saved.But Yang Lian didn't want to apologize. He said: "At most, I will die, and I am not afraid. I feel innocent, so what is there to apologize for?" He just went to see him calmly, and it turned out that there was nothing wrong.Zhu Changluo just wanted people to see the ministers and send a message to the outer court, asking them not to listen to the rumors outside.Concubine Zheng asked to be the queen mother, but he also thought it was right not to do so, and promised to expel Cui Wensheng.When he was talking, he looked at Yang Lian frequently and had a good impression of him.From then on, every time he summoned ministers, he would include Yang Lian in the number, so Yang Lian also became one of the ministers who were ordered by Gu.
Ming Guangzong Zhu Changluo died on the morning of the 30th day after he ascended the throne as the emperor. Since his death was a bit sudden, there were no ministers nearby when he died.Li Xuan thought that the courtiers would come to cry (that is, bid farewell to the corpse) soon, so he first detained Zhu Youxiao, who was about to be established as emperor, by his side, and ordered several servants to block the gate of the palace and block the palace gate. someone enters.She had set herself up so that she could bargain and satisfy her desires.
The courtiers rushed to Qianqing Palace first, including Zhou Jiamo, Shangshu of the Ministry of Officials, Zhang Wenda, Yushi of Zuodu, Li Ruhua, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others.In order to wait for the Chief Assistant Fang Congzhe and other cabinet ministers, they walked slowly and discussed the current affairs.They said that Zhu Youxiao has not been registered, and has no biological mother or aunt, and is lonely and helpless, and they don't know who will support him.Some people think that they can be entrusted to Li Xuanshi to take care of her.Yang Lian immediately objected to the idea.He said, how can the Son of Heaven be placed in the hands of a woman?What's more, Li Xuanshi was too rude to the emperor's grandson.He mentioned the incident of forcibly taking the title, and said that he watched Li Xuan pull the emperor's eldest grandson in and out, it was very disrespectful, how could she take care of it.He suggested that it doesn't matter if he is not registered, anyway, now that he is the natural crown prince, everyone should go to see him as soon as possible, shout "Long live", and then support him to leave the palace, live in Ciqing Palace temporarily, and get rid of Li Xuanshi, then It is the best policy.
After gathering Fang Congzhe, Liu Yixiu, Han Yu and other cabinet ministers, everyone came to the gate of Qianqing Palace. There, they were stopped by the inner jailer holding a stile and were not allowed to enter.At this moment, Yang Lian took the lead bravely, and he shouted: "Slave! We were summoned by the emperor. The emperor has already passed away, so what are you trying to do when you stop here!" After the servants were dismissed, everyone had to enter.
After the crying was over, the officials realized that they had not seen the crown prince.Liu Yixiu, the second assistant, hurriedly asked the inner eunuch nearby, "The crown prince should weep before the death of the saint, why is he not here?" The supervisor Wang An came up and whispered: "It was Li Xuanshi who hid it." Liu Yixiu shouted: "Who is bold, dare to hide the new emperor!" Wang An hurriedly said: "Don't worry, list Stand here and wait for me to go in and take a look."
Wang An went inside to meet Li Xuanshi, and told her the importance of having the support of the officials, and that it was inevitable for the crown prince to meet the officials.Li Xuanshi was moved by him for a while, and he handed over Zhu Youxiao to Wang An.But suddenly he felt that something was wrong, and he was busy trying to pull him.Wang An grabbed Zhu Youxiao, dodged the pull, and rushed outside.All the ministers waiting outside shouted "Long live" when they saw it, with Liu Yixiu on the left and the British Duke Zhang Weixian on the right holding the crown prince's hands and helping him onto the imperial chariot parked outside the palace .At this time, shouts of "Brother is back, brother is back" were constantly heard in the palace, and several groups of servants chased him out, trying to snatch him back.Liu Yixiu leaned close to the imperial chariot and walked quickly, fending off three groups of chasing servants in a row.He escorted the crown prince to the Wenhua Palace, and all the officials waiting there saluted "Long live", and immediately made the crown prince the prince of the East Palace.So far, in the competition between the ministers and Li Xuanshi, the ministers won the first round.
After the registration of the East Palace was completed, Li Xuan still sent people to urge the newly registered crown prince to return to Qianqing Palace.Liu Yixiu announced to everyone: "You can't go to the Qianqing Palace. Your Highness will live in the Ciqing Palace for the time being." Zhu Youxiao, who had just been made the prince, was very afraid of Li Xuan's servant and was very satisfied with this announcement.Liu Yixiu said to Wang An again: "Your Majesty is young and has no queen mother. We will take care of the affairs of the outer court. The daily life in the palace will be a burden to you." She was extremely resentful for insulting Wang Xuanshi to death, so she readily agreed and was willing to help the new crown prince with all her strength.
The crown prince has been established, and the next step is to agree on the date of enthronement.In this regard, opinions are quite different. Some advocate that it should be done as soon as possible, and the enthronement ceremony can be held at noon of the same day; It's good when things are ready.Yang Lian is a person who advocates delaying the process. He thinks that his father's funeral has not yet been settled, so he is busy getting the crown to the court, and it seems that there is something wrong with the ceremony.His proposition was naturally not appropriate in terms of the situation at the time.Because, although the crown prince has been established, it was established by the officials using extraordinary means, which is not in line with the formal etiquette, and the foundation is not strong, so it is the best policy to ascend the throne as soon as possible.Otherwise, with long nights and many dreams, it is hard to say that there will be unexpected changes.Yang Lian obviously didn't expect this.Zuo Guangdou was so angry that he spat at him and cursed: "It won't help if you die, you will have enough meat to eat!" Finally, everyone agreed that he should ascend the throne on the sixth day of the lunar month, but Li Xuan must be driven out of the Qianqing Palace in advance. Only then is it more glorious and dignified.Such a move to expel Li Xuan waiter began, and all the ministers handed out notes one after another, asking Li Xuan waiter to obey the public opinion and leave the palace as soon as possible.All the ministers also discussed the reason why Li Xuanshi must move out of Qianqing Palace.Among these essays, Yushi Zuo Guangdou's essays are the most pertinent.He said: "The selection of servants is neither the aunt's mother nor the biological mother. It seems to live in the main palace, and His Highness is retreating to the charity celebration. He is not allowed to hold a few feasts and perform big ceremonies. What is his name? Virtue, there is no kindness in nurturing Your Highness, how can such a person be entrusted to a holy man? And His Highness is sixteen years old, and he is supplemented by loyalty, honesty and sincerity, and he is supplemented by Gong Guqing, so why worry about lack of people? You still have to be breastfed and swaddled! Kuang Ruizhe just opened up, and it’s time to see what you want, why should you entrust it to a woman? It’s not too early to make a decision. I will use the name of support to practice autocratic reality, and the disaster of the Wu family Goodbye today, there will be those who can’t bear to speak in the future.”
At this time, Li Xuanshi was planning countermeasures with her left and right in the Qianqing Palace.Li Jinzhong, her confidant and servant, believes that she must always try to keep the crown prince in her hands.He also said that Minister Li Xuan could send an order that anyone who has a playbook should be sent to Qianqing Palace first, and then transferred to Ciqing Palace from here.That's how you get the hang of it.This Li Jinzhong was the later mighty Wei Zhongxian. When he first entered the palace, he used the name "Li Jinzhong".Among the batches of internal prisons chasing after Zhu Youxiao, Li Jinzhong was also the one who contributed the most.Seeing Zuo Guangdou's prose that denounced it as Empress Wu, Li Xuanshi was extremely angry, so Li Jinzhong offered another suggestion, asking her to summon Zuo Guangdou and kill him as a show to make an example.But no matter how they summoned Zuo Guangdou, Zuo Guangdou categorically refused, saying: "I am a judge of the emperor, and I cannot go without the emperor's summons. What would I do in my life!" This plan failed, and Li Jinzhong planned to trick Zhu Youxiao into Qianqing Palace, if he can control him by his side, not only Zuo Guangdou can be killed, but also he can listen to politics behind a curtain.They tried their best to realize these schemes, but not only failed, but also the orders to force them to move out of the Qianqing Palace kept coming, and the other side forced them to the head.
Li Xuan waiter Li Xuan used the method of "delaying" to deal with her moving the palace.She doesn't say no, but she always hangs on, and keeps asking people to say that a reprieve is necessary, hoping that things will change over time.Chief Assistant Fang Congzhe is the person she places her hopes on.On the surface, Fang Congzhe also insisted on moving the palace, but he also advocated not to push too hard, it might as well take it easy.It was delayed until the fifth day of September, and it was already at the last juncture. The new emperor would ascend the throne tomorrow, but the Qianqing Palace still did not give up.At this point, the officials were so angry that they flocked outside the Qianqing Palace, clamoring for Li Xuanshi to leave as soon as possible.At this time, Fang Congzhe was still persuading everyone, thinking that it would be fine if it was a little later.The second assistant Liu Yixiu couldn't hold back any longer. He quoted a story from the Wanli period: "The benevolent sage is the aunt's mother, and she is moved to celebrate; the kind sage, the birth mother, is also moved to kindness. When is today, can you wait?" Yang Lian also said: "Yesterday, the eldest son of the emperor can still live in the crown prince's uterus. Tomorrow, he will live in the crown prince's womb to avoid people in the palace? Even if the Virgin Mother of the two palaces is present, he should follow the son after the death of the husband. Whoever you choose to serve, how dare you That's how you bully me!" At this time, Li Xuanshi continued to send people to investigate the situation, and even ordered people to spread a rumor that Li Xuanshi was also one of the people who took care of his fate, and it was not unfounded to hand over the new emperor to her.Yang Lian sternly reprimanded those who said this, and asked them: "Are you eating Li Jialu? Unless you kill me, I will not move today, and I will not die!" Liu Yixiu, Zhou Jiamo and others also followed suit. Rebuking those people, the noise went straight to the depths of the palace.Li Xuanshi was frightened by this momentum, so he had no choice but to agree to move to the palace. In a hurry, he left Qianqing Palace that day and moved to Renshou Palace to live temporarily.Therefore, the new emperor can ascend the throne as scheduled and live in this place.Originally, the matter of moving the palace could be concluded at this point, but because the time for moving was too tight, there were many side issues, so the matter of moving the palace finally became a case of moving the palace.
Because the time for relocation was too urgent and the situation was very chaotic, some servants took the opportunity to steal the secret treasures of the inner palace and took them as their own.Because the gold treasure hidden in his arms was too heavy, someone fell outside the Qianqing Palace and scattered the gold treasure all over the ground, revealing the theft.At that time, servants Liu Xun, Liu Chao, Tian Zhao, etc. were captured. Later, Wang Yongfu, Yao Jinzhong, Jiang Sheng, Zheng Wenshan, Liu Shangli and many others were arrested, all of whom were Li Xuanshi's close servants.
The new emperor Zhu Youxiao was also endowed with the habit of his grandfather and father being greedy for money. He was very angry at all the people taking advantage of the chaos and stealing treasures, and immediately ordered these people to be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for severe punishment.These servants are already rich and powerful, and have a lot of Austrian aid. When they arrived at the Ministry of Punishment, they managed up and down, but nothing happened. They also spread rumors that the new emperor treated the concubines of the previous dynasty too poorly, as a counterattack.The palace servants and eunuchs served by Li Xuan were also very dissatisfied due to their sudden loss of power, so they made more publicity about it, and there was a lot of complaints inside and outside the palace for a while.In addition, Yang Lian, who contributed the most to the transfer of the palace, was also a little stubborn. After Li Xuan's servant moved away, he once declared: "The selection of the servant does not move the palace, not because of the respect for the emperor; when the palace is moved, there should be peace of mind." The selection of servants is under the protection of the princes, and no middle-ranking officials are allowed to take personal revenge." His words aggravated the rumors that the concubines of the previous dynasty were treated poorly. school’s half-sister) committed suicide by throwing herself into a well.Yu Shi Jia Jichun felt that this was an opportunity, so he wrote to the cabinet, blaming them for disobeying the former emperor and forcing the concubine to be expelled from the beginning of the new king's accession to the throne.He also listed Ming Xiaozong not offending Concubine Wan Gui and Ming Guangzong forgiving Concubine Zheng, and asked cabinet ministers to assist the new emperor, which is the law.At the end, he said more realistically, "The jade body is not cold, and you can't protect your concubine. If you are a courtier, what is your husband's heart!" The intention is to use this to please Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, so that there will be some benefits in the future.But at that time, the views of the sect were already deep, and anyone who dared to speak for Li Xuan's servants was regarded as a traitor. Fang Congzhe himself did not dare to speak out, and now suddenly another Jia Jichun came out halfway, that's okay!For this reason, Zhou Chaorui and others scolded Jia Jichun head-on during the incident, clearly calling him a traitor.How could Jia Jichun be willing to show weakness, so he wrote a letter to counterattack. In the book, there are sentences such as "the lonely emperor's eighth sister, who enters the well; the widow and the widow are not dead, and the pheasant's scriptures can't be complained", which propagates the rumors outside in parallel sentences.These two sentences of his became famous for a while, and were widely recited inside and outside the court for a while. Even Huang Kezuan, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments, was greatly influenced by it. When he inquired about it, the new king who had just ascended the throne had to come forward and issue an edict in person. Come and explain this.In the edict, he listed Li Xuanshi's various crimes, such as insulting his biological mother, threatening to become the queen, trying to listen to politics behind the curtain, and so on.He also said, "The ministers and workers, big and small, only private Li party, blame me for bowing."The decree was sent to the cabinet, and the cabinet ministers were required to draft an order and announce it.Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, thought it was inappropriate, saying that it was "a trace of Zhangfu's fault", and he used his power of rebuttal as the chief assistant to seal back the edict instead of issuing it.At this time, Yang Lian also felt that Jia Jichun's two books had a great influence, so he had to explain the inside story to the outside and clarify those rumors.So he also published the article "Respecting the History of Yigong" to explain the situation.He also said in the book, "Choose a servant to kill yourself, and the emperor's eighth sister enters the well. Why do you gossip? I dare not say anything. I would rather choose a servant today than move the palace quickly. Unfortunately, after becoming a daughter, I can read the documents alone." , It is called the matter of making the curtain".The new king issued an edict to praise Yang Lianzhi's Ansheji, and also issued an edict to prove that what Yang Lian said was true.The imperial edict also explained the matter in great detail, roughly as follows:
This edict supported Yang Lian, but it also made Jia Jichun and others jealous.Jia Jichun hid out on the pretext of visiting Jiangxi, but secretly ordered his accomplices to spread rumors, saying that Yang Lian married Wang An, the inner prisoner, and wanted to be appointed as a cabinet minister.Yang Lian is a violent person, how can he bear this?On the one hand, he defended against Zhang Zhang and asked to retreat, and on the other hand, he went to wait for orders outside the city to show his determination to ask for retreat.Zhu Youxiao praised Yang Lian's honesty and since there were too many rumors, he allowed Yang Lian to return home temporarily.
In the spring of the following year, Jia Jichun came back from Jiangxi.At that time, it had been changed to "Apocalypse", and Yang Lian also returned home.Jia Jichun inquired on the road and found out that although Yang Lian was gone, his affairs were not over yet.So he didn't go back to Beijing first, and took a detour to go home first, and first rushed to pass it on, explaining why he wanted to go to the cabinet ministers.In his book, he had the phrase "wealth and power, don't listen to Zhongjuan's fall". Wang An, the inner eunuch, used this to arouse Tianqi's anger, and issued a strict order to make Jia Jichun understand the answer. What is his intention in saying this?Jia Jichun panicked, and hurriedly confessed to the Shu, saying that everything he said was just hearsay, and he deserved death.But pleading is useless, even those who Shang Shu begged for forgiveness almost offended.
Jia Jichun was punished by "expelled from prison forever".This is really a heavy punishment. Generally speaking, if one receives such a punishment, one is cut off from one's official career.But he was not like this. Four years later, Wei Zhongxian suddenly summoned him to be a reinstated official, and he and Yang Lian had another big fight for the case of moving the palace.After Wei Zhongxian fell from power, he was also sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of making friends with close servants.Only then did he die of grief.
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