Chapter 73 The emperor will also "strike"

Ming Shenzong's lifetime rule has been divided into three stages by historians: the first ten years of hard work, the middle ten years of hard work and laziness, and the last nearly thirty years of "ignoring everything".However, Zhang Juzheng's hard work in the first ten years is probably due to Zhang Juzheng, so once the emperor himself takes charge, his lazy nature will be revealed immediately.However, although there are many lazy emperors, they "don't care about everything", and the majestic emperor actually "strikes", but it is also a shocking thing.It turned out that this was related to a major event in the Shenzong dynasty, "the struggle for the foundation of the country".

The so-called "national foundation" refers to the candidate for the prince.For the feudal dynasty of "Family World", the heir to the throne is a very critical issue, which can be regarded as the foundation of the country, so it is called "the foundation of the country".Generally speaking, the principle of establishing a prince is that there is a heir to establish a heir, and there is no heir to establish an elder.That is to say, the son born to the queen will naturally be the prince. If the queen has no son, the emperor's eldest son will be the prince.Ming Shenzong's empress Wang had no sons, and his eldest son was Zhu Changluo, born to Concubine Wang Gong.Therefore, according to the usual practice, he should make this son the prince.However, the emperor favored the third son, Zhu Changxun, because this son was born to his beloved Concubine Zheng.

In the sixth year of Wanli (1578), the little emperor got married, married the queen Wang, and chose "nine concubines" at the same time, and Zheng was one of the nine concubines.The queen and queen of Emperor Shenzong are ordinary in appearance and uphold the traditional "women's morality". The emperor is not interested in her, but he loves the witty and intelligent Zheng very much. He usually stays in her palace overnight, and no concubine can match her.In the fourteenth year of Wanli (1586), Zheng gave birth to Zhu Changxun, the third son of the emperor, and Shenzong immediately canonized her as the imperial concubine second only to the queen.But this Jin Feng has aroused discussions inside and outside the court.

It turned out that before the emperor's wedding, he once went to the palace of his mother, Empress Dowager Li, to greet her. Suddenly, on a whim, he fell in love with a maid named Wang next to the Empress Dowager, and had a fling with her.Afterwards, the emperor was quite embarrassed and didn't dare to let Queen Mother Li know that she was not included in the "nine concubines" he accepted when he got married.However, the court lady became pregnant soon, and the Empress Dowager Li asked the emperor about it, but he still refused to admit it. Later, he showed a pair of dates in the "Life Note" that recorded the emperor's whereabouts, and he had nothing to say.Queen Mother Li was not angry, but felt that she was about to hug her grandson and was very happy.So the maid was named Concubine Gong.Later, she gave birth to the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo.

Even so, the emperor didn't like this Concubine Wang Gong, she was just impulsive that time.When she had her beloved Mrs. Zheng, she even put their mother and son aside.Now that Mrs. Zheng also gave birth to a son for him, he immediately made her a noble concubine, but Concubine Wang Gong, who had given birth to a son earlier, did not have this kind of treatment.So in the eyes of the ruling and opposition parties, this is a sign that the emperor intends to abolish the elders and establish the younger ones. In fact, whether it is Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, or Zhu Changxun, the third son of the emperor, they are still just children now, and they can't tell the good from the bad.Perhaps in the eyes of the emperor, it is his own family business to decide who to establish, of course he has the final say.But those ministers didn't think so. The ministers of the Ming Dynasty were deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism, and they had incomparable enthusiasm for maintaining the ritual system.Back then, he had a big fight with Emperor Shenzong's grandfather, Emperor Sejong, over whether he should call his own father Daddy. Emperor Sejong was so angry that he spanked more than a hundred ministers at the Meridian Gate, which became a shocking "big ceremony" incident .Is it just a question of addressing one's own father as father, yet it caused such an uproar.It is related to the "national foundation" issue of who will be the next emperor in the future, which naturally aroused the serious attention of the ministers. Therefore, in February of that year, Jiang Yinglin was the first to give a report in the matter of Huke, advocating that "the heir of the Yuan Dynasty should be registered as the East Palace, and the emperor should be appointed as the Eastern Palace. Set the foundation of the world".

This was naturally against the emperor's will, so the official was immediately demoted far away.However, when one person falls, tens of thousands of people follow.All of a sudden, the memorials advocating that Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, be the prince flew to the emperor like snowflakes, which made him dizzy and upset.In a fit of anger, he wished to learn from his grandfather and send this gang of desperate guys to Wumen for spanking.However, there were different opinions on the "Great Ritual Discussion" of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty. It was not without some theoretical basis for the emperor to call his father father; but Shenzong's plan to abolish the elders and establish the younger ones was not reasonable at all. Besides, he could not be a grandfather. In such a dark moment, he felt that such a violent beating was not likely to be the work of "Sheng Mingzi", so he came up with a clever plan that he thought was good - procrastination.

The emperor first advised the ministers not to worry, the queen is still very young, if she gave birth to a son in the future, wouldn't she be the crown prince for granted, why rush to have the son of Concubine Wang Gong now.However, since the emperor doted on Concubine Zheng, he would never go to the empress again, so where did the empress' son come from?The officials refused to be fooled, so the emperor resorted to the second trick. In the 21st year of Wanli (1593), Shenzong planned to make the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo, the emperor's third son Zhu Changxun, and the emperor's fifth son Zhu Changhao together. When he grows up, he chooses the good one to be the prince, so as to prevaricate the courtiers.As a result, the courtiers were in an uproar, and Shenzong had to withdraw his previous order.Later, this matter has been debated endlessly, during which many "demon books" appeared, alluding to the dispute between the royal family and the concubine, which confused the people of the world.In the end, the emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Li, came out to intervene. She asked the emperor, "Why didn't you make Chang Luo the crown prince?" , because she gave birth to Emperor Shenzong, she was conferred the title of noble concubine, and later her son ascended the throne and became the empress dowager. Now that the emperor's son said such words, he immediately furiously said, "You are also the son of a court lady!" The emperor was so frightened. Quickly kowtow and plead guilty.

With the support of the Empress Dowager Li and the pressure from the officials, the emperor had no choice but to make Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, as the crown prince in October of the twenty-ninth year of Wanli (1602).At this point, the "national dispute" has come to an end, and the ruling and opposition parties have settled down. Although the officials won the victory, the emperor held his breath.So he had a revenge mentality: Since you don't let my favorite son be the prince, then I will "no suburbs, no temples, no court, no seeing, no criticism, no speech", and simply "strike".

He wanted to do it, but first he refused to go to the court, and he refused to "call the right" ministers, so gradually even the cabinet scholars rarely saw the emperor's face; All the memorials of the ministers were "stayed in China" and were not issued.The emperor knew very well that as soon as he criticized the memorials he didn't like, he would immediately find more reasons for the courtiers to submit the memorials, and gave them the opportunity to "buy straight from the emperor".Now simply ignore him and let these "loyal and patriotic" courtiers fight against the air.As for himself, he hid in the deep palace.

This is very much like his grandfather.Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty also lived in Xiyuan for many years and did not go to court.However, Emperor Sejong was still willing to meet the cabinet ministers, and the memorial was still approved, and his purpose of hiding was to refine elixir.Emperor Shenzong did not refine medicine, so what he planned to do in the palace has become a topic of great concern to future generations. Some people speculated that the emperor probably smoked opium, lying on the couch and puffing, so naturally he would no longer be interested in government affairs. It is said that he even named opium "Fushou Gao".Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the import of opium began to increase, and the import tax on it began in the seventeenth year of Wanli (1589).After the excavation of the Dingling Mausoleum, Shenzong's bones were tested, and they really contained morphine.However, although opium was introduced to China at that time, it was generally used as medicine and was very expensive. It was said at the time that "its price is as high as gold."Whether the emperor became addicted to opium or not is difficult to determine.However, when it comes to opium, it is said that it is "used by ordinary people in the house". I am afraid that this is the reason why the emperor likes "fushou ointment".

Ming Shenzong was addicted to wine and sex, which was also confirmed by the memorials of the ministers.For example, in the seventeenth year of Wanli (1589), Luo Yuren, the left commentator of Dali Temple, wrote the famous "wine, sex and wealth" book.Among them, the emperor's "love for sex" was mentioned, saying that he was not only obsessed with Concubine Zheng, but also raised "ten handsome men" and became gay.However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty when Shenzong became emperor, the social atmosphere was already quite "open", and indulging in sex and sex became a temporary fashion, and the pursuit of wine, sex and wealth was also regarded as human nature. This point is vividly demonstrated in the novel.At that time, among the literati and bureaucrats, there were actually poems boasting about contracting venereal diseases from prostitutes.Moreover, masculinity was also prevalent in the Ming Dynasty. The novelist Feng Menglong once edited a book "The History of Love" to collect love stories from ancient times to the present. If you have hobbies like this, it’s not just love.” From this point of view, Emperor Shenzong’s behavior is not too much, and compared to Ming Wuzong’s jaw-dropping riots, he is still honest.However, no matter what he was doing in hiding in the palace, this irresponsible "strike" had brought fatal consequences.According to records, by the 30th year of Wanli (1602), the phenomenon of official vacancies in Dingling was already very serious.This year, the southern and northern capitals lacked three ministers and ten ministers; all localities lacked three governors, sixty-six officials such as chief ministers and inspectors, and twenty-five prefects.According to the normal establishment, there should be 12 ministers and 24 ministers in the six divisions of the South and North Beijing, and there is a total shortage of nearly one-third at this time.By the thirty-fourth year of Wanli (1606), half of the important officials of the Central Nine Ministers were vacant, and some government offices had no one.In the 40th year of Wanli (1612), only Ye Xianggao was left in the cabinet, Zhao Huan was the only Liuqing, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate had no official officials for eight consecutive years.The civil service group was almost paralyzed.At this time, the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse. On July 21, the forty-eighth year of Wanli (1620), Ming Shenzong died of illness, and was buried in Dingling in October. In May 1956, the Chinese archaeological team began to excavate Dingling. In September 1959, the Dingling Museum was established.