Chapter 115 The last dreadful command of the second quarter

Before his death, Zhu Yuanzhang issued the last order of his life: "Responsible to the concubines", that is, ordering the concubines to be buried for him and go underground to serve him.This order revived the human martyrdom that had disappeared in China for more than a thousand years. Sacrificial burial was a barbaric custom in the pre-Qin period. Aristocrats had to eat with bells and bells, and after death, they had to bring everything they liked, including beautiful maids, to their tombs to continue eating.Mozi said: "The son of heaven killed hundreds of people and dozens of widows; generals and officials killed dozens of people and several widows. Both horses and women have music." Archaeological excavation of noble tombs before the Warring States Period , It is common to see numerous martyrdom bones.

With the awakening of the humanistic spirit, this barbaric practice has been criticized by people since the late Spring and Autumn Period.The state of Qin started in the west, and its culture was the most backward among the countries. In 621 BC, Duke Mu of Qin died, and the number of people who died in the burial was as high as 177. Therefore, the people of Qin wrote the famous poem "Yellow Bird" to express their allegory and regret. meaning.Mozi criticized the sacrificial burial system as "it is a thing for the people to lose their wealth", while Xunzi criticized it even more fiercely: "Killing a life and sending it to death is called a thief!" With the evolution of civilization, after the Spring and Autumn Period, people began to manufacture clay puppets on a large scale Instead of being buried with the living, the phenomenon of human martyrdom has become less and less. Even the most barbaric state of Qin officially ordered the abolition of human martyrdom in 384 BC.After the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty completely abolished the system of sacrificial burial.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang made Chinese culture atavistic.Among the palace people, except for Zhang Meiren who was saved from death because her daughter was only four years old and needed to be raised, nearly forty other palace people and concubines who had served Zhu Yuanzhang were forced to commit suicide. The third volume of "Small History of the Ming Dynasty": "The Taizu died, and all the people in the palace were buried." The specific scenes of the burial of the concubines are not recorded in history books.However, North Korea's "Records of the Li Dynasty" recorded in detail the process of the martyrdom of the concubines after the death of Ming Chengzu.In October of the 22nd year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Ming Chengzu followed Zhu Yuanzhang's example and ordered thirty palace servants to commit suicide.The eunuch first placed several tables of food outside a large hall, let the palace people eat their last full meal, bid farewell to Ming Chengzu's successor Renzong, and then took them into the hall.In the main hall, more than 30 "small wooden beds" have been placed. Thirty strong ropes are hung from the beams, and slip knots are tied at the ends.Seeing this scene, for a while, the palace people "cryed and shook the palace", some called their parents, some called God, and a few people simply fainted to the ground.Those who were awake were ordered to stand on the wooden bed, "put their heads in it, and then went to the bed, and all died by their necks."Those who fainted were carried and strangled to death by rope knots.

"Records of the Li Dynasty" also specifically recorded the last moments of Han, a woman who was donated by North Korea.After eating the last meal, the eunuch drove the palace servants into the palace, and Han suddenly knelt and crawled in front of Ming Renzong who sat outside the palace and "resigned" with them, crying bitterly, saying that he still had an old mother in North Korea, and no one to take care of her. Begged Renzong to let her go back to the country to support her.Renzong remained silent and unmoved, the eunuch stepped forward and dragged Mrs. Han into the hall.The wet nurse who came from North Korea also stood at the gate of the palace and said goodbye to her. Mrs. Han stuck her head into the rope circle, looked back at the wet nurse, and shouted: "Mother, I'm going! Mother, I'm going!" Before he could say anything After that, the small wooden bed under his feet was taken away, and in a blink of an eye, he died in Huangquan.

The Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the ancestral system, so we have reason to believe that the martyrdom process of the concubines after Zhu Yuanzhang was similar to this.