Chapter 116 The third section Zhu Yuanzhang's women

The resurrection and sacrificial burial system shows Zhu Yuanzhang's consistent contempt for life, especially for women's life. Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards women is somewhat contradictory.On the one hand, like all people with strong vitality, Zhu Yuanzhang has a strong sexual desire and used all means to chase women when he was young. "Stories of the Early Kingdom" records the history of his forced marriage of women: "There was a widow in the Hu family in Haozhou. The Taizu wanted to accept her, but her mother refused. Later I heard that he was in Huai'an with the army and was not suitable for others. Taizu sent someone to write a letter. Da Pingzhang, Zhao Junyong, asked for it. Junyong sent it to the Hu family and his mother, and the Taizu accepted it and made him Concubine Hu." That is to say, when he was still a small military officer, Zhu Yuanzhang fell in love with a widow and wanted to marry her. Marry her, but her mother doesn't agree.Later, Zhu Yuanzhang became more powerful, and he still couldn't forget this woman. When he found out that she was taken to Huai'an by the army, he wrote to another general, and finally got this woman. This is the later Concubine Hu.

After defeating Chen Youliang and overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty, he took many beautiful women from these two harems as his own.In addition, Yu Ben's "Chronicle Records" also records that Zhu Yuanzhang once had an affair with his subordinate's wife and gave birth to an illegitimate child: "Therefore, Marshal Wade became a beautiful wife, and was ordered to move to the back court, and he gave birth to a son named Zhu Sheng. .” Although he tried his best to promote the rule of etiquette, Zhu Yuanzhang did not care about etiquette in order to get the woman he wanted. "Stories of the Early Kingdom" contains: "Taizu chose a palace man, and he visited Xiong Xuanshi to have a younger sister who wanted to join him. Zhang Laishuo, a foreigner, remonstrated: "Xiong's family has promised to consult with Yang Xisheng. It would be unreasonable to take it out. ’ Taizu said: ‘It’s not right to remonstrate with you!’ Make a strong man smash his teeth with a knife.” That is to say, Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Xiong Xuanshi’s sister was beautiful, so he asked someone to come into the palace.Yuanwailang Zhang Laisho advised him, saying that the girl had already been betrothed to someone else, and she was forced to enter the palace, fearing that it would cause criticism.This well-intentioned persuasion was exchanged for torture. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the guards to pry off Zhang Laisho's teeth.

However, on the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang developed the tendency to despise women in the bottom culture to the extreme. Zhu Yuanzhang looked down on singers and prostitutes in particular, and ordered them to wear black clothing that marked their identity.Once, Zhu Yuanzhang gave Fu Youde a banquet, ordered Ye Guozhen to accompany him, and even allocated more than a dozen singing girls for their entertainment.Unexpectedly, Ye Guozhen drank some wine, and when she was happy, she ordered the singing girl to wear gorgeous clothes to sit with her.Zhu Yuanzhang heard that after arresting Ye Guozhen, he cut off the tip of the nose of the innocent singing girl and tied him up: "Give you a feast of virtue, order Ye Guozhen to accompany the drink, and allocate more than ten singing girls. The Taizu ordered the officials to look at them. Guozhen ordered the singing girls to take off their soap crowns and soap wipes, and wear gorgeous clothes to sit together. Taizu was angry and ordered the strong men to arrest Guozhen, chain them to the horse house with prostitutes, and the prostitutes cut off the tip of their noses."

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang’s management of the harem was very strict. From the concubine down to the maids, all supplies of food, clothing, utensils, gold, silver, money, etc. had to go through complicated procedures to collect them.If a palace official sends a letter privately, he will be sentenced to death.When a concubine is sick, she must be accompanied by many people, and can only be treated after a lot of procedures.If you get a sudden illness at night, you can only send someone to report the symptoms to the imperial physician to prescribe a prescription, and the doctor is never allowed to enter the palace for diagnosis and treatment, otherwise you will undoubtedly die.In order to suppress the physical needs of the court ladies, it is said that Zhu Yuanzhang once imposed claustrophobic punishment on the court ladies. "Er Tan" contains: "It is said that men are tortured in the palace, women are confined, and they don't know the meaning of claustrophobia. Today, it is to remove the tendons from the female (vulva), such as making horses and hogs, so that the fire of desire will be reduced. Guo It is not feasible to use this method at the beginning, but women often die more often.”

In addition to maintaining respect for his wife, Empress Ma, Zhu Yuanzhang raised his butcher knife when he was slightly dissatisfied with other palace concubines. "Records of Records" records that during the Hongwu period, there were a large number of criminal women who washed clothes in the court, serving exclusively for the palace people.Once Zhu Yuanzhang heard that some of them were in collusion with the outside world, so he skinned more than 5,000 people, including the gatekeepers who guarded them: "Suspecting that they are outsiders, more than 5,000 women were skinned and stored in grass. To show the public, the eunuch who guards the gate is like this." Even for those concubines who have served him for many years, it is no exception.

Once an eunuch found an aborted baby in the Yuhe River. Zhu Yuanzhang suspected that it was the concubine Hu Chong, the mother of Zhu Zhen, the king of Chu (that is, the Hu family who was forced to marry by him), so he hacked her to death with a knife and threw the body in the In the wilderness, let the wild dogs eat.Hearing this, the king of Chu traveled thousands of miles to the capital for the funeral. He searched everywhere for his mother's body but couldn't find it, so he had to take back with him a training stick that his mother had used during her lifetime. Another time, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious because of a trivial incident. Three high-status concubines, the mother of King Lu, Concubine Guo Ning, the mother of King Tang, Concubine Li Xian, and the mother of King Yi, Concubine Geli, were killed at the same time. People mixed the three corpses into a big basket and buried them outside the fire gate indiscriminately.After the incident, when he calmed down, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little regretful, and ordered someone to dig out the concubine for a formal burial. Unexpectedly, the weather was hot, and the three corpses dug up had already rotted. The mound is over.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang's beloved concubine ended up miserable.Except for Empress Ma, Concubine Li Shu is the highest among Zhu Yuanzhang's concubines. She not only gave birth to the prince Zhu Biao for him, but also "be courteous in everything, kind in caressing, and decisive in things." She is both virtuous and talented. , became Zhu Yuanzhang's good helper, helped Zhu Yuanzhang manage the harem in an orderly manner, and was deeply trusted and loved by Zhu Yuanzhang. In December of the 30th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang got a serious illness. The symptoms were very dangerous. He thought that he would not survive this time, so he sent someone to call Concubine Li Shu to the hospital bed and said to her: You have followed me for more than a century ( Twelve years, refers to the time since she was canonized as concubine Shu and took charge of Liugong affairs), she has been waiting on her left and right day and night, taking care and effort.You go to meet the two elder brothers and show your brotherhood to the best of your ability!

Concubine Li Shu immediately understood that she was told to die before Zhu Yuanzhang.The reason for receiving this "special grace" alone is very simple, because she is too capable, and Zhu Yuanzhang worried that she would interfere in politics after his death.The shrewd and capable Concubine Li Shu immediately understood what was going on, sobbed and said: "The concubine knows, so let me die, why see my brother!" After saying that, she went back to the palace and hanged herself. However, after getting rid of Concubine Li Shu, Zhu Yuanzhang returned to health after treatment.Zhu Yuanzhang wept loudly as he caressed Concubine Li Shu's body, called Concubine Li Shu's two elder brothers to him and said, "It's not that I don't know that your sister is wise, but I'm just worried that she will perform the disaster of Empress Wu in the future, so I have to restrain my feelings and tell her to do so." , don’t think that I am a person with little kindness and little virtue.” Fortunately, Concubine Li Shu died a year early, and Zhu Yuanzhang died a little over a year later.Even if she did not die more than a year ago, she definitely could not escape the great burial after Zhu Yuanzhang's death.