According to the general view of historians, there were fewer good emperors and more bad emperors in the Ming Dynasty, and Hongzhi should be a better emperor.
Hongzhi emperor's childhood experience was very tragic. His mother, Ji Fei, was a humble maid-in-waiting. She was once loved by the emperor and was pregnant.
This emperor is Zhu Jianshen, the Emperor of Chenghua. Zhu Jianshen's father is Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, who starred in The Change of Civil Fort. This Zhu Qizhen once did one thing. For hundreds of years, China people have always remembered his name, that is, eunuch Wang Zhen, which led to the "change of civil castles" and brought great humiliation and harm to the empire. Later, he was released by Mongols and returned to Beijing. He did two more things: the most notorious thing was to kill Yu Qian, who made great contributions to the country and the nation; Another thing is very boring, that is, he refused to admit that his own brother was emperor for eight years and was not allowed to enter the royal cemetery after his death.
Perhaps for these reasons, when Emperor Zhu Jianshen arrived, his marriage went wrong.
When Zhu Jianshen was a prince, he was kept in the cold palace because of his father. At that time, only a maid-in-waiting surnamed Wan took care of him. The maid-in-waiting gave Zhu Jianshen meticulous care and care, and gave Zhu Jianshen incomparable warmth when she was a child.
After the restoration of Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Jianshen was re-established as a prince and later became Emperor Chenghua. However, no matter how his status changes, he will never forget the maid-in-waiting who is 19 years older than him. Finally, Zhu Jianshen found her and accepted her as Wan Guifei. Love is profound and life has not changed.
However, this Wan Guifei is not a good person.
She was deeply loved and in power, and almost monopolized the emperor's sexual life by herself. And this person is narrow-minded and jealous of others. She once gave birth to a son, but he died soon. From then on, almost all the concubines and their children who were pregnant or gave birth in the harem were killed by her.
As mentioned earlier, after Ji became pregnant, she sent eunuchs to force Ji to take the abortifacient, but the child was fatal and was not killed. So the eunuch found the queen and quietly hid Ji in the cold palace. In this way, until the child grows up to 5 years old, others don't know his existence.
One day, when Emperor Chenghua was combing his hair, he touched his heart and suddenly said to himself, "I am old and have no children!" " "The eunuch suddenly knelt down and told the emperor the truth. Emperor Chenghua was very excited when he learned that he had a son, and summoned his son whom he had never met before. When the little prince jumped in front of him, Emperor Chenghua excitedly announced that he had become a prince.
However, as a prince, life is still difficult, and he must always be on his guard against Wan Guifei. Whatever Wan Guifei gave him, he didn't want it. Wan Guifei asked him why, and he said he was afraid of poison. It is said that it was this sentence that made Wan Guifei cry in front of the emperor, and then announced the full opening of the emperor's sexual life.
Perhaps because of his painful childhood experience, hongzhi emperor loved Zhu Houzhao very much, and he was the only son at that time and the only heir to the throne of the Ming Empire.
We don't know to what extent hongzhi emperor doted on Zhu Houzhao, but from the vertical comparison, Zhu Houzhao is very talented among the emperors of 10 in the Ming Dynasty so far, but in terms of cultural accomplishment, knowledge and education, it may be second only to the later Apocalypse Emperor Zhu Youxiao.