Thirty-three-year-old Emperor Jiajing, stationed in Deshan, Ma Chun, silently looked at the land he once knew very well at the foot of the mountain, and once thought he would live here all his life.
No one knows what he is thinking. Eighteen years after leaving Anlu, this is the first and last time that Jiajing Emperor Zhu Hou returned to his hometown.
Behind the emperor, followed by a group of dignitaries. These five leading figures were the founding heroes after Wuding, and the famous Ming Emperor after Zhu, Cui Yuan, personally welcomed the little emperor to Beijing, Yan Song, a great scholar of Huiji.
After several years, only two of these five people can get a good end: Zhu and Cui Yuan. Their common feature is that they always give absolute "respect" to Emperor Jiajing.
People who respect others will come to no good end.
In fact, Yan Song was especially good at disguising himself, but he was finally abandoned by the emperor, because a Taoist told the superstitious emperor that God seemed unhappy with the existence of Yan Song. Of course, this is another story.
As for the other two, Guo Xun will be sentenced to death, and Xia Yan will be even worse. He will directly ask Xi Shi to behead. Countless officials were executed in the Ming Dynasty, but few people openly questioned them and beheaded them for the record.
Guo Xun is corrupt and rebellious; Xia Yan has a good official voice, and history books call him a competent minister. He's just a little rebellious. For example, he cynically refused to wear the "fragrant leaf crown" given to him by the emperor, saying that it was not something that courtiers should wear. You know, that hat was made by the emperor himself.
The rebels are dead. Even years after Xia Yan was killed, when the emperor mentioned that he was "humiliated", he still gnashed his teeth.
This reflects a very prominent feature of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty: holding grudges. This feature, when Manchu civil servants greeted him in Beijing, probably no one thought of it.
152 1 year, Zhu Houzhao, the famous naughty emperor of the Ming Dynasty, died suddenly, leaving no children. Zhu Hou _, who lived a quiet life in Anlu, suddenly became the heir of the empire. This can be said to be the result of careful selection by Yang Tinghe, the first and most important official in power at that time. Yang's first and second officials were very impressed. He lost his father at the age of thirteen, but he managed the Anlu Palace with the help of his mother and read a lot of poems and books.
When Yang Shoufu took the little emperor to Beijing, he had endless expectations for the future. Wu Yu, who has been fooling around, is the guest of honor. The new emperor is smart and correct, and can open a new "prosperous time". Perhaps it was this excessive expectation that made the wise Yang Manting and he make almost the only fatal mistake in his life, which led to the famous "big gift debate" in Ming Dynasty.
This dispute turned out to be eighteen years, which is definitely not predicted by Yang's records.
Simply put, the so-called gift dispute can be roughly divided into two stages. In the first stage, the struggle is whether the little emperor should recognize the late emperor Xiaozong as his father; In the second stage, it is considered that Zhu Xing Shiyuan, the biological father of the late little emperor, can enjoy the status of emperor in the ancestral temple sacrifice.
In the first stage, the little emperor was reasonable, although it was a minority at first: after all, the little emperor did not need to admit that his uncle was his father, whether legally or ethically. After several years of struggle, he finally won this stage of struggle and won the sympathy of most historians.
Many people later accused Yang Tinghe of being a minister all his life. How could he make such a low-level mistake, make unreasonable demands on the little emperor and start a long court struggle? In fact, although Yang's record is extremely brilliant, he is still human. He has an emotional hurdle, that is, gratitude and loyalty to Emperor Xiaozong who has been dead for many years.
According to Confucian standards, Emperor Xiaozhu was almost a perfect emperor. He not only works hard and is willing to do his best, but also is very kind to people. In the past 18 years, he has never had any minister in court, setting a record that will never be broken again in the next year. Zhu Houzhao, the only son of Xiaozong, is too abrasive. A good emperor like Xiaozong is the "last emperor", which is emotionally unacceptable to the old ministers. Letting Jiajing follow filial piety not only gives the monarch a future, but also has a strong symbolic significance of inheriting the inheritance. Many experienced veterans choose to support Yang Shoufu without in-depth thinking, which is one of the important reasons for their ideological "blind spots", and I am afraid it is also the reason.
No one knows when Yang Shoufu realized his mistake, but it should not be more than two years. According to records, in two years, Yang Shoufu sealed the gift at least four times and returned it to the emperor for approval, and sent more than 30 letters for this purpose. /kloc-The 0/5-year-old little emperor has no allies or even acquaintances. He lived alone in the palace, knowing that he would be made into a great scholar Yang, but he still wrote letters again and again, and refused to let go of thousands of letters from Minister Manchu for more than 700 days. For this reason, I lament Yang Shoufu's persistence. I'm afraid that Yang Shoufu, who was present at that time, became more and more afraid of the young emperor's insistence.
In December of Jiajing two years, Yang Tinghe resigned and returned to China. The reason for his resignation was a "trivial matter": Emperor Jiajing wanted to send eunuchs to Suzhou and Hangzhou to supervise the weaving work. Yang Tinghe objected on the grounds of "disturbing people", and the emperor insisted that his eunuchs would not disturb people. Yang Tinghe resigned in a fit of pique and the emperor approved it.
In hindsight, it really doesn't matter whether to send the eunuch or not. The emperor fulfilled his promise, and his eunuch was very honest. In fact, the eunuchs in the last years of Jiajing were basically quite honest eunuchs, and they could be whipped to death by the emperor in minutes. Compared with most emperors in the Ming Dynasty, Jiajing was extremely strict with court eunuchs.
But Yang Tinghe's anger and disappointment were not focused on eunuchs. The phrase "Your Majesty can rule the world with only two or three evil spirits" in Shangshu seems aimless and furious, but it shows his greatest despair: more than two years of practice told him that although the emperor did not form an alliance with eunuchs, he would never form an alliance with loyal ministers and old ministers, thus recreating the "monarch" in the era of filial piety. This little emperor, who is proficient in poetry and songs, has no alliance with anyone and is an out-and-out lone wolf.
After nearly 50 years' experience from 19 high school Jinshi to officialdom, Yang Tinghe, a veteran of the four dynasties, must know what kind of emperor he chose and what kind of mistakes he made. However, it is impossible to start over.
In the seventh year of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing, who won in the first stage of the debate, sternly reprimanded Yang Tinghe, saying that he should have been beheaded, saved from death and reduced to Shu Ren. In the eighth year of Jiajing, when Yang Tinghe died, he finally got a good end by leaving in time and dying fast enough. As for Yang Shoufu being rehabilitated and regarded as a "capable minister", it will be the son of Jiajing period.
No matter how many people are opposed at the beginning, as long as the emperor is willing to persist for a long time, supporters will certainly appear. This is a truth repeatedly proved by history. The reason is not difficult to understand: once the emperor wins, his ability to repay his supporters is almost unlimited. In order to support the emperor, gambling is often worthwhile.
This time, Zhang Cong and Gui Calyx, who have been frustrated in officialdom for most of their lives, are the first to stand up and support them. They won the bet, and Zhang Cong became the second courtier foreman after Yang Tinghe. At the same time, the emperor's "lone wolf" general character was gradually widely known by ministers. It's just a process of understanding, and the cost is quite unexpected.
On July 20th, the third year of Jiajing, the emperor of 18 years old ordered that all about 220 opposition officials who participated in the so-called "Zuo Shunmen's crying remonstrance" a few days ago be punished. All officials above level 4 are suspended, and
/kloc-more than 0/00 officials were stripped of their pants, even if they were handled in batches, it would take about a whole day. Throughout the day, the cries of executioners and the screams of prisoners can be heard in the Forbidden City.
On July 28th, after listening to the screams of the ministers for a day, Yunudi ordered Yang Tinghe's precious son, Yang Shen, known as "the greatest genius of the Ming Dynasty" and other seven officials to be beaten in court for the second time, and another person was killed. Young Yang Shen, relying on his own "good health and delicious food", finally got the life to go home, was sent to the southwest frontier, and began his brilliant academic journey.
The 18-year-old emperor set two records in one fell swoop, namely, the number of one-time court personnel and the number of deaths. Being beaten twice by the imperial court in nine days showed an irresistible desire for revenge, which made the princes more afraid. The dream of restoring filial piety has been largely forgotten by princes.
Among them, Zhang Cong may be worth mentioning. Zhang Cong risked his life to support the emperor to achieve his first goal in the etiquette dispute, but failed to give the same firm support to his second goal, thus giving the foreman of the third generation courtiers, the first and second records Xia Yan the opportunity to take the upper position. Rao, the emperor of Zhang Cong is don't have a feeling. Zhang Cong was rebellious, vengeful and had a rough life, but the emperor was always tolerant. Come to think of it, this is the first time to lend a helping hand in loneliness. Although Zhang Cong stretched out his hand, he didn't necessarily have other ideas, and the emperor probably knew it.
Auxiliary Xia Yan don't know whether inspired by the precedent of Zhang Cong, but also a little rebellious. The emperor sent him to the execution ground and gave Xia Shoufu an answer: "Bah!"
Zhang Cong was the only one who could get the emperor's "tolerance" during the forty-five years of Jiajing. Jie, a famous minister in the late Jiajing period, was not "tolerant". The old emperor is just too lazy to fight him anymore.
In the eighteenth year of Jiajing, when the emperor immediately purified virtue, the long ceremony had just come to an end. The emperor is the ultimate and complete winner, but his mood is definitely unhappy. On the one hand, because of his mother's funeral not long ago, he came here to investigate the feasibility of burying his mother back in Anlu. More importantly, this trip is really nothing pleasant.
First, when planning the southern tour, ministers did not object. When everything was almost arranged, the ministers of Jiuqing woke up from a rude awakening and began to talk to each other. Being an emperor for eighteen years, I am too familiar with this, so I directly hit my face:
".Green, etc. Everyone has this discussion. Why don't you say something? I have done it now, but the problem is. If you want to be confused by public opinion, think about it and don't justify yourself. "
He really saw through it and was tired of his ministers.
However, those ministers who really fight for fame and fortune have killed too many people over the years.
There are still some true "loyal ministers". Although they are not important officials of the imperial court, the way they appear is embarrassing. A sergeant named Sun Tang somehow managed to sneak into the imperial city, boarded the golden platform at the meridian gate, and sat there all night. There are hundreds of gatekeepers, but no one knows. At dawn, Sun Tang shouted on the golden platform so that the guards could find him. During the trial, Sun Tang said: "Building a temple along the way exhausted most of the soldiers and civilians, so I won't drive."
Sun Tang paid the price of his life for his loyalty and made a decision. But the emperor can't be happy about it.
Apart from The Journey to the West, Zhili, Henan and Huguang provinces all suffered serious disasters. Although in fact, Taicang Silver 202,000 is specially distributed in advance to prepare food and grass all the way, which will not excessively increase the burden on the people along the way, but it is impossible not to see the disaster along the way. In addition, officials who "don't say hello" and "don't appear in front of the audience" along the southern tour continue to be punished almost every day. No matter how slow the emperor is, it can be seen that although officials are terrified under the "unpredictable weather", the machines of the whole empire are relentlessly slack and declining, from the imperial capital to the remote Anlu.
There's nothing he can do about it.
On February 28th, Yujia was lucky in Weihui, Henan. At midnight, the palace caught fire. If he hadn't been ordered to save his life, he might have become a "Weihui barbecue". Of course, this will not make the emperor happy.
/kloc-in March, 0/9, after offering sacrifices to heaven and father's tomb, in the eulogy of ministers, Emperor Jiajing announced to the elders and children of Anlu. There is a saying in the history books that the imperial edict cannot be said to be "sincerity", but it is also somewhat dull.
"My second son-in-law Herod is here, so I was born and I got a big position. ................., I'm going back to Beijing today to have a word with you. Everyone should be filial to his son, teach his son for his father, care for his children for his elders, respect the old and love the young, be diligent in physiology and be a good person, as I said. "
Looking at Anlu's familiar scenery, the emperor said this. I wonder if he thinks that life might be better if he hadn't left Anlu and accompanied his mother to be his prince?
He said, "After Jiajing buried Queen Zhang Sheng in the eighteenth year, he stopped looking at the DPRK." According to research, this is not correct. In fact, in the following three years, Emperor Jiajing went to court, * * *-times. What's more, in August of 18, the emperor listened to the words of Taoist Duan Chao and suggested that the prince supervise the country and devote himself to practice for two years. It was only because of Taipu Qingyang's most desperate opposition that he could give up. This shows that the 33-year-old emperor is extremely disgusted with state affairs.
In the eighteenth year of Jiajing, Yang Tinghe had been sleeping under the spring for ten years. If the deceased can really "know the next spring", Yang's record at this time must be full of regrets. At that time, he took the 15-year-old child seriously and thought he was a qualified prince, but forgot that the qualified prince in his bones was not a qualified emperor.
Since Daming's uncle Prince came to his nephew and emperor in the bloody battle of Jingnan, which became the prince of Zu Er for two generations, "Prince" has become the most cautious monster in the empire. Although princes may live a comfortable life, their thoughts and actions are closely monitored. Over time, the standard of the prince has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The most qualified prince should be like this:
First, be extremely strict so as not to cause trouble, and be stingy and kind so as not to be suspected of "inviting people's hearts";
Second, never make friends with any minister or military commander, and never form an alliance;
Third, it is no problem to only care about your own enjoyment. "Caring for the world" is what one wants to do;
Fourth, regardless of national affairs, loyalty and filial piety must be emphasized;
Fifth, you'd better like to be an otaku, because you can't go anywhere.
Sixth, we still have to look at poetry collections.
Emperor Jiajing met all these conditions perfectly. His training is completely qualified, and his score is close to full mark. In fact, in a sense, he is a little different in Wang Zizhong. When Shi Zi and Jiajing were young, his father Xing even talked to him about the ability and loyalty of his courtiers. Later, the little emperor left the last bit of "kindness" to Yang Tinghe. I don't know if it has anything to do with the standards agreed in the previous period.
But these "good prince" codes of conduct, at least the first three, are obviously inappropriate for cultivating an emperor. From an early age, the emperor received education on "home country", "loyal minister", "monarch and minister", "Confucianism and law" and "benevolence", as well as education on "making alliances for the country" such as "loving virtuous ministers and distant people". At the very least, superficial efforts are always needed, not always a contemptuous face, and we can't remember the revenge of those "admonishers" without disguise.
A smart man like Emperor Jiajing should know all these things, but at the age of three, some things can't be changed if he wants to change. In the twenty-seven years when he hardly went to court, in order to stop seeing those "disgusting things", he will rule this huge empire with contemptuous cold eyes and naked political skills of "prosperity and decline".
Always said that he died in Jiajing. In a sense, this statement is just right.