In the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1698), Kangxi toured the south, and he specially went to the southern foothills of Zhongshan in Nanjing to pay homage to the Ming Tomb. In front of Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum, the Kangxi Emperor performed three prostrations and nine prayers, and he not only affirmed Zhu Yuanzhang's merits, but also Zhu Yuanzhang erected a stone stele, known as: Zhilong Tang Song.
Kangxi's move not only attracted Han scholars, but also greatly comforted many people who had their hearts for the Ming Dynasty. Subsequently, Kangxi stated:
After the visit to the Ming Dynasty, the number of the ancient three Ke, and the grace of the Mongols after the Yuan Dynasty, were not replaced as proof, and the world did not fail to hear and righteousness...
"Three Ke" is a kind of ceremonial system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the Zhou Dynasty was established, the descendants of the three dynasties of the previous dynasty were crown princes, called "Three Ke". This is similar to cao pi after establishing Cao Wei, feng Han Xian emperor as the Duke of Shanyang, Sima Yan usurped Wei, and feng Cao Yan as the king of Chen Liu, showing respect for the previous dynasty.
The meaning of Kangxi's words is that he will find the descendants of the Ming dynasty royal family, perform the "Three Ke" ceremony to them, and give them knighthoods. At that time, when everyone in the world heard that Kangxi was so generous, they all believed it to be true. Unexpectedly, 9 years later, when Kangxi caught the "Third Prince of Zhu", his approach was extremely disappointing. Kangxi did not perform the "Three Ke" rituals to Prince Zhu San, but instead broke his promise and directly killed him and then quickly. Poor Prince Zhu San, who is already a 75-year-old old man, has no strength to resist and can only lead the neck to be killed.
In this article, the author will take you to understand the third prince of Zhu, hoping to read an extraordinary history through the fate of this subjugated prince.
First, the Son of Heaven guards the gate of the country, and the Prince falls into the rivers and lakes
The third prince of Zhu was the son of Emperor Mingsizong Zhu Youjian (Emperor Chongzhen), and his specific name is slightly disputed in historiography. According to the Qing Shilu, when the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644, a total of three princes escaped, namely the crown prince Zhu Cijiong, the third son Zhu Cijiong, and the fourth son Zhu Cijiong. But in fact, according to the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes", Zhu Cizhao was dead, and it was not Zhu Cihuan who escaped at that time, but the fifth prince Zhu Cihuan.
Because of the different methods of the ordinal teeth, there are many contradictions in various historical records. Both Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cihuan were once known as the Third Prince of Zhu. In this article, I adopt the statement of the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes", because in the Kangxi Dynasty, Zhu Cihuan personally admitted that he was the "Third Prince of Zhu" that the Qing court had been looking for for many years.
Regarding Zhu Cihuan's fate, we must also start from the end of the Ming Dynasty.
In February 1644 (the seventeenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty), Li Zicheng invaded Hebei, and the Ming Dynasty was already in danger. The Chongzhen Emperor summoned the soldiers and horses of the world to serve the king, but there were very few responders. At that time, Li Banghua, the capital of Zuo, pleaded with Chongzhen to move south and sent the crown prince Zhu Cixi to Nanjing, but the Chongzhen Emperor resolutely refused.
In March, the city of Beijing was in jeopardy, and Li Banghua again pleaded with the Chongzhen Emperor to send the crown prince to Nanjing, but was once again rejected by the Chongzhen Emperor, who insisted that "the king dies in the society". On March 17, when Li Zicheng's troops approached the city, the Chongzhen Emperor hurriedly ordered the three princes to be sent out of the palace and transferred to the homes of Zhou Kui and Tian Hongyu, and wrote an edict ordering Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, to assist the crown prince Zhu Cixuan. Next, the Chongzhen Emperor took the sword to the harem, gave the concubine and princess to the deceased, and then went to Jingshan to hang himself.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, it has been 16 emperors, the state has been in 276 years, Chongzhen has been hanging since he was hanged, and the dynasty has died itself.
After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he captured the three princes for the first time. After the Qing army entered the pass, Li Zicheng was defeated, and the three princes were lost, and their whereabouts have been unknown ever since.
Later, the Ming Dynasty clan established the Southern Ming, although the Southern Ming regime carried the banner of the Ming Dynasty, but it was not united, in order to compete for Zhengshuo, the various factions fought a big battle, and later formed a situation of "four emperors and one prison country", which was also one of the reasons for the demise of the Southern Ming Dynasty. At the same time as the major factions were fighting, no one really went looking for the three princes who chongzhen had wandered into the rivers and lakes.
The most typical event is the "Southern and Northern Prince Case" that occurred in the first year of the Southern Ming Dynasty, when a "Ming Dynasty Prince" appeared in the south and the north, both claiming to be Zhu Cixi. In the end, the "prince" of the south was killed by the Hongguang Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty (Zhu Yousong), because the Hongguang Emperor called the prince of the south a fake and executed him, which also caused an uproar, and some people believe that the Hongguang Emperor deliberately competed for the imperial power of Zhengshuo and deliberately killed the true prince.
The "prince" in the north was decisively killed by Dorgon, because Dorgon did not care whether he was true or not.
With the decline of the Southern Ming Dynasty, many former ming courtiers rebelled against the Qing Dynasty by pulling the banner in the name of the Ming dynasty prince. During this period, Prince Zhu San was "used" the most times, as many as 20 times, and repeatedly stirred up the storm and made the Qing Emperor panic. The one who was most troubled by Prince Zhu San was the Kangxi Emperor.
Second, the prince comes one after another, such as false and not replaced
In the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the last emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youlu (the Yongli Emperor), was executed by Wu Sangui, and the southern Ming widows lost their main backbone, and the role of the Ming emperor quickly appeared. At that time, some people in northern Jiangsu called themselves "Prince Zhu San", and he declared that he would lead everyone to restore the Ming Dynasty, and for a time the storm suddenly arose, and many people who had their hearts for the Ming Dynasty thought that this person was really "Prince Zhu San" and came to defect. The Qing court was even more panicked, when Kangxi was young, the four auxiliary ministers rushed to gather three large armies, a total of 110,000 to recruit "Zhu San Prince", the result of which "Zhu San Prince" was vulnerable, and finally captured alive, after interrogation, this person's name was Zhou Li, just an anti-Qing person.
After Zhou Wei was exposed, the Qing court was greatly relieved, and the people were also greatly relieved, because Zhou Wei was fake, which meant that the real Prince Zhu San might still be alive.
In the second year (the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty), another "Third Prince of Zhu" appeared in Zhending, who had already been premeditated at first glance, and not only had a huge momentum, but also wantonly awarded knighthoods. After Ao Bai heard about it, he personally sent troops to suppress it, and the final result was that this person was not surnamed Zhu, and his ancestors were just a merchant Jia.
True or false, every time Kangxi sent troops to suppress the "Third Prince of Zhu", he hoped that the other party was fake, but he also hoped that he was real, this complicated feeling, it is really difficult to understand.
During the Kangxi Period, the most influential "Third Prince of Zhu" was Yang Qilong. In the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wu Sangui rebelled in Yunnan, the Qing court was very passive, and a monk named Yang Qilong secretly came to Beijing to secretly contact Huang Ji, Chen Yi and others, and he called himself "The Third Prince of Zhu". At first, everyone did not believe it, but Unexpectedly, Yang Qilong took out the seal and clothes of the Ming Dynasty prince, and at this point, everyone was convinced.
The Qing History Manuscript and the Biography of Ekson records:
In the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wu Sangui rebelled, the Beijing master heard the change, and There was Yang Qilong, who falsely called himself the Prince of Zhu San, privately changed Yuan Guangde, and called his apprentice "Zhongxing Officers and Soldiers", wrapped his head in white and covered in red, plotting rebellion. His disciples Huang Ji, Chen Yi and more than thirty other people, Juzheng Yellow Banner Zhou Gongzhi family, Gongzhi, Cheng'en Bo Quan Bin Ziye, Jiagulou West Street.
Yang Qilong was an excellent "actor" who used his identity as "Prince Zhu San" to attract nearly 20,000 people in two years, and all his followers never doubted his identity. Later, Yang Qilong declared himself emperor, changed his name to Yuan Guangde, and directly led the crowd into the Qing Dynasty Lord's family, with great momentum. Finally suppressed by The Combined Forces of Mingzhu and Tuhai, Yang Qilong fled all the way to Shaanxi, still with a large number of followers around him. Yang Qilong was active in the Qing Dynasty for 7 years, until the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, when he was arrested in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, he still insisted that he was the "Third Prince of Zhu". Later, the Qing court asked the old lady of the Ming Imperial Palace to identify him, and only then did it know that he was impersonating.
It turned out that Yang Qilong's aunt had been a maid in the palace, and during the chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty, she took away the seal and clothes of the crown prince. After his aunt's death, Yang Qilong felt that it was profitable, so he falsely claimed to be the third prince of Zhu. Thus began a "vigorous" career.
Although Yang Qilong was fake, he completely sounded the alarm bell of Kangxi, because Kangxi knew that if he did not find the real Prince Zhu San, he did not know when there would be more "Yang Qilong".
Therefore, in the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, when Kangxi visited the Ming Tomb, he announced to the people of the world that he was looking for the descendants of the Ming Dynasty royal family, and promised to treat them with the courtesy of "Three Ke". Kangxi's move, which seems to be well-intentioned, is actually more like a scam.
Three, three times to change his surname, tossing and turning bitterly drifting to zero
Kangxi had always wanted to capture Prince Zhu San, but where was the real Prince Zhu San? This is about reopening a new story.
In the twenty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, a reader named Li Liyuan in Penglai met a scholar surnamed Zhang at a banquet. The two saw each other very happily, Zhang Shusheng claimed to be the Xi Xi of Zhang Yuanwai's family next door (a teaching gentleman hired by a large family for their children), Li Li did not doubt that he had him, and when he saw Zhang Shusheng talking funny and knowledgeable, he invited him to take time to be a guest at home and became a friend from then on.
The good times were not long, the two interacted for half a year, one day, Zhang Shusheng suddenly hurried to resign, saying that his wife and children were in difficulty in life, and his salary as Mr. Xixi here was not high, so he simply took his wife and children home to find another way out. Li Liyuan listened, expressed understanding, and very generously sent him a lot of travel expenses.
After 13 years, that is, in the year of Chengzi (kangxi thirty-five years), Li Liyuan served as the commander of Raoyang County, and suddenly a friend surnamed Zhang came to visit, Li Liyuan looked at it, it turned out to be Zhang Shusheng whom Penglai knew, but because it was the Dzungar rebellion at that time, Li Liyuan wanted to raise military supplies for the imperial court, so there was no time to talk with old friends, only a quick glance.
After another 10 years, in the forty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (the year of Chengshu), Li Liyuan resigned and returned to his hometown in Penglai, and Zhang Shusheng suddenly came to visit. Zhang Shusheng said that his hometown was flooded, so he came to defect and begged Li Liyuan to help recommend a school to make ends meet. Li Liyuan said: "It just so happens that several grandchildren in my own family are the age of enlightenment, so you might as well stay in my home and help me." Zhang Shusheng was overjoyed, so he stayed in the Li family and served as Mr. Xixi for Li Liyuan for two years.
Two years later, in the forty-seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Liyuan was playing chess with Zhang Shusheng when suddenly a group of officers and soldiers rushed into their homes and, without saying a word, tied up the two and sent them to the provincial capital for trial. Li Liyuan had once been a county order, but he really didn't know what he had done, and he cried out that he had been wronged. Unexpectedly, a high-ranking general came from behind, and the general asked Li Liyuan:
"Ru Jia Shu Master in the south surname Wang, Shandong surname Zhang, Ru do not know? Er read books as an official, when he knows the law, why hide Zhu Mou as a misdeed? ”
This means that you are also a scholar and an official, and you are familiar with the law, so why are you harboring the court to commit crimes? Your family's Mr. Xi Xi is surnamed Wang in the south and Zhang in Shandong, don't you know?
After some explanation from the general, Li Liyuan knew that this Zhang Shusheng in his family had another identity. So he asked Zhang Shusheng, who was tied up next to him: "Who are you?" ”
Zhang Shusheng saw that the matter had reached this point, and there was no point in concealing it, so he told him:
"I am the first emperor of the dynasty, Zhu Cihuan, the original emperor, and to this day, I have to say the truth."
After listening to this sentence, Li Liyuan was almost scared to death, he knew that as long as he got involved with this person, he couldn't wash it up.
Fourth, a 75-year-old man, hidden for 64 years
Zhu Cihuan was born during the Chongzhen period, and the day he was arrested was the forty-seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty, when Zhu Cihuan was 75 years old and dying of old age.
According to Zhu Cihuan's confession, after Li Zicheng invaded the capital, he and his brothers were separated.
"In the last year of Chongzhen, the thieves besieged the capital, and the former emperor handed me over to the internal officials of the king and hid the people. The city was destroyed, Wang Xianzhi broke into thieves, and broke into and handed over to General Du. Soon, Wu Sangui and the soldiers killed the thieves and ran away, and one of the thieves, a general, took me to Henan, abandoned his horse and bought cattle..."
At that time, Chongzhen handed Zhu Cihuan over to a eunuch surnamed Wang, who gave him to Li Zicheng in order to ask for credit. Later, Li Zicheng was defeated, zhu Cihuan escaped, and met a general surnamed Mao. General Mao was originally a member of Li Zicheng's camp, and after learning of Zhu Cihuan's identity, he fled with Zhu Cihuan to Henan, abandoned his horse to buy cattle, and spent more than a year in anonymity in Henan.
After the Qing army entered the customs, it intensified the search, and General Mao, fearing that he would implicate himself, left some silver for Zhu Cihuan and fled alone. Zhu Cihuan was only 13 years old at the time, and he begged all the way to Fengyang, the ancestral land, where he met a Ming Dynasty king Yushi. When Wang Yushi saw Zhu Cihuan, he "took the hand and wept bitterly and stayed in his family", and from then on, Zhu Cihuan changed his surname to Wang, changed his name to Wang Shiyuan, and studied with the children of the Wang family. About five or six years later, Wang Yushi died of illness, and Wang's sons did not dare to take Zhu Cihuan in, so they invited him to go out. Zhu Cihuan was already eighteen or nineteen years old at the time, and after leaving the Wang family, he decided to become a monk.
After traveling to Zhejiang, zhi yi gu cha, there were Yu Yao people surnamed Hu, also eunuchs, occasionally came to the temple, talked with me about the scripture papers, and was surprised: "Zi Cai learned like this, what is flowing in the empty door?" "He extended to his house, changed his clothes and hats, and persuaded him to grow his hair."
Later, Zhu Cihuan traveled to a temple in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, met an official surnamed Hu, and when he saw that Zhu Cihuan was knowledgeable and talented, he persuaded him to return to his customs and married his daughter to him. However, at that time, Zhu Cihuan assumed the name Wang Shiyuan, and even his wife did not know that he was the third prince of Zhu in the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, during the Kangxi period, there were many cases of "Zhu Sanzi" that had nothing to do with Zhu Cihuan.
After the death of his father-in-law, an old monk named Zhang Nian in Yuyao revolted in the name of "The Third Prince of Zhu", and Zhu Cihuan was horrified, afraid that the imperial court would find out about him, so he explained his identity to his wife and eldest son, and took the whole family to hide in Shandong. During this time, Zhu Cihuan briefly changed his surname to Hu, and later changed his surname to Zhang. It was at this time that he and Li Liyuan met.
Since everyone did not know Zhu Cihuan's identity, how did he expose it? It turned out that before Zhu Cihuan returned to the world, he had mentioned his origins to an old monk in the temple. Later, before the old monk died, he revealed to his own apprentice that Prince Zhu San had once been a monk in a certain temple. Unexpectedly, his apprentice was captured by the imperial court for committing a crime, and in order to atone for his sins, he provided this clue. Because Zhu Cihuan changed his surname twice and left Shandong, although the official government had clues, it took more than 20 years before and after to find Zhu Cihuan's original figure. At this time, Zhu Cihuan changed from surname Zhu to surname Wang, and then briefly changed his surname to Hu, and finally changed his surname to Zhang. He changed his surname three times and hid in the folk for 64 years. If the old monk had not been strict in his mouth, he might have disappeared from the history books.
After Zhu Cihuan was arrested, the imperial court successively brought to him a number of leaders who had recently plotted rebellion in the name of "Third Prince Zhu" to identify him, and they all said that they did not know Zhu Cihuan. It can be seen that although Zhu Cihuan has been hidden for 64 years, he has indeed not participated in "rebellion" and "restoration".
Fifth, to perform the three rituals, how to break your word and become fat?
In the face of interrogation, Zhu Cihuan, who had passed the age of ancient rarity, said in a sad tone:
Now that I am seventy-five years old this year, my flesh and qi have declined, and my hair is white, but it is not the opposite of the time when the Three Jins are in turmoil, but on the contrary, it is the day when Qing Ning is fine? And the so-called rebels will occupy the city, accumulate grass and grain, recruit troops to buy horses, and build armor. Because of my years of barren rice and expensive, I taught and studied in Shandong, lived close to Tongqu, and secretly followed the Beijing master, and still dared to plot rebellion?
Zhu Cihuan means that I am 75 years old, and I have the strength to rebel. If you want to rebel, you also need to occupy the city and hoard grain and grass, I have no rice in my house, I have no fixed place to live, which point meets the conditions for rebellion?
The presiding judge was dumbfounded by the rebuttal. In the end, he had to go all the way to Beijing and wait for Kangxi's decision. Knowing that this person had not yet arrived in the capital, Kangxi ordered Zhu Cihuan's execution. In the words of Kangxi:
Although Zhu Mou has no conspiracy to rebel, he has not had the intention of rebellion, and he should plan to make a big breakthrough to put an end to the chaos.
What Kangxi meant was that although this old man did not participate in the rebellion, it was inevitable that he would have the intention of rebellion and immediately kill him to correct the situation.
As the saying goes, when there is no evidence, it is necessary to use the means of the heart. This was a common trick used by those in power, and Kangxi was not exempt from vulgarity.
And li liyuan, who was good friends with Zhu Cihuan, because he really did not know Zhu Cihuan's identity, Kangxi made a special decree to keep him alive and distribute his entire family to three thousand miles.
What needs to be particularly explained is that after Zhu Cihuan was arrested, there was a wife, two sons, three daughters, and a daughter-in-law in the family.
When they were arrested after hearing the incident, they all surrendered and lost their lives.
After hearing that Zhu Cihuan's identity was exposed, the six people all committed suicide to avoid humiliation. This also continues the bloodiness of Zhu Men.
Nine years ago, Kangxi personally said at the Ming Tomb that if he found the descendants of the Ming Dynasty royal family, he should treat them with the courtesy of "Three Ke", and now, when the Third Prince of Zhu appeared, Kangxi hurriedly killed him and then quickly, as if he had forgotten what he had said nine years ago.
It is one thing to win people's hearts and minds, but it is another thing to sweep away all threats for imperial power. Although Kangxi was an accomplished emperor, in the face of the country and the race, he would rather be insulted by the people of the world than to renege on his word.
No wonder Mr. Meng Sen once commented on Kangxi:
Cao Mashi called the usurpation rebellion, which could tolerate the previous monarchs. The Holy Ancestor cannot tolerate the Ming people, and he also has the view of a free race in his chest, lest people hope to return!
This means that both Cao Pi and Sima Yan were known as sinners who usurped the throne, but both Emperor Xian of Han and Cao Yan survived in their hands. Kangxi claimed to be the monarch of Shengming, but he could not tolerate the 75-year-old Prince Zhusan. This is not only the racial prejudice in Kangxi's chest, but also shows his lack of heart.
This article refers to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", "QingBei Banknotes", "Qing Shilu"
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