Yong is one of the protagonists of the Qing Dynasty court drama, because his life is full of stories, whether his ascension or death, it is full of suspense. His ascension to the throne is said to have been a tampering with the edict, and as for his death, there have been many versions.
Yongzheng can be described as a violent death, only three days from the onset of illness to death. The reason for his death is not clearly recorded in the history books, which has triggered speculation from later generations. He died violently on August 23 of the lunar calendar of the 13th year of Yongzheng.
Regarding his death, Zhang Tingyu, a powerful minister at the time, revealed some details in a book:
On August 20, Yongzheng felt a little unwell, but it did not affect his office, and Yongzheng still handled government affairs. On August 21, his health did not improve, and Yongzheng, a workaholic, also received several ministers and deployed his work.
On August 22, when Zhang Tingyu was called to the palace, he saw his sons Hongzhi, Hongli, Hongzhan and some ministers all at the bedside, and some ministers stood outside the palace and waited for news after asking for peace.
On the 23rd, the news of Yongzheng's death came out of the palace. From physical discomfort to the violent death before and after only three days, not only the princes and ministers were not mentally prepared, but no one in the whole world was mentally prepared, and the Qing Dynasty government did not explain the cause of Yongzheng's death when announcing to foreign officials, which triggered people's speculation.
Among them, the most widely circulated is that he was assassinated by Lü Siniang. Lü Siniang was the granddaughter of Lü Liuliang, who was implicated in the literal prison case and was killed after his death, implicating his children and grandchildren. Legend of Lv Siniang is the only granddaughter who escaped. She swore revenge, so she practiced high martial arts and sneaked into the Yuanmingyuan one night to assassinate Yongzheng.
Later, the Yongzheng Underground Palace was discovered, and the coffin was not opened, and the rumor that "Yongzheng was a headless corpse" spread. As a result, the legend of "Lü Siniang's Thorn Yongzheng" became richer, saying that after Lü Siniang killed Yongzheng, he cut off his head.
Although this statement is widely spread in the folk, it has been denied by professionals who study history.
There are three reasons for this:
First, Lü Liuliang did not have the granddaughter of Lü Siniang, and the character of Lü Siniang itself was fictional.
Second, the security of the Yuanmingyuan is very strict, and Lv Siniang can't fly in even if she has wings.
Third, the Lü family could not have any descendants left, the person responsible for investigating and handling this case was Yongzheng's close confidant Li Wei, who was a very hard-working official and was even more loyal to Yongzheng, and the Lü family was killed, exiled, and no fish escaped from the net, even in exile, even in exile, every move was monitored.
Therefore, the theory that Yongzheng was assassinated by Lü Siniang is purely a story. When Yongzheng reigned, he did not offend few people, and there were many enemies, which may be a statement made up by those who hate him in their hearts.
There is also a saying that sudden death is caused by overwork. Undoubtedly, Yongzheng is one of the most diligent emperors, he reigned for 13 years and only batched more than 10 million words, each fold in addition to careful reading also have to put forward their own handling opinions, quite laborious and sad.
But this was only one aspect of his handling of government affairs, and he had to summon many ministers to listen to their opinions, so Yongzheng went to bed late every day, got up at four o'clock, prepared for the early dynasty at 5 o'clock, and did not sleep enough every day.
People's energy is limited, so long-term overdraft of physical strength, resulting in a serious illness in Yongzheng 8 years. Long-term overwork is likely to cause sudden death, but that's just speculation.
It is more common to say that he died of Dan Yao poisoning than to die of overwork. Some people have counted that from the 8th year of Yongzheng to the 13th year of Yongzheng, a total of nearly 160 times of coal, charcoal and other alchemy materials were transported to the palace, an average of two or three times a month, and minerals such as iron, copper and lead were also transported. These substances were transported into the palace for alchemy.
Yongzheng's fascination with alchemy began from that serious illness, after which he began to pay attention to health, looking for alchemy masters across the country, and after finding the alchemy master, he quietly brought him into the palace, and he set up a furnace in the palace to refine Dan.
Yongzheng not only ate these elixirs himself, but also rewarded some ministers to eat, and then asked the ministers how effective these elixirs were? In order to pat the emperor's ass, the minister said that it was refreshing to eat.
In addition, there are two arguments in support of the theory of poisoning in dan yao:
One is that after Yongzheng's death, he should have parked the body in the Qianqing Palace for many days according to the ancestral practice, accepting the worship of the chancellor and others, but the body was only parked in the Qianqing Palace for 19 days, and then moved to the Lama Temple. The reason why Qianlong did this was that Yongzheng, who may have died of Dan Yao poisoning, looked ugly, afraid that people would see the flaws, so he hurriedly removed the body.
The second was that as soon as Qianlong came to power, the first thing he did was to expel the Daoist priests in the palace, and when the Daoist priests were leaving, Qianlong also warned them: There are not many things you have heard and seen in the palace, don't go out and say blindly, if I hear you talking behind your backs about the unfavorable emperor, I will definitely be rude to you.
This is worth playing, why Qianlong is afraid that these Daoist monks will go outside the palace to say about Yongzheng, I am afraid it is related to poisoning. Some archaeologists wanted to open Yongzheng's mausoleum to investigate the cause of death, but they did not open it, and the matter was closed.
Yongzheng has been dead for more than 300 years, as the final winner of the nine sons and wives, the legend about him has not been interrupted, through the fratricide to obtain the throne, he even thought of ruling for 13 years. If there is no succession, it is not so tired, and perhaps it will be able to live for a few more years.
How much difference is the value of life added, subtracted, multiplied and divided, and finally obtained?