Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne as emperor in 1368 A.D. and reigned for nearly 30 years. But after his death, he did not pass the throne to his son, but passed the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunwen, that is, Emperor Huizong.
watched "Mountains, Rivers and Moonlight", why didn't Zhu Yuanzhang directly pass on the throne to Zhu Di after the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao?
There are many reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang did not pass on the throne to Zhu Di.
From the perspective of internal factors, Zhu Yuanzhang's complex mentality is the main reason why he did not pass on Zhu Di.
The death of Zhu Biao, the eldest son of the emperor who was trained by Zhu Yuanzhang, brought great pain to Zhu Yuanzhang, which was unexpected, which meant that Zhu Yuanzhang's hard work was in vain. In Chinese history, there have always been only two examples of succession to the imperial throne: one is that there are descendants and no heirs. The second is brother to brother. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to concentrate the imperial power and govern the country with fierceness, he wantonly killed and slaughtered civil and military officials, and the Hu Lan case, the empty seal case, and the Guo Heng case were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang in total.
You must know what kind of people Zhu Yuanzhang killed? Either they were military generals or literati, basically they all belonged to intellectuals, that is, the "scholars" as the ancients said, and scholars have always been people who "can be killed but not humiliated", but such a killing also chilled the hearts of the world's scholars, so when there were almost no people going to work in temples and government and opposition organs, Zhu Yuanzhang almost took the form of arrest, arresting all those who were somewhat literate to work in the imperial court. In this bloody era, even if you have a body of knowledge, you are likely to lose your life, not as good as a farmer, what kind of situation is this?
Zhu Yuanzhang was a dignified emperor who relied on his strength to conquer the country, so could he not know such a situation? Therefore, 25 years after Hongwu, he dismissed Jinyiwei, which shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's heart has undergone a relatively obvious change.
At the same time, as Zhu Yuanzhang grew older, his temperament began to change, and he was sensitive, suspicious, and suspicious of the old emperor. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's temperament before, he killed so many people, do I want to set up what kind of prince and who dares to say that he doesn't dare? But the old Zhu Yuanzhang is no longer willing to kill, he hopes to govern the country slowly and violently, although Zhu Biao is dead, but Zhu Yunwen, the emperor's grandson who has received a good Confucian education, has entered Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, with a complicated mentality towards Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang carefully educated Zhu Yunwen, hoping that he can be a king of success.
In this, Zhu Yuanzhang is behind the murderous people, but he is loaded with some thoughts about the ancient historical system. As mentioned earlier, after several major cases, the famous civil ministers and military generals have been slaughtered, Zhu Yuanzhang can actually set up whoever he wants, who dares to say half a word? But he is worried that the history of the thousand years will be in the future, and what Zhu Yuanzhang will evaluate is not beneficial, since the boss is dead, he should be the second brother, "brother to brother", but the second brother is obviously not a person, although Zhu Di is very similar to himself, but he is the fourth, if he is established, how will future generations comment on Zhu Yuanzhang? Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang forgot for a while that no one in the world dared to oppose him, but he was stuck to the traditional ancient system and could not extricate himself, and under the influence of comprehensive internal factors, he leaned towards Zhu Yunwen.
The external drive is the secondary reason why Zhu Yuanzhang did not establish Zhu Di.
Since the Song Dynasty, the civil power has gradually risen in the imperial court, and in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty, this grassroots emperor went on a killing spree, killing the civil and military officials so much that they did not dare to come out, and the consequences of such killings were almost extermination. But Zhu Yuanzhang is not idle to kill, he is also building another civil team, that is, Guozijian, which is an institution that is easy to be ignored, equivalent to the "cradle" of officials in the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called Taixue and other schools in the past are different, Zhu Yuanzhang's Guozijian is based on the "Eight Strands of Literature" teaching, Zhu Yuanzhang even tore up many chapters about Confucius and Mencius, forming a Zhu Yuanzhang-style teaching style, if you are interested, you can learn about the teaching content of Guozijian at that time.
What does this mean?
It shows that in order to achieve his own rule, Zhu Yuanzhang imprisoned the thinking of officials from academic thought to better serve himself. As mentioned earlier, "a soldier can be killed, but not humiliated", under Zhu Yuanzhang's wanton killing, how to achieve self-preservation has become their unanimous interest, and on this basis, if they can overthrow Zhu Yuanzhang's harsh concept of governing the country, it would be greater.
Therefore, civil officials and doctors are also using their brains to alleviate the fierceness brought by Zhu Yuanzhang, on the one hand, as Zhu Yunwen's teacher, Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, etc., strive to educate him to govern the country with benevolence. On the other hand, it affects Zhu Yuanzhang from the side.
Here is a historical example that proves that Zhu Yuanzhang once wanted to make Zhu Di the prince. It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang asked Liu Sanwu, a scholar from Hanlin: I want to make Zhu Di the prince, what do you think? (Note, doesn't this tone say that I can set up whoever I want, and who dares to oppose anything?)
Liu Sanwu was a master of Confucianism, and he said: How can King Liyan do it? If King Liyan is established, then what should be done about King Qin and King Jin? Zhu Yunwen, the eldest grandson of the emperor, has returned to his heart from all over the world, and we all support him.
Liu Sanwu told Zhu Yuanzhang from the side that everyone supported Zhu Yunwen. Of course, this is also Liu Sanwu's heart, because if another monarch who is good at killing is summoned, the life of civil officials will be even more difficult. At that time, the civil official group, whether it was the students in Zhu Yuanzhang's Guozi prison or the civil officials in the court (the famous military attache has died) all hoped for a relatively relaxed working and living environment, who could stand the feeling of saying goodbye to their family every day?
Zhu Di was born in a martial artist, similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's personality endowment, if there was no contradiction between the ancient system of the heir to the throne in the Ming Dynasty (the second and third are not good), if there were no civil officials to fight hard, I am afraid that Zhu Di would have been on the throne long ago.
Summary: In the struggle for imperial power, the strong are respected, and the weak or not the strong will eventually become a disaster
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang canonized Zhu Yunwen as the emperor's grandson, and finally inherited the throne, perhaps out of the consideration of love for the house and Wu, maybe it was the result of the court's trade-offs, maybe he wanted to build the dynasty he created with his own hands into an elegant, benevolent, inclusive and excessive, but he weighed the choices of many parties, and in the end, instead of leaving a good country for his beloved grandson, he also attracted his own son to "rob", and the final ending became a mystery.
There is no absolute right or wrong in history, we can't say that Zhu Yuanzhang's choice is wrong, but we can't deny that Zhu Di is indeed a wise and martial emperor.