The Ming Dynasty is a classic period in the feudal society of the mainland, its founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang is full of uniqueness, as the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang is neither a prince and grandson nobleman, nor a famous family, an orphan beggar who can't even eat enough, and then sat in the position of the emperor, but also from north to south to complete the unification.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was accustomed to a hard life in the past, was naturally very aware of the preciousness of the emperor's position, in order to ensure the permanence of his country, Zhu Yuanzhang fought corruption many times, and slaughtered important officials for various reasons to create conditions for future generations to inherit the great cause, but what Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect was that the Ming Dynasty realized the "change of ownership" just after his death.
Zhu Di, the king of Yan, seized the throne through the Battle of Jingyan, and Zhu Yunwen, the Jianwen Emperor, disappeared, and the battle lasted for four years, and finally Zhu Di became the first emperor in the history of the mainland to successfully rebel, and he stabilized the country and compiled the Yongle Canon.
But what makes people feel strange is that Zhu Di has been the emperor for 22 years and has never given birth to a son and a half daughter, and a palace maid only told the truth about this matter before she died.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen's wrong decision
Originally, the first successor of the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang's favor for him has reached an unrequited level, he was once known as the most stable prince in Chinese history, but just when Zhu Yuanzhang handed over the country to him, Zhu Biao suddenly died of illness, which made Zhu Yuanzhang sad and at a loss.
Zhu Biao's death means that there is no successor to the Ming Dynasty, and now he has no spirit and ability to cultivate a new heir, in this case, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to kill all the political teams that he had built for Zhu Biao before, and passed on the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunwen across generations.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang made a very fatal mistake, one was too confident in Zhu Yunwen's ability, and the other was too relieved of his son.
In order to ensure that Emperor Zhu Yunwen should be stable, Zhu Yuanzhang arranged all his sons as vassal kings, and called him stationed in the territory, in fact, this is a potential threat to Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Yuanzhang did not consider his son in the succession to the throne, but let his grandson sit on the throne, and those powerful vassal kings will naturally not be satisfied.
Obviously, Zhu Yunwen was also very dissatisfied with the excessive power of his "vassal uncles", but he did not choose to forbear, but directly ordered the reduction of the domain, and cut the uncle's title as soon as he became the emperor, which made the vassal kings very angry.
Many of those vassal kings who had little power but were seized of power chose to commit suicide because they were humiliated, and some obeyed the order to cut the domain in order to save their lives, but Zhu Di is different, as the king of Yan, he is the most powerful of the many princes, and he has long been dissatisfied with Zhu Yunwen, not only did he not agree to cut the domain, but also had the intention of rebelling.
In the end, under the persecution of Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Di raised the banner of Jingnan to rebel, Zhu Yunwen immediately raised troops to quell the rebellion after learning the news, and the two armies launched a big fight, Zhu Yunwen also had some advantages as the emperor at the beginning, but in the process of the battle, Zhu Yunwen had compassion.
He once ordered the army not to hurt his uncle Zhu Di, but to capture him alive, in this case, the defenders of the imperial city who were originally brave began to become timid, and were finally defeated by the battle-hardened Zhu Di, Zhu Yunwen, who swore to resist to the death in Nanjing, disappeared, and Zhu Di ascended the throne as the new emperor, he is Ming Chengzu.
The issue of heirs and years of conquest
The ancients were not filial piety, because of the limited level of productivity and slow social development, so most of the production needs to be human labor, under such a premise, the number of descendants has become a long-term pursuit, Confucius Yun, self-cultivation and family, is an important condition for governing the country and leveling the world, that is, the importance of future generations is emphasized.
In the royal family, the descendants are more involved, the talent of the descendants not only represents the inheritance of the bloodline, but also means the future of the country and the society, plus the emperor is a group of wives and concubines, and there are many beauties, so there should be many descendants.
As the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang favored his eldest son Zhu Biao very much, but he had twenty-six sons, which shows his importance to inheritance.
But when he came to Zhu Di, he was really special, he only had four sons in total, the eldest son Zhu Gaochi, who was also the crown prince appointed by Zhu Di, he was very benevolent and righteous, advocated reducing taxes on the people, and did not approve of Zhu Di starting a war, thinking that this was a move to work the people and lose money.
The second son Zhu Gaochu is a person who absolutely advocates force, and the prince Zhu Gaochi is very incompatible, he and his father Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingyan in the early years to defeat Emperor Jianwen, good at riding and archery, superior strength, I thought that he was the last successor to the throne, but I never thought that Zhu Di later passed the throne to the weak Zhu Gaochi, which made him very dissatisfied.
In addition to these two, Zhu Di also has a third son Zhu Gaosui, although he also wants to be the emperor, but he is not as competitive as the first two at all, so he has no advantage, as for Zhu Di's fourth son Zhu Gaosui died at a very early age.
What makes people feel strange is that these four sons were all born to Zhu Di when he was the king of Yan, and he served as the emperor for a total of 22 years after the success of the Jingyan Campaign, but he did not add any more heirs, which is inevitably a little strange.
For this point, many people are questioning Zhu Di's age and fertility, in fact, there is no need to doubt that Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was forty years old when he became the emperor, this age is not small for the ancients, and after becoming the emperor, many children were born, and Zhu Di was 42 years old when he ascended the throne.
This age is almost the same as Zhu Yuanzhang, so there should be no big problems in terms of fertility, so many people think that Zhu Di has no heirs when he ascends the throne because of the frequent wars.
Through the understanding of Zhu Di's life, we can know that he is a "horse emperor", his whole life has been in the middle of war, as early as when he was still the king of Yan, he has been ordered by Zhu Yuanzhang to carry out the training of the army, which is considered a basic role, because he is very good in martial arts, and was soon sent by Zhu Yuanzhang to participate in some wars.
Entering the middle-aged stage of thirty years old, Zhu Di already has actual combat experience, and the Battle of Jingyan is his most successful battle, and since ascending the throne, Zhu Di's war has never stopped.
After learning that the Ming Dynasty's first war against ethnic minorities failed, Zhu Di decided to lead the Ming army to conquer in person.
At this time, he was not only the emperor, but also a brave general who took the lead, under his leadership, the power of the Mongolian region was defeated, and even some leaders were afraid of the Ming Dynasty army chose to flee, this war directly led to the change of the pattern of the steppe region.
Under such circumstances, the rise of the Warat power, it did not care about the strength of the Ming Dynasty, and provoked many times, which became a security security hazard in the border areas of the Ming Dynasty.
According to the analysis of a person's physical endurance, practicing martial arts can strengthen the body, and proper participation in the war is also conducive to the improvement of physical fitness, but it is not advisable to become a war fanatic like Zhu Di, he launched a total of four wars against Mongolia, and each time he went in person, and now Zhu Di is already in old age.
Not to mention the fighting on the battlefield, in his current physical condition, even the bumps on horseback will have a great impact on him, so Zhu Di still fights many times when he is over half a hundred years old, which is a huge consumption of the body, which makes him have no time and no experience to have children again, such a double consumption Zhu Di can't bear it at all.
Zhu Di even dedicated his life to the war, in the process of the last conquest of Mongolia, Zhu Di relapsed in the army, and finally died, which shows that Zhu Di is in a weakening trend in all aspects such as physical fitness when he becomes the emperor, coupled with the original disease and the damage caused by the war, it is impossible to have children at all.
The truth from the palace maid
The credibility of this reason is actually relatively high, and a sentence that a palace maid later said before her death also corroborated Zhu Di's physical condition.
According to historical records, Zhu Di had a total of 12 wives and 13 concubines, one of whom was a tribute from North Korea, because of her beautiful appearance, she was deeply favored by Zhu Di, but this caused a palace fight.
Another Jia Guifei saw that Zhu Di was so obsessed with the powerful concubine and had bad intentions, secretly poisoned her to death, and the North Korean side sent a woman after hearing about it, which was not a good stubble, and finally caused a fierce struggle with Jia Guifei in the court, this matter was known by Zhu Di, thinking that the war between the two made him lose his dignity, so he was very angry.
Then a thorough investigation was carried out on the harem women, those concubines who had no heirs were equivalent to having no backers, many people were executed, and many palace maids were implicated, this palace maid from North Korea was no exception, and was finally sentenced to death by Zhu Di.
Before the execution, she said, "My own impotence is declining, so I am a young person in the temple, what is the blame?" This sentence shows that not having children is Zhu Di's own problem, and it has nothing to do with others, although this statement has not been confirmed, many people have already believed it.
It can be seen that Zhu Di, who should have had the ability to have children, launched wars many times after becoming the emperor, causing great damage to his body, so he did not have a son and a half daughter, but this truth was revealed by a foreign woman.
bibliography
[1] Ji Jiayi, Li Muhua. The Road to Success in Composition,2023,No.889(04):4.
[2]束有春.朱棣“魂牵”建文帝[J].寻根,2022,No.166(02):82-87.
[3] Feng Gang. Research on the Battle of Jingyan and the security of the Southwest Frontier[D].Dali University,2021.