Text/Big Orange
The phenomenon of fraudulent marriage has existed since ancient times, but in the Ming Dynasty, some people deceived the emperor into cheating marriage. For example, there is a story recorded in the "Wan LiYe Compilation", "In the eighth year of Hongzhi, the eunuch Li Guang, who was heavily bribed by the rich people Yuan Xiang, was elected as a donkey horse, Princess Shang Deqing, and the wedding date was a day. For the sake of the Officials of the Sect, he had to rebuke xiang for not choosing another choice, rebuke the eunuch Xiao Jing and others for not choosing a marriage carefully, and give some people a word, but ignore it. That is to say, yuan xiang, a rich man at that time, successfully entered into a marriage with princess Deqing by bribing the eunuch Li Guang of the inner palace. Unexpectedly, he was denounced, and eventually Emperor Hongzhi abolished the marriage contract and chose another horse for the princess.
In addition, The Jiajing Emperor's daughter Princess Yongchun and the Wanli Emperor's sister Princess Yongning also suffered different degrees of fraudulent marriage. Why did the Princess of the Ming Dynasty, who was a golden branch and jade leaf and the pearl in the emperor's hand, be repeatedly deceived into marriage?
Photo: Emperor Xiaozong of Ming (Emperor Hongzhi)
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, out of the consideration of maintaining the stability of imperial power, married more princesses to the sons of princes. For example, Princess Lin'an of Hongwu Emperor's eldest daughter, Princess Li Qi, was the eldest son of Li Shan, the Prince of Taishi Korea; the second daughter, Princess Ningguo Princess Ma Meiyin, was the son of Mei Sizu, the Marquis of Runan; and the fifth daughter, Princess Ru'an, Lu Xian, was the son of Lu Zhongheng, the Marquis of Ji'an.
However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent some meritorious families from relying on the opportunity to climb the dragon and attach the phoenix, taking the opportunity to expand their political power, and then having a negative impact on the rule of the Zhu Dynasty, most of them turned their eyes on choosing horses to the people. According to the "Daming Ji liturgy", "Whenever a princess grows up, she should choose a marriage match." The Ministry of Ceremonies under the Holy Decree, the officials and soldiers and civilians in Beijing, etc., have children who are several years old, have a neat appearance, are dignified, and their parents have tutors, and Xu Yubu signed up to go to the Inner House to choose. The headquarters will first select the reported sons and ask the superintendent of ceremonies to be selected at the Kings' Pavilion. ”
The "Imperial Ming Dynasty Chronicle" says: "During the reign of Emperor Gao, Princess Ma Shang was mostly filled with the sons of the princes, rather than being very old-fashioned. After the Yi Dynasty, the people were gradually elected, and even the father of the horse, if the official was promoted, was promoted to the rank of Zhishi, which was not known. "To some extent, this kind of unsure selection is more likely to be deceived than to marry the noble family before."
Photo / Stills of Jiajing in "Daming Dynasty 1566"
The Selection of Horses by the Ming Dynasty Royals probably went through three procedures: first, the Ministry of Rites issued a list of documents to publish the selection criteria, and those who should be selected could register from the Ministry of Rites and be preliminarily selected by the Ministry of Rites; second, the selection was carried out in the Hall of Kings, and the eunuchs of the Ceremonial Supervisor selected three from among the winners to become the final candidates, and the results were reported to the Emperor, if there was no suitable candidate, the scope of selection could be extended to the Gyeonggi region and even Shandong, Henan and other places; in the third step, the Emperor or Empress Dowager personally selected and approved a person as a donkey horse. In addition, before the official marriage, if the emperor finds that there is a problem, he can revoke his horse qualification and choose another one.
Under this selection procedure, many people with hearts took advantage of loopholes in the procedure to bribe the ceremonial department and the eunuch in charge, and then fraudulently married the emperor.
The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty penetrated into all levels of politics, and the selection of horses was no exception. For example, when the emperor, the empress dowager, and others did not understand the character of the horse and the family lineage, they could only inquire through eunuchs; in the second round of selection, eunuchs occupied an important position. Although on the whole, most eunuchs were loyal to the royal family, but there were not a few mercenaries. Therefore, some folk children competed to bribe eunuchs. The eunuch also took advantage of this to make a profit, and in the process of selecting the donkey, he joined hands and deceived the upper and lower levels, so that some candidates with very poor qualifications could eventually become donkeys.
In addition to the example of Princess Deqing given earlier, when Emperor Mingshenzong chose a horse for his sister Princess Yongning, it was also because Liang Bangrui, a rich son of the Jingshi family, bribed the grand eunuch Feng Bao to stage this farce of marriage fraud. It is worth noting that the cost of the eunuchs to take bribes in cheating marriages is extremely small, whether it is Li Guang, who deceived Princess Deqing, or Feng Bao, who deceived Princess Yongning, they were not punished in any practical way after the incident.
Photo / Stills of the great eunuch Feng Bao of the TV series "Daming Dynasty 1566"
bibliography:
[Ming] Shen Defu: Wan Liye, Vol. 5, Princess and Horse Re-selection, Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1959;
Gao Ting: A Brief Discussion on the Marriage of a Princess in the Ming Dynasty, Dalian: Liaoning Normal University, 2012;
Liu Shaohua: "A Treatise on the Horse in the Ming Dynasty", Journal of the Palace Museum, No. 6, 2010;
Pei Yu: "Ming Dynasty Princesses Repeatedly Cheated marriages", Government Legal System, No. 14, 2010.