pdf-ebookys Chapter 163 Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen
Chapter 163 Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen
Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen and the Jingnan Campaign. Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen was the son of Prince Yiwen Zhu Biao and inherited the throne as the crown prince. After ascending the throne, he made a large-scale reduction of the power of the princes. After abolishing five princes in succession, the most powerful Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, started a rebellion.
After four years of fighting, the Jianwen Emperor, who controlled the entire country, lost to the Prince of Yan, who controlled only one corner of the country. He eventually disappeared in a sea of fire, and his whereabouts will never be solved. Zhu Di, who won the victory, will lead the Ming Dynasty to its most prosperous era.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he purged a large number of civil officials loyal to Emperor Jianwen, appeased the surrendered military generals first, and then forced them to death one after another after his throne was consolidated.
In order to gain legitimacy for his throne, he abolished all the policies of the Jianwen period, did his utmost to discredit Zhu Biao's line in official history books, and claimed that he was Zhu Yuanzhang's true favorite heir.
During Zhu Di's reign, he sent Zheng He to the West six times, compiled the "Yongle Encyclopedia", annexed Annan, moved the capital to the north of Beijing, and led five military campaigns in person, thus creating the tradition of the Ming Dynasty emperor guarding the country's borders.
However, due to Zhu Di's excessive military expansion in his later years, which wasted people's energy, many places experienced famine. After Zhu Di's death, the future of the Ming Dynasty seemed uncertain, and the choice of successor became particularly important.
Zhu Gaochi, the eldest son of Zhu Di, was disliked by his father because of his obesity, while his second brother, Zhu Gaoxu, was favored by Zhu Di because of his military prowess. During the Jingnan Campaign, Zhu Gaochi stayed in Beiping to ensure the logistics of the Yan army, while Zhu Gaoxu led troops to assist his father many times.
Therefore, after Zhu Di ascended the throne, Zhu Gaochi's position as the crown prince was still uncertain. It was not until Grand Secretary Xie Jin reminded Zhu Di that Zhu Di made up his mind to make Zhu Gaochi the crown prince. However, Zhu Gaochi's position as the crown prince was not stable. Zhu Di was very suspicious of him, and Zhu Gaoxu was eyeing him covetously.
Zhu Gaochi relied on his cautious words and deeds and his good son Zhu Zhanji to win the favor of Zhu Di, and ascended the throne without any danger. After ascending the throne, Zhu Gaochi corrected many policies that consumed people's energy during Zhu Di's period and eased social contradictions.
He also planned to move the capital of the Ming Dynasty back to the south of Beijing, but not long after, Zhu Gaochi died suddenly at the age of 49. The crown prince Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, and because his temple name was Xuanzong, later generations called his reign and Renzong's reign the Renxuan Reign.
During Zhu Zhanji's reign, the country was restored and the economy was developed. Internally, he put down the Rebellion of King Han. Externally, he sent Zheng He on his seventh voyage to the West. He improved the cabinet and at the same time introduced eunuchs to help with clerical work, which left institutional risks for the eunuchs' later interference in politics.
In 1435 AD, Zhu Zhanji died. His untimely death also laid the groundwork for the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
From Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Zhanji, there were four generations and five emperors, spanning nearly 70 years. Is it possible that they were all alive at the same time? Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, died in 1398, when Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Di, and Zhu Gaochi were all alive.
The problem lies with Zhu Zhanji. There are two versions of Zhu Zhanji's birth year, one is 1399 and the other is 1398. The former is recorded in the "Records of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty", which states that he was born in the year of Yimao, the sixth day of the second lunar month, the first year of Jianwen. The latter comes from the end of the "History of Ming Dynasty" and the "Records of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty", which records that Zhu Zhanji died at the age of 1398. If we calculate it backwards, he was born in , and Zhu Yuanzhang died a few months later.
Since both the Ming History and the Ming Xuanzong Shilu are official historical books with high credibility, we cannot be sure whether Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was born in 1398 or 1399. So, do you think the story of the five dragons in the same dynasty is true? Please leave your opinions in the comment section.
[How did Zhu Di win the Jingnan Campaign? Understanding the Jingnan Campaign from Zhu Yunwen's perspective Zhu Yunwen Zhu Di Ming Dynasty history]
He was Zhu Yuanzhang's chosen successor, but his uncle robbed him of the throne, making him the only emperor of a unified country to be overthrown by a vassal king in history.
So, as an emperor who controlled the central power and had absolute advantages, why was he overthrown by Zhu Di, who did not even have complete control over the city of Beijing? In this video, let us walk into Zhu Yunwen's life and take a look at the whole process of the Jingnan Campaign.
Zhu Yunwen was the eldest grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Biao's eldest son Zhu Xiongying died early. After his first wife, Empress Ma, passed away, Zhu Yunwen's biological mother, Lu, was made the legitimate wife.
Zhu Yunwen thus became the grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang. There was the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion in the Han Dynasty and the Eight Princes Rebellion in the Jin Dynasty. In Zhu Yuanzhang's later years, the power of Prince of Yan Zhu Di was already very strong. Zhu Yunwen, who was still the grandson of the emperor, was often worried about this. He asked people around him more than once how to prevent the princes from wielding knives against the emperor.
Although he promised Zhu Yuanzhang that he would treat his uncles with courtesy, Zhu Yunwen forgot these words after Zhu Yuanzhang's death. When Zhu Yuanzhang was dying, he had already eliminated all the threatening generals for Zhu Yunwen. Considering that his eldest grandson had no experience in handling affairs, he asked Qi Tai, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, to serve as a minister of state to assist him.
When he was 22 years old, Zhu Yuanzhang passed away and Zhu Yunwen became emperor. After ascending the throne, he quickly promoted his teacher Huang Zicheng to become a Hanlin scholar, and jointly managed state affairs with Fang Xiaoru. At this point, the regent team with Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru as the core was officially established.
Two months later, the first thing this newly formed think tank did was to reduce the power of the princes. Among Zhu Yuanzhang's sons, Crown Prince Zhu Biao and Prince of Jin had both passed away, and the oldest and most powerful one left was Prince of Yan Zhu Di.
As long as Zhu Di was successfully eliminated, the other princes would not be a concern. If Zhu Yunwen had listened to other opinions at the beginning, there might be no Zhu Di in the Ming Dynasty. But at this time, the other two people in the think tank put forward different opinions. Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru believed that they should go from weak to strong and also take into account the face of the royal family.
While the three idiots were arguing about this, Zhu Yunwen still adopted the opinion of his teacher Huang Zicheng, who was closer to him, and the first person he chose was Zhu Di's half-brother, Prince of Zhou Zhu Su.
Zhu Yunwen sent Li Jinglong to escort the Zhou family to Beijing without saying anything, and convicted them of treason and sent them to Yunnan to be barbarians. It is also wrong to say that Zhu Yunwen wanted to abolish Zhu Yuanzhang's policy of establishing vassal states, because he made all his brothers princes as soon as he ascended the throne.
Among them, the third brother Zhu Yunhuan was still given the title of King of Wu, which violated the practice of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign that no money or grain was granted to the south of the Yangtze River for farming. Zhu Yunwen's move to reduce the number of vassal states was ultimately to eliminate the threat posed by foreign vassal states to himself.
Then he deposed the four princes, including the Prime Minister. Prince Xiang did not want to be humiliated by Emperor Jianwen, so he set himself on fire and burned himself to death. The fire not only took the lives of Prince Xiang's entire family, but also confirmed the crime of killing the princes of the clan.
The princes were of the same blood, and the princes who wanted to be loyal to the court could not help but feel sad when they saw the tragedy of Prince Xiang's family. Zhu Di also knew that he was doomed, so he began to prepare for rebellion. It stands to reason that Prince Yan Zhu Di only had a small corner of Beiping, while Emperor Jianwen, as the legitimate emperor, controlled the whole country. Zhu Di not only had no soldiers, but his three sons were also held hostage in Nanjing. No matter how you look at it, Prince Yan was like an egg hitting a stone.
But when Qi Tai proposed to arrest Zhu Di's three sons to formally confront them, Huang Zicheng told Zhu Yunwen that if they arrested his three sons, Zhu Di would know that we were going to take action against him, so it would be better to release the three children to paralyze Zhu Di. This suggestion almost made Qi Tai angry to death. After the children returned to BJ, the court received news that Ni Liang, a thousand households of the Yanshan Guard, reported that Zhu Di was plotting a mutiny. Zhu Di raised an army under the banner of clearing the court of evil officials, which is known as the Jingnan Campaign in history.
After Zhu Di started his army, he only had a few thousand people around him, so the first thing Zhu Di had to solve was the problem of soldiers. However, as the old saying goes, it is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but it is difficult to get a good general. Yan Wang Zhu Di had led troops out of the border many times, and there were many of his little fans in the army. Just by plundering the BJ area, he put together a team of tens of thousands of people. Emperor Jianwen grew up reading sage books, had never experienced war, and didn't know how to fight.
After several rounds of purges by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, there were only a few capable generals left. The most respected general of the new generation was Li Jinglong, Duke of Cao. However, judging from the final result, this man was an utter idiot. Zhu Yunwen, who was deified, had no choice but to let the veteran Geng Bingwen lead the army to attack Zhu Di. Geng Bingwen was not an offensive general and had never led a large-scale battle in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, he was old. Emperor Jianwen chose him because there was no one else available and because Geng Bingwen's son married Emperor Jianwen's eldest son.
But before the army set out, Zhu Yunwen issued a strange order: "Don't let me be accused of killing my uncle", which made Geng Bingwen at a loss for a moment, and he was defeated. At this time, Huang Zicheng, one of the three fools, made another move. Geng Bingwen originally turned from offense to defense, hoping to delay until Zhu Di collapsed, but Huang Zicheng suggested that an order be issued to order Geng Bingwen to return to the court.
In addition to not having good generals, Emperor Jianwen also had a fatal flaw when he sent Cao Guogong Li Jinglong to lead an army of 50 to attack. That was because he knew nothing about the spies around him. Zhu Di had planted a large number of spies in Nanjing, including the eunuchs serving Emperor Jianwen.
In addition, there were many people in the army who informed the Prince of Yan, and the Prince of Yan was well aware of every move of the court. The one-sided transparency of intelligence was one of the biggest disadvantages of Emperor Jianwen, which would directly change the direction of the war. As soon as Zhu Di got the intelligence, he handed Beiping over to his wife and son, and led the light cavalry to Daning to borrow troops from the Prince of Ning.
50 troops may sound scary, but excluding the logistics personnel, the actual combat force was only 50 or 50. In addition, this -strong army was temporarily assembled from the garrisons in various parts of the south, and was not adapted to the bitter cold climate in the north. Due to the lack of winter clothes and the unfamiliar climate, the -strong army was unable to capture Beijing.
During this period, someone did break through a gate of Peking, but Li Jinglong forced him to withdraw in order to take credit, and the victory was lost. When Zhu Di returned with the borrowed troops, the 50 troops of the imperial court were already exhausted. Li Jinglong hurriedly arranged his troops, but was defeated by Zhu Di as expected, and his entire army was annihilated.
Emperor Jianwen did not punish Li Jinglong because Li Jinglong was a leader among the noble generals. His father, Li Wenzhong, was a famous general of the founding of the country, second only to Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. Zhu Yunwen thought that Li Jinglong was just incompetent. Judging from the later results, Li Jinglong was quite shrewd in some aspects. Zhu Di was very proud of his victory and thought that the court was vulnerable. He quickly advanced to Jinan.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Di besieged Jinan for several months but failed to capture it, so he prepared to use cannons to force the city gates open. Tie Xuan, a member of the Shandong Provincial Council, came up with a plan to hang a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang on the city wall. Zhu Di was very angry and finally withdrew to Beiping. When he suffered a disastrous defeat in Dongchang, the balance of power seemed to begin to tilt towards Emperor Jianwen.
However, the following battle situation was unexpected. The Prince of Yan was unable to cross Shandong and march southward. Even if he occupied a city, he could not hold it because of too few troops. The court was also not doing well. The civil war had lasted for three years, and the people were suffering. Food, wages and soldiers were gradually drying up. He had no choice but to send the army in Nanjing to the battlefield. However, this confidential news was passed to the Prince of Yan by the eunuch. The Prince of Yan made a desperate move and led his army southward, driving straight to Nanjing via Xuzhou. He defeated the Southern Army in the Battle of Lingbi and captured many generals. From then on, the court had no strength to fight.
At this point, the outcome was clear. Chen Xuan, the admiral of the navy responsible for defending the Yangtze River, surrendered to the Prince of Yan and helped the Yan army cross the river. Counties and prefectures along the way also surrendered one after another. But even at this point, Emperor Jianwen still held on to one hope, which was Nanjing City.
The Yan army came from afar and did not have sufficient food and grass. The city of Nanjing was high and the moat was deep. As long as they held on for a few months, the Yan army would fall without a fight. However, Emperor Jianwen still overestimated his influence. At this time, all the civil and military officials in the court had their own ulterior motives, and they all wanted to get a share of the credit when the dynasty changed.
Except for a few civil officials who received orthodox Confucian education, there were not many people willing to be loyal to Emperor Jianwen. In June 1402, Cao Guogong Li Jinglong and Gu Wang Zhu Tan opened the Jinchuan Gate in Nanjing to welcome Zhu Di into the city, and Emperor Jianwen set himself on fire. He disappeared without a trace. Some people said he died in the fire, some said he fled overseas, and some said he became a monk, but in any case, Emperor Jianwen was indeed a dead man politically.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he abolished the Jianwen era name and all the policies promulgated by Emperor Jianwen. The family members of Emperor Jianwen were either dead or deposed. For more than 200 years, the period of Emperor Jianwen became a taboo in the Ming Dynasty. Because Emperor Jianwen's experience was too special, later generations had mixed views on him.
Later generations officially believed that Emperor Jianwen was an absurd emperor who persecuted the royal family, while some people thought that Emperor Jianwen was a kind and benevolent monarch whose throne was taken away by his ambitious fourth uncle. So, what kind of person do you think Emperor Jianwen was?
——"I feel like an idiot."
——"I'm not a smart person anyway. I feel like I've been made stupid by Confucianism."
——"How can I not lose when I'm surrounded by so many smart people?"