The Ugliness of Feudal Dynasties: Ming
[Zhang Bangchang: I really didn't want to be emperor! #History #Great Song]
"He didn't want to be emperor? And it had something to do with Great Song! Was this Zhang Bangchang planning to don the yellow robe too?"
"Being emperor is great!"
["To prevent the massacre of Kaifeng's inhabitants, the officials of the Song Dynasty agreed under threat of Jin axes to enthrone Zhang Bangchang, a man of a different surname, as emperor."]
["On the seventh day of the third month, the Jin commander held an investiture ceremony for Zhang Bangchang. The state was named Great Chu, with the Yellow River serving as its border with Jin."]
["Zhang Bangchang attempted suicide but failed, then wept his way through the entire enthronement ceremony. He was the only emperor who dared not refer to himself as 'we.' He established no reign title, did not sit in the main hall, accepted no congratulatory bows from his officials, and observed none of the rites of the Son of Heaven. The palace gates were all sealed with strips bearing the words 'Respectfully sealed by your subject Zhang Bangchang.'"]
["It was not all an act. He truly had no choice, and was very different from Liu Yu, the later emperor of Puppet Qi."]
["On the first day of the fourth month, the Jin army carried Emperors Huizong and Qinzong off to the north. Zhang Bangchang led the officials to Nanxun Gate to bid them farewell from afar. Everyone wept aloud, and some even fainted from grief."]
["The citizens who witnessed the scene were all filled with sorrow."]
["The day after the Jin army returned north, Zhang Bangchang sent men to find Zhao Gou, Prince of Kang, and return power to Zhao Song. The puppet regime of Great Chu lasted only thirty-two days."]
["Aside from Zhao Gou, all of Emperor Huizong's sons had been captured, making him the most qualified to ascend the throne."]
["On the first day of the fifth month, Zhao Gou ascended the throne in Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture and established the first year of the Jianyuan reign."]
["Early in his reign, Zhao Gou told Zhang Bangchang that he would not hold him accountable. Only a month later, he demoted him and ordered him to commit suicide."]
["Zhang Bangchang did compromise his integrity and could not be excused in the name of public justice. But Wang Cheng, a historian of the Southern Song, said that Bangchang's usurpation came about under considerable duress. To regard him simply as a traitorous minister seemed overly harsh."]
[An idiot, an utter idiot! He actually turned down a throne that fell right into his lap and even gave it back! Too bad the Zhao Household couldn't tolerate him! This was the Zhao Household's ancestral way of doing things; they were narrow-minded by nature.]
Some emperors said: This Zhang Bangchang really was an idiot! Was the throne something that could be passed back and forth? Whether he wanted it or not, he had been emperor. Given the Zhao Household's character and the circumstances at the time, would they have let him live?
[I just looked him up, and this Zhang Bangchang seems to have been a treacherous minister. A treacherous minister this loyal is a rare sight!]
[Everyone takes turns being emperor, and this year it's my family's turn.]
Those words made many emperors frown.
That was not something one should say!
[There's no reason this realm couldn't bear the Zhang surname!]
[Zhong Hui: You stole my line!]
[Great Song had no good emperors. They were either weak or short-lived. Even heaven didn't favor them.]
The emperors of the Yuan and Qing dynasties agreed with that statement.
[I think the history books are a little false. Shouldn't the people of Great Song have hated Emperors Huizong and Qinzong for being weak and incompetent? And they felt sorrow? They must have wished the two emperors dead!]
[The Jin demanded that Great Song offer up 1,500 young women as tribute. Emperor Qinzong of Song ordered young women from respectable families seized. When there weren't enough, he even counted his own consorts toward the number. According to the records, many of the young women died rather than submit to the humiliation.]
Seeing that comment, the Emperor of Qin, Wu of Han, and the emperors in history who cared about their dignity could not bear to read on.
They could hardly imagine it. The emperors of the Song Dynasty could no longer be described as merely weak and incompetent.
Even under those circumstances, the Song Dynasty had not fallen! That Zhang Bangchang had given the throne back to the Zhao Household!
[A dynasty so spineless should have been overthrown, and someone else should have taken the throne!]
[Anyone would have made a better emperor than the Zhao Household!]
[In modern terms, a treacherous minister returned the throne to a muddleheaded ruler.]
Across the countless planes of history, countless people were amused by that remark.
[Minister of War Tie Xuan was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil and fried #History #Ming Dynasty]
Seeing the title, the Song Dynasty emperors of every generation breathed a sigh of relief.
If the heavenly screen kept harping on Great Song, it would not need to wait for foreign invaders to attack. Uprisings across the land would tear Great Song apart.
The civil and military officials of the late Ming Dynasty wore varying expressions when they saw Tie Xuan's name.
["In 1402, Tie Xuan, the thirty-seven-year-old minister of war, was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil and fried. At the same time, his wife, Lady Yang, was sent to the Imperial Entertainment Bureau and violated by government soldiers. Even his four-year-old daughter was sold to a brothel on Zhu Di's orders."]
[The Zhu family was fighting among themselves. Why did an outsider like you get involved? You dragged your whole family down with you.]
Zhu Yuanzhang: By that logic, when the Zhu family fought among themselves, the court officials should have stood by and watched the spectacle, was that it?
[He was a truly loyal minister!]
[Zhu Di wasn't a good man either. He sold a four-year-old girl to a brothel.]
[There are several accounts of how Tie Xuan died: boiling in oil, death by a thousand cuts, and, the mildest of all, beheading.]
[According to history, Zhu Di had Tie Xuan executed by a thousand cuts. Zhu Di had Tie Xuan's flesh sliced off piece by piece and stuffed into his mouth, then asked him how it tasted. After Tie Xuan was killed, his parents were exiled to Hainan, his eldest son was conscripted into the army, and his second son became a government slave and was later abused to death. His thirty-five-year-old wife, Lady Yang, and his daughter, who was only four, were also seized as slaves, registered as entertainers, and sent to work as prostitutes in a government-run brothel of the time.]
"Damn that Yan rebel."
Zhu Yunwen spoke through gritted teeth.
Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng felt the same. If Tie Xuan had met such an end, theirs would probably be even worse.
[The laughable thing is, according to some records, although Zhu Di hated Tie Xuan, he remembered his loyalty and righteousness and even praised him to his officials.]
[It really is laughable! I bet those officials looked down on Zhu Di in their hearts. You're a rebel, and you dare speak of loyalty and righteousness?]
[Yongle was a reign title used by Fang La, a rebel during the Song Dynasty.]
Zhu Di, Emperor Chengzu of Ming: A reign title used by a rebel? Those scholars were taking advantage of the fact that I hadn't read many books!
[Judging from the history books, the farther back an ancient dynasty was from us, the longer it lasted, and the later the dynasty, the shorter its reign. Aside from natural disasters and man-made calamities, I think another reason was people's hearts. The more people came to understand, the fewer loyal ministers there were.
Was a man like Tie Xuan wrong? He was left by Zhu Yuanzhang to assist Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Yunwen was the legitimate emperor, and Zhu Di was a rebel. Whatever methods Tie Xuan used to wipe out Zhu Di, they were acts of justice. When a loyal minister met such an end, who would be a loyal minister afterward?]
Seeing this, many civil and military officials nodded in agreement.
In Emperor Taizu of Ming's plane, Zhu Biao let out a foul breath.
Even if his imperial father spared Zhu Di now, he would not.
[This is what it means when rites collapse and music falls into ruin.]
[There was also Yu Qian. He suffered terribly too.]
[I don't know much about the history of Zhu Di's rebellion.]
[After Zhu Di became emperor, he turned the history books into official unofficial history. Can anything in those books be taken seriously?]
[A rebellion needs not only a great army, but also provisions, horses, weapons, and money. Zhu Yunwen kept a tight watch on Zhu Di, so where do you think he got all those things?]
[Shandong's population and economy were as different as heaven and earth before and after the Jingnan Campaign.]
[According to some records, I think it was a severe drought in Shandong that caused the economic and population losses.]
[That story works well enough to fool ordinary people. After all, history is written by the victors. Besides, travel in ancient times wasn't as easy as it is now. Many people only ever went as far as their county town in their whole lives and never even left their province, so naturally they believed whatever the authorities told them.]
Zhu Di, Emperor Chengzu of Ming: Now that's real unofficial history! They pinned all sorts of things, true or not, on me!
[When Li Shimin rebelled, he staged a palace coup at most, killing his elder brother and third brother without burdening the people of the realm. When Zhu Di rebelled, heh heh...]
When Li Shimin saw that comment, the frustration weighing on his heart began to dissipate.
The people of later generations did not care that he had killed his brothers. They cared about the common people.
[And even so, Zhu Di wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Li Shimin!]
The officials of the Tang Dynasty were delighted to see that comment.
Didn't this Zhu Di, Emperor Chengzu of Ming from a later age, know his own weight in ounces and pounds?