In 1424, in the autumn of the last year of Yongle, the news of Zhu Di’s death had spread all over Beijing and frightened some of the concubines in the harem. They knew very well that they would be greeted by a more miserable ending than in the lonely old palace-burial.
Confucianism has always opposed human sacrifice, and the Ming Dynasty also regarded it as a scandal, so historiographers did not leave details in the history books, but only recorded the general situation. However, because of a loophole in the system, the whole incident was magically presented and appeared in foreign historical materials.
Back in the Yongle period, the Korean king repeatedly selected his own beautiful women and sent them to Beijing to become the concubines of the emperor (Zhu Di), and Han Lifei was one of them. Han Lifei’s wet nurse, Jin Hei, also came with her and took care of Han Lifei’s daily life. The old woman who escaped from the system loophole is this Jinhei.
From Jin Hei’s mouth, we can get a glimpse of the microscopic picture of the system of human sacrifice in the Ming Dynasty, and see the last time of those innocent people’s lives.
At that time, Jin Hei had a handful of snot and tears, because Han Lifei, the girl she brought up, was on the list of concubines to be buried! On
this list, there are more than 30 palace people buried with them (the Ming Dynasty record is 16, which may be the number of famous concubines, in addition to unknown palace maids). Some are quite famous, some are unknown, some are loved, and some are rejected. There are Koreans and Ming Dynasty people.
Seemingly diverse, in fact, they have their own common ground-weak identity. The hidden rules of
human sacrifice, women living in the palace, feel the hidden rules will only be more surprising. For example, in the rules of the Ming Dynasty, concubines with children did not have to be buried as martyrs. On the surface, this is of course an iron law, but the iron law can also be flexible.
Those powerful and scheming concubines, if they really can’t give birth to children, do they have to wait for death? It won’t. Just as the children of some dignitaries do not go to school, do their children really not go to school? It won’t. If you don’t have one, just grab one, that is, “impersonation.”. High-ranking concubines who
failed to bear children had a strong desire for children, but if they really failed to bear children, they would often take away the children of palace maids. There are more than three thousand harem beauties, in fact, even ordinary palace maids are counted. The emperor’s favorite palace maid may be targeted by crocodiles. The
terrible thing is that sometimes the emperor would act as a mastermind to help take away the children of ordinary palace maids and give them to his favorite concubines. To be deprived of a child is to be childless. As soon as the old emperor died, as a woman who had neither fame nor position nor children, and who had been favored by the emperor, she would almost certainly be included in the list of martyrs. The mother of Zhu Qizhen, Emperor Yingzong of the
Ming Dynasty, was most likely such a palace maid. It was Xuanzong and Sun Guifei, who was deeply loved by Xuanzong, who took away her children. As for whether she was killed later, or died of illness, or was pushed into the burial pit, no one knows, and no one knows yet. Similar
to Yingzong’s birth mother, Han Lifei had no power, her family were all abroad, facing inside and outside, isolated and helpless, and she had not been able to give birth to a child for Zhu Di. People like this, even if they voted collectively, were also on the list. Can Han Lifei still find a way to escape
if she is on the list of martyrs?
In the Ming Dynasty, this was almost impossible.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a road guide, the nature of which is equivalent to our present pass, on which the identity, native place, where to go, what to do, how many days to go, who the guarantor is, and the seal of the department at or above the county level are all written. Passing through checkpoints and villages and towns are subject to interrogation, which is no easier than checking passes when the epidemic is serious. And the coup is mostly prepared for a rainy day, before the court announced the list, the personnel have long been locked.
They were surrounded by high walls, calculated by their political opponents, and some of them were burdened with the expectations of their families (the family members of the palace maids who took the initiative to be buried as martyrs could serve in the Royal Guards and were called “female households facing heaven,” so quite a few of them were forced to die by their families). Under heavy pressure, they could not escape. Even if they left the palace, where could they go?
If you can’t escape, can you ask the minister for help and seek personal liberation?
In fact, Empress Wang of Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu was saved by the ministers outside the court. When
Zhu Qizhen was emperor, he went on a personal expedition and was captured by Waci. After his younger brother Zhu Qiyu ascended the throne, he was released back to China and placed under house arrest by his younger brother. However, Zhu Qizhen was restored with the support of several frustrated ministers. After he ascended the throne, he began to attack Zhu Qiyu in all directions.
Later, Chu Chi-yu suddenly “died of illness.” Adhering to the principle of “cutting the grass to get rid of the roots,” Chu Chi-chen initially wanted all of Chu Chi-yu’s concubines to be buried as martyrs, including Empress Wang, whom we mentioned above. However, Li Xian, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, wrote a letter of objection, saying that Empress Wang should never be buried as a martyr. When Zhu Qiyu ascended the throne, Empress Wang annoyed Zhu Qiyu because she advocated continuing to let Zhu Qizhen’s son be the crown prince. She was put into the cold palace very early and was abused. She was kind to Zhu Qizhen. And now she has two little girls to take care of. Only then did
Zhu Qizhen know that Empress Wang had stood on his team, so he agreed not to let Empress Wang be buried. The
lucky Queen Wang, if she tells people about her experience of escaping from death, others can only listen to it and never take it seriously. What saved her was not the rule of “having children and not being buried as martyrs,” but her resolute and paranoid character, which led her to take a wrong side (against Yi Chu) a long time ago. In addition, she had an excellent personal relationship with Empress Qian of Zhu Qizhen. Of course, Li Xian’s letter is also crucial, Li Xian is a very observant minister, know when to speak, when not to speak.
But no one spoke for Han Lifei, because the ministers all knew that there was no good fruit to eat.
Since the ministers dare not intervene, can Han Lifei go directly to the emperor and win his sympathy?
The new emperor was Zhu Gaochi, also known as Emperor Akihito, who was a benevolent emperor.
Some people will say, ask him for help, maybe it will work.
In fact, the idea is that naivety opens the door to naivety-naivety is home.
It happened that Zhu Gaochi was the one who had to kill them.
Everything starts with Zhu yuanzhang. In the thirty-first year
of Hongwu (1398), Zhu yuanzhang issued an edict to bury more than 40 concubines who had served him, which opened the beginning of the burial of emperors in the early Ming Dynasty.
In the past, women who failed to bear children for the emperor had their own place to go. They either moved to a place in the harem where the empress Dowager and the imperial concubine lived and became widows, or simply shaved their hair and became monks and became nuns in official temples. The purpose of this, in fact, is to prevent someone from cuckolding the (dead) emperor. However, things are always a little worrying. Widowhood has the possibility of prostitution, and becoming a monk also has the probability of yearning for spring. One is about some empress dowagers and imperial concubines in history; the other is Wu Zetian, who was originally a concubine (Zhaoyi) of Emperor Taizong. After the death of Emperor Taizong, she became a monk and later married Li Zhi, the son of Emperor Taizong.
Therefore, it can not be said that Zhu yuanzhang’s worries are all nonsense. However, worry is worry, since the Qin and Han Dynasties, countless emperors have had this kind of worry, no one has done so absolutely. Only Zhu yuanzhang was different. He was a man who did not hesitate to kill in order to eliminate hidden dangers. In order to eliminate hidden dangers, meritorious officials can be killed completely, not to mention the concubines who did not make contributions? Concubines who
did not need to take care of their children had to be buried after the emperor died, which became one of the ancestral systems of the Ming Dynasty, and future generations could only follow suit.
For Zhu Gaochi, the situation is even more so. The man lying in the coffin was his father, Zhu Di, who had to follow the ancestral system very mechanically in order to complete the task of succession. Zhu Di’s biggest worry was that he was not in the right position. Zhu Di himself, both at the time of his usurpation of power and after his usurpation of the throne, has been working hard to portray the role of a “good successor to his father.”. Adhering to the law laid down by Zhu yuanzhang is the most simple, crude, and effective way, and no one can say “no.”.
Zhu Gaochi himself should be very contradictory, but he bears a heavy historical task. Because of this task, we can only kill people against our nature.
So, in the square of the new palace (Forbidden City) that his father, Zhu Di, spent 14 years building, Zhu Gaochi set several tables for the women who were about to die. With a heavy heart, the
women finished their meal and “ascended to the hall.”. Accompanied by the maid and the eunuch, they went to the hall where the coffin of Emperor Yongle was placed. Half of the solemn, white and black scenes here were prepared for the concubines, who were also about to become dead. So, in the process of ascending to the hall, they burst into tears. In the Palace
of Heavenly Purity, Zhu Di’s coffin was placed in the Hall of Benevolence and Wisdom after his death. The hall no longer exists. The shape is similar to the above picture
.
Photo: In the Palace of Heavenly Purity, Zhu Di’s coffin was placed in the Hall of Benevolence and Wisdom after his death. The hall no longer exists. The shape is similar to the picture
above. Hanging oneself is the way they “committed suicide.”. There were several rows of wooden tables in the
hall, and the martyrs were helped up. There was a noose at their necks, hanging down from the purlin. It’s relatively simple to do. Once the neck is stretched and the table is removed, it’s over.
But the imperial courtesy is very thoughtful, by Zhu Gaochi personally condolences, he will talk to the martyrs, ask them what other wishes, he can help to achieve. Everyone’s wish was, of course, not to die, but it was impossible not to die, so the concubines, including Han Lifei, did not ask the new emperor for extra mercy, but took the opportunity to seek happiness for their relatives.
Han Li-fei has no blood relatives, and only her wet nurse has been taking care of her. So she interceded for Chin Hei, saying, “My mother (Chin Hei) is old. Can I let her go back to China?” Like this last wish, Zhu Gaochi can still agree, although soon repented, but after all, agreed at that time, so that Han Lifei left a little more serene. The main reason why
Zhu Gaochi went back on his word was that he was afraid that Jin Hei would chat with others after he returned home. The scene that was about to happen was too exciting, and when Jin Hei saw someone, it was hard to avoid mentioning it to someone. At home, people who witness this kind of thing, except the dead, will get the corresponding benefits, provided that they can not say outside. To reveal the secrets of the Forbidden Palace is to “give wine.”. That’s why everyone in the country is keeping their mouth shut. North Korea is affiliated, but after all, not in the country, just like a woman who died in her husband’s home, buried in the ground, no one knows how she died.
Zhu Gaochi finished his task and turned away. Next, the eunuchs carry out their tasks, and they are always the villains. Otherwise, the court is all good people, who did the bad things?
Now, they must urge the concubines to die quickly, their voices are high, their tone is urgent, gentle with fierce strength. The imperial concubines knew that there was no time. Some cried, some made trouble, some said nothing, and some became chatterboxes. The eunuch continued to urge him, but Han put his head into the rope and said goodbye to Jin Hei, “Mother, I’m going!”! Mother, I’m going!
Life and death, the touching scene of mother-daughter love is not over, Han Lifei’s body suddenly fell, the rope suddenly tightened, the whole person hung in the air. The tired eunuch pulled out the table at her feet, and the weight of her whole body fell on her neck in an instant.
Almost all of them were tense, and in the solemn hall, the women had convulsive reactions one after another, and the sound of sobbing echoed in the empty room until the women were strangled until their faces were red or white, some with tears flowing, some with their mouths open and their tongues out-the death of hanging was not so serene, but in the end it was serene, and they were dressed in white. Like trees hanging upside down in the sky.
The eunuchs had to make their own recognizance, saying that they had witnessed the death of a certain imperial concubine and were responsible for it. At this point, the first process of the imperial concubine’s burial, the “suicide,” was completed.
In fact, letting a concubine commit suicide first and then be buried with her is already considered “merciful” compared to ancient times. In
ancient times, slaves and prisoners of war were usually buried alive after being beaten half dead.
… The
picture above shows the burial pit in the temple site of the Shang Dynasty in Xiaoshuangqiao, Zhengzhou, with a large number of human skeletons inside. They are human sacrifices, and their bones are basically badly damaged. Before they died, they had suffered severe violence, being injured with knives, halberds, axes and sticks, breaking limbs, ribs and penetrating their skulls.
Photo: Skulls
in the burial pits at the Xiaoshuangqiao site in Zhengzhou …
Photo: Skulls
in the mass burial pits at the Xiaoshuangqiao site in Zhengzhou. Some people have relatively complete skeletons. It seems that they have not been severely tortured, but their bodies are struggling. In fact, a large living person was thrown into the pit, and then a group of people filled it with earth. In this area, a total of 160 people were sacrificed.
The martyrs were unable to escape, as almost all of them were heavily guarded or bound and were incapacitated. The following two pictures show the actual treatment of human beings in the scene of human sacrifice. We can see that the martyrs are bound to death by a large number of supervisors.
Picture: Jinning Shizhai Mountain Murder Sacrifice Pillar Scene Shellfish Storage Vessel, Lying on the Ground, Bound and Dragged by People
…
Picture: Jinning Shizhai Mountain Sacrificial Pillar Scene Shellfish Storage Vessel, Lying on the Ground, Bound and Dragged Human Animal
Picture: Jinning Shizhai Mountain Sacrificial Pillar Scene Shellfish Storage Vessel, Bound Human Animal on the Monument and Human Animal
Sitting on the Ground, Left Foot Wearing a Cangue … The scene of the sacrificial pillar at Shizhai Mountain
in Jinning. The shellfish container, the human animal bound to the monument, and the human animal
sitting on the ground with a cangue on his left foot. “Hanging oneself” was the most dignified method of death in ancient times, but the appearance of hanging was not beautiful. After the concubines died, a special person brought them down and arranged their appearance for them.
The first step is to take a “bath.” The mortician will scrub their bodies. After they have wiped their bodies clean, they will be asked to “take a meal.”. The so-called “rice holding” is to put something like gold and jade into the mouth of the deceased and let them hold it. There are different opinions about the purpose of doing this, but after studying the customs of different places, I think that at first I was afraid that when people left, their mouths would be empty and their stomachs would be hungry. In many places, ordinary people would stuff rice into the mouths of the dead because rice was not scarce, while nobles would stuff valuable things into the mouths of the dead.
In order to make it easier for them to eat, before they cool off, they have to use a wooden wedge to keep their mouths slightly open, so that their bodies will not be able to pry them open after they are stiff. After putting the gold and jade into his mouth, he closed his mouth with his hand.
Almost at the same time, the ceremony of “attacking the corpse” is also going on, which is actually putting clothes on the dead. Left and right of a bed, the left side of the body of the deceased, the right side is already laying clothes, this side is finished, immediately lifted to another bed, the back of the clothes wrapped, put on the speed is very fast. After finishing their
appearance, they were put into different coffins. After stopping for a while, they went to Changling with Yongle Emperor in a huge funeral and were buried together forever.
However, Changling is the mausoleum of Zhu Di and Empress Xu, who died earlier than him, and the concubines buried with him can only be buried outside the main body. The underground palace of Changling has not been opened yet, and we don’t know what’s going on inside. However, on the east and west sides of the cemetery, there are the East Tomb and the West Tomb, which have always been said to be the places where the concubines were buried. If so, then there must be Han Lifei, the protagonist of our article. After
Han Lifei was buried, Zhu Gaochi soon broke his promise. The thing that promised Han Lifei can’t be done, because Jin Hei can’t go. As soon as she left, word spread that the concubines had been buried involuntarily.
As a result, as an insider of the incident, Kim Hei Leng was detained for more than 10 years before being released back to North Korea. More than a decade is enough to make people forget a lot of things. At that time, Zhu Gaochi died, Zhu Zhanji also died, Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, and the court sent more than 50 elderly Koreans back to China, including Jin Hei.
The neglected old lady left the Ming Dynasty with a heavy heart and completed the escape of the truth. This record in
Li Chao Shi Lu can be said to be extremely precious, and it is the only historical material that records in detail the burial of palace people in the Ming Dynasty. Almost all the articles on the system of human sacrifice inevitably quote this record. From this we can also see the strictness of the ancient imperial palace. As the saying goes, “The secrets of the palace are all like clouds in the sky.”. According to the Ming Dynasty’s own records, there were several martyrs in the early Ming Dynasty, at least hundreds of witnesses, but no one dared to disclose them to the outside world, making such a serious event unknown, just as human beings do not know the details of an alien planet billions of light-years away.
Otherwise, people would think that the people who were buried were all voluntary.
The tragedy lasted for several generations, from Zhu yuanzhang (38 people) to Zhu Di (16 + people), from Zhu Gaochi (5 people) to Zhu Zhanji (11 + people), and then to Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu (the number of people is unknown), until Zhu Qizhen died. Zhu Qizhen, Emperor Yingzong of
the Ming Dynasty, ordered the cessation of human sacrifice, not only because of the long history and the relaxed political conditions at that time, but also because of personal feelings.
Previously, Zhu Qizhen’s mother was probably the maid who was deprived of her own child and became a funerary object, which made Zhu Qizhen feel very wrong from the bottom of his heart. And Zhu Qizhen himself is very emotional, he and the empress Qian’s feelings are very good, can be described as sincere, not cold and cautious emperor’s family. He was well aware of the cruelty of being buried as a martyr, and was afraid that after his death, someone (the imperial concubine of Zhou) would put Empress Qian, who had not been able to bear children, on the list of being buried as a martyr, so before his death he issued a testamentary edict forbidding concubines to be buried as a martyr.
Human sacrifice is the political demand of those in power. In ancient times, most of the martyrs were captured after the war, in order to comfort the dead, or to communicate with ghosts and gods through death, hoping that the gods would see their sincerity. The same is true of the emperors of the early Ming Dynasty who killed the concubines of the previous generation of emperors.
Zhu Gaochi presided over the martyrdom, which was also one of his needs. Zhu Di issued a testamentary edict to follow the Taizu system, and the process was not allowed to change, so he had to kill people. Killing is to ensure the legitimacy of inheritance, as for Han Lifei’s call for help, it is really irrelevant. Even her life is only a wedge to cushion the throne.
