Zhu Yuanzhang was not satisfied with Nanjing as the capital: the matter of moving the capital was mentioned several times
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had a strategic mind and far-reaching ambitions, and stood out in the confrontation between heroes. After becoming the emperor, he governed the country with fierceness and was regarded as a heroic hero. But there is one thing that has troubled Taizu Zhu Yuansi for nearly 30 years, and he did not solve it until his death. This is where the capital is. Zhu Yuanzhang once planned to establish his capital in Fengyang
In the process of competing with other heroes, Zhu Yuanzhang once chose Jinling (today's Nanjing) as his base. Jinling has a dangerous terrain, with the Yangtze River natural chasm in the north, and has been a place of scenic beauty since ancient times. The Three Kingdoms of Soochow and Eastern Jin, the Southern Dynasties of Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen, and the Southern Tang of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms all used this place as their capital. Zhu Yuanzhang captured Jin, and after the mausoleum, it was renamed Yingtian Mansion. In the first month of the first year of Hongwu (1368), Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Yingtian, and in the enthronement edict, he called Yingtian the capital.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was not satisfied with Yingtian, so he did not officially establish Yingtian as the capital. There are three reasons for this: first, the number of dynasties with Yingtian as the capital was very short in history; The sky is located in the southeast, making it difficult to control the whole country. Thirdly, Yingtian is located on the left side of the Yangtze River, and its city defense has hidden dangers. It is not very ideal as a capital.
Later, after Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to capture Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), someone suggested that Bianliang be the capital. Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to it and personally went to Bianliang for on-site inspection. He believed that although Bianliang was in a moderate location, it was undefeable and surrounded by enemies on all sides, and the terrain was obviously not as good as Nanjing. However, considering that Bianliang was the old capital of the Song Dynasty, and the northwest was undecided at that time, Bianliang needed to be used as a base for transporting grain and replenishing troops. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang drew on the ancient system of two capitals in the north and south, using Yingtian as Nanjing and Bianliang as Beijing. The name Nanjing began to be used from this time.
In August of the second year of Hongwu (1369), Zhu Yuanzhang pacified Shaanxi, and the discussion of establishing the capital was revived. The main candidate cities were concentrated in Chang'an, Luoyang, Yingtian, Bianliang, and Peiping. The ministers had different opinions. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that it was difficult for the ministers to unify their opinions and no one could be convinced. He even whimsically proposed Linhao (Yuan Dynasty). It was called Haozhou at that time, and in the seventh year of Hongwu it was renamed Fengyang (now Fengyang County, Anhui Province) as the central capital.
Linhao is Zhu Yuanzhang’s hometown. The establishment of the central capital here obviously contains Zhu Yuanzhang’s selfish desire to honor his ancestors and return to his hometown with honor. But the ministers did not dare to object. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of the Central Capital in Linhao, imitating Nanjing regulations. In this way, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the three capitals of Yingtian, Bianliang and Linhao coexisted.
After that, Zhu Yuanzhang always had the idea of making Fengyang, the central capital, the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Among the important ministers, only Liu Ji (Liu Bowen) firmly opposed it. He believed that Fengyang was not suitable as the capital at all. "Fengyang is the imperial hometown, but it is not the capital."
In the third year of Hongwu (1370), Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the method of Han Emperor Liu Bang to recruit the world's richest people to work in Guanzhong, and ordered 140,000 households from the south of the Yangtze River to be relocated to Fengyang. All the wealthy people in the Jiangnan area were moved to Fengyang and were not allowed to leave privately. Because the southeastern region was previously occupied by Zhang Shicheng, Zhu Yuanzhang's archenemy, many people here had contributed to Zhang Shicheng's behalf. Zhu Yuanzhang's move was actually to attack the literati and landlord classes in the southeast region.
In April of the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), after Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the construction situation of Zhongdu in Fengyang, he suddenly changed his mind and ordered the construction to be stopped. At this time, the palace had been under construction for 6 years, and the palace was quite large. Everyone was puzzled by this. Zhu Yuanzhang explained that the reason for stopping the construction was that it was a waste of people and money.
In fact, there are deeper reasons for this. Many of the heroes around Zhu Yuanzhang were his colleagues, and Jianghuai people accounted for a large proportion of senior officials. Jianghuai heroes were proud of their merits, often violated laws and disciplines, and formed cliques in the court for personal gain. Soon after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor , he began to strengthen the centralization of power and was very wary of the formation of factions among his subordinates. He was worried that the establishment of the capital in Fengyang would help the Jianghuai Group to move to Sanshan to fill up the Yanque.
In the eleventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang The imperial edict was officially issued to make Nanjing the capital. The unresolved capital issue for many years was officially concluded.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor in Yingtian, he began to build the Nanjing city wall and palace.
Zhouzhuang rich man Shen Wansan is known as the "treasure bowl" in history, and his wealth can rival the country. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Zhang Shicheng, and Zhang Shicheng defended Suzhou for eight months, with strong support from the Suzhou gentry. After the city was broken, Zhu Yuanzhang hated those who helped Zhang Shicheng, so he imposed extra taxes on the Jiangnan area and adopted an additional tax policy on Shen Wansan.
Shen Wansan was a shrewd businessman, so he took the initiative to flatter Zhu Yuanzhang, hoping to exchange for peace. When Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of Nanjing City, Shen Wansan "helped build one-third of the capital", which is the current section of the Nanjing City Wall from Zhonghua Gate to Shuixi Gate. After the city wall was completed, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite satisfied and did not attack Shen Wansan.
However, the imperial inspectors still came to Shen Wansan from time to time to cause trouble. In fact, they just wanted to extort some money. In order to settle things once and for all, Shen Wansan took the initiative to provide military pay for the Ming army. As a result, his words violated the taboo of the court. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, thinking that a common man actually wanted to reward the emperor's army, which could be described as having ulterior motives. Thanks to Queen Ma's kind intercession, Shen Wansan's life was saved. Shen Wansan's family property was confiscated and he was sent to Yunnan to be exiled to the army. Shen Wansan had never suffered like this before, and he died in Yunnan soon after. His body was not dared to be transported back to his hometown in the south of the Yangtze River and was buried in Dali on the spot.
Let’s talk about the construction of the Nanjing Imperial Palace. Nanjing, as the ancient capital of the old dynasties, already had a large-scale palace city. However, Zhu Yuanzhang refused to use the palace city of the old dynasty and planned to build a new palace. He was mainly worried about the bad feng shui of the old palace and was afraid of repeating the short-lived mistakes of the previous dynasty.
Liu Ji was ordered to select a site for the new palace. According to Liu Ji's survey, the palace city should be located in front of the "dragon head" of Zhongshan, so the place has an "imperial atmosphere". The Feng Shui treasure land chosen by Liu Ji is exactly where Yanque Lake is located.
As far as building a palace is concerned, Yanque Lake is low-lying and too close to the outer city. It is easily threatened by enemy forces outside the city during wartime, so it is not an ideal location. Therefore, in order to build a new palace, Zhu Yuanzhang mobilized hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to fill the lake. After the Yanque Lake was filled up, in order to prevent the foundation from sinking, countless dense wooden piles were driven under the foundation of the palace, covered with giant strips of stone, and then the palace was built on top. Because the lake filling project was very large. A large amount of stone is needed, so there is a folk legend in Nanjing that "three mountains are filled with sparrows".
It is said that after the city of Nanjing and the imperial palace were built, Zhu Yuanzhang led his ministers to the Purple Mountain, looked down at the grandeur of the capital, and asked the ministers ostentatiously, "How is my capital built?" The ministers were naturally interested. It was full of praise. Only the 14-year-old Fourth Emperor said to Zhu Di: "There are cannons on Purple Mountain, and the cannons hit Purple City." Zhu Yuanzhang took a closer look and couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat. It turns out that there are undulating mountains around the capital of Nanjing, such as Zhongshan in the east, Yuhuatai in the south, Mufu Mountain in the north, etc. Some important commanding heights are outside the city, which is a taboo for city defense. Zhu Yuanzhang was angry, but he did not have an attack at that time. After returning, he asked the eunuch to deliver a plate of oranges to Liu Ji, who was responsible for planning the city's construction. Liu Ji knew that the emperor blamed him for his poor planning and sent oranges with the intention of peeling them and eating their flesh. He was so frightened that he fled to Maoshan overnight to avoid the disaster.
This is just a legend. However, there is a true story that Zhu Yuanzhang was beheaded because he angered Zhu Yuanzhang by writing a plaque.
The end of the word "men" goes straight down to the bottom without an upward hook. This writing method began in the Song Dynasty. It is said that after the Song Dynasty moved its capital to Lin'an, a fire broke out in the Jade Palace. The prime minister reported that the last pen of the word "men" in the palace plaque had a hook and a fire pen, so it attracted fire. From then on, when writing the "door" on the palace plaque, the last stroke should be straight down without hooking. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Zhan Xiyuan (a famous calligrapher of the Ming Dynasty) to write the palace door plaque. When Zhan was writing, he hooked the last vertical line of the word "门" inwards a little higher. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the rear dog was furious and ordered Zhan Xiyuan to be beheaded.
Zhu Yuanzhang’s biggest regret in his life
Despite taking various effective measures, in Zhu Yuanzhang’s later years, the foundation of the palace built on Yanque Lake still suffered from sinking.
When ancient emperors built palaces, they were all built on topography that is low in the south and high in the north. The idea is that they will rise step by step, and each generation will become stronger than the next, and the country can be passed down from generation to generation. After the Ming Palace sank, it showed a terrain that was higher in the south and lower in the north. The palace city is high in front and low in the back, which always makes people feel that the situation is out of proportion.
According to the Yin Yang family, this is a sign of extinction and the destruction of the country. For Zhu Yuanzhang, who was superstitious about Feng Shui, this was an ominous sign. Zhu Yuanzhang originally felt that there were some flaws in the establishment of Nanjing as the capital, but now he had another layer of worry.
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu (1391), Zhu Yuanzhang sent Prince Zhu Biao to inspect Guanzhong. There are quite some plans to move the capital to Guanzhong. At that time, the main threat to the Ming Dynasty was the remnant forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty on the Guangu grassland. By detouring to the northwest of the capital, we can strengthen the northern border defense and stabilize the border. The reason why Peking was not considered was that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to leave a fiefdom to his favorite fourth son, Zhu Di. Zhu Yuanzhang's second son, King Qin, had strong opinions on this matter because if the capital was moved to Xi'an, he would have no fiefdom. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang also detained the King of Qin. If Prince Zhu Biao had not interceded, he would have almost deposed the King of Qin.
Prince Zhu Biao made a detailed inspection of Xi'an and Luoyang, compared the places in the two places, and presented a map of Shaanxi to Zhu Yuanzhang after returning. Prince Zhu Biao personally prefers to choose Xi'an as the capital. Because Xi'an was once the capital of the Western Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, it was full of charm.
However, things are unpredictable, and Prince Zhu Biaoqian died of illness the next year. Xi'an, which might have once again become glorious, fell back into a bleak history (in 1644 AD, Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant uprising army who resisted the Ming Dynasty, proclaimed himself king in Xi'an and made Xi'an the capital. After that, Xi'an never had the chance to become the capital. ).
Prince Zhu Biao passed away in his prime, and the white-haired man gave away the black-haired man. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was nearly seventy years old, was hit hard and no longer had the energy or mood to consider moving the capital. In an "Essay on Sacrifice to the Stove" he wrote personally at the end of that year, he conveyed Fang Pashinai's feelings: "I have been running the world for decades, and everything is in place according to ancient times. However, the front and rear of Fucheng are depressed, and the situation is not proportional. I originally wanted to move the capital, but now that I am old and exhausted, and the world has just begun to settle down, I do not want to trouble the people, and I have no choice but to listen to my intention and benefit my descendants. ”
From then on, the matter of the capital. It became Zhu Yuanzhang's biggest regret in his life, and it was not properly resolved until his death. Four years after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, his successor Hui Emperor Zhu Yunwen's throne was usurped by his uncle Zhu Di, King of Yan. Zhu Yunchui's life and death are unknown. Many fortune-tellers have made a big fuss, attributing this sudden change to the bad feng shui of the Nanjing Imperial Palace.