Photo: Emperor Qianlong ordered stills.
The tradition of imperial power in ancient China has two characteristics. On the one hand, China pursued the tradition of "taking orders from heaven" in ancient times, and on the other hand, it had the tradition of "Tangwu Revolution". The Imperial Temple mentioned at the beginning of this article is actually the embodiment of this tradition.
1, the command of heaven
Friends who are familiar with the history of China will surely find this characteristic, that is, the change of dynasty in China history is very rare in the world history. In other countries, the collapse of a dynasty is often due to the emergence of the royal family, so the dynasty will end. In China, there is actually a similar idea.
For example, the ancient emperor believed that the emperor's rights came from heaven, which is the so-called "being ordered by heaven". The ancient emperor claimed to be the son of heaven, which is the basis.
Photo: stills of ancient emperors
2. Tang Wu Revolution
However, unlike other countries, China still has the tradition of "Tang Wu Revolution" in ancient times. The so-called "Tang Wu Revolution" can be understood as Shang Tang, a vassal of Xia Dynasty, destroyed Xia Dynasty, while Zhou Wuwang, a vassal of Shang Dynasty, overthrew Shang Dynasty.
Of course, in order to explain the rationality of the "Tang Five Revolution" and not want to overthrow the "obedience to heaven", later emperors concocted the theory that if the emperor was very groggy and incompetent, leading to chaos in the world, then heroes could rise up to overthrow tyranny and establish a new dynasty in order to solve the people's problems.
Therefore, the ancient history of China can basically be regarded as the alternation of "being ordered by heaven" and "the Revolution of the Tang Dynasty". Before overthrowing the old dynasty, the new dynasty will express its rationality with the "Tang-Wu Revolution", and after gaining political power, it will preach "taking orders from heaven" to dampen the morale of its opponents.
Photo: Stills of overthrowing the old dynasty
Influenced by some "three nets", many people will take it for granted that the Qing Dynasty seized the mountains and rivers of Wan Li in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Qing dynasty must have hated the Ming dynasty and slandered it in every way, but it was not. In the process of replacing the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty staged the drama of "Tang-Wu Revolution" and "Taking Orders from Heaven".
1, the background of Nurhachi rebellion
The relationship between Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty is similar to that between Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty, because the ancient Central Plains dynasties often regarded the Central Plains as their homeland and the surrounding areas as peripheral areas. After all, ancient China was a country dominated by agriculture, so even in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the northern Xiongnu was driven to Central Asia by the Eastern Han court, and the result was only that Xianbei people occupied the hometown of Xiongnu, but the Eastern Han Dynasty could not come up with any solution to the hometown of Xiongnu.
The same is true in ancient northeast China. Because there were no modern cold-tolerant crops in ancient times, there was not much population base in Northeast China all the year round. Even until the late Ming Dynasty, today's Heilongjiang and Jilin regions were still in a primitive state. Considering the influence of the Ming Dynasty, the major indigenous tribes in Northeast China surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty was willing to give titles to the chiefs of these tribes.
Nurhachi, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, was a second-class bureaucrat in the Ming Dynasty. His situation was equivalent to the relationship between Shang Zhouwang and Zhou Wenwang. However, when Nurhachi was alive, the Ming Dynasty was caught in a situation of internal troubles and foreign invasion.
In the Nurhachi era, the Ming emperor was the Wanli emperor. When Emperor Wanli took over the Ming Dynasty, there was actually a serious ruling crisis, lax armaments, bureaucratic corruption and serious financial shortage. Fortunately, Zhang's political reform temporarily reversed the unfavorable situation of the Ming Dynasty.
However, with the death of Zhang, Emperor Wanli almost abolished Zhang's political reform measures, which enabled the Ming Dynasty to continue on the original road of extinction.
Photo: stills of the Ming dynasty's relaxation of armaments.
2. Internal troubles and foreign invasion
Before Nurhachi rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, the vitality of Wanli court was hurt one after another, and the chieftain rebellion in Ningxia and Guizhou consumed a lot of financial resources in the Ming Dynasty. Later, the Wanli court fought against Japan, and the Li dynasty almost consumed the property of the Wanli court.
At this time, Nurhachi announced that he would rise up against the Ming Dynasty on the grounds of the famous "seven great hatreds", including the unprovoked killing of Nurhachi's father in the Ming Dynasty and the oppression and slavery of the tribes in the Northeast all the year round.
In fact, feudal oppression existed objectively in all dynasties. For ethnic minorities, feudal dynasties often oppressed ethnic minorities, which was a normal state in ancient society. Therefore, when Nurhachi's seven great hatreds spread all over Northeast China, so did the hatred of the people of all ethnic groups in Northeast China. Nurhachi established the post-Jin Dynasty on this basis and began a contest with the Ming Dynasty.
After the death of Nurhachi, Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne. In his later reign, Huang Taiji often sent people to secretly contact Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, hoping that Emperor Chongzhen could recognize the legitimacy of the Qing Dynasty. In the middle of his reign, Huang taiji's post-Jin title was changed to Qing. At this time, Huang taiji was limited to the strength of the Qing Dynasty, and only hoped that the relationship between the Ming and Qing Dynasties would be the same as that between the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
But the face-saving Emperor Chongzhen disagreed with Huang Taiji's suggestion. After the court of Emperor Chongzhen was overthrown by peasant rebels, the Qing army took advantage of the civil strife in the Central Plains to enter the customs, and eradicated the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in the next 20 years.
Photo: stills of the Qing army entering the customs
3. Brotherhood
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor shunzhi no longer clung to the seven hatreds of the Nurhachi era, but claimed that the Ming and Qing Dynasties were good brothers and believed that Emperor Chongzhen was a good emperor, but Li Zicheng and his gang of bandits were so cruel that Chongzhen died a natural death. Of course, the Qing dynasty entered the customs to avenge Chongzhen. The Qing dynasty claimed that the management right of the hometown of the Ming dynasty was the reward for the Qing dynasty to avenge the Ming dynasty.
In order to beautify the rule of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty began to actively beautify the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, in the Imperial Palace, absurd emperors such as Wanli, Taichang and Apocalypse were also invited to accept the sacrifices and sacrifices of the Qing Emperor, while Emperor Chongzhen could not enter the Imperial Palace because of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.
However, when Qianlong was forty-nine, it was 140 years since the Qing Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty. At this time, both the people and scholars in the Qing Dynasty had lost their recognition of the Ming Dynasty.
Although there is still a saying among the people that "anti-Qing and regaining sight" is just a slogan. Therefore, Emperor Qianlong began to adjust the sacrifices to the Ming emperors. An emperor in a daze like Wanli naturally retired. Although Emperor Chongzhen was incompetent, he was diligent in governing the country and had a commendable spirit, so he continued to sacrifice.
Author: Dahui
The whole graphic was produced by the team of Daka Shi Shuo Studio!