I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 587: The ancestors have merits, the clan has virtues

The first thing Zhu Houxuan did after becoming regent was to deal with the funeral of the late emperor.

Before this, he issued two decrees, the first of which was to change Yu Qian's posthumous title.

During the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Qian was reinstated and given sacrifices. In the second year of the Hongzhi reign, he was posthumously named "Sumin".

"Su Min" is obviously not a particularly good posthumous title. Su is a good posthumous title, and Min is a common posthumous title. Together, they can only be described as average and not worthy of Yu Qian at all.

Later, during the reign of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, his posthumous title was changed to "Zhongsu".

However, there will obviously be no Wanli in this world, so Yu Qian’s posthumous title is still "Sumin".

Zhu Houxuan simply waved his hand and changed the posthumous title to "Zhongwu".

This shocked the entire court, and no one understood what Zhu Houxuan was going to do.

The posthumous titles of the ancients were very particular. The posthumous title of a civil official began with "Wen". The highest posthumous title had only one "Wen". Then there were two characters beginning with "Wen", such as: Wenzheng, Wenzhong, Wengong, Wencheng, Wenduan, Wenkeh, Wenxiang, Wenshun, etc.

The posthumous title of a military officer begins with "Wu". The highest level is a single-character posthumous title "Wu", followed by a two-character posthumous title beginning with "Wu".

Then there is the posthumous title. The so-called posthumous title is the posthumous title for those who can become generals or prime ministers, and who are both civil and military.

The general posthumous name begins with the word "Zhong", with "Zhongwu" being the best, followed by Zhongxian, Zhongsu, and Zhongmin.
Zhu Houxuan changed Yu Qian's posthumous title to "Zhongwu", which is the best posthumous title for Qian. After all, the posthumous titles of Wenzheng and Wenzhong given to Yu Qian were not quite appropriate.

Moreover, the posthumous title "Zhongwu" is very suitable for Yu Qian. Let's take a look at who were given the posthumous title "Zhongwu" in history.

Zhuge Liang - Marquis of Zhongwu, should be the most well-known one with the posthumous title of "Zhongwu".

Guo Ziyi - posthumously named "Zhongwu", Guo Ziyi made great contributions to rebuilding the Tang Dynasty. It was recorded in history that "he had power over the whole country and the court was not afraid of him, and his achievements were unparalleled in his generation and the lord did not doubt him."

Yue Fei - his original posthumous title was "Wu Mu", later changed to "Zhong Wu".

Chang Yuchun - posthumous title "Zhongwu".

As for Yu Qian, who had the merit of rebuilding the Ming Dynasty, "Zhongsu" was the third in the list of posthumous titles, which was still a bit low, so Zhu Houxuan just gave him the highest posthumous title.
Zhu Houxuan's decree did not cause much opposition. After all, both the court and the people had highly respected Qian for many years, and there were even many voices of approval for the change of posthumous title.

The second decree was to demolish Wang Zhen's Jingzhong Temple in the north courtyard of Zhihua Temple, burn Wang Zhen's statue, destroy the "Zhihua Temple Stele", and move and bury the "Edict of Sacrifice Stele" of Ming Yingzong.

Wang Zhen was the eunuch who instigated Zhu Qizhen to lead the army in person. Although he seemed to be Zhu Qizhen's scapegoat, he was killed in the Battle of Tumu. However, in the first year of Tianshun, after Zhu Qizhen was restored to the throne, he issued an edict to clear Wang Zhen's name, and made a statue of Wang Zhen with fragrant wood to bury him and call back his soul. The Jingzhong Temple was built in the north courtyard of Zhihua Temple in the capital to commemorate the dead.

On the Double Ninth Festival in the third year of Tianshun reign, a "Sacrificial Monument" of Emperor Yingzong of Ming was built under the west eaves of the Zhihua Temple to "praise his loyalty and righteousness", and a "Zhihua Temple Monument" written by Li Xian was built in front of the main hall to "praise his great achievements and integrity". In this way, after the death of the eunuch Wang Zhen, who was hated by both humans and gods, his family was exterminated, and he was peacefully worshipped in the Zhihua Temple in Beijing until the seventh year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty 285 years later.

Zhu Houxuan's decree was naturally applauded by the court and the public.
But no one understands the deep meaning of Zhu Houxuan's actions.
According to the late emperor's will, the funeral should not be too grand and can be handled by the Ministry of Rites according to the rules, but the emperor's temple name and posthumous title must be discussed seriously.

A minister said: "The late emperor's temple name can be 'Wu'."

Zhu Houxuan immediately glared at him fiercely. How could he allow Zhu Houzhao's temple name to be "Wu"?
For a moment he thought this person was a spy sent from the south, specifically to cause trouble.
The posthumous titles of "Wen" and "Wu" are very impressive, such as Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Wu of Han.

But the temple names "Wen" and "Wu" are very disgusting. "Wenzong" implies that the emperor was weak and incompetent, and as for "Wuzong", it can only mean that this emperor liked to fight during his lifetime. Liking to fight often means being aggressive and aggressive, which is more or less ironic. The degree of overt praise and covert criticism is second only to "Shenzong". There is also "Muzong", which seems to be a praise, but in fact it is a mockery of a puppet.

Civil servants are very good at making people feel disgusted.

Therefore, in history, Zhu Houzhao’s temple name "Wuzong" was not a good temple name.

This is how many civil servants viewed Zhu Houzhao. In their minds, Zhu Houzhao was indeed warmongering.

Zhu Houxuan asked the officials present to discuss freely, and they discussed many options.
Considering Zhu Houzhao's various deeds, the temple names "Xuanzong" and "Xianzong" are more appropriate. He has both merits and faults, but his contributions are indispensable. However, they do not show Zhu Houzhao's military achievements. Moreover, these two temple names have already been given, and Xianzong is still Zhu Houzhao's grandfather.

Renzong, Shengzong, Xiaozong and Ruizong, these four temple names all refer to wise rulers. Renzong and Xiaozong already existed, but the remaining two seemed insufficient to describe Zhu Houzhao's achievements, nor did they reflect his military prowess.

However, this also shows how outrageous it was that Jiajing posthumously conferred the title of emperor on his father and gave him the temple name of Ruizong.
It is outrageous that a prince who did nothing wrong could be posthumously given the temple name "Ming Ruizong" just because his son became emperor.
As for temple names like "Xunzong", they are just a joke and are not worthy of being mentioned in public. Moreover, there is no such word in the posthumous name system.

But in order to have a perfect ending, Yang Tinghe did not want to cause any trouble, so he looked at Zhu Houxuan and said, "What do you think, Prince Regent?"

Zhu Houxuan looked at the ministers in the audience and said, "I think there is a big problem with the direction of your discussion. It is fundamentally wrong!"

All the ministers in the audience were stunned, not understanding what Zhu Houxuan was going to say.
"Our ancestors have made great contributions, and our clan has great virtues!" Zhu Houxun looked at everyone and spoke word by word.

After hearing this, the ministers were shocked. They understood what Zhu Houxuan meant.
Ancestor means conquering the world, and clan means protecting the world. Creating the world is merit, and protecting the world is virtue.

Anyone who can be called an ancestor must have made pioneering contributions, but did Zhu Houzhao have them?

It really is! The area of ​​the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty was only about four million square kilometers, but Zhu Houzhao fought for more than ten years, expanding the territory of the Ming Dynasty by three or four times. If this is not considered a pioneering achievement, then what is considered a pioneering achievement?
The threshold for the temple name "Zu" is very high, but considering Zhu Houzhao's achievements, this is really not a big threshold.
The ministers had just spent a long time discussing "Zong" because they were restricted by fixed thinking. Now they thought that Zhu Houzhao was really qualified!

They were all excited about this. The higher the emperor's evaluation, the higher the evaluation of them, the ministers, would naturally be, which would add points for them in history.

So this was quickly passed.
The new tone was set; Zhu Houzhao's temple name must be "Zu".

(End of this chapter)