Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

"Family members, I must give you a heads-up about this Taoist Emperor Zhu Houcong today."

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the podium, his gaze passing through the camera lens as if he were looking at every viewer in front of the screen.

"Our Jiajing Emperor sat on the dragon throne of the Ming Dynasty for a full forty-five years! That's one-sixth of the Ming Dynasty's history. So, I will be repeatedly shifting the timeline back and forth. After all, some conspiracies and schemes to wipe out an heir require rewinding to trace their origins. Please bear with me!"

The live stream chat screen immediately filled with a dense barrage of comments.

"Jun-ge, fly freely, push the timeline as you like!"

"I understand! He's been in power for forty-five years, outliving countless cabinet ministers. You can't explain this without considering the context!"

"Just by looking at the fires these civil officials set, you can tell that the fruits of the Jiajing era are guaranteed to be ripe and sweet!"

Seeing the netizens' reactions, Zhu Dijun's lips curled up slightly, and then he turned the whiteboard behind him over.

"Let's return to the topic of the Great Rites Controversy."

He drew a circle heavily on the whiteboard with a red pen. "As mentioned earlier, the court flogging outside Zuoshun Gate brought the Great Rites Controversy, which lasted for three years, to an end with Jiajing's violent suppression. The emperor won. He successfully posthumously honored his biological father as 'Emperor Gongmu Xian,' and also built a 'Shimiao' next to the Imperial Ancestral Temple for worship."

"But do you think that's the end of it after the beating?"

A hint of mockery flashed in Judy Jun's eyes.

"Completely wrong! In the political meat grinder, physical elimination is only the first step; the most crucial element is the damned 'psychological attack'!"

Four large, blood-red characters crashed down on the public screen: 【Minglun Grand Ceremony】!

"In the seventh year of the Jiajing reign, the Ming Dynasty officially published a political book that could be described as a brainwashing tool: the 'Great Canon of Ming Ethics'! After its completion, the entire book was directly promulgated throughout the land!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his fist on the table with a loud bang. "What's this book for? It only has three core functions!"

He held up three fingers.

"First, it sets the tone for history! This book systematically compiles all the memorials and theories supporting the emperor's claim to be his biological father. It uses the power of the state to declare to the whole world: What I did in the Great Rites Controversy was in accordance with human nature and the principles of Heaven! I am the absolutely correct party!"

"Secondly, to suppress dissent! All the opposition officials who were wailing outside Zuoshun Gate are defined in black and white in this book as 'disloyal and unfilial'! Jiajing directly used the official publication of the Ming Dynasty to trample the faces of Yang Tinghe, Yang Shen and their ilk into the latrine, ensuring their eternal infamy!"

"Third, seize control of the narrative! Through this 'Minglun Dadian' (Great Canon of Ming Ethics), Jiajing completely unified the official narrative and established the absolute legitimacy of his reshaping of imperial power! This is like killing someone and then destroying their spirit; I'll even strip you of your right to interpret history!"

The era of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the dragon throne, listening and nodding repeatedly, his eyes full of admiration.

"Good lad, that's a really ruthless tactic."

Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his beard.

"Not only did they beat people to death, but they also want to use books to nail these traitors to the pillar of shame! Killing someone is just a matter of beheading them, but this is like digging up the ancestral graves of civil officials!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose.

"If it were merely about compiling a book, then Jiajing wouldn't deserve to be called a cunning old fox of immortality. Do you know how long this Great Rites Controversy actually lasted?"

Zhu Dijun glanced at the camera with a cold smile.

"Many history novices think that the matter was over after Zuo Shunmen was flogged. That's completely wrong!"

"If we start counting from 1521, when Jiajing ascended the throne, until he forcibly placed his biological father's ancestral tablet in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, turning the Zhu family's ancestral temple order upside down, it finally came to a complete end. This political earthquake triggered by the quest for father recognition lasted for nearly twenty-four years! And the fire I just mentioned also occurred in between!"

Twenty-four years!

The moment those four words were uttered, the live stream chat fell into complete silence, followed by a torrent of comments flooding the screen.

"Holy crap? Twenty-four years? The War of Resistance against Japan only lasted fourteen years!"

"Are you out of your mind? They've been dragging this out in the Ming Dynasty court for a quarter of a century over a mere title?!"

"Twenty-four years—a lifetime for someone with a short lifespan! Was the ancients' obsession with titles and status really that terrifying?"

"This is the ultimate struggle for legitimacy among the ancients!"

Judy Jun roared at the top of her lungs.

"During these extremely long and brutal twenty-four years, the Great Rites Controversy had a devastating and far-reaching impact on the politics of the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty!"

He wrote two very impactful words on the whiteboard.

"First, the reshaping and privatization of imperial power!"

Zhu Dijun's pen tip slammed heavily against the panel.

"It took Jiajing twenty-four years to completely break free of the leash around his neck from the civil service! He forcefully posthumously honored his biological father, who was not even a member of the imperial line, as 'Emperor Ruizong,' and even forcibly enshrined him in the Imperial Ancestral Temple!"

"This is what you call 'from minor lineage to major lineage'! The lineage of the Ming Dynasty has shifted! The emperor is using this extremely shameless and rogue method to tell the whole world: The Ming Dynasty belongs to me, Zhu Houcong! What cabinet, what empress dowager, they can all step aside!"

"Secondly, the complete deterioration of the political atmosphere!"

Judy Jun's eyes were full of disdain.

"To purge those principled old officials, who did Jiajing promote? Zhang Cong and Gui E! Why were these people able to rise so quickly? Because they knew how to flatter! Because they could guess the emperor's intentions during discussions of rites!"

"Jiajing initiated the extremely evil precedent of 'promotion through discussions of etiquette'! The entire Ming Dynasty officialdom finally understood the rules of the game—as long as you speak in accordance with the emperor's wishes, you can get promoted and make a fortune! The culture of flattery spread wildly in the court, and the extremely brutal factional struggles that would later occur in the Ming Dynasty were sown from this!"

At this point, Zhu Dijun suddenly waved his hand, and the text on the screen instantly changed.

"Of course, nowadays many people online, including some historians who spout platitudes about benevolence and morality, will say: Jiajing's actions violated national etiquette and led to chaos in the court!"

Judy Jun let out a burst of extremely shrill, maniacal laughter.

"Etiquette? I'm laughing my head off!"

He suddenly kicked over the chair next to him, making a loud noise.

"Family members! What is etiquette and law? Etiquette and law are just a tattered umbrella used by the civil service to cover up their private interests and suppress public interests!"

"If you want to follow the path of public service, if you dare to touch the vested interests of civil officials, they will use their so-called 'etiquette' and 'ancestral rules' to crush you!" Judy Jun's eyes were like knives.

"In the future Ming Dynasty, Gao Gong wanted to reform, but was suppressed by the established rules and regulations! Qi Jiguang wanted to train troops to fight the Japanese pirates, but was suppressed by the established rules and regulations! Even an upright official like Hai Rui still had to endure the constraints of these broken rules! We will discuss these tough issues one by one in separate chapters later!"

He picked up a water bottle, took a big gulp, and then slammed a picture of a modern tourist attraction onto the big screen.

The photo shows a huge stone tablet that has been eroded and turned black by wind and rain.

"Speaking of the extreme madness of the Great Rites Controversy, I must take you to see a famous scenic spot that still exists today—the [Shennieshan Stele] on Purple Mountain in Nanjing!"

Zhu Dijun's laser pointer quickly drew circles on the surface of the monument.

When was this stele erected? In the tenth year of the Jiajing reign, 1531 AD!

"Why erect this monument? Because the Great Rites Controversy was won! To further elevate his father to the heavens, Jiajing decreed that his biological father, Prince Xingxian's, tomb be renamed 'Chunde Mountain.' But this cunning little fox thought it wouldn't do. Tianshou Mountain in Beijing has a mountain name, and my father's Chunde Mountain also has a mountain name. If we only change my father's name, it will seem too deliberate!"

Zhu Dijun looked at the camera with a mocking expression.

"Therefore, in order to maintain balance in terms of ritual and to silence public opinion, Jiajing issued an extremely outrageous edict: Zhongshan, where the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang is located, doesn't even have a mountain name, which is unreasonable! So, I have decided to rename Zhongshan, the mausoleum of Emperor Taizu, to 'Shennieshan'!"

"Just to elevate their own father, they dragged out the final resting place of the founding father of the Ming Dynasty as a foil, and casually changed its name!"

The era of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had just been praising his grandson, suddenly froze with a smile, which then turned into an extremely distorted expression.

"You unfilial grandson!!!"

Enraged, Zhu jumped up from his throne, grabbed the imperial seal, and was about to smash it down when he stopped mid-air, heartbroken.

"Let him acknowledge his father if he wants! Why is he messing with my Zhongshan?! Using me to cover for his father?! That bastard, when he comes down here, I'll chop him to pieces!"

The Crown Prince Zhu Biao, who was standing nearby, was so frightened that he coughed repeatedly.

"Father, please calm your anger... This is at least an expression of filial piety..."

"Damn it! He's using me as a shield!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry he jumped up and down.

Inside the live stream, Zhu Dijun continued to list the detailed parameters of the stone tablet on the screen.

"When you travel to Nanjing, you can visit this monument. It is located about 35 meters east of Xiamafang. It is a full 4 meters tall! The monument is 1.46 meters wide and nearly 70 centimeters thick! The entire monument and the top are carved from a single piece of bluestone. There is no base at the bottom; it is directly supported by two huge stones."

"The inscription on the top of the stele reads 'Imperial Edict,' and is decorated with clouds and dragons. In the very center of the stele are the three large characters 'Shennie Mountain,' personally designated by Emperor Jiajing! The inscription at the bottom reads 'Autumn, September of the tenth year of Jiajing.'"

Zhu Dijun changed the subject:

"However, according to historical research, the stone tablet we see now is likely a replica erected in 1641, the fourteenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, when the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse. The original tablet may have been destroyed in war or natural disasters long ago."

The chat room was now completely stunned by the concept of twenty-four years and Jiajing's actions.

"To claim a father figure, they wreaked havoc across the land for twenty-four years, even renaming Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb. Is this the blatant abuse of power?"

"So that's how the Shenlieshan Stele in Nanjing came about! I've learned something new!"

"Twenty-four years! How many civil officials' lives were lost? The struggle for legitimacy in the Ming Dynasty was truly a bloody affair."

[“The civil officials pressured the emperor, who then retaliated with his own death. This is no longer a court; it's a meat grinder!”]

The first year of the Xianqing reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, stared wide-eyed at the Great Rites Controversy unfolding in the sky.

His father reigned for only 23 years, while the Great Rites Controversy of later generations dragged on for 24 years.

Other examples include Emperor Yang Guang, Emperor Taizu of Song, and many emperors before the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty who couldn't hold back.

The 24-year back-and-forth struggle is longer than some emperors in their minds. Amazing! It's like a cow standing on its head, incredibly awesome.