Chapter 364

Generally speaking, when facing such a powerful minister, the new emperor who has just ascended the throne,

and whose foundation is not yet stable, will first temporarily endure, and wait until his wings are full before gradually recovering power.

Unfortunately, the new emperor chosen by Yang Tinghe was one of the smartest and most capable emperors in Chinese history.

From the very beginning of the way of entering the city, there was an irreconcilable difference between the two sides.

According to the arrangements of Yang Tinghe and others, Zhu Houcong should enter the palace from the Dong'an Gate,

reside in the Wenhua Hall, choose a day to ascend the throne, and be crowned as the new emperor of the Great Ming Empire.

The political meaning of this route is very clear: Dong'an Gate is the east gate of the Imperial City,

exclusively for the crown prince to enter and exit; Wenhua Hall has always been the residence of the crown prince,

and Wu Sect, who died young, lived in it when he was crown prince.

In other words, this route symbolizes the heir's succession from crown prince to emperor.

That is to say, once Zhu Houcong walked through this gate, it was equivalent to procedurally

admitting that he was the adopted son of Xiaozong, inheriting the ancestral line, and also inheriting the succession line.

This route can maximize the continuity of the patriarchal order,

and also allow the monarchical line of the Zhengde-Hongzhi branch to continue without any cracks.

But Zhu Houcong refused.

He insisted on entering the palace from the Great Ming Gate.

Great Ming Gate is the main gate of the Son of Heaven, symbolizing imperial power.

This choice was not a formal toughness, but an extremely clear political declaration:

He was not an adopted heir, but the Son of Heaven who succeeded to the throne as a member of the imperial clan.

In other words, he wanted to retain the right to interpret his own bloodline and status.

At this moment, the conflict was already destined.

In the eyes of the civil officials headed by Yang Tinghe, the choice of the city gate was not a personal preference, but the starting point of national order.

What Yang Tinghe insisted on was not aimed at Zhu Houcong personally, but the maintenance of a whole set of patriarchal-monarchical logic:

Brother ends and younger brother succeeds, which originally belongs to the abnormal state, if not corrected by adoption,

the legitimacy of the future throne will be left with loopholes everywhere, burying hidden dangers for the future of the Great Ming.

But in Zhu Houcong's view, the problem was just the opposite.

Once he made concessions in the initial procedure, the right to interpret who is the imperial father, who is qualified to enter the temple,

and whose bloodline counts as the correct source would be firmly grasped in the hands of the civil officials.

He was not ignorant of etiquette, but unwilling to let etiquette become a rope to bind imperial power.

Thus, the true theme of the Great Rites Controversy was already on the table the moment he entered the city:

Is the legitimacy of imperial power determined by classics and bureaucrats, or finally confirmed by the emperor himself?

Afterwards, the debate quickly spread from the city gate to the title—from who the imperial father should be,

to whether succession must inherit the succession line, and then to what position Xiaozong and Wu Sect should occupy in the ritual system.

In order to further consolidate his throne, Jiajing strongly wanted to posthumously honor his biological father, Prince Xingxian, as emperor.

Although through a court beating at the Left Shun Gate, Jiajing let those civil officials who only had pens

know who was really in charge of the Great Ming,

but for him, as long as his father Prince Xingxian was still blocked outside the Imperial Ancestral Temple,

the conclusion of the Great Rites Controversy would always have the possibility of being overturned.

Regarding this, he directly wanted to lift his biological father, Prince Xingxian, whom he posthumously honored as "Ruizong," into the Great Ming Imperial Ancestral Temple.

The Imperial Ancestral Temple contains the Great Ming Ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang,

as long as his father is lifted in, who else can question his status?

And this involves another problem, which is that although theoretically

the actual position of the Imperial Ancestral Temple that every emperor can enter is limited.

Generally speaking, only emperors with great achievements like the Ancestor and Taizong can be the main spirit,

enjoying main sacrifices, while other emperors can only be attached to the Imperial Ancestral Temple, enjoying accompanying sacrifices.

By the seventeenth year of Jiajing (1538), the nine chambers of the Imperial Ancestral Temple inherited from the Ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang were full,

and Zhu Houcong needed to adjust the existing ancestral temple pattern to move the spirit tablet of his biological father, Prince Xingxian Zhu Youyuan, into the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Then, the genius he was, he upgraded Zhu Di's temple name from "Taizong" to "Chengzu,"

making him form a "two ancestors respected together" pattern with the Great Ming Ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang,

establishing a new "two ancestors and seven ancestors" system, creating conditions for moving Renzong Zhu Gaochi and freeing up seats in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

In October of the following year, he successfully posthumously honored Zhu Youyuan as "Ming Ruizong,"

realizing his own unification of imperial filial piety and political demands.

Although Zhu Houcong, by raising Zhu Di's status, made the Ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang and Chengzu Zhu Di stand together,

collectively called the 'Two Ancestors', consolidated the legitimacy of the Yan Prince line, and strengthened the legitimacy of the throne succession since the Yongle Dynasty,

but Zhu Di, as the person involved, would surely not be happy.

Zhu Di: Let me say thank you, because of you, the four seasons are warm~

Damn it, in order to prove that he was a sequential successor and inherited the throne of his old father Zhu Yuanzhang,

instead of snatching the throne of his big nephew Zhu Yunwen, he directly used the history books,

letting his old father Zhu Yuanzhang, who originally died in the thirty-first year of Hongwu, live in the history books

until the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu, fully extending his old father's life by four years.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Some people are already dead, but he is still alive...

Zhu Yunwen: Some people are still alive, but he is already dead...

But, but Zhu Houcong, this unfilial descendant, for his own mere selfish interests,

directly nailed him to the pillar of shame for usurping power and bullying his big nephew.

A grumble from the Han Prince Zhu Gaoxu in the Great Ming Dynasty:

"Even if you compile the Yongle Dadian into the first strange book of all time,

history books will not record that you were a sequential successor; our whole family rebelled back then!"

Zhu Laosi: Taizong, the Taizong I have been searching for all my life, woo woo, woo woo...

After thinking about the difference between Guang Shen, who collapsed the Great Sui, and the Great Ming-making-great-again

Zhu Laosi,

and how Zhu Laosi changed from Great Ming Taizong to the only Chengzu in the Great Ming who was called "Ancestor" together with the Ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang,

Zhang Jie continued to focus his energy on the arrangement of Lu Zhishen entering the Great Xiangguo Temple as the Law Enforcement Elder.

"This subject is willing to go to the Great Xiangguo Temple to serve as the Law Enforcement Elder."

Lu Zhishen, not knowing that Zhang Jie had already raced thousands of miles in his mind, gave a muffled affirmative answer.

Zhang Jie: The fastest physical speed in the world is the speed of light, but the thinking of people is faster than the speed of light~

He had long been unhappy with those bald thieves in the Great Xiangguo Temple and even the entire Buddhist sect in the world who used the name of the Buddha

to do things like male theft and female prostitution, and illegal and criminal acts.

Unfortunately, before, he was just a wild monk who was expelled from the gate of Wutai Mountain,

and had to stay at the Great Xiangguo Temple to beg for a meal,

even if he had the heart, he was really powerless, and could only hide in a remote vegetable garden to guard it, seeing nothing and being undisturbed.

But now, with Zhang Jie's support and the entire Great Gan as his backing, he swore to return a clean Buddhist sect to the world!

Now the first one to be operated on, killing the chicken to warn the monkey, is the Great Xiangguo Temple located in Bianjing!