Chapter 463: Temple
Zhu Jinggui ascended the throne at the grand audience ceremony when Zhu Jianxuan was 95 years old, and the court then began to prepare for the formal coronation ceremony.

In the past few years, Zhu Jianxuan watched his physical strength decline, so he gradually handed over the affairs of the Governor’s Office and the Privy Council to Zhu Jinggui.

The highest decision-making power of the Royal Industrial Group has also been handed over to Zhu Jinggui.

After Zhu Jinggui officially ascended the throne, Zhu Jianxuan further delegated power and handed over the Imperial Guards Headquarters and the General Staff to Zhu Jinggui.

Zhu Jianxuan felt that he might die at any time, after all, he was really old.

But after letting go of all his worries, he lived peacefully until his 100th birthday.

Although Zhu Jinggui became the emperor, Zhu Jianxuan, the emperor emeritus, was still in power, and the grand audience was still based on Zhu Jianxuan’s birthday.

After Zhu Jinggui officially ascended the throne, he took the initiative to ignore a very important thing, which was changing the reign title.

The tradition of the Ming Dynasty was that one emperor changed the reign title. The new emperor would change the reign title in the second year after his accession to the throne, announcing the end of the old era and the beginning of a new one.

However, Zhu Jinggui insisted on not changing the reign title and wanted to continue using his father’s Tiangong reign title.

Zhu Jinggui wanted to continue to carry on his father’s banner.

Therefore, when Zhu Jianxuan celebrated his 100th birthday, it was the 77th year of Ming Dynasty Gong.

Zhu Jianxuan can still walk on his own, but not far, so he usually has someone pushing his wheelchair with him.

Zhu Jianxuan was still able to speak, but he also had to rest after only a few words.

And so he lived until he was 108 years old.

After the winter of the 85th year of Tiangong, Zhu Jianxuan felt that his body was beginning to seriously deteriorate again and he could hardly stand anymore.

Zhu Jianxuan knew that he probably didn’t have much time left.

Not long after, on the afternoon of the third day of December, Zhu Jianxuan was lying on the bed in his bedroom watching a movie. After watching for half an hour, he felt extremely sleepy.

Zhu Jianxuan instinctively wanted to close his eyes and take a nap, but after closing his eyes, he never opened them again.

When the movie was almost over, the doctor and the servants discovered that the emperor had stopped breathing. They were shocked and hurried to inform the emperor.

After receiving the news, Emperor Zhu Jinggui immediately drove to the emperor’s bedroom.

After entering the palace and listening to the doctor’s report, Zhu Jinggui personally reached out his hand to confirm that his father had stopped breathing and even his body had begun to cool down.

Zhu Jinggui felt dizzy and almost fell to the ground.

After the death of Emperor Zhu Jianxuan, Emperor Zhu Jinggui did not feel relaxed. Instead, he felt an inexplicable pressure quickly gathering on him.

Zhu Jinggui had a very complicated mentality towards his father, the emperor, including admiration, fear, dependence and conviction.

But there is almost no hatred or disgust.

Zhu Jinggui becoming the crown prince was an accident, an accident that he himself did not expect.

After becoming the crown prince, his father personally taught him how to handle government affairs and how to be an emperor.

After I had basically learned everything, my father gave me the power.

When his father was still alive, it certainly put a lot of mental pressure on Zhu Jinggui, but at the same time he also provided him with support and psychological sustenance.

As long as my father is still alive, as long as my father trusts me completely, my power will be infinitely close to him.

The father’s power is not equal to the emperor’s power. It is the father’s prestige that increases the emperor’s power to the limit, which an ordinary emperor obviously cannot do.

In order to continue to borrow the prestige and influence of his father, Zhu Jinggui did not even change the reign title.

Now that his father has passed away, the power granted to him by this unprecedented emperor has disappeared, and his power will quickly decline to the level of a normal emperor.

It is impossible for me to have all the same power and prestige as my father.

From now on I will have to face everything on my own, and I will no longer be able to get reminders and advice from my father.

With such a complicated mood, Zhu Jinggui knelt down in front of his father’s bed in confusion, closed his eyes and instructed the university scholar who followed him:

“Arrange someone to go out and announce the death, and let the royal family, nobles, officials, and shopkeepers come in batches to pay their respects—”

The Grand Secretary immediately went down to deliver the news, and relevant personnel entered the palace one after another to pay their respects. The Ministry of Rites also immediately began to build the mourning hall and organize the national mourning ceremony step by step.

Unlike Zhu Jinggui’s loss, most people felt inexplicably relieved when they heard the news of the death of the retired emperor.

This ruler of the world, this great emperor finally passed away…

In the past ten years, Zhu Jianxuan has completely stopped caring about anything, and in recent years he has barely said a few words a day.

But whenever he is mentioned, everyone becomes extremely cautious, as it is a fear that comes from the bottom of their hearts.

Zhu Jianxuan invented countless weapons and equipment, personally led his army to the north to destroy the Qing Dynasty and then unified the world, completely changing the world.

The key is that Zhu Jianxuan lived for more than a hundred years. As long as an ordinary monarch lives long enough, he will have a higher prestige, not to mention an emperor like Zhu Jianxuan.

Almost everyone in the court now grew up in the Tiangong Years and grew up listening to the stories of Zhu Jianxuan.

The combination of these conditions has created unprecedented prestige and momentum.

Simply by mentioning Emperor Tiangong in words and language, everyone will subconsciously treat it with caution.

Now that he has finally passed away, his era has finally ended, and everyone can finally relax a little.

This change in mentality, this instinctive spiritual relaxation, is exactly what the current emperor Zhu Jinggui feels, and the unprecedented fact that imperial power is dissipating.

From then on, Zhu Jinggui was just an ordinary emperor.

Zhu Jianxuan had already arranged his own funeral affairs before his death, and generally speaking, he requested that everything be kept simple.

All ordinary families do not need to wear mourning clothes, matters concerning the period of national mourning should not interfere with people’s lives, and restrictions such as banning slaughter should not be imposed.

The emperor, royal family members, nobles, and all officials used days instead of months and only needed to mourn for 27 days.

When preparations for the funeral officially began, the Cabinet and the Ministry of Rites asked Emperor Zhu Jinggui two questions: how to arrange the temple and posthumous title of the late emperor and whether to change the reign title in the next year.

Zhu Jinggui thought about it carefully, then took a blank notebook and wrote down a few words carefully:

“The Great Emperor Gaozu of the Ming Dynasty”.

When the university scholars and ministers at the scene saw these words, their pupils shrank slightly instinctively, and then they suddenly understood:
“Great Emperor Gaozu… this is truly appropriate…”

“Why didn’t we think of that—”

“Your Majesty is holy.”

Zhu Jianxuan’s temple name and posthumous title are an issue of neither great importance nor insignificant magnitude.

The posthumous title originated in the Zhou Dynasty. It was originally given to deceased emperors and monarchs as a final and overall evaluation.

All emperors and monarchs have posthumous titles, but some are beautiful titles of praise, some are ordinary titles of criticism, and some are bad titles of criticism.

Qin Shihuang believed that posthumous titles were a way for ministers to evaluate their monarchs and for descendants to criticize their ancestors, so he abolished them directly.

They are directly called Qin Shihuang, Qin Ershi, and Qin Sanshi.

During the Han Dynasty, the tradition of posthumous titles was restored, but they were mostly beautiful and peaceful, and obviously bad posthumous titles were almost never used.

By the time of the Tang Dynasty, not only were all emperors given beautiful posthumous titles, but the key point was that they caused inflation due to Wu Zetian and her husband.

From the traditional one-character posthumous title, it suddenly became several characters.

From then on, the posthumous titles of emperors became longer and longer. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had 23 characters, Zhu Di had 19 characters, and ordinary emperors had 17 characters.

Ordinary emperors of the Qing Dynasty also had their names raised to twenty-three characters, while Qianlong had twenty-five characters.

After the posthumous titles had been inflated to the limit, the long string of beautiful posthumous titles that were piled up in front of them were basically just a formality.

Except for formal official ceremonies, the last character is used as the actual posthumous title.

For example, Zhu Di’s official posthumous title was “Emperor Wen, the Great Emperor of Heaven, Profound Dao, High-minded, Profound Might, Holy Martial Arts, Pure Benevolence and Filial Piety”, which actually means “Emperor Wen”.

When people usually mention Zhu Di, they directly refer to him as Emperor Taizong Wen or Emperor Chengzu Wen.

The temple name originated in the Shang Dynasty. It was a code name used by royal family members to worship and sacrifice to important ancestors. Originally, only monarchs with the highest important achievements would have temple names.

Temple names were abolished in the Zhou Dynasty and re-used in the Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, there was a limit on the number of ancestors worshipped in the Taimiao, which was the so-called Seven Temples of the Son of Heaven. The emperor also only worshipped seven ancestors.

As the throne was passed down from generation to generation, when the number of ancestors worshipped by later generations exceeded seven, the tablet of the ancestor with the most distant relative would be moved to a side hall.

They have no part in the formal ancestor worship activities.

A monarch with a temple name would accept offerings from his descendants for generations without changing his name, which was equivalent to being on the white list of the Taimiao.

However, just as the posthumous name has been inflated, the temple name has also continued to inflate in later generations, from the original seven temples for the Son of Heaven to all emperors having a temple name.

However, whether it is temple name or posthumous name, after several rounds of inflation, the font sizes used still have differences in quality.

Given Zhu Jianxuan’s achievements, there would be no problem using any temple or posthumous title. No one would feel that he was unqualified. Instead, they would discuss whether the title was qualified or not.

This is exactly the problem that the Cabinet and the Ministry of Rites are worried about. They don’t know what temple or posthumous title to give Zhu Jianxuan.

They have to choose the best font from a bunch of good fonts, and the key is to make it clearly different from other fonts.

They took the initiative to let the emperor decide this matter, which was not only a voluntary obedience to the emperor’s authority, but also a way to see if the emperor had any good ideas.

As far as temple names are concerned, there are only four most traditional ones starting from the Shang Dynasty.

He was the one who established the country and founded the state, and was called Tai.

He who is appointed by Heaven and rules over all nations is called Gao.

To renew the great cause and to initiate the revival of the country is called Zhong.

To rebuild the country and restore order is called the world.

At the same time, temple names are divided into two categories: “Zu” and “Zong”.

The way to distinguish them is that the ancestors have merits and the clan has virtues. Merits refer to the merits of creating something new, while virtues refer to the virtues of maintaining the status quo.

In other words, only those who can start a business can be called ancestors, and the others can only be called clan leaders.

Taizu was the one with the greatest achievements, and Taizong was the one with the greatest virtues.

Gaozu was the first to receive the mandate, and Gaozong was the one with the highest virtue.

Zhongzu and Shizu made great contributions to the restoration of the country.

Zhongzong and Shizong were the ones who carried on the past and opened up the future.

Taizu was the one who obtained the first piece of land and title, established his own family and country, and was the founder of the entire family and country.

For example, Li Hu, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and Yang Zhong, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty.

After inheriting the family business, Gaozu defeated other surrounding countries and became the common ruler recognized by all countries in the world, becoming the Son of Heaven and Emperor.

For example, Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, and Emperor Gaozu of Sui, Yang Jian.

Sejo was similar to Jungjo in that he was a monarch who rectified the chaotic situation and greatly expanded the territory, or an emperor who rebuilt the country.

For example, Emperor Shizu of Han, Liu Xiu, Emperor Shizu of Yuan, Kublai Khan, and Emperor Shizu of Qing, Fulin.

These titles are either pioneering or revitalizing. Strictly speaking, none of them can be easily obtained.

For Zhu Jianxuan, anything can be used as long as it has not been used by his ancestors.

Neither the Cabinet nor the Ministry of Rites considered “Zong” and subconsciously chose to use Shizu or Zhongzu, which are the best temple names other than the founding monarchs.

But they did not react immediately, and the temple name of Ming Gaozu is still vacant.

Because the Taizu who first established the foundation of the Ming Dynasty and the Gaozu who became the emperor who ruled the world were both Zhu Yuanzhang himself, he was the Taizu Gaohuangdi.

Zhu Yuanzhang’s temple name was Taizu and Gaohuangdi was his posthumous title.

At the same time, from the current perspective of the world, the inheritance of the Zhu family as the monarch of the Ming Dynasty was founded by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.

After that, all monarchs ruled only the Ming Dynasty and its surrounding areas.

But by the time of Zhu Jianxuan’s generation, his rule suddenly expanded to the entire world, and he completely unified the world on a larger scale.

Truly gained the submission and loyalty of the whole world.

In other words, Zhu Jianxuan can be regarded as the “first king to receive the mandate” at a higher level.

So Zhu Jianxuan could be the Emperor Gaozu of the Ming Dynasty!
Relatively speaking, Shizu and Zhongzu were both rebuilders, while Gaozu was indeed a founder, and there was a clear gap in their status.

If Gaozu can be used, of course we should use Gaozu instead of Shizu.

As for the posthumous title “Da”, although it is not a traditional posthumous title directly passed down from the Zhou Dynasty, it is the posthumous title with the best meaning that has ever existed in history.

The Analects of Confucius: Taibo says: “How great is Yao’s rule! Only heaven is great, and only Yao follows it.”

Therefore, Su Xun concluded that: Zetian follows the example of Emperor Yao and is called great. Only those who can grasp the rules of heaven and follow the example of Emperor Yao can be called great.

Only the most powerful monarch in terms of morality, ability and achievements can be called “the Great Emperor” or “the Great Emperor”.

There are two people in history who have used this posthumous title, one is Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and the other is Emperor Taizu of Wu, Sun Quan, during the Three Kingdoms period.

Li Zhi’s historical evaluation was originally good, but he raised the empress Wu Zetian, so his reputation in ancient times was not very good.

As a monarch of a separatist force, Sun Quan’s reputation in history is even worse.

If an ordinary emperor tried to use the posthumous title of “Da”, he would definitely feel like a monkey wearing a human crown, just like Sun Quan. Even Li Zhi would find it hard to say whether he could suppress this title.

But it doesn’t matter to Zhu Jianxuan. The title of Emperor can be said to be just right.

After Zhu Jianxuan used this posthumous title, the Great Emperor would become Zhu Jianxuan’s exclusive posthumous title, and no one would remember that Sun Quan and Li Zhi had used this posthumous title.

Originally, ordinary people referred to Li Zhi mainly as Emperor Gaozong of Tang.

Just like when we talk about Emperor Yongle, everyone knows it is Zhu Di, but they don’t know that Fang La also used the Yongle era name.

Even if someone remembered to make a comparison, they would directly say that Sun Quan was bragging and was totally unworthy of the title of emperor.

As the saying goes, it’s not a problem if you don’t know the goods, it’s a problem if you compare the goods.

Many posthumous titles and temple names may be disliked and no longer used by later emperors just because they were used by an emperor with a bad reputation.

For example, the temple name Gaozong was originally the top three temple names in a normal dynasty, except for Taizu and Taizong.

However, because of Song Gaozong Zhao Gou, no emperor in the entire Ming Dynasty used the temple name Gaozong.

The nice reason is obviously that our ancestor cannot be placed on the same level as Zhao Gou.

In fact, they may be worried that their fathers and ancestors may not be able to find any particularly obvious advantages compared to the despised emperor.

That would make you look even worse.

Let’s take Song Gaozong Zhao Gou as an example. Although he was despised by countless people, from the perspective of family and dynasty inheritance, Zhao Gou did succeed in prolonging the life of the Song Dynasty and the Zhao family.

Most ordinary emperors in later generations did not dare to say that they had that ability and achievement.

Therefore, most ordinary emperors in later generations preferred to use the temple names and posthumous names used by emperors with good reputations in the past.

Compared with the wise and holy emperors in history, even if one’s own father and grandfather are obviously not as good as them, it is completely reasonable and not shameful.

Zhu Jianxuan is not afraid of this kind of comparison. He thinks he is the complete winner no matter how he compares.

Therefore, when choosing a temple name and posthumous title for Zhu Jianxuan, we can completely ignore the influence left by predecessors and only consider whether the meaning of the temple name and posthumous title itself is appropriate.

“The Great Emperor Gaozu of the Ming Dynasty” is the best posthumous title that Zhu Jianxuan can use.

After Zhu Jinggui decided on his father’s posthumous title, he considered another question: whether to change the reign title next year.

When his father was still alive, he did not change the reign title when he ascended the throne. What happened after his father passed away?

Zhu Jinggui hesitated and considered for a long time, and finally decided not to change it.

“I hope that the prosperity of the world can last forever, and I hope that the spirit of my father in heaven can always bless the Ming Dynasty—”

(End of this chapter)