The news of the great victory in suppressing the rebellion in Annan was sent to the capital by express horses, but the emperor and his ministers were not happy at this time, because just a few days ago, an unprecedented earthquake occurred in the capital, followed by several aftershocks.
The Imperial Astronomical Observatory, which copied Zhang Heng's seismograph based on records in ancient books, failed to predict the earthquake. After the earthquake, many houses collapsed in the capital, and the city was in panic and chaos. Countless people died without knowing it. The capital of the Ming Dynasty, which was gradually becoming peaceful, suddenly suffered a heavy blow.
Under the advice of his ministers, Zhu Gaoxu was forced to publicly admit that he had recently neglected rituals and sacrifices, and promised to follow the rules, fear God, be strict in governing officials, eliminate bad policies, etc., in order to appease God's anger.
Although Zhu Gaoxu had a
In the twelfth month of the first year of Wude, Zhu Gaoxu issued an edict to cancel all banquets, weddings, and singing and dancing performances until the eve of the Lantern Festival of the following year; and it was scheduled that in the first month of the second year of Wude, the combined sacrificial ceremony (praying for blessings in all four seasons, four sacrifices to heaven and earth combined into one) would be held in the southern suburbs.He also resumed the daily morning court session, showing an attitude of following the rules and catering to the will of heaven. This "active response to the wrath of heaven" satisfied both civil and military officials. The morning court session had been frequently cancelled since Emperor Taizong, and Zhu Gaoxu naturally did not hold it for several months during the Northern Expedition.A few days later, an impeachment memorial from Hu Guang, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, finally arrived.Hu Guang wrote a letter t
This year’s Chinese New Year in the capital will be quieter than in previous years. Without fireworks, people can't celebrate, they can only offer sacrifices and reunite. However, it can be expected that the Lantern Festival in half a month will be unprecedentedly lively. After all, there are too many disasters in the world, and people cannot remain in pain.During the festival, all offices from the imperial court to the various government offices stopped working. Zhu Gaoxu no longer had to review memorials or attend morning court.Therefore, during this period, he spent a lot of time with Miao Jin, and the two often stayed in Rouyi Palace. Other people in the harem had some complaints about this, so Zhu Gaoxu had to say that Miao Jin was writing a book for him, which was a little bit of an explanation.Under the huge wooden beams of Rouyi Palace, the room with bookshelves lined along the walls still looks a bit empty.However, Zhu Gaoxu had studied he
"Bang!" The first fireworks bloomed over Chang'an Street at the foot of the Imperial City, marking the beginning of the joyful night of the Lantern Festival in the second year of Wude.The imperial palace supervisors and the Jinyiwei set up a throne on the Hongwu Gate, and placed all kinds of snacks, sweet soups, and fine wine. Zhu Gaoxu brought the empress and concubines here, and they first enjoyed the fireworks and lights before returning to the palace to celebrate. The palace had also been newly decorated, and the concubines and maids could guess lantern riddles, play various games, and even gamble, and they could also watch singing and dancing, shadow play and other performances.However, although the lights are beautiful, the most beautiful thing is the people.Every time fireworks lit up the sky, under the colorful light, the gorgeous faces around the emperor would be reflected, each more beautiful than the other, vying for beauty.The person cl
In the early morning mist, there was still a faint smell of pollution from fireworks.The messy items that could be seen from time to time in the imperial city that had not been cleaned up were all the remnants of the decorations and celebrations of the imperial palace on the night of the Lantern Festival. These things were not seen on ordinary days, after all, there were many people in the palace to maintain cleanliness.In view of the fact that Zhu Gaoxu had been attending various ceremonies in a proper manner and attending morning court and sacrifices diligently since the end of last year in order to appease the wrath of heaven, just after the Lantern Festival, the Cabinet Minister and Minister of Rites Hu Yi submitted a memorial requesting an imperial decree to reopen the daily lectures on the classics this spring.The Jingyan was a kind of reading activity held by the literati and the emperor after the Song Dynasty; the lecturers mainly talked about the
In terms of personal relationship, Zhu Gaoxu and Hu Yi trusted each other.After the fall of the party that abolished the crown prince, Hu Yi was the first to be appointed as one of the ministers at the ministry level. Hu Yi also abandoned all public and private prejudices and, in accordance with the wishes of Emperor Zhu Gaoxu, presided over the matter of whitewashing Qi Tai.But at this time, both of them were cautious. Even if Zhu Gaoxu had said in advance that he would not admit his guilt and that he was innocent, it could not completely eliminate the inexplicable estrangement between them.It is said that serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. It is natural for Hu Yi to be so cautious. But can Zhu Gaoxu fully trust his ministers? How can he expect a scholar-official like Hu Yi to truly understand him?At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu actually sat down on the floor. The floor in the attic was made of wood and was swept very clean, but the wood was s
The calligraphy awarded to Hu Guang was a bit crude. The five characters were written on a piece of ordinary rice paper that was a bit wrinkled. Perhaps the ink was not properly handled after writing, so the character "飞" was a bit smudged.Fortunately, the emperor's handwriting was so smooth that it was not an exaggeration to call it calligraphy. Eunuch Wang Gui also gave a reasonable explanation, saying that this was the paper that the emperor used to practice calligraphy, so it was reasonable that it was not so perfect. Of course, the most important thing was that these words were written by the emperor.Earlier, the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department and the Jinyiwei came to the Qianbu Gallery, and Hu Guang had to express his gratitude to the emperor. Soon, many officials from the Hanlin Academy came to congratulate him, and everyone knew the content of the imperial calligraphy. Hu Guang promised to ask a carpenter to make a box of the right size, an
The prisoner presentation ceremony had already been prepared. The main reason why it was not held on that day was that Liu Sheng's timing for escorting the prisoners into the city was not appropriate, so the ceremony was scheduled for tomorrow morning.Wang Gui, the eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, met with the officials of the Honglu Temple by order, and after a private communication, he met Zhu Gaoxu again in the Rouyi Hall. Wang Gui wanted to inform the emperor Zhu Gaoxu and the etiquette process of tomorrow in advance, because it was Zhu Gaoxu's first time to participate in the captive offering ceremony.Fortunately, the program Zhu Gaoxu was responsible for was relatively simple and did not require rehearsal. He was mainly responsible for sitting in the upper seat and accepting people's worship. His lines were only one sentence, a concise and easy-to-remember two-word phrase.The captured Annan rebel prisoners have been taken to the imperial
As dusk gradually enveloped the palace, Zhu Gaoxu walked out of the Rouyi Palace, got into his sedan chair, and prepared to go back to the harem. Until now, the "take it" repeated many times in the morning still occasionally echoes in my mind.Tonight he should be with the wise concubine Yao Ji. Sometimes the concubines would go to bed and dress up before coming to the Qianqing Palace to meet. But today he plans to go to the Xianfei Palace, which is located in the West Sixth Palace.Someone had been sent to tell Concubine Xian in advance, so Zhu Gaoxu could have dinner as soon as he arrived at the place.Even for an emperor, his ordinary meals were not complicated, consisting of four dishes and one soup. However, these four dishes and one soup had to be delivered to Zhu Gaoxu, which required many people to handle them and went through a series of relatively complicated processes.There was almost no sound in the small room next to the dining room, and