Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1146 Epilogue 131: The Ming Dynasty has been established for years

Why did Xie Yan ask about telegraphs and trains?

Because it is mentioned in this history book.

Xie Yan carefully checked the birth and death dates of the Ming emperors, but there was no information about Emperor Dingtai. It was probably because his death was too recent and the relevant textbook content had not yet been compiled.

The Yellow Emperor's calendar has also been removed from textbooks, and even the calendars we use daily do not include the Yellow Emperor's calendar.

Xie Yan used the excuse of having a headache and returned to his bedroom with his history textbook. Wang Sheng said goodbye and left as he did not want to disturb him.

After returning to the bedroom, Xie Yan took out paper and pen.

He blurred the ink stick and ground it for a while before he realized that he was grinding the ink subconsciously.

Maybe daily behaviors like talking, dressing, and grinding ink have already become habits of this body, just like a person who has a concussion and amnesia, he can't remember his own name, but still knows how to speak.

There are two things similar to pens in the pen holder on the desk.

There is a nib and a pen tube, but there is no leather tube to hold the ink. It seems that cotton or something is stuffed in it to absorb the ink.

There are also ink bottles with glass bodies and cork stoppers.

Xie Yan opened the history book, dipped his pen in ink, and began to write in his notebook:

Zhu Guoxiang, abdicated, Hongwu 6st year - Hongwu 93th year. (Reigned for years, died at the age of .)
Zhu Ming, abdicated, the first year of the Restoration of China - the eleventh year of the Restoration of China, the first year of the Shenfu - the fortieth year of the Shenfu. (reigned for 51 years, died at the age of 90.)
Zhu Yang died of illness in the first year of Duanxi (7-67). (He reigned for years and died at the age of .)
Zhu Tang died of illness in the first year of Yanchun - the eighteenth year of Yanchun. (He reigned for 18 years and died at the age of 69.)
Zhu Xiaochi died of illness in the first year of Longsheng (4st year of Longsheng) - the fourth year of Longsheng (55th year of Longsheng). (He reigned for years and died at the age of .)
Zhu Jingjun, died of illness, the first year of Dingtai——? (Years of reign unknown, year of death unknown.)
Zhu Hepei, currently in office, Jiaqing 1st year - Jiaqing 3rd year. (The emperor's grandson succeeded to the throne.)
If we don't count the reign of Emperor Dingtai Zhu Jingjun, it has only been 89 years from the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the present.

But Wang Sheng said that the Ming Dynasty had been founded for more than a hundred years, so Emperor Dingtai had been in power for at least 11 years.

Let’s look at Emperor Dingtai’s father, who reigned for four years and died at the age of 55, so he himself may have succeeded to the throne in his 30s.

Moreover, Emperor Dingtai outlived his son and let his grandson, who was less than 10 years old, succeed to the throne. It is estimated that he also had a very long reign.

Xie Yan even suspected that the current Emperor Jiaqing, who succeeded the throne as the emperor's grandson, might have some problems with his identity, which led to a prince daring to stage a coup.

If the reign of Emperor Dingtai is set at 35 years, the Ming Dynasty would have been founded for 124 years.

124 years after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, should it be the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, or the Yuan Dynasty? Xie Yan's history is too poor to make it clear.

Grass!
Xie Yan slapped his forehead. He forgot to ask Wang Sheng how long the Dingtai era name had been used.

This Emperor Dingtai must be very powerful, because Wang Sheng said before that Emperor Dingtai suppressed the rebellions in the Western Regions and the grasslands, and built railways to the Western Regions and the grasslands.

"Bang bang bang!"

There was a knock on the door.

Xie Yan quickly tore off what he had just written, crumpled it up and put it in his pocket: "Come in."

A little girl jumped in and pushed the door open: "Sixth brother, are you healed?"

"Are you the younger sister?" Xie Yan asked.

The little girl was a little unhappy and pouted and said, "It seems that you are not well yet. You don't even recognize me."

Xie Yan covered his head and said, "I get a headache when I think about it. Can you help me recall it? What's your name?"

The little girl said, "My name is Xie Wan. I am the thirteenth in the family, so people usually call me Thirteenth Lady."

"It turned out to be Thirteenth Sister. I kind of remember her." Xie Yan started to talk nonsense.

"Really?" Xie Wan became happy again.

Xie Yan took the opportunity to ask, "Thirteenth sister, how many years has Dingtai been around?"

Xie Wan said, "Forty-two years. It's the forty-two years of Dingtai. I just started the first grade of elementary school. Sixth brother, why are you confused again?"

"Sometimes I remember, sometimes I forget," Xie Yan explained.

Xie Wan asked with concern: "Then you must rest more and take the medicine prescribed by the doctor on time."

Xie Yan said a few perfunctorily, but he was calculating the years in his mind.

If Dingtai lasted for 42 years, it would mean that the Ming Dynasty had been founded for 131 years.

"You guys are leaving school so early?" Xie Yan glanced at the clock and made small talk.

Xie Wan said, "It's a girls' school, so they finish school early."

Xie Yan asked: "Do all girls go to girls' schools? Are there any government-run girls' schools?"

"No, all girls' schools are private schools," Xie Wan walked over and looked at herself in the mirror. "I heard that during the Dingtai period, the two capitals opened official girls' schools and hired famous scholars as professors. But the granddaughter of an important official got pregnant, and it was found out that the mother was a lecturer. That incident caused a big uproar, and the official girls' schools were closed after only a few years."

Xie Yan could imagine the situation at that time.

Regardless of whether they were in love or the teacher seduced the female student, getting the granddaughter of an important official in the court pregnant was too much.

The lecturer was so bold that he probably wanted to take a chance and make it a done deal, taking advantage of the opportunity to become the grandson-in-law of an important official. Xie Yan asked, "Are private girls' schools affected?"

Xie Wan said: "It will definitely be affected. All girls' schools are now not allowed to employ male teachers, and even the school servants are all women."

Xie Yan asked again: "Can women take the imperial examinations?"

"You can only take the exam for child prodigies, study in Biyong for three years, and then take the exam to enter the Imperial College."

Xie Wan was very excited when she spoke of this, and she described it in detail: "It is very difficult. It is not easy to pass the child prodigy test, and you have to study for seven years in Biyong and Imperial College. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, only four women have successfully graduated from the Imperial College. One of them became an imperial concubine, two became crown princesses, and one passed the imperial examination and became an official."

Xie Yan was surprised and asked, "A woman can pass the imperial examination and become an official?"

Xie Wan nodded vigorously: "For more than a hundred years, there has only been one woman who passed the imperial examination and became an official. On my first day of school, my teacher told me the story of that extraordinary woman, and all the female students admired her. But it's a pity that she had a very bad ending."

"What's the ending?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Wan said: "Everyone opposed her becoming an official, only Emperor Dingtai supported her. After she became an official, she was often slandered, and the censors always impeached her. She never married in her life, and resigned from her official position in her forties to become a Taoist nun."

Xie Yan was silent.

Xie Wan added: "The teacher told us that when she was an official, everyone scolded her, but when she became a Taoist nun, everyone praised her. Every day, people came to the Taoist temple to talk with her about history, academics, and poetry. One day, she suddenly disappeared and never appeared again."

"It's quite ironic." Xie Yan commented.

Xie Wan continued, "Among the four extraordinary women, one who became the crown prince's consort also had a bad ending. She was three years older than the crown prince, had a plain appearance, and a strong personality. The crown prince did not like her, but the emperor insisted on their marriage. She did not give birth to a son, and the crown prince deposed her in the second year after he ascended the throne. All the civil and military officials in the court were useless in their persuasion."

Xie Yan thought it was okay. At least in principle, women in the Ming Dynasty could take the imperial examination and become officials, and if they studied at the Imperial Academy, they would be easily selected by the powerful.

Xie Wan whispered, "The current empress dowager was a prostitute from the Qihe Protectorate. She was chosen as the prince's concubine when she was studying at the Imperial Academy. The prince's wife was in poor health, and several legitimate sons died young, so it was the current emperor's turn to be the crown prince. The current empress dowager and emperor both have foreign blood, so the civil and military officials supported Prince Yong's coup."

Xie Yan was surprised and said, "You know all this secret? You haven't even graduated from elementary school yet!"

"I'm already eleven years old, there's nothing I don't know?" Xie Wan said, "I was at school, and I overheard two teachers talking about it. Many teachers were discussing this matter."

As expected of a girls' school, the female teachers are quite gossipy.

In fact, the current empress dowager is a real Han woman.

Her ancestors immigrated to the Qihe area in the late Taizong period, married a foreign woman and had children. After that, they intermarried with the Han people, read all the Han books, and her grandfather's generation even passed the examination to become a regular official.

However, her appearance does have some foreign characteristics, because among the so-called Han women who have intermarried for several generations, two of them are of Qihe mixed blood.

She is very beautiful.

The prince was already in his forties at that time. When he inspected the Imperial College, he fell in love with her at first sight. He went back and applied to Emperor Dingtai to take her as a concubine.

Xie Wan eavesdropped on the female teachers' gossip, but she didn't know everything, as those female teachers had limited sources of information.

The real reason for Prince Yong's coup was that the wise and powerful Emperor Dingtai became extremely foolish in the last few years of his reign.

Upright ministers were marginalized, and treacherous villains came to power one after another. Prince Yong tried to please the foolish Emperor Dingtai while secretly making friends with eunuchs, civil officials and military generals.

Although Prince Yong himself was only a Hanlin official without real power, there were many eunuchs, civil officials, and military generals who had close personal relationships with him.

In addition, Emperor Dingtai lived too long, and his two queens, the crown prince and several legitimate grandchildren died of illness one after another, which further fueled their ambitions.

These guys took advantage of Emperor Dingtai's critical illness to isolate the inside and outside, block the news, and forge an imperial edict, making them almost 100% sure that the coup would succeed.

Who would have thought that at the critical moment, the prince's concubine from the Seven Rivers Land ran away with her son who had been appointed as the Crown Prince only half a year ago!

No one knows how they escaped from the Eastern Palace, but they quickly arrived in Chang'an and reported to the emperor. They were accompanied by a civil servant who is now the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty.

The empress dowager, who still has charm, the young new emperor, and the prime minister who suddenly came to power, returned to Luoyang and joined forces to carry out a bloody purge of the court.

There are too many civil and military officials implicated, which has led to rumors rife. Some people are secretly making up obscene rumors, saying that the prime minister often sleeps overnight on the empress dowager's bed.

Some even said that the little emperor was the prime minister's illegitimate son.

After chatting with his sister for a while, Xie Yan's father and brother returned home one after another.

His elder brother was quite lively and joked with Xie Yan, who was "not very smart".

But my father looked worried.

While eating, my mother asked, "Is there any trouble in the government office?"

My father asked the servants to leave first, then he sighed and said, "The new policy has spread to the local areas. The emperor and the cabinet have issued an order to reduce the number of unemployed officials and unemployed laborers in government offices at all levels."

"This is a good thing. All those clerks in the government office are just sitting there doing nothing. Reducing the number of unemployed clerks and unemployed servants will allow the clerks to do their work properly," said the mother.

My father shook his head: "You don't understand. There are too many messy things. The new emperor and the prime minister are going to reform the law. Rectifying the administration is only the first step. We don't know what to do next. They have cleaned up the court, and now it's their turn to rectify the local areas. If I don't pay attention, I will be in trouble."

(End of this chapter)