this novel is healthy

Chapter 1599: The Seven Temples of the Emperor
The first thing after ascending the throne was naturally how to deal with the members of the Li Tang royal family.

As a result, all the members of the Li family who originally belonged to the royal family were expelled from the clan... Well, this was still within expectations and seemed acceptable.

Then it was time to appoint his own successor. The former emperor Li Dan was once again appointed as the crown prince, and at the same time given the surname Wu. An imperial edict was issued to announce it to the whole country. So everyone in the world knew that Li Dan, who had been promoted from crown prince to emperor, had become the crown prince again, but with a different name, Wu Dan.

This kind of thing, which would probably not find a second similar case even if you look back 5000 years, or even 5000 years later, naturally triggered discussions among all the people and officials across the country. The entire auditorium and the royal family undoubtedly became complete clowns in this discussion. Even the old farmers working in the fields could make a few sarcastic remarks when they had free time.

This naturally caused Li Shimin to lose his defense again, and Li Zhi, whose skin and flesh had finally recovered a little, was beaten unconscious again.

As a result, when Li Zhi woke up from his coma again, he found that his damn father had found a can of salt from somewhere and was sprinkling salt on the whip... When Li Zhi was whipped with salt, he began to tremble all over at the thought of it.

He quickly looked at his two silent brothers and begged, "Big Brother, Second Brother, what has Father seen that has caused him to be like this?"

"It's not an important plot!" Li Chengqian said expressionlessly after hearing Li Zhi's words, "It's just that your queen established seven temples for her Wu family in the capital, and all of them were crowned as emperors. Then, she downgraded our Great Tang's Taimiao, as well as the ancestral temples of your grandfather, father, and yourself, to ancestral halls, and changed their names to Xiangde Temple!"

"What?" Li Zhi's eyes almost popped out when he heard this.

According to the ancient Chinese belief, the sky is the most important, and one's own ancestors are the second. Even common people have to go to the clan master every year to worship their ancestors, especially the noble emperor.

Therefore, no matter which dynasty the emperor came from, he had to build his own imperial temple to worship his ancestors.

The same is true for the seven temples of the emperor, which means that when the emperor built the Taimiao, he had to build seven different ancestral temples separately, in which his ancestors of seven generations were enshrined. These ancestors, who were probably just ordinary people, would take this opportunity to rise to heaven and become emperors.

For example, the beggar emperor of later generations and his ancestors who also became beggars would probably never have imagined that after their death they would one day become the supreme emperor.

Then someone may ask, if the dynasty has lasted for more than ten generations, but the emperor has only seven temples, what should be done with the emperors who have existed for more than seven generations?

This requires moving the temple.

Those emperors who had been in power for more than seven generations were removed from the main temple in the Taimiao and no longer enjoyed individual sacrifices from the current emperor. Instead, they stayed in side halls and enjoyed the incense from the emperor together.

However, there are exceptions. The founding emperor, that is, the emperor who is temple-named the ancestor, is not among these seven temples. He will always enjoy a share of sacrificial incense that belongs only to him, which will continue until the dynasty perishes.

Speaking of this, I have to mention an interesting story about the Ming Dynasty in later generations.

The Ming Dynasty naturally had seven temples for the emperor. Logically, Zhu should have found all seven of his ancestors at once, conferred them posthumous titles as emperors, and placed them in the Imperial Ancestral Temple for worship. Unfortunately, the Zhu family did not have a genealogy, and Zhu could not find the names of his seven generations of ancestors no matter how hard he tried. He could only find four generations of ancestors, namely Mingdezu Zhu Bailiu, Mingyizu Zhu Sijiu, Mingxizu Zhu Chuyi, and Mingrenzu Zhu Shizhen.

To be honest, Lao Zhu is indeed a very honest man. He just wrote the name of his ancestor and did not make up a nice-sounding name.

Although the tablets in the Taimiao were incomplete at first, fortunately, after the successive emperors Taizong, Renzong, Xuanzong, Yingzong, Xianzong, Xiaozong, and Wuzong, it was not until Emperor Shizong, the famous Emperor Jiajing, that the tablets in the seven temples were finally complete, and they were all real emperors.

But at this time, Emperor Jiajing had a worry.

As we all know, Emperor Jiajing was not the son of the last Emperor Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao, who had no children in his life. He was an adopted emperor from a collateral line. In order to make his throne legitimate, Emperor Jiajing always wanted to posthumously confer the title of emperor on his biological father, thus indicating that he inherited the throne from his father, not from Zhu Houzhao.

This is known as the Great Ceremonial Event.

Then the problem arises, because in the ancestral temple of the Ming Dynasty, except for Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang who could not be moved forever, the tablets of only seven emperors could be placed, and the previous emperor Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao was the seventh.

So if Emperor Jiajing wanted to have his father's position in the ancestral temple and worship him as the emperor, then according to the principle of the Seven Temples of the Son of Heaven, the emperor should be asked to leave the ancestral temple and go to the side hall to receive sacrifices.

Emperor Jiajing actually had no psychological burden about this. As long as Zhu Houzhao's throne was removed, it would be completely OK. However, according to the rules set by the Ming Dynasty's ancestral teachings, if the temple had to be moved, only the tablet of the emperor whose bloodline was farthest away from him could be moved.

In other words, if Emperor Jiajing's father wanted to enter the ancestral temple, the spirit tablet of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty could only be sent to a side hall.

So who is this Emperor Taizong of Ming?
Naturally, it is our great Zhu Di.

Logically speaking, this was a matter in accordance with the clan law. Emperor Jiajing only needed to move Zhu Di's tablet away. After all, this was the rule set by Zhu Yuanzhang.

But the question is, in terms of merit, Zhu Di's merits are no less than Zhu Yuanzhang's, and he is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty second only to Zhu Yuanzhang. Secondly, the reason why Jiajing's lineage was able to become emperor was that Zhu Di successfully snatched the throne from his nephew. In fact, he was equivalent to the great ancestor of Jiajing's lineage.

Now, in order to send your father, who has never been an emperor, into the ancestral temple, you have to send away the spirit tablet of your real ancestor Zhu Di, who has made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty. Once this matter gets out, I am afraid that the whole world will curse Emperor Jiajing behind his back. How can Emperor Jiajing, who cares most about his reputation, bear this? Therefore, he absolutely cannot move the spirit tablet of Zhu Di.

But if Zhu Di's spirit tablet was not moved, then his father's spirit tablet could not be placed there at all. At the same time, there was no reason to put it in the side hall. So the whole thing was stuck here and could not be moved.

Whether his father's spirit tablet could enter the Taimiao was related to Emperor Jiajing's authority in the entire court and could not tolerate any delay.

(End of this chapter)