ANYONE SEEN THE SON OF HEAVEN ？

BY JEREMIAH JENNE



ANYONE SEEN THE SON OF HEAVEN ？

BY JEREMIAH JENNE

One Emperor. If found， you can keep him.

在很久很久以前，大明王朝弄丢了一个皇帝，后来他又回来了

H ow do you lose an emperor？ I mean， it's not like you would confuse the Son of Heaven w ith somebody's wayward schnauzer. And yet the M ing Empire， no stranger to bizarre successions and eccentric rulers， somehow managed to m isplace their monarch for nearly a year.

Zhu Qizhen （1427 - 1464） was the favorite son of the Xuande Emperor who ruled M ing China from 1425 to 1435. When his father died in 1435， Zhu Qizhen took the throne as the Zhengtong Emperor.

Only eight years old， the young monarch benef ted from

时光机TIME MACHINE an experienced court to guide him in his new role. He inherited a trio of capable off cials known as the Three Yang's： Yang Shiji （1366 - 1444）， Yang Rong （1371 -1440）， and Yang Pu （1372 - 1446）. These men had served the throne for decades， beginning during the reign of the Zhengtong Em peror's great-grand father， the Yongle Em peror.

A lso watching over the fedgling sovereign was the boy's grandmother， the Emp ress Zhang. She had been a powerful in fuence in the life of his father and continued to be a p resence in the court of the Zhengtong Em peror.

But the young emperor soon found himself in thrall to the eunuch Wang Zhen. The Empress Zhang died in 1442 and the last of the Three Yangs passed away in 1446. Wang Zhen became the most infuential fgure at court. O ffcials and bureaucrats lined up to curry favor w ith the imperious eunuch and Wang Zhen even built a temp le in his honor， the Zhihua Temple in Beijing which stands to the present day.

Wang Zhen convinced the impressionable young monarch to face personally the empire's most form idable enemy， the O riyad Mongol leader （and later Khan） Esen， on the battlefeld.

Esen and his forces had repeatedly been rebuffed in their efforts to access border markets and to establish an embassy in the M ing capital. In a precursor of the European wars of the 19th century， Esen responded to the refusal of his entreaties w ith a series of m ilitary raids on the outskirts of the empire. Emboldened by his own successes， Esen had begun eyeing targets closer to Beijing.

The campaign against Esen was nothing short of a disaster. In August 1449， 500，000 troops left Beijing bound for the steppe led by a coterie of seasoned offcers and high m ilitary offcials. Rain and supply problems hampered the expedition. When the main army stumbled upon a battlefeld littered with the corpses of Chinese frontier guards slaughtered by Esen's troops， the emperor's offcials pleaded with him to abandon the plans for a campaign on the steppe as too dangerous. Less than three weeks after departing Beijing the army turned around. But rather than head back directly， Wang Zhen persuaded the Zhengtong Emperor to retrace their steps and head to the northeast，exposing the troops to Esen's forces.

On August 31， the M ing army camped outside of the Tumu Postal Station， about 100 m iles from the city. Early the next morning， Esen ordered a surprise attack. All of the M ing generals were killed as well as two G rand Secretaries， the M inister of War， and Wang Zhen. The few soldiers who survived the initial assault panicked and fed back toward the capital. In the confusion， offcers and troops alike lost track of their monarch. When the dust cleared， Esen had routed the M ing forces， and the emperor was his prisoner.

The defeat threw Beijing into chaos. Residents fed the city fearing that Esen planned to sack the capital. O ffcials packed hastily and made p lans to retreat to the secondary capital at Nanjing. Some even advocated ceding the north to Esen and ruling the south as had been the case during the Song Dynasty.

It was up to Yu Qian， the Vice M inister of War， to save Beijing and north China. He commanded the forces at Beijing to prepare the city's defenses and to stand and fght. Rather than try and ransom the captive emperor or put his face on a m ilk carton， the court simply deposed the Zhengtong Emperor in absentia and handed the throne over to his younger brother. The Zhengtong Emperor would be remembered， fondly， as the “retired emperor”.

The M ing court refused Esen's attempts to use the Zhengtong Emperor as leverage and the negotiations stalled his advance toward the capital and deprived his army of momentum and surprise. U ltimately， the Zhengtong Emperor would be his guest and prisoner for over a year until Esen decided that enough was enough and sent the once-and-future monarch back to Beijing.

That's when things got…a little awkward. One can only imagine the conversation at court： “Hey！ You're back. Awesome. Um…a few things have changed around here. New chef. You're going to love his dumpling recipes. New carpet in the throne room， very nice. Oh yeah…your brother is now on the throne…and he's ordered your arrest and incarceration.”

For nearly seven years， the former Zhengtong Emperor was kept as a prisoner of his brother in a pavilion in the southern part of the Forbidde City. He suffered further when his brother deposed the Zhengtong Emperor's son as the heir apparent i favor of his own child. But perhaps the Zhengtong Emperor was just biding his time. H is nephew—the ne heir apparent—died soon after being named crown prince. The Zhengton Emperor's brother also fell ill and in 1457， palace offcials launched a cou forcing their way into the Zhengtong Emperor's chambers and whisking him away to the throne room for a surprise coronation. H is brother， too ill to respond， died a short while later reported ly at the hands of eunuch servants.

Looking to start fresh， he abandone the reign name Zhengtong. Now ruling as the Tianshun Emperor， Zhu Qizhen， took the opportunity to settle all fam ily business starting w ith the man who saved Beijing and the empire， Yu Qian. Yu Qian—quite rightly—blamed the Tumu Debacle on the eunuch Wang Zhen and had Wang's fam ily and associates execute during the emperor's time as a guest of Esen. Now the emperor would have his revenge， ordering the public execution of Yu Qian and the erectio of a temple in honor of Wang Zhen.

The restored emperor ruled for another seven years. He died in 1464 at the age of 36. He would be the on emperor of the M ing era， and one of the few in Chinese history， to have tw separate turns on the dragon throne.