"Yuanyuan, you
After Emperor Zhengshi's death, noble families like Duke Xiangguo's Mansion had to enter the palace to offer sacrifices. Ladies with titles like Old Madam Wen, Lady Zhu, and Lady Yu had to go to the palace every day. Jiang Xuesui's father was even busier, spending the nights in the Grand Secretariat's duty room.
Before his death, Emperor Zhengshi summoned the Crown Prince, Prince Cheng, the other princes who had not yet been enfeoffed, several senior royal uncles, and the five grand secretaries to his bedside. He ordered Cheng Lin, the eunuch director of the Directorate of Ceremonial, to read the edict. The gist was that the throne would pass to the Crown Prince Zhu Jingxu, and Prince Cheng Zhu Jing'an would leave for his fief in Xiangyang with his mother, Noble Consort Zhang, after observing a hundred days of mourning for the emperor. The mother and son were forbidden from ever returning to the capital.
Emperor Zhengshi had spent over ten days drafting this edict with great care. He knew that even if he forced his beloved son, Prince Cheng, to succeed him, the prince could not hold the throne. The power of the old clans in Jiangnan was too great. No matter how the successive Sons of Heaven of Zhao tried to suppress them, they could not cow these defiant officials.
Emperor Zhengshi had once had an all-night talk with Jiang Shaohua, pleading with him as a father of the nation to mediate between the Great Zhao Imperial Family and the Jiangnan gentry, to at least preserve some dignity for the Zhu family in Zhao history.
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