Nurhaci had many wives and concubines, at least ten of whom can be tested, and gave birth to sixteen sons. The eldest son and the second son were both born to Tong Jia.
The eldest son Chu Ying was very brave and was named "Alhatu Tumen" by Nurhaci, which translated as "Guanglue". During the Liaoyang War, he didn't know whether he was in a daze or something, but he wasted the opportunity to fight because of his greed for money. In a rage, Nurhaci relieved him of his military power, and his original position as prince was also abolished and he was placed under house arrest. It is not surprising to say that Nurhachi was cruel. In the forty-third year of Wanli, he actually directly executed his own son at the age of thirty-six.
The second son Daishan, as mentioned before, is the leader of the four Baylors and has a higher status than the other sons. He is smooth and sophisticated in life. Because of his outstanding military exploits, he was given the title "Gu Ying Batu Lu" and received the two red flags of Manchuria (official name). red flag, red flag). The rest will be discussed later.
Two other things worth noting are that Mang Gurtai and Huang Taiji, who are the third and fourth beile, are also Nurhachi disciples. The second beile Amin also has a greater status and sits with the Khan.
After Nurhachi's death, Daishan could have inherited the throne, but that was not what he considered in his heart. He himself owns the two flags of Zhenghong and Xianghong, and also has his own political and interest groups. At the critical moment, he considers the overall situation and his own abilities. He knows that the current political environment is not suitable for him to do anything, and he may not be fully sure of stabilizing the political situation. It is better to be the Duke of Zhou: Amin Although ranked second, his ambition is not small; Mang Gurtai is unruly and sometimes even disputes without regard to his status as a great Baylor; Huang Taiji has great ambitions and has the idea of an emperor; Azig (son of Nurhachi) Strong and aggressive; Dorgon is young and energetic, and he is not willing to be inferior to others. Dai Shan knew very well that he had only one choice: to propose to other princes, princes, beiles, and beizi to support Emperor Tai Chi Khan as a great beile, and to support the great khan in the form of joint recommendation by eight and great bele.
Tomorrow, on September 1, the sixth year of Tianming (the eleventh year of Tianming), Huang Taiji will ascend the throne in Dazheng Hall, burn incense and proclaim to heaven, and designate the following year as the first year of Tiancong.
On the first day he came to the throne, Huang Taiji began to show the depth of his Chineseization and ordered the three Baylors before him to "walk the right path, follow etiquette and justice, uphold friendship and love, and perform public loyalty." The escape law that originated in the eleventh year of Nurhachi's destiny has also been changed, stipulating that: Anyone who intends to escape but fails to take action does not need to be convicted. You can pay attention and observe first; when the escape is completed, that is, you have really escaped. From now on, if we start to seize again, we will deal with it strictly!
After two days, it was decided that Han people should pay taxes the same as Jurchens, changing the previous situation of different tax amounts between Han people and Jurchens. Han people who committed crimes should also be treated the same as Jurchens, and they should not be biased just because it was Jurchens who committed the crime. Improving the taxation and judicial aspects that the people are most interested in not only eased ethnic conflicts, but also consolidated the unstable situation just after he came to the throne, allowing Amin, Mang Gurtai, Azig, Dorgon and others to People covet the position of Khan in their hearts but do nothing.
In the past, during the Nurhaci period, every Han captured was in principle a slave of the Jurchens, without any freedom at all. Among the Han people engaged in farming, every twelve people constituted a "village" and treated the Jurchens as property. This approach, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially during the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms in the North, had already provoked countless Han uprisings, leading to a weakening of the ruling foundation and even the destruction of the country. At this point, Huang Taiji or the Jurchens At this point, it is much better than the previous ethnic minority regimes. For example, in the Yuan Dynasty, the Central Plains or the territory of China was regarded more as a colony rather than a territory. This is a huge difference in the concepts of the rulers, and it will also This leads to differences in the operation of subsequent regimes; differences in the operation of state machinery.
We know that Nurhachi was highly sinicized, and we can’t even find much trace of the Jurchens in Huang Taiji’s practices. And his successor, Shunzhi, in his subsequent policies and actions, looked like an emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty. He even became red-faced when arguing with the emperor about who was the best emperor. The emperor said it was Tang Taizong, but he said it was Ming Taizu. What is more noteworthy is that he worshiped Ming Taizu and did not kill like Zhu Yuanzhang. The founding hero of the People's Republic of China made four major cases in the early Qing Dynasty, that is, he used his politics and abandoned his nature.
There is another important reason why Huang Taiji treated the Han people in this way. After his father Nurhachi conquered Liaoyang, Shenyang and several towns and villages in the entire Liao River Basin, the number of Han people in the areas he conquered and controlled was no longer what it used to be. The number of Han people has become dozens of times that of Jurchens, so Han officials have to be selected, which is very similar to the north-south official system of the Liao Kingdom. Speaking of these millions of Han people, They should be treated separately, and they can no longer be classified as Jurchens as slaves as in the past.
The policy of Sinicization also includes: referring to the imperial examination system of the Central Plains Dynasty, and quite agreeing with it. As long as those of the Han, Mongolian and Jurchen tribes who pass the exam as scholars are exempted from corvee and military service, they can also be rewarded with satin and cotton cloth; and later expanded the library to " There are three inner courtyards: Hongwen Academy, National History Academy, and Secretary Academy. And from then on, he liked to use the "Three-Body" script, namely Chinese, Jurchen and Mongolian. Those who were proficient in the three languages were appointed as bachelors of the "National Academy of History".
However, there are still limitations. Huang Taiji, who is obsessed with Chinese culture, also has unacceptable things, that is, clothing and national attire. Among them is the most critical issue of braids: in the three years of Chongde, he saw that many Jurchens have modified their clothes, and even men have changed their hair. The man had his braids cut off, the woman had her feet bound, and he said angrily: "Anyone who wears clothes from another country, ties up his hair and binds his feet will be punished with a serious crime."
