However, there are differences between the two. The suicide of Lord Xi is more a tragedy of the end of a hero's life, while the suicide of Emperor Chongzhen is a hopeless despair of saving the country. The so-called "monarch perishes his country" is generally the case, so later generations do not blame Emperor Chongzhen, the monarch of national subjugation, but give birth to a lot of nostalgia, which may also be related to Emperor Chongzhen being the last emperor of the real Han regime. People miss Emperor Chongzhen and naturally resent his death. After the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the crooked neck tree, as a suicide tool of Emperor Chongzhen, became the object of criticism, as if it had killed Emperor Chongzhen, as if Emperor Chongzhen would not have died without it.
Speaking of it, the demise of the Ming Dynasty had something to do with Emperor Chongzhen. Although the Ming Dynasty planted the seeds of extinction as early as Wanli, Emperor Chongzhen was not really so innocent. What he did during his reign really accelerated the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but he was not the king of national subjugation as people imagined. Like his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, he is diligent in politics and works hard. He has many advantages. He even committed several crimes, and he loved his people as much as his son.
On the night of March 18th, he arranged for his sons to take refuge in Guixun's house for a period of time, and then let Queen Zhou and Yuan Guifei die. For the sake of his two daughters, Emperor Chongzhen pulled out his sword. The 65-year-old Princess Changping 438+05 was cut unconscious with two knives, and the 6-year-old Princess Zhaoren was directly stabbed to death. After that, Emperor Chongzhen hacked to death many concubines in the harem, and Emperor Chongzhen's sister-in-law, Empress Yi 'an, hanged herself. That night, the Forbidden City seemed to be shrouded in death.
The next day, Emperor Chongzhen rushed out with the eunuchs around him, trying to make a final resistance with the only strength, but no army came out to support Emperor Chongzhen except those eunuchs around him, and all the ministers refused to respond to him. In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen ran to Jingshan and found a crooked neck tree to hang. When he died, he thought of thousands of people in the Ming Dynasty and left a bloody book. The last sentence is: "Let a thief chop my body, and don't hurt one of them." At that time, only eunuch Wang Chengen followed Emperor Chongzhen, which was the last loyalty.
Two days later, the body of Emperor Chongzhen was found. Together with the body of Queen Zhou, it was moved to Donghuamen for public display, and the coffin was once parked by the river. Later, the people couldn't stand it anymore, so they were buried in Tian Guifei's tomb. Although Li Zicheng laid the Forbidden City, it was only on the wedding dress for other girls, and soon the Qing army entered the customs. In order to comfort and buy people's hearts, the emperor shunzhi buried Emperor Chongzhen in the Four Spirits, and the crooked-neck tree was also used by the emperor shunzhi to make an issue of it, putting shackles on it and condemning it. Since then, it has become a guilty tree, a crooked-necked tree that has committed a crime. How innocent the crooked neck tree is. It didn't do anything. It has formed its own scenery in Jingshan, and has watched the scenery for a lifetime. This life should have quietly watched everything in the world change with time, but I never thought that on that day, I was targeted by Emperor Chongzhen, and then by the emperor shunzhi, and became a locust tree. If the tree can move, I think the crooked-neck tree will run away at the moment when it meets Emperor Chongzhen, and it will never be stopped by thousands of people in Qian Qian, watched or abused.
Chain stores won't stop its growth, but it makes it a target of public criticism. In order to buy people's hearts, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty not only made a fuss about Emperor Chongzhen, but also made a fuss about the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, especially the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Shortly after the emperor shunzhi entered the customs, Dourgen sent Quanfeng, a great scholar, to "offer sacrifices to Ming Taizu and the emperor". After Prince Yu entered Nanjing, he ordered the restoration of the Ming Tombs and sent people to guard the Xiaoling Tombs, showing the goodwill of the Qing rulers to the Ming Dynasty to the greatest extent, with the aim of buying people's hearts and quickly stabilizing the political power. Later, Emperor Kangxi personally set up a monument to "rule the Tang and Song Dynasties" in the Ming Tombs, which shows that the Qing rulers attached great importance to the Ming emperors. So it is not surprising that the crooked neck tree has such treatment.
In the following two hundred years, the crooked-neck tree survived tenaciously with chains until Eight-Nation Alliance rushed into the Forbidden City and seized the chains. It seems to be rescued, but it is accompanied by the demise of the Qing Dynasty. However, the visible chain has been lifted, but the invisible attention has been following the crooked neck tree.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many people went to see this crooked-neck tree, taking some bark and counting branches. As the saying goes: "people want face, trees want skin." Without the skin, the tree could not live long, and then it was cut down directly and replanted with a small sapling, but the sapling did not become a crooked-necked tree when it grew up. Everyone moved a century-old crooked-neck tree to that place, but it also became a tree. Things have changed, and now people are just watching a lively event.