The "striking" in the "striking case" is a wooden stick, and the "striking is a wooden stick" is beating someone with a wooden stick, because the person who was beaten is not an ordinary person, but the crown prince, so it becomes a case.

This crown prince is the eldest son of Emperor Wanli, named Zhu Changluo. The Empress of Wanli had no children, and the concubines had a total of eight sons, of which three died early, and there were only two who actually competed for the crown prince: one was Chang Luo, the eldest son of the emperor born to the palace man Wang, and the other was Chang Xun, the third son of the emperor born to Zheng Guifei.

Emperor Wanli hesitated for a long time between Lichangluo and Lichangxun, forming the so-called "national capital dispute" of the court ministers. This attack case is actually an extreme manifestation of the battle for storage positions.

In order to understand the causes and consequences of this incident more clearly, it is necessary to briefly introduce Zhu Changluo and his person. The emperor's eldest son, Zhu Changluo, was ill-fated and full of tragedy, which was reflected in three aspects:

First, the birth mother palace people. Zhu Changluo's biological mother, Wang, was elected to Cining Palace in the sixth year of Wanli (1578) and served as a palace maid beside Wanli's mother, Empress Dowager Li. One day, she was fortunate by Wanli and became pregnant. The Queen Mother found out that the Queen of the Palace was pregnant and asked Emperor Wanli, but Emperor Wanli did not admit it. The Empress Dowager ordered the eunuch to take out the "Inner Living Note" recorded by the clerk in the clerical room, and said to Emperor Wanli earnestly: "I am old, and I still have no grandchildren. If you are a man, you will be blessed by the sect!" In other words, I am already old and have no grandchildren yet. If this palace maid gives birth to a boy in the future, it will be a blessing for the temple and the shrine. The words were serious, and Emperor Wanli admitted it. In August of the tenth year of Wanli (1582), Wang gave birth to a boy, Zhu Changluo (Emperor Taichang). 50 days before Zhu Changluo was born, the scholar Zhang Juzheng died, and Emperor Wanli took sole power. Wang was thrown into the cold palace, and even his son could not see him, and he became depressed and blind. When Wang was seriously ill in the 39th year of Wanli (1611), Zi Changluo asked for permission to visit his mother, but "the palace gate was still closed, and he chose the key to enter." The concubine's eyes widened, and she cried with her hand in her hand: 'My son has grown up like this, why should I hate to die!'" And so it goes. Emperor Wanli did not like the Wang family, the mother and the son, nor the eldest son Chang Luo born to the Wang family. Emperor Wanli favored Zheng Guifei, and because of his mother's preciousness, he also loved Chang Xun, the son born to Zheng Guifei, and always wanted to make Chang Xun the prince. Later, this prince was named King Fu, and was killed by Li Zicheng's army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which is a later story. Emperor Wanli wanted to appoint Zhu Changxun, the son of the favored Zheng Guifei, as the crown prince, but he was afraid of violating the ancestral system and was opposed by the courtiers. Therefore, the crown prince was not established for 19 years.

Second, they are not allowed to enroll. The prince is different from the son of the common people, there are at least three things: one is to correct the position, the second is to extend the emperor's ancestry, and the third is to be educated. The latter is to go to the outer court to study, study under the guidance of lecturers, and master the skills of governing the country. Emperor Wanli began to study at the age of 5, but he never allowed his son Zhu Changluo to study. Whoever suggested that the eldest son of the emperor should be sent out of the cabinet to study, he would be degraded and punished. Zhu Changluo did not go out of the cabinet to study for the first time until he was 13 years old, and then dropped out of school for a long time. At the age of 19, he was ordered to go out of the cabinet to study, and then he studied intermittently and was confined in the palace for a long time. Therefore, he did not receive a good systematic cultural education.

Third, the prince is difficult. The succession to the throne in the Ming Dynasty generally follows the following principles: succession to the throne, succession from father to son; There are grandchildren, and there are no grandchildren; The emperor has no heirs, and his brother dies with his brother. Let me explain, the first sentence is easy to understand, the succession to the throne, the father dies and the son inherits. In the second sentence, there are grandchildren, but there are no grandchildren. What is the meaning of a son-in-law? That is, the son born to the emperor's wife, the empress, is counted as a son-in-law, and if there is a son-in-law, a son-in-law must be established, and only if there is no son-in-law, can the son born to another concubine be established, and the principle is to choose the eldest among them. The third sentence is that the emperor has no heirs, and the brother will end up with the younger brother. What if the emperor had no son? Later Emperor Chongzhen was like this. The Empress of Wanli did not give birth to a child, and the palace man Wang gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor, Chang Luo, who should have become the crown prince. However, Emperor Wanli always wanted to make Zhu Changxun, the third son of the emperor, the crown prince, so Zhu Changluo's road to the crown prince was difficult and long (19 years). Wanli himself was made the crown prince at the age of 6, but Zhu Changluo was not made the crown prince until he was 19 years old in the 29th year of Wanli (1601) and lived in the Yingxi (xǐ) palace. After Zhu Changluo was made the crown prince, he was still shrouded in the shadow of "more established" for a long time, and he was worried that the imperial father would replace him with his third brother Chang Xun at any time. It was another 19 years from the establishment of the crown prince to the succession to the throne. In the past 19 years, Zhu Changluo has been trembling, timid and cowardly, for fear of being deposed.

Someone wrote the book "Continuing the Sorrow and Danger", signed "Zheng (metaphor Zheng Guifei) Fu (metaphor for the king of Fu) Cheng (metaphor for the prince to become a thing)", and the book said to the effect: "The emperor has to stand in the East Palace, and his day will be easy." Its special use of Zhu Geng's cabinet is actually easier meaning. It wasn't until Zhu Changluo was 32 years old that his younger brother Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, left Beijing to go to the fiefdom of Luoyang, that he breathed a sigh of relief and felt that the crown prince's position should be firmly seated. The special life experience and bumpy experience made Zhu Changluo form a timid and cowardly character. When he went out of the pavilion to study, it was a cold winter, and the eunuch didn't make a fire for him to keep warm. He was so cold that he shivered, and he didn't dare to say anything, so angry that the official Guo Zhengyu reprimanded the eunuchs, and the eunuchs lit a fire for him.

Here's another example. When Emperor Wanli was seriously ill, Zhu Changluo took his son Zhu Youxiao (later Emperor of the Apocalypse) to visit, the eunuch guarding the door did not let him in, Zhu Changluo did not dare to fight, and waited outside the door from morning to night.

The crown prince Zhu Changluo has neither the test of commanding the army on the battlefield, nor the experience of assisting the imperial father in governing the government, nor the learning of studying the scriptures hard, and he has almost never been out of the imperial city, and has been neglected by the imperial father for a long time, depressed, lonely, and idle. So he used wine to fill the spiritual emptiness, and "confused by female pets" for a long time. Zhu Changluo has many concubines, such as the crown princess Guo, the talented Wang (the mother of Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Apocalypse), and the virtuous concubine Liu (the mother of Zhu Youzhen, Emperor Chongzhen) and so on. There are also two elective servants surnamed Li, one is called East Li Xuanzhi (referred to as Dong Li), and the other is called West Li Xuanzhi (referred to as Xi Li). The maid is the palace maid who waits for the emperor's life and does not have a title. His favorite Xi Li later caused a "palace transfer case".

Let's go back and talk about the "Gang Assault Case."

On the fourth day of the fifth month of the 43rd year of Wanli (1615), there was an incident of attacking Zhu Changluo, the prince of the East Palace, which was the "Attack Case".

This year, the crown prince Zhu Changluo was 33 years old. In the evening of that day, Zhang Cha, a man from Jizhou, armed with a jujube stick, went straight to the inner court from Donghua Gate, injured the eunuch guarding the door, and broke into the Ciqing Palace where the prince Zhu Changluo lived, and was not arrested until under the eaves of the front hall. At that time, there were only two eunuchs guarding the first gate of Ciqing Palace, and the second gate was unguarded. After the incident, Zhu Changluo was terrified, and "raised the court in horror". Emperor Wanli ordered an interrogation. The officials in charge of the interrogation were officials of the "Zhejiang Party", who said that Zhang Cha was a madman and tried to close the case in confusion. And Fang Congzhe, the head of the cabinet and the leader of the "Zhejiang Party", who was the head of the cabinet and the leader of the "Zhejiang Party", was also reluctant to delve into it. Wang Zhiyin, the head of the Donglin Party and the Criminal Department, made Zhang Cha confess through separate arraignment and joint interrogation with officials of the Criminal Department: It was Zheng Guifei's eunuchs Pang Bao and Liu Cheng who "ordered me to hit the palace gate, beat the young master (referring to the prince), and had food and clothing."

The people of the Lin Party in the East of the DPRK suspected that Zheng Guifei was plotting to kill the crown prince, and resolutely demanded that it be thoroughly investigated. The matter implicated Concubine Zheng, and the court was in turmoil. "History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Zheng Guifei" records: After Zheng Guifei heard about it, she cried to Emperor Wanli. Emperor Wanli said: "The language of the outer court is not easy to understand, if you have to ask the prince." So, Concubine Zheng Guifei found the crown prince Zhu Changluo. According to historical records, Zheng Guifei complained to the crown prince, that is, Zheng Guifei found the crown prince Zhu Changluo, howled and cried, told the truth of the matter, and asked the prince for forgiveness. The process of the dialogue between the two is: the concubine worships, the prince worships, the concubine and the prince are crying and worshipping, crying and worshipping.

When Emperor Wanli saw that this matter was making a big fuss, implicating Zheng Guifei and the crown prince, he was in a dilemma, what should he do? Emperor Wanli summoned the crown prince and hundreds of officials in front of the Empress Dowager's spiritual throne in Cining Palace, and ordered the prince to issue an edict to deal with the case, prohibiting Zhulian, just not to involve too many people. The crown prince Zhu Changluo was neither willing to offend his father nor Concubine Zheng Guifei, so he didn't dare to delve into the matter, and he also wanted to turn the big thing into a small thing, and make the matter peaceful. Because Emperor Wanli was the head of their family, and it involved Concubine Zheng, he didn't want to delve into this matter. In the end, it was decided to put Zhang Cha to death, and the two eunuchs Pang Bao and Liu Cheng were secretly killed in the inner court, and the big case was hastily closed.

Wang Zhiyin, who was in charge of the trial of the case, was attacked by officials of the anti-Donglin Party faction, and Emperor Wanli reduced him to the rank of citizen. This is the "Assault Case".

Everyone should note that the focus of the struggle in the attack case was, on the surface, Zheng Guifei's attempt to murder the crown prince Zhu Changluo and unsuccessful, as if it was the emperor's family affair, but in essence it was a state affair, reflecting the political struggle between the Lin Party and other factions in the imperial court. Although Emperor Wanli personally handled and closed the case, this matter has always been full of suspicions. Since then, ministers have often used this as the title, "Thousands of chapters have been accumulated, and the disaster of the gate has arisen greatly"