How ugly is Zhu Yuanzhang?

Speaking of Zhu Yuanzhang’s face shape, I’m really a little sorry for the audience, because his appearance is jokingly called “pig kidney face”, and of course it is also called “shoehorn face”. Judging from the portrait, his face looked as if someone had shoved it in from the front, and his chin was pointed and protruding, resembling a waist.

Such a strange face shape is really rare, and it is difficult for normal people to have such an appearance. According to relevant literature, Zhu Yuanzhang was not a suave and handsome man, but he could be regarded as a man with amazing bones.

"History of the Ming Dynasty" records: majestic in appearance and enlightened by strange bones. The will is clear and unpredictable.

However, we all know that in ancient feudal society, the emperor was the most noble person. All historical data describe the emperors as extremely magnificent. Why did Zhu Yuanzhang become extremely ugly and enlightened with strange bones? In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang suffered a dumb loss. Zhu Yuanzhang, who has a "pig kidney face", expressed his helplessness

First of all, "History of the Ming Dynasty" was compiled by the Qing Dynasty, and its main purpose was actually the Qing Dynasty's explanation of its own legitimacy. Through such records, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty wanted to tell all Han people that the Qing Dynasty obtained its empire from the hands of King Chuang Li Zicheng, not from the Ming Dynasty. This can be described as shameless.

You must know that the resistance of the Han people was very high when the Qing army entered the customs. It was a very difficult task to overthrow the Han culture of the Ming Dynasty and implement Manchu culture in society at that time. As a result, there was a bloody suppression of "keep your head but not your hair, keep your hair but not your head", and heinous behaviors such as the literary prison that implicated the nine ethnic groups.

In addition, editing books was also a specialty of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. They wantonly slandered the Ming Dynasty and praised the Qing Dynasty to meet the needs of the rulers. In other words, the Qing Dynasty wanted to enslave the Han people ideologically. The last three dynasties of China, the Yuan Dynasty was dominated by the Mongols, and the Qing Dynasty was dominated by the Jurchens, all of whom were ethnic minorities. Only the Ming Dynasty, sandwiched between them, was ruled by the orthodox Han people. Therefore, maliciously smearing the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty can make the emperor of the Qing Dynasty secretly Cool, so it makes sense that there will be no Huaxia after the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the "pig kidney face" was created by the Qing Dynasty to deliberately vilify Zhu Yuanzhang.

Of course, perhaps the Manchu Qing Dynasty was also misled by the people at that time. For example, the fortune teller Yuan Zhongche once described Zhu Yuanzhang's appearance as very special:

"Ancient and Modern Insights": "The appearance of Ming Gong Extraordinary, with dragon eyes and phoenix eyes, the sky and the earth face each other, the five mountains are attached, the sun and the moon are beautiful, the bones are in the temples, the voice is loud, and it is indescribable."

To put it simply, Zhu Yuanzhang's appearance is very human. The so-called "heaven and earth face each other" actually refers to the way the forehead and chin echo each other, similar to a banana. It is not impossible for the people to draw an ugly portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang based on this description. But the fortune teller's starting point may not be to vilify Zhu Yuanzhang, but to prove that Zhu Yuanzhang was born to be an emperor.

Because in ancient times, almost everyone believed that appearance determined destiny. Appearance here does not refer to how good-looking or handsome you are. The evaluation of the destiny of the emperor, the destiny of wealth, and the destiny of young lady is not based on beauty and ugliness, but on the appearance. Zhu Yuanzhang's face "faces heaven and earth". He suffered a lot since childhood, and finally became an emperor. This was his destiny.

Of course the pig kidney face portrait is from the "Authentic Portraits of Emperors in the Past" painted during the Qianlong period. In the film and television drama "The Ming Dynasty", Zhu Yuanzhang's image adopts a long face with different appearances, and a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang with a "pig kidney face" appears. This approach has aroused controversy in public opinion.

There is another version of the portrait now collected in the Forbidden City. That appearance may be the real Zhu Yuanzhang. In the painting, Zhu Yuanzhang is very amiable yet still looks like an emperor. The amiable Zhu Yuanzhang with the Chinese character for his face said he was doing well

Speaking of Zhu Yuanzhang with the Chinese character for his face, there is also a story circulating among the people. It is said that on this day, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the painter to make a portrait for him on a whim. The first painter tried his best to paint Zhu Yuanzhang so lifelike that even the pockmarks on his face were clearly highlighted. Zhu Yuanzhang took a look and asked, "Good guy, is he the ugly person in this painting?" If we hang this up, won't we have to be ridiculed for the rest of our lives? So the painter was killed, but Zhu Yuanzhang sent a second painter.

The second painter heard that the first painter's work made Zhu Yuanzhang Long Yan furious, so he walked to Zhu Yuanzhang tremblingly. He first looked at the first person's work. His skills were not inferior to his, and he was also good at painting. He was a master.

When he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, he began to worry in his heart: This Zhu Yuanzhang does not look very good. Since he doesn't want to be ugly, then draw him as a very handsome and handsome man. So he painted Zhu Yuanzhang very handsome, no less handsome than Pan An and Song Yu. After the painting was completed, Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was very handsome, but the painting was definitely not his own. The painter had deceived him and thought he was a fool, so he ordered the painter to be executed.

When the third painter saw that the first two were dead, he was in a state of confusion, wondering what kind of medicine the emperor was selling in his gourd. But I had to obey the emperor's orders and had no choice but to bite the bullet. He glanced at the previous two paintings, learned his lesson, and roughly guessed what kind of painting Zhu Yuanzhang wanted. So he copied Zhu Yuanzhang's face so that it was almost like a real person, and fleshed out other parts to form a Chinese-character face, full of kindness and an emperor's appearance. Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy and rewarded him greatly.

It can be seen from this incident that Zhu Yuanzhang killed the painter, which means he admitted the fact that he was ugly in disguise, but unofficial history is not trustworthy. However, in 1572, Zhang Han, Minister of Industry and Industry, saw a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, and he was able to confirm the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang had a face with a Chinese character. He described it like this:

"Dreams in the Pine Window": "The appearance of Taizu, The eyebrows are beautiful, the eyes are bright, the nose is straight, the lips are long, the face is like a full moon, and the hair is not full, which is very different from the legend among the people."

So Zhu Yuanzhang should be called "the face of a prince". "Shoehorn face" Zhu Yuanzhang is probably closer to the truth. In addition, if Zhu Yuanzhang really has a pig-kidney face, how could Zhu Yuanzhang, who was still a poor boy at the time, marry Ma?

You must know that Guo Zixing's level was much higher than Zhu Yuanzhang at that time. Maybe it was because Zhu Yuanzhang was so talented and so ugly that Guo Zixing made him a bodyguard. Later, he found out that Zhu Yuanzhang was talented and married Ma to him. This seems to make sense when you think about it, but if you think about it carefully, would a person with a daughter at home be willing to marry the daughter of his daughter to a poor boy with a pig-kidney face? If this is true, the children may have to live without contact.

Looking at the portraits of the princes and grandsons of the Ming Dynasty, which one inherited the pig kidney face? Could it be said that there are many descendants of Pig Kidney Face, but none of them are remotely similar to him? That pig-kidney-faced head has a Hulunbuir prairie on it?

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang’s face shape is so strange, it should be deliberately done by the Manchus. You must know that it took two years for the Ming Dynasty to compile the History of the Yuan Dynasty, but it took nearly a hundred years for the Qing Dynasty to compile the History of the Ming Dynasty! It can only be said that the more inferior the Jurchens are, the more they will try their best to discredit the previous dynasty and clear their name. Therefore, the records of the Ming Dynasty emperors in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" contain many falsehoods. Otherwise, if the Ming Dynasty had weird emperors after generations, could it have been strong enough to beat Japan during the Wanli period?