How did Zhu Yuanzhang's "pig kidney face" look come about?

Portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang in history books

When middle school history textbooks talk about the Ming Dynasty, they will include a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, which is the picture below:

Well, I took a mirror and looked at myself and Emperor Hongwu's "beautiful photos" to compare, and I immediately regained my confidence in my appearance. To be fair, what did you think when you first saw this portrait? This is definitely not an ordinary person. Throwing Lao Zhu into the crowd, he can be recognized at a glance and is extremely recognizable.

But, is this really a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang? Is it really not someone else's deliberate attempt to vilify Zhu Yuanzhang?

Zhu Yuanzhang’s true appearance

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang’s appearance belongs to the first-class good-looking category. How good-looking is it? The kind that makes Queen Ma fall in love at first sight and see each other for life. After all, a woman's vision is never wrong~ (hahaha~)

"History of the Ming Dynasty" records that Zhu Yuanzhang's appearance: majestic appearance, with strange bones running through his head. The will is clear and unpredictable.

The "Records of Taizu of the Ming Dynasty" describes him like this: majestic in appearance and clear in will. "History of the Ming Dynasty" adds two more sentences: "The bones are so strange that they penetrate the top of the head, and no one can fathom them."

We can still see the orthodox portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang hidden in the Ming Palace: whether they are in his prime or in his twilight years, they all have a round face and a handsome appearance, rather than a pig kidney face. .

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Han (1510-1593) visited the Wuying Hall and paid homage to the portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di when he was serving as Nan Sikong.

He recorded in "Dreams in the Pine Window": Taizu's appearance, beautiful eyebrows, torch-shaped eyes, straight nose, long lips, face like the full moon, and a beard not full of feet, which is different from the legends among the people. No category. ?

What is certain is that the level of court painters since the Song Dynasty has been able to draw very similar portraits of emperors and queens, so Zhu Yuanzhang’s true appearance is still that good-looking portrait.

Why are there different portraits?

Some people say that the Qing Dynasty people deliberately vilified Zhu Yuanzhang when compiling the history of the Ming Dynasty to suppress the Han people.

However, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it had been widely circulated among the people, and even entered the private collections of princes and nobles.

In the 11th year of Yongle (1413), when the stele of sacred merits and virtues of the Xiaoling Mausoleum was built, it was recorded: (Part 1) The dragon’s beard is long and lush, but the strange bones on its neck are hidden to the top, and it looks majestic to the sky, looking like a god. ?

Then it can be seen that the portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang with the pig kidney face was not deliberately made by the Qing Dynasty to be ugly, because in the Ming Dynasty, they had already begun to focus on portraying Zhu Yuanzhang's "extraordinary" appearance.

There are also rumors that Zhu Yuanzhang was tyrannical. When he asked the painter to paint him, if he didn't like it at all, the eyebrows were crooked and the nose was flat, so he took it out.

However, this statement is also unreliable. Historical records show that there were many painters who painted portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang, such as brothers Sun Wenzong, Shen Xiyuan, Chen Yu and Chen Yuan. These people were not killed.

Another theory is that Zhu Yuanzhang liked to visit privately incognito. In order to prevent others from seeing through him, he deliberately allowed his "different" portraits to be circulated among the people.

Tan Qian said in "Zaolin Zazu":

Taizu liked to observe foreign affairs in detail. Wei Xing was afraid that people would recognize his appearance, so he gave the princes and princes a royal appearance, which was like a suspicious image. The authentic painting is hidden in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. The final speculation on the truth

So why did the portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang appear with a pig kidney face?

This is about the ancient art of "recognizing people's faces". Alchemy was very popular in the Ming Dynasty. Whether ordinary people or officials and dignitaries, they all believed that appearance determines destiny. It is said that Zhu Di once had the "true emperor" status similar to Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Di used this to usurp the mantle of destiny for himself.

According to "Ancient and Modern Insights", before Zhu Yuanzhang became famous, a Taoist priest named Tieguan showed him his face. Tieguan said of him:

He has an extraordinary appearance, with dragon and phoenix eyes, heaven and earth facing each other, all the five mountains are attached, the sun and moon are beautiful in the sky, his bones are in his temples, his voice is loud, and he is indescribably valuable. But the stagnant Qi in the four dimensions is like clouds moving around and the moon rising, and those who are happy will have bright yellow heads and shine through the heaven. Until the spirit is glowing and the wind sweeps away the shadows, it will be the day of receiving the order, which should be within a thousand days.

The portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang gradually became complex and strange. To a large extent, they were collectively created by later generations according to their own imagination and needs in order to deify Zhu Yuanzhang and give him strange images.

This emphasizes Zhu Yuanzhang's "destiny" to become emperor from an orphan. God gave him a "majestic and strange appearance" that is different from ordinary people, which also gave him the "exclusive certification" to be emperor.

After the founding of the Republic of China, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the interim president, led everyone to pay homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. What was enshrined in the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty was a vision of Zhu Yuanzhang.

From then on, people became more convinced that Zhu Yuanzhang had a "strange appearance".