Chapter 303: Discussion on Moving the Capital
On that day, the entire palace was decorated with red and colorful decorations, and a red carpet was laid from the Daqing Hall all the way to outside the Xuande Gate.
The emperor brought all the officials to worship at the Taimiao and inform their ancestors.
Zhao Xing wore a cloud crown with twenty-four curling beams on it, each one foot high and one foot wide, held together by a jade rhinoceros hairpin.
She wore a crimson gauze gown with a red lining and black edges on the collar, sleeves, lapels and hem. She also wore a crimson gauze skirt and knee-length gown. She had a white silk square collar hanging from her neck, a gold and jade belt tied around her waist, white socks and black shoes on her feet, and a ribbon hanging from her waist.
Zhang Guifen wore a phoenix crown on her head, a green gauze inner garment, a dark green knee-length skirt around her waist, two white jade pendants and a jade ribbon ring, and green socks and shoes.
The couple walked out of the East Palace hand in hand and boarded the dragon sedan chair to go to the imperial palace.
When they arrived outside the Xuande Gate, the two men got off the dragon sedan chair, walked side by side, and walked on the red carpet into the palace.
"Woo~"
"Dong Dong Dong~"
The melodious horn sounded first, followed by the drums, and then various musical instruments.
To the sound of music, Zhao Xing and Zhang Guifen walked forward step by step at slow pace.
"Are you nervous?" Zhao Xing asked.
"Ah."
Zhang Guifen responded softly without looking away.
"Don't be nervous, just follow the procedures told by the officials from the Ministry of Rites." Zhao Xing said.
"I know this."
Along the way, Zhao Xing talked to Zhang Guifen in a low voice to ease her nervousness.
The emperor stood at the gate of the grand ceremony, looking at Zhao Xing and Zhang Guifen approaching from afar.
On both sides of the square below stood civil and military officials.
Zhao Xing and Zhang Guifen walked to the steps and climbed up.
When she reached the halfway point, she stopped, bowed and said, "Your Highness, I pay my respects to you, Father!"
"Ah."
The official nodded slightly and said, "Announce the decree."
Eunuch Liu stepped forward holding the imperial edict and read out the edict of Zhao Xing's succession to the throne and the edict of enthroning Zhang Guifen as empress.
"My son, I accept the order!"
Zhao Xing raised his hands and waited until the imperial edict was delivered to him before he stood up, handed the edict to Sanshui, and continued to walk up hand in hand with Zhang Guifen.
When he reached the top, he turned around and faced the officials.
The music stopped, and a eunuch stepped forward and shouted, "Kneel!"
All the officials and soldiers standing in the square knelt down facing Zhao Xing.
"bye!"
"rise!"
"Goodbye!"
"rise!"
"Still worshipping!"
After three bows, all the officials shouted in unison: "Greetings to the Supreme Emperor, greetings to His Majesty, greetings to the Empress!"
Zhao Xing stood on the high platform, looking at the officials who were paying homage below, his breathing became rapid due to excitement.
From today on, he is the official of all the people in the world.
Zhao Xing waved his hand and said loudly: "Stand up!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Only then did all the officials stand up.
"Come into the hall," said the official.
Zhang Guifen was led to the harem by a female official, while Zhao Xing entered the Daqing Hall with his father.
The father and son came to the imperial platform, the emperor sat on the dragon throne, and Zhao Xing stood beside him.
"From today on, you are the emperor of the world. I hope you can protect the foundation laid by our ancestors and become a wise ruler." said the emperor.
"Your son will always remember your father's teachings!" Zhao Xing bowed.
"Yeah." The official nodded slightly and said no more.
All the officials entered the hall, lined up and bowed.
The emperor stood up, looked around at all the officials, and said in a deep voice: "I succeeded to the throne at the age of thirteen, and now I am over forty-two years old. Today, the crown prince ascends the throne. I hope you can assist the new emperor wholeheartedly!"
"We, your servants, will obey the orders of the Supreme Emperor. Long live the Great Song Dynasty!" All the officials shouted in unison.
The emperor turned sideways, took the imperial seal from the tray held by Eunuch Liu, and handed it to Zhao Xing.
Zhao Xing bowed, took the jade seal and handed it to Sanshui behind him.
The emperor looked around the hall with a nostalgic look, patted the armrest of the dragon throne, and said, "From now on, the Song Dynasty will be handed over to you. I am leaving!"
"Your son respectfully bids farewell to your father!" Zhao Xing bowed.
"We, your servants, respectfully send off the Emperor!" All the officials bowed.
Only when the emperor's footsteps disappeared did Zhao Xing stand up, walk to the dragon throne, turn around and sit down.
The etiquette officer shouted: "Bow!"
"Bai Xing!"
"Kneel on your left knee!"
"Kneel on your right knee!"
"Come out!"
"bye!"
All officials completed a complex set of worship rituals with the singing and harmony of the ceremonial officials.
After the ceremony, Zhao Xing still had one last step to complete the coronation ceremony.
The last step is to worship the Taimiao and offer sacrifices to heaven.
The emperor called himself the Son of Heaven, so naturally he had to offer sacrifices to heaven when he ascended the throne.
The whole set of rituals was very complicated. After the worship was over, even though Zhao Xing was young, he was still very tired. After the worship was completed, they returned to the Daqing Hall again.
This time he was receiving envoys from various countries.
When Zhao Xing ascended the throne, Liao, Western Xia, Dali, and even some overseas countries that had traded with the Song Dynasty all sent envoys to watch the ceremony.
What’s interesting is that from the Liao side, not only did the imperial court send people, but Yelu Chongyuan also sent envoys.
After receiving envoys from various countries, the coronation ceremony was completed.
The next step is to move to the Zichen Hall to attend the banquet.
Zhao Xing did not go directly to the Zichen Hall, but returned to the Yanfu Palace first.
Yanfu Palace is located behind Daqing Hall and is the emperor's bedroom.
Before Zhao Xing ascended the throne, the emperor had already moved to Xingming Palace with his concubines.
Although the city of Bianjing was very prosperous, the imperial palace was not very big.
The circumference of the entire palace is only five miles, which is about six hundred acres.
At first glance, it seems not small, but the Ming Dynasty's Nanjing Imperial Palace covered an area of more than 1,500 acres, and even the later Peking Imperial Palace covered an area of nearly 1,100 acres.
The reason why the imperial palace was so "shabby" was that Bianjing was originally just a state capital, and the imperial palace was expanded on the original governor's residence.
If the project was to be expanded, too many people would have to be relocated, so the plan had to be abandoned.
Because the imperial palace is small, the emperor... no, now he should be called the emperor emeritus.
The retired emperor could only squeeze into Xingming Palace with the empress dowager and a group of concubines.
Zhao Xing originally wanted to allocate a few more palaces to his father, but his father did not agree.
After changing into casual clothes, Zhao Xing went to the Zichen Palace.
Zhao Xing sat for a while, then left and went to Xingming Palace.
"Shouldn't you be feasting with all the officials at this time? Why are you here?" The emperor asked with some confusion when he saw Zhao Xing coming over.
Zhao Xing smiled when he heard this and said, "When I am not here, the officials can eat and drink freely. Otherwise, they would be very reserved. I am here to have dinner with my father and mother. They haven't eaten yet, right?"
"No, your father said he's not hungry yet." Empress Dowager Cao said with a smile.
"That's perfect. I'll eat with my father and mother. I'm starving after a busy day." Zhao Xing rubbed his stomach.
The Emperor smiled and looked at Eunuch Liu, jokingly saying, "Did you hear that? The new emperor is hungry. Send someone to serve him food."
Upon hearing this, Eunuch Liu responded with a smile and went down to make arrangements.
"Father, please stop teasing me." Zhao Xing touched his nose and sat down next to his father.
"Haha." The emperor smiled and said, "By the way, Xing'er, you have to change your name."
"Hmm?" Zhao Xing looked at his father in confusion, then quickly understood what was going on and asked, "Father, are you talking about avoiding taboos?"
The earliest meaning of the word "taboo" is to avoid mentioning the taboos of respected people.
As the emperor is the Son of Heaven, it is natural that the subjects of the world also need to avoid taboos.
Zhao Xing's name is Xing, so no one in the world can use the character Xing as their name, and this character cannot be used either.
All those that have already been used need to be changed.
For example, the Ministry of Revenue among the Six Ministries was originally called the Ministry of Civil Affairs. It was changed to the Ministry of Revenue to avoid the taboo of Li Shimin.
In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang did a very good job. In order to prevent the common people from having to avoid taboos, he gave generations to his descendants and chose relatively unconventional characters.
The name also uses unconventional characters.
The Zhao family was different. They named their children very casually and changed their names after they ascended the throne.
Emperor Taizong changed his name once to avoid the taboo of his ancestors, and changed it again after he ascended the throne.
Later emperors also changed their names.
Zhao Xing even suspected whether it was done on purpose.
After all, the ancients believed that one’s name should not be changed when traveling or sitting.
Logically speaking, since he is the emperor, he should let others avoid using taboo words. If he does not change his name, no one in the world will dare to say anything.
However, every emperor of the Song Dynasty would change his name after ascending the throne, which might be considered a show.
After all, the emperor took the initiative to change his name for the convenience of his subjects and publicized it, so he would naturally be praised by those scholars.
Some people may say that the previous emperors were not the eldest sons, but in fact the names of the emperor’s eldest sons were also very casual.
"That's right, your name is Xing, it's too commonly used, you need to change it." said the official.
"It's up to you, father, to handle this matter." Zhao Xing said indifferently.
Anyway, he is the emperor now, no one will call him by his name, so it doesn’t matter what he changes it to.
"Ah."
The emperor just told Zhao Xing and didn't talk more about this topic. Instead, he said, "Now that you have ascended the throne, there are too few concubines in the harem. It's time to select concubines."
"Father, this matter is not urgent. The Great Wall is being built in the north and the cost is very high. As an official, how can I be extravagant and wasteful?" Zhao Xing said.
"Even if the imperial court is short of money, there is still money for selecting concubines. The inner treasury has saved a lot of money over the years, which is enough."
The emperor himself advocated frugality and never wasted anything during his decades in office.
He was very pleased that Zhao Xing had such an idea.
But he could agree to other things, but not this one.
He had only one son, Zhao Xing, so naturally he hoped that Zhao Xing could have more children.
"Father, let's not talk about this for now. If I had money, I would like to expand the imperial palace." Zhao Xing said.
"Nonsense!"
Upon hearing this, the Emperor Retired rebuked him, "Do you think that emperors of all dynasties have never considered expansion? However, there are many dignitaries living around the palace. If the palace is expanded, they will have to move away, and the people will suffer in the end. Expanding the palace will cost a lot of money and labor."
Emperors of all dynasties naturally thought about expanding the imperial palace, but after occupying the mansions of the powerful and officials, they had to occupy the houses of the common people.
Now the outer city is full. If we don’t relocate the common people, we can’t let all the powerful officials move to live outside the city of Bianjing.
"Father, if that's the case, why not move the capital? Luoyang was the secondary capital in the Tang Dynasty. Although it later experienced war and became somewhat dilapidated, it has been restored over the years and has no problem being the capital," said Zhao Xing.
Expanding the imperial palace was just an introduction. What Zhao Xing wanted to do most was to move the capital.
(End of this chapter)