When the news of Zhao Zhen's death came out, the whole country was shocked. The whole city of Bianjing was filled with mourners, and white mourning flags were hung at the door of every house.
The benevolence of the late emperor was known to all the world, and the people spontaneously went on strike and cried in the streets for several days.
Even beggars and children burned paper money and cried in front of the palace. The smoke spread so widely that there was no light in the sky above Bianjing City.
In the 150 years since the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, this was not the first time that an emperor had passed away, but the previous times combined were far less than the scene where the mountains and rivers were in pain and all the people mourned when Zhao Zhen died this time. Wherever Zhao Zhen's obituary was delivered, there were loud cries and smoke filled the air. Even the Khitan emperor in the north couldn't help but shed tears and wail endlessly after hearing about it.
The Khitan emperor also ordered people to bury the clothes that Zhao Zhen had given him in the past as a burial mound. He paid homage to them every year and wrote poems to express his condolences.
In ancient times, mourning lasted for three years, but Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty created the system of "changing days to months" and changed the number of months of mourning to the number of days, that is, mourning for thirty-six days replaced three years of mourning.
The funeral system of the Tianjia family in the Great Zhou Dynasty is also a system of "changing the sun with the moon". The twenty-fourth day after the death of the emperor is Daxiang (the second anniversary day).
Three days after Daxiang will be the day of mourning. After this day, officials and people can remove their mourning clothes and resume normal life, and the court offices can operate in an orderly manner. Only the new monarch needs to continue to mourn in the inner court.
After the death of Gui, the Ministry of Rites began to prepare for the new king's enthronement ceremony.
Although the ministers had already begun to address the new monarch as "official" after reading out the imperial edict, a formal and grand enthronement ceremony was still needed to calm the hearts of the people and the people.
The tenth year of the Great Zhou Dynasty, May 12th.
At the Yin hour of the day, Zhao Zongquan sent three ministers and ministers to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, the ancestral temple, and the country.
Zhao Zongquan himself came to the late Emperor's Zi Palace wearing mourning clothes, and bowed five times and kowtowed three times to complete his order. Then he could take off his mourning clothes and put on the most solemn crown of the emperor.
When the auspicious time comes, the bells and drums in the imperial city will be ringing, and the main entrance of Xuande Gate and the left and right gates will be opened.
Civil and military officials, each in court uniform, filed in from Xuande Gate and lined up in the square in front of Zichen Hall.
Zhao Zongquan, dressed in Gunmian robes, came out of the middle gate and came to the Zichen Hall to ascend his throne.
When Zhao Zongquan sat down on the throne, the Imperial City Secretary blew his whip nine times, and thousands of officials knelt down in unison, bowing five times and kowtowing three times.
After the ceremony, Han Zhang, a scholar of Longtuge, presented the edict for enthronement that had been drawn up. Zhao Zongquan looked at it symbolically, stamped it with the treasure of bearing the mandate, and handed the edict to Shen Weizhong, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites.
Shen Weizhong respectfully carried the edict to Xuandemen and read it on the tower of Xuandemen.
The main content of the edict is: a general amnesty for the world, changing the next year to the first year of public security, appointing five envoys to the mountains and mausoleums to attend to the funeral of the late emperor, etc. These are the intended meanings of edicts that have always been enthroned, and there is no need to elaborate.
In addition, the edict also ennobled the former emperor's empress Cao as the empress dowager, the crown prince Shen as the empress, and the Gaoyang County prince Zhao Ceying as Prince Huan.
The prince's biological father, Zhao Huan, the prince of Yanping County, was also posthumously named King Shu.
Han Zhang, a bachelor of Longtuge, was added to the Grand Master; Wen Yanchang, a bachelor of Longtuge, was added to Shaobao; Shen Congxing, the Marquis of Yuhou, the former capital of the palace, was granted the title of Marquis of Weibei, and the deputy commander of the former capital of the palace was added.
The rest of the civil and military officials will all advance to the first level of casual officials in accordance with the principle of great ceremony and general promotion.
Wei Chen has also benefited from this. He has just been awarded the title of Doctor Yinqing Guanglu, and he has been promoted to the rank of Doctor Jinzi Guanglu, the third grade.
After the edict of enthronement was read out, Baiguanshan shouted long live. The brief but solemn enthronement ceremony came to an end. After that, the edict of enthronement will be sent to the Ministry of Rites, which will be issued to the world.
At the end of the ceremony, all the officials dispersed, but Wei Chen still had no time to relax. He was appointed as the Lu Book Envoy among the five envoys of Shanling, and he had to prepare for the funeral of the late emperor non-stop.
Due to the ancestral system, the Zhou emperor did not build mausoleums during his lifetime, and construction of imperial mausoleums could only begin after the emperor died.
The "Book of Rites? Kingship" also says, "The emperor was buried in the seventh month", which means that the emperor had to be buried seven months after his death.
Therefore, the time to build the mausoleum for the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty was only seven months, and the construction period was very tight.
On the second day after the enthronement ceremony, Wei Chen, together with the officials from Qin Tian Jian, rushed to Gongyi, Henan Province to conduct a survey of the mausoleums near the ancestral mausoleums of the Great Zhou dynasties.
Wei Chen and his men wandered around in the ravines for more than half a month, until they were all disgraced, and then they chose a lucky place as the late emperor's final resting place.
Wei Chen took the map he had drawn and rushed back to Bianjing without stopping to report his orders to the new king.
After completing the exploration of the late emperor's tomb, Wei Chen participated in the discussion of the late emperor's temple name and posthumous title as a courtier of third rank or above (here refers to official rank).
The first thing to be decided was the posthumous title, which has sixteen characters in total, embodying heaven's Dharma, being extremely meritorious, being divine, civilized, holy and martial, wise, wise and filial.
The posthumous title of the late Emperor Zhao Zhen is: Emperor of Body, Heaven, Dharma, Great Merit, Perfect Virtue, Divine Culture, Saint, Martial Arts, Ruizhe, Mingxiao Emperor.
In ancient times, when evaluating the merits and demerits of emperors, they only looked at their posthumous titles. However, since the Tang Dynasty, the system of posthumous titles has gradually become corrupted.
From two or three words with a connotation of praise to more than ten words full of flattery, it is not only smelly and long, but also has lost its original effect.
The only thing that can truly conclude the emperor's life's merits and demerits is his temple name.
Therefore, before the Tang Dynasty, emperors were mostly called by their posthumous titles, but after the Tang Dynasty, they were basically called by their temple names. For example, no one would call Li Shimin the great civil and military sage Emperor Guangxiao, but by his temple name, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. p>
A mere word in a temple name can praise or criticize an emperor throughout his life, so choose the word very carefully.
In order to agree on the name of the temple of the late emperor, the ministers argued endlessly and even had a war of words. This has happened more than once since the founding of the Zhou Dynasty.
However, when it came to Zhao Zhen, there was a rare difference between the government and the public. From the new monarch and the queen mother to the prime minister and ministers, they all agreed that the temple name of the former emperor should be named Renzong, which means a benevolent saint.
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When it came time to write the posthumous proposal for the late emperor, the ministers publicly recommended Wei Chen to write it, not only because Wei Chen was known as the literary emperor of the world, and he wrote about China, but also because Wei Chen had been deeply favored by the late emperor since he became an official.
Therefore, it can be said that it is most appropriate for Wei Chen to write this posthumous proposal.
Not long after, a scribe brought some paper and pen and placed them in front of Wei Chen.
Wei Chen sat in front of the table, polishing the ink himself and typing up the manuscript. However, in the past, he was always full of literary thoughts, but this time he had no thoughts at all.
Wei Chen's mind kept replaying the scene where the late emperor nominated him as the number one scholar in the palace.
Thinking of the late emperor's great kindness to him during his lifetime, Wei Chen choked up and couldn't write for a long time. The officials around him couldn't help but be moved by the scene and quietly wiped away their tears.
After a while, under the urging of the chamberlain sent by Zhao Zongquan, Wei Chen regained his composure and started writing.
"Guangdong has a long history of temple names, but its sage kings in the past are all known for their respect and virtue, or they have been passed down from generation to generation.
Isn't it possible that the great virtues of the benevolent saints were not fully recognized, and that the great Confucian scholars at that time simply ignored the enlightenment of heaven and hoped to overcome the great achievements of the temple?
The poem goes: The destiny of upholding heaven is in Mu. This is what we call it. Only merit is based on entrepreneurship, and virtue is based on preservation. This is the great meaning of respect.
The posthumous title of Emperor Daxing is Yi Tianxi, and he is called the Emperor of Titian, Dharma, and Dao, who is extremely meritorious, divine, cultural, sage, martial, Ruizhe, and Mingxiao. The temple is called Renzong."