This poem came from the 1950s. It was a poem recited by a certain sage under the locust tree where Emperor Chongzhen was hanged. This sentence is probably the most complete summary of the legendary life of the crooked-necked locust tree.
Originally, this slightly crooked locust tree was just an ordinary locust tree. However, at dawn on March 19, 1644, after a white damask was put on its trunk, its fate suddenly changed. change.
With the hanging of Emperor Chongzhen, this locust tree was no longer just a locust tree. It ushered in another kind of "tree growth".
If trees could write autobiographies, this locust tree would probably mark March 19th as a turning point in its life.
On this day, the leader of the peasant uprising led the peasant army to invade Beijing. At this time, the Ming Palace was in chaos. Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, who was a strong-willed emperor, went to court personally beating drums, but no one responded to the sound of the drums.
At this time, Chongzhen knew that the situation was over. Under the huge stimulation, his spirit almost collapsed. The flames of war under the city tower illuminated Chongzhen's pale face and pierced his eyes. He stood on the steps, with various voices and noises pouring into his ears. He clearly realized: the power of the Ming Dynasty It was about to be ruined in his hands.
In the years since he came to power, Chongzhen has been trying hard to save the Ming Dynasty from decline, but he still failed in the end. With this defeat, the world is lost and everything is lost.
Chongzhen walked to the palace tremblingly, he had already made the final calculation in his heart. After Queen Zhou, Concubine Yuan Guifei and three sons came to the palace, he gave his sons a few brief instructions and ordered the eunuchs to send them to his relatives' homes to hide.
After making this final arrangement, Chongzhen’s next behavior can be described as: a brutal murderer. He first ordered the queen and concubines to commit suicide, and then he slashed at several of his own daughters with a knife. Princess Changping had her arm cut off and passed out, while the 6-year-old princess was cut into two pieces. .
Judging from Chongzhen’s crazy behavior at this time, his spirit was almost broken. When a person has a complete mental breakdown, there is only one outcome: madness or death.
After all, Chongzhen was different from ordinary people. He was not crazy when he suffered a mental breakdown. This was related to the storms he had seen and the beliefs in his heart. Unlike other kings who were fatuous and led to the country's demise, his country's demise was more of a general trend.
Chongzhen has been given the mission of protecting the Ming Dynasty since his birth. After ascending to the throne of God, he regarded this mission as the only mission in his life. This mission eventually led to his crazy behavior of forcing the queen's concubine to death and killing his daughter: as a woman of the imperial family, she could not be ruined by the peasant army, so death was a better outcome.
Chongzhen's despair was unprecedented. After stumbling to the back of the mountain, Chongzhen looked at the raging war and cried without tears. At this time, he had taken off his official crown, and his loose hair was messy in the wind.
For a long time, he took off his blue robe and wrote a final letter on it. After writing and throwing away the ink pen, he hanged himself on the locust tree. Later, the eunuch Wang Chengen beside him also hanged himself in this tree with him.
With the death of Chongzhen by hanging, the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for 276 years in China, officially came to an end. The locust tree where Chongzhen hanged himself has also become a symbol of the demise of the Ming Dynasty, because it witnessed the decline of a dynasty. From the day Chongzhen hanged himself, it was no longer a tree, but became a symbol.
The symbolic significance of the crooked-necked locust tree was strengthened during the Shunzhi period, after Shunzhi led the Qing army to enter the customs and occupy Beijing. He did two things at once. The first thing was to issue an order to rebury Emperor Chongzhen. The mausoleum was called Siling. The second thing he did was to put chains on the Crooked Sophora japonica tree as a punishment. He also decreed that the tree would be named "Sui Sophora japonica" from now on.
An iron chain and the word "sin" in front of its name. From then on, the locust tree was no longer a free tree in the world. After this locust tree was condemned, its life became even more difficult.
If the tree was conscious, it would probably cry out for injustice at this time. There is no science that can prove whether big trees are conscious or not, but Japanese scientist Dr. Emoto Mori once confirmed in the book "Water Knows the Answer": Water will form completely different crystals when it hears praise and blame words.
Some people have confirmed that trees can even be cursed to death. Someone once conducted an experiment and sent people to curse a big tree every day. Soon the big tree would wither and die, while the big tree that received the praise would grow stronger.