明代的遗诏

遗诏是帝制时代以大行皇帝名义向天下臣民发布的政治遗嘱，于随后国家政治及公共生活关系重大。明代遗诏为皇位交替之际最重要的正式文献，即使在已经立有储君的情况下，仍然是嗣君即位合法性的必要基础；由于遗诏由文臣起草，士大夫有可能借草拟遗诏之机，渗透自己政策更革主张，故遗诏颁行，通常带来一定政策调整，这反映出遗诏作为士大夫群体纠正皇帝弊政的潜在途径的意义；官私史书中常混淆遗言与遗诏，论者当加辨析；明代太后所发遗诏中，仅仁宗皇后张氏遗诏具有国政安排涵义，可资查见明代后妃预政现象之变迁；明代矫拟遗诏的说法甚多，然大致都难视为确然事实；明成祖遗诏仅传两句之事，可能掩盖重要史事。

The Testamentary Edicts of the Ming Emperors

Testamentary edicts were the political testament, issued on behalf of the late emperors to the public, which had crucial impacts on the state politics and public life in the following years. Based upon the discrimination of the contents, regulation, and existence of the Ming testamentary edicts, this article brings up the following points. First of all, as the most important official document in the transitional period of the throne, the testamentary edicts constituted the necessary legitimate foundation of the successive emperor to seize the throne of the crown prince. Secondly, since the texts of the testamentary edicts were drafted by the scholar officials, they usually had opportunities to write their own opinions about policy reformation into the edicts to justify future policy adjustment,which made the testamentary edicts potential instruments of the scholar officials ＇.9 correct political wrong doings of the late emperors. Thirdly, the official and private historical books commonly confused the oral wills and the formal testamentary edicts of the Ming emperors. Fourthly, some of the empress dowagers of the Ming also issued testamentary edicts, among which only the empress Zhang of Emperor Renzong contained will of political arrangement. This should be treated as a clue to the observation of the development of the policy-intervention phenomenon of concubines. Fifthly, most of counterfeit testamentary edicts of the Ming Dynasty were not convincing. Moreover, behind the fact that only two things were mentioned by Emperor Chengzu, important reality might have been covered by the remaining records of history.