The "generation" of each of Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants is different.
The names of Zhu Yuanzhang’s grandfather, father, and brothers are all listed with numbers. Grandfather Zhu Chuyi, father Zhu Wusi, uncle Zhu Wuliu, brothers Zhu Chongwu, Zhu Chongliu, Zhu Chongqi, Zhu Yuanzhang's original name was Zhu Chongba.
After Zhu Yuanzhang becomes emperor, his family will no longer be as poor and helpless as before. In the future, there will definitely be thousands of descendants. It will definitely be embarrassing to call them by numbers.
So, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to give each of his sons a different character, which would be nice to hear and would make it easier for them to live apart when there were more descendants in the future.
Zhu Yuanzhang had 16 daughters and 26 sons in his life. Among them, the lineage of Prince Zhu Biao is the direct lineage, and he will definitely be the emperor in the future. Unfortunately, Zhu died early, but he left the emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Yunwen.
The ninth son, Zhao Wangqi, was also a young boy. The last youngest son, Zhu Nan, died more than a month after birth. Among the grown-up sons, the eighth son, Tan Wang Zhu Zi, was convicted of breaking the law. He was removed from the imperial espionage list by Zhu Yuanzhang.
For the remaining twenty-three sons, Zhu Yuanzhang gave them the "character generation" as shown below (part):
After Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated the "character generation", he also Make an interesting rule. The name of each descendant must be composed of Chinese characters plus a radical of "金木水火地" to form a new character. On the one hand, it can highlight the glory of the royal family, and on the other hand, it can also avoid taboos among the people. These words were later selected to be included in the periodic table of chemical elements.
This approach is okay. The ancients avoided the emperor's name, so many ancient books were messed up. For example, in the "De Dao Jing", "names can be given, but not permanent names". In order to avoid the name taboo of Emperor Liu Heng of Han Dynasty, it was changed to "extraordinary names". The meaning of this change is completely different.
In order to avoid the name taboo of Li Hu, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, the "Tiger Talisman" was also changed to "Fish Talisman". This is too ugly. The Fish Talisman is not as powerful as the Tiger Talisman.
Returning to what the questioner said: Although Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Yunwen have different "generations", they are still the same generation, and they are uncles and brothers. This practice must be strange in a small family, but who calls others the royal family? The royal family is the largest wealthy family in the world.
Ordinary people, if they pursue having children and grandchildren around their knees and living under the same roof for five generations, would be considered a good thing. But what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted was for thousands of descendants to live with the country. We will know how he divided up the feudal lords.
First of all, every emperor's biological son is a prince. After the age of ten, he will be given a gold book and gold treasure. When he is older, he will be given land to establish a feudal state.
The prince's eldest son will be established as the prince and will succeed the prince in the future, while the second legitimate son and the eldest son of the concubine can receive the title of county prince.
According to this operation, as long as the Ming Dynasty lasts, there will continue to be a large number of princes, which can be said to be "infinitely short of descendants." Wherever the prince is sealed, that place will have to support the royal family in the future. That one.
The country must pay salaries to these people, so the farmers in the Ming Dynasty suffered. The clans of the Ming Dynasty were all powerful, and they were all "hardcore crops."
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty was poor. In addition to supporting hundreds of officials and armies, the world's tax burden also had to support this huge group. When Zhang Juzheng was waiting for these famous ministers to carry out reforms, he encountered strong opposition from this group of people. Because there were too many of these people, the opposition was loud, so the reforms would end in vain.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang once said, "I am a commoner, worked as a laborer in a landlord's house, herded cattle, and raised pigs, but my ancestors were virtuous and protected me, so I have my current status, so You must know that all this is hard-won. In the future, except for work, you will wear hemp shoes, sit on bamboo chairs, and travel far out of the city. You will not only have to ride a horse, but also walk to experience the sufferings of the people. Only then can you understand. Keep your business."
The original intention was good, but it was useless. The Ming Dynasty clan became a vampire attached to the country, so the Ming Dynasty also perished.
To be honest, if the Ming Dynasty does not perish, after hundreds of generations, all people in the world will have the surname Zhu, so it is reasonable to create more "generations"!