What does Zhu Yuanzhang look like? Why do all his portraits look different?

The ancient emperor always had a portrait of a dragon robe. However, in the notes of the Ming Dynasty, the seven manuscripts mentioned such a miracle, that is, there was more than one portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his face was different in each painting. It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang was suspicious by nature, because he was afraid of being assassinated by an assassin, so he deliberately made people draw so many strange portraits and spread them around, so that outsiders didn't know his true face at all, and the assassin couldn't start and wanted to kill him.

The secret of the "artifact" seems to have been solved, but is the fact really as described in the Seven Manuscripts?

Zhu Yuanzhang once issued a decree calling on painters from all over the country to paint the emperor. Painters racked their brains and exhausted the portraits of the emperor they had learned all their lives, but they could not get Zhu Yuanzhang's affirmation. Later, a painter painted a five-point portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, but the image and temperament of the people in the painting were graceful and dignified. Zhu Yuanzhang liked it at first sight, and immediately ordered him to draw some rewards for his ministers. Of course, this is just a version of Zhu Yuanzhang's story of seeking painting.

What does Zhu Yuanzhang look like? Who can tell except the people at that time? I have an ancient portrait of face blindness. I obviously look the same, and I can't tell my age. I have a beard, and I don't know how people at that time distinguished the people in the painting. ) I don't know whether the rumor comes first or the portrait comes first. In short, there are two extreme views. One side thinks that Zhu Yuanzhang is extremely ugly, and the other side thinks that Zhu Yuanzhang is a thief and handsome, or a rare emperor who is either rich or expensive.

There are as many as 16 versions of Zhu Yuanzhang's court and folk portraits, some of which are ugly and handsome, and some are funny. Zhu Yuanzhang in the ugly portrait has a symbolic "shoe-pulling face", fat and big ears, pockmarked face and a wretched look. Zhu Yuanzhang in the American portrait is full of heaven, four-sided facial features and heroic spirit. Of course, the official portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang is in Nanxun Hall of the Forbidden City, which is an American version.

You can't see anything from Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait, so look for similarities from Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants' portraits. After all, it is Zhu Yuanzhang's blood, and his appearance is also hereditary! So many people found that most of the Ming emperors had wide faces, such as square faces and Chinese characters. They look very similar in the portrait, which also shows Zhu Yuanzhang's powerful genes. Among so many emperors, only Zhu Houzhao and Amin Wuzong are exceptions. His face is long, not square. Isn't he the Zhu family? Haha, just kidding. Zhu Yuanzhang's American portrait has a square face. Is this a fact?

Some people think that the ugly version of Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait was deliberately vilified in the Qing Dynasty, because those ugly portraits and costumes have obvious "Qing Dynasty" characteristics. Others think that Zhu Yuanzhang is ugly, and he deliberately makes people paint himself better.

Miscellaneous Notes in the Garden claimed that Zhu Yuanzhang was suspected of beautifying himself, while Miscellaneous Notes in Zaolin claimed that Zhu Yuanzhang's portraits of emperors to princes were all false, and his true image was hidden in the ancestral hall. Alas, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang, what do you look like?

In fact, I think the official portrait is the official portrait after all. Any painter who dares to draw ugly pictures when painting the emperor will naturally draw beautiful pictures. As the famous tyrant Liu said, his father was obviously a distiller's grains nose, but the painter did not draw this ugly distiller's grains nose. Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait may be the same. The painter may only beautify part of it, but he should still look like Zhu Yuanzhang on the whole. Otherwise, the Zhu family after Zhu Yuanzhang is all Chinese characters, all of which are Zhu Yuanzhang's genes.