Know all about the secrets of the harem

Chapter 65
The reform touched the interests of many people. The guys headed by the Marquis Dou couldn't sit still, and they kept running to the Queen Mother Dou, talking bad things about Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the ministers.In order to get rid of the resistance of Empress Dowager Dou, Zhao Wan, the imperial historian, and Wang Zang, the doctor's order, suggested to Emperor Wu that they should not ask the Empress Dowager for everything in the court.The intention of this move is very obvious: it is to bypass the Empress Dowager Dou, let Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty become the highest and most direct master of the reform, and gradually weaken the power of the Empress Dowager Dou in the court through reforms, and finally complete the goal of returning power to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty .

Although Empress Dowager Dou was blind, she was well informed and her reaction was even more decisive.On the one hand, she angrily compared Xin Yuanping, a demagogic alchemist in Emperor Wen's time (Xin Yuanping was an alchemist in Emperor Wen's time of Han Dynasty. He used deceitful tricks to win Emperor Wen's trust. He was found out later and punished the three clans.) to vilify Zhao Wan and other advocates Confucianized minister; on the one hand, he did not hesitate to use spy means to send people to collect negative news about Zhao Wan, as a basis for a showdown with Emperor Wu.In October 139 B.C., Empress Dowager Dou imprisoned Zhao Wan, the official censor, and Wang Zang, the Langzhong Ling, and dismissed the prime minister Dou Ying and the Taiwei Tian Jie, who advocated Confucianism. Even if Dou Ying was her nephew, she was merciless , and personally appointed a new prime minister and Taiwei, and adjusted the highest ruling core.Facing Queen Dowager Dou's fury and strong pressure, Emperor Wu of the Han had to make tactical adjustments. He abolished all the resolutions made in Mingtang, and allowed Zhao Wan and Wang Zang to commit suicide in prison.Because of the forcible intervention of Empress Dowager Dou with her special status and supreme authority, the movement of Confucianism in governing the country initiated by Emperor Wu in the early years was forced to end prematurely.

After this contest, the relationship between Empress Dowager Dou and Emperor Wudi's grandson deteriorated sharply. Originally, Empress Dowager Dou didn't even like her filial son Liu Qi, let alone her grandson Emperor Wudi Han who was against her everywhere.It is not a matter of a day or two for her to replace this Emperor Sun.When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was 17 years old, she wanted to abolish him. Although she withdrew the idea under the mediation of her daughter, Princess Guantao, it was just a stopgap measure.

When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was 18 years old, Empress Dowager Dou once again came up with a new method: she used the excuse that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "had no prince", saying that he was guarding such a big rich man, but he couldn't even give birth to a son and a half daughter. What's wrong, for the sake of the country, he elected his uncle Huainan Wei Liu An as the emperor's uncle, as the heir apparent after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The 18-year-old boy emperor is in the prime of his youth, why should he assert that he will have no children in the future?It's all right to be in a hurry to choose an heir for him, but to choose an older and respected guy. Could it be that the whole old Liu family can't find a baby to adopt at this time?

Who would not be able to guess what Queen Mother Dou was up to?

For a time, the internal situation of the Western Han Dynasty changed, and the mother and son of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty were frightened.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty survived such a harsh political environment thanks to the mediation of his aunt and mother-in-law Princess Guantao.From then on, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty kept a low profile and no longer confronted the emperor's grandmother, respected and appointed Confucian scholars, until Empress Dowager Dou died of illness.

In 135 BC, the Empress Dowager Dou died at the age of 71 and was buried in Baling together with Emperor Wen.Empress Dowager Dou was the last ruler in China who adhered to the "Huang-Lao Thought". Pushed to the peak of strength.Since her, no Chinese ruler can truly "govern by doing nothing" with the "Huang Lao thought" like her.

In fact, Queen Mother Dou spent most of her life "ruling by doing nothing". She rarely fought with others, but the glory she achieved is obvious to all; she relied on her "doing nothing" but received " The huge effect of "promising" is really favored by fate.

Deng Sui: monopolizing power and governing the country well
Most people know that the empress of Emperor Hanhe was named Deng Sui. She was a well-known empress, beauty, and empress in Chinese history, and she was also one of the few powerful women in history who managed the government.After the death of Emperor He, she greeted Emperor Shang and Emperor An successively, and was in power for 12 years. Her brother held important positions and held great power.She distinguishes right from wrong, adjudicates wronged prisons, releases court ladies, cares about the suffering of the people, attaches importance to enlightenment, advocates lenient and simple, and does not do extravagance.In fact, Deng Sui was only the second queen of Emperor Hanhe, and Xiaoyin was the first queen of Emperor Hanhe.

Xiaoyin was born in the prominent Yin family in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her great-grandfather was Yin Shi, the brother of Yin Lihua, the famous queen of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty.The reason why it is called Xiaoyin's is to distinguish it from her great-aunt.

In this way, Emperor Hanhe, Xiaoyin, and Deng Sui still have complex kinship among these three people.Emperor Hanhe's great-grandfather was Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his great-grandmother was Yin Lihua. He and the Xiaoyin family were cousins.Let’s talk about Deng Sui again. Her family background is no worse than Xiaoyin’s empress. Her grandfather was Deng Yu, the founding hero of the Eastern Han Dynasty who first persuaded Liu Xiu to proclaim himself emperor. Yin is the niece of Empress Yin Lihua.That is to say, according to the seniority of the mother's family, Deng Sui, who is the niece and granddaughter of Empress Yin Lihua, is Xiaoyin's cousin.As the great-grandson of Empress Yin Lihua and Xiaoyin's cousin, Hanhe Emperor Liu Zhao was naturally Deng Sui's junior.Of course, seniority is not an issue.Since Emperor Hui of the Western Han Dynasty Liu Ying married his niece Zhang Yan as queen, in the more than [-] years of Han Dynasty history, such incestuous marriages in the royal family were not uncommon.More importantly, for Xiaoyin and Deng Sui, kinship cannot overcome family interests and love belonging. The marriage of the three is still a life-and-death competition.

Although Deng Sui grew up with Emperor He of the Han Dynasty and the Xiaoyin family, the Xiaoyin family was married to Emperor He before her and was established as the queen.When Liu Zhao was 14 years old, he finally wiped out the family of Dou's relatives, who had dominated the government and the opposition, and perverted the law.

On the eve of his first choice to marry a concubine, he really became the head of the Eastern Han Dynasty.An elated Liu Zhao decided to consider personal issues after dealing with state affairs.Therefore, Liu Zhao sent a special person to select unmarried girls of the right age from among the nobles and relatives of the family to be the candidates for the sixth palace.Among the many candidates, there are two candidates with the most noble family backgrounds, one is Liu Zhao's cousin Xiaoyin, and the other is Liu Zhao's cousin Deng Sui.However, just before Deng Sui was elected to the palace, Deng Xun passed away.When Deng Sui encountered his father's death, he insisted on keeping his filial piety and mourning, and postponed the time to enter the palace.Therefore, 13-year-old Xiaoyin was able to enter the imperial palace first. Xiaoyin was born intelligent and beautiful, small and exquisite, and quite knowledgeable. Soon she was promoted to nobleman.

Three years later, Xiaoyin was named queen.At the beginning, Xiaoyin's family performed well. She was respectful, considerate, and good at coordinating the relationship with other officials and concubines.Perhaps because of her young age, Xiao Yin has never had children, but she did not limit her closeness with the emperor and other palace people.Therefore, Emperor He had several children with other ordinary palace people.The virtuous virtue of Empress Xiaoyin also made Han Hedi very pleased, and he doted on her even more.But as time went by, and the harem became increasingly full, Xiaoyin's savage, arrogant, and jealous nature gradually emerged, and even made the young lady lose her temper in front of Emperor He.At the beginning, although He Di gradually became dissatisfied with her, but because she was young, he didn't care too much, and it was over if he opened or closed one eye.But instead of restraining herself and repenting, the Xiaoyin Empress intensified.One of the reasons for Xiaoyin's change was her temperament, and the other reason was Deng Sui's entry into an official.

After Deng Sui's filial piety period expired, she was conscripted into the palace again. At the age of 16, she was as beautiful as a fairy, with a slender figure and radiant brilliance.Therefore, Deng Sui deservedly became the number one beauty in the harem.Ever since meeting Deng Sui, the 19-year-old Emperor He was in full bloom, and soon made Deng Sui the nobleman second only to the queen, and let her live in the Jiade Palace, where he was like glue to her all day long.Gradually, Emperor He discovered that Deng Sui was not only unparalleled in beauty, but also had profound talents and learning, and a gentle and courteous disposition.

Liu Zhao gradually transferred the enthusiasm and love he had originally given to his cousin Xiaoyinhou to Deng Guiren.

Of course Xiao Yinhou felt the change in her husband, she couldn't bear to have her childhood sweetheart's cousin move on so quickly.Perhaps the elders of the Yin family have taught the Empress Xiaoyin more than once how to calmly deal with empress dowagers and how to hold on to her husband tightly. , which is undoubtedly a difficult task.Empress Xiaoyin couldn't accept that her husband had pretended to be someone else in her heart, not to mention her husband's new love was no less noble than herself, her seniority was higher than her own, and she didn't know how talented she was. how many times.In this way, it is not surprising that Empress Xiaoyin regards Deng Sui as a strong enemy.

Emperor He also seemed to feel that he was a little ashamed of his cousin, and shortly after he was favored by Deng Suiren Palace, he specially promoted Yin Gang, the father of Empress Xiaoyin, to the title of Marquis of Wu Fang.Unfortunately, this is just a discounted compensation for Liu Zhao's inability to rekindle the old love. As for the love between men and women, he can give Xiaoyin Empress less and less.Later, even the shadow of Emperor He could no longer be seen in the Queen's Changqiu Palace.The less her husband came, the more jealous Empress Xiaoyin hated Deng Sui. She only wanted to find Deng Sui's fault and use the queen's authority to punish her.

However, Deng Sui strictly abides by the etiquette, is always cautious, acts low-key, gentle and gentle, and never speaks rashly, so that everyone in the post-officials praises her very much and respects her very much.No matter how hard Empress Xiaoyin tried, she couldn't catch Deng Sui's flaws or handles.

Seeing that Xiaoyin's jealousy became stronger day by day, Deng Sui often pretended to be sick at first, but her pretending to be sick was also different. She claimed to be sick in order to lessen the emperor's special favor for her, and for the sake of After that, he personally selected beauties in the palace to give to Emperor He, asking him to plant and harvest them widely.Deng Sui's performance of taking the initiative to share benefits not only won the praise of the empresses and concubines, but also made Emperor He feel that she had the potential to be a mother to the world, and he praised her more and more favored her day by day.

But what Deng Sui did made Xiaoyin Empress hate even more.Empress Xiaoyin certainly knew about Deng Sui recommending court ladies to Emperor He many times, and here lies the problem: recommending court ladies, such a show of favor, was supposed to be the Queen's job, but Deng Sui did it for her. , and why she recommended Cairen, a low-level palace man with neither title nor family background, who never persuaded the emperor to return to the queen's palace?Empress Xiaoyin could clearly see Deng Sui's desire to please the emperor, and she felt more and more that Deng Sui was retreating to advance, driving herself to a dead end step by step.Whenever Deng Sui came to pay respects to the queen according to the palace rules, Xiaoyin could only wish to tear this so-called cousin into pieces.However, Deng Sui's face was always as calm as water, but his mind was unfathomable. There was nothing Xiaoyin could do about it.Gradually, she not only hated Deng Sui, but also hated Liu Zhao even more.For her now, Liu Zhao is no longer the cousin and husband who cherished and cared for her in the past, but a dangerous person who is bewitched by Deng Sui and who may abolish himself at any time and throw himself into the abyss.

Around 101 A.D., Hedi Liu Zhao suddenly became seriously ill and was bedridden, and one day he even reached a critical point.The news naturally reached the ears of the concubines immediately.

When Empress Xiaoyin heard the news, instead of being sad and anxious for her husband, she was overjoyed, thinking that God finally had eyes and would take Liu Zhao's life away before she was kicked out of the queen's throne.Xiao Yinhou's pent-up anger finally had a chance to vent, and she couldn't help but whisper to her confidants: "The prince is young, and I am the queen, so all major events in the future will naturally be under my control. Once I With the power in hand, the Deng family must be destroyed. No one from the Deng family will be allowed to live in this world, let's see how long she can hold on!"

However, Empress Xiao Yin, whose eyes were reddened by jealousy, did not expect that the maid she trusted was often favored by Deng Sui and respected her as a person. It was reported to Deng Sui's ears by flyer.

In fact, Deng Sui already knew that if the emperor could not get sick, the Empress Xiaoyin would not let her go. She might have thought about this terrible ending more than once, but when the poisonous oath of the Empress Xiaoyin reached her ears, she still It felt like a bolt from the blue.

Deng Sui wept in great pain: "I tried my best to serve the queen, and I was so obedient to her. But she still can't tolerate me. It seems that my disaster is not far away. I don't regret my death, but I can't implicate innocent family members Now that the emperor is critically ill, I don’t know if he can survive this catastrophe. Although women are not obliged to die for their husbands, when the Duke of Zhou prayed to take the place of the king of Zhou, Yue Ji was also willing to stand in for her husband. I decided to follow the example of the ancient sages and sages. To repay the emperor's kindness, secondly, it can alleviate the family's disaster, and thirdly, it will not make the queen create "human pigs" like Lu Zhi did in the past, and damage the reputation of the Yin family. Now it is only expedient to let me go first .I just pray that the emperor can recover safely, and that the family can be happy and safe."

Deng Sui made up his mind to die, but the palace servants around him tried to dissuade her repeatedly, but she refused to listen. She ordered to prepare the incense table and offerings, and prepared to pray again that night. Then she committed suicide by drinking poison and wrote a prayer herself. .That night, Deng Sui was about to commit suicide in the Guardian Palace when he suddenly heard the report from the officials that the emperor's illness had improved.Deng Sui knelt on the ground and said, "Thank God, the emperor is safe, so I feel at ease."

The next day, Emperor Hanhe really recovered from his illness, which was tantamount to saving Deng Guiren's life.Later, this matter was known by Emperor Hanhe, and besides becoming more alienated from Empress Xiaoyin, he added another layer of resentment, so he had the idea of ​​abolishing Empress Xiaoyin.Just a few months after Emperor He recovered from his illness, in April 102 AD, someone reported that Empress Xiaoyin and her grandmother Deng Shu were secretly practicing witchcraft, cursing the court in private, which was not good for the emperor.Emperor He sent Zhang Shen, the official servant, and Chen Bao, the minister, to demand a strict investigation to the end.

The investigation process was indeed strict, and even the other members of the Yin family who were not mentioned by the informant were all arrested and tortured.Although these pampered young masters and ladies could not bear the torture, they all knew that the matter was of great importance. Once they were arrested, it would be a catastrophe for the family. What's more, this matter might not have happened at all, and there was no way to recruit them if they wanted to?However, the imperial envoys vowed not to give up until they achieved their goals.Deng Zhu's sons Deng Feng and Deng Yi, and Xiao Yinhou's younger brother Yin Fu were tortured to death because they refused to "confess".The other family members had no choice but to admit the witchcraft curse.Emperor He had been at odds with Empress Xiaoyin for a long time. Seeing this, he no longer wanted to take care of the old relationship, so he immediately abolished the Empress Xiaoyin's clan and made her move to Tonggong.The Queen of Yin had no choice but to hand over the seal and ribbon, and lived in a lonely cold palace.Not long after, his father Yin Gang committed suicide by taking medicine in fear of crime, and his grandmother Deng Zhu also died of severe punishment.Relatives of the Yin family were exiled to Bijing County in Rinan County (now Hanoi, Vietnam), and some internal and external clan relatives were all dismissed from office and rank and were driven back to their hometown Xinye to become ordinary people.Xiaoyin was the only one left in the huge Yin family. After being a queen for 7 years, Xiaoyin could no longer bear such a big gap and the tragic blow of the annihilation of the family. After washing his face, he soon died of anxiety and illness.Emperor He hastily collected Xiaoyinhou in a coffin, and was carried out of the palace on the same day and buried in the wilderness. The 22-year-old Deng Sui was canonized as a queen in October of that year after Emperor He was abolished.Deng Sui repeatedly refused to accept it, and Emperor Hedi refused, so she formally accepted the Queen's Seal Ribbon.

Deng Sui's mother honored the world, and she was called the system in the court

Deng Sui became the queen, still humble and restrained.At that time, the feudal states competed to pay tribute to rare treasures, which had formed a custom.

Empress Deng suggested that Emperor He ordered that the counties and states be prohibited from paying large amounts of tribute. It is only necessary to choose some paper and ink every year as a sign of etiquette, which reduces the burden on the counties and states.Every time Emperor He wanted to ennoble the Deng family, Deng Sui begged for humility.Since then, Empress Deng has enjoyed high prestige both in the court and in the palace.

Three years later, Emperor He became unwell and became increasingly ill. Finally, he died of illness at the age of 27.During his lifetime, in order to prevent his sons from being murdered by eunuchs, relatives, and powerful officials, so that he could have successors, he hid the boys he gave birth to and raised them among the people.After the death of Emperor He, the officials still did not know the whereabouts of the prince, and the succession of the throne became a problem.Empress Deng knew that there were two surviving children born in the harem. The eldest son, Liu Sheng, was born with a disability and mental retardation, so it was inconvenient to welcome him; For the Son of Heaven, for the Emperor Shang.

Empress Deng was revered as the empress dowager, she was only 25 years old at the time, and she became the de facto emperor and held the power of the court.Because Liu Long was a baby, Empress Dowager Deng could not handle the government affairs yet, so she asked Zhang Yu, an important minister and Taifu, to stay in the palace and participate in the government affairs.

(End of this chapter)