But when I first read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I often couldn't figure out a person, and this person was Empress Dong during the Han Ling Emperor period. Especially after the interpretation of the TV series, we feel that this Empress Dong is really too pitiful, as an empress dowager, she was bullied so badly by He Jin's brothers and sisters. In the end, Empress Dong was driven back to the fief by He Jin on the grounds that "concubines are not suitable for staying in the capital", and died inexplicably soon after.
At the beginning, Xiaobian couldn't understand why Empress Dong was a concubine? In fact, this Empress Dong was the most special empress in history, because although he was honored as the empress dowager, her husband was not the emperor. We know that Emperor Huan of Han died young and left no heirs. Therefore, Empress Dou and the general Dou Wu, who were in power at that time, found one of the children of Liu Wang to inherit the throne, and this child was Liu Hong, the son of Liu Cang, the Marquis of Xieduting, who was later Emperor Hanling.
As a relative of the Han Dynasty, Liu Cang was only given the title of a third-rank pavilion marquis, which shows how unpopular this person was, and the later Empress Dong was Liu Cang's wife, that is, the birth mother of Liu Hong, the Emperor of Han Ling. When Emperor Ling of Han had just ascended the throne, it was Empress Dowager Dou, the empress dowager of Emperor Huan of Han, who came to power, and later there was a conflict between the foreign forces represented by the great general Dou Wu and the eunuch forces, and Dou Wu and Taifu Chen Fan plotted to eliminate the eunuch clique, but because they were informed by others, they were preemptively attacked by the eunuch Cao Jie and others, dou Wu and Chen Fan were executed, and Empress Dou was also ousted from the throne of the empress.
After dou lost power, emperor Han Ling gained great power, so he took his birth mother Dong shi into the palace and was crowned empress dowager, which is what we call empress dowager dou, and empress dowager Dou's concubines came from this way. Empress Dong was a complete money addict because she was a very poor life when she was a concubine, and often taught the Han Ling Emperor Liu Hong to accumulate more wealth, so she mingled with the eunuchs who were also greedy for money.
Under the tutelage of the empress dowager and eunuchs, the Han Ling Emperor became one of the most greedy emperors in Chinese history, and after he came to power, he tried everything to make money. The Han Ling Emperor once wanted to build a palace outside Luoyang, so he asked the local government to send a large amount of wood to Luoyang, but after the timber was delivered, the eunuchs deliberately said that the wood was not qualified, forcing the people who sent the wood to sell to the imperial court at a low price, and then the eunuchs sold the wood at a high price to earn the difference in the middle.
Later, because the money was too slow to do these things, Empress Dong ordered the Han Ling Emperor to publicly sell his official duties. Therefore, under the preparation of the eunuchs, an office for selling officials was built in the West Garden of the Imperial Garden, which was dedicated to handling the sale of officials, and each official position had a clear price, which was different according to different places and different people. Even some people are afraid that they can't afford to pay the full amount, and they also support installment payments. The more Emperor Hanling earned, the happier Empress Dong became.
Emperor Hanling's business of selling officials was very good, so it also created a large number of corrupt officials to be sent to the localities and became a mountain that weighed on the heads of the common people. Because they spent a lot of money on buying officials, they made a lot of money when they were in office, so that the common people did not have a good life, and countless people starved to death. Therefore, the peasant revolts that lasted were everywhere, and the huge Yellow Turban Uprising almost ended the Han Dynasty, which can be said that Empress Dong had to bear certain responsibilities.
It was simply greed for money, and this Empress Dong also liked to interfere in the affairs of the dynasty, because Liu Xie was still relatively young when she succeeded to the throne, so after Empress Dou's death, Empress Dong basically held the power of the imperial court. Not only did she give orders directly to Emperor Hanling, but all the important affairs of the imperial court had to go through her before they could be carried out, and Empress Dong also made his nephew Dong Chong a general on horseback, commanding the forbidden army in the palace.
Not only that, in order to retain her power, Empress Dong also instigated Emperor Hanling to make his younger son Liu Xie crown prince. Because Emperor Hanling had two sons, one was Liu Xie, the eldest son of Empress He, and the other was Liu Xie, the younger son raised by Empress Dong, who was born to Empress Wang. As the empress dowager, for her own interests, she not only interfered in the emperor's establishment of an heir, but also teased the emperor to abolish the long and young, which can be said to be very unauthentic.
As a result, Empress Dong was unable to reconcile with Emperor Hanling's empress Dowager He, and Empress Dong often oppressed Empress He on various occasions. When Emperor Hanling was alive, Empress He did not dare to openly rebel against Empress Dowager Dong, but as soon as Emperor Hanling died, Empress He relied on the power of her brother He Jin and quickly established Liu As emperor. As a result, at this time, Empress Dong still did not change her habit of interfering in the affairs of the dynasty, and often wanted to participate in major state affairs, and He Shi blocked him every time, and the two people often confronted each other. Empress Dong once scolded He Shi very angrily, "Are you so arrogant now, because of the power of your brother He Jin?" You see I let the Hussar General Dong Chong behead He Jin."
As a result, after hearing this, He Shi decided to act first, and asked her brother He Jin to send Empress Dong back to her original fiefdom on the grounds that Empress Dong was a concubine. He also forced her nephew Dong Chong to die. After a period of time, Empress Dong also died inexplicably in the fiefdom.
Is such Empress Dowager Dong still worthy of our pity?