Friends who are familiar with the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty know that the Northern Wei Dynasty had a very inhumane system and had a very important influence in the inheritance of the imperial throne. This system is called "the death of the son and the noble mother", and the specific implementation began from the time of the Daowu Emperor Tuoba Jue, and was not terminated until the era of Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke. This system stipulates that once a prince is made crown prince, his birth mother will be given death to prevent the matriarch from becoming large and hindering the imperial power. Tuoba Jue's explanation for this was that he followed the system of the Han Wu Emperor Liu Che, who had originally given the death of Lady Hook Yi to prevent his family from controlling the eight-year-old Han Zhao Emperor Liu Fuling. Although the mothers of successive emperors suffered greatly, they were continued until yuan ke announced their abolition when they came to power, making Empress Hu the first surviving emperor's birth mother.
There are many claims in history that Yuan Ke abolished this ancestral system, both the interpretation of mainstream historical circles and the speculation of barnyard officials and wild history. The mainstream view of history holds that Yuan Ke abolished the inhumane system of "the death of the son and the noble mother" because of his belief in Buddhism and the emphasis on benevolent rule of the country. The folk barnyard officials yeshi did not agree, they believed that because Empress Hu was beautiful in appearance and powerful in harem means, she was deeply favored by Yuan Ke and confused her. Yuan Ke abolished the system of "the death of the son and the noble mother" because he was reluctant to empress Dowager Hu, and he only had the only surviving son of the crown prince Yuan Xue, so he could only cancel this system to achieve the best of both worlds. Both of these statements have been sought after by many people in later history books, and various debates have been discussed.
However, if you carefully read the historical materials of the Northern Wei Dynasty, you can find that these two statements are unreasonable, and they are also far-fetched interpretations of ancient scholars. For the first yuan ke believe in Buddhism, it is all for the purpose of giving yuan ke gold. Yuan Ke believed in Buddhism, and Empress Hu was also superstitious about Buddhism, and during the couple's reign, they overhauled the Buddhist temple, and expanded the scale of the Longmen Grottoes, building countless giant Buddha statues, becoming a miracle of ancient religious art. But this does not mean that they are benevolent, in fact, these two are not good in the political struggle, and Yuan Ke is particularly fierce. In order to regain imperial power and strengthen the centralization of power in the Northern Wei court, he successively executed the imperial uncles who were reused by his father Tuoba Hong and appointed as ministers of gu orders, yuanxi, yuanxiang, and yuanxun, which can be said to be six relatives who did not recognize.
In order to control imperial power and strengthen centralized power, Yuan Ke can be said to have worked hard and used everything to the extreme. He favored his uncle Gao Zhao, connived at him to frame and suppress the power of the Emperor and the Mongol clan, and created many unjust, false and wrongly decided cases. His first empress, Yu Shi, died of depression, and yu's son died prematurely because Gao Zhao deliberately delayed his illness. The reason for this was that Yu Lie's father and son, one of the Eight Gate Valves of Xianbei, held the power of the forbidden army, and he feared that the son born to Yu Shi would threaten the imperial power by becoming a prince. Yuan Ke could not even let go of his own son and his wife, what kindness was there in his human nature? To say that he abolished the system of "the death of a noble mother" because of his benevolence is simply a slippery slope.
For the second statement, in fact, there is not much evidence from the people, just subjective speculation. Empress Dowager Hu was not Yuan Ke's empress, not even an imperial concubine, but only a noble concubine, and her status in the court of Northern Wei was not high. Her status was not only inferior to Gao Ying, who became empress after Yu Shi, but even inferior to the concubines who entered the palace earlier than her. There is no record in the history books of Yuan Ke's blind favor of Empress Dowager Hu, let alone that Empress Dowager Hu used various powerful means to confuse Yuan Ke to the point of confusion. In fact, Empress Dowager Hu rose after the death of Yuan Ke, because her son Yuan Xue was supported and ascended the throne, and she was the empress dowager, so she gradually grasped the power of the government. Judging from the historical records, Yuan Ke was not an emperor who was obsessed with female color, and it was not established to say that he changed the system because of his infatuation with Empress Hu.
Judging from the various historical materials of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Yuan Ke was neither a benevolent emperor nor a lustful emperor, but an emperor who was good at gaining power. From the beginning of his reign, he played with power, first regaining imperial power from the forces of gu and emperor led by Yuan Xi, and was able to complete his pro-government. Then he supported his uncle Gao Zhao, so as to attack the power of the Emperor Zong and the Xianbei and Han Mongol clans, strengthen the centralization of the imperial court, and concentrate the power of the imperial court in his hands alone.
It can be said that the period of Yuan Ke's reign was not necessarily the peak of national strength, but it was definitely the most powerful centralized power. With his personality of being good at power, he would not fully trust anyone, including Yu Lieyuzhong's father and son, who helped him regain imperial power and become pro-government. After he supported the Gao Zhao brothers, he extensively suppressed the Xianbei and Han Mongol clans, and the Yu clan was deeply suspicious because they were relatives of the empress.
With this kind of personality, he would not be completely at ease with Gao Zhao's control of the government. As mentioned above, he chose Gao Zhao because Gao Zhao's history was relatively simple, he had no power in the Central Plains, and the relationship between the Yumen clan was not good, and he would not worry about their tails. However, after Gao Zhao's long-term hegemony, the Goryeo Gao clan also began to have close contact with the Central Plains Gate Valve, and Gao Zhao's niece Gao Ying became empress, which made the Goryeo Gao clan undergo uncontrollable changes. With Yuan Ke's suspicious and suspicious personality, he would naturally make advance preparations, and saving Empress Hu was one of his important means. It can be said that from the perspective of the strategy of political struggle, Yuan Ke abolished the system of "the death of the son and the noble mother" to protect Empress Hu, and his intention was the same as that of supporting Gao Zhao to attack the forces of the Emperor Zong.
Empress Dowager Hu was the daughter of Hu Guozhen, the assassin of Hezhou, and from the point of view of her origin, she was not even a clan of monks, but could only be regarded as a family of officials and eunuchs. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Gate Valve Clan was the first, and the ordinary official eunuch family could only be the second. Although Gao Zhao, although he was a member of the Goryeo Gao clan, he pretended to be a branch of the Bohai Gao clan and barely squeezed into the circle of the Mengmen clan. Empress Dowager Hu's family origin was even more skewed than Gao Zhao's, and her status was much lower. Her family was a nobleman of Later Qin, and after surrendering to Hu Xia, she was given the title of Helian Bobo, and after Hu Xia's demise, she defected to Northern Wei. Although her father, Hu Guozhen, inherited the title of Marquis of Wushi in the family, he was also a low-end role in aristocratic circles. She did not enter the palace by official means, but by walking through the back door when the nun's aunt was lecturing at the palace.
At that time, Empress Gao Ying had no sons, and only one of Yuan Ke's surviving sons was Yuan Xue, who was born to Empress Hu. Therefore, at the level of establishing a prince, Yuan Ke had no other choice but to establish Yuan as a prince. According to the system of "the death of the son and the noble mother", yuan xu was made crown prince, and he had to give empress dowager Hu to die and give yuan xu to empress gao ying to raise. However, in this way, there is a risk that the power of the state will get out of control. At that time, Gao Zhao was already in control of the government, and Gao Ying was Gao Zhao's niece, forming a political pattern in which the inner court and the outer court echoed each other. If the young Yuan Xuan is sent to Gao Ying again, then the Goryeo Gao clan not only controls the present, but also controls the future. Once Yuan Ke had something three long and two short, Gao Ying would definitely listen to the system, which was the second Empress Feng.
In order to constrain the power of the Goryeo Gao clan in the imperial court, Yuan Ke would never give Yuan Xue to Gao Ying, which must ensure that Empress Hu lived. It was for this consideration that Yuan Ke abolished the system of "death of the son and the mother" in violation of the ancestral system, allowing Empress Hu to survive. In his opinion, Empress Hu's family was inferior to that of the Goryeo clan, and the possibility of Empress Hu controlling the government by virtue of her family did not exist. If there is a pattern of balance between the Hu and Gao clans in the imperial court, he is also happy to see it come true. If a political pattern of Hu, Gao, Zongwang and other door valves involving each other can appear around Yuan xue, this is more conducive to Yuan Xue controlling the power of the state and ensuring the political ecology of centralized power. However, from the perspective of historical development, Yuan Ke's idea was too naïve, but it buried a big problem for the Northern Wei.
Yuan Ke did not foresee that although the Hu clan was not strong, it was willing to cooperate with the Zongwang forces and the Mengwang clan to jointly attack gao's hegemony in the dynasty, so that the power of the imperial court was once again in the hands of the empress. Empress Dowager Hu used this power to listen to the imperial court, making Yuan Xue a puppet emperor. Her alliance with the Jong-wang and the Gate Valve also eradicated the goryeo goryeo clan and became a dominant ruling alliance. From the root cause, the reason why the multi-party political balance of Yuan Ke could not be achieved was that the forces of the Goryeo and Hu clans were relatively weak, and they could not unite against the forces of the Zongwang and the Gate Valve, and eventually they could only fight each other. Due to the irreconcilable contradiction between Gao Zhao and The Emperor, this made the Hu clan an object of support from the Power of the Emperor, and the young Yuan Xuan could only become a victim.
Judging from Yuan Ke's arrangement of major state affairs, he obviously made the most common mistake made by the ancient Chinese Shoucheng Emperor, and relied too much on the use of power to govern the country. This method makes full use of the power of the emperor's identity and imperial power, and can achieve greater rectification results at a small cost and strengthen the centralization of power in the imperial court. Whether he supported Gao Zhao or abolished the system of "the death of the son and the noble mother", it was all for the needs of playing with power. However, the political tools of power rely on people to exist, and when people do not exist, the power of power is gone, and the effect of checks and balances disappears completely. The loss of the political ecology of checks and balances either caused the imperial court to gradually weaken in internal friction, or triggered round after round of political struggles, and eventually led to the end of the subjugation of the country, which was the development of the Northern Wei Dynasty.