In history, a monarch had a number of wives, which first appeared in the distant Three Emperors and Five Emperors period, and it was rumored that Yao would marry two daughters, Emperor E and Lady Ying, to Emperor Shun. But since the Chinese civilization was finalized in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the monogamous system has begun, after all, there is the sun and moon in the sky, and there is yin and yang in the earth, so an emperor generally corresponds to an empress, of course, there are also empresses who marry the queen after the death of the previous empress, in short, in the general time unit, there is only one emperor and one empress.
Of course, there are exceptions, there are more common dynasties in history where the Yuan Dynasty is the empress and the empress, but this is only because the Mongols pay attention to tribal alliances, so they do not deliberately pursue the empress coexistence, in fact, only the great empress can be called the queen in the conventional form, and other empresses are similar to the concubines at other times.
Therefore, in ancient Chinese history, in the vast majority of the same time unit, the emperor and the empress corresponded one-to-one. However, there are no absolutes in everything, and traditional rules are often used to break, especially before the Southern Song Dynasty, when the science of science was not yet flourishing, many times, traditional ideas could not bind the emperor's thoughts and greed, especially in the face of some ethnic minority emperors, the traditional Chinese concept seemed to be difficult to play a role.
Therefore, there are some chaotic kings who can break all the conventions and do things that you did not expect, and many jaw-dropping absurd stories also happened in this period, and the stories we are going to tell today are mostly happening in the chaotic world. Next, let's briefly understand the anecdotes that have seen "multiple" queens stand side by side in history.
1. Liu Cong's "three queens stand side by side"
Liu Cong, the third emperor of the Han Zhao regime, for such a minority emperor who existed between the chaotic worlds, it is difficult to evaluate him with a simple comment, in short, his private life is very chaotic, as the king of a country may not be very good, but he has a very good achievement. First of all, it can be said that Liu Cong is both literate and martial, Xiao Yong is good at war, can open three hundred pounds of bows, and then like his father, he is very cultured and familiar with the history of the Scriptures.
Liu Cong had a lot of political skill, and in his early years he led the army to fight everywhere, and made great military achievements, and after the death of his father Liu Yuan, Liu Cong, in an extremely passive situation, rebelled and deposed Liu He, the second emperor of Han Zhao, and established himself as emperor. During his reign, he also made great achievements and vigorously expanded the territory of the territory.
Three months after Liu Cong ascended the throne, he immediately marched south, attacked the Western Jin capital Luoyang in one fell swoop, captured Emperor Huai of Jin and Empress Yang, and transferred them and the Six Seals of chuanguo to Pingyang, and the Han Zhao regime has since grasped the overall initiative in the strategy of the remnants of the Western Jin Dynasty, and then swept Hebei, attacked Jianghuai, and at the same time focused on attacking Guanzhong, with the intention of capturing Guanzhong in one fell swoop, taking Chang'an, and destroying the western Jin Dynasty.
In 316, after 6 years of repeated attacks, Liu Yao's army of Han Zhao finally broke through the western Jin dynasty's defensive line, defeated the reinforcements from all over the place that came to support, and then took advantage of the victory to capture Chang'an, and with the surrender of The Jin Emperor, Liu Cong finally destroyed the Western Jin dynasty. Since then, Liu Cong's Han Zhao regime can barely be regarded as unifying the north, of course, There are other separatist forces in Liangzhou and Youzhou. However, because of some absurd measures by Liu Cong, coupled with the failure to control liu yao and Shi Le, the two great princes, laid a deep hidden danger for the decline of Han Zhao.
Next, we talk about Liu Cong's harem story, Liu Cong's life, counting the empresses who are posthumous, there are a total of ten, and Liu Cong has been emperor for a total of eight years, which is also a big name in history. Counting Liu Cong's successive empresses, the most famous of which is naturally the Wuxuan Empress Liu E, since 312, after the death of Liu Cong's original consort Empress Huyan, Liu Cong's two daughters, Liu E and Liu Ying, were included in the harem, and then Liu Yin's four granddaughters were also included in the harem as nobles. Among them, Liu EXianming, after the death of the second empress Zhang Huiguang, was made empress.
Liu E was able to persuade the grumpy Liu Cong, and also to make Liu Cong humbly accept advice, and was able to persuade Liu Cong to confess his mistake to the loyal minister Chen Yuanda, but the so-called red face and thin life, this gentle and understanding of the overall situation of the empress, in 314 AD, the nineteenth day of the first month, Liu E was in labor, unfortunately gave birth to two freaks in human form, so she died in fright. With the death of Liu E, Liu Cong completely released himself, and the harem has been in chaos ever since.
In the later period of his reign, that is, in 315 AD, Liu Cong's harem had a unique situation of "three queens standing side by side" in history, of course, Liu Cong's record would be broken by another absurd emperor two hundred and fifty years later. After Empress Liu's death, Liu Cong overheard rumors that "all the colors of the country are in Jin Province", and Jin referred to Jin Zhun, the chancellor of Han Zhao, so he disregarded his status as emperor and personally ran to Jin Zhun's mansion to look for Fang, and then he looked at Jin Zhun's two daughters, the eldest daughter Jin Yueguang and the second daughter Jin Yuehua, and immediately entered the harem.
The eldest daughter Jin Yueguang was soon crowned empress, but Jin Yueguang's personality was far inferior to that of the deceased Empress Liu, and she soon fell out of favor, and Jin Yueguang had a grudge in her heart, so she often had an affair with the beautiful teenager, and was discovered by Liu Cong and deposed as a shuren, and then committed suicide.
However, the reason why Liu Cong snubbed Jin Yueguang was because there were two other beautiful people around him, one was Jin Yueguang's sister, Jin Yuehua, and the other was the favorite concubine Liu Shi. Shortly after Jin Yueguang was made empress, Liu Congli established Jin Yuehua as the right empress, Liu Shi as the left empress, and Jin Yueguang as the upper empress, so there was a rare parallel establishment of the three queens in history.
In the last moments of Liu Cong's reign, Liu Cong also added the position of empress dowager, indulged in the beauty of the harem for many years, and eventually emptied Liu Cong's body, and finally the tianzi who was brave and good at war in the early years died of illness in July of the 318 lunar calendar after eight years of becoming emperor.
2. Yuwen Yun "five queens stand side by side"
If you evaluate the most absurd emperor in history, you may have their own opinions, but if you add one, then Yuwen Yun will definitely be able to be selected into the ranks. Originally, I thought that Liu Cong's "three queens standing side by side" was enough to expanse the ancient Shuojin, but the Northern Zhou Xuan Emperor Yuwen Yun said no to this, and during his reign, a "five queens standing side by side" was completely produced, which stunned the history of China in one fell swoop.
Yuwen Yun, the most absurd emperor in the history of Northern Zhou, was also the key emperor of Northern Zhou who was finally stolen by others, and the demise of Northern Zhou was largely due to his one-way theosophical operation. Yuwen Yun was born in 559, when northern Zhou had just been established, the power was still in the hands of Yuwen Hu, the emperor was Yuwen Yu, and his father Yuwen Yong was only the Duke of Lu.
His birth may have brought good luck to his father Yuwen Yong, and in 560 Yuwen Hu killed Yuwen Yu, who was trying to rule, and established Yuwen Yong as emperor, and Yuwen Yun, who was originally only a member of the clan, became the crown prince. However, this prince of his was not sitting peacefully and steadily, although his father was named emperor, but everyone in the whole world knew that power was in the hands of Yuwen Hu, Yuwen Yong was just a puppet, if he did not obey, he could be killed at any time.
In this way, Xiao Yuwen Yun stayed up with his father for twelve years, and finally dressed as a pig and ate a tiger successfully, Yuwen Yong killed the power minister Yuwen Hu, and for many years his daughter-in-law became a wife, and finally became the actual power holder of Northern Zhou. In the following six years, Yuwen Yong exerted great efforts to rectify the rule of officials, develop agriculture, and enrich the armament, and finally in 577 AD, he destroyed the powerful Northern Qi in one fell swoop and unified the north.
For the sake of the long-term peace and stability of the empire, Yuwen Yong attached great importance to the cultivation of his son Yuwen Yun, and under strict discipline since childhood, coupled with the pressure given by Yuwen Hu when he was young, it is conceivable that Yuwen Yun was not free from childhood to adulthood, so there is a certain reason for retaliatory play after he took the throne.
On the occasion of Yuwen Yong's army expedition to Northern Qi, in order to stabilize Tuguhun in the rear, Yuwen Yong sent Yuwen Yun to inspect the western border, maintaining the tranquility of the western frontier, and at the same time making Yuwen Yun show his face in front of the group of courtiers. Every time Yuwen Yun made a mistake, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou beat him with sticks and whips, and arranged for someone to monitor Yuwen Yun's daily behavior, and if he neglected him, he would be punished.
However, the wise Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong did not think that things would be reversed. Yuwen Yun's nature was not changed by Yuwen Yong, but after being suppressed for too long, it exploded in one concentrated manner, and it only took two years to defeat everything that Yuwen Yong had accumulated for nearly twenty years. Next, let's talk about the marriage history of this absurd emperor and see what his "five queens stand side by side" is all about.
As early as Yuwen Yun was 14 years old, in order to marry politically, Yuwen Yong personally selected a crown princess for him, that is, Yang Lihua, the eldest daughter of Yang Jian, the Duke of Sui. The ancestor of the Yang clan was a general of the Western Wei Dynasty and had a considerable position in the dynasty, and Yuwen Yun relied on this political resource to sit firmly on the throne of the crown prince.
However, Yuwen Yun may not have liked the crown princess too much, so after Yuwen Yong's death, since Yuwen Yun successfully ascended the throne, he immediately began to indulge in wine, overhaul the palace, and recruit beautiful women into the palace. A year and a half after his ascension to the throne, that is, in 579, in order to better enjoy himself, Yuwen Yun passed the nominal throne to his son Yuwen Yan, who changed his name to Yuwen Yan after taking the throne, proclaimed himself Emperor Tianyuan, sat in the harem to have fun, but also led all the power of the government, leaving Yu Wenyan's staff responsible for doing things.
At the same time, Yuwen Yun further recruited the world's show girls into the palace, Yang Lihua was the Empress of Tianyuan, Li Zhu Wasyue the Empress of Heaven, and the concubine Yuan Leshang was the Empress of Tianyou, and Chen Yueyi was the Empress of Tianzuo, so there was a situation of the famous four queens in history, and then Yuwen Yun would break this record again.
In 580, Yuwen Yun, who was already suffering from heavy suffering, still did not let go of his heart of wine, and once again on the way to death, he did not hesitate, and made Yang Lihua the Grand Empress of Tianyuan, Zhu Manyue the Empress of Tianyuan, Yuan Leshang the Empress of Tianyou, Chen Yueyi the Empress of Tianzuo, and the concubine Wei Chifan (Wei Chijiong's granddaughter) the Grand Empress of Tianzhong. Then, there was the only situation in history of the "five queens standing side by side", fortunately this situation was soon ended, because the absurd Yuwen Yun fell ill and died two months later, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty also came to an end here.