In China's 5,000-year history, there have been many women doing politics, such as: Empress Xuan of the Qin State, Wu Zetian, and Lü Yan.
Empress Xuan was the mother of King Zhaoxiang of Qin. In the early days of King Zhaoxiang's reign, Empress Xuan took the throne as empress dowager, and during her reign, she attacked the State of Yiqu and destroyed the western plague of the Qin State in one fell swoop.
Wu Zetian was the only orthodox female emperor in Chinese history, and one of the oldest emperors to ascend to the throne (at the age of 67) and the longest-lived emperor (at the age of 82), and later she was called "Lu Wu" along with Lü Hou Lü of the Han Dynasty.
Wu Zetian
However, when it comes to Lü Yan, many people have a negative evaluation of her, and the most famous act is to mutilate "Lady Qi", and then in order to control the court, a large number of Korean ministers were killed, so later generations evaluated her as a woman with a "heart like a snake and scorpion".
However, when you read the history books carefully, you will find that she is a strange woman, because she is also a poor person who is forced by fate.
Still
Good nature, hard work and resentment
Lü Yan was born in the sixth year of the Reign of the Qin Dynasty (241 BC), and her formative years coincided with the unification of the world by the First Emperor, and in the year when the Qin State destroyed the State of Qi, her father moved to Pei County to avoid the enemy family. Because of the excellent relationship with PeiXian County, many people are obsessed with Lü Yan's father.
Although Xian Ling and Lü Yan's father are friends, but Xian Ling wants to hire Lü Yan as a wife, but his father refuses, because his father has the ability to "look at faces", he has always believed that women's faces are very expensive, and they want to marry nobles, so Lü Yan has no family until he is 20 years old.
At that time, Liu Bang was the chief of the pavilion in the county, belonging to the lowest level of officials in the Qin Dynasty, because he was lazy and lazy, did not have any savings, and did not marry a wife and have children in his 30s, but Lü Yan's father felt that Liu Bang was an extraordinary person and decided to marry his daughter Lü Yan to her.
Lü Yan was kind by nature, after marrying Liu Bang, his life plummeted, he never worried about eating and wearing before he got married, after getting married, Liu Bang cheated on eating and drinking all day long, and did not care about family affairs at all.
After marriage, Lü Yan had no complaints, worked hard and complained, not only farmed but also knitted clothes for the whole family, filial piety to Liu Bang's parents, raised Liu Bang's son Liu Fei, and then gave birth to a son and a daughter for Liu Bang, that is, the later Han Hui Emperor Liu Ying and Lu Yuanchang Princess.
I have to say that Lü Yan is definitely a good wife of virtuous and virtuous, and in the face of her prodigal son Liu Bang, she did not complain, but filial piety to her parents and educated her children.
More importantly, Liu Bang once escorted prisoners, because of drunkenness caused the prisoners to escape, in order to escape punishment, Liu Bang chose to flee to the swamp area under the Mangyan Mountain, at this time Lü Yan did not blame him, but supported the family alone, from time to time to send him clothes and food, this kind of wife is rare in the world.
Displaced and hostage
In 209 BC, Liu Bang gathered his brothers to revolt in Pei County, and after killing The County Commander, he chose to flee, completely ignoring Lü Yan, who was in charge of household chores, and the imperial court could not catch Liu Bang, so he arrested his family to atone for the crime, and Lü Yan was imprisoned. Fortunately, Liu Bang had many friends in Pei County, and under the mediation of these friends, Lü Yan saved his life.
In 206 BC, Liu Bang bowed to him because his military strength was inferior to Xiang Yu's, and Xiang Yu declared himself the King of Western Chu, while Liu Bang was made the King of Han, moved to Shuzhong, and detained Liu Bang's entire family in his own territory.
In 205 BC, Liu Bang took advantage of Xiang Yu's expedition to return to Pengcheng in one breath, but was defeated by Xiang Yu, although with the help of Lü Yan's eldest brother, many of Liu Bang's relatives were still brutally killed, and his wife Lü Yan was captured by Xiang Yu and spent 2 years as a hostage in Xiang Yu's military camp, and his son Liu Ying was sent to the rear of Han and made crown prince as the eldest son.
In 203 BC, Chu Han negotiated peace, Lü Yan was sent back to Han, after returning home, Lü Yan found that Liu Bang already had a favorite concubine Lady Qi around him, because he was old and faded, Liu Bang never looked at her squarely, nor did he care about the years of marital love, so all the grievances were broken and swallowed into the stomach.
The killing was decisive, relieving Liu Bang's worries
In 202 BC, Liu Bang ascended the throne as emperor and established the Han Dynasty, and Lü Yan became empress, she was also the first empress recorded in China, and Lady Qi became a concubine.
With the favor of Liu Bang, Lady Qi did not take Lü Yan in her eyes at all, and even coveted the throne of the Western Han Dynasty, and it was from this moment that Lü Yan began to become fierce.
Lü Yan experienced nine deaths in his life, and immediately contributed to the creation of the Han Dynasty for her husband, and it was normal for her son Liu Ying to become the heir, at this time, Lady Qi often blew the wind in her ears, so that Liu Bang said: "Liu Yingren is weak and not like me" as a reason, and wanted to change Lady Qi's son Liu Ruyi as the crown prince.
Even summoned several ministers to discuss the abolition of Liu Ying's position, although Lü Yan did not want to fight for anything, but as a mother he would never let people bully her son, when she learned that Zhou Chang and other ministers openly opposed Liu Bang in order to wrap up the position of Prince Liu Ying, Lü Yan was very touched in his heart and remembered this kindness in his heart, and finally Liu Bang could not change Liu Ruyi to be the crown prince.
After this incident, Lü Yan tasted the sweetness of power, and after that, he helped Liu Bang handle government affairs, and the first thing he did was to kill Peng Yue, the king of Liang, and Han Xin, the king of Chu.
These two were the most powerful of the marquises of the opposite sex, and liu bang could not defeat Xiang Yu without their help, so after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, they both wanted a piece of the pie.
Although they never broke with Liu Bang, the two were much younger than Liu Bang, so they were serious in Lü Lu, they belonged to the "strong warriors", if they had the opportunity in the future, they would definitely rebel, although Liu Bang saw through all this, he could not get his hands on it, because he did not want to bear the insult of indiscriminately killing heroes.
In the end, Lü Yan helped her solve this problem, so Peng Yue and Han Xin finally died at the hands of Lü Yan, and made meat into soup and gave it to the princes, and the kings were afraid. Of course, this also has some selfish intentions of Lü Yan, because she wants to clear all obstacles for her son Liu Ying.
Lü Yan took power alone and became "fierce and fierce"
In 195 BC, Liu Bang died, Liu Ying ascended the throne as emperor, and Lü Yan began to take sole power and became "fierce". According to the "Chronicle of History and Lü Hou Benji", "Filial piety and greeting, but knowing his wife, is weeping, because of illness, he cannot get up for more than a year." Ask the Empress Dowager, "This is not a human act." The subject is the empress dowager, and he will not be able to rule the world in the end. ”
After Lü Yan took sole power, he imprisoned Gao zu's favored concubines and was not allowed to leave the palace, while Bo Ji, because she rarely saw Gao Zu and was low-key, was able to leave the palace and follow her son to the daiguo.
Lady Zuo Qi, Right Bo Ji
Lady Qi was imprisoned in Yongxiang, shaving off her hair, tying her neck in an iron ring, putting on the prisoner's red clothes, and letting her scoop rice for hard labor. Lady Qi did not compromise, singing while scooping rice: "The son is the king, and the mother is the prisoner." Twilight all day long, often with death! Three thousand miles apart, when who makes the confession? ”
The meaning of these words was to let his son save her, Lü Yan was furious after hearing this, so he summoned Liu Ruyi, the King of Zhao, back to the palace to be killed, Lady Qi was cut off her hands and feet, deafened her ears, went out of her eyes, and then poisoned her with dumb medicine, which was thrown into the toilet, called "Ren Yan".
Liu Ying cried bitterly after seeing Lady Qi, believing that Lü Yan's approach was inhumane, so she was unwilling to deal with the government.
Slowly, Lü Yan began to become vicious, but Liu Ying's death still failed to wake her up, and as a woman, she was naturally crowned with a fierce notoriety.
In 188 BC, Liu Gong, the crown prince of Lü Yanli, became emperor himself, and during Lü Yan's reign, he exercised the authority of the emperor, and the imperial court orders were all issued by the empress dowager, who was the first person to rule the empress dowager.
In order to strengthen his rule, Lü Yan adopted the "rule of inaction" to consolidate the power of the Western Han Dynasty, and at the same time, he first attacked the princes and political opponents, reused his favored courtiers to interrogate him and the eunuch Zhang Qing, and then arranged his henchmen to make The son of Zhu Lü and the beauty of the harem he loved as the prince. Subsequently, she killed Liu You, the King of Zhao, and Liu Hui, the King of Liang, so as a woman, she was naturally crowned with a fierce reputation.
In 180 BC, Lü Yan fell seriously ill, but before his death, he still did not forget to consolidate the Lü clan. When she was critically ill, she ordered the appointment of her nephew Lü Lu the Prince of Zhao as a general to command the Northern Army, and Lü Chan to command the Southern Army. On August 1, Lü Yan fell ill and died at the age of sixty-two.
Portrait of Lü Yan
epilogue:
Lü Yan's reputation in history is not good, mainly because she monopolizes power and mutilates Lady Qi, but she is really helpless to do so, because these things have a cause, such as Lady Qi's mother and son, if they were safe, they would not end up like this.
However, from the perspective of the history of the Han Dynasty, Lü Yan's role cannot be ignored, and she can be called a great hero of the Han Dynasty, because she has always safeguarded the interests of her husband Liu Bang.
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