In April of the 23rd year of Taihe (499), Crown Prince Yuan Ke saw the coffin of his father Emperor Xiaowen at the Palace of Luyang, and then proclaimed the throne with the support of his courtiers.
The courtiers were Emperor Xiaowen on the temple number Gaozu, nicknamed Emperor Xiaowen, and later generations habitually called Emperor Xiaowen, but the temple name Gaozu was rarely used, and gaozu was only called Gaozu in the history books.
In history, there are only a few people who can get the number of Gaozu Temple, and we are familiar with the Han Gaozu Liu Bang, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, the Later Jin Dynasty Gaozu Shi Jingyao, and the Later Han Gaozu Liu Zhiyuan, these Gaozu are all founding kings. Emperor Xiaowen was already the sixth emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it was indeed not simple to get this temple name with full gold content, and it could also be seen that he had a lofty position in the hearts of the northern Wei subjects.
Emperor Xiaowen's coffin arrived in Luoyang for a month and was buried at Changling (長陵, in present-day Mengjin District, Luoyang, Henan) on mount Yaoshan in the northwest of the city.
The death of Emperor Xiaowen also means that the "era of Emperor Xiaowen" of Jin Ge iron horse and full of vigor slowly came to an end, thus opening the "post-Xiaowen Emperor era". The Northern Wei And even the Northern and Southern Dynasties turned a new page.
Throughout Emperor Xiaowen's short life of 33 years, it is as if a dazzling meteor illuminates the dark night sky of the north and south dynasties, leaving a moment of light and fleeting. Before anyone could see him clearly, he had disappeared into the night sky of history, leaving only the elegant lines of the yellowed annals of history to prove that he had come.
Both the Book of Wei and the History of the North praised Emperor Xiaowen and praised him.
Indeed, Emperor Xiaowen's generosity, benevolence, simplicity, love for the people, diligence, studiousness, and enlightenment are all worth mentioning, and are rare in the history of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and even in Chinese history.
Emperor Xiaowen was worthy of the filial piety in his title, and he not only respected his father Emperor Wen, but even fulfilled the filial piety of the son of man to Empress Feng who wanted to depose him several times. A eunuch once reported to the empress dowager that he had beaten him, and the empress dowager beat him dozens of boards in anger. Emperor Xiaowen did not defend himself, but endured in silence, and after the death of the empress dowager, Emperor Xiaowen did not settle accounts after the autumn.
The Southern and Northern Dynasties were an era of tyrant murderers in Chinese history, liu yu, Liu Ziye, Xiao Luan, Xiao Baojuan, Gao Yang, Gao Zhan, and Gao Wei were all famous demon heads and evil people, notorious for their fame (of course, they were infamous), and Emperor Xiaowen was obviously an outlier.
How good is Emperor Xiaowen's temper?
Once, the attendant brought him hot soup and accidentally spilled it on Emperor Xiaowen's hand, and Emperor Xiaowen did not get angry, nor did he punish the man, and did not care. Another time, Emperor Xiaowen ate a small bug during dinner, which had to change the aforementioned demon heads, and the unlucky eggs in the imperial dining room were probably going to raid the family and exterminate the clan.
What was Emperor Xiaowen's reaction?
History writes four words:
Laugh and forgive. - "Northern History • Wei Benji III"
Smiling and forgiving them, this bosom was truly unique in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
After Emperor Xiaowen took over the government, he got up early every day and was greedy, and everything had to be done personally, and when he went out on the expedition, Emperor Xiaowen always minimized the use of people's power and tried not to toss the people. During the northern tour, the relevant departments asked migrant workers to build roads and bridges to open roads for car drivers, but Emperor Xiaowen was not allowed to do so, saying that it was simple to repair a convenient road and build a pontoon bridge, and the cars and horses could pass. Don't build a lot of civil engineering, let alone disturb the people.
During the Southern Expedition, the Wei army used wood to build cars, horses, or ordnance, shipbuilding and building houses, and Emperor Xiaowen clearly stipulated that money or silk must be given to cut down the trees of the people, and it was strictly forbidden to requisition them free of charge, and it was strictly forbidden for war horses to trample on the people's crops. Knowing all this, it is not difficult to understand why after the death of Emperor Xiaowen, the common people will be like a mourner, grief-stricken, this is the intimate person of the masses.
After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang, the degree of sinicization of the emperor was very high, and Emperor Xiaowen was a leader, he loved to read from an early age, did not release the scrolls every day, read Confucian classics, and was proficient in the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In the days of foreign conquests, edicts would often be issued on the way to the march, and Emperor Xiaowen rode on a horse to dictate, record the notes of his subjects, take it back to look at it, and not a word was modified, and it was directly issued, which showed the depth of his literary skills.
Almost all of the edicts ten years later by Taihe were drafted by Emperor Xiaowen himself, and at that time he wrote more than a hundred articles, and for a time Luoyang paper was expensive and rushed to copy them.
The Xianbei people who founded the Northern Wei Dynasty originally lived deep in the Daxing'an Mountains in the northeast, and in order to survive, the nomadic people particularly emphasized the proficiency of bow horses and horses, and riding archery was the foundation of the country. The emperors of the early Northern Wei Dynasty were all ma tianzi, shangma ruling the army, dismounting ma anmin, multi-functional construction, and Emperor Xiaowen was no exception.
It is very appropriate to describe Emperor Xiaowen with Nengwen Nengwu, who is not only a Han culture expert, but also a warrior with super strong martial value, as early as he was ten years old, he could gallop on horseback, pull a bow and shoot arrows, and have the style of ancestors. Every time he hunted Emperor Xiaowen, he returned with a full load, and after he was fifteen years old, he suddenly announced that he would stop hunting and stop killing, which may be related to Emperor Xiaowen's deep influence in Buddhism.
"By the fifteenth, there will be no more killing, and the shooting and hunting will cease."
Looking at the twelve emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen undoubtedly ranked among the best in his treatises on martial arts, on the degree of Sinicization, on his personal conduct, and on his constitutional achievements. His 28 years on the throne were also the 28 years when northern Wei reached its peak.
Emperor Xiaowen, who had been worried all his life, was still worried before his death, what was he worried about? Worry about whether the prince is young and can calm the field.
In order to prevent the situation of monopoly of foreign relatives due to the young age of the prince, he specially arranged two measures:
First, give the death of Empress Feng and cut off the hidden dangers of harem interference;
Second, he appointed Six people, namely Wang Yuanxi of Xianyang, Wang Yuanxi of Beihai, Wang Yuanjia of Guangyang, Wang Yuancheng of Rencheng, Wang Su of Zhennan, and Song Mu of Shangshu, as auxiliary ministers, in an attempt to suppress foreign forces with the six elders.
The children of the six elders accounted for four people, and it was not difficult to see that Emperor Xiaowen had great expectations for his brothers. After the arrangements were made, Emperor Xiaowen secretly handed over a secret message to the sixth brother, Wang Yuanxun of Pengcheng, and told him to open it at a critical juncture.
It is said that Emperor Xiaowen arranged it carefully enough, but unfortunately it was still a hundred secrets, and everything was thought of, but he did not consider what Prince Yuanke thought.
Yuan Ke was the second son of Emperor Xiaowen, and his mother Washig Gao, who was later posthumously honored as Empress Wenzhao and buried northwest of Changling. Originally, Yuan Ke was not eligible for the throne, because his birth mother Lady Gao was only a concubine of Emperor Xiaowen and had never been favored.
Emperor Xiaowen had made his concubine Yuan Ke the crown prince very early, and Yuan Ke was ready to become a rich prince, and people were not as good as heavenly calculations, and in the twentieth year of Taihe, the crown prince Yuan Ke plotted to defect and was deposed as a Shuren and died in Heyang, only 16 years old.
Yuan Ke was replaced as the crown prince in order, he learned the lessons of the eldest brother, followed the steps of Emperor Xiaowen, raised his hands in approval, what you say is what, I completely agree. Moreover, Yuan Ke itself is also very sinicized, which is not the same as Yuan Ke, who is full of hu.
"Ya loves the history of the scriptures, especially the righteousness of the Long Interpretation, and forgets to talk about it all night long." - Wei Shu SejongJi
Yuan Ke loved the Four Books and Five Classics, especially good at Buddhist texts, and every time he preached the sutras and propagated the Dharma, he stayed up all night, without any tiredness, and really had his father and his son.
After Lu Yang ascended the throne, Yuan Ke announced that he would not be pro-government for the time being, and that the six auxiliary ministers would handle government affairs, pardon the world, and change yuan Jingming. Yuan Ke's temple name was Sejong, the courtesy name Xuanwu Emperor, so later generations customarily called him Xuanwu Emperor.
After escorting Emperor Xiaowen's coffin back to Luoyang for a month, he was officially buried in the Changling Tomb of Mount Yao on the northwestern outskirts of the city. As the ancestor of the southern migration, Emperor Xiaowen's Changling also became a sacred place in the hearts of the Xianbei people who migrated south, and the northern Wei princes and ministers, dignitaries, sons of the clan and even palace eunuchs who died later were buried near Changling. With the Changling As the core, it is distributed radially, and a large group of Northern Wei tombs appears on the slopes of the mountains on both sides of the Ying River.
However, due to the change of years, the vicissitudes of the sea and the mulberry field, more than a thousand years later, the location of the Changling Tomb of Emperor Xiaowen was actually unclear, and the large and small tombs on the mountain did not have any ground text marks, and it was difficult to confirm which was the Changling.
It was not until 1948 that the tomb of Empress Wenzhao Gao Zhaorong was unearthed in a small tomb southeast of Guanzhuang Village on Mount Gao, which clearly recorded that Empress Wenzhao was buried one hundred and fifty steps northwest of Gaozu Changling, which determined that the large tomb next to the small tomb was emperor Xiaowen's long mausoleum.
The location of the Changling Tomb was determined, which provided an important reference for determining the location information of the Northern Wei tombs on the Mountain, and later confirmed the identity of the tomb owners of a large number of Northern Wei tombs.
After more than a thousand years of ups and downs, now the tall Changling Tomb and the shorter Empress Wenzhao Mausoleum, one large and one small mausoleum still stand on the mountain on the shore of the Ying River, witnessing the flow of the long river of history and the changes of the years. Seeing this two mausoleums, one large and one small, and then thinking about the two mausoleums on the Square Mountain of Pingcheng, many things were figured out in an instant, and all the doubts were solved.
Looking back, Emperor Xuanwu received a large gift package as soon as he took the throne, which made him feel excited and shoot the case. So what kind of good news is this?