Empress Dowager Li Zu'e of Qi Zhaoxin ,born and died unknown, was a native of Bairen County, Zhao Commandery (赵郡, in present-day Longyao County, Hebei Province), empress dowager of Emperor Gao Yang of Northern Qi, the second daughter of Li Xizong of Shangdang Taishou, and her mother was Concubine Cui of Boling. Born in Zhao County, li clan, northern family. Rong De is very beautiful, gentle and lovely, talented and beautiful, and has become the pearl in the palm of his father Li Xizong.
When it comes to Northern Qi, everyone must think of those faint emperors, it was a dark dynasty, and the emperors of Northern Qi only knew that they were having fun, indulging in women's sex, and even doing a lot of absurd and unethical things
Li Zu'e, the empress dowager of the Northern Qi Wenxuan Emperor, had a tragic fate, probably unparalleled in history.
Li Zu'e was born beautiful, and the Northern History of Northern Qi called her "Rongde very beautiful". In the Qing Dynasty Goose Lake Yishi in the "Old Fox Talks about the Beauty of the Past Dynasties", Yun "Li Zu'e of gaohou is beautiful and brilliant... Qiu Bo is good at his eyes, and his divine light is moving", and his beauty is "unprecedented in ancient times, the so-called beauty of the ages", and Li Zu'e, together with Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Zhang Yan, and Zhang Baozhu, is called the real "five beauties" in Chinese history. Li Zu'e's parents are very fond of Li Zu'e, so she has lived a superior, carefree and docile personality since she was a child, which is the envy of future generations.
Because of Li Zu'e's beauty and extraordinary intelligence, she was favored by Gao Huan and wanted to be promised to her son, Li Zu'e's father's official position was not as high as that of Xiang Xiang, and his power was not large, in order to protect the interests of the family, she had to marry her daughter to Gao Yang, the son of Gao Huan.
Gao Yang looks ugly, "black, big cheeks, scales" ("Beishi Gao Yang Benji"), dark skin, crooked features, and full of psoriasis that will fall off the slag when touched. In fact, Li Zu'e was reluctant to marry Gao Yang at that time, but only forced by the power of the Gao family to agree to this marriage, perhaps this is the fate, Li Zu'e's misfortune began from this moment.
At the beginning of their marriage, the husband and wife loved each other, and Li Zu'e gave birth to two sons, Gao Yin and Gao Shaode, for Gao Yang. At that time, the chancellor Gao Huan was preparing for the usurpation of power, and he paid great attention to wooing the powerful people of Hebei, such as the Li clan of Zhao County, the Lu clan of Fanyang, the Cui clan of Boling, and the Feng clan of Bohai, all of whom served as high-ranking officials in the court. Therefore, Li Zu'e, who was born in the Li clan of Zhao County, was also highly favored.
It's just that the happy time is always so hurried, just when Li Zu'e is enjoying the nourishment of love, Gao Yang's brother Gao Cheng suddenly has evil thoughts about her.
Gao Cheng is Gao Huan's son and the successor to the future throne. He was highly capable, and was repeatedly entrusted by his father with the heavy responsibility of staying in Yecheng and acting as an agent of the government. However, his personality is also extremely strong, and he often satirizes several younger brothers, especially Gao Yangyi. Gao Yang did not dare to offend his eldest brother, and could only go against the grain and let Gao Cheng bully him. What Gao Yang didn't expect was that the eldest brother bullied himself and actually extended his evil hand to his sister-in-law.
Poor Lee was violated. Gao Yang was greatly insulted by this, but he could only knock out his teeth and swallow in his stomach, neither daring to speak up nor to complain to his father. Li Zu'e has no husband to be the master, and she can only be at the mercy of a female Taoist family.
After Gao Huan's death, The son Gao Cheng succeeded to the throne, but unfortunately, an unexpected incident at that time allowed Gao Yang to take over the position of eldest brother. This historical event is the "Dongtang Assassination" incident. Overnight, Takashi and several of his courtiers were killed by the Assassins.
Gao Yang saw the opportunity and quickly intervened, and in May of the first year of Tianbao (550), he forced the Eastern Wei Emperor Yuan Shan to see the throne and establish Northern Qi.
According to the situation at that time, at the beginning of the new northern Qi regime, the political situation was not stable enough, and a powerful force was very much needed to consolidate imperial power. Duan (Duan Zhaoyi) was born into a humble nobleman, his father Duan Rong was a close comrade-in-arms of Gao Huan, his mother was the sister of Empress Dowager Lou Zhaojun, his brother Duan Shao was also the King of Pingyuan, the Assassin of Jizhou, Sikong, and Lu Shangshu, and Duan himself was "talented and beautiful", and had a very good relationship with Gao Yang, and was the best candidate to be an empress. Under such circumstances, Gao Yang insisted on establishing Li Zu'e, a Han Chinese, and it should be said that he attached great importance to the feeling of hair knotting.
As we all know, Gao Yang was also a very cruel and wild emperor, especially in his later years, he was drunk, insane, and often beat and scolded harem concubines, "the emperor is good at beating concubines, and even there are killers", but Li Zu'e is "exclusively respectful".
In order to make Li Zu'e happy, Gao Yang often "jumped and jumped", and even "only slept with the back, and the attendants were ordered to go out" ("Northern History Gao Yang Benji"). In the tenth year of Tianbao (559), Gao Yang, who was slightly more sober, had a whim and renamed Li Zu'e "Empress Kehedun". "Kehedun" or "Kedun" is the title given to the empress by ethnic minorities such as Tuguhun, Turkic, and Huihun.
Gao Yang called the emperor faint, drunk all day, addicted to women, recruited a large number of beautiful women into the palace, Gao Yang hated betrayal very much, he once liked a concubine Xue Concubine, but when he was drunk, he remembered that Xue Concubine and Gao Yue had an ambiguity, so he whipped Xue Concubine to death, even if Li Zu'e Gui was an empress, there was no way to take Gao Yang, Li Zu'e and Gao Yang had two sons, Gao Yang drank and indulged in women's body getting worse and worse all day, and finally could not hold on.
There is a way that there is no blessing, and there is no single line of misfortune. Before Li Zu'e could figure out what "Empress Kehe Dun" meant, Emperor Wenxuan Gao Yang finally died because of his indulgence.
In October of the tenth year of Tianbao (559), crown prince Gao Yin succeeded to the throne, Li Zu'e became the empress dowager, and Gao Yang's mother Lou Zhaojun became the empress dowager. Empress Dowager Tai's power in the dynasty was far greater than that of Li Zu'e, the empress dowager, and Lou Zhaojun had several of Gao Yan and Gao Zhan's own sons, and Gao Yin's throne was in jeopardy.
Li Zu'e found several trusted ministers in the court and discussed deposing the empress dowager Lou Zhaojun, ruling by the empress dowager Li Zu'e, transferring Gao Yan and Gao Zhan away from the imperial court to empty the power of the two kings, and then trying to kill them. The news quickly reached Lou Zhaojun, who was furious, "How can we mother and son be at the mercy of this Han family woman?"
Lou Zhaojun took swift action, and Gao Yin was deposed as the king of Jinan, expelled from the palace, and Gao Yan became the emperor of Northern Qi. There is no affection in front of the right, the uncle did not spare the nephew in the end, and Gao Yin was quickly killed. Li Zu'e moved to Zhaoxin Palace, with the title of Empress Zhaoxin to taste the pain of losing her son alone.
Gao Yan had only been emperor for two years, when he had an accident during a hunt, fell from his horse and was seriously injured, and his treatment was ineffective, and he died soon after. Under the auspices of Lou Zhaojun, Gao Zhan succeeded to the throne and became the new Emperor of Northern Qi. Gao Zhan's crown princess Hu Shi of Changguang was made empress as an empress as a sign of grace, but Empress Hu's palace was empty, because Gao Zhan spent the night in the Zhaoxin Palace of his sister-in-law Li Zu'e.
Originally, Li Zu'e, in view of her uncle's name, strongly refused Gao Zhan's non-share request, but Gao Zhan's words made her give up resistance, "Do you still want your son to live?" Li Zu'e only has the last son, Gao Shaode, who is her dependence and hope for the second half of her life, without a son, she has nothing.
As a result, Li Zu'e was forced to submit to Gao Zhan and became his de facto concubine. After that, Gao Zhan came here almost night and night, and linxing sister-in-law, a stunning beauty, was boundless in spring. Not long after, Li Zu'e became pregnant, and her stomach swelled day by day, and she gradually became unable to move. For this nameless child in her belly, Li Zu'e was both shocked and afraid.
She couldn't leave the door behind closed doors all day, and she didn't allow anyone else to step into the Zhaoxin Palace. Gao Shaode missed his mother and went to visit, but was stopped outside the palace gate by the guards. The son could not understand his mother's distress, and stood outside the palace door and shouted loudly, "Doesn't the son know that the mother's belly is big, so she refuses to see her son." Li Zu'e was ashamed and embarrassed, and couldn't help but burst into tears.
Li Zu'e and Gao Zhan's daughter were born, and the history books record that Li Zu'e "did not give birth to a daughter", and this baby girl was probably strangled to death by Li Zu'e. When Gao Zhan heard the news, he was furious like a lion, and he did not expect that this docile woman would dare to kill her own daughter.
He immediately asked someone to escort Gao Shaode to the Zhaoxin Palace, and in front of Li Zu'e, he screamed in a hoarse voice, "If you dare to kill my daughter, I will kill your son", and beat Gao Shaode to death with the handle of the knife on the spot. When Gao Zhan heard Li Zu'e's cries, he was even more enraged, and he stripped Li Zu'e of clothes and beat her naked body with a whip, making her flesh and blood blurry, screaming bitterly, and passing out on the ground.
Gao Zhan asked someone to put her into a silk bag and throw her into a ditch, and the silk bag was stained with blood by Li Zu'e. After a long time, Li Zu'e woke up, and at this time, she was already in despair.
The palace ladies put medicine on Li Zu'e and sent her out of the palace in an ox cart, and Li Zu'e entered the Miaosheng Temple to become a nun. More than ten years later, Northern Zhou destroyed Northern Qi, and Li Zu'e was still captured to Northern Zhou as a member of the Northern Qi imperial family.
Later, the Sui Dynasty was established, and Li Zu'e was able to return to her hometown of Zhao County. Since then, there has been no record of her in the history books.
"Unfortunately, he was born in the Ji Dynasty, and married into the rude family of the Gao clan, and was insulted and humiliated, almost to the point of being crippled by jade and flowers."
These words can be said to be a summary of the life of this short-lived woman. Born to be precious, worthy of being an empress, and knowing that it is a blessing? Li Zu'e's suffering, this is exactly the sentence: since ancient times, the red face has a thin life. Pathetic, deplorable!