He was one of the most pampered emperors of the Song Dynasty, and was a superb "wife and strict management".
After becoming the crown prince, he did not ascend the throne for more than ten years, and could only cry to his father and emperor to imply that his beard was white.
Soon after, he did ascend the throne smoothly, but even so, he still did not get rid of the fate of "strict wife control", but under the "scourge" of the empress, he suffered from serious mental illness, and finally was deposed by his "grandmother".
Who is this "Emperor of the Nest"?
What did he go through?
This "Emperor Wo Nang" was named Zhao Huan (dūn), the third emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Song Guangzong. After becoming the crown prince, Zhao Huan suffered for more than ten years, until he was more than 40 years old, and finally became the emperor as he wished. This was not because his father, Emperor Xiaozong of Song, hated him, on the contrary, Song Xiaozong was quite partial to Zhao.
Zhao Huan was the third son of Song Xiaozong, and after the death of his eldest brother, who was originally the crown prince, Song Xiaozong skipped the second son and directly made his third son Zhao Huan, who was 25 years old, the crown prince.
Song Xiaozong felt that this heroic son was very similar to himself, and often praised Zhao Xiong: "The prince's qualifications are very beautiful. ”
But life after becoming a prince was not good. On the surface, it seems that the prince holds a high degree of power and incomparable honor, but at the same time he will also become the target of everyone, not only will he be targeted by the malicious forces of all sides, but also afraid to do things.
If you are more active, you will be suspected whether you have bad intentions and want to get into office as soon as possible. However, if you are not active enough, you will be criticized for not being able to do enough, unable to take on big responsibilities, and encountering strong competitors.
After Zhao Huan became the crown prince, he suffered for more than ten years, from a young man to a middle-aged man, but his father Emperor Xiaozong of Song was in good health and showed no sign of abdication.
One day, Zhao Wei looked in the mirror to tidy up his appearance, and suddenly found that not only his sideburns were frosted, but even his beard was white. He was already old, although you were the prince, cautious in his words and deeds for so many years, he had not made any mistakes, and the throne, which was obviously only one step away, was always far away.
The father and emperor are so old, their health is still very good, and after he enters middle age, he is not as good as the father and emperor, it is really unclear whether he can survive to the end. This made Zhao Huan feel emotional and anxious, so he decided to take advantage of the fact that one day when he entered the palace to ask his father for peace, he turned around and reminded his father.
On this day, Zhao Huan plucked up his courage and went into the palace to greet Song Xiaozong as usual, and then sat down to chat with his father and emperor. Song Xiaozong liked this son very much, and of course he was willing to talk to him for a while.
When the atmosphere was just right, Zhao Huan pretended to be casual, held up his beard and sighed with his father: "You see, erchen's beard has turned white, not long ago someone sent a beard-dyeing potion to erchen, but Erchen didn't dare to use it." ”
Song Xiaozong also served as a prince and became an emperor for so many years, where can not hear his son's unspoken meaning. Thinking that he loved this son so much, Zhao Huan only wanted him to abdicate quickly, and Song Xiaozong was very dissatisfied in his heart, so he replied in a somewhat sarcastic tone: "Isn't it very good that a white beard can show the world that your old age is heavy?" Where do you need to use the medicine to dye your beard! ”
Zhao Huan realized that his father was angry, and his heart was annoyed and regretful, and he did not dare to show it on the surface, so he had to retreat as usual.
However, after this, Zhao Wei did not wait too long.
Emperor Xiaozong of Song's adoptive father, Emperor Gaozong of Song, died of illness. As a stepson, Song Xiaozong had always been grateful and dependent on Song Gaozong, and he had always respected "filial piety", and after Song Gaozong's death, Song Xiaozong decided to serve him for 3 years, so he began to let the crown prince Zhao Wei participate in politics.
At the same time, Jin Shizong, who was regarded as a fierce enemy by Song Xiaozong, also died. From the time Song Xiaozong took the throne, he had always thought about the Northern Expedition, but unfortunately it failed later. He reigned with Kim Sejong almost at the same time, and both sought to be strong, which was considered to be a lifelong enemy.
Now that Kim Sejong is dead, Song Xiaozong has lost the object of the snow shame, and a sense of loss has emerged in his heart. In addition, Song Xiaozong also knew that Zhao Xiaozong was not young, and he still wanted to succeed to the throne, and during the mourning period for Emperor Gaozong of Song, Song Xiaozong considered it for a long time, and finally decided to give the throne in advance, so that Zhao Xiaozong could fulfill his wish.
Zhao Huan endured for many years, and finally ascended the throne as he wished, for Song Guangzong.
After Song Guangzong became emperor, his life was very comfortable for the first time, but this happiness did not last long.
Song Guangzong has always had mental illness and his psychological state is not stable. After succeeding to the throne, his condition was intermittent and capricious, and sometimes he could not even handle the government normally. This made his empress Li Fengniang very happy.
Li Fengniang's father, Li Dao, was an envoy of the Qingyuan Army and was an important military force relied on by the Southern Song Dynasty at that time. And Li Fengniang, this woman is also very unusual, when she was young, she was calculated by the Taoist Emperor Fu Zhenren to have an "empress life". Emperor Gaozong of Song, who was still alive at the time, that is, Song Guangzong's grandfather, personally protected Zhao Huan and asked him to marry Li Fengniang.
Li Fengniang's style is very fierce, and she is jealous by nature, and does not allow any woman to compete with her for favors, often telling Song Gaozong and Song Xiaozong that the people around Song Guangzong are not, so that Song Guangzong is afraid of her.
Once, Song Guangzong washed his hands in the harem, and the palace maid who served him gave birth to a pair of white and delicate jade hands, which made Song Guangzong can't help but look at it a few more times, and casually praised it as beautiful.
Who knows, this matter will soon be known to Empress Li Fengniang. She asked someone to deliver a food box to Song Guangzong, and Song Guangzong opened the food box without any defense, but found that the box contained not food, but the hand of the palace girl.
Such a "broken hand in a golden box" incident deeply frightened Song Guangzong, who was already in a very poor mental state, and he was directly frightened into nightmares.
Later, Li Fengniang also took advantage of song Guangzong's outskirts to stay in the palace, and asked people to kill the much-loved Huang Guifei.
This Huang Guifei was given by Emperor Gaozong of Song when he was still the crown prince, and accompanied Song Guangzong for many years, which was very unusual for Song Guangzong. Even so, Li Fengniang still said that killing would kill, knowing that Song Guangzong would not believe her words afterwards, but also lied that Huang Guifei died of a violent illness.
When Song Guangzong, who was busy sacrificing heaven and earth at that time, heard about this incident, he was grief-stricken and deeper jealous of Li Fengniang, but he did not dare to go to her to confront her, and could only swallow this breath. And this did not make Li Fengniang restrain, but made her more arrogant.
After Emperor Guangzong of Song ascended the throne, he was sometimes unable to handle imperial politics due to mental problems, and power soon fell into the hands of Li Fengniang, who was the empress. However, this woman had little interest in handling the affairs of the imperial court, let alone ability, and she longed for power, but just wanted to get some benefits for herself and her mother's family.
Li Fengniang took the opportunity to reward her family in a big way, so that the Li family would become the king for three generations, and even the li family's disciples could follow them as officials. Not only that, the arrogant Li family began to blatantly transgress the rules, and they li family temple had more guards than the Taimiao Temple.
As empress, Li Fengniang only gave birth to one son, zhao kuo the Prince of Jia. It is reasonable to say that this Jia King, as the eldest son of a concubine, had no problem being crowned crown prince, but Song Xiaozong, who had become the Emperor Taishang, did not support it. Emperor Xiaozong of Song felt that King Jia was too weak and preferred the children of Zhao Kai, the second brother of Emperor Guangzong of Song, and did not agree to make King Jia crown prince.
After being obstructed, Li Fengniang took advantage of this to separate Song Xiaozong and Song Guangzong's father and son. Song Guangzong already had mental problems, and his suspicious heart disease was also relatively serious.
When Song Guangzong learned that his abdicated father actually preferred the children of his second brother and did not agree to make his eldest son the crown prince, he began to suspect that his father and emperor actually wanted to depose him, and instead established his second brother as emperor, and went to Chonghua Palace to greet Song Xiaozong less often.
Song Xiaozong did not realize this, he knew that Song Guangzong was not in good health, and he still cared about Song Guangzong after his abdication, and he also found a doctor to specially prepare pills for Song Guangzong and asked Song Guangzong to come to his Chonghua Palace to get it. However, when Li Fengniang found out, she told Song Guangzong that this was Song Xiaozong's plan to put him under house arrest, and persuaded Song Guangzong not to go.
Song Guangzong was already afraid of Li Fengniang, and he became suspicious of Song Xiaozong, and asked Li Fengniang to say this, he really did not go to get the medicine.
In the royal family, the most terrible thing is mutual suspicion. This step Li Fengniang walked very boldly, but it was also very effective.
Originally, after the abdication of Song Xiaozong, Song Guangzong had to go to Chonghua Palace at least 4 times a month to greet him, but as the suspicion became more and more serious, Song Guangzong went to Chonghua Palace less and less, and later even on the day of Song Xiaozong's birthday, Song Guangzong would not go.
When Emperor Xiaozong of Song ruled the country with "filial piety," the ministers of the DPRK and the Central Committee were not accustomed to Song Guangzong's practices and stood up one after another to persuade them. These persuasions already carried some threatening elements, and Song Guangzong had no choice but to go several more times.
On the day of Chongyang Festival in 1193, which was also the birthday of Song Xiaozong, the courtiers surrounded Song Guangzong for a good persuasion, and it was difficult to move him to greet his father and emperor who had a birthday. As a result, on this day, Song Guangzong was just about to walk out of the palace, but he was chased by the empress and pulled.
Li Fengniang used the excuse of "cold weather" to leave Song Guangzong to drink. Song Guangzong was worried that there was no excuse not to go, so he stayed with the trend. This made Song Xiaozong, who was waiting for his son to come, very sad, and also disappointed the courtiers.
In the following year, Song Xiaozong was critically ill and only wanted to see his son before his death. To this end, Zhao Kuo, the King of Jia, and his courtiers all went out to persuade Song Guangzong to go to Chonghua Palace. However, from the time Song Xiaozong was sick in bed, Song Guangzong did not come to the front to serve the disease, even if Song Xiaozong was already dying, he refused to show his face.
In the end, Song Xiaozong died in grief.
Song Guangzong thought that he could be purified, but he did not know that his unfilial behavior had caused great dissatisfaction among the courtiers. The courtiers hoped that Song Guangzong would preside over the funeral for Song Xiaozong, but Song Guangzong refused. After his attitude and actions spread, the whole country was in an uproar, and the people could not see it anymore.
The courtiers were already completely disappointed with this emperor, who suffered from mental problems and had also let the foreign relatives and their family become arrogant, and instead asked The wife of Emperor Gaozong of Song, who was living in the harem, that is, Empress Wu, the grandmother of Song Guangzong, to come forward and preside over the memorial ceremony of Emperor Xiaozong of Song.
Now that Song Guangzong could not preside over the government normally, and had become opposed to the courtiers, the Southern Song Dynasty encountered an unprecedented political crisis, all of which would affect the fortunes of a country sooner or later. The courtiers thought twice and decided to act.
First, the officials who supported Zhao Kuo of Jia reached a consensus with the chancellor Zhao Ruyu, and they were supported by Empress Dowager Wu's nephew Han Nong (tuō), and finally Empress Wu came forward to force Song Guangzong to abdicate in the name of Empress Dowager Song at the funeral of Emperor Xiaozong of Song, and zhao Kuo, the eldest son of Empress Dowager Jia, took the throne for Emperor Ningzong of Song.
At this time, Song Guangzong was insane, and after retiring to Tai'an Palace as Emperor Taishang for a long time, he regained his sanity and realized that he had been abdicated. This unfilial emperor thus hated his son, not only did not allow Song Ningzong to come to greet him, but also always clamored to move back to the emperor's palace.
Fortunately, Li Fengniang, who had become the empress dowager, was still with him, but when she went to comfort Song Guangzong, she was chased and beaten by Song Guangzong, who was once again insane. Rao is Li Fengniang can not control this too high emperor, she simply separated from Song Guangzong, began to practice Taoism, self-cultivation.
In the sixth year of The Qingyuan Dynasty, that is, in 1200, shortly after Li Fengniang's death, Song Guangzong, the absurd and snobbish emperor, also followed his "beloved wife" and died at the age of 54.
Song Xiaozong is also a rare good emperor in the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, he reigned for 27 years, carefully took care of the government, carefully governed the country, the Southern Song Dynasty once had a good situation in Zhongxing, but unfortunately his heir Song Guangzong could not continue the stable situation he established, and the Southern Song Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline, which is lamentable.