There are not a few famous empresses in history, they are either virtuous and virtuous, or the power is tilted to the opposition, and they are still talked about by people.
However, during the Tang Dynasty, there was an empress who was famous for her "disappearance", and the TV series "Glory of the Tang Dynasty" told the story of Shen Zhu's life.
Shen Zhu is extremely miserable, she and her husband are deeply in love, love her husband wholeheartedly, but she knows the righteousness of the whole country, how many such empresses can there be in history?
However, Shen Pearl only has the name of the Empress, but has not enjoyed the treatment of a day of empress, and even the real Shen Pearl in history is even more miserable than in the TV series.
Shen Zhu was the Ruizhen Empress of the Tang Dynasty Emperor Li Li, her father Shen Yizhi was Dali Zheng, and her uncle was the Tang Dynasty calligrapher Shen Congdao, and it is reasonable to say that such a family is also the official eunuch family of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er, but Shen Zhu's fate is not good at all.
In history, even the name "Shen Pearl" has been handed down, and the name of The Ruizhen Empress Shen is not recorded at all in history.
Shen Zhu was born in the tang Xuanzong period, and as the daughter of an official eunuch, she naturally had to enter the palace draft.
Shen Pearl because of her fair skin, outstanding appearance, and good figure, so she was naturally valued by the royal family, and after she was elected to the Eastern Palace, The Crown Prince Li Heng gave Shen Pearl to the Emperor's eldest grandson Li Li.
According to the records in the historical records, Shen Pearl was "given" to the Emperor's eldest grandson, and this gift word is used very delicately, that is, Shen Pearl was only treated as an object, and a palace girl was given to the Emperor's eldest grandson.
Soon after, Shen Pearl gave birth to Li Li's eldest son, Li Shi, who was 15 years old and Shen Pearl was only 13 years old.
Although Shen Zhu gave birth to the eldest son, her status did not rise at all. Li Qi's concubine was Cui Shi, who was more powerful than Shen Zhu, and she was the niece of Yang Guifei and had a lot of weight in the court.
Therefore, in this environment, Shen Pearl, who is only a teenager, actually has a bad life, Cui Shi is stubborn, and has often bullied her since she entered the palace, but Shen Pearl has nothing to do about it.
Later, the eldest son was finally born, although the seat of the concubine was still not able to sit, but for the sake of the child, it was reasonable to say that life should be much better, but it was a coincidence that within a few years, the Anshi Rebellion broke out.
In 756, An Lushan led troops into Chang'an, the palace shouted to kill Zhentian, Tang Xuanzong took Li Heng and Yang Guifei to flee in a hurry, in such a chaotic environment, the emperor could not bring the imperial relatives and relatives in the palace, then naturally it was necessary to abandon some people.
Little concubines like Shen Zhu, who are not concubines, tepid, and dispensable, must have become the first objects to be abandoned.
Shen Zhu could only watch being abandoned by her husband, she was isolated in the palace, and her heart fell into despair.
After An Lushan attacked the city gate, all of these remaining royal family members were captured in Luoyang and imprisoned in the Ye court, after which Shen Zhu became a prisoner.
Shen Zhu was imprisoned in the court for more than a year, and by the time she saw the light of day again, the throne had already changed.
After the crown prince Li Heng declared himself emperor, Li Li was made the Grand Marshal of Terracotta Army, and led his troops to attack the rebels of An Lushan, at this time Li Li was still thinking about Shen Zhu, who had been captured, so he was particularly brave in fighting the rebels.
In 757, Li Li successfully recaptured Luoyang, and the female exiles who were imprisoned in the Ye court at this time were finally liberated.
Shen Zhu experienced war and more than a year of captivity, and when she saw her husband again, she was aggrieved, and immediately hugged Li Li and cried, saying that she could not express the grievances in her heart.
Soon after, Li Li was made crown prince, at this time, the Shen family moved from Chang'an to Luoyang for some reasons, although Shen Zhu's family came, but it is reasonable to say that she is the prince's female dependents and should return to Chang'an to live together, but the fact is that Li Li did not take Shen Zhu away.
There are two reasons for this.
First, at that time, Luoyang had just been attacked by Li Li, and before he could catch his breath, the rebels attacked again, Luoyang fell, and Li Li had to lead his troops out again.
In this case, he certainly couldn't take Shen Pearl with him, so she was abandoned again.
Of course, there are also many people who say that although Luoyang was captured at that time, Li Li, as the crown prince, must still have time to spend so many troops to settle Shen Pearl, after all, this is his beloved woman.
Therefore, there is a more important reason why Shen Zhu was not brought back to Chang'an, that is, it is related to "Ye Ting".
After all, she had been a prisoner for more than a year, and it was not easy to say whether Shen Zhu was still innocent, even if Li Li believed in her innocence, the royal family would not allow the tainted concubines to return to the palace.
In other words, it didn't matter whether Shen Zhu was really innocent or not, if everyone in the world felt that she must have been defiled by the rebels, then she could only bear the stigma.
Of course, whether she herself was stigmatized was not the most important reason, and Yang Guifei at that time was not so righteous, but for Li Li, he also had to protect the future of his eldest son Li Shi.
For this, Shen Zhu is also aware of this, so for the sake of her son, she is also willing to be the discarded pawn.
Luoyang City fell into a scuffle again, the people could only move away and take refuge, such a large-scale migration was completed in a short period of time, which would naturally cause chaos, and Shen Zhu was lost in the chaos.
Luoyang was retaken after several wars, and at this time the country was in turmoil, not to mention Li Li's position as crown prince, and even Li Heng's throne was not so secure, so Li Li could only look for Shen Zhu's whereabouts in private, but he found nothing.
With the passage of time, Li Heng died not long after because he was too worried about state affairs, and after Li Li succeeded to the throne, the first thing he did was to order a large-scale search for Shen Pearl.
At this time, Shen Zhu's son Li Shi was made crown prince, and Li Shi was also ordered to find out the whereabouts of his mother during his time of leading the army, but still found nothing.
In the first year of Yongtai, there was once a nun of Chongshan Temple named Shen Shi, who claimed to be the Shen pearl that the emperor was looking for, but later her identity was found, this person's real name was Guangcheng, in an attempt to confuse the public in order to fly Huang Tengda.
Shen Pearl's whereabouts were still a fog.
Li Li searched for ten years, and during his reign, he did not stop searching for Shen Pearl, but he never saw Shen Pearl again until his death.
In 779, Li Li died, and Li Shi sat on the throne again, and he did not give up the search for his mother.
He honored his mother as the empress dowager, and began to increase the reward, sending more people to increase the scope of the search, and soon after, he really found the "Shen Pearl".
In the second year after Li Shi took the throne, news came that Empress Shen had been found in Luoyang, and Li Shi was so excited that he covered his face and wept on the spot, and then dispatched hundreds of palace women to Luoyang to meet his mother.
However, unfortunately, this "Empress Shen" was not long after being exposed, she was a woman found by Colliers who looked exactly like Shen Pearl, so she was specially cultivated in the hope that one day she would be able to come in handy.
After this fake Empress Shen was exposed, the court was furious and demanded that the emperor punish this person, but Li Shi waved his hand and said that he would not pursue it.
Li Shi just said to the people around him: "As long as I can find my mother, even if I am deceived a hundred times, it will not hurt." ”
Unfortunately, Li Shi, like his father, never found the whereabouts of his mother in his lifetime, and after Li Shi's death, his eldest son Li Shu succeeded to the throne.
Li Xuan did not forget his father's last wish, he took over the heavy task of finding the imperial grandmother, and never stopped.
But to tell the truth, After Li Xuan succeeded to the throne, he did not have much energy to find this "legendary" imperial grandmother.
Li Xuan was also a relatively unlucky emperor, and within a few months of his reign, he was forced to pass the throne to his son Li Chun because he was suppressed by eunuchs.
After Li Chun took over the throne, he took over the heavy task of finding Shen Pearl, from the beginning of Li Jun to Li Chun, it has gone through four generations of emperor changes, and the time has passed for decades.
In fact, people's hearts have already been counted, at this time, Shen Pearl's identity is already "Empress Dowager", Li Chun, based on his respect for this grandmother, re-honored Shen Pearl as "Ruizhen Empress", and set up a crown for her.
Li Chun listened to the minister's proposal and finally ordered to stop the search for Shen Pearl, which had been 46 years since Shen Pearl had disappeared!
Shen Zhu's disappearance has become a major mystery in history, and four generations of emperors have not been able to find her trace, nor do they know whether Li Li did not bring Shen Zhu back to Chang'an, whether he regretted it.
So in this history of Shen Pearl, we can know a very key point:
At the beginning, Shen Pearl was not an empress at all, and even had no attention, so why did Li Li start to look for Shen Pearl again? How much affection does he have for Shen Pearl?
After Li Li became emperor, he also recruited concubines and gave birth to 37 children in more than ten years, although the number was indeed a bit large, but as an emperor, it was not wrong to open up branches and leaves for the imperial family.
However, among them, although he had many harem beauties, he had never been made an empress.
In the process of searching for Shen Pearl, Shen Pearl's family was treated kindly, Shen Pearl's deceased father was posthumously named as a secretary supervisor, and his brother was also promoted several times.
When the crown prince Li Shi played the performance at the time, Li Li asked him to call himself "the eldest son of the concubine", and from this point alone, it can be seen that Shen Pearl was already an empress in Li Li's heart, and the empress's seat may have been reserved for Shen Pearl.
Shen Zhu's life was really miserable, and in her limited life, she may only be happy during the time she was given to Li Li.
She suffered several wars at a young age, knowing that her husband was the emperor, her son was the emperor, and even her grandson and great-grandchildren were the emperor, but she did not enjoy the blessing of the empress for a day.
In history, the whereabouts of Shen Pearl are still unknown, and there is still a speculation in people's good intentions, perhaps Shen Pearl chose to hide his name in order not to affect his son's reputation, lived alone away from the imperial city, and finally died peacefully.
Only in this way can people have a little comfort in this poor queen.