Title/This empress was able to match Lü Hou Cixi's talent, but because she was too benevolent, she was ostracized and depressed
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The empress dowager was of great significance in the actual power operation of Chinese feudal society, especially in the case of the emperor's weakness, the role of the empress dowager was even more important, and she often adopted the way of the pro-dynasty title system to control the imperial government. Lü Hou and Cixi were products of this system.
Lü Hou and Cixi were so powerful that they could change emperors at will.
Cixi photo
During the Ming Dynasty, there was also an empress dowager, she was Empress Zhang of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, this person was comparable to Empress Lü and Cixi, and unlike these two empresses, she was particularly virtuous and benevolent, so she was not good at manipulating power, and she was eventually ostracized by her chosen emperor, so that she ended up depressed.
This Empress Zhang was very intelligent and beautiful, and she was a virtuous wife and mother-type empress. Although Emperor Xiaozong was a prince, because his father Emperor Mingxianzong favored Wan Guifei, and Wan Guifei herself had no children, she did not allow other concubines to have children.
Empress Zhang of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming
So from the time his birth mother Ji shi conceived him to the time he was pulled to the age of 6, Emperor Xiaozong spent his time in the horror created by Wan Guifei. Until the age of 6, he wore the clothes of a girl, and did not dare to show his identity as a boy, let alone appear as a prince.
Since Empress Zhang became a crown princess, she was considerate of Emperor Xiaozong and took care of Emperor Xiaozong's diet and living like a wife of an ordinary family. And Emperor Xiaozong also loved this empress deeply, and only loved Empress Zhang in his life, becoming the only emperor in Chinese history who loved only one person in his life.
Mei Koshu Images
Being able to enjoy the love of Emperor Xiaozong alone proves that Empress Zhang has a strangeness that ordinary people do not have. After Emperor Xiaozong's death, his son Zhu Houzhao succeeded him as Emperor Wuzong of Ming. But this Wuzong was very faint, and died of illness after 15 years.
Emperor Wuzong had no heirs, and in order for the inheritance of his ancestors to be passed on to future generations, Zhang Shi, who had become the empress dowager, consulted with his courtiers and chose Zhu Houxi, the son of Zhu Youyuan, the prince of Xingxian, to succeed him. However, Zhu Houxi was far away in Hubei and it would take time to reach Beijing, while a small group of people led by Jiang Bin, a major minister in the imperial court, were plotting a rebellion. Empress Zhang used her wits to quickly crush the rebellion.
Meitake sect images
At that time, Jiang Bin controlled the Janissaries in the capital, and when Emperor Wuzong was seriously ill, Jiang Bin plotted a rebellion. The tone he set was: When Emperor Wuzong was present, he would blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes;
Empress Zhang had no military power in her hands and knew that she could not fight Jiang Bin hard, so she pretended to be emperor Wuzong's will, and sent a unit of the Janissaries to Tongzhou to receive a reward to alleviate the pressure in the palace, and then she persuaded the eunuchs Wei Bin and Zhang Yong, and then she consulted with Zhang Tinghe, the head of the cabinet, and some reliable ministers.
Empress Zhang had the support of eunuchs and courtiers, so in the name of the empress dowager, she invited Jiang Bin to the palace to participate in the ceremony of "watching the kiss of the beast", but set up an ambush in the palace beforehand. When Jiang Bin entered the palace as promised, Empress Zhang ordered his capture, and then Empress Zhang acted quickly to wipe out Jiang Bin's remaining party, and a rebellion that threatened Zhu's Jiangshan was completely crushed by Empress Zhang.
After quelling the rebellion, the new emperor was still on the road, and Empress Zhang and Yang Tinghe began to carry out reforms. She cut eunuchs, investigated corrupt officials, reinstated good officials who had been dismissed by Jiang Bin and eunuch Liu Jin, and appointed talents to reduce taxes in disaster-stricken areas, and implemented a series of new policies in the 47 days before the new king took office, which made the country suddenly prosperous.
Empress Zhang who is decisive in her dealings (stills)
The newly selected emperor, Zhu Houxi, had originally planned to greet him with the etiquette of the crown prince ascending the throne, but Zhu Houxi picked up the shelf and refused to accept it. Empress Zhang had no choice but to lead hundreds of officials to persuade her to enter and allow her to ascend the throne with the courtesy of the Son of Heaven, and he was satisfied. According to Empress Zhang's agreement with her courtiers, Zhu Houxi was the successor of Emperor Xiaozong, the Wuzong lineage, and his biological father and mother certainly could not enjoy the treatment of the empress dowager and the empress.
However, the new emperor Zhu Houxi had a strong opinion on such an arrangement. Although he was a 14-year-old child, he was quite scheming, and he was soft and hard, and he had to honor his biological father as Emperor Xingxian and his birth mother as Empress Xingxian. Soon after succeeding to the throne, Zhu Houxi said to the courtiers: "There is a birth mother and a grandmother, and today's imperial court is not yesterday's imperial court, so why is Empress Dowager Cishou (Empress Zhang) called the supreme?"
Zhu Houxi also abolished all the new policies implemented by Empress Zhang and began to reuse some traitors. The emperor chosen by Empress Zhang gradually marginalized Empress Zhang. Empress Zhang became depressed and died soon after.
Emperor Ming Shizong Zhu Houxi
If Lü Hou and Cixi had been replaced, they would not have let go again and again, endured and endured again, and let Zhu Houxi be so arrogant. If it was Lü Hou and Cixi, the eight Zhu Houxi would not be enough for them to change. Empress Zhang put the overall situation first, kindness and benevolence, in exchange for the villain Zhu Houxi's inching forward, in the end, Zhang Tai had no way to retreat, and could only watch Zhu Houxi monopolize power and ruin the achievements of his reform.