Do anything, there may be extreme situations, such as the establishment of the empress. Some emperors do not have an empress until they die, while others have multiple empresses at the same time.
Emperor Gao Wei of Northern Qi deposed the original empress Huo Lushi, first making Hu empress and then Empress Hongde as Empress Zuo, and the two empresses coexisted. Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou first created Empress Yang, then Empress Tian, and two empresses on the left and right, and later added a great empress of Tianzhong, for a total of five empresses. Emperor Wu of Han Zhaowu was even worse than them, in addition to the four empresses of Lishang, Middle, Left and Right, there were also seven people who wore the Empress Seal, so he had eleven empresses at the same time.
However, compared with these emperors, Sun Hao, the last emperor of Eastern Wu, made more empresses.
Sun Hao (孙皓), courtesy name Yuanzong, was the grandson of Sun Quan of Eastern Wu and the son of the deposed Crown Prince Sun He. During the reign of Emperor Jing, Sun Hao was crowned marquis of Wucheng. In the seventh year of Yong'an, Emperor Jing died of illness, and the order he gave to his ministers before his death was to pass the throne to the young crown prince. However, at that time, Eastern Wu, the domestic civil war was continuous, the Western Shu had just been overthrown, and Cao Wei was watching closely from the sidelines, wanting to destroy Eastern Wu in one fell swoop.
The whole country of Eastern Wu was terrified, and the ministers believed that if the young prince was made king and his understanding of world affairs was still shallow, then it would be easy to bring down the country. Therefore, these ministers wanted to establish an older king to consolidate the country and seek self-preservation. Therefore, Sun Hao, who was twenty-three years old at the time, was thus embraced by the ministers as a monarch and ascended to the throne, becoming the fourth emperor of Eastern Wu.
In fact, when Sun Hao first ascended to the throne, he was still very determined to revitalize the country.
He issued many edicts of preferential treatment, appeased and sympathetic people, opened granaries to distribute grain to refugees, released the palace women in the harem, and promised rations to men who did not yet have wives. Sun Hao's measures were greatly praised by the ministers in the government and the public. However, power is a double-edged sword, which will breed corruption while benefiting the people, and it is easier to expose a person's ambition and true appearance.
After a few years, Sun Hao became cruel and absurd, completely different from before. Every day, he either kills people in different ways or indulges in fine wine and beauty. While Emperor Jing was still alive, Sun Hao had written a letter of appointment to marry Teng Mu's daughter. Later, Sun Hao ascended the throne as emperor, and Lady Teng naturally became an empress, so that Teng Mu was crowned as a marquis. Teng Mu saw that Sun Hao was delayed by wine and ignored the government, so he repeatedly advised Sun Hao.
However, his practice caused Sun Hao to be strongly dissatisfied and disgusted, and in addition, Empress Teng was old and no longer young and beautiful, which made Sun Hao want to depose Empress Teng. However, Taishi said: "Judging from the fortunes of the country, the empress cannot be changed. Moreover, because the empress dowager liked the Teng clan, she often helped to say a few nice words in front of Sun Hao, which made Sun Hao give up the abolition of the queen.
Although Empress Teng was not deposed, Sun Hao became more and more unaccustomed to her and became more and more indifferent to her. Not long after, Empress Teng moved into the Changqiu Palace, which should have been a happy event, but few officials came to congratulate her, making the empress a decoration. At this time, in order to further satisfy his lustful desires, Sun Hao actually issued an extremely absurd order:
"Whoever has a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl in the family of an official of more than two thousand stones asks him to personally look at her, and immediately enters the palace in his favor, and there is no free marriage that he likes." Suddenly, the number of people in the harem increased greatly, and Sun Hao focused his main energy on the harem. Even, in order to please his favorite concubines and win their favor, Sun Hao awarded them all the empress's seals.
Seal silk, also known as seal silk, is the ancient seal on the color ribbon tied, often used to refer to the seal, and the role of the queen seal, is a symbol of the status of the queen. Although these pets were not officially canonized by Sun Hao, they could also be regarded as empresses because they possessed seals. As for how many empresses Sun Hao had appointed, there is no clear record in the history books.
However, judging from Sun Hao's thirty or forty princes and Sima Yan saying that Sun Hao's harem had at least five thousand people, plus the two words commonly used in the history books, "many" and "very numerous", the concubines in Sun Hao's harem were definitely more than double digits. Throughout ancient Chinese history, Sun Hao was the emperor with the most empresses. So why did he make so many queens? It is believed that there are several reasons:
(1) Satisfy one's own lust by pleasing concubines after the establishment;
Second, to get rid of the traditional system of wives, so that they can have fun at any time;
(3) Make one's heirs distinguish between nobles and nobles, and avoid concubines from competing for the throne;
Fourth, make the families behind these empresses involve each other and check and balance each other, so as to strengthen their own strength and consolidate feudal rule.
Although, in this way, Sun Hao's starting point is still quite good, but under this kind of absurd and lawless politics, the harem has been stirred up, and the speed of Eastern Wu's demise has been accelerated.
In 280 AD, Sun Hao and these empresses became prisoners.
It wasn't until he became a prisoner of the order that Sun Hao reflected:
"The widow did not cultivate virtue, was ashamed of the law of inheriting the previous emperor, held the imperial throne for many years, and was fierce and violent in politics and indoctrination, which caused the people to suffer for a long time, resulting in the eventual return of the destiny of heaven to the righteous people, the society was overthrown, the temple was ownerless, and the shame was like a mountain, and there was no other guilt. I have no talent, I am sorry for my own name, my talent quality is not good, and I am holding the heavy responsibility of the prince, so when I am bu gua, there is the commandment of 'folding the ding' (symbolizing the loss of the country and the mountains, and the big things will not be accomplished)... Since walking a narrow road, I am sorry to you, it is difficult to achieve big things, and it is difficult to collect water. ”
After Sun Hao returned to Luoyang, he was received by Sima Yan and given the title of Marquis of Guiming, after which Sun Hao lived in Luoyang. In the fifth year of Taikang, Sun Hao died in Luoyang at the age of forty-two and was buried in Luoyang's Beiqi Mountain. It can be said that Sun Hao was the initiator of many empresses in history, and his "polygamy" practice deeply affected future generations. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were many phenomena of "one husband and two wives" in the folk, and emperors such as Gao Wei and Yuwen Yun repeatedly established empresses, which were also influenced by Sun Hao. Therefore, his approach has also been criticized.
Resources:
[Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wu, Chronicle of Mrs. Sun Haoteng, Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Zizhi Tongjian, Jinji]