"Born beautiful and difficult to abandon, once chosen on the side of the king." Looking back at a smile, the six palaces are colorless. "The song "Long Hate Song" by Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, vividly narrates the love tragedy of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and Yang Guifei, and deeply infects countless readers for thousands of years. In recent years, with the popularity of a number of film and television dramas such as "The Legend of the Demon Cat", "Glory of the Tang Dynasty", and "The Woman of the Dynasty Yang Guifei", Yang Guifei has been paid attention to by the public.
The beginning of Tang Xuanzong's love affair with Yang Guifei began with a meeting in 737. In that year, Tang Xuanzong's favorite Concubine Wu Huifei died, leaving Tang Xuanzong depressed. Some people say that Yang Yuhuan, the princess of Li Mao, the King of Shou, "has a heavenly posture and should be filled with a court". Emperor Xuanzong of Tang summoned Yang Yuhuan into the palace. At first sight, Tang Xuanzong really looked into his eyes.
However, Li Mao, the King of Shou, was the eighteenth son of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and Yang Yuhuan was equivalent to his daughter-in-law. Although the Tang Dynasty's sexual concept was relatively open, it was possible to directly "laugh" the daughter-in-law into the harem, and I am afraid that even my own moral and ethical barriers could not pass. The good thing is that there are always more ways than difficulties. Tang Xuanzong thought of a way to "curve into the palace". First of all, Let Yang Yuhuan become a female Taoist monk; second, re-appoint a princess to Li Mao, the king of Shou; and finally return Yang Yuhuan to the palace, and make her a noble concubine.
The time is 745. Yang Guifei was 26 years old at the time.
There was no doubt that Tang Xuanzong was extremely fond of Yang Guifei. Tang Xuanzong personally composed the "Neon Dress Feather Song" for Yang Guifei. Yang Guifei liked to eat fresh lychees, and the Tang Dynasty did not have express delivery, so Tang Xuanzong used stagecoach horses to transport lychees from Sichuan to Chang'an. "Love House and Wu", Tang Xuanzong made all of Yang Guifei's brothers high-ranking officials, and even promoted Yang Guifei's distant brother Yang Zhao to be the prime minister, which was the famous minister Yang Guozhong.
However, although Tang Xuanzong favored Yang Guifei all his life, he never crowned her as empress. What is the reason for this? There are roughly three reasons.
First, Yang Guifei did not have the name of an empress, but she had the reality of an empress
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang had only one empress, and she was his original wife, Empress Wang. Because Empress Wang had no sons and was framed by Concubine Wu, she was deposed in 725 and died of depression three months later. After Empress Wang's death, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once wanted to make Concubine Wu Huifei empress, but because Concubine Wu huifei was Wu Sansi's niece, she was unanimously opposed by the imperial court. In addition, Concubine Wu Huifei had already given birth to a son and made her empress, which had an impact on the status of Li Ying, the crown prince who was not born to her. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang did not appoint Concubine Wu huifei as empress.
When Yang Guifei was favored, Concubine Wu was already dead. According to the Tang Dynasty's "internal official" system, the noble concubine was below the empress and above the concubine. When a queen is missing, a noble concubine is effectively equivalent to an empress. Yang Guifei did not have the name of empress, but she had the reality of an empress, so there was no need to be an empress.
Second, Yang Guifei came from a humble background, and there was too much resistance to the canonization of the empress
During the Tang Dynasty, the emperor was crowned empress, and he was very particular about the door. Requiring the nobility of the mendi, it is necessary to "choose the heavens and order the clan", emphasizing "the qinghua of the earth" and "the clan of xuanguan".
At that time, Emperor Gaozong of Tang wanted to make Wu Zetian empress, but he encountered unprecedented pressure. In fact, Wu Zetian was not born low, his grandfathers were all high-ranking officials in the imperial court, and his father, Wu Shiyan, also served as a high-ranking official such as Shangshu of the Ministry of Works and the Governor of Jingzhou, but because Wu Shiyan sold tofu and did the timber business when he was young, he was attacked by many imperial court ministers as "the ground is cold and weak", "the door is xun yong, the earth is hua miao", preventing her from becoming an empress. If it were not for Emperor Gaozong of Tang's obstinate will, resolutely cracking down on a group of ministers who opposed the establishment of Wu Zetian as empress, Wu Zetian would probably not have had a chance with the empress in his lifetime.
If Tang Xuanzong made Yang Guifei empress, he would certainly face greater resistance than Wu Zetian. Because Yang Guifei's origins were even more humble, her father Yang Xuanyan was only a low-level official in Sichuan, and he had also been imprisoned for his crimes and died in prison. Therefore, It is unlikely that Tang Xuanzong would make Yang Guifei empress.
Third, Yang Guifei did not give birth to a son and a half daughter for Tang Xuanzong
The ancient harem has always been "mother is precious to son", and the Tang Dynasty is no exception. Wu Zetian was favored in large part because of her strong fertility. She gave birth to 4 sons and 2 daughters for Tang Gaozong alone, which is simply a fertility machine. In fact, Emperor Gaozong of Tang deposed the original empress dowager on the grounds that "the empress was childless" and installed Wu Zetian, who was his favorite, as empress.
Strangely, although Yang Guifei met Tang Xuanzong, who was the best in good health, she did not give birth to a son and a half daughter for Tang Xuanzong until she died in Ma Songyi. In this way, even if Tang Xuanzong wanted to make Yang Guifei empress, he would probably not be able to convince himself.
Fourth, prevent foreign relatives from interfering in the affairs of the DPRK by being too large
As mentioned earlier, after Yang Guifei was favored, her family also "ascended to heaven by one person", followed by the prominence, and walked sideways in the imperial court, "entering and exiting the forbidden door without asking, and the chief official of the Beijing division looked at it sideways." The New Book of Tang records that the Yang family "went in and out of the palace, and the sound of grace shook the world." Every time a woman enters the class, Princess Zhiying (Princess Yuzhen) and so on do not dare to take their seats. "You see, Tang Xuanzong's own sister could only give up her seat in front of the three ladies of the Yang family and did not dare to sit down.
In order to kill the arrogance of the Yang family, Tang Xuanzong once intended to send Yang Guifei back to her mother's house twice. Therefore, in order to balance the power of the imperial court, Tang Xuanzong could not let Yang Guifei "go to a higher level" and ascend to the empress throne. After all, Wu Zetian's previous experience is vivid.