The truth about the civil unrest in Emperor Wu's family

The truth about the civil unrest in Emperor Wu's family

Huang Fucai

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Tags: Cultural Miscellaneous

"Happy families are similar, unhappy families have their own misfortunes." This quote from old Tolstoy seems to apply equally to the emperor who came to the throne.

In October 502, Xiao Yan, who was then the Assassin of Yongzhou, rebelled through Fangzhen to overthrow the last king of Southern Qi, The Marquis of Dongxia, and establish the Southern Liang Dynasty. With the passage of the rule of Tianjian in the early days of the founding of the country and the aging of Emperor Wu of Liang, the Southern Liang Dynasty began to be in crisis, and as the head of the family, Emperor Wu of Liang's family was also exhausted, which accelerated his aging and his fainting in handling state affairs.

As early as the Yongzhou period, Xiao Yan ignored the opposition of his wife Xi Shi and married a 14-year-old girl Ding Lingguang as a concubine, and soon gave birth to his eldest son Xiao Tong, who was the prince of Zhaoming, the compiler of the Selected Works of Zhaoming. After that, as an emperor, Emperor Wu of Liang had many wives and concubines such as Wu, Dong, Ding, and Ge in addition to his wife Xi. Among these wives and concubines, the most favored by Emperor Wu of Liang was undoubtedly Ding Lingguang. Xi shi was jealous and died of jealousy. As for how Xi ended his life, there are different opinions. It is said that Emperor Liangwu's eldest daughter Xiao Yuyao once had a dream one night, in which a white smoke suddenly appeared from the well in the courtyard, and then a white dragon flew out, and the white dragon turned into a mother again, and said to her, Remember, I was forced to die by that goblin...

At first, Emperor Wu of Liang took over the power of the former dynasty, and also accepted several concubines of the former dynasty. Wu Shuyuan is one of them. In the seventh month after Wu and Emperor Wu of Liang went to bed, he gave birth to a son named Xiao Zong. Emperor Wu of Liang was proclaimed empress, and although Xiao Zong was also given the title of king, the bloodline of this son became a topic of discussion behind people's backs. Xiao Yan either didn't know the arguments behind them at all, or he obviously knew it, but pretended to be confused. As a father, Emperor Wu of Liang was very kind to every child, and the care he gave to the second son Xiao Zong, who had an eccentric personality, was not much different from other sons. However, as he grew older, Xiao Zong finally felt something from the mocking eyes of the people. One day, he went to ask his mother Wu Shuyuan: "Mother, there is a secret you must tell me, who is my father?" Wu Shuyuan avoided her son's forced gaze and said, "Why do you have to know who your real father is?" As long as you can enjoy the honor that a prince should enjoy. Xiao Zong felt that his mother's answer was enough, so the young man's eyes shot out a cold light, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I will kill him." Wu Shuyuan was frightened, quickly covered her son's mouth with her hand, and said: "You are crazy, what do you know?" Xiao Zong broke away from his mother in disgust and said, "You don't have to say anything, you are a lowly woman." ”

Since knowing the truth of his birth, the seeds of hatred began to be deeply planted in Xiao Zong's heart. Finally, the day of revenge has arrived.

In 525, Emperor Wu of Liang sent 5,000 elite divisions to begin another round of the Northern Expedition. The commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition was none other than Xiao Zong, the second son of Emperor Wu of Liang. The Southern Liang army advanced all the way and soon took Pengcheng, the frontier town of Northern Wei. However, on the same night, Xiao Zong, who was the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition, suddenly opened the city gate and, at the behest of the Northern Wei Inner Line, surrendered to the enemy camp in a dignified manner.

Emperor Yuan of northern Wei personally summoned Xiao Zong and appointed him Sikong (司空), the Duke of Gaoping Commandery (高平郡公) and the Prince of Danyang (丹阳王). The first thing Xiao Zong, who accepted the title of king, did was to set up a spiritual hall for his biological father, the former emperor of the dynasty, the Marquis of Dongxiao, to perform public worship. He wept and asked the Northern Wei court to send him an army of 100,000, saying that he must kill him back to the south, to Jiankang, and that he would personally take the head of Xiao Yan, the Emperor of Liangwu, who had been his father.

As a result of Xiao Zong's defection, Pengcheng, which had once been in hand, once again fell into the hands of Northern Wei, and almost all of the 5,000 soldiers and horses led by Xiao Zong were killed or captured.

Hearing the report of Xiao Zong's defection to the enemy, the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu was greatly surprised, and the officials immediately asked Xiao Zong to be disqualified as the King of Fan, remove his name from the royal list forever, and rename Xiao Zong's son Xiao Zhi who remained in Jiankang to "Paradox", in order to remind people that the ancestors of this sect had had a shameful act of rebellion and defiance. It was a great shame that someone else's son, and the son of an overthrown former emperor, had been raised as a son for more than twenty years. Emperor Xiao Yanyin of Liangwu did not say a word with a calm face, but he still raised his pen and replied to the official's request. Emperor Wu of Liang vented all his depression on Wu Shuyuan's head, and Wu Shuyuan was beaten into the cold palace, but soon Emperor Wu of Liang not only pardoned Wu Shuyuan, but also restored Xiao Zong's title of King of Fan, hoping to impress the unworthy son with a loving heart, hoping that Xiao Zong could return to the arms of Southern Liang.

Emperor Wu of Liang's eldest daughter, Xiao Yuyao, was born to his wife Xi Shi(郗氏). Since knowing the truth about his mother's death, his hatred for his father's concubine Ding Lingguang has accompanied Xiao Yuyao almost every day of his growth. In this family infighting, Ding Lingguang was obviously not Xiao Yuyao's opponent. Ding Lingguang soon died of depression, and on the issue of choosing a cemetery for Ding Lingguang, Emperor Wu of Liang and his eldest son, Crown Prince Zhaoming, were suspicious of each other and had their own thoughts. Prince Zhaoming listened to the words of a Taoist priest and buried a "wax goose" in his mother's grave that was said to change feng shui, which was eventually known to Emperor Wu of Liang, which led to a fierce conflict between father and son. After the "Wax Goose Incident", Emperor Wu of Liang began to snub Prince Zhaoming, and the cowardly Prince Zhaoming was excessively sad because of the miss of his mother, coupled with the snubbing of his father, and soon fell ill and ended his young life prematurely.

This year, another scandal spread wildly in the palace. The rumors are about the long-standing unrequited love between Emperor Liangwu's eldest daughter Xiao Yuyao and his sixth uncle Xiao Hong. In fact, Emperor Wu of Liang had already heard about this family scandal, but he did not want to tear his face, so as not to spoil the brotherhood. Taking advantage of a brotherly reunion, Emperor Wu of Liang quietly warned his sixth brother. Xiao Hong was terrified and began to restrain somewhat, but Xiao Yuyao couldn't hold his breath. One day, Xiao Yuyao suddenly asked someone to send a letter to her father, who hoped that his father could pity a daughter who had lost her mother since childhood and was sick, she said: "The poor daughter of the Father Emperor now dares to ask her father to come to see her, perhaps, this is the last time the father and daughter will meet." Seeing Xiao Yuyao's letter, Xiao Yan immediately decided to go and visit her eldest daughter, Princess Yongxing. However, he could never have imagined that his own daughter, Princess Yongxing, would send her father to death because of an unrequited love. Just as Emperor Wu of Liang was immersed in the joy of the reunion of father and daughter, the killer dressed as a palace maid pulled out a knife and stabbed Emperor Liangwu. Fortunately, the accompanying guards shot faster, and the fight between the two sides was not equal, and in just a few rounds, the killer was subdued.

Princess Xiao Yuyao of Yongxing finally ended her life on a self-hanging beam, and a few days later, Xiao Hong, who was overly frightened, also cried out for her life.

When Xiao Yan learned that the reason why his own daughter wanted to kill him in a stupid way was to let her sixth uncle Xiao Hong take his place, his feelings for the human world were truly desperate.