Text: Xia Yan (Columnist on Reading History)
As the most powerful dynasty in Chinese history, the Han Dynasty lasted for four hundred years, starting with the first empress Lü Yan, and the reuse of foreign relatives also became an important tradition of the Han Dynasty, whether it was the Western Han Or Eastern Han.
Speaking of the most famous foreign relatives in the history of the Han Dynasty, I am afraid that many people think that the Wei-Huo family is composed of empress Wei Zifu, the great general Wei Qing, and their nephew Huo. This family was reused by Emperor Wu of Han in a short period of time, and its scenery was unique for a while. At that time, Wei Zifu was the only favorite harem, and Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi were the most trusted generals of Emperor Wu of Han, respectively. However, after that, the Wei Huo family declined one after another, several sons of Wei Qing were stripped of the marquis, Huo Guang's younger brother Huo Guang was exterminated after his death, and the Wei Huo family disappeared from the stage of history in just a few decades.
However, the family we are going to talk about today is not only inferior to the Wei Huo family mentioned above in terms of merit, but also its duration is rare in Chinese history, and even appeared until the end of the Han Dynasty. This is the longest-lasting foreign relative family of the Han Dynasty- the Dou clan.
The Dou family was originally just an ordinary peasant family in Hebei, but because of the appearance of a person, it began to be active in the history of the Han Dynasty, and it lasted for hundreds of years without declining, this person is Dou Yifang.
As the first generation of the Dou family, Dou Yifang was originally just a peasant girl, who was sent to the palace to serve Lü Hou. Originally, Dou Yifang may have been buried in the palace for the rest of her life, but then she was ordered to be a palace maid on behalf of the country, which also became a turning point in her fate. Liu Heng fell in love with her at first sight, and Dou Yifang was deeply favored by Liu Heng, and this Liu Heng eventually became emperor.
Not only that, but what was more coincidental was that Liu Heng's original wife gave birth to four sons who died one after another, and Liu Qi, who was born to Dou Yifang, that is, the future Han Jing Emperor, became the eldest son, and she became the empress of the Han Dynasty by virtue of her mother's advantage of being a noble son.
After that, everyone knows that Dou Yifang spanned three dynasties and assisted Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing, and the young Liu Che in the difficult six years at the beginning of their ascension to the throne. As the most outstanding female politician of the early Han Dynasty, she played a key role in stabilizing the situation in the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
After talking about Empress Dou, let's talk about her nephew Dou Baby.
Since Empress Dou's brothers Dou Changjun and Dou Guangguo were unable to show great talent, Empress Dou finally recommended her cousin Dou Bao to Emperor Jing of Han, and the facts proved that she was not wrong. Dou Bao was not only a man of talent in the jingguo, but also a great general, and had made great contributions during the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wuchu. Later, he was appointed by Emperor Jing as a general, and he was given the title of Wei Qihou (魏其候), and became a chancellor in the early years of Emperor Wu. However, he was defeated in a fierce battle with Emperor Wu's uncle Tian Yi (田蚡斗法), and was exterminated by Emperor Wu of Han for correcting his sins.
If at this point you think that the Dou family has no successor, then you are very wrong. Although this branch of Dou Infant was wiped out by the clan, the descendants of Dou Guangguo, the brother of Empress Dou, have not been interrupted. Although in the more than one hundred years after the death of Dou Yifang and Dou Bao, the prominent Dou family was like a lively banquet, and the song was finally dispersed and the shame tended to be silent. However, when the wheel of history rolled into the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Dou family once again miraculously prospered.
This rise of the Dou family is related to a man named Dou Rong.
Dou Rong was the seventh grandson of Dou Guangguo. This Dou Rong was also a powerful figure, he was in the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, when Wang Mang usurped power and the world was in chaos, he invaded the north in the south, divided one side, and later attached himself to the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, becoming one of Liu Xiu's twenty-eight generals of Yuntai, feng an fengfeng marquis, and the official worship of the great sikong.
Since Dou Rong, the Dou family has one door, one gong, two marquises, three horses, and four two thousand stones, and the Dou family has become active again, and one of the donkeys is called Dou Gu.
Dou Gu was Dou Rong's nephew, and during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han, he led an army to attack the Xiongnu in the west with the lieutenant of Fengche, and destroyed the Huyan King at the Tianshan Mountains, and obeyed Hu Yu. He shined in the battle against the Xiongnu and made outstanding contributions to opening up the han dynasty's road to the western region. During the reign of Emperor Zhang of Han, dou gu was recruited as the Great Hongxu, and he successively held the posts of Guanglu Xun and Wei Wei, and was particularly respected by Emperor Zhang of Han.
Not only did Dou Gu hold important positions, but even Empress Liu Zhao of the Han Zhang Emperor and Empress Zhang Dedou were also from the Dou family, and she was Dou Rong's great-granddaughter. In 88 AD, after the collapse of Emperor Zhang of Han, Dou shi became the empress dowager, and when Emperor He was young, Empress Dou came to the throne. Since then, the Eastern Han Dynasty has never had an adult emperor. His maternal brothers were four marquises, and the Dou family power was tilted towards the opposition.
One of Empress Zhang Dedou's older brothers was named Dou Xian, who was also an important figure in the Dou family, because Dou Xian's exploits were comparable to Huo's disease.
In 89 AD, Dou Xian led an army to attack the Northern Xiongnu, penetrated three thousand miles deep into the Hanhai Desert, defeated the Northern Xiongnu at Jiluo Mountain, and then carved a stone on the way to the Banshi, known as Yanran Leshi; two years later, Dou Xian sent troops to attack again, out of the 5,000 miles to attack Jinwei Mountain, which is today's Xinjiang Altai Mountain, once again broke the Northern Xiongnu Shan Yu main force, beheaded more than 5,000 people under the king, and also captured Shan Yu's empress dowager.
Dou Xian broke the Northern Xiongnu, wei zhen saiwai, was worshiped by Han and emperor as a great general, ranked third duke, and his sister was the empress dowager. At this time, dou xian, whose power was expanding, actually plotted to usurp Han, and was later detected by the 13-year-old Han He Emperor, who united with eunuch forces to eliminate Dou Xian and put him to death in 92 AD.
After Dou Xian's death, during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, the Dou family once again produced an empress, Dou Miao.
Dou Miao is Dou Rong's granddaughter. In 167 AD, Emperor Huan of Han died, and Dou Miao took over as empress dowager. This was the third empress dowager of the Dou family and the third woman of the Dou family to control the government. Later, her father Dou Wu was worshipped as a great general, and her brother was also an official, and the Dou family's power once again reached its climax.
In 168 AD, after the great general Dou Wu was killed in a failed attempt to cut off the eunuchs, the Dou family lost power. The last person in the Dou family to appear in the history books was Dou Fu, the grandson of Dou Wu, who held up filial piety at Liu Biao, and then entered Cao Cao's Cheng Xiang Mansion, where he died in 212 AD, only eight years after the fall of the Han Dynasty.
In the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty, the Dou family began from Dou Yifang, experienced the chaos and darkness of the dictatorship of Lü Hou in the late period of Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty, experienced the humiliation of wenjingzhizhi, experienced the enthusiasm of Emperor Wu in resisting the Xiongnu, experienced the era of change from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, experienced the historical moment of Le Shi Yanran, experienced the power struggle between the eunuchs in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, until the fall of the Han Dynasty, and finally disappeared into the gushing river of history along with this dynasty.