In December 2021, the "Archaeology China" major project important progress work meeting was held, unveiling a mystery that has plagued the archaeological community for many years, and the Jiangcun Tomb in Xi'an was identified as the mausoleum of Liu Heng, the Emperor of hanWen, correcting the previous statement that the area around the Phoenix Mouth of Bailuyuan was regarded as the location of the Baling Tomb. Liu Heng, the Han Wen Emperor who created the "Rule of Wenjing", once again entered people's sights, as a generation of prosperous Ming Emperors, how did Liu Heng, the Han Wen Emperor, become emperor?
1. The cowardly son
Speaking of Liu Heng, the Han Emperor who pioneered the "Rule of Wenjing", we have to say about his predecessor, Liu Ying, the Emperor of Han Hui. Liu Ying was the second son of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and was also born to Liu Bang and Lü Hou, and as the eldest son of Liu Ying, he naturally inherited the throne after Liu Bang's death. However, as the eldest son of Liu Ying, his road to succession was not smooth, and this had to start with Liu Bang.
After Liu Bang became emperor, although Liu Bang made Liu Ying the crown prince, Liu Bang reigned for a long time and always felt that Liu Ying's personality was too benevolent and weak, and he did not look like him at all, so Liu Bang did not like this son very much. Because of the favor of Lady Qi, Aiwu and Wu Liu Bang wanted to make Liu Ruyi, born to Lady Qi, crown prince. Lü Hou, worried that Liu Ying was deposed, found Zhang Liang and the early Han dynasty heroes, and finally saved the crown prince Liu Ying.
After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying succeeded to the throne as Emperor Hui of Han. However, because of Liu Ying's personality defects, his sense of existence during his reign as emperor was relatively low, far inferior to that of his mother, Empress Lü. In order to consolidate Liu Ying's position as emperor, Lü Hou personally planned to help Liu Ying remove what she considered "danger", killed Liu Ruyi, and made Lady Qi a human figure, which deeply hurt Liu Ying and laid the groundwork for Liu Ying's early death.
Second, the strong mother
Compared with Liu Ying's cowardice, his mother Lü Yan is very strong, not only has a strong personality but also has a very political skill. During Liu Ying's reign, Lü Hou personally arranged the unfortunate marriage of Liu Ying and Zhang Yan, only to "kiss the upper and the closer". Zhang Yan is the daughter of Liu Ying's sister Princess Lu Yuan, that is, Liu Ying's niece, and although Liu Ying is very reluctant, she has no choice.
In the fourth year of Emperor Hui of Han, the powerful Empress Lü made Zhang Yan, who was only eleven years old, empress. At this time, Lü Hou hoped that Zhang Yan could give birth to a son for Liu Ying, but because Zhang Yan was too young, although she tried all kinds of ways, she still could not get pregnant. Lü Hou had to take the form of a fake pregnancy to "create" a child for Empress Zhang Yan, Liu Ying once had a son with a daughter of a palace and named Liu Gong, so Lü Hou succeeded to Zhang Yan's name and falsely claimed that she was born to Zhang Yan, so that Zhang Yan, who had no heirs, also had children. Later, Lü Hou ordered liu gong's biological mother to be killed and made liu gong crown prince, thus establishing the "legitimacy" of the heir.
In 188 BC, Liu Ying died at the age of 23. After Liu Ying's death, the crown prince Liu Gong succeeded to the throne as emperor, known in history as "The Young Emperor of the Former Han Dynasty", and Lü Hou became the empress dowager to listen to the government, and wantonly divided the kings surnamed Lü, which caused dissatisfaction among the ministers of the court.
Liu Gong was the titular son of Liu Ying and empress "Zhang Yan", not his own child, and after ascending the throne, he gradually learned the truth, and he spent all day thinking about avenging his own mother, so Lü Hou was fierce
Threats cleared.
After the incident of the Former Young Emperor of Han, Lü Hou accelerated the progress of his dictatorship, and for Lü Hou, it was only in his best interest to treat Liu Han Tianzi as a "puppet", so Lü Hou chose Liu Ying's other son Liu Hong as the emperor's heir, and Liu Hong, who was known as the "Young Emperor of the Later Han Dynasty", was very young when he succeeded to the throne, just a child, so there was no threat to Lü Hou.
After the "Later Shao Emperor" Liu Hong succeeded to the throne for eight years, Lü Hou died of illness, and things had developed according to normal circumstances, and there may have been no more things for Liu Heng, the Emperor of HanWen, and as a result, a new situation appeared in a period of time.
Third, sudden new situations
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, after Liu Bang ascended the throne, he killed baima and made a white horse alliance with his subjects, "who is not the king of the Liu clan, and the whole world strikes together". It was intended to consolidate the liu power and attack the princes who were not surnamed Liu.
In 180 BC, Lü Hou was critically ill, but before his death, she still did not forget to continue to consolidate the lü clan's world, she summoned her nephews Lü Lu and Lü Chan, and made a dying instruction, appointing Lü Lu and Lü Chan, the king of Zhao, to command the northern and southern armies respectively, and also to firmly control the army, guard the palace, and not to leave the palace to mourn for her.
Shortly after Lü Hou's death, Lü Lu and Lü Chan began to rebel in an attempt to subvert the Liu regime. The two brothers, Liu Xiang the Prince of Qi and Liu Zhang, the Marquis of Zhuxu, together with the chancellor Zhou Bo and Chen Pingren, finally succeeded in killing the Lü family and completely eliminating the Lü clique. After the destruction of Lü, a new question arose, who would inherit the throne?
At this time, if the new emperor is any of Liu Ying's heirs, there will be a remnant of Lü Hou's bloodline, which makes Zhou Bo and Chen Pinggong group very headache, the best thing to do is to cut the grass and remove the roots, once and for all.
In view of the fact that Lü Hou had done the thing of "giving birth to a child through the belly", the ministers believed that Liu Ying's other sons: Liu Jiang the Prince of Huaiyang, Liu Buxi the King of Changshan, Liu Hong, Liu Chao, and Liu Wu were probably not Liu Ying's own children, and in order to ensure the orthodoxy and "political correctness" of the Han Dynasty, all those related to the Lü clan had to be eliminated, so Liu Ying's lineage was completely cut off with the success of the Lü coup.
Fourth, the consideration of the heroes
For the thorny new question of who will take over the Han Dynasty, the heroes who have contributed to the suppression of chaos have their own considerations. First of all, they realized that the maternal power of Emperor Hui's Liu Ying was too strong, coupled with the special status of Empress Lü, which led to the dictatorship and chaos, which caused the rebellion of Zhu Lü, so the mother family of the new emperor must not be too strong, and the weaker the background, the better.
Although Liu Xiang, the King of Qi, was the eldest grandson of Liu Bang, had the qualifications to inherit the imperial throne, and had meritorious contributions to quelling chaos, if Liu Xiang became emperor, then their merits in quelling chaos were not very well calculated, which was not in line with the development of the interests of the Gongchen clique, and at the same time, Liu Xiang's influence as a prince was also very large, and it was difficult to guarantee that he would not exclude the Gongchen clique from the court after he ascended the throne.
Liu Bang's eighth son was Liu Chang the Prince of Huainan. Although Liu Chang also participated in the coup d'état of Lü Lü, he had a good relationship with Lü Hou, so it was difficult for Zhou Bo and Chen Ping to be sure that Liu Chang would not suppress the Gongchen clique after he ascended the throne, and in a comprehensive consideration of his own power and interests, Liu Chang would not have the support of Zhou Bo and Wang Ping's Gongchen clique.
In the end, the new emperor must be orthodox of the Liu clan, and must have both moral integrity and ability, and at the same time, he is not a big threat to himself, can be well controlled, and can correct problems if they occur. In summary, among Liu Bang's surviving sons, Liu Heng, the acting king, entered the scope of consideration of the hero.
Liu Heng is a benevolent filial piety, far away from the political center for many years, and at the same time does not involve the chaotic politics of Zhu Lü, and his background is even simpler, his mother Bo Ji, because Ofu hou has been living in Daidi, the mother's family has only one uncle, Bo Zhao, and has been following Liu Heng in Daidi and has no power, which meets the conditions.
5. Summary
In 180 BC, Liu Heng entered Chang'an and officially became the ruler of the Western Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, he continued to work hard to govern the country, practiced frugality, built water conservancy, abolished corporal punishment, enabled the people to cultivate and live, opened up a good situation of "the rule of Wenjing", and laid the foundation for the strength and prosperity of the Western Han Dynasty.
Although Liu Ying, the Emperor of Han Hui, had 6 sons, he was helpless to survive the brutal political struggle in the early Western Han Dynasty, and Liu Heng, who was far from the center of the political whirlpool, unexpectedly obtained the right to inherit the throne, not so much that the Lu Gongchen clique chose Liu Heng as history chose Liu Heng.