When it comes to the emperors who have relatively good feelings in history, we must mention one person. There was a Chai clan who was once a concubine of Li Cunmao of later Tang Zhuangzong, and later Li Cunmao died because of the change of xingjiaomen, and Later Tang also collapsed, and his concubines were all dismissed from the palace, and Chai, who had become a widow, had to go home to his parents. So what about this Chai after that?
It is also a legendary thing to say, when Chai and his parents stayed at a hotel overnight, they saw a ragged man. The man looks like a practicing family, looking majestic and tall, handsome and extraordinary. As soon as Chai saw him, he secretly had feelings and took the initiative to ask his parents to marry him. After the two married, chai died within a few years, and this man later became the son of heaven. As the son of heaven, he did not set up other women as his queen, but chose the Chai clan, who had already passed away.
He was Guo Wei, the Taizu of later Zhou. In fact, Guo Wei not only married this one widow, but there were three concubines in his harem, all of whom had been other people's wives. This is just an anecdote, to talk about comfort, but Guo Wei's career as emperor is very admirable. The reason why Chai Shi was able to look at him at a glance was not only because of his appearance. During his reign, he abolished harsh government, appointed talents, and was diligent and thrifty, laying the economic foundation for the later northern Song Dynasty.
If you have never heard of Guo Wei's name, then you must have an impression of the flower monk Lu Zhishen. In order to avenge the Jin family's father and daughter, Lu Tizhi beat Zheng Butcher to death under the pretext of buying meat. The prototype of this story is Guo Wei, who when he was a teenager, he used to make Li Jitao a soldier under Jiedu, because Li Jitao was particularly fond of him, so he was also more willful in his early years. Once, when he drank too much wine, he saw a butcher selling meat in the market bullying a beggar, so he scolded him in the name of buying his meat. The butcher was also a bully, with a body of flesh. The two men were not convinced by each other, and the butcher provoked him, saying that he had a knife in his hand and did not even dare to cut it. As a result, the drunken Guo Wei grabbed the knife and killed him.
Of course, Guo Wei's fate was much better than Lu Zhishen's, because he was favored, and Li Jitao let him go without much punishment. He successively worked under the two emperors Li Cunmao and Liu Zhiyuan, and made great contributions to the Later Han dynasty. However, when Liu Zhiyuan died, his son Liu Chengyou was jealous of Guo Wei and other old ministers, so he instructed his henchmen to murder Guo Wei and others. As a result, ZhenNingjun made Li Hongyi turn against the whistleblower instead. After Guo Wei learned of this, he gradually became antipathetic. After that, Liu Chengyou actually threatened his wife and children, which directly led to Guo Wei's rebellion, it can be said that if it were not for Liu Chengyou's death, perhaps Guo Wei would not have rebelled, and the Later Han would not have perished because of this.
But the change of dynasties is itself a law of history. In the first year of Guangshun (951), the 47-year-old Guo Wei supported himself and quickly overthrew the Later Han regime and established the Later Zhou regime. Because he was originally born in cloth, he paid great attention to people's livelihood. He once said in the courtroom: "I am a poor man, fortunate to be an emperor, how dare I be generous and self-reliant to support the sick people!" He reduced the people's taxes, relaxed the ban on the salt and liquor business, distributed many unowned fields in the chaotic world to displaced people who did not occupy the land, and compiled the displaced people into household books. After a period of implementation, the people heard of Guo Wei's good name, and those who suffered in other countries poured into the Central Plains where Hou Zhou was located.
And although he was born as a military general, the most valuable thing is that he treated the literati kindly, attached great importance to the words of the counselors, and paid great attention to cultural cultivation, which was very similar to zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty. He once said: "Growing up in the military, he did not understand learning, nor was he proficient in the grand plan of governing the country and securing the country, and if a civil and military official benefited the country and the people, he would go directly to the book and say things, and he should never just write some useless words that whitewashed taiping." "If you can accept advice, why worry that there is no talent available?"
In order to promote Confucianism, Guo Wei personally visited the Confucius Temple and the descendants of the Confucius family, treated the descendants kindly, and built many Confucius temples. However, although he advocated Confucianism, he was biased towards the ideas of the Dharma and Taoism in governing the country. This can be seen from the harsh punishment and leniency of the people after his revision. Moreover, he was originally from a poor background, so naturally he did not understand the Confucian thought centered on the aristocracy, and the reason why he admired Confucianism was only to value the benevolent love in it.
Especially when he was sick and dying in bed, he did not make his own son the crown prince, but chose his adopted son Chai Rong to inherit the throne. This Chai Rong was actually his nephew, and because of his literary and martial prowess, he was valued by Guo Wei and adopted as an adopted son. The reason why he made Chai Rong a crown prince was that he did have the talent to govern the country, and second, because his empress died early, he did not want to make a concubine's son a crown prince, and was only willing to recognize an empress. There are very few emperors in the world who are so obsessed and loyal, and he has his own nephew, which does not conform to the traditional rules of establishing a concubine, which can also be confirmed from the side that he does not respect Confucianism.
Unfortunately, he eventually failed to complete the hegemony and left with regret, and his righteous son Chai Rong lived up to his expectations, and continued his governing philosophy and ideas in an orderly manner, but Chai Rong died after only five years on the throne, leaving his seven-year-old son and important minister Zhao Kuangyin. Chai Rong's son was unable to take on heavy responsibilities at all, and within a few years he was given the Zen throne to Zhao Kuangyin, after which the Northern Song Dynasty with unlimited scenery began.
If the Northern Song Dynasty was a prosperous period of high economic prosperity and development, then its predecessor and posthumous Zhou were absolutely indispensable, because in the later Zhou Dynasty, Guo Wei laid the economic and legal foundation, and Chai Rong's reign had already begun to prepare for the unification of all countries, although he died of sudden illness during the Northern Expedition to the Liao State, but it also provided a reference and reference for Zhao Kuangyin's great cause of unification.
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