Chronicles of the Two Jin Dynasties and The Southern and Northern Dynasties - (Ninety-Eight) Gao Yang (Part 1)
If there is any history in Chinese history that is the most heinous, it is probably the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties; and if the history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties is the most absurd and eroded, it may be the Northern Qi Dynasty.
In the past few years, remade historical dramas like to create based on the stories of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially the Post-Three Kingdoms period, such as "The Biography of Chu Qiao" about the Western Wei Dynasty, and the "Lanling King" and "The Legend of Lu Zhen" of Northern Qi. It is only because of the fiction and adaptation of the TV series that the already chaotic history appears even more complicated, making people unable to see the truth.
I have no interest in these TV series (to be honest, I have not seen it), but I have heard about their deeds of magically changing historical figures and whitewashing the historical images of some characters. Therefore, it is necessary to take a good look at the history of this chaotic carnival.
First of all, let's talk about the first emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang.
As we said before, Northern Qi was very similar to Northern Zhou and Cao Wei at that time, and had an actual founder (Gao Huan/Yuwen Tai) who controlled the imperial government for many years without being called emperor. And Northern Qi is also very similar to Sun Wu, that is, his first emperor is actually the third leader of his own ruling group, and there is a big brother between him and his father, Gao Cheng.
Gao Cheng is the eldest son of Gao Huan, who inherits all the advantages of his parents, is the heir that everyone wants, and is also the successor that Gao Huan strives to cultivate. After Gao Huan's death, Gao Cheng very properly handled the Hou Jing anti-water incident, and successfully spilled the disaster water on the Southern Dynasty, and also took a lot of land with his hands, which shows his high political INTELLIGENCE.
After making such a great contribution, the Emperor of Eastern Wei also had to express it - to give Gao Cheng a Zen package of "Sealing the Xiang Kingdom + King of Qi + Worshiping No Name, Entering the Dynasty, and Walking on the Sword". Gao Cheng was not satisfied with this, and continued to work hard, personally rushing to Yingchuan to defeat Western Wei, and also capturing the Western Wei general Wang Sizheng. For a time, Gao Cheng was in the limelight in the Eastern Wei and even among the Later Three Kingdoms, and his status as the first powerful country in eastern Wei became more and more solid.
At this moment, Gao Cheng suddenly died in his own home, or was killed by his own cook.
According to Zheng Shi, it is said that Gao Cheng saw his own cook one day when he was eating, and he said, "Sooner or later, I will chop up this slave." This cook was not an ordinary person, he was the son of the famous Liang Dynasty general Lan Qin (who was the same name as Chen Qingzhi at the time), and he came to Gaofu to be a subordinate because he was defeated and captured. The more the general tiger thought about it, the angrier he became, and he took a knife and killed his master.
This story sounds a bit bizarre, after all, No matter how big Lan Gongzi's temper is, it is not to the point where he can kill people with a knife in the palace. But the most bizarre thing about this matter is not this, but the result of its treatment.
Soon after the incident, Gao Yang rushed to his brother's mansion with people and chopped all the people involved in the case into meat sauce (known in history as "cutting off a group of thieves and painting their heads"). Subsequently, he announced to the outside world that his brother was seriously ill and was in charge of all affairs by himself. It was not until the first month of the following year (the crime occurred in August) that he paid for his brother's funeral.
Shi Guan had many praises here, saying that at that time, the civil and military officials had a contemptuous color toward Gao Yang, and Gao Yang did not panic and stabilize the situation. In fact, more than a thousand years later, we can see that the relationship between Gao Cheng's death and his second brother is very ambiguous; how can the minister at that time not see it? It's just that the clues have all been broken, and we can only speculate.
Compared with his brother Gao Cheng, Gao Yang is indeed a lot worse. He inherited the wisdom of his parents, but did not inherit the appearance of his parents, which was a huge regret in the southern and northern dynasties of appearance justice. Therefore, for this son, Gao Huan and Lou Zhaojun were very unpopular.
But Gao Yang still had a shining point after all, and one day Gao Huan pointed to a mess and asked his nephews, "How are you going to untie it?" Everyone else was at a loss, only Gao Yang pulled out his saber and cut it off, and said four words lightly: "The chaos must be cut!" (This is the origin of the quick knife chopping mess)
This solution, which was extremely wise from alexander the great hundreds of years ago, was appreciated by Gao Huan, who gradually changed his mind about the son and allowed him to participate in all affairs. And he also relied on his own efforts to take over the banner of his father and brother and became the third generation of the head of the Gao family.
Less than a year after Gao Yang took over, he forced the Eastern Wei emperor Yuan Shanmi to abdicate and became emperor of Daqi himself. Thus began his nine-year reign. By the way, the year he was proclaimed emperor, he was just twenty-four years old.
As a top-level second-generation official and emperor, Gao Yang's nine-year emperor can be said to be magnificent and sloppy, which can be called a model of a generation of young emperors, and it is also a textbook for patients with mental disorders caused by substance abuse.
At the beginning of his reign as emperor, Gao Yang looked like a virtuous prince no matter how he looked. He used both inner softness and rigidity, did not avoid the magnates, and ordered the governance of Northern Qi; externally, he personally led troops to attack the Kumoxi people in the north, and even led the charge with death squads, lest there be many enemies (the original words of the history books).
As for his greatest enemy, Western Wei, Gao Yang was even more ruthless. Once, when he was on a cruise to the border between the two countries, he also issued a special edict, saying that he was about to pacify the Western Wei dynasty in the near future. Western Wei, who had just died of Yuwen Tai, discussed very seriously the question of whether to move the capital to Longyou. Gao Yang's deterrent power can be seen.
If Gao Yang could steadily export his talents in this way for twenty or even ten years, history might be rewritten, and the last to unify the world would be his Northern Qi. Unfortunately, however, there is not. Not only did he not, but he was also intoxicated by his great deeds, and he died before he could wait for the ninth anniversary of his ascension to the throne.
So, how did this Northern Qi Wenxuan Emperor come to perdition? We'll talk about it next time.