At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, the power of the princes surnamed Liu gradually became stronger, which made some people of insight deeply worried and suggested that this power be controlled. During the reign of Emperor Jingdi of Han, The Imperial Master Chao mistakenly proposed a strategy of cutting the domain, which was adopted by Emperor Jingdi of Han.
In 154 BC, when the imperial court ordered the stripping of some of the fiefdoms of the princes, Liu Tao, the king of Wu, joined forces with Liu Peng the king of Chu, Liu Sui the king of Zhao, Liu Xian the king of Zichuan, Liu Peiguang the king of Jinan, Liu Wei the king of Jiaoxi, and Liu Xiongqu, the king of Jiaodong, and launched a rebellion under the banner of "Jie Chao mistakenly taking the side of the Qing king", which is known in history as the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms".
After a year of bitter and bloody battles, Generals Zhou Yafu and Dou Bao finally suppressed all the rebels. However, although the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms was settled, there was a brutal struggle within the Han Dynasty over the ownership of the crown prince.
Emperor Jing of Han made Liu Rong, the son of Li Ji, crown prince
When Liu Qi, the Emperor of Hanjing, was still crown prince, he married his grandmother Empress Bo's niece Bo, which was also a typical political marriage. After Liu Qi succeeded to the throne, Bo became an empress, and none of the dozen children of Emperor Jing of Han were born to concubine Bo. In 153 BC, Emperor Jing of Han, in line with the principle of "standing without a concubine", made Liu Rong, the eldest son born to Li Ji, crown prince.
Li Ji is delicate in appearance and has the color of a city, and is deeply loved by the Han Jing Emperor. However, Li Ji's temper is quite spicy, especially like to compete for the wind and jealousy, and the person she hates the most is Liu Yan, the princess of Guantao, the sister of emperor Jingdi of Hanjing. Because Liu Yan often recommended beauty outside the palace for the emperor, after all, every woman wanted to be the only other half of her husband's attention.
Earlier, the eldest princess Liu Yan had told Emperor Jingdi of Han that Li Ji often let the palace ladies curse and spit on the emperor's favorite concubines with witchcraft behind their backs, and Liu Qi gradually became disgusted with Li Ji after hearing it, but remembered that he had a deep relationship with Li Ji in the past, and still did not care.
The deposed crown prince was replaced by Liu Che, and the two major foreign forces of the Dou and Wang clans allied
Later, when Emperor Jingdi of Han was ill, he tentatively asked Li Ji: "After a hundred years, you will treat other concubines and their sons kindly", Li Ji was already annoyed that the concubines were competing for favors, and replied: "I will kill them all!" ”
Listening to what Li Ji said, Emperor Jing of Han was also very disappointed, and the idea of deposing Empress Bo and establishing Li Ji as empress was also dispelled.
Not long after, the mother of the tenth prince Liu Che, Wang Xian, deliberately found a minister and asked him to write to Emperor Jing of Han that "the mother is precious to the son", the son is the prince, but the mother is not the empress, which is not in accordance with the rules, and it is recommended that Li Ji be made empress.
Emperor Jingdi of Han listened to the minister's words, thinking that Li Ji had sent him to say it, and in a fit of rage, he beheaded the minister. In early 150 BC, Emperor Jing of Han sent Li Ji into the Cold Palace, deposed the crown prince Liu Rong and made him the Prince of Linjiang; he made his tenth son Liu Che the Prince of Jiaodong crown prince, Made Liu Che's biological mother Wang Shu empress, and matered Chen Jiaoxu, the daughter of the eldest princess Liu Shu, to Liu Che.
Since then, the two major foreign forces of the Han Dynasty, the Dou clan and the Wang clan, formed an alliance, and they were not only able to influence the situation, but also supported Liu Che as the future emperor of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Jing of Han paved the way for the crown prince Liu Che to succeed to the throne
In his later years, Emperor Jingdi's health deteriorated, and he had to help the crown prince Liu Che find a powerful assistant before he could reach his limit, and at the same time clear all obstacles for the crown prince's ascension to the throne.
Before Emperor Jingdi of Han deposed the crown prince Liu Rong, he had consulted the chancellor Zhou Yafu, but was strongly blocked by Zhou Yafu, and Emperor Jingdi of Han felt that this person could no longer be used, and soon after he took his post and dismissed him and drove him back to his hometown. This time, Emperor Jing of Han remembered Zhou Yafu, a rare talent, and hoped that it would be left for the use of the prince in the future, so he summoned him to the palace to set up a banquet.
Emperor Jingdi of Han thought that Zhou Yafu, who had been snubbed for several years, would have a temper that would be tempered, and wanted to take the opportunity to test him, deliberately not placing chopsticks for him at the banquet, which made Zhou Yafu ashamed and indignant, and immediately stood up and left. Emperor Jingdi of Han sighed, "How can such a person assist the crown prince?" ”
This incident just passed, because Zhou Yafu's son secretly bought five hundred armor shields and was framed for rebellion, when the imperial court sent a court lieutenant to investigate, Zhou Yafu protested with hunger strike, and vomited blood and died five days later.
In the first month of 141 BC, Emperor Jing of Han died of illness, and the sixteen-year-old crown prince Liu Che ascended the throne (i.e., Emperor Wu of Han), and he honored his grandmother Dou Shi as empress dowager, his mother Wang Jiao as empress dowager, and his original wife Chen Jiao as empress.
Under the intervention of Empress Dou, Emperor Wu of Han's reforms were fruitless, and the two fought openly and secretly
In fact, when Liu Che first ascended the throne, he did not enjoy the authority of the emperor, but experienced many ups and downs, and the makers of these bumps were actually from his grandmother Empress Dou. But Liu Che was naturally rebellious, and he was very dissatisfied with some of the laws and regulations that existed at that time, and desperately wanted to reform them.
But for a sixteen-year-old child, it is very difficult to break the long-standing ruling philosophy and ideology of the Han court. However, until the emergence of the Confucian master Dong Zhongshu, he became the right hand of Emperor Wu of Han on the road of reform.
With the help of Dong Zhongshu, Wang Zang, and Zhao Xuan, the young Emperor Wu of Han decided to depose the Hundred Families and honor Confucianism alone. However, during the period of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the whole society was advocating the Taoist Huang Lao thought, and this kind of thinking has been running very smoothly in China, penetrating into the depths of the hearts of almost every people. Therefore, all the empress dowagers and all the civil and military officials upheld the Taoist huang laozhi and opposed this reform of Emperor Wu of Han.
In the face of unanimous opposition from the imperial court, Emperor Wu of Han's attitude was very resolute, and he began to reuse Confucian talents, while the ministers supported by Empress Dou were suppressed. In this case, Empress Dou began to interfere in the government, and she used iron fist means to force Emperor Wu of Han to execute Wang Zang and Zhao Xuan, and removed Dong Zhongshu from his position, and also demanded that the imperial court not allow the reform of the Confucian etiquette system.
Because Empress Dou's strength was too great at that time, Emperor Wu of Han could only be patient, and he began to disguise himself and reuse Empress Dou's confidants to paralyze Empress Dou. In private, Emperor Wu of han quietly developed the foreign forces of his mother's empress dowager Wang's clan to balance the Dou family, and used his half-brother Tian Jie as chancellor, thus forming a balance of power in the court.
After Empress Dou's death, Emperor Wu of Han began to purge Dou's henchmen and implement reforms
All along, Empress Dou had greatly admired the Taoist Huang Laozhi theory, and her thinking was too conservative, while Emperor Wu of Han adopted Dong Zhongshu's teachings, and her vision became very open, so the gap between the grandchildren and grandchildren became deeper and deeper. Later, Empress Dowager Dou found that there were more and more people in the imperial court who supported Emperor Wu of Han, so she tried to suppress these ministers, which further aroused Liu Che's resentment.
In this way, Empress Dou fought with Emperor Wu of Han for many years, until Empress Dou died in 135 BC. In the past, if he did not act according to Empress Dou's wishes, Liu Che might not even be able to sit on the throne. After seven years of silence and stoicism, the anger in his heart could finally erupt, and the first thing he did in charge of government affairs was to eliminate Empress Dou's henchmen who remained in the court.
At Empress Dou's funeral, Emperor Wu of Han directly deposed two of Empress Dou's confidants, and then eliminated Empress Dou's forces one by one through various tough means, and appointed a large number of Confucian talents, pushing Confucianism to the supreme position.
According to the official history, Empress Dou, who once put Emperor Wu of Han in a stalemate in the situation in the dprk, made Emperor Wu of Han still have respect after her death. Empress Dowager Dou was pure in nature and was a virtuous empress. He made many contributions to the Liu dynasty in his lifetime, and although he also did some wrong things, all his ideas were also for the stability of the Great Han Dynasty. Before Empress Dowager Dou died, she had instructed Emperor Wu of Han to make her last words, the most important of which was to beware of forces from the foreign relatives of her mother and queen concubines.
The foreign relatives of the Wang clan, the mother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, stepped into the court
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, foreign forces have always occupied a dominant position in the court, and with the death of Empress Dou, the foreign forces of Liu Che's birth mother, Empress Wang, began to appear in the court.
From the time of Emperor Jingdi of Han to the early days of Emperor Wu of Han, the foreign relative Dou Shi was always the most important political force in the imperial court, and the head of the clan, Dou Bao, was the nephew of Empress Dou, who made great military achievements when Emperor Jingdi of Han quelled the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, so he was given the title of Marquis of Wei. Due to Dou Bao's fame, all the guests and tourists in the world rushed to join him, and Tian Yu was one of them.
In order to appease Dou Bao, Tian Feng often came and went to the Wei Qihou Mansion to accompany the waiters to feast and drink, and with this relationship, Tian Feng slowly walked to the center of the court. In addition, Tian Yu was the younger brother of Empress Wang, and was directly promoted to chancellor by Emperor Wu of Han, which also laid the foundation for the future dispute between Tian Feng and Dou Bao.
After Empress Dou's death, the foreign relative Dou Bao also lost his dependence on the court, and without Empress Dou's restraint, Emperor Wu of Han was also ready to exert his own ambitions, and the foreign relative Dou clan certainly could not be reused. However, in order to stabilize the court, it was not possible to eliminate all the heroes of the Dou clan in the middle of the court.
The struggle between the two major foreign forces of Tian Yu and Dou Bao
Emperor Wu of Han began to slowly alienate Dou Bao, causing Dou Bao's power to decline suddenly, but the skinny camel was still bigger than Ma, and after so many years of operation, the Dou clan still had some foundation. There are still a few people who can sincerely repay the court, and the great general who has retired and returned to his hometown is one of them.
Originally, from the traffic in front of the Marquis of Wei Qihou to the current Menkolo Bird, such a strong contrast made Dou Bao's heart full of dissatisfaction, and the sincere disciple of his doorman Shufu often hugged him unevenly. However, what brought death to Dou Infant He Shufu was a banquet designed by The Prime Minister Tian Jie.
In the past, Tian Yu served Dou Infant like a domestic slave, but now he used his power to actually fight the idea of Dou Infant's land. On top of the banquet, the bushman drunkenly taught Tian Feng a lesson, and Tian Feng, who was the prime minister of the dynasty, naturally could not swallow this breath, so he simply ordered someone to arrest the bushman, and Dou Baby hurriedly stepped forward to rescue the bushman. In this way, the contradiction between Tian Yu and Dou Bao began to become public.
Dou Bao and Tian Fei came and went above the court, fighting with each other, even to the point where you were dead or alive. Tian Yu eventually relied on Empress Wang's power to win the victory, and as a result, Dou Fu and Dou Infant were executed for their sins, and the power of their cousin Dou clan in the court collapsed.
Without Dou Bao, the sworn enemy, Tian Yu's life should be safe and worry-free, but this is not the case. In the spring of the second year after Dou Bao's death, Tian Yu seemed to be stimulated and could not afford to fall ill, and his mouth was still murmuring apologies, and there was a folklore that Tian Feng was attached to Dou Bao and Dou Fu to ask for his life, which should not have much credibility. The imperial doctor in the dprk was also helpless against this disease, and could only watch as Tian Yu died without treatment.
Emperor Wu of han attacked the old foreign relatives, promoted the new foreign relatives, and reused the Wei clan
When Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty deprived the Dou clan of its rights, he not only took advantage of the close-knit Tian clan relatives, but also promoted new foreign relatives from humble origins from the people to strengthen imperial power. Among them, Wei Zifu was a dancer selected by Emperor Wu of Han from the palace of his sister Princess Pingyang, and gave birth to the eldest son Liu Zhao. Taking this opportunity, Emperor Wu of Han deposed Empress Chen, made Wei Zifu empress, and made Liu Zhi crown prince. At this point, the remnants of the Dou family were finally swept away.
At the same time, Emperor Wu of Han also promoted Empress Wei Zifu's younger brother Wei Qing, brother-in-law Gongsun He, and Wei Qing's friend Gongsun Ao, and let several of them take charge of military and political power and command troops to prepare for the Xiongnu. After all, these people did not live up to the trust of Emperor Wu of Han and became the main heroes of the Han Empire in repelling the Xiongnu.
For a time, the power of the Wei family was deeply favored by the emperor, and the imperial court formed a situation in which the Wei clan "dominated the world". Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty constantly promoted new foreign relatives and cracked down on old foreign relatives, but in the end he did not completely reverse the situation of the monopoly of power of foreign relatives.
Without the interference of the previous Dou foreign relatives, Emperor Wu of Han began a drastic reform, and the heyday of the Han Dynasty gradually emerged under his rule. According to the Book of Han and the Chronicle of Stone Goods:
"In the seventy years from the beginning of the Han Dynasty to the succession of Emperor Wu, due to domestic political stability, as long as there were no droughts and floods, the people were always well-off and rich. The granary of the county was full of grain, and the grain in the warehouse was rotten and inedible due to the staleness. The government's treasury has surplus wealth, the capital's money is millions, and the rope of the series of money is broken. ”
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the implementation of the national policy of recuperation and recuperation led to the emergence of the first rule of the world in China, and the implementation of a relatively enlightened politics during the Wenjing period laid a political and material foundation for the great unification of the later Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The Han Jing Emperor continued to adopt a policy of peace and affinity with the Xiongnu, and set up Guanshi on the border between Han and Hungary for trade exchanges, which also alleviated the tension between the Han and the Xiongnu to a certain extent.