China has a long history of thousands of years, the ancient feudal system, the emergence of countless regimes, the rise and fall of the dynasty, and the birth of countless figures, but in the past male and female inferior society, women in power is often as difficult as ascending to the heavens, but there are still many women who monopolize power, such as Lü Hou of the Han Dynasty and Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, of course, the most famous, or the establishment of the Great Zhou Wu Zetian, she directly sat on the throne herself, honored the Ninth Five-Year Dignity. The person I want to talk about today, her status is not worse than Wu Zetian's, in the position of the entire imperial court above ten thousand people, monopolizing power, but cruelly poisoning her own son, and her grandson was almost starved to death by him, this person is Empress Feng of Northern Wei.
Feng was a Northern Yan royal family during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, her grandfather Feng Hong was the monarch of Northern Yan during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Feng was born in 441, at this time Northern Yan had been destroyed for six or seven years, Northern Wei's Tuoba Tao had completed the unification of northern China, and soon after the 13-year-old Wencheng Emperor ascended the throne, he chose him to become a nobleman to enter the palace, when she was only 12 years old.
After Feng Later came to the palace, Emperor Wencheng's style of administration also had a profound impact on her, which laid the foundation for her to become the empress dowager in her later period. In the second year of Tai'an (456), the 15-year-old Feng Shi was made empress of the Middle Palace by Emperor Wencheng, which had a very profound relationship with Emperor Wencheng not only admiring her appearance, but also liking her intelligence and life.
Two months after Feng was made empress, the harem concubine Li Shi gave birth to Tuoba Hong and was made crown prince, according to Northern Wei customs, Li Shi was immediately given death to avoid the mother's son Gui and the chaos of the government, so Empress Feng undertook to raise Tuoba Hong's people, she regarded him as her own son, very kind, so that Emperor Wencheng was also deeply pleased.
However, in the sixth year of peace, Emperor Wencheng died at the age of 25. The remaining 11-year-old Tuoba Hong ascended the throne, he honored Feng as the empress dowager, and Feng Hou was also very sad about the death of her husband, and it took a long time to get out of this emotional trauma period.
However, Empress Feng was only 24 years old at this time, and the Northern Wei people's customs were open, Empress Feng often summoned those beautiful men into the palace as companions, Li Yi was the son of an official eunuch, looked like a gentleman, and was versatile and understanding, so she was favored by Empress Feng, which also made the people talk about it at that time.
Tuoba Hong registered as Emperor Xianwen, he was also very dissatisfied with his mother's behavior, and at that time he did not dare to say it, and finally once, Emperor Xianwen casually found an excuse to regard Li Yi's brother Li Shi as a rebel and arrested Li Yi and killed him together.
When Empress Feng received this news, she was very angry and immediately asked Emperor Xianwen to give up the throne, forced by the power of his mother, he could only give way in 471 to the 5-year-old crown prince Tuoba Hong, who was not yet 5 years old, that is, the famous Emperor Xiaowen, but because the crown prince was young, in fact, Emperor Xianwen of Taishang still held the power.
Feeling uneasy, Empress Feng decided to set up an ambush, captured Emperor Xianwen of Taishang, and then poisoned him to personally manage the government, Empress Feng was always worried that Emperor Xiaowen wanted to avenge her father, so on the day of the moon, she locked her grandson, who was only wearing a single coat, in a hut, did not give food for three days, and almost starved him to death. Thanks to the persuasion of his ministers, he was released, but Emperor Xiaowen always treated Empress Feng with a respectful attitude and did not have any dissatisfaction, and Feng Hou was also impressed, so he slowly let him participate in the affairs of the imperial court and let go of his power for 57 years.