''Red face and bad water' is a highly controversial idiom. The so-called "red face" refers to a beautiful woman, and as early as in the Book of Han, there was a sentence of "both excitement and heart-wrenching, wrapped in red face and Formin". In the brilliant Cao Zhi's pen, there are even more good sentences such as ''The rotten demon of Heavenly Beauty, the red face is bright and flowing'". The so-called "disaster water" refers to the root cause of the disaster, which comes from a sentence by Nao Fangcheng describing Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede's sisters, "This disaster water will also extinguish the fire!" ''
Time goes on, the red face tempts people, and the water harms the country. People use red face to describe women who are beautiful but induce evil.
The sister who seduced Xia Jie to build the wine pond, instigated the king of Lu to build a deer platform, the punishment of Daxing cannon branding, the killing of the concubine of the sage Bigan, and the praise that saw the princes being teased before showing a smile, etc., were often regarded as classic cases of red face and water disaster.
In the Spring and Autumn Period of our country, there was also such a woman, who single-handedly made the powerful Jin State decline and interpreted the meaning of "Red Face Disaster Water", she is Li Ji.
Li Ji, also known as Li Ji in "Lü Shi Chunqiu". She was originally the daughter of the monarch of the ethnic minority Li Rong, and she was outstanding from an early age. At that time, adjacent to Li Rong was the Jin state, one of the most powerful princely states in the Spring and Autumn Period. When Li Ji was young, the monarch of the Jin state killed by force the Duke wu of Jin, who had annexed the State of Jin and was recognized by Zhou Tianzi. Just by the name, he advocates force. It was he who had destroyed the Xun Kingdom and others, and had captured the yi state of yi.
In order to commemorate his meritorious deeds in capturing Yi Wei zhu alive, the Duke of Jin Wu also named his son Wei Zhu. In 677 BC (the thirty-ninth year of the Duke of Wu of Jin), Duke Wu died and was succeeded by his son Wei Zhu, who was known as the Duke of Jin. Under the influence of his father, Duke Xiangong of Jin was very fond of foreign conquests. In the fifth year of his reign, Xiangong led an army to attack Li Rong and won a great victory. At the moment of the great enemy, the monarch of Li Rong had no choice but to sacrifice his two daughters in exchange for peace, including the beautiful Li Ji.
According to the "Chronicle of History", "'Five years, cut Li Rong, get Li Ji, Li Ji brother, all love lucky'". Although it is said here to be ''Li Ji Brother'', it actually refers to ''Female Brother''', that is, sister. Jin Xiangong was very fond of the sisters, which laid hidden dangers for the future turmoil in the Jin kingdom. According to the Zuo Biography, Xiangong wanted to make Li Ji his wife, but the result of the tortoise shell divination was not auspicious, and the result of the yarrow divination was auspicious. Therefore, he took the yarrow as the criterion and married Li Ji.
At that time, the person in charge of divination had advised: "A turtle is short and long, but it is not as long as a turtle." This means that the results of the tortoise shell divination are more accurate, but Xiangong insists on marrying Li Ji, despite the advice. Later, Li Ji gave birth to a son named Xi Qi for Gong Xiang. As a mother, Li Ji naturally wanted her children to become princes, but the crown prince at that time was Shen Sheng, born to the daughter of Gong Xian and Duke Huan of Qi, and in addition to him, Zhong'er and Yiwu were also more qualified than Xi Qi.
What to do? Li Ji first transferred Prince Shensheng to Quwo, where the Zongmiao Temple and the Border Pass were located, on the grounds that the Zongmiao Temple and the border pass were important, and moved Zhong'er and Yiwu to the Border Pass City. Three princes who were well qualified to inherit the throne of the country went to other places, and only the sons born to the Li Ji sisters for the dedication of the duke remained in the capital. Over time, the devotee naturally became estranged from his son from a foreign country, and loved the children around him.
It is also recorded in the Records of History that Gong Xian once told Li Ji that he wanted to abolish Shen Sheng and make Xi Qi crown prince instead. At this time, Li Ji was crying and crying: "Why should you abolish Shi Lishu for the sake of a concubine?" The king will do it, and the concubine will commit suicide. On the surface, Li Ji was generally wise and virtuous, but in fact she was evil to the prince and wanted to establish her son. In the twenty-first year of the Jin Dynasty (656 BC), Li Ji asked Shen Sheng to send sacrificial meat to the Gong. Secretly, she poisoned the flesh, and when the gong wanted to eat it, Li Ji proposed a poison test, and then blamed the poisoning on Shen Sheng.
Li Ji not only blamed the misfortune, but also added fuel to the fire: ''
Prince Ho Ninya! And his father wants to kill him, but what about others? And the old man, the man of twilight, could not stay and wanted to kill it!
In order to save his life, Shen Sheng had to flee and committed suicide shortly after.
Demons are crazy things. Li Ji did not stop there, claiming that Shigeru and Yiwu were also involved in the poisoning. The old and dim-witted, ill-informed Duke Xian forced the two sons to flee to other countries.
Soon after, Xiangong died of illness, and before his death, he designated Xi Qi as the monarch. One day, the evil deeds will be liquidated, and the general Rick, who supported Prince Shensheng, launched a coup d'état and killed Xi Qi. After Xi Qi's death, Li Ji's sister's child Zhuo Zi succeeded to the throne a few days later, and was also killed by Rick. According to the Biography of the Daughters of Lie, when Rick killed Zhuozi, he also "whipped Li Ji in the city" to vent people's dissatisfaction.
After leveling Li Ji's gang, Rick embraced Li Yiwu, who was also known as jin Huigong. However, Jin Huigong ruled the country without any way, and did not remember the old feelings and killed Rick and other ministers who supported him.
After reigning for more than ten years, Duke Hui died, and his son succeeded him as Duke Huai of Jin. Jin Huaigong was young and vigorous, and did not know how to govern the country. During the period from the death of Gong Xian to the time when Duke Wen of Jin succeeded to the throne, the Jin state was always in a state of chaos and disorder, and its national strength was greatly weakened.
It was not until Duke Wen succeeded to the throne that the Jin state gradually revived and became strong, and one of the major reasons for the decline of the Jin state was Li Ji's interference in the succession.