Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "the most ruthless imperial family" says that within this royal family, there is deceit and cold-blooded ruthlessness in the power struggle. Between the ruling modes of the family world, how to obtain the position of power and firmly grasp the power of life and death has become the desire of many speculators. In front of them, family affection and love are regarded as means and are not worth mentioning. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, such a tragic case of fratricide occurred. The initiator was Liu Ziye, the new tianzi of the Liu Song Dynasty, but the victim was only a 10-year-old son of Huang Kou, his half-brother Liu Ziluan.
During the turbulent and chaotic Period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were many dynasties, and the northern region was even more chaotic because of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the Chaos of the Five Hus, which caused the chaos in the Central Plains, and finally the Northern Wei Dynasty, which was born from the Xianbei ethnic group, also ended this chaotic world. The northern region was gradually unified after the succession of the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, and Northern Five Dynasties; in the southern region, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which moved south to avoid disasters, further weakened in strength and prestige with the immorality of several dimwitted kings and the strength of the Mengmen clan, and was eventually replaced by Liu Yu, who was from a humble origin. In 420, Liu Yu deposed the Jin Dynasty and established the Song Dynasty, known in history as Liu Song. The Liu Song Dynasty enjoyed 60 years of state and 9 emperors. Subsequently, the southern region passed through the three dynasties of Qi, Liang, and Chen, until the Sui Dynasty destroyed Chen and achieved great unification, and the era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties was over.
Liu Ziye was the sixth emperor of the Liu Song Dynasty. Born in such a chaotic world as the Southern and Northern Dynasties, he had long been accustomed to the shadow of the sword and light, and when he was 4 years old, he was a hostage of Liu Shao, detained in Menxia Province, and was nearly killed.
His father Liu Jun's position as emperor came through speculation and chaos, which naturally made him have a very high desire for power control. However, although he was the crown prince, his position was not solid, and the reason was because his father Liu Jun married his cousin Yin Shuyi into the palace in disregard of ethics and gave birth to the crown prince Liu Ziluan; on the other hand, because of his unprofessional conduct, he was mostly reprimanded by his father Liu Jun, and his mother Wang Xianyan, although she was after Wang Dao, was much lighter than Yin Shuyi's birth and favor.
His younger brother Liu Ziluan, while being intelligent and pleasing, is also a noble son. When he was only 5 years old, he was given the title of King of Xiangyang, so that such powerful positions as Xuzhou Assassin History and Langya Taishou were given, and after Yin Shuyi's death, at the age of 8, Liu Ziluan was even given the title of Zhongshu Ling. The position of Zhongshu Ling was even higher than that of the prime minister, and the practice of the Southern and Northern Dynasties was that it was only held by those who were noble and noble and had literary talents. It can be seen that his father Liu Jun loves the house and Wu and the hidden heart of The Book. On the one hand, he is a younger brother who is constantly favored, and the other is himself who has been repeatedly rebuked by his father, which also makes Liu Ziye regard him as a thorn in his eye and will want to get rid of him quickly.
In 464, Emperor Xiaowu of Song died of illness, and Liu Ziye, as crown prince, took the throne. At the beginning of his reign, he began to take revenge on his brother, first stripping him of his official position as a secretary, and then taking advantage of Liu Ziluan's arrival in Beijing to give him poisoned wine and kill him. Although Liu Ziluan at this time was only a 10-year-old child, he was also in the imperial family, in the midst of a chaotic world, and he did not know that his brother Liu Ziye could have such a move. Before dying, he only left a shallow sentence of "May the body not be reborn in the royal family." This is not only a helplessness to reality, but also an inability to fight for power under the imperial system of feudal society. And this sentence has also become a famous sentence throughout the ages, and has been passed down to this day.
References: History of the South, Li Yanshou, etc