There is no unprovoked love in the world, there is no unprovoked hatred, and naturally there is no unprovoked temperament mutation, and the sudden change in the disposition of an ordinary person must be stimulated by some kind of deep stimulation on the road of his life. This judgment, which is used to analyze how the "perverted" emperor Gao Yang of Northern Qi degenerated from a wise lord to a tyrant, is fully applicable.
During the first six years of Gao Yang's reign (550-555), he carried out strict reforms, reorganized the army and the military, and advised the peasants to study and rectify the administration of officials, not only to keep the country in good order and to make the country rich and strong, but also to repeatedly defeat the fierce enemies of Western Wei and Southern Liang, defeat The Ruoran, Turks, Khitans and other foreign nationalities, and win every battle, and wei Zhen Rongxia, pushing northern Qi's national strength and prestige to the peak. At this time, Gao Yang was undoubtedly a wise lord who worked hard and worked hard.
At the beginning of Gao Yang's reign, he was originally a hard-working emperor
However, during the last four years of his reign (556-559), Gao Yang completely degenerated into a prince of the Tang Dynasty, taking pleasure in indulging in alcoholism and brutal killing every day, and building a large number of civil engineering and rewarding expenses, resulting in an empty treasury and the collapse of armaments, and finally died violently due to excessive drinking, at the age of 34. At this time, Gao Yang was undoubtedly a tyrannical monarch who did not recognize his six relatives and was crazy and cruel.
So, what exactly caused the mutation of Gao Yang's personality? In addition to the traditional analysis of family medical history, it seems that some kind of strong external stimulus is the main cause. This irritation began with an extremely disgusting and stomach-wrenching murderous event that Gao Yang encountered in the last battle against Shanhu.
Shanhu often went south to harass the Central Plains
Shanhu, also known as Ji Hu and Bu Luo Ji, is another species of the Xiongnu ethnic group, which is said to be a descendant of the foreign tribes shanrong or Chidi who repeatedly threatened the Central Plains in the pre-Qin period, and belonged to the Southern Xiongnu during the Three Kingdoms period of the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, this tribe was distributed in present-day Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, and because it lived in a valley with a radius of 700 to 800 miles, it was named Shanhu. Mountain beards flourished, mixed with the Han chinese, mainly engaged in agricultural production, supplemented by silkworm mulberry, and clothed with sackcloth.
During the reign of Emperor Xiaoming of the Northern Wei Dynasty, dissatisfied with the influence of Empress Dowager Hu's tyranny, various ethnic groups in the north rebelled one after another, and for a time the masses competed and the Central Plains were in turmoil, and the situation was chaotic. At this time, Liu Lisheng, the leader of Fenzhou Shanhu, also took the opportunity to raise troops, stealing the title of emperor and appointing hundreds of officials in Yunyang Valley (in present-day Yunyangbao, northeast of Youyu County, Shanxi), and constantly harassing the border areas for more than ten years. The Northern Wei court, because it concentrated on eliminating the peasant armies such as Ge Rong, Xian Yu Xiuli, and Du Luozhou, and dealing with the invasion of Southern Liang, and then experienced an internal palace coup, so it did not spare its hands to deal with Liu Lisheng.
Map of the situation in the North and South Dynasties
After differentiation and integration, two major military groups were eventually formed in the territory of Northern Wei, namely the Yuwentai Group, which divided the Longyou area of Guanxi, and the Gaohuan Group, which divided the Hebei region of Guandong, and the Northern Qi and the Eastern Wei regime it inherited evolved from the Gaohuan Group. After Gao Huan conquered the Guandong Hebei, he began to solve the problem of Liu Lisheng, who had plagued the north for more than ten years. In order to make a quick decision, Gao Huan first pretended to make peace with Liu Lisheng and promised to marry his daughter to his "crown prince", and then took advantage of his lack of preparation to carry out a sneak attack, killing Liu Lisheng in a battle and severely injuring Shanhu in Fenzhou.
However, although Fenzhou Shanhu was severely damaged, the remnants were scattered among the valleys, and from time to time thereafter they would still come out to cause disturbances, a phenomenon that was not completely resolved until the fifth year of Gao Yang's reign. In the first month of the fifth year of Tianbao (554), Gao Yang personally marched on Fenzhou Shanhu, swept it away in one fell swoop, and beheaded more than 10,000 people. In order to deter the mountain beards distributed elsewhere, Gao Yang ordered that all men over the age of 12 in Fenzhou be beheaded, and the women and young were rewarded to the soldiers as spoils of war, and their last fortress, the Stone Tower, was bulldozed. For a time, "far and near the mountain Hu, do not hesitate to ambush" (see "History of the North"), no longer dare to come out to make trouble.
Gao Yang rode in person and completely stepped on the mountain hu
This annihilation battle was extremely fierce, and the Casualties of the Qi Army were not few, at that time, a governor was injured in battle, and lu Huili, the tenth husband under him, failed to rush to the rescue, thus causing himself to kill himself. After the war, the governor accused Lu Huili to the emperor, and Gao Yang was furious when he heard this, not only cutting Lu Huili's abdomen and digging his heart to death, but also ordering nine soldiers to eat his flesh, even eating the excrement in his body. Because this scene was too disgusting, many people present vomited incessantly, but Gao Yang watched it with relish, and thus found the pleasure of life from the abuse.
This historical fact is recorded in the "History of the North", and the author Li Yanshou also concluded that it was precisely because of this that the previous wise lord Gao Yang began to transform into a prince of the Qi. The book says, "Yes, there are all the governors who are wounded in battle, and their shi chang Lu Hui Li cannot be saved, and the emperor orders him to kill his five treasures, so that the nine people will eat them, and the flesh and filth will be exhausted." It was a threat from the beginning. (See The Seventh Chronicle of the Northern History of Qi Benji)
Gao Yang's wine was indiscriminate, and he eventually collapsed and died
It is precisely because of this incident that the perverted genes hidden in Gao Yang's body for a long time were activated, coupled with the lack of police in the surrounding areas and the stability of the country, which created "convenient" conditions for Gao Yang's absurd and tyrannical ambitions, and in four years, he changed his tricks and acted wildly, leaving a heinous record of evil. Exactly what evil deeds Gao Yang did are well documented in the history books, and this article will not repeat them.