What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
At the side of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, there was such a special general. Yu Gong was a famous general in the Western Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu; Yu Private, he was both Emperor Wu's brother-in-law and Emperor Wu's brother-in-law. Because he married Emperor Wu's sister, and Emperor Wu married his sister. Yes, he is the well-known Wei Qing.
Logically, Wei Qing's relationship with Emperor Wu was so special, so after Wei Qing's death, shouldn't Emperor Wu be kind to his people? However, there are rumors that after Wei Qing's death, Emperor Wu directly killed his entire family. The cruelty of the means is jaw-dropping. So, after Wei Qing's death, how was his family treated? Did Emperor Wu really attack his family?
First, after Wei Qing's death, the relevant situation of his family.
First of all, let's understand the specific family situation of Wei Qing. Wei Qing came from a humble background, his mother was Wei Mi, a slave girl of the Marquis of Pingyang, and his father Zheng Ji was better, but he was just a county official. Because his parents were born to him through adultery, and his father later abandoned his mother, Wei Qing and Wei Zifu can only be regarded as half-siblings.
And in addition to Wei Zifu, Wei Qing's half-siblings also have an older brother and two older sisters. Fortunately, Wei Zifu's sister had a good relationship with Wei Qing, otherwise, the relationship between Wei Qing and the Wei clan would not have developed so closely. Especially after Wei Zifu became Emperor Wu's woman, Wei Qing not only received special care from Emperor Wu, but also had the opportunity to make meritorious achievements and create a bright future for himself.
Secondly, let's understand the relevant situation of Wei Qing's family after his death. Before Wei Qing died, his half-brother had already died. The three sisters, except for the second sister Wei Shao'er, the other two sisters were clearly killed by Emperor Wu for committing something. Even his own son was killed by Emperor Wu for committing the great crime of falsely transmitting holy wills.
It seemed that most of the more important relatives in Wei Qing's family had been killed by Emperor Wu. But in fact, they were mostly killed by Emperor Wu after committing some crime or doing something that angered Emperor Wu. In addition, after Wei Qing's death, Emperor Wu did not kill the rest of his family. Therefore, it can be said that after Wei Qing's death, Emperor Wu did not treat his people with a cruel hand.
Second, the reason why the WeiQing family was treated like this by Emperor Wu.
In the eyes of many people, even if Emperor Wu did not kill the rest of his clan after Wei Qing's death, he could be regarded as not treating his clan well, after all, at least, Wei Qing's two sisters, a nephew (the cause of Huo's illness and death is unknown, so let's not mention it for the time being) and one son were all killed by Emperor Wu. But in fact, there were more profound reasons why Emperor Wu would treat these people in the Wei Qing family in this way.
First of all, these people are basically related to the case of witchcraft in the Western Han Dynasty. The case went like this: At the beginning, someone reported that Gongsun Jingsheng, the son of Wei Qing's eldest sister, had cursed Emperor Wu with witchcraft, and Emperor Wu was old and very superstitious at that time, so he immediately launched an investigation into the matter after receiving the news.
As a result, Jiang Chong, who was ordered to investigate this matter, had a vendetta against Wei Qing's nephew Liu Zhao, so he tried to organize the people involved in the case to bite the Wei clan and the crown prince. Later, the crown prince and empress Dowager Wei Zifu were not willing to be wronged, and in the case of helplessness, they chose to prove their innocence by death. And those people of the Wei clan mentioned in the above content or those who were related to the Wei clan also ended up with a tragic fate of Huang Quan because of this case.
Secondly, Emperor Wu's relationship with Wei Zifu and the crown prince had long been extremely bad. Although in his early years, Emperor Wu did greatly favor Wei Zifu and the crown prince Liu Zhao, whom she had born. However, because Liu Zhu was too close to the Wei clan and the relationship was too close, in his old age, Emperor Wu disliked Liu Zhao more and more.
Even in order to abolish Liu Zhao, the prince, he did a lot of small actions in private. Unfortunately, Liu Zhao had the full support of the Wei clan behind him, so even if Emperor Wu was no longer dissatisfied with Liu Zhao, he could not easily abolish Liu Zhao according to his own thoughts for a while and a half. After such a long time, Naturally Emperor Wu would become intolerable. From this point of view, the case of Wu Jiao seemed to be an unjust case, but it was not necessarily the result that Emperor Wu wanted.
Since the two people most relied on by the Wei clan died because of the witchcraft case, the overall power of the Wei clan would naturally suffer a big blow. If Emperor Wu really took the opportunity to exterminate Wei Qing's people, it would be completely logical. After all, he did not do this, so it can be seen that he still tells some feelings.
In fact, judging from the above content, Wei Qing's early death may not be necessarily a bad thing. If he dies late, he will also be implicated in the case of witchcraft. At that time, he may not only die a very miserable death, but also have to worry about the fate of his people.
If he died after Wei Zifu and The Crown Prince Liu Zhao, it is estimated that his whole person would have to collapse. If he had to face Emperor Wu of Han after the death of his relatives one after another, the scene would definitely seem more embarrassing and tragic. So from this point of view, Wei Qing is still a relatively lucky person. What do you think about that?