In the last year of the Southern Dynasty Liu Song Dynasty, the last emperor of the Liu Song Dynasty abdicated under the coercion of the powerful minister Xiao Daocheng, and the deposed emperor, who knew that his fate would soon be over, wept: May the next life not be born in the imperial family. In fact, in the old era, whether it was an emperor or a commoner, it was difficult to have such a high happiness index as that of contemporary people - such as the "couple" of Emperor Hui of Han mentioned in this article. According to the Book of Han, Liu Bang died after being seriously wounded in the war against Yingbu, and after Liu Bang's death, the throne was succeeded by the crown prince Liu Ying.
Liu Ying's childhood memories are full of gloom: at that time, it was still the world of Great Qin, Liu Bang became a wanted criminal in the imperial court, resulting in Liu Ying being implicated, and Liu Ying spent his childhood in fear, and this life lasted until the end of the Chu-Han rivalry. From a psychological point of view, children who grow up in this environment are mostly weak personalities. Therefore, although Liu Ying became emperor, the power was completely in the hands of Lü Hou. Lü Hou had only one son and one daughter in his lifetime, the son was Liu Ying, and the daughter was Zhang Yan, the princess of Lu Yuan.
Later generations looked at Lü Hou from the perspective of thinking that Lü Hou was cruel, but in fact, as a widow, under the circumstances at that time, how could she not be cruel? At that time, the Undercurrent of the Han Dynasty was surging and it was only more than twenty years away from the Warring States Era, which had a tradition of courtiers and kings, and the old ministers left by Liu Bang and Liu Bang's sons (such as Liu Fei the King of Qi and Liu Ruyi the King of Zhao) were all threats to Lü Hou's mother and son. Therefore, for the sake of long-term planning, Lü Hou first killed several of Liu Bang's sons, and then forced Liu Ying to marry The daughter of Princess Lu Yuan, Empress Zhang of the Hui Emperor Dynasty. This ensures that the princess can rely on something in the future.
Marry your own niece? Of course, Liu Ying was reluctant, but she did not dare to oppose, and in this way, Zhang Yan, who was only eleven years old, was forced to marry Liu Ying and became a victim of political marriage. According to the "Records of History", after Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, he killed Liu Ying's "sons" on charges such as blood problems, and it can be seen from this record that before that, Liu Ying also had two sons, who after Liu Ying's death, successively served as emperors - that is, the former Young Emperor and the Later Shao Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty.
This shows that Liu Ying has many children under her knees, but Liu Ying and Empress Zhang have never had children. The mystery of Empress Zhang's lack of children was finally revealed in the first year of emperor Wen of Han's reign. At that time, it had been exactly twenty-nine years since Empress Zhang married Emperor Hui of Han. After Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, he placed Empress Zhang in a remote place and left her alone to die. Empress Zhang remembered her vague childhood, unhappy marriage, and the moment of exile, and gradually became depressed.
Eventually, Zhang Yan died in the first year of Emperor Wen's reign. After Empress Zhang's death, Emperor Wen sent a palace maid to bathe Empress Zhang's body and prepare for burial, and at this time, the palace maid found that when Empress Zhang died, she was still ice and clean jade - it turned out that Liu Ying did not dare to rebel against Empress Lü's will, but also did not want to violate ethics, so she and Zhang Yan only maintained a nominal husband and wife relationship - which is also the root cause of Zhang Yan's infertility.