"The eunuch is treated as a jinwu, and the wife is yin lihua" - Fan Ye, "Later Han Shu, Empress Ji"
The phrase "marry a wife should marry Yin Lihua" laid the foundation for the lofty position of this empress who had no achievements in herself in history. Nan Huaijin, a contemporary Chinese scholar, put forward in the "Original University Micro-Speech": "There are so many empresses in China, who are considered good empresses, the first is Zhu Yuanzhang's wife Empress Ma, the second is Liu Xiu's wife Yin Lihua, of course, Tang Taizong's eldest grandson Empress is also good." "
Who is Yin Lihua? The original wife of Liu Xiu, emperor of The Han Guangwu Dynasty, was the second empress, who was famous for thousands of years because she "gave up" the throne, and was also the first person in history to have an empress title system, and since then, the empress's title has been the emperor's title plus the original title, which has become a system that was used until the beginning of the Tang Dynasty for six hundred years.
Whether it is Empress Ma or Empress Changsun, that is the most famous empress in history, the real xian neisuke, Yin Lihua can really be compared with them? I don't think so. Yin Lihua's means are actually more like another very famous woman in history, which was put forward by the famous Ming Dynasty thinker Li Yan as early as the Ming Dynasty: "After that, (Yin Lihua) means did not reduce the martial talents (Wu Zetian). "
Whether Yin Lihua is a rare ancient sage or an ambitious "white lotus", we still have to look at it from the beginning.
Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the legendary "son of the plane", inexplicably defeated Wang Mang, a "crosser" whose strength far exceeded his own. He was originally the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and was from the line of Liu Fa, the Prince of Changsha Ding, the Emperor of Hanjing. However, everyone knows that in order to return the power to the central government and weaken the rights of local princes, Liu Che, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, came up with a "Tui En Order", and under the layers of "Tui En", the original princes and grandchildren slowly became ordinary rich people, and even rural pawns.
Speaking of the Tuien Order, it is really a good government decree, which perfectly solves the problem of too much encroachment on the means of social production by the children of the royal family, and the Qing Dynasty did not notice this, so there were more and more clans in the later Qing Dynasty, and there were more and more useless Eight Banners disciples, which was also a major reason for the demise of the late Qing Dynasty.
A little farther away, let's continue to talk back to Liu Xiu. During the Western Han Dynasty, foreign relatives interfering in politics was a major killing weapon to divide the power of the emperor, whether it was the dictatorship of Lü Hou, or the later Huo Guangquan tilting into the opposition (the maternal grandfather of Empress Shangguan of The Han Zhao Emperor Liu Fuling, and the father of Huo Chengjun, the second empress of the Han Xuan Emperor Liu Qing), were inseparable from the interference of foreign relatives in politics, and it was not easy for the Huo family to fall, and a whole empress dowager who had gone through three dynasties was created.
Wang Zhengjun was the empress of the Yuan Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, and single-handedly created the legend of the Wang family, looking at the entire ancient history of China, the honor of "one door and ten marquises, five great Simas" can be achieved by few foreign relatives. Wang Zhengjun herself had no ambitions, but could not stand the power of the people, and the Wang family under her protection began to want to replace the Western Han Dynasty, of which the most ambitious was her nephew, the above-mentioned "crosser" Wang Mang.
When Wang Mang revealed his true face and asked for the Chuanguo Jade Seal, Wang Zhengjun realized that his right to give to his mother's family was really too great, but at this time, it was too late to regret it, and the Chuanguo Jade Seal was also destroyed by Wang Zhengjun's anger.
Wang Zhengjun was reluctant and could not stop Wang Mang from ascending the throne to establish a new dynasty, but the problem came, the new dynasty was really too "new", those decrees seemed to us today, they were not in line with the historical process at that time, so that the people were not happy, and everywhere was exposing uprisings, Liu Xiu was one of them. Although he had no status at this time, after all, he occupied the title of the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, and there were many people who followed him when he ran to the uprising.
At this time, Liu Xiu was not yet the "son of the face" who was famous in the world, but Yin Lihua was already a famous lady in Xinye. At that time, the territory of Nanyang Xinye had accumulated through the ages, and even reached the point of the territory of the princes, but although the Yin family was rich, it had no power, and after the failure of Wang Mang's reform, the Yin family also smelled the wind and rain.
In the face of Liu Xiu, who asked to marry, the Yin family thought about it again and again and finally decided to agree, to put it bluntly, it was "bet on the treasure", at the beginning, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, was just a pawn in Pei County, but Lü Hou's father dared to marry his daughter to him to "bet on the treasure", and the Yin family also did the same thing, choosing Liu Xiu, who did not have much momentum, as the investment object.
Liu Xiu did not live up to the expectations of the Yin family, and every time the fierce Ji was broken, but he was not the only one, Liu Lin, the son of the former King Of Zhao Miao of the Western Han Dynasty, supported a man named Wang Lang to claim the title of emperor in Handan, and Liu Jie, the son of the King of Guangyang in the Western Han Dynasty, also raised an army corresponding to Liu Lin, which made Liu Xiu in a difficult situation in the Hebei region, and the vast territory he had laid before seemed to be destroyed.
In order to win the victory, it was necessary to have more strong allied support, and in order to win over Liu Yang, the king of Zhending, Liu Xiu decided to marry his niece, Guo Shengtong, the pearl of the Guo family, at this time it was only a year before he asked to marry Yin Lihua. With the support of the Guo family and the Zhending King, Liu Xiu truly had the status of competing for the world, and successfully declared himself emperor in 25 AD, founding the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In the process of fighting the world, it is the Guo family and the Zhending King who contribute to the army, and it is Guo Shengtong who accompanies Liu Xiu all the way, and Guo Shengtong himself has a good family, good personality, and good looks, which can be said to be a model among all wives. But men, can not escape the story of "white moonlight" and "red rose", when she did not marry Guo Shengtong she was a "red rose", after marrying him he felt sorry for Yin Lihua, "red rose" became "mosquito blood".
Even though Guo Shengtong gave birth to his eldest son, that is, the crown prince Liu Jiang, even if it was the support of the Guo family that enabled Liu Xiu to successfully claim the title of emperor, Liu Xiu, who claimed that the empress dowager, did not immediately make Guo Shengtong empress, but immediately took Yin Lihua to his side, and the two were both crowned as nobles.
For Liu Xiu, even with the help of the Zhending King and the Guo family, he could only become emperor, but the example of foreign relatives was in front of him, and he naturally did not want to let the Guo family's rights go to a higher level; plus at the beginning, Yin Lihua took the initiative to marry, and he had a sense of guilt for Yin Lihua, so when deciding on the choice of empress, he himself originally wanted Yin Lihua to be "elegant and generous, with the beauty of motherhood".
Wanwan did not expect that Liu Xiu's decision was rejected by Yin Lihua, and Yin Lihua's move also made her a model for future generations to sing, believing that she was humble and gentle and tolerant.
In fact, Yin Lihua alone can see her means, she will humble the empress at this time the position is very simple, the first time the world is undecided, Liu Xiu also needs to use the power of the True Ding King and others, if he occupies this back seat is likely to become the fuse of Liu Xiu's break with the Guo family and the True Ding King, he absolutely cannot bear this consequence.
Another is that in terms of its own family lineage, the Yin family is not as good as the Guo family, as far as Liu Xiu's help is concerned, he is not as good as Guo Shengtong, if he should be given the position of empress at this time, then "White Moonlight" will become "white rice", and Guo Shengtong will get Liu Xiu's guilt, from "mosquito blood" to "red rose". Therefore, Yin Lihua resigned as empress not because she was truly humble, but because she had to do so.
In fact, at this time, Yin Lihua and Guo Shengtong's favor is similar, although Liu Xiu has guilt for Yin Lihua, but Guo Shengtong is also a very outstanding woman, we can see from Liu Xiu's heir data that he has a total of 11 sons and 5 daughters, of which 5 sons are from Yin Lihua, 5 sons and 1 daughter are from Guo Shengtong, which can be seen that the favor obtained by the two is actually half a pound and eight two.
Obviously, Yin Lihua was not happy to see such a scene, so when Liu Xiujiangshan was already determined, she took advantage of the matter of "Du Tian" to add another fire, so she won Li Zhen's evaluation that "the means will not reduce the martial talents after that". What fire was added? Everyone in Wu Zetian understood that after strangling Princess Andingsi with his own hands, he really embarked on the road of empress, and a special coincidence happened to Yin Lihua at this time.
In 41 AD, Liu Xiu's tenth son, Liu Heng, who was born to Yin Lihua, died suddenly; four months later, Guo Shengtong was deposed due to the "Dutian" storm. In fact, the Guo family did not participate in the affairs of Du Tian at all, but instead had a sentence in the edict abolishing Guo Shengtong's successor that particularly aroused people's thoughts: "The empress has a grudge, violates the order, and cannot follow her son, and train the head of the chamber." Inside the palace, if you see the eagle quail. Without the virtue of "Guan Ju", but with the wind of Lü and Huo, how can it be entrusted with young orphans and honor the Ming Dynasty. "
In ancient times, the empress was the common mother of all the princes born from the concubines, and "could not care for her son, and trained the chief to be in a different room", almost did not explicitly say that Guo Shengtong mutilated Liu Heng. The question is, at this time, Guo Shengtong is already an empress, and her family is big, and at the same time, she is not less favored than Yin Lihua, so why does she have to mutilate Liu Heng?
Then there is only one truth, that is, the point that Li Yan pointed out, Liu Heng's death is about mo and the death of Princess Andingsi, it is from the hands of their own mother, Yin Lihua took advantage of the dutian incident to make Liu Heng have an accident, and several reasons added up to eventually lead to the end of Guo Shengtong's abolition.
Many people praise the atmosphere of Yin Lihua and say that Guo Shengtong is one of the few empresses in history who still has a good life after being deposed, but is this really the case? Let's look at the follow-up. Guo Shengtong was deposed in 41 AD, and after Liu Xiu's death in 57 AD, the deposed crown prince Liu Jiang died in just one year, and Guo Shengtong's younger brother Guo Quan died.
At the same time, the five sons born to Guo Shengtong, except for the deposed prince and the second eldest, were all cut off from the deposed lords because of the incident, and the Guo family was also implicated in the removal of all land titles during the xiaoming emperor Liu Zhuang, who was the son of Yin Lihua.
Can a woman who can laugh to the end in the harem be truly "silly white and sweet"? Of course, it is impossible, and Yin Lihua's name as a queen is only because she knows better how to manage her own good reputation.