introduction
In the past, when we talked about Empress Lü, we often defined her as a villain who was tilted towards power and did not do evil, because on the one hand, she wanted to abolish the Han Dynasty's Jiangshan, on the other hand, it also caused a lot of human tragedies, so that the descendants of the Liu clan basically withered away.
However, evil people sometimes do some good things, for example, in the historical records, Empress Lü was once humiliated by the Xiongnu, and according to Empress Lü's violent and cruel character, he would definitely send troops to fight against the Xiongnu.
But in the historical record, she chose to be patient, and also wrote a reply with a more humiliating attitude, and bought peace with money and her own face. Many people do not understand this, because Empress Lü is a person who cannot bear humiliation, especially a woman who has the power of a country, and after being humiliated by such personal attacks, he chose to deal with it calmly and abandoned his dignity.
So why did Empress Lü choose to swallow her anger in the face of the humiliation of the Xiongnu and not go to war?
01
According to the historical records of the time, Empress Lü took the lead after Liu Bang's death
Vigorously
The princes who passed away were either killed by her, or directly divided up by him in some way, and forced to become subjects. It can be said that Empress Lü basically did not do anything good at that time, and has been rectifying politics there
white terror.
It was in this context that suddenly a letter came from the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu king ridiculed it to the extreme, Empress Lü lost her husband, and he had no wife, so he asked Empress Lü to be his own woman. Against such a background, Empress Lü was blown up on the spot, because when a woman was in a high position and controlled life and death, so many years later, suddenly a king of the opposite sex flirted with her, and also made herself a concubine of that man, which no female politician could tolerate, especially a cruel person like Empress Lü.
If this were replaced by other female politicians, it would be very likely that without saying a word, the whole country would be mobilized to go to war with the Xiongnu, and even fight until they did not die.
This is not to criticize the emotional use of female politicians, but the characteristics of human nature are like this, men are more inclined to rational thinking about interests, while women are often more inclined to emotional release
。 We can refer to the fact that the old empress dowager Cixi, after being stimulated by Western foreigners, did not say a word and launched a declaration of war against the Eleven-Nation Alliance, which resulted in a world war in Chinese territory.
Therefore, it can be said that according to the personality of Empress Lü, combined with the general personality characteristics of women, it is absolutely possible that the Han Dynasty fought a protracted war with the Xiongnu.
02
But the historical record is surprising, this cruel and honest female overlord, actually calmed down, not only calmed down, she also tried to defy the public opinion, asked everyone to stay calm, and she wrote an even more humiliating letter.
In the historical records, this letter directly expresses that Empress Lü herself is old and frail, and she no longer has the ability to teach the Xiongnu king, so she specially offered 8 beautiful women and a number of gold and silver jewelry to serve the Xiongnu king on her behalf. This letter was more humiliating than the previous insults of the Xiongnu king's ridicule, but Empress Lü wrote the letter directly and suppressed the anger in her heart. It can be said that when Xiaobian saw Empress Lü's move, she was indeed shocked, and it was really rare that such a brutal female overlord could lose her face and maintain extreme calmness in the face of major state affairs.
Therefore, the impression that Empress Lü gave us at that time also began to change, in the past we only knew that she was a villain, but in fact, if you think about it, Empress Lü is indeed a relatively qualified politician, at least her level is above That of Empress Dowager Cixi. Because han gaozu won the world, in fact, half of it was created by Empress Lü's family, as well as her own cooperation, Lü Ze participated in basically all the wars against Xiang Yu, and Empress Lü defended every time she was in a dangerous situation
Liu
the family, and willing to suffer the misfortune of Xiang Yu's Tang Ding for him. After experiencing so many dangers and pains, Empress Lü became an excellent politician in the process of helping Liu Bang, and she not only had the emotional release of women, such as the brutal actions against Lady Qi.
At the same time, it was also possible to distinguish the fundamentals of major national affairs, such as the provocative words of the Huns at that time.
03
Therefore, we can sum up that although Empress Lü was cruel and cold at that time, she was a good politician, because politicians wanted to be ruthless in dealing with national problems, relying on the calmness of reason to the freezing point. His love for his family and the pursuit of personal interests were his faults, but once he encountered the problems of the country's major policies, Empress Lü was still very clear, such as the Huang Lao's inaction rule that she promoted, and the abolition of the lowly business policy that she abolished. although
It is said that she did not make more prominence at the political level of Han Gaozu, but at least during the reign of Empress Lü, she defused the shock brought about by Liu Bang's death, and also stabilized the political situation in an environment of various conflicts at that time. Even the xiongnu problem, she maintained the most calm attitude to deal with, avoided the conflict between the two sides, and maintained a peaceful attitude.
Therefore, the characters of history must always be divided into two sides, if from the perspective of human nature, then Empress Lu has become a character who has basically lost her humanity, she can either use her sons and daughters as her own tools, or she can unceremoniously play with human nature. If we look at it from this point of view, Empress Lü is a sinner of history, and even more an evil person of history, no one likes to be friends with him.
But if we think from the perspective of a politician, from the perspective of history, she is also a very reasonable figure, her ruthlessness ensures the fairness of policy, her calmness and reason, and always escorts the normal direction of the development of the empire.
This is why Liu Bang, who almost perished as Empress Lü, was always regarded as the mother of the Han Dynasty by some later emperors such as Emperor Wu of Han. Because Empress Lü was not only brutal, but also made great contributions to the later emperor
Stable pattern.
Therefore, when we look at Empress Lü in the future, on the one hand, we should reflect on the weaknesses of other people's human nature, but on the other hand, we must also learn her calm attitude in governing politics. Therefore, the author's impression of her is also different, as a woman, in the political position so cleverly, except for the later Wu Zetian can be comparable to her, no female politician in China can stand out.
summary
But then again, no matter how much politically reasonable score he has been given in history, he can never ignore his brutal behavior, so although we do not hate him, we do not want to really recognize him, after all, that kind of life is not accepted by our current civilized society. After all, we are human beings rather than instruments, so we would rather have seven passions and six desires and a compassionate heart than truly completely lose our humanity and become like this with the empress. So we understand her, but we can't recognize her, so this is the true appearance of Empress Lü at that time.