In feudal society, in order to ensure the succession of the throne from generation to generation, the emperor as the supreme ruler will choose a candidate for the crown prince, and the prince who becomes the heir not only obtains a beautiful vision of the future king's presence in the world, but also often has to bear various pressures in the light and in the dark, and if he is not careful, he will be jealous of the emperor, which can be described as a "profession" with considerable risks and benefits.
Among the many princes in Chinese history, although there are fortunate people who can succeed to the throne without incident, there are also unlucky eggs who are unfortunate enough to fall into the struggle for political power, and once the status of the prince who was originally expected to "come to the world" is not secured, they are often greeted by an extremely miserable fate. Before being deposed, the status of the prince is transcendent, can be called "under one person, above ten thousand people", and once deposed as a deposed prince, not only lose power and wealth, it is difficult to save his life, as the first deposed prince in Chinese history, Liu Rong's experience allows us to see what kind of open guns and dark arrows the prince in the vortex of power will face, and how sad the end will be once he loses power.
Emperor Jing's eldest son and his favorite concubine's mother
During the reign of Liu Qi, the Han Jing Emperor, he continued the national policy of recuperation implemented by his father Emperor Wen of Han, and put an end to the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms", and the centralization of power in the Han Dynasty was further strengthened, known in history as the "Rule of Wenjing", and the first deposed prince in history, Liu Rong, was the eldest son of Emperor Jing of Han.
There were more than a dozen princes under the knees of Emperor Jing of Han, and Liu Rong's mother was Li Ji, the more favored concubine of Emperor Jingdi at that time, because Emperor Jingdi's empress did not give birth to an heir, and Liu Rong's mother Li Ji was favored by Emperor Jing of Han for a long time.
The reason why Liu Rong was able to be made crown prince by Emperor Jing of Han, in addition to the halo bonus of having the eldest son, his mother Li Ji's favor from Emperor Jing of Han was also a plus that could not be ignored, however, Liu Rong, who was firmly in the position of prince, did not expect that he who had become a prince would lose everything because of his mother's stupid moves and become the first deposed prince in Chinese history.
The mother was arrogant and refused to marry the princess
At that time, Emperor Jingdi's sister Princess Guantao intended to marry the prince and build a good relationship with the future Tianzi, so as to stabilize her own power, so Princess Guantao took the initiative to find Li Ji quite enthusiastically and offered to marry Li Ji and give her precious daughter to Liu Rong, if Li Ji could agree to this family affair, then Liu Rong, who became Princess Guantao's son-in-law by dragon, got the support and help of Princess Guantao, which can be said to be beneficial and harmless.
However, the jealous Li Ji was very resentful of Princess Guantao, in order to please Emperor Hanjing, often sent some young and beautiful beauties into the palace, and took away Emperor Hanjing's grace to herself, and Li Ji, who became the mother of the prince, was already satisfied at this time, thinking that Liu Rong had become a prince, and her future was also bright, and there was no need to save face for Princess Guantao. Therefore, Li Ji not only arrogantly refused Princess Guantao's courtship request, but also sneered at her, and in this way, Li Ji, who thought that she had the advantage of "advantage over me", had the courage to offend Princess Guantao, inadvertently laying the groundwork for Liu Rong's tragedy.
The enemy caused trouble, and the princess fought back
Li Ji's refusal to marry not only surprised Princess Guantao, but also made her feel embarrassed, Princess Guantao, who had always been pampered and treated well, could not imagine that such a concubine as Li Ji dared to treat herself like this, nor could she bear Li Ji's humiliation of herself, and Princess Guantao, who was well versed in the political situation, understood that if Li Ji's son Liu Rong was really allowed to succeed to the throne, Li Ji's arrogance would be even more arrogant, and she was bound to continue to bear Li Ji's humiliation, so Princess GuanTao naturally regarded Li Ji as a mortal enemy, and she became Liu Rong's enemy by mistake.
Just at this time, another concubine of the Han Jing Emperor, Lady Wang, keenly seized the opportunity to find Princess Guantao and expressed her willingness to marry Princess Guantao and let her son marry the daughter of Princess Guantao, and this Princess Wang's crown prince was the later Han Wudi Emperor Liu Che, and Liu Rong's seemingly stable position as crown prince changed.
At this time, although Liu Che was young, he already had the quality of political struggle, not only behaved very docilely, cooperated with Lady Wang to talk with Princess Guantao, but also sang a harmony with his mother, and said with ingenuity: "If you can marry Ajiao, you will build a golden house for Ajiao to live in," Princess Guantao happily agreed to this family affair after receiving Liu Che's sincere promise.
The princess entered the court, and the emperor tempted
Because of her dislike and hatred for Li Ji, Princess Guantao inevitably hated Wu and Wu, and also had prejudices against Liu Rong, and more importantly, Princess Guantao had already given her daughter Xu to Liu Che, just as the so-called "one glory is prosperous, one loss is lost", Princess Guantao naturally has to plan for Liu Che, as long as she can seize Liu Rong's position as prince for Liu Che, she can kill li Ji's mother and son in her eyes with one stone.
Therefore, Princess Guantao reflected to Emperor Hanjing that Li Ji was arrogant and arrogant, often using her position as the mother of the prince to bully other concubines and princes in the harem, and even superstitious witchcraft to curse them, Han Jing Emperor understood Li Ji's arrogant and indulgent personality, after hearing Princess Guantao's words, she could not help but be suspicious, and began to worry that after her death, Li Ji would not be able to tolerate other concubines and princes, and deliberately wanted to test Li Ji's reaction.
On this day, Emperor Hanjing summoned Li Ji, intentionally or unintentionally took the initiative to mention his own posthumous affairs, and proposed that he hoped that Li Ji would be able to treat other concubines and the princes they had raised after his death, in fact, Emperor Jing of Han jing only wanted to test it, who knew that the jealous Li Ji immediately ran away, saying that he would never take care of any other concubines for Emperor Han Jing, and let them fend for themselves.
Li Ji's attitude made Emperor Han Jingdi angry, but forcibly suppressed the anger without attacking on the spot, if offending Princess Guantao only allowed Li Ji and Liu Rong to "harvest" a potential enemy, then Li Ji's exonerating Emperor Han Jingdi almost dug a grave for himself and Liu Rong. Li Ji's attitude made Emperor Jingdi of Han fear that his other concubines and princes would be retaliated against by Li Ji behind him, so he also shook the idea of handing over Jiangshan to Liu Rong, and the unguarded Li Ji would eventually have to pay a heavy price for his stupid actions, and Liu Rong, who had originally held the throne of the crown prince, was ruthlessly pushed to a turning point in his fate.
Again designed, the prince was deposed
Just when Emperor Jingdi of Han was annoyed by Li Ji's jealousy, the "political alliance" composed of Lady Wang and Princess Guantao launched a new round of offensive, and Princess Guantao, after making a relationship with Lady Wang, from time to time mentioned the "clever and clever" crown prince Liu Che in front of Emperor Jingdi of Hanjing, and Princess Guantao's praise made Emperor Guantao gradually notice this son who had been snubbed for many years. After learning that Li Ji had angered Emperor Jing of Han for her rash answer, Lady Wang was determined to "strike iron while it was hot" and burn another fire to completely bury the future of Li Ji's mother and son, so that her son Liu Che could ascend to the throne.
Therefore, Lady Wang pretended to show that she wanted to curry favor with Li Ji's mother and son, and encouraged the chancellor to write to Emperor Jing of Han, requesting to raise the status of the prince's birth mother and crown Li Ji as empress, and Emperor Jing of Han was already worried that Li Ji would use her relationship with Liu Rong to act recklessly after her death, and now that she saw the minister's edict, she suspected that Li Ji was secretly organizing the minister to create a momentum for herself, deliberately improving her own status and expanding her power.
Annoyed and angry, Emperor Jing of Han could not bear it any longer, and ordered the execution of the minister who had written to him, reprimanding Li Ji for causing trouble with chao gang, and deposing Liu Rong's position as crown prince, and the panicked Li Ji wanted to meet with Emperor Jing of Han at this time and tell his grievances, who knew that Emperor Jing of Han was already discouraged and did not want to see her again. In this way, Liu Rong, who had descended from heaven, so dramatically lost his position as prince and was demoted to the king of Linjiang, and Li Ji lost her former arrogance and died of depression in the Cold Palace soon after.
He was demoted from Beijing and sentenced to prison
In this way, Liu Rong can be described as "a person sitting at home, and disasters come from heaven", because of his mother's sake, he became a deposed prince, and Liu Rong, who had lost his power, left the capital with anxiety and grievances and went to the Linjiang fiefdom to take the domain. Liu Rong, who became the king of Linjiang, also understood his precarious situation, carefully restrained his emotions and actions, and never dared to complain about the punishment of Emperor Jingdi of Han, hoping to avoid a disaster. However, just as the so-called "desire to add sin, there is no excuse for it", Liu Rong has never been able to hide from his sad ending.
Liu Rong, the deposed crown prince who had become the King of Linjiang, spent a few years in the fiefdom, and was accused of encroaching on the land of the Zongmiao Temple to build a palace, according to the law, this was a crime of great rebellion, so Liu Rong was ordered by Emperor Jing of Han to be taken to Beijing for questioning, and the emperor's order was difficult to violate, and Liu Rong had to leave the fiefdom and be ordered to enter Beijing to be convicted.
Fear of sin and suicide, the people mourn
Liu Rong entered Beijing and later went to the Lieutenant's Mansion for interrogation, believing that he was already doomed, so he did not want to be tortured to extract a confession, and finally chose to end his own life, becoming the first deposed prince in Chinese history to not get a good death, and for Liu Rong's tragic experience, most of the people at that time held a sympathetic and compassionate attitude.
Before Liu Rong left the fiefdom, the car he was riding in was damaged for no reason, and the local people thought it was an ominous omen, and lamented that Liu Rong must be gone forever, after Liu Rong's death, the folk also spread the legend that Liu Rong's mausoleum had tens of thousands of swallows guarding the tomb for him, which shows the sympathy of the people for Liu Rong's fate.
Throughout Liu Rong's life, although he became a prince with a distinguished status thanks to the special status of the eldest son, Liu Rong himself did not have the ability to fight politically, and his mother was short-sighted and arbitrary, which doomed Liu Rong to be unable to occupy the position of prince. In the end, Liu Rong not only missed the throne because of his mother's stupidity, but even died, which made people lament the cruelty and ruthlessness of the political struggle.