The only orthodox female emperor in China's history is Wu Zetian, but there is more than one female ruler in China's history. Just as the so-called "women can hold up half of the sky", in ancient times, there were also women who could shoulder the heavy responsibility of governing the country, and not all female rulers were as absurd as Cixi; not all female rulers were as cruel as Wu Zetian, almost violent.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a wise and outstanding female politician appeared in the Northern Wei regime, who not only consolidated the Northern Wei regime, but also implemented various reforms, selected the best and the brightest, promoted social progress and the development of productive forces, and was a rare female ruler.
She was Empress Feng, she was born in the Northern Yan royal family chief Le Feng, her grandfather was the last emperor of Northern Yan, her father was an official in Northern Wei, because he made a big mistake and was killed, the young Feng clan entered the palace as a palace maid. Fortunately, her aunt was Zhaoyi, the emperor of the palace, who took her to her side and raised her.
Around the age of 11, Feng was honored as a nobleman by Wencheng Dina. Around the age of 15, Feng was crowned empress. In the sixth year of peace, Emperor Wencheng died of illness, and Empress Feng was so sad that she even wanted to jump into the fire and be martyred, but fortunately someone around her was rescued in time.
After the death of Emperor Wencheng, the crown prince was too young to govern the government, and Empress Feng and the prince were orphaned and widowed, and the power gradually fell into the hands of Yihun. After holding power, he acted arbitrarily, stole the emperor's edicts, and promoted himself to a knighthood within a few days.
At this time, Empress Feng stepped forward and appointed Tuoba Pi to kill Yihun, and later quelled the rebellion of Tuoba Daofu, the king of Dongping. Judging from this situation, the political road at the beginning of the new emperor's reign was very difficult, so Empress Feng took the throne and put down the rebellion twice, which greatly consolidated the Northern Wei regime.
Empress Feng took a series of measures to alleviate social contradictions, and the people gradually stabilized and ruled for eighteen months. Emperor Xianwen's son, Empress Feng's grandson, was born, and Empress Feng was overjoyed and returned the favor to the fourteen-year-old Emperor Xianwen, concentrating on raising her grandson.
Although Empress Feng is in a high position and is a mother in the world, she is still a woman after all. Since the death of Emperor Wencheng, the young Empress Feng was impatient with the loneliness of widowhood, paid attention to beautiful men many times, and chose to go to the palace to raise companions, popularly speaking, it is the face head (male favorite).
Among them, there was an official eunuch named Li Yi, who was sympathetic and had outstanding appearance, and often entered the palace to accompany Empress Feng, which was deeply loved. However, after a long time, gossip inevitably spread out, and Emperor Xianwen was very unhappy, and finally killed Li Yi.
According to the "Biography of the Northern History and Empress Concubines", Emperor Xianwen reprimanded Li Yi, "the empress dowager was not pleased". The murder of Li Yi intensified the conflict between mother and son, causing Empress Feng to force Emperor Xianwen to give way to his young imperial grandson and take sole control of the imperial government.
After abdicating, Emperor Xianwen suddenly died violently, and many people at that time suspected that Empress Feng had done it. However, whether this matter has anything to do with Empress Feng or not, we can see from the various signs of Emperor Xianwen's rule that he was not a qualified ruler.
If he was capable enough, he would not be easily seduced, thus alienating or even opposing Empress Feng, and in doing so, he caused the dispersion of power and was not good for the political situation.
Empress Feng, who was in charge of the imperial government, began her own path of reform. However, the two words of reform cannot be achieved by casual talk. For example, the Qin State Shang Martingale Transformation Law Car cracked and died, the Song Dynasty Wang Anshi changed the Law depressed, and the Ming Dynasty Zhang Juzheng was raided after his death. Reform will always touch the nerves of the old forces and move the "cheese" of the old faction.
In China's ancient society, men's reform has not yet had a good ending, and women's reform is not a joke! Needless to say, Empress Feng's reform was successful and she also cultivated a good emperor.
At the beginning of Empress Feng's reign, she faced not only one rebellion after another, but also an empty national treasury, a greedy and improper officialdom, and countless displaced refugees. Men in power can not solve the problems, And Empress Feng solves them one by one.
She implemented the "three-chief system", so that the five families of the people were one neighbor, the five neighbors were one mile, and the five miles were one party. And every neighbor, every mile, and every party has a chief, and these three chiefs are grass-roots mass organizations, responsible for the household registration inspection of the people at the bottom, collecting taxes and serving, persuading peasants to teach sang, and public security problems, which has greatly strengthened the control of the bottom population, increased the number of hidden household registrations, and the state has received more taxes.
To solve the problem of managers and the problem of feeding people, Empress Feng promulgated the "Equalization Order", which distributed the state wasteland to the peasants, and each adult man could be divided into forty mu, and each woman could be divided into twenty mu, and they could grow grain to pay taxes, which greatly aroused the enthusiasm of the peasants and also increased the state revenue.
In addition, Empress Feng also stipulated that officials should be curbed, so that officials who were full of private pockets were curbed. After the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, officials at all levels were not given the money, and all the officials themselves squeezed the people's fat to obtain, which made the officials have no scruples and the people complained.
In the face of this phenomenon, Empress Feng resolutely implemented the System of Qilu and also sent people to inspect various places to severely punish corruption and pervert the law, completely improving the rule of officials in Northern Wei and reducing the burden on the people.
The forced abdication of Emperor Xianwen gave Empress Feng a profound reflection, and she spent a lot of effort in educating her grandson to make him a wise monarch.
In terms of education, Empress Feng not only exposed him to the knowledge in books, but also personally took Emperor Xiaowen to the people to investigate, cared for the suffering of the people, let him see the suffering of the people with his own eyes, and touched the young hearts.
When governing the country, Empress Feng also taught Emperor Xiaowen by hand, not only letting him study Confucian classics, personally writing exhortation articles for him, but also summoning erudite ministers to answer Emperor Xiaowen's questions. The infection of individual behavioral habits sometimes has a deeper impact than deliberately teaching them with the heart.
Empress Feng herself lived simply, did not covet pleasure, and put state affairs first, and the influence of these behavioral habits on Emperor Xiaowen was not small. After Empress Feng's death, Emperor Xiaowen inherited and deepened her reforms, pushing the development of Northern Wei to a new height, and these were inseparable from Empress Feng's efforts.
In the fourteenth year of Taihe, Empress Feng died of illness and was known as "Empress Wencheng Wenming". She entered the palace at an early age, was accepted as a nobleman at the age of 11, was crowned empress at the age of 15, assisted two generations of emperors, and was a rare female politician and reformer in ancient Chinese history.
In the patriarchal society, When Empress Feng was in power, she had a private affair with her male pet, and was suspected of poisoning her adopted son, that is, Emperor Xianwen, and these things were used by historians to accuse Empress Feng. However, we must realize that Empress Feng's private life can be criticized, but looking at historical figures, she pays attention to the merits and faults, and Empress Feng obviously has done more than she has done, and is an outstanding female politician.
Although history is always moving forward, when we look back at the past, we should not forget those buried heroic spirits, even if they are women, Empress Feng has also lived out a powerful and fearless independent image, which is worth learning from every posterity.
Reference: Book of Wei
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