In the ancient history of our country, presumably the position that people most yearn for is the Son of Heaven who is high above, because they hold power, hold the power of life and death, and are the representatives of heaven in the minds of the common people. But such an enviable position is an unquestionably high-risk profession.
Since the founding of New China, with the continuous increase of economy and culture, the average life expectancy of our country has exceeded 77.8 years since 2018, and many long-lived elderly people have appeared, and the average age data is also increasing.
But in ancient times, the life span of emperors was very short, the shortest was only 2 years old, and most emperors did not live to be 40 years old, which ultimately had five reasons.
Desirable high-risk occupations
In the vast history of ancient times, the word emperor dates back to the time of Qin Shi Huang, who established a unified political power after the unification of the Six Kingdoms, and he believed that his merits were higher than those of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, so he extracted the title of Emperor from it, and since then the title of Emperor has been passed down from generation to generation.
From the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the last emperor, Puyi of the Qing Dynasty, nearly 400 emperors have emerged after a history of more than 2,000 years. In the eyes of others, they are symbols of power, and countless people aspire to this position and want to climb to the top of power through rebellion.
Ordinary people, on the other hand, can only strive to change their destiny through the imperial examination and bring themselves closer to the position they want.
But for those who have ascended to the throne of the emperor, there is also a serious polarization between them. There were founding emperors like Li Yuan, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Liu Xiu, who pioneered the prosperous world, as well as subjugated emperors like Yang Guang and Zhu Youjian.
Whether the emperor is honest and honest has a direct impact on the politics and economy of society. As long as the emperor serves the people, he will basically create such a prosperous situation as the rule of Wenjing and the rule of Zhenguan.
The people want to meet emperors who think of the people and officials who are honest and honest, but the peak of power that makes people yearn for is a high-risk occupation.
Among the nearly 400 emperors in ancient times, there are about 300 people who recorded the age of birth and death in detail, among which the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty lived the longest of all the emperors in history to live to the age of eighty-nine, and in stark contrast to him, Liu Long, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, lived only two years before he died of illness.
The average age of most emperors is only 39.2 years old and less than 40 years old, and even the famous Qing Dynasty short-lived emperor group in history, Qing Zu Fulin died at the age of 24, Qing Xuanzong was 30 years old, and Qing Muzong was 19 years old. It can be seen that the emperor is also a high-risk profession.
Five reasons made the emperor short-lived
There are five reasons for the short life of ancient emperors. The first thing that bore the brunt of this was the emperor's busy work. In some film and television dramas, you will see that the emperor has to go to the dynasty every day, and then go to the Qianqing Palace to deal with government affairs after the end of the dynasty. But in fact, the emperor's busy government affairs are far more than the TV series depicted.
The time of the upper dynasty is generally in the five changes, and also according to the seasons, for example, the summer is 5:30, other seasons are 6:00, and in addition to the emperor's change of clothes, washing and other time, the emperor generally has to rise at 4:00, so that he can just go to the court on time.
And they also handle a lot of government affairs, the big one is related to the security of the country, and the small one is sacrificing to the heavens.
Since Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the system of beggars, all the recitals were personally reviewed by the emperor, and it was rumored that Zhu Yuanzhang had to approve nearly 400 pieces a day.
Although the future emperors adopted some policies to slow down the number of their jobs, basically every day of work was still very busy. Emperors are also human beings, and basically they also rest once every ten days or half a month.
The second cause of short-lived life was death from unnatural deaths such as murder. In ancient times, the courtiers all longed for the position of the emperor, and they all wanted to ascend to the position that was admired by the ten thousand people. Usually the establishment of a new dynasty is often accompanied by killings and wars, and in ancient times there were many emperors who died in wars.
The root cause of the murder is that not every dynasty is stable, and the more stable it is, the greater the threat hidden behind it.
Half of the ancient emperors died by him or committed suicide, such as Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty who committed suicide, the Jin Dynasty emperor Yan Liang was killed by his subordinates, and the late Jin Emperor Yan Chenglin was killed in the war.
And the third reason is that the spirit is always highly tense and exhausted. Ancient emperors usually had to consider many things, and we often see in TV dramas that the emperor asked the princess to go and relatives to ease relations with the Mongols, the stability of the border and the daily fear of the threat of the courtiers to their thrones, making the emperor too stressed, resulting in a high degree of mental tension.
In ancient times, the power of courtiers and foreign relatives often made the emperor very jealous. The Han Dynasty was the most serious dynasty in power for foreign relatives, and Wei Zifu was favored during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, while the great generals Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi were both Wei Zifu's younger brothers and nephews.
As a result, the Wei family's strength in the dprk increased greatly, which caused Emperor Wu of Han to be suspicious and estranged from it, so Emperor Wu of Han purged the Wei family's powerful subjects in the middle of the dynasty, which is known in history as the scourge of witchcraft.
During the PingDi period of the Western Han Dynasty, the power of the Wang family was firmly in the center of power, and after Wang Zhengjun became the empress, the Wang family became a true "prince and nobleman", and Wang Mang of the Wang family established a new dynasty with the support of the Wang family, officially called the emperor.
After the abolition of the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, a number of powerful ministers such as Zhang Juzheng, He Yan, and Nian Qianyao emerged. It was the existence of these people who were already concerned about the safety of the country, which made the emperor bother, because the pressure was too great and he died early.
The fourth reason is that medicine is not developed. Ancient emperors were mostly married by close relatives, and the ancients believed in kissing and kissing, but we know that the marriage of close relatives will make children infected with many diseases, and there are also many genetic diseases among emperors. And these diseases were terminally ill at that time, and the tai doctor had no way to treat them.
If the ancient emperors who were not developed in medicine were infected with some viruses or other new diseases that were not recorded in the books, the ancient tai doctors who were not developed in medicine could not do anything about these diseases, which also led to the early death of the emperors.
The fifth reason is the most shameful cause, which is excessive indulgence. Ancient emperors sat in the harem of three thousand beauties, shouldering the task of inheriting the royal incense.
Through the TV series, we can also know that the emperor records his intercourse every day through the worship room, and almost every day he has to spoil his concubines. And this caused the emperor's energy to be greatly reduced, and his body became weak.
In ancient times, some emperors were addicted to female sex in the later period, which made them more addicted to female sex, and the sixth emperor of Southern Qi, Xiao Baojuan, was fond of women with their feet wrapped, and he searched for Miaoling women across the country, and even played with more than 20 women in one day, so he died in bed shortly after.
It can be seen that the ancient emperors were not easy, even if they were supreme, but their pressure was higher than that of ordinary people, so we ordinary people did our best to live our own lives.