China's feudal society of more than two thousand years has produced 493 emperors, of which the female emperor is only Wu Zetian, who is also considered to be the only female emperor in China. However, in recent years, the in-depth study of historical materials, as early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, there was a female emperor, but this female emperor is quite controversial.
Yuan Girl, she was a member of the Northern Wei imperial family, the daughter of Emperor Xiaoming and his concubine Chonghua Pan, and the only flesh and blood of Emperor Xiaoming. Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei had no flesh and bones except for this daughter. Today, the yuan girl is the only daughter in the family.
Of course, if today's family had a daughter, there was nothing to worry about. However, in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the emperor only had one daughter and no heirs, which was going to be a big deal, and he couldn't always find a door-to-door son-in-law to inherit the throne.
Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei was the grandson of Emperor Xiaowen Yuanhong, the second son of Emperor Xuanwu Yuanke, and his mother was Empress Xuanwu Ling of the Hu clan. When Yuan Xue was 3 years old, he was made crown prince by Emperor Xuanwu. It should be said that Yuan Xue's succession to the throne was relatively smooth, and he did not experience the struggle for the throne between those brothers.
Emperor Xuanwu also had a short life, and he died of illness three years after Yuan Xuan became crown prince. The 6-year-old Yuan Xue naturally became the Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but let's think of a 6-year-old child who has not yet broken away from his childishness and knows how to govern the country.
There was no way for all the power in the DPRK to fall into the hands of her mother, Hu Shi, who should be called Empress Hu at this time. After Yuan Xue became emperor, he issued an edict to let Taibao and Gaoyang Wang Yuanyong enter The Western Baitang and decide to handle government affairs.
In fact, who will be in charge of the government is not up to Empress Dowager Hu, who is in charge of the dynasty. At this time, the Northern Wei Dynasty gradually formed a situation in which the powerful ministers Yuan Fork and the mother Empress Hu clan successively abused power and chaotic government. Soon after, the Northern Wei gradually lost the hearts of the people, and the Six Towns Rebellion broke out in the north, which also dragged down the strength of the Northern Wei.
Under such circumstances, Yuan Xu certainly did not want the foundation of Northern Wei to be buried in his hands, and he was very dissatisfied with the dictatorship of his mother Empress Dowager Hu. From here, it can be seen that Yuan Xue is also an emperor with some ambitions, however, Yuan Xue is an immature emperor.
In the first year of Wu tai (528), Yuan Xue finally made a major decision, he wanted to solve the tumor of Empress Hu and regain the imperial power of Northern Wei. The Yuan Dynasty secretly commanded the Jinyang warlord Erzhu Rong to enter the King of Jingqin, but the secret edict was leaked and was eventually known to Empress Hu.
After Empress Dowager Hu read the secret edict, she was greatly angered by Yuan Xue's practice. So he poisoned Yuan Xue, and in the power contest, there was no family affection to speak of. A month before Empress Dowager Hu poisoned Yuan Xue, Yuan Xue and gong concubine Chong Hua Pan gave birth to a daughter.
However, Empress Dowager Hu announced to the outside world that Emperor Xiaoming had given birth to a prince, and the day after giving birth to the Yuan maiden, Empress Dowager Hu asked Emperor Xiaoming to issue an edict to grant amnesty to the world and change the name to Yuan Wutai. However, a month later, Empress Dowager Hu poisoned Yuan Xue, and Yuan, who had just been born more than a month ago, was made emperor.
Empress Dowager Hu continued to practice her system of dynastic titles, and after a few days, she saw that the situation in Northern Wei had stabilized. Empress Dowager Hu issued an edict: "Since Pan Chong Hua has a pregnant pepper palace, Ji Birthday Reserves Two, and Xiong Yi is without warning, and Wei Yu is prominent." At that time, he was not healthy in the footsteps of the country, pretending to be Tongyin, and wanted to fix the situation with the bottom, and was looking up to Chenji. ”
After Emperor Xiaoming's death, after the situation in Northern Wei stabilized, Empress Dowager Hu's general meaning was that she lied about Yuan Girl as "Crown Prince" in order to maintain national stability, and seeing that emperor Xiaoming's people did not change their hearts after his death, she deposed Yuan Girl and set up Yuan Zhao, the son of Yuan Baohui, the 3-year-old Lintao King, as emperor.
This wave of operations by Empress Hu has to be said to be quite clever. However, Empress Dowager Hu's move aroused strong opposition from the Qihu chieftain Erzhu Rong, who lent revenge to Emperor Xiaoming and launched a war to march into Luoyang.
In this coup, Empress Hu was unable to resist, and finally Empress Hu, Yuan Zhao, and more than 2,000 ministers were killed, and the Northern Wei dynasty was controlled by Erzhu Rong.
However, after the coup, the only flesh and blood girl in Yuan Xue was missing. Although Yuan Girl was made emperor, her status as a female emperor was generally not recognized by later generations. The history books have never included the Yuan girl in the orthodox imperial lineage, mainly for two reasons, one is that the Yuan girl is a puppet of Empress Hu; the other is that the Yuan girl ascended the throne by pretending to be a baby boy.
Therefore, to this day, Wu Zetian, as the only female emperor in Chinese history, is still recognized by the world. However, some scholars believe that the fact that the Yuan maiden was the first woman to ascend to the throne cannot be changed.
Some scholars have even suggested that Wu Zetian's identity can be modified from "the only female emperor in Chinese history" to "a female emperor with achievements in Chinese history". Therefore, the historical identity of the Yuan girl is also quite controversial.
If you put aside some factors, Yuan Girl is really the first empress of China, but she hastily took the throne and abdicated in a hurry, leaving no traces in history, which is also the embarrassment of Yuan Girl.