Introduction: How Song Gaozong determined Song Xiaozong as the crown prince, and what interesting things he experienced, I will share with you today. In the second year of Emperor Gaozong of Song's Shaoxing, that is, in 1132 AD, Because his own son had died prematurely, and because he was frightened in the Yangzhou battlefield and could not have children, he had to choose a stepson as the crown prince for the sake of the great Song dynasty.
Therefore, Emperor Gaozong of Song ordered Zhao Delin, who was then the king of Emperor Dazong and Anding County, to choose 10 intelligent boys under the age of seven among the sons of the clan to be his future candidates for the crown prince.
After Zhao Delin received the will, he carefully selected and painstakingly selected 10 elf and intelligent little boys and brought them into the palace together. In the palace, after an inspection by Emperor Gaozong of Song, only two were left, one child was fat and one child was thin. These two are the candidates for the prince.
Song Gaozong liked fat children, felt that the thin children were too thin and weak, and did not have the prestige of the royal children of the Great Song Dynasty, so he planned to leave the little fat man as a prince. In order to make up for the thin child's soul, he ordered someone to give the thin child's family three hundred taels of silver, as compensation, and planned to let the thin child go home the same way.
Just when the thin child was about to leave, Song Gaozong suddenly changed his mind, and he remembered Confucius's words: "Take people by their appearance, and lose their sons and feathers".
Emperor Gaozong of Song decided to examine the two men again, so he asked the two children to stand together in front of the main hall with their hands crossed, waiting for their questions to distinguish between the two of them.
At this moment, a cat walked in front of the two children, and the fat child saw the situation, smiled and giggled, raised his leg and kicked the cat. The cat was kicked in a heel fight, meowed, and ran. The skinny kid watched from the sidelines, motionless the whole time.
When Song Gaozong saw this, Long Yan was displeased and said to the fat child, "This cat only passes by occasionally, why do you want to kick the cat?" You are so frivolous and willful, how can you take on the heavy responsibility of the prince? ”
After saying that, Emperor Gaozong of Song ordered the fat child to be sent out of the palace, and left the thin child behind to become the prince. The thin child was the later generation of Ming Jun Song Xiaozong; the fat child who was driven away was called Zhao Bohao, and later only became the governor of Wenzhou.
This is one of the theories that Song Xiaozong was elected crown prince, and there is another statement that is also very interesting. According to the Song Dynasty notebook "Qi Dongye Language", Song Xiaozong was elected to the palace with another boy, Zhao Bojiu, in his childhood.
Because Song Xiaozong grew up to be heroic and martial, he was given the title of King of Pu'an County, while Zhao Bojiu was made the King of Enping County. The traitorous chancellor Qin Ju was very jealous of Song Xiaozong and feared that Song Xiaozong would be unfavorable to himself if he became emperor in the future, so he supported Zhao Xuan as crown prince.
At that time, Empress Wu, the wife of Emperor Gaozong of Song, also believed that Zhao Bojiu was more suitable to be crown prince. Although Song Gaozong himself liked Song Xiaozong more, he did not make up his mind completely for a while and hesitated.
Finally, Emperor Gaozong of Song came up with a brilliant plan and gave Song Xiaozong and Zhao Bojiu ten beautiful palace girls each. At that time, shi hao, the prime minister, was working as a professor (official name) in Pu'an County, and Shi Hao was calculating, and he said to Song Xiaozong: "Wangye, the emperor gave you palace women, which really tests your character, and you must not go near those palace women." Because those palace ladies are your elders, the so-called indecent do not move, you must be polite to them, treat them with courtesy. ”
Song Xiaozong felt that Shi Hao was right, so he did so, living separately from the palace women, and treating them with courtesy. And Zhao Xuan laughed at all ten beautiful palace girls and regarded them as his own concubines.
A few days later, Emperor Gaozong of Song summoned twenty palace women into the palace for examination, and the ten palace women from Song Xiaozong's mansion were still completed bodies" And the palace women who came out of Zhao Xuan's mansion were no longer virgins.
Emperor Gaozong of Song laughed, gave all the palace ladies back to the two of them, and then decreed that Zhao Xuan, the king of Pu'an Commandery, who respected the palace women as guests, would be made crown prince, later Song Xiaozong.
References: "Qi Dongye Language", "Dust And Residual Words", "Southern Song Dynasty Miscellaneous Poems"