It is said that filial piety comes first, so filial piety is very important in the hearts of the Chinese people, and those who do children must know how to be filial to their parents. However, in ancient times, there were not only examples of filial piety, but even examples of being killed by their own sons. Emperor Wen of Song Liu Yilong was such a being. Liu Yilong was one of the longest-reigning emperors during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and he also created the rule of Yuan Jia, which can be regarded as a very meritorious one.
However, although he let the people live and work in peace and contentment, he was not a kind person in his heart. Because he not only used various means to kill the chancellor many times, but even the three Northern Expeditions he commanded were ultimately defeated, and in the end, because of his hesitant personality, he died at the hands of his own son.
The reason why Liu Yilong was able to create the "YuanJia Shengshi" was actually to inherit the reform property of his father Liu Yu, but unfortunately, the day did not leave the year, if Liu Yu was allowed to live for a few more years, the reunification of the north and south was just around the corner.
Liu Yu was also a god of war level figure, because at that time the scholar clan hid too much population, resulting in poor taxation, the country was poor, there was no money, to solve this problem with a blunt knife to cut meat is certainly not OK, so Liu Yu immediately decided, to carry out a national population and land inventory, arrested and killed some large families, in order to set an example, the result of other clans can only obediently pay taxes according to the head, the country is rich again.
Liu Yu not only has a strategic mind, but also has a very good political mind, he has carried out very great reforms in the whole country, not only to streamline the administration of the army, reduce the salaries of "civil servants", but also greatly exempt the people from taxes, and reduce the burden of the people. Through Liu Yu's reforms, Liu Song became the most powerful state at that time.
After Liu Yilong ascended the throne, in addition to continuing to carry out the reforms left by his father, he also continued to clean up the household registration, develop agricultural production, and implement a series of measures such as persuasion, rejuvenation of agriculture, and recruitment of talents.
Especially for the common people, Liu Yilong is a generation of Ming Jun, Liu Yilong not only encourages agricultural production, but also builds water conservancy, if he encounters a famine, he also provides disaster relief in time, he issued the "Litian Zhao", farmers have no seeds, the government lends farmers seeds in advance, officials do not manage this level of agricultural production and punish him, so the people are very fond of him. It is precisely because of good governance that many celebrities also appeared at that time, such as Xie Lingyun, Bao Zhao, and so on.
Xin Zhiyi wrote about this prosperous world in a poem - "Yuanjia Grass, Sealing Wolf Juxu", which refers to the Yuanjia shengshi.
However, Liu Yilong's heart is very dark, his suspicion is very heavy, and he has also killed brothers and siblings for the throne, which seems to be a common disease of the founding kings of the past, either killing brothers or killing heroes, and the strong desire for power has burned their humanity.
Originally, this throne was Liu Yifu's, that is, Liu Yilong's eldest brother, but Liu Yifu was a dimwitted monarch, indulging in eating, drinking and having fun all day, and finally the ministers really couldn't see the emperor's depraved appearance all day, so they joined forces to abolish him, and later pushed Liu Yilong to this position.
These assistant ministers were all iron brothers of Emperor Wu of Song, so they all hoped that the dynasty could develop towards a better and better place, and seeing that the new emperor could not afford to support him so much, he not only deposed him, but later killed him. Moreover, in order to avoid the phenomenon of Wang Ye seizing the throne in the future, even Liu Yilong's second brother was killed and directly established as emperor.
Obviously, though, these assistant ministers were still very good at looking at people, because among the three brothers, they had indeed found the best person to inherit the throne. However, what these ministers could not have imagined was that Liu Yilong not only did not express gratitude to these ministers, but even pursued the crime of killing their brother in the first place. The four courtiers who had jointly put him on the throne were all killed by him in various ways.
And not only that, he killed not only four important courtiers, but also his fourth brother. The fourth brother Liu Yikang was a meritorious man, not only had the merit of support, but also half of the "Yuan Jia Shengshi" was his credit, during Liu Yilong's reign, because he was not in good health, for a long time was ruled by Liu Yikang. Later, Liu Yilong was afraid that Liu Yikang would covet the throne, so he brutally killed him.
Liu Yilong's meanness and widowhood made him completely lose the hearts of the people among his courtiers, he was not good at leading troops to fight, after the heroes and generals were killed, he also lost the ability to confront the enemy northern Wei, although Liu Song created a prosperous world in his hands, but also in his hands went downhill, it can be said that Liu Yilong created a precedent of fratricide.
Originally, the image created by Liu Yilong in the hearts of the people was very good, but his brutal behavior was also seen by the people of the world, and gradually he also lost the hearts of the people.
However, although Liu Yilong was so cruel to the ministers and his siblings, he still retained the last trace of humanity, that is, his son. He treated his son Liu Shao very spoiled and made him a crown prince, but this son of his had a very big disagreement with himself.
Especially on the issue of the Northern Expedition, their opinions were completely opposite, and seeing that his father's three Northern Expeditions had failed, he blamed the mistakes of this matter on Jiang Zhan, the supporting minister of this matter. So he wanted to get rid of this minister quickly, so he suggested to his father to kill Jiang Zhan, but he was unexpectedly refused, and the gap between the two was even deeper.
Later, Liu Yilong suddenly spoiled Pan Shufei and snubbed Liu Shao's birth mother, so that his birth mother died of illness due to anger, which further deepened the hatred between the two.
Later, Liu Shao and his brother Liu Mao made a mistake, but they were afraid that their father would scold themselves, and then they thought of colluding with wizards to kill their father. However, because of the accusations of the eunuchs, the matter did not succeed. Liu Yilong was extremely angry when he learned of this, but he did not pursue this matter, but his heart was no longer as fond of this son as before, and he even had the idea of establishing another prince in his heart.
However, Liu Shao did not end the idea of murdering his father because of his father's forgiveness, but only hid the wizard and still plotted to kill his father. But later he was discovered by Liu Yilong, and although he was angry, he still did not have the heart to arrest the two brothers and kill them.
However, what Liu Yilong could not think of until his death was that it was because of his hesitation that he later brought him the disaster of killing himself. When he was not at all defensive, he was mutinied by the brothers.
That night, Emperor Wen and Xu Zhanzhi had been discussing the new crown prince all night, and the candle was still lit when Liu Shao's army invaded. Liu Yilong saw them pointing knives at him, he knew it was not good, raised a stool to defend himself, and as a result, he was cut off five fingers by a knife, and then the knife was inserted into his heart, and he died in the end. A generation of emperors, who were actually killed by their own sons, can also be called a thousand ancient injustices.
After Liu Yilong's death, his son pretended to cry and buried him in the Changning Mausoleum, burying him thickly. Liu Shao also became the first person to succeed his father to the throne.
Resources:
【Book of Song, Volume 92, Liechuan 52】