As the tenth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, during his reign, Emperor Xuan of Han single-handedly created the "Rule of Filial Piety", thus not only becoming one of the four emperors with temple names in the history of the Western Han Dynasty, but also believing that his merits "did not live up to the high ancestors and did not lose han wu". However, it was this outstanding emperor, whose life before he ascended the throne was full of ups and downs, and he was born into a palace coup, resulting in growing up in the folk from an early age, and was not supported to the throne by Huo Guang until he was eighteen years old.
In his infancy, he encountered the "scourge of witchcraft", and his relatives in the family were implicated and died
In the second year of Zhenghe (91 BC), Liu Qi, the great-grandson of Emperor Wu of Han, the grandson of the crown prince Liu Zhao, and the son of Emperor Shi's grandson Liu Jin, Liu Yi, was born. Although he was born in the imperial family and was after the crown prince Liu Zhao, the situation of the crown prince Liu Zhao at this time was really not good, and the Empress Wei Zifu's family was suffering from huge political changes.
In the first month of that year, Empress Wei Zifu's nephew Gongsun Jingsheng was falsely accused of cursing Emperor Wu of Han for witchcraft and committing adultery with Princess Yangshi. In his later years, Emperor Wu of Han was already suspicious and often ill- and suspected that he was really cursed by people, so he sent Gongsun Jingsheng to prison together with Gongsun Jingsheng (Gongsun Jingsheng's father and empress Dowager Weizifu's brother-in-law), and soon afterwards he was sentenced to the punishment of clan annihilation, and in April of the same year, Princess Zhuyi and Princess Yangshi and Wei Qing's son Marquis Wei of Changping were all killed for sitting together.
This incident caused empress Dowager Wei Zifu's family to suffer extremely heavy losses in the political power of the court, and because the chancellor Jiang Chong had an old grudge with the crown prince Liu, he took advantage of the opportunity of Emperor Wu of Han's illness, saying that Emperor Wu of Han's illness was caused by the art of witchcraft, and that at that time, the art of witchcraft in Chang'an, the capital, was extremely successful, and even the concubines in the imperial palace used this technique. Therefore, Emperor Wu of han ordered Jiang Chong to be an emissary of embroidery in July of the same year to investigate and deal with the case of witchcraft, and the "disaster of witchcraft" broke out.
Jiang Chong was originally a cool official, so he wanted to expand the case, so he used torture to extort confessions and frame him for stealing, resulting in tens of thousands of people from Chang'an and Sanfu regions to counties and countries being killed because they were reported to have used witchcraft. Immediately afterward, Jiang Chong began to deliberately pull the crown prince into the water, and reported to Emperor Wu of Han that "there is a swindle in the palace, and if it is not removed, His Majesty's illness will not get better", thus gaining the right to enter the palace to investigate.
After that, Jiang Chong again adopted the method of planting stolen goods and framing, threatening that "the most cursed wooden people were found in the taint palace, and a large number of silk veils with great rebellious words were also found", and the crown prince Liu Zhaoyin could not go to Ganquan Palace to explain to Emperor Wu of Han, and he was unable to defend himself, so he had to send someone to inform Empress Wei Zifu on the one hand, and mobilize the soldiers of Changle Palace to respond, and on the other hand, he sent people to hunt down Jiang Chong and others. The change of the imperial palace directly led to chaos in Chang'an City, and it was rumored everywhere that "the prince has rebelled". Emperor Wu of Han then ordered the chancellor Liu Quyi to lead an army to quell the rebellion, and the two sides fought fiercely for five days, and the crown prince Liu Zhao's army was defeated and fled from Chang'an with his two young sons.
In this "scourge of witchcraft", Empress Wei Zifu and Crown Prince Liu Zhi committed suicide one after another, and the two young emperors were also killed, while Liu Liangdi's grandmother Shi Liangdi, father Liu Jin, mother Wang Wengsu and aunt were also killed in Chang'an, and the concubines and disciples of the crown prince's grandson were also executed, and only Liu Yi, who was still in his infancy, escaped the disaster.
Born into the imperial family, but raised in the folk, Emperor Wu of Han was recognized on his deathbed
After the "scourge of witchcraft", although Liu Yi had escaped the disaster, he was also thrown into prison. Soon, the court lieutenant supervisor Feng Ji was transferred to Beijing to deal with the case of crown prince Liu Zheng, and Feng Ji found out that the crown prince Liu Zhi was framed and died, so he took more pity on the innocent Liu Yiji, so he arranged a clean room and let the female prisoners Hu Group and Guo Zhengqing feed Liu Zhengqing in his infancy. Later, because Liu's illness was already ill at an early age, it was named "Sick".
Once, Emperor Wu of Han was seriously ill, and those who wanted to be angry said that Chang'an Prison had Tianzi Qi, so Emperor Wu of Han sent an inquisitor to order Guo Yong to execute all the people in the twenty-six officials of Chang'an Prison, but Feng Ji closed the door tightly, refused Guo Yong to enter, and said, "The emperor's great-grandson is here, and ordinary people cannot be killed innocently, let alone the emperor's own great-grandson." After dawn, Guo Yong had to return to Emperor Wu of Han, who knew that his great-grandson was still alive, so he did not investigate in depth and ordered a general amnesty for the world.
After Emperor Wu of Han granted amnesty to the world, Feng Ji wanted to take the opportunity to take Liu Yi out of the cage, so he asked Shou Cheng who had written an official document to send Liu Yi and Hu Group together, but Jing Zhaoyin did not dare to accept it, so he sent it back. In desperation, Feng Ji had to use his own Feng Lu to hire Hu Group and Guo Zhengqing to continue to raise Liu Yijie.
Later, When Feng Ji heard that Liu Yi's grandmother Shi Liangdi's mother, Wang Mi, was still alive, he sent Liu Yi to his home. Wang Mi was already very old at that time, but seeing that Liu Yi was already lonely and helpless, her heart was still very sad, so she personally raised Liu Yi.
In February of the second year of the Later Yuan Dynasty (87 BC), Emperor Wu of Han died, leaving two edicts before his death, one for the ministers Huo Guang, Shangguan Jie, and Jin Riju, and the other was to adopt Liu Yi in Yeting (where palace women and low-ranking concubines lived), and ordered Zong Zheng to enter Liu Yi into the imperial genealogy.
In the second year of the first year of the Han Zhao Emperor (85 BC), Huo Guang and others were enfeoffed with the edict, and Liu Yi had also moved out of the Shi family because of the will and officially entered the life of the Court. It was only at this time that Liu Yiji's clan status was truly recognized from the legal level.
When he became an adult, he married Xu Pingjun, and Liu He, the deposed emperor of the Han Dynasty, took the throne after he was deposed
Although He was only six years old when He moved to Yeting, because Zhang He was once the household official of the Crown Prince Liu Zhao, he already took more care of Liu Yi, and even paid for Liu Yi's studies out of his own pocket. Although the court was deserted, under Zhang He's careful care, Liu's illness had grown up day by day.
As Liu Yi grew older, Zhang He married Zhang Luo again, repeatedly praising Liu Yi to his younger brother Zhang Anshi and wanting to marry his granddaughter to Liu Yiji. Although Zhang Anshi's younger son Zhang Pengzu and Liu Yi had often exchanged scriptures together and had a very good relationship, Zhang Anshi, who was then the right general, believed that at this time, Emperor Han Zhao's reign should not be too good friends with Liu Yi, and Zhang He extinguished this idea.
At that time, Xu Guanghan, who was serving as a tyrant (that is, an official in charge of weaving dyeing) in the Ye court, had a daughter named Xu Pingjun, who was about fourteen or fifteen years old. Xu Pingjun had already promised to Ouyang as a wife, but before he got married, her husband died suddenly, and her mother was worried, so she found someone to divinate for her daughter, and learned that her daughter would be rich and wealthy in the future, so she relaxed her heart.
After Zhang He learned of this, he ran to Xu Guanghan to drink, and after three rounds of drinking, he said to him, "Liu Yi is already a close relative of the emperor, even if his status is lowly now, but who knows that he will not fly in the future, why not choose him as a son-in-law." Xu Guanghan thought about it and nodded his head in agreement, so Zhang He paid for the dowry from his own pocket and set up a marriage for the two. In the sixth year of Yuan Feng (75 BC), the sixteen-year-old Liu Yi was married to the fourteen-year-old Xu Pingjun.
In April of the first year of Yuan Ping (74 BC), the Han Zhao Emperor Liu Fuling died, and because he was childless after his death, the general Huo Guang welcomed Emperor Han Zhao's nephew Liu He the Prince of Changyi as emperor, but after Liu He ascended the throne, he was "absurd and unscrupulous, disrespectful to the emperor, and chaotic Han system", and was deposed by Huo Guang after only twenty-seven days on the throne.
At that time, the servant Du Yannian had a deep friendship with Liu Yi because his son Du Tuo and Liu Yi were already deeply friendly, so Du Yannian knew Liu Yi's illness very well, so he told Huo Guang and Zhang Anshi that he could make him emperor. Du Yannian was originally a subordinate official of Huo Guang, and because of his great merits in the neutrality of the party struggle between Huo Guang and Shangguan Jie and others, he was deeply trusted by Huo Guang. At the same time, Feng Ji, who was highly valued by Huo Guang and had been promoted to the rank of Guanglu Doctor, also said that among the many disciples of the clan, Liu Yi was the most outstanding.
With the recommendation of two close associates, Huo Guangyi went to the court in July of the same year to ask Liu Yiji to be approved by Empress Shangguan, so Zongzheng Liu De took people to the Court to greet Liu Yijie, and first went to Zongzheng Mansion to fast and perform rituals. On The day of Gengshen in July (September 10, 74 BC), Liu Yi had entered Weiyang Palace, and was first given the title of Marquis of Yangwu, and then the courtiers were offered the seal and silk, and Liu Yi had officially assumed the title of emperor, changed his name to Liu Qing, and was named Emperor Xuan of Han.
Emperor Xuan of Han was well aware of the sufferings of the people because he was good at folk and often traveled in the land of the Three Auxiliaries. Therefore, during his reign, he exerted great efforts to govern, opposed the confucian dictatorship internally, adopted the method of "kingly way and hegemony", selected the best and the able, rectified the rule of officials, and vigorously restored and developed agricultural production; externally, he joined forces with Wusun to break the Xiongnu, and pacified the Western Qiang, officially incorporating the western region into the territory. Under its governance, the Western Han Dynasty was politically clear, socially harmonious, economically prosperous, and the Four Yi Binfu, and the western Han Dynasty reached its peak of national strength, known in history as the "rule of filial piety", and later generations believed that its merits "did not live up to the high ancestors, and did not lose han wu".