In Chinese history, there were several women who, although they did not ascend the throne as emperors, but held the government in their own hands steadily, but their reputations were not very good, such as Lü Hou, such as Cixi.
And there is one person, but it is an exception.
She was originally a singer, or a second marriage, but let the emperor be favored for more than ten years, crowned as an empress, and finally the regent of the dynasty for more than ten years, known by later generations: there is the talent of Lü Wu, there is no evil of Lü Wu.
She was Empress Dowager Liu of Song Zhenzong.
Liu E's parents died when she was a child, and she was raised in her grandmother's parents, but the living conditions in her grandmother's family were not good, and her family's stomach could not be filled, not to mention that she had one more mouth. After Liu E was a little older, she came out pure and beautiful, and in order to supplement her family, she had to go out to be a singer.
At the age of 15, Liu E married a silversmith under the arrangement of her uncle, and later followed the silversmith to the capital to beg for a living, after they came to the capital, life was not good, at this time the silversmith sold Liu E.
At that time, people saw that Liu E was beautiful, so they introduced him to Song Zhenzong, who was still the king of Han at that time.
As a result, as soon as Song Zhenzong saw Liu E, his eyes could not be removed, and he also took her into his palace and accompanied her day and night from then on.
Later, this matter was known to Song Zhenzong's grandmother, who had a very high status in ancient times, so she advised Song Zhenzong that the singer was lowly and had little contact with her, and as a result, Song Zhenzong did not listen, and the grandmother stabbed this matter to Song Zhenzong's father Song Taizong, and Song Taizong drove Liu E out in anger.
At that time, Song Zhenzong was forced by the situation to send Liu E out, but secretly took Liu E back secretly and hid it in the home of his confidant, which was hidden for more than ten years.
After the death of his father Song Taizong, Song Zhenzong succeeded to the throne, and the first thing he did after he ascended the throne was to take Liu E to the palace.
At that time, Liu E was more than 30 years old, and for the ancients, she was already the age of the half-old Xu Niang, but Song Zhenzong did not dislike Liu E because of her aging appearance, but loved her more.
As an emperor, he wanted to be wet with rain and dew, but Song Zhenzong was different, he only had Liu E in his heart, this bright and dangling favor, not to mention the harem, even the civil and military officials could not look down, many times advised, to put the heirs first, can not be exclusively favored, Song Zhenzong's left ear into the right ear out.
In 1007, the original empress of Song Zhenzong died, and he wanted to crown Liu E as empress, but unexpectedly he was opposed by the ministers of the court, who felt that Liu E was from a humble origin, had no heirs, and could not afford to be the mother of the country.
The most urgent task was to quickly let Liu E give birth to a son, so that she could obtain the conditions for becoming an empress.
At that time, Liu E was already 40 years old, no matter how hard Song Zhenzong tried, Liu E was never pregnant, and finally Liu E came up with a way, that is, to let the maid girl around her have a child, saying that she was born herself.
This is the origin of "Tanuki for Prince".
Coincidentally, there were not many children of these emperors in the Song Dynasty, and this child was also the only living child of Song Zhenzong, which added a lot of points to Liu E's becoming empress.
Two years later, Liu E, a second-marriage singer from a humble background, finally ascended to the throne of the empress.
After Liu E became empress, she did not eat acid and jealousy and act arbitrarily under the favor of the emperor, but concentrated on political affairs and solved problems for Song Zhenzong, which also laid the foundation for her later curtain to listen to the government.
On the eve of Song Zhenzong's serious illness, it was difficult to handle government affairs, at that time all affairs were handled by Liu E, and after the death of Song Zhenzong, his son Song Renzong succeeded to the throne and made Liu E the empress dowager.
At that time, Song Renzong was only 11 years old, and at that time, everything in the DPRK and China was presided over by Liu E, and from then on, Liu E began to listen to the government, which was more than ten years.
During Liu E's period of listening to the government, not only did she handle the major affairs of the state well, but she also did not forget the education of Song Renzong, who invited all the famous Confucians of traditional Chinese studies at that time to seriously teach Song Renzong, and asked Song Renzong to handle government affairs with herself and study slowly.
He also specially opened a study room for Song Renzong and asked Song Renzong to devote himself to learning, and it was precisely these good educations that laid a good foundation for Song Renzong's later rule of the world with benevolence.
During Liu E's reign, the law was strict, the rewards and punishments were moderate, enwei was all over the world, and once the taste of power was tasted, it was difficult to let go, such as Wu Zetian, Liu E was the same, although she did not want to return the government to Song Renzong at that time, but she did not establish herself as emperor.
Perhaps in her heart, she just wants to manage the family business for her husband.
In 1033, Liu E died of illness at the age of 65.
After Liu E's death, some villains provoked Song Renzong, saying that Liu E was not his birth mother, and his birth mother had long been killed by Liu E. So the Song Ren Sect sent people to dig up the birth mother's grave, and it turned out that the birth mother's body was well preserved, and there were valuable costumes on her body, and Song Renzong felt very guilty.
This incident also reflects that Liu E is indeed benevolent, not only conscientiously handling state affairs for more than ten years, but also a former enemy (after all, the emperor's birth mother), and not too harsh.
Even though Song Renzong was not his own child, he still carefully taught that even if he was unwilling to return to politics in the end, for the sake of the future of the country, he still let go.
Liu E, as a singer with a humble origin, can be madly pampered by Song Zhenzong for more than ten years, perhaps not only because she has a better appearance, after all, Israel is a waiter, and she loves to relax.
The most important thing is that because Liu E can help Song Zhenzong, at a critical time, Song Zhenzong can rely on Liu E, help each other, support each other, and trust each other, perhaps this is the reason why he can be pampered for many years.