Typography 丨 Mo Xiao Tea
Edit the secret history of the concubines
Can a second-married woman of the Northern Song Dynasty marry the emperor? Of course, yes, and there are still many cases of second-married women marrying emperors in history.
Historically, Empress Cao of Song Renzong was a second-married woman. The Jiashen Miscellaneous Records record that Empress Cao married a man named Li Zhi at that time, but "on the day of the ceremony, the Cao clan had already entered, and the Cao clan had gone over the wall, and the Cao clan returned."
That is to say, during the night of the candle in the cave, the man ran away, and Cao Shi could not, so he had to return to his mother's house.
Then, in addition to Empress Cao, Empress Zongwei of Song was also a representative of the second marriage.
In addition to the two of them, the second marriage empress in history is also our protagonist Liu E today.
Liu E's ancestral home is Taiyuan, and it turned out that she also had a prominent family. Her grandfather was a great general of the Right Xiao Wei during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and her father was an envoy of the Song Dynasty's Hu Jiedu Commandery. But Liu E was born with both her parents dead, so she was born an orphan. Foster care can only be placed in the mother's mother's house.
Her mother's family did not want to see Liu E, and when she grew up a little, she became a singer, she not only looked like a heavenly immortal, her voice was also gentle, and she could also broadcast the mole, which was very popular at that time.
Soon, Liu E was married to Gong Mei's silversmith, Gong Mei came to the capital in order to make a living, and when he arrived in the capital, his coil was not enough, so he thought of selling Liu E for some silver.
At that time, the commander made Zhang Qi see that Liu E was beautiful and had extraordinary temperament, so he recommended Liu E to Zhao Heng, the King of Han, and as a result, when Zhao Heng saw Liu E, he loved her very much and loved her incomparably.
Later, this matter was known to Song Taizong, and Song Taizong was greatly annoyed, he never expected that Zhao Heng would spoil such a lowly woman, he felt that this was losing the face of the imperial family, so he ordered Zhao Heng to immediately expel Liu E from the palace.
At the same time, he immediately picked a good wife for Zhao Heng. Song Taizong chose no one else, but the daughter of Pan Mei, the founding hero of the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Heng did not dare to disobey the emperor's orders, and he was reluctant to Liu E, so he meditated and thought about it. I thought of a good way, that is, to secretly place Liu E in Zhang Qi's home and go to a private meeting when she had time.
Zhang Qi saw that Zhao Heng liked Liu E so much, so he asked the whole family to serve Liu E carefully. In order to avoid suspicion, he never went home again, but chose a house outside to settle down.
In 997, Emperor Taizong of Song died, and the crown prince Zhao Heng succeeded him as Emperor Zhenzong of Song. After taking the throne, Zhao Heng immediately added Liu E to the palace, but at that time, the harem already had concubines such as Empress Guo, so Liu E had no name.
Liu E did not resent this, but continued to live a peaceful life, carefully serving Song Zhenzong. In 1004, Liu E was given the title of Sipin Beauty. After that, Liu E was successively promoted to Xiu Yi and De Concubine.
At that time, Liu E's grace was the most in the harem, and she often accompanied the emperor around. Although Liu E is so favored, she has not lost her mind, and she clearly knows what she can do to maintain her rights forever. As a result, there was a storm of tanuki cats for princes.
In order to become empress, what palace fighting tricks did Liu E make?
At that time, although Liu E was favored, she had no heirs, and she was very anxious about this, and after thinking about it, she found that the maid li shi beside her looked very beautiful, so she let her serve the emperor. It didn't take long for Lee to become pregnant, and the child was born as a baby boy. Liu E was particularly pleased, so she declared that it was her own child, and she also had the opportunity to ascend to the throne of the empress.
Although Liu stole Li's children, he has always been very kind to Li, and has always treated Li well before his death, and buried her with empress courtesy after his death.
Song Renzong was very angry after learning of his origin later, because he had been living with Liu E for so many years and had never met his own mother, but when he went to replace his mother's coffin with infinite guilt, he found that "the concubine jade is like life, the crown is like the empress, and it is fed with mercury, so it is not bad." Therefore, he reduced his anger towards Liu E.
In 1012, Liu E was made empress because she gave birth to a crown prince. Liu E, who became empress, had always been conscientious in her duties, and she could not only coordinate the affairs of the six palaces well, but also often accompanied Emperor Zhenzong, accompanied him to review the recitals, and helped him deal with major affairs in the dprk.
Gradually, Emperor Zhenzong became very dependent on Liu E when dealing with serious affairs. It is recorded in the history books that Liu E "became vigilant after sex, knew the history of the book, heard about the affairs of the imperial court, and could remember its end." Every time the emperor is lucky, he will obey. ”
In his later years, Song Zhenzong was often bedridden, and the affairs of the military state were handed over to Liu E, during which she frantically cultivated her cronies, laying the foundation for the future obedience to the government.
In 1022, Emperor Zhenzong of Song died and Emperor Renzong of Song ascended the throne. Emperor Xian left a will and testament: "Honor the empress as the empress dowager, and the military affairs will be disposed of by the empress dowager." At this time, Liu E really became the ruler of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In 1024, Liu E, dressed in imperial dragon robes (衮 robes), participated in her own canonization ceremony, and accepted the worship of Emperor Renzong of Song and his courtiers. Liu E, who already had the highest power, why didn't she learn from Wu Zetian to become emperor?
Liu E, who was already wearing a dragon robe, why didn't she take the road of empress?
In fact, there are two main reasons for this, the first is the system of the Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty implemented a policy of emphasizing literature over military force, so the power of officials was particularly large.
When Liu E bowed to the government, she already found that if she did the slightest act of trespassing, the officials would certainly fight to the death and constantly impeach themselves.
If the impeachment was unsuccessful, the officials would co-opt the ministers and openly confront Liu E in court. Although Liu E had already arranged her own connections in the DPRK, after all, she had no relatives and no reason, and she was weak, and if she really fell into a stalemate with the ministers, it was not necessarily her who won, so Liu E did not want to cause this trouble.
Second, Liu E is very smart, she knows the fate of Lü Wu after his death, she does not want to be left behind for half a year after her death, and she is insulted. She also didn't want her other children to be implicated.
Therefore, she is only a dynasty ruler, and she is never called an emperor. In this way, she is preserving herself, her reputation and dignity.
After Liu E made up her mind, she resolutely implemented it, and when someone advised her to become emperor after learning martial arts, she was furious: "I will never do such a thing to apologize to the ancestors of the Great Song Dynasty."
Liu E's practice was indeed praised by people, and when she died, she was known as a generation of empresses.
In 1033, Liu E died of illness, and Emperor Renzong of Song led his courtiers to bury Liu E, who was buried with emperor Zhenzong of Song at the Yongding Mausoleum, with the courtesy name of Empress Zhang Xianmingsu.
Looking back on Liu E's life, it is inevitable to feel legendary, she was originally a lonely girl who had no one to rely on, but she was able to marry Song Zhenzong as a second marriage and become an empress.
She was originally childless, but she could come up with the wonderful plan of "exchanging tanuki cats for princes" and let herself successfully ascend to the throne, she held the actual power of the Great Song Dynasty, and could have been called emperor by the dynasty, but she retained the last conscience and wisdom, and was only praised by the world as a virtuous queen.