There are more than 400 emperors in Chinese history, from the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the last emperor Puyi, they are the best people in the whole world, what they want, and they are all doing their best to enjoy them. But why are the vast majority of them short-lived? The average life expectancy of successive emperors did not exceed 40 years, and even ordinary people lived longer than they did. So what exactly caused them to be short-lived?
First of all, let's look at the Qin Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty has gone through two emperors, not only the emperor has a short life, but its dynasty is also short-lived. Qin Shi Huang inherited the throne at the age of 13, became emperor at the age of 39, and lived to the age of 49 after 37 years on the throne, which is considered to be a pass. In 207 BC, Hu Hai was forced to commit suicide at Wangyi Palace by Zhao Gao's confidant Yan Le, and he only lived to be 24 years old.
Time came to the Han Dynasty, which was a unified dynasty after the Qin Dynasty, divided into the Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties, experiencing a total of 29 emperors and enjoying 405 years of the country. The average life expectancy of the 29 emperors was only 34 years, the most famous of which was the seventh emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, The Han Wudi Emperor Liu Che, who lived for 70 years. The most tragic was the Han Emperor Liu Long, who was just a hundred days away from birth when he ascended the throne, and was the youngest emperor to succeed to the throne, but he died soon after, and his title was Emperor Xiaoxiao, and he only lived for two years.
This was followed by the Three Kingdoms period of the melee, and then to the Jin Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Jin Dynasty inherited the Three Kingdoms and the Lower Qi Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was divided into two periods: the Western Jin Dynasty and the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Among them, the Western Jin Dynasty is a unified dynasty in Chinese history, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty belongs to one of the six dynasties, and the two Jin Dynasties have inherited a total of 15 emperors for a total of 155 years. Among these 15 emperors, the average life expectancy was about 35 years, and the longest-lived was the founding emperor Sima Yan, who died at the age of 55. The shortest was sima tan, the fifth emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who died of illness at the age of 19.
Let's take a look at the two closest dynasties to us, the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Ming Dynasty was the last unified Central Plains Dynasty established by the Han Chinese in Chinese history, which lasted for 16 emperors and enjoyed 276 years, and the average life expectancy of Ming emperors was about 40 years. The longest-lived was Zhu Yuanzhang, who lived to be 71 years old. Of course, there are also some who died less than 40 years ago, such as the famous carpenter Emperor Zhu Youxiao, who died at the age of 23. The Ming Dynasty also had an emperor who could be said to be the most bitter, who suffered for 20 years on the throne, but only 1 month after ascending the throne, he died of exhaustion around the palace women.
As the last feudal dynasty in history, the Qing Dynasty was much more developed than the previous dynasty in terms of lifestyle and conditioning, so the Qing Dynasty also became a dynasty with the highest life expectancy of ancient emperors. But even at its highest level, the average life expectancy of a Qing emperor was only in his 50s. The longest-lived emperor is, of course, the Qianlong Emperor, who ascended the throne at the age of 25, reigned for 60 years, and then served as Emperor Taishang for three years and four months after the Zen throne, the longest-lived emperor in Chinese history who actually held the highest power of the state, and the longest-lived emperor in Chinese history, at the age of 89. The shortest-lived emperor was the Tongzhi Emperor, who ascended the throne at the age of six, died of illness at the age of 19, worked as a dragon chair for 13 years, and hurriedly completed his life. In this way, for the ancient emperors, 40 years old is undoubtedly a threshold. Of course, there are also some of them who live longer, but this is only a rare corner. So what caused the emperor's short life? The ancient emperors lived such a luxurious life, why did most of them have short lives?
In fact, there are two most important reasons, the first is overwork, too much pressure. In fact, the ancient emperors were not as comfortable and relaxed as we thought, after all, their shoulders carried the fate of the entire country, and they had endless things to deal with every day. Take the most famous industrious emperor in history, Yongzheng, every day is either in the batch folding, or on the way to the batch folding, almost every day overtime until the early morning, sleeping time is only three or four hours, in such a high-intensity working state, no one can stand it, he is not sick and sick to blame. Coupled with the fact that the ancient medical conditions were not developed, a cold and cold could kill people, so Yongzheng was only the emperor for 13 years and died of illness due to overwork.
In addition to the great pressure of work, the psychological pressure of the ancient emperors is also unimaginable to us. Although the emperor is the king of a country and enjoys supreme power, it can be said that this is also a high-risk profession, although he enjoys the highest treatment in the whole world every day, but he also faces the fate of being framed at any time. There are also many emperors who have died in history. For example, the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang was killed by Yu Wenhua and was 50 years old at the time; Both Emperor Zhaozong of Tang and Emperor Li Yi were killed by his vassal Zhu Wen; During the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Liu Yilong, who ascended the throne in 424 AD, was killed by Crown Prince Shao; During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, after the death of the Han Emperor Liu Yuan, the crown prince Liu He took the throne. As a result, his younger brother Liu Cong was not reconciled, killed his brother Liu He, and became emperor himself. In addition to being wary of the threats of his courtiers, the emperor also had to keep an eye on the inflexible assassins, such as Qin Shi Huang, who had been assassinated many times in his lifetime. The Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty also almost died at the hands of the palace maids around him. They walk on thin ice, often worrying about life, in the long run, they will inevitably become suspicious, the pressure becomes more and more intense, coupled with the heavy government, these emperors do not live long can be understood.
Then in addition, the last reason is naturally related to the harem beauty. Ancient emperors sat in three palaces and six courtyards, harem beauties three thousand, every day in the face of so many beautiful women, it is easy to indulge in it, a long time, their bodies must not be able to stand. Ancient royals were extremely important to the reproduction of heirs, so even if they were tired during the day, they had to go to the harem at night to create people. In history, there are not a few emperors who have brought themselves down because of excessive indulgence, such as the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who coveted beauty, did not ask about the wind and rain outside the window in the summer resort, drunk in this dynasty, only to be happy and happy, and finally died at the age of 31 because she was overwhelmed.
Compared with the Longqing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, xianfeng's operations can be described as small witches and big witches. According to legend, the Longqing Emperor spent the rest of his time with his concubines, in addition to taking care of the government, and he excessively indulged in women and trusted eunuchs. At first, in the yu king's mansion, he had very few concubines, but since he became emperor, he began to indulge excessively in female color, and officials in the court also repeatedly advised him, but with little success. And due to the evil deeds of Emperor Muzong, once led to the rise of the "LaLang Match" trend in the Jiangnan area, and the concubine selection activities were hundreds of people sent to the palace every time. The most outrageous thing was that he began to take all kinds of elixirs, and these mysterious operations undoubtedly further damaged his body. In this way, the 36-year-old Longqing Emperor finally died in his own indulgence. However, if they can be moderate, there will be no short life. What do you think are the most important reasons for the short life expectancy of ancient emperors?