From the song girl to the empress, and committed suicide in her later years, what did Wei Zifu experience?
Wei Zifu, known as Empress Wei, was the second empress of Liu Che, Emperor Wu of Han, from humble origins, and had three half-brothers in Pingyang, Hedong (present-day Linfen, Shanxi) in the Western Han Dynasty, namely Wei Qing, Wei Bu, and Wei Guang.
Wei Zifu was originally a song girl of Pingyang Houfu, and was able to enter the palace because Princess Pingyang offered beautiful women to Emperor Wudi of Han. Wei Zifu entered the palace for forty-nine years, and for the next thirty-eight years, she was "not a prince, but she had the sages of internal help", and she was among the concubines recorded in the "Shiji Foreign Qi Family".
Wei Zifu was born during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, because of the poverty of his family, and his mother Wei Concubine was a servant of Pingyang Houfu, Wei Zifu was sent to Pingyang Houfu to learn song and dance when he was a teenager, and then naturally became a song girl in Pingyang Houfu.
During the Wenjing period of the Western Han Dynasty, in order to weaken the threat of the founding merits to the imperial power, the two emperors of Wenjing returned the founding princes to their fiefs while using a large number of Hanmen and foreign relatives, so that the founding princes gradually withdrew from the court. Therefore, in order to maintain the family's position of power, these founding princes curry favor with the emperor in various ways.
In the second year of Jianyuan (139 BC), Emperor Wudi of Han went to worship his ancestors, and on the way back he went to Pingyang Houfu to visit his sister Princess Pingyang. Princess Pingyang naturally would not miss this opportunity, and quickly brought more than a dozen beauties up, which were selected by Emperor Hanwu, but Emperor Hanwu was not satisfied with these beauties.
In desperation, Princess Pingyang had to make the beauties retreat, so she had to set up a banquet to entertain Emperor Hanwu, and the singer helped the fun with song and dance, but she didn't know that Emperor Hanwu actually took a fancy to Wei Zifu among the singers at a glance. Emperor Wudi of Han got up to change clothes, and Princess Pingyang, who knew it, asked Wei Zifu to follow him to serve, so Wei Zifu was lucky in the Xuan car that changed clothes. Emperor Hanwu, who returned to the banquet, was very happy and immediately rewarded Princess Pingyang with thousands of gold, and Princess Pingyang was very knowledgeable and invited Wei Zifu to the palace, and Emperor Hanwu readily agreed.
Although Emperor Hanwu was very satisfied with Wei Zifu, because the empress was extremely jealous, and Emperor Hanwu needed to use the empress's mother, Princess Guantao, to stabilize the throne, he did not dare to offend the mother and daughter excessively, so after entering the palace, Wei Zifu never got luck for more than a year.
In the third year of Jianyuan (138 BC), Emperor Hanwu dismissed the elderly palace people in the palace, Wei Zifu, who had been in the palace for more than a year, and was able to see Emperor Hanwu again, she cried and begged Emperor Hanwu to let her go out of the palace and go home, Emperor Hanwu was very distressed about her, so he came to her again, but did not want Wei Zifu to become pregnant.
Emperor Wudi of Han had been on the throne for three years at this time and had reached the age of nineteen, but because Empress Chen Ajiao was infertile and favored the harem, he never had a child, so Wei Zifu's pregnancy made Emperor Wudi of Han extremely happy, and his favor was more than a day.
The empress was furious when she learned that Wei Zifu was pregnant, and her mother Liu Yan sent people to arrest Wei Zifu's younger brother Wei Qing, intending to use Wei Qing to coerce Wei Zifu. After Emperor Wudi of Han found out, he was even more dissatisfied with Liu's mother and daughter, and the relationship between the two sides became increasingly tense.
In the sixth year of Jianyuan (135 BC), Empress Dowager Dou Yifang died, and Liu Che, who was officially in power, began to alienate the Dou forces, although Empress Chen lost her backers, but still did not know how to retreat, and later found out that she had cursed others with witchcraft, so Emperor Wudi of Han abolished her position as empress in the fifth year of Yuan Guang (130 BC), and Empress Chen retired to Nagato Palace.
In the spring of the first year of Yuan Shuo (128), Wei Zifu, who had been favored for ten years, finally gave birth to the first prince for Emperor Wudi of Han, who was 29 years old and had been on the throne for twelve years, and Emperor Wudi of Han named him Liu Zheng. After that, Zhong Dafu's father asked to make Wei Zifu empress, and Emperor Wudi of Han gladly agreed, so in March of the same year, Wei Zifu was officially canonized as empress.
During the Han-Hungarian War, the foreign Qi group led by Wei Qing and Huo Qubing rose rapidly in the DPRK with their outstanding battle merits, and the Wei clan even won the honor of five marquises.
Wei Zifu, who sat in the back position with "virtuous", died in his later years due to the "scourge of witches"
Beginning in the sixth year of Yuan Shuo (123 BC), as Wei Zifu's appearance grew older, Emperor Wudi of Han's favor for fifteen years began to fade, and Lady Wang, Lady Li, Yin Jieyu, Xing Jiao'e, Zhao Jieyu (Lady Hookyi) and others began to be favored alternately.
However, even if Wei Zifu is no longer favored, her position as empress has never been threatened, initially perhaps due to her younger brother Wei Qing and nephew Huo Qubing and other famous battle achievements, but her ability to remain in the position of empress for seventeen years after the death of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing should be directly related to her character.
Unlike Empress Chen, Wei Zifu, regardless of whether he was favored or not, never harbored jealousy, and always took care of the harem in an orderly manner, fully playing the role of a virtuous helper. In the "Zizhi Tongjian", it is said, "Every line of luck is good, and the prince is often paid in the future, and the queen is paid in the palace; There is a level, also, the white, the same, sometimes unconscious. It can be seen that Emperor Wudi of Han was extremely satisfied with Wei Zifu's cooking of the harem, and in the thirty-eight years after Wei Zifu's reign, the Han Palace recorded in the history books no longer had jealous women and daughters, let alone bad incidents caused by concubines and concubines.
During the reign of Emperor Wudi of Han, due to the illegal activities of local tyrants and nobles, Emperor Wudi of Han used a large number of cool officials, and Jiang Chong was one of them. Jiang Chong was not afraid of the powerful and powerful, but he also had a grudge with the crown prince Liu Zheng, and in order to avoid future liquidation, Jiang Chong took advantage of the opportunity ordered by Emperor Wudi of Han to investigate the witchcraft himself, and deliberately expanded the situation, intending to drag the crown prince Liu Zheng into the water.
Unable to face Emperor Wudi of Han to defend himself, the crown prince Liu Cheng led his men to kill Jiang Cheng, but Yushi Zhang Gan, who conspired with Jiang Chong, took the opportunity to run to Ganquan Palace and falsely accused Liu Zheng of rebellion. The crown prince Liu Cheng was forced to raise troops in desperation, but because of the limited number of soldiers and horses that could be mobilized, he entered the palace overnight to report to the empress, and then, with the support of Wei Zifu, mobilized the empress's stable frame, took weapons from the arsenal, transferred the Changle Palace guard, and recruited troops in the name of traitorous rebellion, and Chang'an City was suddenly in chaos.
However, the crown prince Liu Zheng was seriously short of soldiers and horses, and when Emperor Wudi of Han mobilized heavy troops to suppress the rebellion, Liu Zheng finally fled Chang'an in defeat and hid in Hu County. On the same day, Emperor Wu sent Zongzheng Liu Changle and Liu Dan to withdraw the empress seal that had been used to help Liu Zheng raise troops and symbolize the real power of the empress. Empress Wei was unable to explain her actions, and committed suicide by dying.