At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a legendary woman who experienced turmoil such as the death of her daughter and the abolition of her later position, and had to devote herself to cultivation in a Taoist temple for more than 20 years.
And when the country perished and the rivers and mountains were stained with blood, she chose to stand up and save the country and the people in danger. What exactly did she go through? And how did you do it?
This strange woman is Meng Xiang, the empress of Zhao Xu, the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty.
1. The first half of life disliked by the emperor
Meng Xiang was the granddaughter of Meng Yuan, the defense envoy of Meizhou and the capital of the Ma army, and was considered to be from a family of military generals. She has a very special background, that is, she is the 46th grandson of Mencius.
Under the influence of the family atmosphere, Meng Xiang has loved reading since he was a child, has the ambition of serving the country, and is a knowledgeable lady. But what Meng Xiang did not expect was that at the age of 19, she stood out from more than a hundred women and became the first empress of Zhao Xu of Song Zhezong.
Zhao Xu is 3 years younger than Meng Xiang, and he has no good impression of the dignified and atmospheric Meng Xiang, and he chose Meng Xiang because of his grandmother Gao Taotao's persecution.
Gao Taotao is the empress of Song Yingzong Zhao Shu, she and Zhao Shu's childhood sweetheart, grew up and got married, performing a touching love story of a lifetime and a couple.
However, Zhao Shu only lived to be 35 years old before he died, after which Gao Taotao began to obey the government, assisting his son and grandson in the cooking of the Great Song Dynasty. When his grandson Zhao Xu was 16 years old, Gao Taotao ordered: Draft for the emperor!
After that, officials at all levels in Beijing began to report the information of the school-age girls in the family one after another, and after some screening, the late Ma Jundu Yu Meng Yuan's granddaughter Meng Xiang stood out from several show girls and was determined to be the empress.
The reason why Meng Xiang was chosen was not because she had a strong background and outstanding appearance, but because she had an average background and pure quality, and would not cause a storm of foreign dictatorship.
But Gao Taotao ignored one point, Zhao Xu did not have the slightest feeling for Meng Xiang. Zhao Xu's favorite woman is Liu Jieyu. Liu Jieyu was young and beautiful, her skin was like coagulation, and she was selected to be a palace maid in the palace since she was a child, and she was the personal attendant of Zhao Xu, who was still young at that time.
Although their status is very different, the two grew up together and can be regarded as childhood sweethearts. After Zhao Xu became pro-government, he made Liu Shi a concubine, and was obedient to her, as long as it was Liu Jieyu's thoughts, he would definitely fulfill her wish wholeheartedly.
Liu Jieyu is under the favor, and her ambition is getting more and more expanded. She knew that Zhao Xu did not have Empress Meng Xiang in her heart, so she was bent on overthrowing Meng Xiang.
Meng was defenseless against this, or in other words, she had yearned for galloping on horseback and defending the country since she was a child, and she did not disdain to engage in palace fights for grace.
2. The "White Moonlight" queen who failed in the palace fight
Although she was disliked, Meng Xiang was gentle and frugal, and she was also a dutiful empress. It's just that Meng Xiang's sense of existence in the harem is very weak after all, until Gao Taotao's death, she only gave birth to a princess and did not have a concubine, which buried hidden dangers for her tragic fate later.
In 1096, Meng Xiang's daughter Princess Fuqing fell ill, and the imperial doctor tried his best to diagnose and treat it, but it never improved. In desperation, Meng Xiang's sister turned to runes, hoping that the princess would turn the corner.
When Meng Xiang learned about it, he blamed his sister for being confused and asked his sister to take it quickly. My sister insisted on leaving the talisman paper for Meng Xiang to use quietly.
The open-minded Meng Xiang, in line with the principle of honesty between husband and wife, told Zhao Xu about the runes when he came to visit his daughter, and burned the rune paper in front of Zhao Xu, saying that he would never believe in these witchcraft.
I thought that the matter would end here, but I didn't expect Zhao Xu to turn his head and inform Liu Jieyu about this during casual chat.
Liu Jieyu realized that this was a good opportunity to overthrow Meng Xiang, and after that, she sent people to secretly hide the talisman paper in Meng Xiang's palace, and spread rumors that Empress Meng used magic to heal her daughter in the palace.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Jieyu arranged for the foreign minister Zhang Wei and others to frame Meng Xiang and curse the emperor with witchcraft.
Zhao Xu thought that Meng Xiang had burned the talisman in front of him, so he half-believed it and ordered the eunuch Liang Congzheng and others to preside over the case.
Liang had already defected to Liu Jieyu's camp, and he abused lynching, beat the people in Meng Xiang's palace half to death, and forced "witnesses" to draw fabricated confessions, thus convicting Meng Xiang.
When Zhao Xu saw the crime, he became angry and turned Meng Ping into a heinous person, and after immediately issuing an edict, he ordered Meng Xiang to become a monk.
In fact, Meng Xiang is usually magnanimous and loved, and it is said that her attendants were tortured and were unwilling to frame her. But if you want to add to the crime, Meng Xiang finally because the Buddha is indifferent, and he has a bad move, so he can only be killed in vain.
3. More than 20 years of cold palace years have forged her strong heart
Just because he fell for the villain's secret calculation, he instantly became a falling phoenix, and it was impossible for Meng Xiang's heart not to be sad and indignant. At this time, she was only 22 years old.
Meng Xiang's new residence is the lonely and desolate Yaohua Palace, which is simple, grassy and isolated. For a 22-year-old girl, it is undoubtedly a double test of body and mind.
What made Meng Xiang angriest was Liu Jieyu, who caused her to lose her reputation and freedom, not only was canonized as the new empress, but also gave birth to a son.
Good people have been wronged, bad people are satisfied, is there any fairness in this world?
But Meng Xiang did not allow herself to immerse herself in indignation, she knew that blindly complaining about fate would not only not help, but also drain her mental energy and make her young body sick early.
Meng Xiang gradually sank her heart, while reading and cultivating the Tao, she used the stories of ancient heroes to cheer herself up, and used the verses of her ancestor Mencius to cheer herself up: Therefore, the heavens will descend on the great appointment of people, and they will first work hard for their minds, work their bones, starve their bodies, empty their bodies, and mess up their deeds, so they will be patient and have benefited what they cannot...
After suffering day after day, Meng Xiang finally waited for an order to take her back to the palace.
It turned out that Meng Xiang's mother-in-law was quite sympathetic to the Empress Dowager when he was wrongly deposed.
After Zhao Xu's death, Emperor Huizong of Song succeeded to the throne, and immediately ordered the Empress Dowager to restore Meng Xiang's status as empress, and Meng Xiang could finally return to the palace with dignity.
However, only a year later, Empress Dowager Xiang died, and Meng Xiang was once again revoked by Empress Liu (formerly Liu Jieyu), and lived in the deserted and dilapidated Yaohua Palace for more than twenty years.
From the age of 20 to 50, the most precious years of her life slowly passed in boundless loneliness.
4. When the country was broken and her family died, she repaid her grievances with virtue and revived the Song Dynasty
Just when everyone thought that Meng Xiang had no chance to turn over in her life, an incident happened that made her fate turn around.
In 1127 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty experienced the darkest scene since the establishment of the dynasty, Jin soldiers attacked the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianjing, Song Huizong, Song Qinzong and more than 3,000 royal family members were abducted by Jin soldiers, humiliated, and the Northern Song Dynasty was declared dead.
This is the change in Jingkang that has made countless people sad and indignant.
Meng Xiang was lucky to escape because he was removed from the Northern Song royal family early and lived outside the palace when the Yaohua Palace caught fire.
Under the collapse of the country, Meng Xiang did not gloat at the Northern Song royal family that had caused her half a life's harm, on the contrary, she immediately realized the responsibility she shouldered.
She began to bravely clean up the mess and unite all the forces that could be united.
First, she tried to persuade Zhang Bangchang, the leader of the puppet regime established by the Jin state, to abandon her ambition to stand on behalf of the Song dynasty and contribute to the reorganization of the Song dynasty.
Secondly, she tried her best to gather soldiers, straighten out the army, and prepare for a counterattack against Jinguo.
Third, she wrote a "Letter to Marshal King Kang's Persuasion", sending her nephew to set out with a letter to find Zhao Shu, the ninth son of Emperor Huizong of Song, and persuaded him to become emperor.
In her letter, she said: "The country has reached the point of life and death, and we, as members of the royal family, must shoulder our responsibilities." You are the brother of the current emperor, and you should stand up and shoulder the heavy responsibility to fight against the golden soldiers to the end. ”
Meng Xiang's efforts were fruitful, and soon she found Zhao Zhi and supported Zhao Zhi to ascend the throne in Yingtianfu (present-day Shangqiu, Henan) in Nanjing, becoming the founding emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of Song.
On the day Zhao Shu ascended the throne, Meng Xiang did not covet power, chose to withdraw the curtain and return to government, and handed over the power of Jiangshan to Zhao Shu.
Two years later, when the Southern Song Dynasty mutinied, it was Meng Xiang who took the initiative to go out of the palace to negotiate with the rebels, and while stabilizing the rebels, ordered the general Han Shizhong to lead troops to suppress the rebellion as soon as possible, resolving a sudden crisis and saving the Southern Song Dynasty.
In 1135, Meng Xiang completed his life at the age of 59. Before dying, she left her last words: "Collect regular clothes, do not use gold and jade treasures, it is expedient to choose a place near the funeral, wait for military rest, and return to the cemetery." ”
This means that in troubled times, everything is simple about your funeral, don't use gold and jade treasures to accompany the burial, just find a place to place the coffin nearby, and then bury it back to the Northern Song Imperial Mausoleum when the military subsides.
Write at the end
Meng Xiang's first half of life was unfortunate, although she was an empress, not only did her marriage be bumpy, her daughter died, she also suffered strange wrongs, and had to survive the best 20 years of her life in the lonely shadow of the green lantern.
But what is admirable is that when the country was in crisis, she did not immerse herself in her own love and hate, but turned the tide at great risks and established the Southern Song Dynasty, giving the people of the Song Dynasty a breathing space.
Because of Meng Xiang's existence, the Song Dynasty lasted for more than 150 years.
In this world, it is not difficult to be a good person who is the icing on the cake, but the difficult thing is whether you can be a warrior who can help charcoal in the snow and take the chestnut in the fire.
The great of heroes serves the country and the people.
Meng Xiang is really a strange woman with a powerful pattern.
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