Preface
How many real historical figures did the princesses and princesses of ancient times have? Are the stories behind these princes and nobles all related to the hostages given to the Xiongnu by the Han Dynasty? This seemingly simple question contains a complicated history of foreign and foreign exchanges over thousands of years.
This article will dig deep into the annals of Heqin princesses and reveal the political considerations and cultural conflicts behind their identities. Perhaps they are not simply hostages, but more likely to play a complex political role on the stage of history. Let's go through the ancient and modern exchanges and disputes, uncover the mystery of Princess Heqin's life experience, and explore their true identity and role in the long history.
A princess, believed to be Han Gaozu's own daughter, failed to marry
In 200 B.C., Liu Bangqin, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, led an army of more than 300,000 troops deep into the hinterland of the Xiongnu, with the aim of completely defeating the emerging retreat regime in the north. Previously, the Xiongnu cavalry had repeatedly attacked the border of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Bang was determined to deliver a fatal blow.
However, in the battle of Baishan Mountain, Liu Bang and the Han army were besieged by the Xiongnu army for more than a week. The Han army and Liu Bang, who had always been invincible, also fell into an unprecedented desperate situation and panic at this time. Empress Lu, who stayed in Chang'an, worshiped the Buddha and prayed day and night, crying bitterly.
In a desperate situation, the commander of the Han army, Zhang Liang, and the strategist Chen Ping acted decisively, and they came forward to buy the Xiongnu Zuoxian King with a lot of money, so that he could persuade Mao Dunshan to let Liu Bang go in the first way. Although Mao Dunshan hated it, he could only choose to make concessions in the face of the general trend. A week later, Liu Bang finally led the remnants to retreat.
The battle of Baishan made Liu Bang realize the great strength of the Xiongnu, and it was almost impossible for the Han Dynasty to defeat the Xiongnu head-on. In order to avoid further harassment by the Xiongnu on the border, he was determined to negotiate peace and reconciliation with the Xiongnu. Prime Minister Lou Jing then suggested that the marriage between the two countries could be achieved by marrying the princess of the Han Dynasty to the Xiongnu Shan Yu.
This suggestion is undoubtedly a difficult trade-off. As a father, Liu Bang also loves his eldest daughter Princess Lu Yuan very much. But as a monarch, he also understands that this is a matter of national survival. Princess Lu Yuan, who was accustomed to military uniforms and horseback, also showed her female popularity at this time, crying and persuading her father to sacrifice her small family for the country.
Under the influence of his daughter, Liu Bang finally made up his mind and agreed to marry Princess Lu Yuan to Xiongnu Shan Yu Maodun as his wife, and sent Zhang Liang as an envoy to negotiate an alliance.
However, this move was strongly opposed by Liu Bang's new empress, Lu Pheasant. Empress Lu cried about her suffering of being widowed and unable to ask for an heir over the years, thinking that this was God's warning to Liu's destiny. Now that the Liu family has finally produced another daughter, how can it be easy to let the enemy who has a deep hatred? She wept bitterly in the harem for this, causing all the concubines to cry too, and even once hanged herself, forcing Liu Bang to give up.
Liu Bang is in a dilemma, but he still cares about the national economy and people's livelihood. In the end, at Zhang Liang's suggestion, Liu Bang used a clan girl to pretend to be Princess Lu Yuan's relatives. This became a precedent for successive dynasties and relatives. The real Princess Lu Yuan was later hastily married to an older clan by Empress Lu, and she did not become an alien woman.
The perfect stand-in scheme makes it difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake
The Han Dynasty's "fake princess" was actually an expedient measure. In the case of backward transportation conditions in ancient times, it is almost impossible to verify the authenticity of a "princess".
What's more, even the people in the Han court may not know all the heirs of the royal family. Taking the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty as an example, Emperor Wu died, and his youngest son Liu Fuling came to the dynasty to take the throne, and many princes of the clan were suspicious of this, because they had never heard of Emperor Wu and this son. Liu Dan, the king of Yan, even suspected that Liu Fuling was not his biological son at all.
Separated from the Xiongnu by a long stretch of sand, how can we verify the authenticity of a mere "princess"? These "princesses" were not all from humble backgrounds at first. Most of them are from the royal family, more or less royal blood, plus the Han court gave them gold, silver and jewelry, and their lives are not inferior to the true princess.
The perfect role played by these "fake princesses", coupled with the unverifiable reality of the mountains far away, the Huns let her go. After all, what they are looking forward to is only the dowry and status of the "princess". As for people, what is it?
After all, there are people who see through the truth. Among the Xiongnu, there were many Han people, and these people who were familiar with the internal affairs of the Han court and the court system could also find flaws in the speech and demeanor of the "princess".
For example, some "princesses" do not know the Xiongnu language and are not familiar with the life of the grassland; some get carried away when they are favored, revealing the language habits of the market or the people. However, even if the truth is revealed, the Xiongnu seem to be quite indifferent to this. Because the identities of these "princesses" did not have the function of "hostages" from the beginning - why did the Xiongnu use weak women to coerce the powerful Han regime?
Moreover, every "princess and kiss" is just a symbol of another considerable dowry sent by the Han court. The Xiongnu regarded it as a flattering token of the Han court, and it had little to do with the poor "princess" herself. They came and went, but they could not change the situation on the frontier, and the gold and silver they left behind were the gifts that really moved the Huns.
The truth behind Tang Taizong's "princess and pro".
In 758, Tang Suzong, the son of Tang Xuanzong, made an unprecedented move - he married his own daughter, Princess Ningguo, to the Hui Yingwu Khan, which became the first true princess and relatives in history.
In fact, this real princess and relatives were not Su Zong's original intention, nor was it an expedient measure to fight back against the Anshi Rebellion. The matter dates back to 3 years ago, when the famous general Qibi He Li, who was the envoy of the Hedong Jiedu, had to submit to the Hui in order to defend the territory of the Tang Dynasty in the Heshuo region.
In exchange, He Li was forced to marry his daughter to the Hui Khan as a concubine. At that time, Tang Xuanzong learned that he was extremely saddened that the daughter of a loyal minister had become a foreign woman. At this time, the Tang army fell into the artillery fire of the Anshi army in the rear and could not be rescued. So Tang Xuanzong issued an edict, promising to return to the Khan's own favored daughter, Princess Xinxing, hoping to rescue He Li's daughter.
However, when it came to the wedding ceremony, the Tang army made a loud alarm, saying that the Hui delegation was suspected of assassinating the princess, and took the emerging princess back to Chang'an in the name of protecting the princess's safety, and the Hui delegation had to return in embarrassment.
This is undoubtedly a blatant humiliation of Hui Hui. He Li blamed himself when he learned about it, and wrote to ask Tang Xuanzong to re-repair the marriage contract with Hui Hui. Under the repeated pleading of He Li and other generals, Tang Suzong had no choice but to reluctantly cut his love and marry his beloved daughter Princess Ningguo, hoping to use the bride to resolve Hui Su's anger and exchange it for He Li's daughter.
When it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, evil does not prevail over good
Since the Han Dynasty, the drama of true and false princesses and relatives has been staged for more than a thousand years. Obviously, both sides know it, but they are also happy to do it.
One of the most far-fetched was when Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, forced Emperor Lizong of the Southern Song Dynasty to marry the princess to his son Timur. Seeing that the Mongol army was approaching the city, Li Zong was afraid of angering the other party, so he had to choose two women from the clan to fill the number after prevarication.
After entering the Mongolian tent, the two learned that they could not pretend to be princesses at all, and no one would take it seriously. Timur didn't care about their identities, but just wanted to humiliate the authority of the Southern Song Dynasty. After this farce, the two Southern Song Dynasty women were killed after all, becoming the only two "fake princesses" killed in history.
However, even if the Southern Song envoys told the truth, the Mongol Great Khan only acquiesced in such a lie. At the moment when the siege war is about to break out, what is this innocuous little trick?
In the face of life and death, this identity and etiquette are not so important. The farce may have had its positive significance, as it temporarily eased the approach of war, giving both sides more time to weigh up, and it also made the Mongol siege more just.
epilogue
Just as the "princesses" in history have never been political hostages, their existence is not persecution, but only shows the possibility of harmonious coexistence between several borders – even if the "harmony" is based on lies and compromises. It indicates that good and evil can be at peace for a while, even if there is tension.