In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, probably when Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was just coming of age, one day, the Eastern Han Dynasty Palace held a 'recruitment activity' to recruit palace maids into the palace.
The palace chooses a court maid, which was very common in ancient times. But for the Eastern Han Dynasty, this job fair is particularly special. Because at this job fair, there was a woman surnamed He who passed the selection exam and entered the palace as a palace maid.
This Miss He is the Empress Dowager He who later detonated the Eastern Han Dynasty and directly led to Dong Zhuo's entry into Beijing!
Of course, at that job fair, she was just an ordinary palace maid who was about to enter the palace. Moreover, in a sense, Miss He's identity is not even as good as other palace maids. Because in the family of other palace maids, it may be a wealthy merchant somewhere, or after a down-and-out nobleman.
But Miss He's family is a family of butchers, and her family makes a living by slaughtering livestock. This kind of profession was a relatively low-level profession in ancient times, and there was basically no social status at all!
So, from the daughter of a butcher, to the empress of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, and then to the empress dowager who later held the authority of a country, what did Empress He go through? Why did there be such a big change?
In this story, we have to start with Queen He herself.
According to historical records, Empress He was actually born into a 'reorganized family'. Her parents, before giving birth to her, had another marriage.
Empress He's father is named He Zhen. There is basically no record of this He Zhen in the history books. The only thing that can be concluded is that he should also be from the bottom and his social status is not high. Moreover, he married a woman in his early years and gave birth to a son, who was later assassinated 'General He Jin'.
And Queen He's mother, there is no name in the history books at all. It's just that many years later, when Empress He became the queen, the Eastern Han government named her Wuyangjun, so later historians called her 'Wuyangjun'.
Wuyangjun also had another marriage in her early years, she once married a man surnamed Zhu. Then, the two also gave birth to a son, named Zhu Miao. But later, the man surnamed Zhu died, leaving only the orphans and widows.
At that time, it was too difficult for a woman to raise her son alone. So there was no way, and then she had to remarry.
At this time, the woman took a son and met He Zhen, who also had a son, and then the two were together.
And later, the son Zhu Miao brought by the woman also changed his surname with his stepfather and changed his name to He Miao.
So, here's the problem.
Excuse me, what is the relationship between He Jin and He Miao?
If you use modern Internet memes, the two are 'half-brothers'. This is a joke today, but at that time, it really happened within the He family.
And after that, after He Zhen and Wuyangjun came together, they gave birth to Miss He. Therefore, Miss He and He Jin are half-brothers and sisters. And Miss He and He Miao are half-brothers.
Keep in mind that this is a complicated family relationship.
Because later, this family relationship directly determined the direction of Chinese history.
And then, just after Miss He was born, within a few years, He Zhen, as a father, died of illness. And after He Zhen died of illness, the situation of the He family was even worse.
He Jin, who was originally the only son of the He family, both parents died at this time, and only one half-sister is still there. On the contrary, it was He Miao, who married with his mother, although he was not originally from the He family, but he had the support of his mother.
This kind of family relationship is destined to be difficult to get along.
It is probably for this reason that after He Jin grew up, he inherited the family's craftsmanship and became a butcher.
One more thing to say here: in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the official history records the occupation of the He family as 'the family butcher'. But in modern times, some historians have researched and said that the He family killed sheep, not pigs. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the butcher who killed the sheep had a higher status than the butcher who killed the pig.
In fact, this controversy itself is of little significance.
Because no matter what the He family kills, even if they kill camels or elephants, they are still butchers. As long as it is a butcher, for the emperor, there is no difference, they are all ordinary people.
In this way, in this very complicated family environment, Miss He grew up. Judging from the later historical main plot, the relationship between Miss He and her two brothers should be very ordinary. Moreover, in this complex family environment, Miss He has also developed a pungent personality since she was a child.
And when Miss He grows up, because the He family's status is not high, the living conditions of the family will not be too good. So later, Miss He chose to enter the palace and became a palace maid.
In this way, Miss He entered the palace.
As for how Miss He fought in the palace next, and how did she go from an ordinary palace maid to Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty?
We only know that in the end, Miss He successfully won the favor of Emperor Han Ling, and was fortunate to be Emperor Han Ling. The most important thing is that later, Miss He also gave birth to a son to Emperor Han Ling!
This is the later Han Shao Emperor Liu Bian.
Before Liu Wei, Emperor Ling of Han actually had several other sons. But without exception, all of these children died shortly after birth. Only after Liu Wei was born, he was lucky to survive.
So in this way, Liu Wei became the eldest son of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. As Liu Wei's biological mother, the He family naturally valued her mother and son, and was directly named a nobleman.
In this way, the He family took off.
However, before telling the story of the next He family's take-off, we have to make a break and talk about the love life of Emperor Han Ling. Otherwise, it is really difficult for us to understand why He just gave birth to a son and can soar directly into the sky.
If we say that the environment in which He lived since he was a child can be described as unfortunate and complicated. Then the living environment of Emperor Han Ling when he was a child was basically a nightmare.
Originally, under normal circumstances, Emperor Ling of Han actually did not have the qualifications to be an emperor at all. Emperor Ling of Han's own father was actually just a remote branch of the Eastern Han royal family, just an ordinary pavilion marquis.
Moreover, because of his father's generation, his family has gradually declined. So his father didn't marry those top wealthy women, but just married a relatively ordinary daughter-in-law. This is the mother of Emperor Ling of Han, Dong.
According to later historians, Dong's family may have been just an ordinary local wealthy family, not even a strong man. This kind of background directly led to Dong's complete ignorance of politics later. When her son became emperor, she couldn't help at all, or even could only help.
What's even worse is that Emperor Han Ling's father died very early. So from a very young age, Emperor Ling of Han inherited the title of Marquis of Pavilion left by his father and faced the world alone. After that, when Emperor Han Ling was just twelve years old, Emperor Han Huan died. Then, he was dragged to the capital and inherited the throne.
After arriving in the capital, because Emperor Han Ling's background was not high, his parents could not provide him with any political resources. Therefore, if Emperor Ling of Han wants to sit on the throne, he must rely on eunuchs, so as to avoid being set aside. And when Emperor Han Ling grew up, after a long struggle, Emperor Han Ling finally sat on the throne temporarily.
And at this time, Emperor Han Ling began to ponder and support a new group of relatives.
According to the tradition before the Eastern Han Dynasty, the high-level officials were generally relatives, eunuchs and scholars, and they stood on three legs, so that the emperor's throne could sit firmly. But the problem is that Emperor Han Ling's mother, Dong, came from an average background. There are few people in the entire Dong family, so they can't support it at all. Moreover, after the Dong family entered Beijing and became the queen mother, she did not understand politics at all, and would only rely on eunuchs to make money.
Such a Dong family is obviously useless.
So next, Emperor Han Ling began to ponder and support his queen's family. In 171 AD, when Emperor Ling of Han was just coming of age, Emperor Ling of Han chose to make his concubine Song his queen.
But at the same time, when dealing with the Song family, Emperor Han Ling's attitude was a little ambiguous.
Because of his background and historical reasons, when Emperor Ling of Han was alive, he was actually very wary of the power of his relatives. On the one hand, according to the tradition of the Eastern Han Dynasty, foreign relatives must exist. But on the other hand, in the previous Eastern Han Dynasty, there were many cases where relatives held power. Every time a new emperor ascends the throne, he has to spend a huge price to get rid of his relatives from the previous dynasty.
From Emperor Han Ling's point of view, Emperor Han Ling wanted an obedient relative! He hoped that his relative could work honestly, but not too domineering, let alone threaten the emperor's power!
In this way, all the top families of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the past are not considered. For example, the Ma family, the Dou family, and the Yin family, according to the previous practice, the emperor had to choose a concubine from among them. If you want to choose a queen, you can only choose from a few of them.
However, just before Emperor Ling of Han ascended the throne, Emperor Huan of Han greatly weakened the influence of several major families in the army by fighting Xiqiang. This also allows Emperor Han Ling to gradually get rid of the shackles of several major families after he ascends the throne and freely choose his own queen.
So in the end, Emperor Ling of Han chose his own empress, the Song family.
The Song family is also a famous family, and the ancestor of her family is the general Song Yi who was killed by Xiang Yu in the Battle of Julu. After the founding of the Han Dynasty, Song Yi's grandson Song Chang, by chance, followed Emperor Wen of Han and became Emperor Wen of Han's confidant.
In this way, in the Han Dynasty, the Song family also obtained a title that could not be shaken, and it was gradually passed down.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, during the period of Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, there was another woman in the Song family who married Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty and gave birth to a son to Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty and was named a nobleman. And later, this child was also made the crown prince!
This woman, in terms of relationship, is the great-aunt and grandmother of Queen Song, that is, the sister of Queen Song's grandfather.
It's a pity that the son of Song Guisheng back then, after being made the crown prince, did not ascend the throne smoothly, but was later deposed. It was also for this reason that later Song Guiren failed and was killed in the palace fight. But the strange thing is that the grandson of this Song nobleman later became the emperor by chance.
These things, if you talk about them in detail, involve a lot of old accounts in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In short, the Song family is a family with a long history in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but his family has never had much power, and belongs to the kind of aristocracy that has declined.
Therefore, Emperor Han Ling chose her.
Emperor Ling of Han chose the Song family for no more than two reasons. First, they took a fancy to the Song family's unsettled identity, as an unsettled family, if the Song family wanted to take power, they could only rely on Emperor Han Ling, and could not pose any threat to Emperor Han Ling. Second, as an old family, the Song family must understand politics. Such a family is indeed worthy of the support of Emperor Ling of Han.
But from beginning to end, Emperor Ling of Han actually didn't like Empress Song.
The choice to make her queen was only due to political considerations.
But even so, even for political purposes, Empress Song still failed to sit on the throne of the queen. Because then, just over a year after Empress Song was made empress, there was a 'rebellion case' at the top of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
To put it simply, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty himself actually had a younger brother named Liu Kui. According to the traditional patriarchal inheritance system, after the death of Emperor Huan of Han, this Liu Kui, or Liu Kui's son, should have succeeded him as emperor.
However, when Emperor Huan of Han had just died, the empress dowager and ministers in power did not want Liu Kui to take over. Because Liu Kui was too old at the time, it was not conducive to them taking power. So in the end, they chose Emperor Han Ling to come over and take over.
And this Queen Song's aunt happens to be Liu Kui's wife.
And after the Song family became the queen, Liu Kui still did not give up on the throne. Or it is also possible that he was framed by the eunuch group at the time. Anyway, in the end, he was labeled as a 'bad plot'. Not only was he arrested and put in prison, but he was also beaten to death in prison.
In addition, at the same time that Liu Kui was killed, hundreds of people in Liu Kui's family were also killed in prison, and their deaths were unknown.
From the perspective of Emperor Han Ling, this matter is certainly easy to understand. After all, Liu Kui's existence will threaten his throne, so he must get rid of Liu Kui. But in the process of getting rid of Liu Kui, the Song family, as the queen, had a very strange attitude.
For this period of history, the history books record it very obscurely. But judging from many records, in order to save her aunt, Empress Song was very likely to turn against Emperor Han Ling! This incident directly caused Emperor Han Ling, who didn't like Empress Song very much, to hate Empress Song even more after that!
Therefore, in the next few years, Empress Song's status in the palace became lower and lower, and Emperor Han Ling was unwilling to deal with her. As a result, this poor Queen Song became the most nonexistent queen in the entire history of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
It was in this context that later, He entered the palace and began her history of court struggle. After that, by chance, He was favored by Emperor Han Ling and gave birth to a son to Emperor Han Ling. Because this is the first son of Emperor Han Ling, Emperor Han Ling naturally attaches great importance to the He family.
If it is placed in the previous era, according to the tradition of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the He family gave birth to a son, this son will not actually be raised by her, but will be handed over to the queen Song to raise. For example, the era of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty was like this. As for the prince's biological mother, she won't get much reward at all.
But when he came to He's place, because Emperor Han Ling really hated the queen too much at that time, he gave her a chance. In this way, after giving birth to a son, it is natural for He to raise his son by himself. In this way, she also has the qualification of 'mother is more precious than son'.
Soon after giving birth to Liu Wei, He was successfully canonized as a nobleman. By this time, He Guiren's status in the palace was second only to the queen, and his status was extremely high.
At this time, the Queen Song sent another god assist.
After her own status was threatened, Empress Song did not think about regaining the favor of Emperor Ling of Han, but began to hope for witchcraft. This kind of thing happened several times in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty! Each time, the result was not very good, but the Empress Song failed to learn the lesson.
So in the end, Queen Song repeated the previous mistakes. Soon after she played witchcraft, she was jointly exposed. And Emperor Han Ling was already very disgusted with Empress Song, and he was worried that there was no reason to abolish her. So after this incident, Emperor Ling of Han quickly ordered to depose Empress Song as empress.
Even the entire Song family was suppressed by Emperor Han Ling after this, and it completely declined.
But with this, another new problem arises.
Because according to the practice of the Eastern Han Dynasty, relatives must exist. So when the Song family falls, who should take over the vacated position?
It was under such circumstances that the He family entered the eyes of Emperor Han Ling.
In the eyes of Emperor Ling of Han, the He family was born at the bottom and could not threaten his imperial power. And in order to take power, the He family can only be more dependent on themselves than the Song family, and command becomes their own tool.
Such a relative happens to be the best object of support for Emperor Ling of Han.
So, just two years after Empress Song was deposed, Emperor Ling of Han officially issued a decree to canonize He as the empress. At the same time, the two elder brothers of the He family, He Jin and He Miao, were also vigorously promoted. In an instant, he changed from a butcher's house to a powerful man in the current dynasty, holding the power of the capital guard.
This is the history of the He family's ascendancy.
Anyone who has watched "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" knows that it was the existence of the He family that detonated the entire Eastern Han Dynasty. And from the history of the He family, we can also see the shortcomings of the He family.
First of all, because his family is from the bottom, he really doesn't know much about politics. Therefore, later, the He Jin brothers and sisters were at odds, giving the eunuchs and the scholars the opportunity to mess with the government.
Secondly, He Jin and He Miao, although they are brothers in name, but in fact the relationship between the two is not good. This special relationship was later extended to the court struggle, which indirectly led to the killing of He Jin.
Of course, that's another story.
In short, the He family's rise to power was actually promoted by the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty. If it is placed in the early or middle Eastern Han Dynasty, with the background of Queen He, she can't be a queen at all, and even a nobleman may not be able to do it.
And with the He family coming to power, the magnificent history of the late Eastern Han Dynasty gradually began.