“溥天之下,莫非王土; 率土之滨,莫非王臣。 ”
The emperor is the king of a country and has supreme power, which makes people fear and fear, but once the emperor loses power, he becomes a puppet at the mercy of others. It was very difficult for the puppet emperor to get rid of the ministers and regain power, and only 3 people did it in ancient times.
1. Hu Hai
Hu Hai was the first puppet emperor in the history of the mainland.
Hu Hai, the youngest son of Qin Shi Huang. When Qin Shi Huang died of illness, he wanted to pass on the throne to his eldest son Fusu, but in order to keep his power, Zhao Gao teamed up with Hu Hai and Li Si to plan the Dune Incident.
After Hu Hai became emperor, Zhao Gao persuaded him to kill more than 30 of his brothers and sisters, as well as the famous generals Meng Tian and Meng Yi. Zhao Gao also persuaded Hu Hai to stay in the palace and enjoy himself, and he governed the country for Hu Hai. After that, Zhao Gao framed Prime Minister Li Si for rebellion in order to monopolize power, resulting in Li Si being killed. Zhao Gao also planned to refer to the deer as a horse, get rid of the ministers who did not attach to him, and turned the entire court into Zhao Gao's henchmen and traitorous and flattering ministers, and Hu Hai, who hid in the deep palace to enjoy himself, was gradually overshadowed by Zhao Gao and became Zhao Gao's puppet emperor.
Under the scourge of Zhao Gao, people everywhere revolted against the tyrannical Qin. After the wolf smoke spread everywhere, Zhao Gao was worried that Hu Hai would kill him to vent his anger after learning the truth, so he sent his henchmen into the palace and killed Hu Hai. After Hu Hai's death, Zhao Gao wanted to be the emperor, but the minister did not support it, so he could only retreat to the second best, support Ziying to be the king of Qin, and when the time was ripe, kill Ziying and establish himself as the emperor. Ziying saw through Zhao Gao's trick, and when Zhao Gao went to ask Ziying to succeed to the throne, he was ambushed and killed by Ziying. Soon after Ziying became the king of Qin, Qin was destroyed by Liu Bang.
Second, Liu Ying
Liu Ying is Liu Bang's son. Before Liu Bang's death, he felt that Liu Ying had a weak personality and was not like him, so he was ready to change the prince and establish Liu Ruyi, the son of Mrs. Qi, as the prince. The ministers of the court, Xiao He, Cao Shen, Wang Ling, Fan Xu, Zhou Bo and others, were all old friends of the Lu family in Pei County, and they strongly opposed Liu Bang's change of crown prince. At the same time, Empress Lu also kept looking for help, and finally forced Liu Bang to give up changing the crown prince.
After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying succeeded to the throne, but because of her hatred for Mrs. Qi, Empress Lu poisoned Mrs. Qi's son Liu Ruyi, and made Mrs. Qi into a human being, and asked Liu Ying to watch. Mrs. Qi's miserable appearance frightened Liu Ying, and he became seriously ill and couldn't get out of bed for a year. Liu Ying scolded Empress Lu, "This kind of thing is not done by people." Since then, Liu Ying began to give up on herself, indulged in wine, ignored the government, and the power was controlled by Empress Lu, Liu Ying became the puppet of her mother Empress Lu, and Liu Ying died of worry a few years later.
3. Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty
After the death of Emperor Ling of Han, he passed the throne to his son Emperor Shao of Han. The general He Jin and the eunuch Shi Chang broke out in an internal struggle for power, and after they were both defeated, Dong Zhuo was cheapened, he led his troops into Beijing and took control of the court, and the little emperor Han Shaodi became his puppet.
In order to strengthen his control over the court, Dong Zhuo deposed Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty and appointed Liu Xie as emperor. A year later, Dong Zhuo poisoned Emperor Shaodi of Han and Empress Dowager He. This incident aroused the dissatisfaction of the people of the world, and Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and other princes crusaded against Dong Zhuo, which frightened Dong Zhuo to move the capital to Chang'an to avoid trouble.
After arriving in Chang'an, Dong Zhuo did not restrain himself, and still did evil, Situ Wang Yun got rid of the Han thief Dong Zhuo, Kuang helped the Han family, used beauty tricks, and married his adopted daughter who looked like a fairy to Dong Zhuo and his subordinate general Lu Bu as his wife. Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu turned against each other in order to compete for beauty, and finally Lu Bu killed Dong Zhuo. After Dong Zhuo's death, the world was in turmoil, and Cao Cao took the opportunity to get Emperor Xian of Han and made him his puppet.
Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty didn't want to be Cao Cao's puppet, so he secretly issued an edict and asked Dong Guiren's father, Dong Cheng, to contact the righteous people in the world to try to get rid of Cao Cao. After the matter was revealed, Dong Cheng and Dong Guiren were killed. Soon after, Empress Fu, the empress of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, wrote a letter to her father, Fu Wan, asking him to follow Dong Cheng and eradicate the powerful minister Cao Cao. Fu didn't dare to act, but after the matter was revealed, Queen Fu and the Fu whole clan were killed by Cao Cao.
Cao Cao felt that Emperor Han Xian did not want to be his puppet emperor, so he married his three daughters Cao Xian, Cao Jie, and Cao Hua to Emperor Han Xian, and asked them to spy on Emperor Han Xian. After Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, and he forced Emperor Xian of Han to sit in him, proclaim himself emperor, and establish Cao Wei.
Fourth, Cao Fang, Cao Chao, Cao Huan
Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was Cao Cao's puppet, and he paid a heavy price after resisting, and Cao Cao's descendants were also reduced to puppets, and the end was equally tragic.
Cao Fang was the son of Emperor Cao Rong of Wei Ming. After Cao Heng's death, he passed the throne to Cao Fang, and arranged for Sima Yi and Cao Shuang to assist him. Several emperors of Cao Wei, Cao Pi and Cao Rong have been guarding against Sima Yi in front of him, but in the later period of Cao Wei, there was also a situation of withering talents, except for Sima Yi, no one could compete with Zhuge Liang who was constantly on the Northern Expedition, and Cao Wei could only reuse Sima Yi. After Cao Rong's death, Cao Shuang and Sima Yi fought for power, and infighting broke out. Cao Shuang is a relative of Cao Wei, Sima Yi is tough with him, and he does not do himself any good, so he retreats as advance, and by pretending to be sick and idle at home, Cao Shuang thinks that he has little time and relaxes his vigilance.
In 249, when Cao Shuang took the little emperor Cao Fang out to worship his ancestors, Sima Yi seized the opportunity to launch the Gaopingling Rebellion and seized control of Cao Wei's Jiangshan, Cao Shuang was killed, and Cao Fang became his puppet. When he grew up, Cao Fang was unwilling to be the puppet of the Sima family, and conspired with Li Feng and Zhang Ji, the doctor of Guanglu, and others to depose Sima Shi. Cao Chao was unwilling to be the puppet of the Sima family, and when he led people to kill Sima Zhao, he was killed by Sima Zhao's subordinates on the street.
After Cao Chao's death, Sima Zhao established that Cao Huan did not dare to resist, and finally gave up the throne to Sima Yan. Sima Yan became emperor and established the Western Jin Dynasty.
Fifth, Sima Zhen
Sima Zhen, Sima Yan's son, is a stupid person.
In front of Sima Yan, he was worried that his son would have low intelligence and would not be able to govern the country, so he tested Sima Zhen. Sima Xin's crown princess Jia Nanfeng cheated and let Sima Xin get away with it. In 290, when Sima Yan died of illness, he passed the throne to Sima Zhen in accordance with the primogeniture inheritance system. After Sima Zhen succeeded to the throne, due to his low intelligence, he was unable to control the government, and his queen Jia Nanfeng took power.
During Jia Nanfeng's reign, she did evil and aroused everyone's resentment, especially when she killed the crown prince Sima Shu in order to consolidate her power, which ignited the anger of the world, and Sima Lun, the king of Zhao, led his troops into the palace and killed Jia Nanfeng. After that, the eight vassal kings of the Sima family broke out in order to compete for power. During this period, Sima Cheng was deposed twice and made emperor again, and could only be at the mercy of others.
In 307, Sima Zhen was poisoned by Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea. After that, there was a five-nonsense rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty, which caused our nation to suffer a catastrophe.
Sixth, Liu He and Liu are ill
In 74 BC, after the death of Emperor Liu Fuling of the Han Dynasty, Huo Guang, the minister of power, set up Liu He, the king of Changyi, as the emperor, but Liu He did not sit firmly as the emperor, so he began to send his henchmen to contact officials from all over the country, and added officials and knights to his henchmen, which threatened Huo Guang's power and made Huo Guang dissatisfied, he listed 1127 charges to Liu He, who had only been the emperor for 27 days, and deposed him.
In view of Liu He's experience, Liu Yi has chosen to forbear, not daring to confront Huo Guang, even if his queen Xu Pingjun was poisoned by Huo Guang's wife, he couldn't bear it. After Huo Guang's death, Liu Ai had already taken action to get rid of Huo Guang's henchmen and regain power in one fell swoop.
Seventh, Tuoba Kuo, Yuwen Jue, Yu Wen Yu, Yu Wen Yong
Yuwen Hu, the nephew of Yu Wentai, a powerful minister of the Western Wei Dynasty. Before Yuwentai died, he asked Yuwenhu to replace him and arranged for Yuwenhu to take care of his son.
Emperor Gong of the Western Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Kuo, was a puppet emperor, and after Yuwen Hu took power, he forced Tuoba Kuo Chan to cede the emperor to Yuwentai's third son, Yuwen Jue, and established the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Soon after, Tuoba Kuo was killed by Yuwen Go. Yuwen Jue was unwilling to be Yuwen Hu's puppet, and was killed by Yuwen Hu, and he set up Yuwen Taishu's eldest son Yu Wenyu as the emperor. Yuwen Yu didn't want to be Yuwen Hu's puppet, and was also killed by Yu Wen Hu.
After Yuwen Hu killed 3 emperors in a row, he set up Yuwen Tai's fourth son, Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yong, as the emperor. With the lessons of the previous three emperors, Emperor Wu of Zhou did not dare to confront Yuwen Hu, he obeyed Yuwen Hu's words and was willing to be his puppet to confuse Yuwen Hu. After Yuwen Hu let his guard down against Emperor Wu of Zhou, Emperor Wu of Zhou attacked Yuwen Hu from behind, killed him, and regained power from his hands.
8. Li Xian, Li Dan
Li Xian and Li Dan are Wu Zetian's two sons.
After the death of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, he passed the throne to his son Li Xian, but the power was in the hands of his mother Wu Zetian. Li Xian was unwilling to be a puppet emperor, and promoted and reused Empress Wei's maiden family, wanting to use this to resist and divide Wu Zetian's power, which made Wu Zetian dissatisfied, she deposed Li Xian and set up Li Dan as emperor. During Li Dan's reign, he obeyed Wu Zetian's words and never dared to disobey Wu Zetian, but the ambitious Wu Zetian still deposed Li Dan, sat on the throne of the emperor himself, and changed Li Tang to Wu Zhou. In Wu Zetian's later years, Zhang Khan Zhi, Huan Yanfan, Jinghui and others who were loyal to Li Tang staged a Shenlong coup d'état and forced Wu Zetian to return the throne to Li Xian.
Nine, Kangxi
When Kangxi's father Shunzhi was dying, he arranged for the young Kangxi to have four auxiliary ministers: Sony, Suke Saha, Kubilong, and Aobai.
In this process, Ao Bai gradually monopolized power and became a powerful minister. Ao Bai repeatedly ignored the opposition of Emperor Kangxi and killed the ministers who had a holiday with him. When Kangxi grew up, Suke Saha, one of the four major auxiliary ministers, proposed to return to Kangxi, which caused dissatisfaction with Aobai, and he listed the evidence of the crime and killed Suke Saha. This incident made Kangxi hate Ao Bai in his heart. In order to get rid of Aobai, Kangxi trained a group of pro-noble children, and when Aobai entered the palace to meet him, these pro-noble children rushed up together and captured Aobai, which allowed Kangxi to regain power.
10. Tongzhi, Guangxu, Puyi
Tongzhi, the son of Cixi. After Xianfeng's death, he arranged for Gu Ming Duanhua, Su Shun and other Gu Ming Eight Ministers to assist Tongzhi, but Cixi was greedy for power and launched a coup d'état, got rid of Gu Ming's Eight Ministers, and took power back into her own hands. After Tongzhi died of illness, Guangxu succeeded to the throne. Emperor Guangxu was also a puppet of Cixi. After the Qing Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat to Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, Guangxu wanted to implement the reform reform in order to save the Qing Dynasty, but Guangxu's reform threatened Cixi's power, and she staged a coup d'état, put Guangxu under house arrest, and let the power return to her own hands again.
In 1908, when Cixi died of illness, the 3-year-old Pu Yi was appointed emperor, and Pu Yi's father Zaifeng was in charge, and soon the Qing Dynasty perished.
The puppet emperors of ancient times, as well as Emperor Han Ai, Emperor Gong of Jin, Xiao Baorong, Emperor Jing of Liang, Yu Wenxian, Yang Yu and others, were unable to bring down the ministers.
According to statistics, there were 42 puppet emperors in ancient times on the mainland, and only Emperor Wu of Zhou, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Kangxi succeeded in overthrowing the ministers.