On February 26, 528, a major event occurred in the court of the Northern Wei Dynasty that shocked the people of the world, Empress Dowager Hu set up her granddaughter Yuan Girl, who had just been born for 50 days, as the new emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and granted amnesty to the world, a few hours later, on the day that Yuan Girl ascended the throne, Empress Dowager Hu changed her 3-year-old nephew Yuan Zhao as the emperor.
is so absurd, it can be regarded as unprecedented and unprecedented, and the reason why such a ridiculous thing happened, in fact, the result of the royal mother and son cannibalism is the concrete embodiment of Empress Dowager Hu's ambition to monopolize power for a long time.
Empress Dowager Hu is the daughter of Situ Hu Guozhen, and entered the palace under the influence of her aunt to become the concubine of Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty Yuan Ke, when Yuan Ke's eldest son had died, and no son had been born in the harem, and many concubines were unwilling to give birth to sons.
Because the Northern Wei Dynasty pursued the system of "the death of the son and the mother", if the emperor's eldest son was born and was made the crown prince, then his biological mother would have to be executed, but Hu was not afraid, she even prayed that she was pregnant with a boy, so that she gave birth to Yuan Ke's eldest son, even if she was really executed at that time, she was willing.
At that time, the Hu family only wanted to give birth to the eldest son for the emperor, and did not think about their own future, but people will change, and ambitions will gradually grow in places like the palace.
When the Hu family really gave birth to Yuan Ke's eldest son Yuan Xu and was made the crown prince at the age of three, the Hu family was not killed, Yuan Ke abolished the system of the death of the son and the mother, and also entered the Hu family as a noble concubine, which was a big victory for the Hu family in the harem.
Of course, although she was not executed, she did not raise and take care of Yuan Xu, Yuan Ke deliberately placed Yuan Xu in another palace, and carefully selected nurses and nannies to let them raise Yuan Xu carefully.
Therefore, the Hu family has a life and a grace to Yuan Xu, but there is no kindness, which is Yuan Ke's intention, and because of this, the relationship between mother and son is not deep, and in the face of power, the already meager mother-son relationship has become a mother and son cannibalism.
In 515, Yuan Ke died and was succeeded by Yuan Xu, who was only six years old, and Yuan Ke's empress Gao was honored as the empress dowager and Hu was revered as the imperial concubine. Hu was not satisfied with such a result, she forced the Empress Dowager Gao to become a monk in Yaoguang Temple, and then became the Empress Dowager herself, so there was Empress Dowager Hu.
Emperor Xiaoming Yuanxu was too young, Empress Dowager Hu controlled the government, at this time Empress Dowager Hu was not restrained, neither had to take care of the first emperor Yuanke, nor did she have to care about the new emperor Yuanxu, and her actions gradually became perverse.
She is also indecent in life, there are a lot of male favorites, and she also forced her brother-in-law, Qinghe Wang Yuanyi to commit adultery with her, the two were embarrassed, Yuan Yi served the Empress Dowager Hu well, and the Empress Dowager Hu entrusted the government to Yuan Yi, and also reused her brother-in-law Yuan Yi.
Yuan Yi and Yuan Yi fought for power, in 520, Yuan Yi and Liu Teng and others went to Xianyang Palace, killed Yuan Yi, and put Empress Dowager Hu under house arrest, Empress Dowager Hu tried to arouse the love of mother and son with Yuan Xu, took Yuan Xu's hand and said: "Our mother and son have not been together for a long time, we will live together tonight, and the ministers will send me in." ”
Empress Dowager Hu wanted to take the opportunity to get rid of Yuan Yi, but the result was not successful, and finally was placed under house arrest, since then Yuan Yi and Liu Teng controlled the government, three years later, Liu Teng died, Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Xu and King Gaoyang planned to remove Yuan Yi's military power, since then Empress Dowager Hu once again came to the court to listen to the government.
This time, Empress Dowager Hu was even more excessive, and would rather abandon the government than give power to Yuan Xu, who was close to Yuan Xu, she used the excuse to murder, but she held the male favorites Zheng Yan, Xu Su and others to a very high position, making the Northern Wei court a miasma.
Mother and son seem to have become enemies, on the seventh day of the first month of 528, Yuan Xu's concubine, Chonghua Pan Wailian, gave birth to a daughter, and Zheng Yan pleaded with Empress Dowager Hu and lied that she gave birth to a boy.
This is Yuan Xu's first child and Yuan Xu's only child, perhaps the moment she lied that this girl was a boy, Empress Dowager Hu moved her mind to depose her son.
At this time, Yuan Xu was 19 years old and could already govern himself, which was exactly what Empress Dowager Hu could not allow, although she had no intention of political affairs and could not establish the prestige of the imperial court, but she was also unwilling to return the power in her hands to her son.
And Yuan Xu naturally also wanted to be pro-government, get rid of those cronies of Empress Dowager Hu, and hold the imperial power in his own hands, which may also confirm the sentence: the most ruthless emperor's family.
The estrangement between mother and son could not be eliminated from the moment it was born, and in order to persecute Empress Dowager Hu, Yuan Xu did not hesitate to secretly issue an edict to let Er Zhurong send troops to the capital, so as to threaten Empress Dowager Hu.
Maybe Yuan Xu was not ruthless enough, and when Gao Huan led the vanguard army to the supreme party under the order of Er Zhurong, Yuan Xu suddenly stopped this secret order, and this gave the Empress Dowager Hu time, Zheng Yan, Xu Su and Empress Dowager Hu plotted to poison Yuan Xu, and on February 25, 528, Yuan Xu died violently.
The next day, February 26, Empress Dowager Hu suddenly ordered the "prince" born to Pan Wailian to be the new emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and granted amnesty to the world.
Empress Dowager Hu's move may be to test the courtiers and see if the courtiers will do something because of Yuan Xu's death, and it turns out that the ministers seem to have no objections, at least they do not object to Empress Dowager Hu establishing Yuan Xu's "son" as the emperor, but this "prince" is not a real prince after all, but a princess, known as Yuan Girl in history.
Miss Yuan will grow up sooner or later, and there will be chaos at that time, so Miss Yuan's appointment as emperor can only be temporary, and Empress Dowager Hu didn't let this temporary last too long.
On the day that Miss Yuan ascended the throne, Empress Dowager Hu felt that the people's hearts were still stable and directly issued an edict:
"Pan Chonghua was born a daughter, so Lintao Wang Baohui Shizizhao, the body is from Gaozu, and it is appropriate to be a big treasure. Hundred officials, civil and military plus the second order, and the guards plus the third order. ”
restored the daughter of Miss Yuan, deposed her, and appointed Yuan Zhao, the son of Yuan Baohui, the king of Lintao, as emperor.
Yuan Baohui's father Yuan Yu and Xuanwu Emperor Yuan Ke are brothers, both sons of Emperor Xiaowen Yuan Hong, so Yuan Baohui is Yuan Ke's nephew, Yuan Baohui's son Yuan Zhao is the nephew of Yuan Ke and Empress Dowager Hu, Yuan Xu has no son, Yuan Zhao, a descendant of Emperor Xiaowen, is naturally qualified to be the new emperor.
It's just that Yuan Zhao was only 3 years old at that time, and it was really painstaking for Empress Dowager Hu to choose Yuan Zhao as the new emperor.
Perhaps the Empress Dowager Hu also knew that it was too absurd to set up her granddaughter who had just been born 50 days ago as the emperor and then set up a 3-year-old nephew as the emperor, and she also specially ordered the civil and military officials to enter the second-order official position, and the Su Wei also advanced to the third-order official position.
Interestingly, this day is February 26, 528, according to the solar calendar, it is April 1, 528, which is now April Fool's Day, although there was no April Fool's Day at that time, but Empress Dowager Hu was indeed a fool enough.
The next day, February 27, Yuan Zhao succeeded to the throne, and this absurd farce seemed to end like this, but the crisis belonging to the Empress Dowager Hu had quietly come.
Er Zhurong was furious when he learned about this, and wrote a letter requesting a thorough investigation of the cause of Emperor Xiaoming's death, strict investigation of Zheng Yan, Xu Su and others, and the re-election of a member of the royal family as the emperor.
On April 13, Er Zhurong sent Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao to Heyin, and then sank them into the Yellow River.
Poor Yuan Zhao was still a three-year-old child, still a child who didn't understand anything, because of Empress Dowager Hu's selfish interests, he was made emperor, and he was sunk into the Yellow River after less than fifty days of being the emperor.
Poor Yuan girl, who was lied to by her grandmother as a boy when she was born, was made emperor by her grandmother when she was only 50 days old, but she was deposed again on the same day, and she didn't even have a name left, and after the death of Empress Dowager Hu, Miss Yuan was also missing, and she may have died.
Her life was so short, with its ups and downs, she was the first female emperor in history, but she was not recognized by later generations.