The most supernatural event in Chinese history almost made China change its dynasty! The Northern Song Dynasty hat demon case

In the second year of Song Zhenzong's Tianxi, in the month of Mengxia in 1018 AD, the ancient city of Luoyang was shrouded in an unprecedented panic.

A strange rumor spread rapidly through the streets and alleys: some citizens witnessed a monster shaped like a mat hat floating in the air at night, which can not only fly in the sky, but also turn into a dog and wolf to hurt people.

The citizens did not dare to sleep at night, and everyone carried spatulas and other things as weapons, and waited for them. This is the famous Northern Song Dynasty "Hat Demon Case" in history.

Was this incident an ancient UFO sighting, or was it a man-made pretence? How did the hat demon case evolve into a vigorous "demon hunting operation", and even almost triggered a coup d'état in the Northern Song Dynasty? Today we're going to talk about the story behind this.

Emperor of the Divine Stick

Before combing through the hat demon case in detail, we must first explain the background of the times at that time.

The hat demon case occurred in the Northern Song Dynasty Zhenzong Tianxi period, Song Zhenzong's name is Zhao Heng, is the third emperor of the Song Dynasty, he is not very strong in many emperors in Chinese history, and later generations have a controversial evaluation of him, some people say that he is virtuous, some people say that he is mediocre.

To be precise, in the early days of Song Zhenzong's succession, he was also a good emperor who was diligent in government affairs and sympathetic to the people. He appointed virtuous ministers, vigorously developed agriculture, introduced high-quality crops, and encouraged land reclamation, so that the agricultural area of the Great Song Dynasty reached 520 million mu.

Handicrafts and commerce also developed unprecedentedly during this period, and the treasury revenue far exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty, which is known as the "rule of Xianping" in history.

But in the later years of his reign, Song Zhenzong became more and more dim, which was inseparable from his weakness and superstition.

The alliance of the Yuan Dynasty in 1005 A.D. was a major turning point in the career of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to compete for the sixteen states of Yanyun, the war between Song and Liao lasted for decades.

After the second emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizong succeeded to the throne, he launched two large-scale campaigns against Liao, but both ended in failure. After that, the Northern Song Dynasty basically gave up the dream of recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun by force, and the policy towards Liao changed from offensive to defensive.

However, Song retreated, but Liao was in a commotion. Since the second year of Xianping, starting in 999 AD, Liao has successively sent troops to provoke on the border, plundering property, and slaughtering the people, bringing great disasters to the residents of the border areas.

In 1004 AD, the Empress Dowager Xiao of Liao, together with Yelu Longxu of Liao Shengzong, led an army of 200,000 to the south, and the troops were under the city of Lanzhou (now Puyang, Henan).

The Northern Song Dynasty court panicked, and the minister Wang Qinruo advocated abandoning Bianliang, Tokyo, which was only separated by a river from Lanzhou, and moving the capital to Yingtianfu in Nanjing.

Prime Minister Kou Zheng urged Song Zhenzong to drive the expedition in person, and Song Zhenzong was forced to go north, which greatly boosted the morale of the Song army.

On the Liao army's side, the general Xiao Tzu Rin, when he went out to inspect the terrain before the battle, was killed by an arrow from the Song army, which made the morale of the Liao army plummet.

After the Empress Dowager Xiao judged the situation and sent someone to release the signal of peace talks to Song Zhenzong. In the end, the Song and Liao sides reached an agreement with the Song Dynasty to give 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 horses of silk to the Khitan every year, and the war was good, which is the famous "Lanyuan Alliance" in history.

With the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty at that time, it was impossible to suppress the Liao State for a long time, and the alliance of the Yuan Yuan brought temporary stability to the Northern Song Dynasty, and this contract was actually cost-effective for the Northern Song Dynasty.

But the Song Dynasty was the Heavenly Empire, and in the eyes of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Kingdom was a small barbarian country, how could the Celestial Empire have to pay money to the small barbarian country every year?

It is conceivable that the alliance of the abyss made Song Zhenzong a little uncomfortable. It happened that Wang Qinruo, a close minister of Song Zhenzong, did not deal with Kou Zhun, the prime minister who asked Zhenzong to personally conquer, and Wang Qinruo took the opportunity to say that the alliance of Lanyuan was the alliance under the city and the shame of the Great Song Dynasty.

So how can you get rid of this stigma? Wang Qinruo proposed, "Only by sealing Mount Tai can we pacify the four seas and boast to foreign countries."

Mount Tai Feng Zen, generally the emperor with outstanding political achievements led the ministers to the top of Mount Tai to carry out a kind of sacrifice to the sky, to repay the merits to the sky, to show their own wisdom and martial arts.

Prior to this, a total of five emperors had performed Mount Tai Feng Zen: Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Guangwu of Han, Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.

Sima Qian's "Historical Records. The Book of Feng Zen gives the necessary conditions for the emperor to seal Zen: that is, the peaceful and prosperous world or the auspicious rui from the sky, as long as one of the two has one of them, you can seal the Zen.

Compared with Emperor Qin and Han Wu, Song Zhenzong's achievements are not outstanding, so what qualifications do you have to seal Zen? Wang Qinruo's eyes rolled, and he thought about it, the merits are not easy to fake, but there is a lot of room for auspicious maneuvering.

Because he was worried about the attitude of the always upright prime minister Wang Dan, Song Zhenzong also spent a lot of money to buy Wang Dan beforehand. He invited Wang Dan to come to the banquet, and after he was full of wine and food, he gave Wang Dan a jar of wine.

When Wang Dan returned home, he found that the wine jar was full of jewelry. In order to seal Zen and bribe ministers, Song Zhenzong's trick can be said to be unprecedented and unprecedented.

The stage is set up, the water army is invited, and the next thing is the protagonist's appearance. On the third day of the first month of the first month of 1008 A.D., when the early dynasty was completed, the officials of the Imperial City Division suddenly came to report that there was a yellow silk more than two zhang long hanging in the south corner of the left Chengtian Gate of the palace city, and there was faint handwriting on it.

Song Zhenzong said to the ministers that not long ago, he had a dream, and he dreamed that the gods of heaven said to him that he would descend three volumes of the heavenly book of "Dazhong Xiangfu", presumably this yellow silk is the descending of the heavenly book.

Prime Minister Wang Dan, who received the bribe in advance, immediately understood and took the lead in kowtowing to Zhenzong, asking Song Zhenzong to kneel and accept the "Book of Heaven". With the auspicious book of heaven, this Zen will have a reason.

On November 23, 1008, Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong sealed Mount Tai. This grand ceremony was held for a total of 47 days.

Song Zhenzong was completely immersed in this self-directed and self-acted farce, and consciously reached the peak of his personal political career. But from the perspective of looking back at history, this canonization does not show its face.

Because Song Zhenzong did not have the great feats of Emperor Qin and Han Wu, later monarchs completely canceled the ceremony of sealing Zen because of this farce of Zhenzong, which is undoubtedly a naked irony of Song Zhenzong.

Taishan Feng Zen also opened the prelude to Zhenzong's metaphysics. He also made himself an ancestor of a Taoist deity, saying that the ancestor of the Zhao family was named Zhao Xuanlang, one of the Nine Emperors of the Human Emperor, and was once reincarnated as Emperor Xuanyuan.

But there is no such person as "Zhao Xuanlang" in the Taoist theological system. The ministers knew that the true sect was talking nonsense, but they also had to actively cooperate. All of a sudden, all nouns with the word "Xuanlang" became evasive words.

Confucius's title was changed from "Xuansheng Wenxuan King" to "Most Holy Wenxuan King"; Miyagi Xuanwu Gate was changed to Gongchen Gate.

What is good at the top will be very bad at the bottom. Taoist temples and so-called heavenly masters have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, today the stone has its own words, tomorrow a hundred birds hover in the air, officials are vying to report auspicious, it is really a prosperous era coming, ten thousand immortals come to congratulate.

If the officials don't know how to pretend to be ghosts, it is not easy to mix in the court.

History of the Song Dynasty. The True Chronicles of the Emperor described this scene as "a country's monarchs and ministers are like madness". It wasn't until 1018 A.D., 10 years after the whole country engaged in superstition, that things got out of the way.

The Hat Demon is emerging

In May 1018, the second year of Tianxi, the residents of Luoyang, the western capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, witnessed a monster shaped like a hat at night, flying quickly in the air, and the rumors quickly spread throughout the city, making people panic.

Don't think that this is a rumor from the wild history, this incident was recorded in the official history "Song History, Zhenzong Ji", although it is only a short 14 words, but it still roughly depicts the whole picture of the matter.

In the "Continuation of Capital and Governance Tongjian Long Edition" compiled by the Southern Song Dynasty historian Li Tao, there is a more detailed description of the hat demon case: it is said that the hat demon can take advantage of the dark moon and high wind, fly into the people's homes, transform into a dog wolf, and slightly hurt people.

The people were so frightened that they closed their doors as soon as it got dark, while the bolder ones organized civil defense and searched for the hat demons with weapons.

The description of the hat demon in historical materials is very interesting, from ancient times to the present, whether it is folklore or literary works, the appearance of monsters is diverse, but in the image of "hat", the case of the hat demon in the Northern Song Dynasty is unprecedented.

The shape looks like a mat hat, can fly, residents can see it at night, indicating that this thing can emit a faint light, hearing this, I believe many people will think, is this a UFO?

In fact, in addition to the hat demon case, there were many suspected UFO sightings in the Song Dynasty.

For example, when Su Dongpo, a famous writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, went to Hangzhou in the fourth year of Xining (1071), he passed through Jinshan Temple, stayed in the temple for one night, and wrote a poem "You Jinshan Temple" that caused a lot of speculation in later generations.

There are a few sentences like this: "There seems to be a torch in the heart of the river, and the flying flames shine on the mountains and dwelling on the black fright."

At the second watch, the night was silent, and just when Su Shi was about to rest, he suddenly saw a ball of light and flames emerging from Jiang Xin, which was extremely dazzling at night, illuminating the entire Jinshan and alarming the crows perched in the nest.

Su Shi, who was stunned by the sight, asked, "What is it that is not a ghost or a human?" of emotion.

"History of the Song Dynasty: History of the Five Elements" also records that in the sixth year of the Southern Song Dynasty, there was an unknown object in Guantang, Xi'an, which was more than one foot tall and had a chicken's head and a human body, which fell from the sky, walked in the fields in broad daylight, and tried to talk to people, which was considered by later generations to be aliens.

Shen Kuo, an official of the Northern Song Dynasty and a science enthusiast, recorded the incident of unidentified luminous objects in the water in the twenty-first volume of "Mengxi Bi Tan".

It is said that there is a strange big bead in the Yangzhou area, which exists in a huge mussel shell, which will emit dazzling light, and its line is like flying, and it can float on the water, which is not a typical unknown diving object USO.

Returning to the Hat Demon case, if this is just a simple UFO sighting, we don't need to bother to introduce the historical background, the focus of this incident is the series of butterfly effects it has caused since then.

The first place where it was rumored that the hat demon haunted was Luoyang City in Xijing, where the then supreme administrator was called Wang Sizong. One of the most important characteristics of this person is that he does not believe in evil.

Wang Sizong was the champion of the eighth year of Song Taizu's opening of treasure (that is, 975 AD), in addition to his literary talents, his fists and feet were also excellent.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to the quality of the article, the admission of the champion also depends on the speed of submission. Wang Sizong and Chen Shi finished answering at the same time and handed it over to Taizu Zhao Kuangyin for review.

Taizu felt that the two of them were quite literate, and he couldn't decide for a while, so he simply made a bad move: If you two fight, whoever wins will be the champion.

Before Chen Shi could react to what was going on, Wang Sizong had already rolled up his sleeves and was about to do it if he was not satisfied. In the end, Chen Zhi was knocked to the ground by Wang Sizong, and Wang Sizong successfully won the title of champion that year.

However, the literati and writers at that time somewhat looked down on Wang Sizong's rude behavior, and ridiculed him as a "champion in hand-to-hand combat".

Because of his upright and rigid personality, Wang Sizong has always been the most disdainful of cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods.

According to Sima Guang's record in "The Chronicles of Lianshui", once Wang Sizong was ill, and his family burned paper money to pray for him, asking the ghosts and gods to bless him with a speedy recovery.

Wang Sizong laughed when he heard this: What kind of ghost and god, dare to accept our old Wang's money? In Wang Sizong's eyes, he had to take medicine when he was sick, and it was useless to pray to God.

Historical records also record that in the early years, when Wang Sizong was transferred to the governor of Pizhou, he heard that there was a fox king temple in the local area, which was dedicated to the fox king.

Whether it is a scholarly family or a common people, no one believes in the great power of the fox king, once the new official sets foot on the boundary of Pizhou, if he does not go to the fox king temple to worship sincerely, there will be ups and downs in official fortune, disasters continue, the career will be blocked, and the life will be in danger.

But Wang Sizong did not believe in evil, as soon as he took office, he demolished the fox temple with thunder, burned the fox nest, and killed dozens of foxes who were believed to have supernatural abilities in one go.

This frightened the local people enough, and they felt that Wang Heizong would die soon. However, after a few days, Wang Sizong was not only red-faced, but also more energetic than before. Since then, the local superstitious activities in Pizhou have decreased dramatically.

Now ruling Luoyang City, Wang Sizong naturally scoffs at the rumors of hat demons circulating in the city. He thinks that this kind of nonsense rumor doesn't need to be ignored at all, and it will disappear after a while.

In other words, Wang Sizong adopted a laissez-faire strategy for this incident, but this time, Wang Sizong underestimated the influence of the hat demon case, or the group of promoters behind the hat demon case.

The people of the Song Dynasty, like today's people, were particularly fond of discussing all kinds of gossip, and for this reason, the people also founded various tabloids.

The tabloid of the Song Dynasty is the earliest unofficial newspaper in Chinese history, which began in the Northern Song Dynasty and prevailed in the Southern Song Dynasty, specializing in publishing some current affairs news that the people are concerned about.

Such eye-catching news as the hat demon has naturally become a hot spot for various tabloids to report. In this way, the matter fermented step by step, from Luoyang, Xijing, to Bianliang, Tokyo, and finally shook Sanjing and the official family.

Sankyo Depression

Wang Sizong, who firmly believes that "rumors stop at the wise", did not make any interference in the public opinion of the hat demon, nor did he report the matter to the official family. But Wang Sizong's failure to report does not mean that other officials are also staunch atheists like him.

On May 25, Zhang Min, the envoy of the Heyang Sancheng Festival, played the rumors of the hat demon in Luoyang, Xijing, to Song Zhenzong. The envoys of the three cities of Heyang were responsible for the south of the Taihang Mountains, the north of the Yellow River, and parts of the south bank of the Yellow River, and did not need to be responsible for Luoyang affairs.

That's where it gets interesting. This is equivalent to an accident in Luoyang, Luoyang's parents did not go to the court, but the official in charge of Zhengzhou poked the matter out.

This year happened to be the tenth year after Song Zhenzong returned from Feng Zen, and Zhang Min knew that Zhenzong was keen on heavenly books and auspiciousness, and the most taboo was rumors of disasters.

Sure enough, as soon as Song Zhenzong saw the twist, he immediately ordered Yu Shi Lu Yan to rush to Luoyang, Xijing, to investigate the truth of the matter, and at the same time asked Wang Sizong why he didn't report it if the public opinion was so serious.

After Lu Yan arrived in Luoyang, Wang Sizong accompanied the reception.

Lu Yan had also heard about the hat demon case that was making a lot of noise among the people, and his heart was full of doubts, but Wang Sizong told Lu Yan with a firm face that what hat demon is not a hat demon, and what kind of pants are fine, it is simply a false rumor from the people.

If Lord Lu doesn't believe it, he can go deep into the people of Luoyang, personally inspect it, and distinguish the authenticity. This is also strange, during Lu Yan's stay in Luoyang for a few days, the rumored hat demon has been hiding as if he has received some secret report.

Lu Yan secretly thought to himself in his heart, could this hat demon case really be a farce without wind and waves, and his trip was a trip in vain?

After appeasing the hearts of the people of Luoyang City, Lü Yan decided to return to Bianliang, the capital of Beijing.

When the Song Dynasty was established, along the old system of five dynasties, the world was divided into four capitals.

Tokyo Kaifeng Prefecture, also known as Bianliang, was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty; Luoyang City, Henan Province is Xijing. In addition to this, there is Nanjing Yingtianfu, located in today's Shangqiu, Henan; and the Beijing Daimyo Mansion, located in today's Daming County, Handan, Hebei Province.

As soon as Lu Yan returned to Bianliang on his front foot, the legendary hat demon followed closely behind and appeared at the feet of the Son of Heaven.

It is said that the tabloid in Bianliang dares to write, not only saying that the hat demon has come to Beijing, but also the power of the hat demon has evolved from "micro energy to hurt people" in Luoyang City to "cannibalism in the people's house" in Bianliang.

The first thing the people of Bianliang City do every morning is to buy tabloids to read the news about the hat demon, and for a time the tabloid sales have increased significantly, and the publisher has made a lot of money.

Someone today said that the hat demon flew to his neighbor's house and ate up the whole family; Tomorrow someone said that the hat demon visited his house last night, and his family shouted vigorously, and kept beating the copper basin to scare the hat demon away.

As soon as they heard that noise could scare away this man-eating monster, the people of Bianliang took to the streets as a clan unit, and after nightfall, they went to the streets to make noise, beating gongs and drums all night.

The rumors also spread to the forbidden army in the capital, and their reaction was even more fierce than that of the residents of Bianliang, and whenever night fell, they would sit together with weapons and shout loudly, making Song Zhenzong unable to sleep.

Such an incident of armed gathering in the military hides a great hidden danger to social security.

Lin Chong in "Water Margin" is the head of the 800,000 forbidden army at the end of the Song Dynasty, although "Water Margin" is fictional, and during the Song Zhenzong period, the redundancy of the forbidden army was not as serious as in the later period, but don't forget that Song Zhenzong was superstitious and auspicious.

As the saying goes, "When a country is prosperous, there will be auspiciousness; If the people and soldiers think that this so-called hat demon is a vision from heaven to warn the mortal son of heaven that there is no way, it will really make a fuss about "the sky is dead, and the yellow sky should stand", and it will be enough for Song Zhenzong to eat a pot at that time.

Thinking of this, Song Zhenzong on the dragon couch couldn't sleep at all.

On the one hand, he quickly dealt with a number of local officials in Luoyang, and the local transfer envoy and the criminal prison department were held accountable, and Wang Sizong was demoted to the governor of Shaanzhou for the crime of not detecting.

One thing to say, Wang Sizong's attitude of not being led by superstitious rumors is worthy of praise from the perspective of evaluating him personally.

However, as a parent official, he failed to pacify and control the situation, which led to the spread of panic among the people, and he did have some dereliction of duty.

In addition to holding Luoyang officials accountable, on the other hand, Song Zhenzong also set up an altar to perform rituals, hoping to "use the Xuan to control the Xuan" and eliminate this demonic disaster through supernatural power.

But the effect of the law is not satisfactory, the people see that the officials have set up altars, this hat demon must be real, and the rumors are getting more and more fierce.

Song Zhenzong, who was forced to be anxious, simply issued a reward order, encouraging residents to report those who had spread rumors of hat demons and punish them.

There must be brave men under the heavy reward, and soon some people reported to the court the monk Tiansheng, Taoist Geng Shi, Zhang Gang and other people.

The whistleblower said that the three people had strange daily whereabouts, knew witchcraft, and were good at spreading evil rumors. Song Zhenzong immediately sent Lu Yijian, a resident of the house, and Zhou Huaizheng, a close eunuch, to try the case.

Lu Yijian is the future prime minister, and he is very capable. After investigation, it was found that there was indeed a problem with these people, and they recruited disciples among the people and gathered people to spread heresies.

Under the pressure of Lu and Erren, the three also confessed to a loose person named Zhang Ziyuan, saying that he was also involved.

According to the record of "The Ministers of the Song Dynasty", this report case finally ended with the beheading of 6 people on the streets of the city, and several people in a row.

But in the process of investigating the case, Lu Yijian and others also found that although this group of people was heinous, they were vague about the causes and consequences of the hat demon case, as if there were deeper secrets hidden behind them.

At this time, Zhenzong's reward order had already started the "National Demon Hunting Operation" in Bianliang City, and the people changed from the original fear of being killed by the hat demon to the fear of being killed by the government for spreading the rumors of the hat demon.

Sensing a subtle shift in public opinion, Liu Yu admonished Zhenzong to stop further thorough investigation of the Hat Demon case for fear of triggering another unpredictable civil unrest.

Zhenzong adopted Liu Yu's opinion and ordered that "those who committed crimes before today will not be punished", that is, those who spread the rumors of the hat demon in the past will not be held accountable as long as they do not commit it again in the future. The people of Bianliang breathed a sigh of relief.

But it doesn't end there.

After Huo Huo finished Luoyang in Xijing and Bianliang in Tokyo, the panic of the hat demon spread to Yingtianfu in Nanjing. At that time, the number one leader of Ying Tianfu was "Lianzhong Sanyuan", that is, Wang Zeng, who had won the first place in the township examination, the meeting examination, and the palace examination.

Compared with Wang Sizong and Song Zhenzong, Wang Zeng's methods of dealing with the hat demon can be described as superior. He did not let the rumors go unchecked, nor did he arrest and kill people indiscriminately.

First of all, he ordered the people of the city to stay open at night, anyway, no one has ever seen the hat demon, so it is better for us to open the door to welcome it. At the same time, Wang Zeng also organized a yamen patrol to maintain law and order in the city at night, so that the people could rest assured.

Secondly, if someone says that they see the hat demon hurting people and eating people, they will be arrested first and interrogated in detail.

If you can't say it, you will be punished for "creating and using demon books and evil words". This was a big crime in the Northern Song Dynasty, and those who bewitched more than three people with demonic words would be sentenced to death by hanging, and the lightest crime of demonic words would also be punished with sixty boards.

It is equivalent to who spreads the rumors and who is responsible, such a combination of punches, Ying Tianfu's hat demon rumors quickly broke themselves, and the history records that "the people's feelings are peaceful, and the demons are stopped".

Wang Zeng later rose to the top of his official fortunes and was promoted to deputy prime minister.

But Wang Zeng appeased the hearts of the people of Ying Tianfu, but he couldn't save the situation in Bianliang City at the foot of the Son of Heaven, after all, Song Zhenzong opened the altar to worship, and he killed the rumor-mongers without forgiveness, Wang Zeng didn't dare to make irresponsible remarks about the official practices, so he could only let Zhenzong toss.

To add insult to injury, the panic of the hat demon here has not been lifted, and a broom star has appeared in the sky of Bianliang City at a very inopportune time, which is a great omen that can be seen by the civil and military officials and the people of the whole city, Song Zhenzong is like sitting on pins and needles.

A vision from heaven

The Hat Demon case occurred in May of the second year of Tianxi, and it flourished in June. Coincidentally, just when the rumors of the hat demon were in a stir in Sanjing, a comet suddenly appeared.

The anomaly in the sky and the weirdness in the world have achieved a not-so-wonderful dream linkage.

According to the History of the Song Dynasty. According to the records of the Astronomical Chronicles, on the Xinhai day of June in the second year of Tianxi, a comet about three feet long sprang out from the northeast side of the second star of the Big Dipper, that is, Tianxuan Star, and slid straight north.

Comets were given a special meaning in ancient times, because they had a long comet tail, also known as "broom stars", and as early as the Warring States period, it was recorded in the "Zuo Chuan" that "and the sky has a comet, to remove filth."

The appearance of a comet in the sky means that the heavens are about to take action to sweep away the evil forces that endanger the social order. At this time, the ruler is vigilant, or to rectify the political situation, or to grant amnesty to the world, in order to dispel the calamity foretold by the comet.

This time, the comet and the hat demon panicked and raged, Song Zhenzong did not dare to hesitate for a moment, and immediately ordered a general amnesty to the world, pardoning all criminals below the exile sentence, and reducing the punishment of capital crimes by one degree, in order to show favor and benevolence, but the criminals listed in the ten evils are still punished according to the law.

Interestingly, this amnesty decree specifically mentions that "those who create demons to confuse the public are like laws", even the crime of bewitching the people is not within the scope of the amnesty, presumably Zhenzong is worried that an amnesty decree will be self-defeating and expand the scope of influence of the hat demon case.

However, the world was also amnesty, but the comet still flickered in the night sky for thirty-seven days, and it refused to disperse.

Song Zhenzong was so anxious that he had to ask the ministers for help. A group of old ministers such as Kou Zhun, Xiang Minzhong, and Wang Dan took the opportunity to make suggestions, so that Zhenzong could establish a prince as soon as possible to stabilize the situation.

At that time, Song Zhenzong was over 50 years old, which was a proper old age in ancient times, and in his later years, Song Zhenzong was often unwell, and he was confused at every turn, and many government affairs were handled by Queen Liu E.

This made a group of old ministers loyal to the Zhao family thorn in their backs, for fear that the world would fall into a state of Si Chen, which would be unfavorable to Zhao Song Jiangshan Sheji.

Song Zhenzong Zhao Heng withered in his life, he had 6 sons, but 5 of them died early, and when the hat demon case happened, Song Zhenzong only had one son Zhao benefited.

It stands to reason that there is no suspense about the position of the East Palace, and later generations generally speculated that the reason why Song Zhenzong did not establish the crown prince may be related to Queen Liu E.

Liu E is Zhao Yingying's nominal mother, but she is not her biological mother, Zhao Yingying's biological mother is Concubine Li, that is, the well-known Concubine Li Chen. The folk tale of the tanuki changing the prince is derived from this history.

According to the History of the Song Dynasty. The Biography of the Concubines records that after the death of Guo Shi, the second queen of Song Zhenzong, he intended to make Liu Defei Liu E the queen, but Liu E came from a humble background and had no heirs, and the ministers were opposed.

So, Song Zhenzong succeeded the son Zhao Huili born to Concubine Liu Defei, the maid next to Concubine Liu De, and Concubine Liu successfully ascended to the throne.

But unlike the folk tale plot of "Tanuki for the Prince", when Zhenzong was alive, the Li family's highest rank was Zhenger Wanyi, and he also had a princess with Zhenzong, and was not sent to the cold palace.

After Zhenzong's death, before the Li family died, she was named Concubine Chen by Liu Ejin, who was already the empress dowager at the time, which shows that Zhenzong and Empress Liu did not treat Zhao Ying's biological mother lightly.

Liu E was the most favored woman in Song Zhenzong's life, and she had a history of marriage before becoming Song Zhenzong's concubine, which was very rare in the harem of ancient emperors.

Although it is a collection of thousands of favors, Liu E failed to give birth to a son and a half daughter for Zhenzong, and in Zhenzong's later years, will it be because Liu E is worried about the loss of power?

Later generations mostly praised Liu E more than they depreciated, saying that she "has the talent of Lu Wu, but does not have the evil of Lu Wu".

However, in her later years, Liu E once wore the crown of the Son of Heaven to worship the Taimiao, and became the only woman in Chinese history who wore a dragon robe but did not claim the title of emperor.

Time is pulled back to the Tianxi years, and the successive appearances of hat demons and comets undoubtedly set off some waves in Song Zhenzong's heart.

With the Wuzhou Zhizhou Zhizhou Chen Zhizhong handed over the three parts of the "Performance", with the argument of early determination of the world's foundation, and after hurting the relationship between Prince Chen Li and the current hat demon and star change, Song Zhenzong was relieved.

In the Mid-Autumn Festival in the second year of Tianxi (1018), he ordered the 9-year-old Zhao to be crowned as the crown prince and given the name Zhao Zhen.

However, a year after the establishment of the prince, in the third year of Tianxi, in 1019 AD, the sky of the Northern Song Dynasty appeared again. Qin Tianjian urgently reported, too daylight!

A group of old ministers led by Kou Zhun also interpreted that Taibaixing's appearance in broad daylight was the image of the heroine Chang, and begged Zhenzong to allow the "prince to supervise the country", and Zhenzong agreed.

The purpose of Kou Zhun's move is Sima Zhao's heart, which is well known, that is, to weaken the power of Empress Liu E and her party.

History of the Song Dynasty. The Biography of Kou Zhun also records that Kou Zhun once entered the palace to have a secret conversation with Zhenzong, and persuaded Zhenzong to choose a minister of Fangzheng to be responsible for assisting the prince in supervising the country.

Ding Wei and Qian Weiyan are both henchmen of Liu E's faction, Kou Zhun is obviously belittling Ding and Qian, but in fact he insinuates that the harem cannot interfere in government politics without authorization.

Zhenzong originally adopted Kou Zhun's suggestion, but the complacent Kou Zhun accidentally made a small report to Zhenzong in a drunken later and was promised by Zhenzong.

After Liu E learned of this, she quietly blew the wind on Zhenzong, and Kou Zhun was dismissed as prime minister and demoted to the crown prince. Didn't you propose to find a minister of the Founder to assist the crown prince? Then you can come in person, provided that you don't need the power of the prime minister.

After Kou Zhun was deposed, Ding Wei was in charge of the government, and Liu E was relieved so far. And Zhou Huaizheng, a confidant eunuch around Song Zhenzong, has always been friendly with Kou Zhun, so he naturally became the target of Ding Wei's party.

Zhou Huaizheng, who was forced to be anxious, decided to take a risk to launch a coup d'état, trying to directly support the crown prince Zhao Zhen to ascend the throne, serve Zhenzong as the emperor, abolish Liu E's throne, and welcome back Kou Zhun and let him re-serve as prime minister.

However, at a critical moment, two people from Zhou Huaizheng's camp suddenly defected and revealed the news to Ding Wei. As you can imagine, this coup d'état was extinguished before it even began.

Zhou Huaizheng was killed, and Kou Zhun was demoted again and exiled to Anzhou. Song Zhenzong didn't know about Kou Zhun's demotion again, and after the incident, he only wanted to dispose of Zhou Huaizheng, and didn't want to involve the old minister Kou Zhun.

Later, Zhenzong asked the attendant why he hadn't seen Kou Zhun for so long, and the attendant didn't dare to answer. Until his death, Zhenzong also told people that Kou Zhun and Li Di were ministers who could assist the young master.

In 1022 AD, Song Zhenzong died. Liu E's assistant young lord Zhao Zhen ascended the throne and started an 11-year career of listening to politics.

"History of the Song Dynasty" records that once Liu E once asked Lu Zongdao, a famous minister who was hand-picked: How to view Wu Zetian.

Lu Zongdao is not stupid, the meaning of Liu E's words is already obvious: If I become the emperor, what will the world think of me? Lu Zongdao replied with four words: Tang sinner.

It was these four words that dispelled the thought that quietly flashed in Liu E's heart, she understood that although the world is now in charge of Liu E, in the final analysis, it is still Zhao Zhen's, it is still the Zhao family, and it is impossible to be surnamed Liu after all.

In this workplace of Da Song Company, she Liu E is only a professional manager after all, and she will never be able to touch the throne.

In February 1033, Empress Dowager Liu realized that the destiny of heaven was not long in coming, and wanted to fulfill her lifelong wish before her death, so she proposed to worship the ancestors in the temple.

At the ceremony, Empress Dowager Liu accepted the honorific title offered to her by the ministers: Ying Tianqi Shengxian Meritorious Chongde Benevolence and Benevolence Baoshou Empress Dowager. After that, he completely returned to Renzong. More than one month later, Empress Dowager Liu passed away.

Going back and re-examining the hat demon case in the complex political environment at the time, the appearance of the hat demon may have been an occasional UFO sighting at first, but the panic that spread on a large scale later must not have been accidental.

It may be a trick of the old ministers to warn Song Zhenzong, and the later comet incident is even more heavenly helpful; Or it could be that some powerful minister or heretical leader hidden in a hidden corner of history is ready to take advantage of the chaos to create panic in order to profit from it......

No matter who created this whirlpool of public opinion, he must have accurately grasped the superstitious theory of ghosts and gods and the characteristics of great joy.

When the "celestial induction" is given social and political significance, it can not only become a powerful tool for rulers to maintain the legitimacy of power in their hands, but also an effective means for courtiers to restrain the emperor's behavior.

It can be seen that since ancient times, the power of public opinion has been a double-edged sword.