Tuoba Hong was the most mysterious emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it is still a difficult mystery in history. There are different theories about Tuoba Hong's death in various history books, some saying that he was poisoned by Empress Feng, some saying that he was forced to commit suicide, and some saying that he was secretly executed after being lured into the palace and imprisoned. Such a statement was widely circulated at that time, so that it could not be accurately recorded in the history books. However, a synthesis of these historical materials can be found that the cause of Tuoba Hong's death was very closely related to Empress Feng, and even if it was not Empress Feng who personally sent someone to execute him, there were indirect reasons. In addition to the cause of Tuoba Hong's death, many people are also concerned about the hatred between Empress Feng and Tuoba Hong. I want to know what really happened between the two of them, and this tragedy of mother-son murder occurred.
In fact, Empress Feng was not Tuoba Hong's biological mother, but Tuoba Hong's concubine. She was the empress of Tuoba Mao, the Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei, and since she had no children, she took Tuoba Hong as her concubine. After Tuoba Hong was made crown prince, his mother Li Guiren was given death according to Northern Wei tradition to prevent the matriarch from interfering in government affairs. Therefore, Tuoba Hong was actually raised by Empress Feng, and the relationship between the two was still very good in the beginning. At the beginning of her reign, Empress Feng also helped Tuoba Hong get rid of the Taiyuan king Yihun who dominated the government and retained Tuoba Hong's imperial throne. It is reasonable to say that although the mother and son are not biological, the relationship should be very close. But later, the relationship between the two became more and more stiff, and finally embarked on the road of killing each other.
Historians interpret the changes in the relationship between mother and son, and many people pay attention to two aspects. On the one hand, Empress Feng took the opportunity to listen to the imperial court after getting rid of Yihun and seized the power of the imperial court, until Tuoba Hong gave birth to her son Tuoba Hong. Even so, Empress Feng left a large number of officials in the dynasty, hindering Tuoba Hong's imperial power, making more and more contradictions between the two sides. On the other hand, Empress Feng was widowed at a young age and had many male pets around her. Tuoba Hong found an opportunity to remove Li Yi, Empress Feng's favorite, and her brother Li Shi, cousin Li Xiande and others, which intensified the contradiction between mother and son, and even became the fuse for Tuoba Hongchan to let the throne. However, from the perspective of history books, the historical facts in these two aspects are the manifestations of the contradictions between the two men, not the root cause.
Judging from the historical data of all aspects, the contradiction between Empress Feng and Tuoba Hong was not a personal grudge, but a dispute between Hu and Han within the Northern Wei magnates. From the time Emperor Daowu Tuoba Jue established the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were two forces within the Northern Wei Dynasty that repeatedly fought. One was the northern ethnic minority tribes that invaded the Central Plains with the Xianbei people, of which the Xiongnu tribes had the largest number and power. The other was the Menmen clan that remained in the north after the southern crossing of the Western Jin Dynasty, and their sons became important Han officials who tuoba gui established the Northern Wei. In the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the power of the ethnic minorities in the north was relatively large, and even the empresses came from the noble women of these northern tribes. By the time of Emperor Tuoba Of the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Taiwu, Han officials represented by Cui Hao and Gao Yun gradually rose.
In the Tuoba Tao era, the power of the Hu and Han people was basically in a balanced situation, and both sides had their own spokesmen. The spokesperson of the Hu nobles was the crown prince Tuoba Huang, while the spokesman of the Han Mongol clan was the chancellor Cui Hao. By balancing the forces of both sides, Tuoba Tao always controlled the power of the state, and also allowed the Northern Wei national strength to reach its peak for the first time. However, after Tuoba Tao's last year of the southern conquest of Liu Song and the return of Yu, the national strength appeared empty in many military uses, which caused the hidden danger of turmoil in the national political situation. After the Wencheng Emperor Tuoba Mao ascended the throne in a political struggle, he implemented a series of reform measures and began to restore the national strength of the Northern Wei. Among these reform measures, two of the more typical are the introduction of ethnic minorities from the north to the south, and the other is the use of Han bureaucrats in large numbers.
Judging from the historical records, Tuoba Mao's measures were very effective, and it only took more than ten years to restore the national strength of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it also left a great hidden danger. Tuoba Liang let the northern ethnic minorities go south in order to fill the demographic void that occurred in the war. The hollow population directly affected the economic base of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and in the era when farming was the main mode of production, the lack of strong labor directly affected the harvest of agriculture, which in turn affected the financial resources of the state and the logistical supply of the army. He reused bureaucrats from the Mengmen clan because these large families controlled a large Han population and resources. Among them, there are not only peasant populations in need of agriculture, but also various handicrafts, such as blacksmithing, construction, carpentry and other technical talents.
At the same time as the country developed, contradictions within the Northern Wei Dynasty also continued to accumulate, and when Tuoba Mao died and Tuoba Hong took the throne, these contradictions began to become prominent. As for the ethnic minorities in the north, they are reluctant to live the agricultural life of the Han Chinese. Except for the Xianbei, who are more enlightened and willing to accept, other ethnic groups such as the Xiongnu and The Ruoran have a large number of backward tribes that oppose it. Even within the Xianbei clan, there are such voices of opposition. As for the Han scholars, because of Empress Feng's system of listening to the dynasty, a large number of Han officials were reused, which also affected the political interests of Xianbei and a small number of nobles in the Northern Wei court. The contradictions between the two sides extended from the people to the imperial court, and the new round of political struggle between Hu and Han became more and more intense.
In fact, the Hu-Han controversy already existed in the Tuoba Jue era, which is actually a profound contradiction that has continued since the destruction of the Five Hu Chaohua and the Western Jin Dynasty. The first three emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty gradually balanced the power of the Hu and Han sides, and many Hu nobles were gradually Sinicized after becoming officials in the Central Plains, so the Hu-Han dispute at the end of tuoba tao was far less intense than at the beginning of the northern Wei state. However, after a new round of migration from ethnic minorities outside northern Xinjiang to the Central Plains, the number of nobles who did not accept hu people soared. After they entered the imperial court, they clashed with the Han bureaucracy, which led to the re-emergence of the Hu-Han dispute. Coupled with religious beliefs, the Hu nobles believe in Buddhism, while the Han scholars believe in Taoism, and the contradictions between the two sides are even deeper.
Empress Feng was Empress Tuoba And was also the first Han-born Empress Zhenggong of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Her family was originally a Northern Yan royal family, and her grandfather Feng Hong was the Emperor of Northern Yan. After Northern Yan was destroyed by Tuoba Tao, he sent people to the court as slaves, and then gradually became Tuoba Tao's empress. After the Lin dynasty claimed the system, she reused the Han scholars represented by Gao Yun, and continued the economic policy of changing animal husbandry to farming in the Tuoba Dynasty, so that the economy developed rapidly again. However, this policy of favoring Sinicization aroused the opposition of a small number of stubborn Xianbei nobles and tribal leaders of ethnic minorities in the north, making the Dispute between Hu and Han even more intense. The history books write that many of the state policies of Tuoba Mao, which continued during the Tuoba Hong period, were actually imposed by Empress Feng and her subordinates.
Due to Empress Feng and her subordinates' long-term control of the imperial government, Tuoba Hong's personal political ideals could not be fully implemented, which caused the two to begin to have contradictions. In the treatment of Xianbei and ethnic minority aristocrats, Empress Feng and Tuoba Hong had an essential difference. Empress Feng hoped that through indoctrination, these Hu aristocrats could learn Han culture and complete the goal of Sinicization. Tuoba Hong, on the other hand, was more tolerant, allowing the Hu tribes to retain some of the systems and ways of life outside the Country. It can be said that from the perspective of political tendency, Tuoba Hong is more like the Daowu Emperor Tuoba Jue than his father Tuoba Mao, so the mother and son stand in different camps in the Hu-Han dispute. This struggle is not a struggle of individual political interests, but in fact a struggle between two cultures at the top level of the country.
If the traditional culture of Xianbei and ethnic minorities is to be followed, it is necessary to retain the system of many ethnic minorities, which is necessary to ensure the interests of ethnic minority nobles and their tribes. But if the interests of the Hu people and nobles can be guaranteed, the interests of the Han scholars and doctors will be harmed, and the Han door valve group will naturally come out to oppose it. During the period when Tuoba Mao and Empress Feng controlled the imperial government, the Han scholar group had already overpowered the Hu nobles and become vested interests of the state, and naturally did not want to spit out the political interests in hand. For the sake of her political status and power, Empress Feng would also vigorously promote the strategy of Sinicization and reuse Han ministers in the imperial court, which caused a conflict of interest with the Hu nobles. Therefore, during the reign of Tuoba Hong, it was actually a period when the contradictions between Hu and Han were very fierce.
Judging from Tuoba Hong's performance in the middle and late stages of his reign, this contradiction has become very fierce. In the middle and lower classes of the country, especially the military class dominated by ethnic minorities, Tuoba Hong still has a high appeal. He led his troops out on many occasions, and even once beat the Ruoran army to the south of the desert. However, in Pingcheng, the capital city where Han scholars and nobles who had received Sinicization, there were not many ministers to support him. This also made him difficult in the political struggle, and finally had to use the method of Zen to give up the throne to form a small imperial court and compete with Empress Feng. This strategy was both to seize the power of the monarch and to get rid of the disadvantageous position in the Pingcheng court. However, judging from the results, Tuoba Hong still could not stop the general trend of Sinicization and eventually failed in the political struggle.
Although there are many opinions in the history books about Takumi's death, there is no conclusive evidence. However, judging from the attribution of political interests and the political trend of the early Tuoba Hong era, it is clear that Empress Feng was the final victor, and the Han scholars were all over the Entire Northern Wei court. This also made the Northern Wei Dynasty quickly obtain the dividend of Sinicization, and its national strength grew rapidly, once again overpowering the Liu Song in the south. Empress Feng's policy of reusing Han door valves also made Han culture popular among the Xianbei nobles, laying the foundation for the later Tuoba Hong reforms. It can be said that from the general direction, Empress Feng's choice is suitable for the historical trend, while Tuoba Hong is a bit against the historical trend. This kind of line struggle is a struggle between you and me, and the victors belong only to those who conform to the trend of history.