The play "Tanuki For Prince" has been circulated for so many years and is widely known. Concubine Liu E had no children, so the design was that when Concubine Li gave birth, a skinned tanuki cat was used instead of the newborn child. Because of the birth of a monster was beaten into the cold palace. The child was raised by Liu E, who was the future Song Renzong, and Liu E was crowned empress dowager with this child, and finally succeeded in becoming empress. And Concubine Li was beaten into the cold palace, and was framed by Liu E's treacherous plan and given to death, and the heartfelt little eunuch replaced Concubine Li with death and left the palace, and Concubine Li was exiled outside the palace from then on and suffered so much that she cried and blinded her eyes. It wasn't until she met Bao Zheng that she uncovered this big lie, and Liu E, seeing that things had been revealed, had to commit suicide.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Tanuki Cat for Prince" makes everyone misunderstand Liu E for hundreds of years</h1>
In this story, Empress Dowager Liu E is portrayed as a villain with a deep heart and a fierce heart, and Bao Zheng's image of "selfless with an iron face and not afraid of the powerful" is also more profound. But this story can only be regarded as a story, but the magic is wonderful, the people who wrote this story, true and false, anyway, are things of the previous dynasty, people will not think about whether the inside story of this story is like this, as long as this story is not wonderful.
The real thing about this story is that Song Renzong was indeed not born to Liu E, but indeed to Concubine Li. The fake place is that Liu E is not as fierce as in the story, and what cannot be determined by posterity is whether she really exchanged tanuki for a prince, of course, to a large extent, this should also be false.
The people who wrote this story wrote real historical figures, Liu E, Li Fei, and Bao Zheng. However, when Bao Zheng first became an official, Liu E and Li Fei had already died one after another. The fact that Liu E was not song Renzong's biological mother naturally could not have been exposed by Bao Zheng, in fact, it was exposed by Song Renzong's uncle, the historical Eight Sages, just when Liu E had just died.
The Yuan Dynasty compiled a "Tanuki Cat for Prince" to let everyone misunderstand Liu E for hundreds of years, if Song Zhenzong really knew underground, I am afraid that I would be angry and come back to life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > how obsessed Song Zhenzong was with Liu E</h1>
Liu E was the first empress dowager of the Northern Song Dynasty to bow the curtain to the government, and after that, the Song Dynasty produced eight empresses who listened to the government. However, Liu E's origin was nothing more than a maid who was sold into the palace, or married.
Liu E's grandfather Liu Yanqing (劉延庆) served as an official in the Later Han Dynasty to the rank of Grand General of the Right Xiao Wei Dynasty, and his father Liu Tong (劉通) commanded the envoys to Hu Jie during the Song Dynasty. It was just that Liu E's father died in battle shortly after she was born, and the family fell in the middle of the road, so she had to marry her mother to her maternal grandfather's family.
When Liu E was a teenager, she was married by her grandfather to a silversmith Gong Mei. At that time, Liu E was very beautiful, and could sing and dance, especially the táo drum. Gong Mei took Liu E to the capital in order to make a living, but in the capital, his silver business was still not good, so he moved the idea of selling his wife. The buyer was an aide under Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong, who was still the King of Xiang at the time, and he dedicated Liu E to Zhao Heng, who was very fond of Liu Heng at first sight and was like glue to Liu E.
But at this time, a great opportunity fell from the sky and hit Zhao Heng's head: he could become a prince. Zhao Heng's father, Zhao Guangyi, was originally the younger brother of Zhao Kuangyin, and after Zhao Kuangyin's death, Zhao Guangyi succeeded to the throne, and the throne naturally wanted to pass to his son. Therefore, after Zhao Kuangyin's two sons committed suicide and fell ill and died, and his younger brother Zhao Tingmei was deposed for rebellion, he was finally able to safely hand over the throne to his son.
Unfortunately, the original prince was frightened by Zhao Tingmei's rebellion, so this prince fell to the third son Zhao Heng, who was immediately targeted as soon as he was made crown prince. Zhao Guangyi found the woman next to Zhao Heng, reprimanded Zhao Heng for staying with Liu E all day, said how Liu E's lowly body could stay in the prince's palace, ordered Zhao Heng to send Liu E away, and immediately gave Zhao Heng a crown princess Pan.
Zhao Heng was not stupid, and if he wanted to be a prince, he had to give up the beauty, but he was reluctant to do so, so while reporting that he had sent Liu E away, he hid Liu E in the staff mansion, and the golden house hid Jiao, and from time to time he would meet in the past.
Fifteen years later, when Zhao Heng ascended the throne, the first thing he did was to bring Liu E to the palace. However, at this time, there were already Empress Guo and many concubines personally appointed by Emperor Taizong in the palace, as well as Yang Shufei, who was being favored.
As soon as Liu E entered the palace, she was favored by Zhao Heng. At this time, Liu E was about thirty years old, although she may not have aged and faded, but there were more young beauties in the harem. As soon as Liu E entered the palace, she first sealed the four pin beauties, Empress Guo died shortly after being hit by the loss of several sons in a row, Liu E re-sealed the second pin Xiuyi, Defei, ranking first in the harem, Zhao Heng also wanted to make Liu E an empress, but repeatedly failed under the obstruction of the ministers.
From here, it can be seen that Zhao Heng's infatuation, since the ancient harem is only a place where new people laugh and do not see old people crying, since the ancient emperor also liked more young and beautiful women, few people will be devoted to a person. Zhao Heng did not hesitate to disobey his father's orders to hide Liu E first, and once he hid it, it was fifteen years. As soon as he ascended the throne, he could not wait to take Liu E to the palace and give her fame and favor.
Moreover, in the harem at that time, even if Liu E was favored, no concubine dared to harm her. Even Princess Yang Shufei, who was favored before Liu E entered the palace, was as close as a sister to Liu E. On the one hand, Liu E was intelligent and knew how to get along with the harem concubines, and on the other hand, it was also Zhao Heng's protection, so that other concubines did not dare to move this thought.
Zhao Heng's heirs were difficult, and it just so happened that Li Shi was pregnant at this time. This is the history of "Tanuki Cat for Prince", in fact, it is not Liu E who robbed Li's child, but after Zhao Heng learned that Li Was pregnant, he consulted with Liu E to raise this child to Liu E, let this child recognize Liu E as the birth mother, and then Liu E can naturally become an empress and empress.
After Emperor Renzong of Song was born, Zhao Heng immediately took him to Liu E, made him crown prince, and declared Liu E the birth mother of the crown prince and crowned empress. Liu E asked Yang Shufei to be Zhao Zhen's adoptive mother, so Zhao Zhen always called Liu E the eldest niangniang and Yang Shufei as the little niangniang, and this matter was not until Liu E's death, the Eight Sages King exposed, Yang Shufei testified, Zhao Zhen knew that his birth mother was Li Shi, and before that he had been serving Liu E as a birth mother.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Liu E's pro-dynasty system</h1>
In February of the first year of Qianxing, Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong died, and Zhao Zhen succeeded to the throne, that is, Song Renzong, and Liu E became the empress dowager. Before his death, Emperor Zhenzong of Song deliberately left a will: "The military state should be punished by the empress dowager for important matters." This testament gave Liu E the legitimate right to handle major state affairs, and also gave Liu E the confidence to make a claim to the dynasty.
As early as the fifteen years outside the palace, Liu E often read history books and studied, and after entering the palace, she often accompanied Zhao Heng to deal with political affairs, and put forward effective views on the government of the dynasty. Therefore, when Song Zhenzong was still alive, the government had already let Liu E control the seven seven eight eight. During the period when Song Zhenzong was seriously ill, Liu E could even personally plan to depose Kou Zhun, the prime minister who opposed him, and when Song Zhenzong asked why he had not seen Kou Zhun for many days, neither he dared to speak.
Song Zhenzong was the emperor, and he naturally knew that Liu E had done this, but before he died, he still said that he would let Liu E assist the government. This was the first empress dowager of the Northern Song Dynasty to bow to the government.
After that, Liu E was reluctant to return the government to Zhao Zhen, and also wore the emperor's crown to worship the ancestors, and after that, she often wore the emperor's service to enter and leave the court. However, when people proposed that she follow Wu Zetian's example, she angrily tore off the song and said: I will never do anything to apologize to the ancestors of the Zhao family.
Liu E was unable to speak before she died, but she kept tearing the clothes on her body. Zhao Zhen asked the minister what he meant, and the minister replied that the empress dowager was reluctant to wear the emperor's clothes to see the former emperor. So Zhao Zhen changed Liu E into an empress costume, which also fulfilled the wishes of Zhao Heng and Liu E.
After Liu E's death, the Eight Sages revealed that Liu E was not the emperor's birth mother, and Zhao Zhen opened the coffin and found that Li Shi was buried later, and his face was vivid. Afterwards, Zhao Zhen wept in front of Liu E's portrait and said: Since then, the eldest lady has been innocent in her life!
Liu E was praised by later generations: there is the talent of Lü Wu, and there is no evil of Lü Wu. Behind her achievements is also song Zhenzong's infatuation and trust, allowing her to stand in front of the court and show her talents to the fullest, rather than being trapped between the bridesmaids and many women in the harem, and living a life without fun like many women in the harem.