As the most prestigious king of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wudi of Han had too much brilliance in his life. Implement the Tuien Order, strengthen the centralization of power, and consolidate the rule of the Western Han Dynasty. "Depose a hundred families and respect Confucianism alone" to achieve ideological unity. Attacking the Xiongnu in the north, breaking the myth of the invincibility of the Xiongnu, and changing the unfavorable situation of fighting against the Xiongnu since the Western Han Dynasty. The Western Han Dynasty reached an unprecedented prosperity in the hands of Liu Che, so it was also honored by later generations as "one emperor through the ages". But why did such a brilliant emperor in his later years cause a bloody court tragedy, causing his empress and his intended successor to commit suicide one after another?
Emperor
However, this small magic trick has cast a thick shadow on Emperor Wu's name for his eternal merits, and the cause of Emperor Wu's great rejuvenation of the curse of witchcraft in his later years must start from an illusion.
In March of the first year of Zhenghe, King Pengzu of Zhao Jingsu died, and in the summer, there was a major drought, and it was an eventful autumn outside the palace, and the palace was unstable, and the concubines attacked each other with witchcraft. Originally, this kind of small matter of intrigue between the harems also happened frequently, and Emperor Wu did not care at first, who knew that the struggle between the concubines became more and more intense, and finally they framed each other and cursed the emperor with witchcraft. Emperor Wu of Han was furious when he saw this, and in this anger he executed a large number of palace people and some foreign relatives. However, the influence of the witchcraft on Emperor Wu was not over, he always dreamed that someone was cursing himself with a wooden man, and it was difficult to sleep for a while.
Cursed puppets in the WitchCraft Case
One day, Emperor Wu was sitting in the Jianzhang Palace recuperating, and in a trance he saw a man with a sword entering the Zhonghua Dragon Gate, but no one came out to stop the Zhonghua Dragon Gate, which should have been heavily guarded. Emperor Wu wondered if this man had come to kill him? So he shouted loudly for the guards to come to the rescue, and the man threw down his sword and fled. Frightened into a cold sweat, Emperor Wu hurriedly sent people to search all over the palace to search for the assassins, but the final result disappointed Emperor Wu of Han. The assassins did not find any traces, but instead turned out a large number of puppets and spells in the harem and the homes of the people in the capital, so Emperor Wu of Han believed that someone had used the magic of witchcraft to create a magic illusion to assassinate himself, so he ordered a strict investigation of the matter. The "witchcraft case" that caused the bloody court case thus began.
Originally, the "witch deception case" could soon pass, but in his later years, Emperor Wu was a bit sharp and dim-witted, and since the ancient king's side, there was never a lack of villains, and with their help, this "witch deception case" finally intensified. At the moment, some people falsely accused Gongsun Jingsheng, the son of Gongsun He, the son of Gongsun He, of using witchcraft to curse the emperor, and it is worth mentioning here that Gongsun He's wife Junru was the sister of Empress Wei Zifu, so the relationship between Emperor Wu of Han and Gongsun He quickly became close, and originally with this layer of relationship, it was generally like this kind of false accusation that naturally could not move Gongsun father and son. However, Gongsun Jingsheng was not contentious, arrogant and lascivious, greedy for money and lustful, and dared to accept bribes, and as a result, he was really locked up. And Gongsun He was eager to save his son, so he casually arrested a so-called Yangling hero Zhu Anshi to make meritorious contributions, so as to help his son atone for his sins, and did not want to embark on the road of no return.
The arrested Zhu Anshi naturally refused to sit still, and he entrusted someone to write to Emperor Wu of Han, saying that Gongsun Jingsheng had an affair with Princess Yangshi, the daughter of Emperor Wu of Han, and also sent a wizard to plant puppets on the road where Tianzi passed to curse Tianzi. This touched the sensitive nerves of Emperor Wu, so he ordered the arrest of Gongsun He's family and handed them over to Du Zhou, a famous cool official at that time, to investigate. However, Du Zhou was narrow-minded, and in his early years he formed a grudge with Wei Qing's son Wei Ling, and took advantage of the misfortune of witchcraft to declare a personal vendetta. Not only did he kill Gongsun He's father and son, but he also killed Princess Yangshi and Princess Zhuyi, who had nothing to do with this case, only because Princess Zhuyi and Wei Ling were cousins.
Emperor Wu was close to Jiang Chong
Although a group of people died, Emperor Wu of Han's suspicious personality made him think that there were still people who wanted to murder him, so he handed over the "witch deception case" to his favorite minister Jiang Chong for investigation. Speaking of Jiang Chong, who relied on nepotism to gain the trust of Emperor Wu of Han, he always deliberately disguised himself as a "just and selfless" righteous appearance in front of Emperor Wu, and only then did Emperor Wu deceive him into handing over the case of witchcraft to him for investigation. In the process of investigating the case, Jiang Chong completely mixed up his personal grudges. In the imperial court, the one he most wanted to overthrow was the crown prince Liu Zhao, because he had captured the prince's cronies, and Liu Zhu had originally pleaded with him in every way, but he insisted on going his own way, so he offended Liu Zhao. And Liu Zhaogui is the crown prince, is the future crown prince, if he becomes emperor in the future, he will certainly not have his own good fruit to eat. Thinking of this, Jiang Chong had been nagging to frame the prince and empress Wei Zifu under the pretext of the witch deception case. However, Emperor Wu was still quite fond of the future crown prince, and Jiang Chong failed to frame Liu Zhao several times, but let Liu Chong see Jiang Chong's sinister intentions, and finally killed Jiang Chong and other cadres in order to protect himself.
However, Emperor Wu of Han, who lived in simplicity and was recuperating in Ganquan Palace outside Chang'an City, did not know the specific situation, only that the prince had killed his close subjects, and just at this time someone whispered in the ear of Emperor Wu of Han that the prince's move was to prepare for rebellion. At first, Emperor Wu did not believe it, so he sent an attendant to Chang'an City to investigate the situation. I didn't expect the attendants to see that Chang'an City was heavily guarded, and they didn't dare to go inside, so they turned around outside the city and went back to tell Emperor Wu of Han that the prince's rebellion was indeed a rebellion. Emperor Wu believed this to be true, so he ordered the chancellor Liu Quyi to immediately send troops to attack and kill all rebels without mercy.
Prince Liu Zhao
Liu Quyi was a man who had different intentions, and earlier colluded with Li Guangli to try to make Liu Kui, The Prince of Li's wife, and this time he received instructions from Emperor Wu, and even spared no effort to suppress the "traitors". Poor Liu Zhao, on the other hand, had no intention of rebellion, so there was no heavy army to resist Liu Quyi's army, so he had to mobilize the people to defend Chang'an. However, the people only knew that the "prince rebellion" was a great rebellion, so Liu Zhao was greatly disappointed, and finally the army was defeated and had to flee Chang'an. However, it was not long before he was found by the officers and soldiers, and Liu chose to commit suicide to avoid being arrested and humiliated, while his mother Wei Zifu had hanged herself long before him.
In his later years, Emperor Wu of Han
Although later Emperor Wu of Han finally learned the truth of the Wu deception case, he understood that he had wronged the prince, and also built a "Si Womb" to express his mourning for the prince. However, the great mistake had already been made, and the empress committed suicide and the crown prince died, dealing a heavy blow to the late Emperor Wu of Han and greatly accelerating the final life process of this majestic emperor.
In 87 BC, the "Emperor of the Ages" died suddenly at the age of 70. As one of the longest-reigning emperors in Chinese history, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty lived a brilliant life. Although he did many foolish deeds in his later years, it was good to wake up before he died, and a "sin against himself" was enough to see Emperor Wu's heart. As Emperor Wu said before his death: "Merit is right or wrong, let future generations judge it."