Lü Yan (enhì) was an empress of Liu Bang, the Emperor of Han Gao, who was known as "Lü Wu" along with Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty.
Lü Yan married Liu Bang, the head of the Si (sì) water pavilion, and gave birth to Liu Ying and Princess Lu Yuan.
During Lü Hou's reign, he cultivated a group of lü foreign relatives, thus exacerbating the contradictions within the Han ruling class. Immediately after her death, it caused a bloody struggle between the Liu royal family group and the Lü family's foreign relatives group.
Contradictions within the Han ruling class suddenly intensified, and the army supporting Liu clan sprung up.
Liu Xiang (xiāng), the king of Qi, attacked outside, Chen Ping and Zhou Bo responded to the inside, and the kings of the Liu clan rose up and killed Zhu Lü, and the men and women of the Lü clan "no lesser than the chief, all beheaded".
A bloody struggle between the Liu royal group and the Lü foreign relatives group ended in the victory of the imperial group.
Because of his own selfish interests, because of jealousy and hatred, because of greed for power, Lü Yan will eventually harm others and harm himself:
1. Lü Yan killed the hero Han Xin
The first person to be selected by Lü Yan was Han Xin, who had been deposed as the Marquis of Huai (Huái) and placed under residential surveillance.
Taking advantage of Liu Bang's expedition abroad, she and Xiao He used a plan to kill Han Xin and destroy the Three Tribes, thus successfully shocking other heroes.
Therefore, Liu Bang only relieved Han Xin of his military power, and it was Lü Yan who really killed Han Xin.
2. Lü Yan indirectly killed Peng Yue
Peng Yue, the king of Liang, was deposed by Liu Bang as a shù (庶) person and exiled to Shudi; on the way, when he met Lü Yan, Peng Yue pleaded innocent.
Lü Yan promised to intercede for him and bring him back to Xianyang.
Lü Yan said to Liu Bang: If you let Peng Yue go, it is equivalent to letting the tiger return to the mountain.
Liu Bang then executed him, killed him, and chopped it into meat sauce to distribute with the other princes.
3. Lü Yan poisoned Lady Qi and killed Liu Ruyi
Lü Yan became the empress dowager and ordered Lady Qi to be imprisoned in Yongxiang, shaved off her hair, tied with iron rings around her neck, put on the prisoner's red clothes, and let her do hard labor with chōng rice.
Lady Qi sang songs while scooping rice: the son is the king, the mother is the prisoner (lǔ); the twilight is thin all day long, often with death; three thousand miles away, when who makes the ru (rǔ).
Lü Yan was furious, killed Liu Ruyi, the King of Zhao, and cut off Lady Qi's hands and feet, deafened her ears, gouge out her eyes, and poisoned her with dumb medicine and threw her into the latrine, called Ren Yan (zhì).
Lü Yan actually asked Liu Ying to come and see, and Liu Ying cried bitterly and said to Lü Yan: This kind of thing is not done by people; the subject is the son of the empress dowager, and after all, there is no way to govern the world.
To think that the mother was so cruel and inhumane was already against common sense, and was very frightened, and was unwilling to deal with political affairs.
In 205 BC, the Han army took advantage of Xiang Yu's inability to extricate himself from Qi, and captured the city of Chu Du peng (péng) in one fell swoop; and Xiang Yu led his cavalry to quickly return to defense, fighting with the Han army at suī (suī) water, and the Han army was defeated; Lü Yan and other Liu Bang's family members were captured by the Chu army.
In 205 BC, Lady Qi was favored and often followed Gao Zu to the Guandong, weeping day and night, and wanted to make her son crown prince; Liu Bang planned to make Liu Ruyi the crown prince on the grounds that Liu Yingren was weak and "not like me"; Zhou Chang, Shusun Tong, and other ministers of the court were resolutely opposed to the abolition of Chang Liyou.
In 203 BC, Chu Han and Lü Yan were released to return to Han; Lü Yan, who returned to Liu Bang's side, found that Liu Bang already had a favored Lady Qi by his side, and at this time, Lü Yan was often left behind because of his age than Lady Qi, and it was Lady Qi who accompanied Liu Bang.
In 195 BC, Liu Bang died, and Lü Yan did not mourn for the next four days, and consulted with the judge (shěn) to kill the heroes, and then abandoned this move under the persuasion of Li (lì) Shang, mourned for Liu Bang, and pardoned the world; in this year, Lü Yan killed Liu Ruyi, the king of Zhao, and poisoned Lady Qi.
In 193 BC, Liu Fei, the Prince of Hui of Qi mourning (dào), came to Beijing to see Lü Yan and almost drank the zhèn wine arranged by Lü Yan; afterwards, feeling very frightened, he took the initiative to sacrifice Chengyang Commandery (jùn) and honored Princess Luyang as king; Empress Lü Yan was very happy and let Liu Fei return to his fiefdom.
In 188 BC, Liu Ying died of depression and illness; Lü Yan made the crown prince Liu Gong emperor, and he himself was in charge of the imperial system, exercising the power of emperor, and the imperial court orders were all from the empress dowager, the first person to rule the Chinese empress; then began to attack the princes and political opponents, reusing favored courtiers to interrogate him and the eunuch Zhang Qing (qīng), arranging henchmen, sealing Zhu Lü and the son of the harem beauty as princes, and killing Liu You the Prince of Zhao and Liu Hui the Prince of Liang.
In 187 BC, his nephew Lü Tai was made king of Lü, Lü Chan was made king of Liang, Lü Lu (lù) was made king of Zhao, his nephew Lü Tong was made king of Yan, and Zhang Yan (yǎn), the son of his daughter Princess Lu Yuan, was made king of Lu.
In 184 BC, he made his sister Lü Mi (xū) the Marquis of Linguang, his nephew Lü He the Marquis of Yu, Lü Gengshi the Marquis of Zhuì, and Lü Fu (fèn) the Marquis of Lücheng; and Lü Hou successively made more than a dozen members of the Lü family the Marquis of Lü.
In 180 BC, Lü Yan fell ill and died at the age of sixty-two, and was buried with Han Gaozu in Changling.
Lü Yan's heart was fierce, and looking back on his life course, there must be a reason: living a hard life together, not seeing her husband all year round, supporting her family alone, and carrying children; being imprisoned in the Chu Army for many years, when Liu Bang fled, he pushed his own son and daughter off the carriage; it was difficult to return to her husband and fall out of favor, but at this moment, Lady Qi wanted to change her prince and so on; it is understandable that she accumulated resentment in bit by bit, but inevitably did too much; of course, there are also elements of its essence and viciousness, and the combination of the two is one, Eventually became the most poisonous woman in history.