After Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, restored the Han Dynasty, through the "judo" rule of Emperor Guangwu and the "rule of Mingzhang" by his children and grandchildren, the overall national strength flourished, the country prospered and stabilized, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. But from the beginning of the Han Zhang Emperor, there began to be hidden worries within the imperial family. Several restless concubines in the harem of Emperor Zhang of Han had already begun to fight for power and throne. This part was in my last article "A palace fight between three pairs of sisters in the harem of Emperor Hanzhang, the protagonist won and finally fell into the family!" has already been introduced. This time, I will focus on the tragic and joyful lives of liu qinghe, the deposed prince of qinghe, the victim of this palace fight, his son Liu Hu of Han'an, and his grandson Liu Bao, the emperor of Hanshun.
Liu Qing, King of Qinghe
Liu Qing, the deposed prince with a complicated and tortuous life
The ups and downs of a trembling childhood. Liu Qing's childhood was absolutely gray, although he was named prince not long after he was born, but it was when he was still ignorant and did not know what a prince was, when he began to have some cognitive ability, he had been abolished, and he was only four years old. His downfall was related to the fiasco of his mother Song Guiren in the harem to Empress Dou, and even worse, his mother also died tragically in the palace soon after (if you are interested to see my previous article, I will not go into details here). In this way, the four-year-old child, the position of prince was lost, his mother was gone, and there was a Dou Empress who was staring at him and dealing with him quickly, and his mother's love enemy, this woman threatened his life like a demon!
From the moment he was abandoned, he began to become precocious, he was cautious, like walking on thin ice, he tried to grasp everything that could be grasped as a life-saving straw. Therefore, he actively courted his fourth brother, the new crown prince Liu Zhao, who was also Empress Dou's adopted son. Although it was a rivalry between the two princes before and after, Liu Zhao still accepted Liu Qing very much, and he was very close to Liu Qing, and he was the closest of all the princes. This Liu Zhao, who was also a young man, personally found his father Emperor Hanzhang for Liu Qing's affairs and begged his father to protect his brother Liu Qing. After all, blood is thicker than water, and Emperor Zhang of Han still protected Liu Qing. Under the protection of his father and brother, Liu Qing, although very dangerous, still spent his childhood safely.
He had the courage and the strategy to make a great contribution to his brother's seizure of power. When he was eleven years old, his father Emperor Zhangdi of Han died, his brother Liu Zhao, who was only ten years old, succeeded to the throne, and Empress Dou of Emperor Zhangdi of Han came to the court to listen to the government, and the Dou family's relatives controlled the government. Liu Qing, who had lost his father's protection, and Liu Zhao, who had already ascended the throne, were closer, and their brothers now had a common goal, which was to hit the Dou family. Of course, this was quite difficult, because at that time, the Manchu ministers were basically promoted by the Dou family, and few people dared to oppose the Dou family. At that time, there were still few Liu Qing brothers, and they could only choose to wait.
After another four years, the fourteen or fifteen-year-old Liu Qing brothers were already sensible teenagers, and they began to seriously plan to get rid of the Dou family. At this time, Liu Qing played an important role. As Liu Zhao's right and left arm, many of Liu Zhao's messages were conveyed through Liu Qing. The brothers made such preparations: First, they first set up a "team", and through repeated deliberations, they finally found several important figures in the inner and outer courts, and the inner court was Zheng Zhong, the eunuch who was loyal to the Western Han royal family, and was a trustworthy person. In the outer court, they chose Sikong Renkui, Situ Dinghong, and others, all of whom dared to oppose the Dou family. In this way, the official operation of the "Dou Dou" alliance is almost the same method and step. To this end, Liu Zhao asked Liu Qing to find their eldest brother Liu Ling (the eldest son of Emperor Zhang of Han) to borrow the "Book of Han and The Biography of Foreign Relatives" to learn from it, and then through Liu Qing to Zheng Zhong, collect cases of the emperor killing his uncle. After repeated research, the "Dou Dou" alliance finally took advantage of the opportunity of Dou Xian, the boss of the Dou family, to defeat the Northern Xiongnu for the second time and return to Luoyang, to relax their vigilance, and took decisive action, blocking the two palaces, closing the city gates, quickly arresting the Dou family's henchmen and executing them at the first time, driving the Dou brothers back to their respective fiefdoms and threatening them to commit suicide.
After Liu Qing overthrew the Dou family, he received further trust and reward from Liu Zhao, and had the greatest weight and prestige among the princes. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and his brothers Han and Emperor Liu Zhao, who were close to him, died ten years after coming to power, at the age of twenty-seven. Liu Zhao's son, Liu Long, who was not born for less than 100 days, succeeded to the throne and died seven months after he ascended the throne. Liu Zhao's empress dowager Empress Deng and her ministers resolutely supported Liu Qing's son Liu Hu (劉祜) to ascend the throne, when Liu Hu had just turned thirteen. During that time, Liu Qing's mood was complicated, and his brother who loved him suddenly died, he was sad, his son suddenly became the emperor again, but he was surprised. His childhood was deposed, and the emperor eventually fell to his son, which was his place. This feeling, sour, sweet and bitter, mixed feelings! It was in this complicated state of mind that Liu Qing died a few months after his son ascended the throne, when he was only twenty-nine years old. The short life of this waste prince has ups and downs, the ups and downs, the wind and clouds are changing, maybe the movie does not dare to shoot like this!
Emperor Han
Liu Hu, the Emperor of Han'an, who was involuntarily living in the shadows
Puppet Young Emperor. Although Emperor An of Han became emperor, he did not have the power of an emperor, because this was in the hands of Empress Deng. This Empress Deng was also a controversial person in history, she held power for more than ten years, showing the style of a female politician, although there were frequent disasters and foreign invasions in those years, she was diligent in internal affairs, thrifty and thrifty, reused capable subjects, and stabilized the situation. However, Empress Deng had always been in authority, and Liu Hu did not return to power after he became an adult, and the ministers at that time also had a lot of criticism. Empress Deng did not come to power until after her death, when Emperor Liu Hu of Han'an came to power, when he was already twenty-seven years old.
Empress Deng
"Post-independence" willful use of power. After Emperor An of Han came to power, he used eunuchs to continue to dispose of the remnants of the Deng family. Eunuchs falsely accused Empress Deng's brothers Deng Wu, Deng Hong, Deng Lu, and others of plotting to depose the emperor, and Emperor An of Han took the opportunity to execute them, including Deng Qi, who had made great merit, and was also dismissed from office and forced to die by county officials. Since then, Emperor An of Han favored eunuchs, and many people were enfeoffed as marquises, and the eunuchs did no evil deeds, flew high, interfered with the government, and caused dissatisfaction among many upright ministers. But Emperor Han Went his own way and let the eunuchs go their own way.
Abolish the prince of nowhere. But the most difficult thing to understand is that Emperor Han'an actually deposed his only son. Although the harem of the Han'an Emperor was very beautiful, he had few heirs, and until he was in his thirties, he still had only one son. This son was named Liu Bao, and he was born to him and the palace people Li Shi. Probably because of Li's humble status, Liu Hu did not like this son, but he had no choice but to appoint Liu Bao as crown prince. Emperor Han's empress Dowager Yan Ji was not a fuel-saving lamp, she was exclusively favored in the harem, and her jealousy was so strong that she actually killed Li Shi and then did not have anything. Yan Ji thought of revenge after Liu Bao ascended the throne, she fabricated a lot of evidence of the crimes of the crown prince Liu Bao, and the then general Geng Bao also echoed Yan Yan Ji, Liu Hu did not listen to the advice of the upright ministers, and obstinately deposed Liu Bao as the crown prince and renamed him the Prince of Jiyin.
Emperor Shun of Han
The throne was lost and regained, but the gentle and weak Han Shun Emperor Liu Bao
A deposed prince who was supported by eunuchs. Liu Hu died after only a few years as "True Emperor", when he was Chinese New Year's Eve two years old, and when he died, he had no heir, and even no son to die with, because Liu Bao was forbidden to participate in the funeral. At that time, Liu Bao was also a teenage child, who had lost his mother Li Shi before, and now he did not even have the opportunity to say goodbye to his father, very sad, and the courtiers also felt that he was pitiful. But I couldn't imagine that half a year later, Liu Yi actually fell ill and died. Empress Yan and her brother Yan Xian wanted to concoct according to the law and re-establish a new monarch from among the kings of the domain. But this time Liu Bao was supported by the eunuch clique. The precocious Liu Bao, through eunuchs, murdered the Yan brothers and other Yan henchmen and put Empress Yan under house arrest. After this coup, nineteen eunuchs were given the title of Marquis by Liu Bao, known in history as the "Nineteenth Marquis". The Nineteenth Marquis was also a man of many evil deeds, making a mess of the government.
Empress Yan
Eunuchs and foreign relatives took turns in power. Due to the notoriety of eunuchs, Emperor Shun of Han gradually reduced their power, but transferred power to the family of his empress Dowager Liang, first Empress Liang's father Liang Shang, and later her brother's historically notorious Liang Ji. During the twenty years when Emperor Shun of Han became emperor, the state was governed by eunuchs and foreign relatives colluding with each other and taking turns to govern, many of whom acted arbitrarily and arbitrarily, all for personal gain, making the politics of the Eastern Han Dynasty more and more corrupt. At that time, there were incursions from ethnic minorities such as the Qiang and Xianbei people, and the internal class contradictions became increasingly acute, the people's livelihood was withering, and riots occurred in many places, and the country was in a state of decline. During this period, Emperor Shun of Han also made efforts, and he reused famous ministers Li Gu, Du Qiao, and others, but these upright ministers were always excluded, and even unjustly killed, and throughout the dynasty, they did not have the real decision-making power. The Eastern Han dynasty thus went deeper into the abyss.
What is even more tragic is that after the death of Emperor Shun of Han, his only son Liu Bing succeeded to the throne, Liang Ji controlled the government, and the next year, Liu Bing, who had been on the throne for less than a year, also died, only three years old, and was known as Emperor Chong of Han. Liang Ji also made Liu Yi, the son of Liu Hong, the Prince of Bohai, emperor, and was known as Emperor Han. A year later, he poisoned Liu Yi and replaced him with Liu Zhi, the grandson of Liu Kai the Prince of Hejian and the son of Liu Yi the Marquis of Liwu, as emperor, and was known as Emperor Huan of Han. In just a few years, Liang Ji successively established the three emperors of Han Chong, Han Qian, and Han Huan, and monopolized the government for more than 20 years.
During the reign of Liu Qing' son Emperor Han'an and grandson Han Shun Emperor, the son of Liu Qing, the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the era of the eastern Han Dynasty's transformation from prosperity to decline, just as the tragic and joyful lives of their three generations of grandchildren always seemed to be so tortuous, and their Liu dynasty slid into the abyss in the rotation of eunuchs and foreign relatives. What is even more tragic is that in Liu Qing's vein, Liu Hu only has one son, and Liu Bao only has one son, Liu Bing, who died at the age of three, and Liu Qing's other two sons have no descendants, and his vein has been broken. In this way, this wasted prince with a tortuous life is even more tragic!