From the legendary Three Emperors and Five Emperors to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, there have been 558 emperors in Chinese history, including 396 emperors and 162 kings. Shi Zai, before the Shang Tang, emperors could live past a hundred years old, or even have a high life expectancy of more than 100 years old, such as the Yellow Emperor lived 111 years old, the Yao Emperor lived 117 years old, and the Shun Emperor lived 100 years old, of course, this may be an illusory legend, and later generations do not have enough reason to believe that this is a historical fact.
From the founder of the title of emperor, Qin Shi Huang, to the late Qing Emperor Xuantong Emperor Puyi, there are 335 emperors, if you remove the so-called Five Hu Sixteen Kingdoms period and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, then the number of emperors is 235. According to historical data, among the 235 feudal emperors, there were 28 people who lived less than 20 years old, 83 people who lived between 20 and 40 years old, 77 people between 40 and 60 years old, and 36 people between 60 and 80 years old. Among the 36 emperors who lived to live to be over 70 years old, there were 6 people who lived to be over 70 years old: Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che, Emperor Wu of Sun Quan, Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan of Tang Xuanzong, Li Longji of Liao Daozong, Yelü Hongji of Liao, and Zhu Yuanzhang of Ming Taizu; 5 people lived to be over 80 years old: Emperor Xiaoyan of Liangwu, Empress Wu Zetian of Wuzhou, Zhao Shuo of Song Gaozong, Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, and Emperor Gaozong of Qing (Qianlong) Hongli. Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty (Qianlong Emperor) died at the age of 89, ranking the highest number of emperors in China. In addition to 11 of the 235 emperors whose life expectancy is unknown (historical records are not recorded), the average life expectancy of the rest is 39 years (imaginary age, actually less than 39).
It is reasonable to say that the emperor is rich in the world, pampered, and enjoys all the resources, and should be a birthday star. But this is not the case. In peacetime when there was no war, the cause of death of ordinary civilians was mostly disease, and in times of war, most civilians died of war. The causes of death of emperors are various and diverse, of which about two-thirds of them die of disease, and one-third of them die of other causes, and this one-third of the mortality rate is a unique way of death of emperors, including death from usurpation in coups, death from poisoning from medicine stones, death from absurdity, death from murder or violent death, and the cause of death of many emperors is a mystery of thousands of years or the mystery of eternity.
Death from disease: Illness is just as dangerous to everyone, even if you are the Emperor of Kings.
In ancient times, limited by medical technology and medical level, even if the emperor had the best medical conditions, many people were still helpless in the face of diseases, and the end that awaited them was death. Due to the lack of historical records, it is difficult to summarize what the various diseases that caused the death of two-thirds of the emperors were.
The appearance of the three words "Emperor Buyu" in the history books is equivalent to announcing that the emperor's limit is coming, "no hesitation" means that he is unwell, ordinary people will "not hesitate" many times in their lives, and as an emperor, once they declare "no hesitation", they are already terminally ill and have no medicine to save.
The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty lamented that there were few white-haired Tianzi in ancient times. It can be seen from this that the emperor who is rich in the world and controls life and death and seizes great power seems to be powerful, but his vitality is actually very fragile.
Since he was born in the emperor's family, the emperor alone enjoyed everything since childhood, which was tens of millions of times higher than that of ordinary people. Compared with the people who have difficulties in survival and cannot be treated in time for their illness, the emperor's golden clothes and jade food are only basic treatment, the imperial doctor with the highest medical skills in the country is not far away, the guards around are like forests, and there are people walking in the palace who are carried, and even the opportunity to fall on the head is rare. How can this kind of stable and comfortable life not be happy and long-lived?
But the emperor is a rarity after all, and he is the only one in the whole world. But being an emperor is by no means an easy task, and how much enjoyment comes at a great price. Secondly, more desires than widowhood, restlessness rather than tranquility and peace, basically accompanied the life of the emperor. For example, Tang Taizong Li Shimin said in his last will:
"Since the wind and rain, then into the clinic, worried about the government, more serious, the situation is han bitter Zhou Qin, Yu Xun Yao La"...
Even qin shi huang, a tyrant who was unanimously criticized by later generations, had to approve the 120-kilogram bamboo brief chapter every day. So worried, so hard, how can you sleep peacefully on the bed and recuperate? How can you become a life star who lives with heaven and earth and competes with the sun and the moon?
No wonder the Kangxi Emperor Xuan Ye of the Qing Dynasty also sighed:
"There is no place for a man to retire, so he should be more comfortable with his subjects"!
The above also belongs to those kings who have done something. In history, there are more extravagant, dimwitted, or murderous and tyrannical dimwitted monarchs. These people died in a variety of ways, except for disease, most of them died of death.
Died of usurpation: Of the 235 emperors, 45 were killed during their reign. If you include the emperors who were deposed or deposed (the last emperors of the dynasties) and the emperors who were obscure in the history books and generally recognized by historians as having died of usurpation, there are as many as 60 people.
The Emperor is the Ninth Five-Year Emperor, the only one who exercises the power of life and death in the whole country, and the center of all power in the world. Confucianism says, "A king wants his subjects to die, and his subjects have to die." "There are no two days in the sky, and there is no two masters in the people." So how could the emperor who was high above be killed by others?
The key remains in the word "right". In the face of power and interests, no one is a gentleman. If the imperial power is attached to the emperor, he is an unquestionable and real emperor; if the imperial power is left on the side, or the power is on the side, and the authority is in the hands of others, the struggle between the two sides is inevitable, and the result is either the coveter of the imperial power is killed or the emperor becomes a victim. For example, in the conflict between the emperor and foreign relatives in the Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the eunuch Zheng Zhong conspired to eliminate Qi Douxian, Emperor An and the eunuch Jiang Jing conspired to kill the tang family, and Emperor Huan also joined forces with the eunuch forces to destroy the foreign relatives of the Liang family, and each of them regained their own imperial power. However, the conflict between Emperor Ping of the Western Han Dynasty and his foreign relative Wang Mang was poisoned by Wang Mang, who ended his life, and Emperor Han, due to his lack of strategy at a young age, was poisoned and killed by his foreign relative and the "general" Liang Ji, who was in charge of power alone.
The list goes on and on. Other emperors who died at the hands of quanchen or eunuchs were: Cao Wei's 4th emperor Cao Xi, Emperor Wu's Sun Liang, the eastern Han Dynasty's deposed young emperor Liu Yifu, southern Qi's Young Emperor Liu Yifu, Southern Qi's Xiao Zhaowen, Northern Wei's 3 emperors were killed, and Northern Zhou's two emperors died at the hands of Quan Chen's Yu Wenhu.
Both Tang Zhaozong's father and son died at the hands of Zhu Wen. Tuoba Hong, emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was killed by Empress Feng with poisoned wine. Others were Emperor Hui of Jin, Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Emperor Wen of Song, Emperor Wen of Liang, Marquis Of Eastern Qi of Southern Qi, Emperor Wen of Sui, Emperor Xianzong of Tang, Emperor Jingzong of Tang, and Taizu of Song (?) ）......
Death of absurdity, absurdity: In fact, many emperors' short lives are related to indulgence, after all, the emperor sits in the harem of three thousand beautiful women, and there are very few people who can sit in peace and control, most of them sing at night, drink alcohol and lust, and eventually die of absurdity and absurdity.
Searching the historical data, it was found that the emperors who died of indulgence were: Emperor Hancheng, Northern Qi emperor Gao Yang, Qing Muzong (Tongzhi Emperor) ...
Also dying of alcohol poisoning were the Northern Qi Emperor Gao Yang and Yuan Taizong Wokoutai Khan (son of Genghis Khan)... Shi Zai, Wokoutai Khan was drunk to death, and later died violently because of drinking all night, at the age of 56.
There are also overeating and death. For example, Liu, emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, was obese and had the habit of gluttony (overeating). Liu Or's death is to put it bluntly, to support death. Shi Zai, because he was born a foodie, the amount of food is large, he likes to eat Yiyi (puffer fish), can eat several bowls (at least dozens) at a time, full belly pufferfish has been difficult to digest, the stomach and pancreas are inevitably overwhelmed for a long time. The most serious one, the one that led to his death, was so full of food and his breath that he was dying, and the waiters poured him a few liters of soy wine (i.e., vinegar) to help digestion and relieve it. After that, he fell seriously ill, but kept eating bad juice (glutinous rice sweet wine), and he had to eat 3 liters for a meal. So that he suffered from ascites, there was no medicine to save, and finally he cried out for his life.
Death from exhaustion, death from illness, slaying, death from fornication, death from alcoholism, death from overeating... No wonder the emperor is full of words and is pampered, but most of them do not live long, what is the cold in the high places? It shouldn't be hard to understand, right?!
【Illustrations from the Internet】