On the first day of the first lunar month of the seventh year of Xiande (960 AD), Later Zhou inspected Zhao Kuangyin, and on the orders of Emperor Chai Zongxun of Later Zhou, led his army north to resist the combined forces of the Khitan and Northern Han dynasties moving south.
The next day, on the second day of the first lunar month, Zhao Kuangyin and his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, a close confidant of Zhao Pu, immediately "Chen Qiao mutinied, and the yellow robe was added." Zhao Kuangyin led a large army to turn the horse's head and returned to the Later Zhou capital kaifeng, forcing Chai Zong to train the Zen throne.
Zhao Kuangyin stills
At this point, Later Zhou officially collapsed, and Zhao Kuangyin established the Northern Song Dynasty. In the following 10 years, Zhao Kuangyin first attacked Jinghu Lake, destroyed Later Shu, pacified the Southern Han And Jiangnan, and consolidated the power of the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, Zhao Kuangyin knew that the emperor's access to the throne was not justified, and he once left an ancestral precept to treat the descendants of the Chai clan kindly: "The descendants of the Chai clan, if you are guilty, you must not be punished." Committing rebellion and committing suicide in prison. ”
Song Luyou's "Summer Escape": Song Taizu engraved a stele in the third year of Jianlong (962), erected in the mezzanine of the Taimiao Temple, called the Oath Monument... Until the change of Jingkang, the Jin people swept away the sacrificial vessels, and the door of the Taimiao Temple was opened, and people had to see this monument. The oath monument is seven or eight feet high and more than four feet wide, and three lines of the oath are inscribed on it: one is "The descendants of the Chai clan (Zhou Shizong) shall not be punished if they are guilty, and if they commit treason, they shall be given in prison, and they shall not be killed by cao, nor shall they sit on the branches"; one is "no one shall kill the scholars, doctors, and those who have written to him"; and the other is "Those who have this oath of death will be destroyed by heaven".
Did Zhao Kuangyin, including other Song Emperors, really follow this law and treat chai's descendants kindly?
Zhao Kuangyin
Speaking of this topic, I will first briefly introduce the basic information of the Later Zhou regime and the three emperors of the Later Zhou Dynasty.
Later Zhou was founded in 951 AD, and the founding emperor was Guo Wei, the Taizu of Later Zhou. Later Zhou ruled over a large area of present-day Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Jiangsu, and Anhui in present-day China.
Later Zhou Taizu Guo Wei was a native of Yaoshan County, Xingzhou (present-day Longyao County, Hebei Province), who served only three years as emperor, before dying of illness in 954.
郭威将帝位传给养子郭荣（本名柴荣），亦是大家熟知的后周世宗（以下称柴荣）。 In July of the sixth year of Xiande (959 AD), Chai Rong died of illness at the Age of 39 at the Age hall in Kaifeng.
后周政权在郭威和柴荣的治理下，实力得到长足发展。 If Chai Rong could live for a few more years, the Later Zhou Dynasty would most likely be able to destroy the Khitan and Northern Han Dynasties and truly establish a unified regime.
Unfortunately, once Chai Rong died, Hou Zhou Qunlong was leaderless. Chai Rong's fourth son, the 8-year-old Chai Zongxun, was supported by chancellor Fan Qian and other ministers, and succeeded him as emperor, that is, Emperor Gong of Later Zhou.
In 960, Zhao Kuangyin saw that Chai Zongxun was still young and the court was full of a bunch of civilian officials, so he took advantage of the chaos and yellow robes to establish the Northern Song Dynasty and replace Later Zhou.
According to historical records, Guo Weisheng had two sons, Guo Tong and Guo Xin, both of whom were killed by Emperor Yin of later Han. As a last resort, he succeeded his nephew Chai Rong and continued the incense. Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong had seven sons, the first three of whom were killed by The Later Han Emperor Liu Chengyou, leaving no blood.
When Zhao Kuangyin usurped the throne, Chai Rongshang had 4 sons alive. In addition to Chai Zongxun, the other three are Chai Xi Rang, Chai Xi Jin, and Chai Xi Jie.
The Old Five Dynasties History, Vol. 120 (Book of Zhou) Emperor Gong:" "Guangshun was three years old, aged in The Ugly, and was born on August 4, in the capital of Liaozhou. In June of the sixth year of Xiande's reign, he was awarded the title of General of the Left Guard of the Special Jin Dynasty, the King of Liang, the 3,000 households of The Food Yi, and the 500 households of the Actual Seal. ”
First of all, let's talk about the outcome of The Later Zhou Gong Emperor Chai Zongxun? In the seventh year of Xiande, Chai Zongxun was made the King of Zheng by Zhao Kuangyin and lived with his mother Empress Fu in the Western Palace.
In the third year of Jianlong (962 AD), Chai Zongxun, who was less than 10 years old, was demoted to Fang County, Hubei Province. Fang County was located between the Qinling Mountains and the Bashan Mountains, and Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian, was once degraded by Wu Zetian to this place.
Chai Zongxun stills
In the sixth year of Kaibao (973 AD), Chai Zongxun died of illness at the age of 21. Zhao Kuangyin heard about it, sufu mourned, quit the dynasty for ten days, and gave Chai Zongxun the title of "Emperor Gong".
"Continuation of the Long Edition of the Tong Jianchang": Kaibao 6th March Yi, Fangzhou Shangyan, Zhou Zheng Wang's death, Shangsu Fu mourning, quit looking at the dynasty for ten days. In October of his year, he was buried on the side of Sejong's tomb. Emperor Gong of the Imperial Household and Emperor Shunling of the Tombs.
It was recorded in the New History of the Five Dynasties that Chai Zongxun had five sons, namely Chai Yongqi, Chai Yonglian, Chai Yonghui, Chai Yongxiao, and Chai Yongsheng. After Chai Zongxun's death, the eldest son Chai Yongqi was made the Duke of Zheng by Zhao Kuangyin.
The author has consulted many historical books, but has not found any traces of Chai Zongxun's other four sons and their descendants.
We can conclude that in addition to Chai Yongqi, Chai Zongxun's other sons died prematurely or because of other changes. To put it bluntly, they may have died early, so there is no record of them in the history books.
Chai Yongqi, who was named the Duke of Zhengguo, also had a rather miserable end. Zheng Guogong was a hereditary title, but after Zhao Kuangyin, in the history books about the Song Dynasty, except for Chai Yongqi, no one else inherited the title of Duke of Zheng guo.
There is only one possibility, Chai Yongqi did not leave any heirs (perhaps all of whom were born with daughters), resulting in the abandonment of the title of Duke of Zheng. It is undeniable that since Chai Zongxun's death, his vein has basically been broken.
Looking back, what happened to Chai Rong's other sons?
Chai Xirang and Chai Xijie were given the titles of King cao and king of Pu respectively. The Northern Song Dynasty writer Wang Gong recorded in his book "Miscellaneous Records of Hands" that Chai Xi rang was passed on to Pan Mei by Zhao Kuangyin, and later changed his name to Pan Weiji. (Some people also say that in order to avoid Zhao Kuangyin's pursuit, they changed their names and surnames)
Chai Xiyi was succeeded by Zhao Kuangyin to Lu Yan, the Duke of Yue. Do these two people have a bloodline? It is not known so far.
However, Chai Xirang and Chai Xiyi had been passed on by Zhao Kuangyin to others, and they changed their names and surnames. Even if the two of them really had descendants to survive, they had nothing to do with the Houzhou Chai family.
Chai Rong's last son, Chai Xijin, died of illness in the second year of Qiande (964 AD). According to the calculation of Chai Xijin's birth and death years, when he died, he would not be more than 6 years old at most, and a 6-year-old child would not be able to retain blood.
Therefore, since the demise of Later Zhou, the vein of Chai Rong of Later Zhou Shizong has basically cut off the incense.
Coincidentally, Zhao Zhen of Song Renzong was a famous sage in the entire two Song Dynasties, but all three princes born to Song Renzong died prematurely. Reluctantly, Emperor Renzong of Song succeeded his brother Zhao Zongshi, the thirteenth son of Zhao Yunrang the Prince of Pu, as his son, and Zhao Zongshi was the later Emperor Yingzong of Song.
The Song HuiJiao records: "The present imperial heir has not been established, and the subjects are in danger." It is better to destroy the world of the people and destroy the ancestors, and to hinder the blessings of the heirs. ”
Because several sons of Emperor Renzong of Song died one after another, he consulted with the chancellor whether it was because the Temple of Emperor Houzhou had not been sacrificed for a long time, which led to the retribution of the Zhao family.
Zhao Zhen stills
The ancients all believed in these superstitious doctrines, and in order to give birth to a son smoothly, Emperor Renzong of Song issued an edict in the fifth year of Jiayou (1060 AD): "It is advisable to order Yousi to take the Chai lineage, and to push the longest person in the various rooms, so that when he was old, he would personally serve the Zhou Chamber."
It can be seen that Song Renzong, who was over 50 years old at the time, really took pains to give birth to a child, and also moved the former imperial chamber out to make an example.
In short, from the fifth year of Jiayou, the Zhao family emperor made the oldest descendant of the Chai clan, Chai Yong, the Duke of Chongyi, the Duke of Chongyi, also a hereditary title. There is a history that since the Chai Yong Book, the Chongyi Gong has run through the two Song Dynasties.
In the second year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1279 AD), Chai Annai, a descendant of the Chai family, was the last Chongyi Duke.
In addition to Emperor Renzong of Song's kindness to Chai's descendants, Emperor Huizong of Song, including Emperor Gaozong of Song, repeatedly sealed Chai's descendants. Even in the Song Dynasty, chai descendants had such a privilege: "After Emperor Shizong of Zhou, all those who pass through the suburbs are recorded as one of their descendants." ”
The meaning of this sentence is that every year the descendants of Chai Shizong Chai Rong can get a quota and enter the court as an official without going through the examination.
Emperor Huizong of Song issued an edict in the eighth year of Zhenghe (1118): "In addition to the Chongyi Gong still in place, the longest seer of the Chai clan is his grandfather Emperor Gong of Zhou, his grandson Shishi is Xuanyi Lang, the Zhou Ling Temple, and the ZhiXian Please Give, in order to show the benevolence of the succession, for the second ke of the country, and forever for the customization."
Judging from the above historical records, the rulers of the Song Dynasty did give preferential treatment to the descendants of the Chai family. But then again, if the emperors of the Zhao family really gave preferential treatment to chai's descendants, then why did Zhao Kuangyin depose Chai Zongxun and depose him in the mountains of FangXian County?
Everyone knew that Chai Zongxun was accustomed to a life of fine clothes and jade food. Isolated from the rest of the world in the mountains, and the living conditions were even worse than in Kaifeng, wasn't Zhao Kuangyin still wary of Chai Zongxun in this move?
In addition, do we have reason to believe that the reason why neither Emperor Renzong of Song nor Emperor Huizong of Song gave such preferential treatment to the descendants of the Chai clan is because Chai Zongxun, including his three brothers, that is, Chai Rong's direct bloodline, all died prematurely, and no direct descendants remained in the world.
Emperor Renzong of Song apparently selected an elder from among chai's descendants and made him a knight. In fact, he wanted to show the mighty grace of the emperor through this method. It can also prove to the people of the world that the descendants of the Zhao clan have not violated the ancestral precepts, so that there will be no dispute between words and tongues.
In fact, the emperors of the Song Dynasty were still wary of Chai's descendants. Otherwise, why would Zhao Kuangyin pass Chai Xi Rang and Chai Xi To others?
Students should know that Zhao Kuangyin was deeply valued by Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and he knew better than anyone about the affairs in Chai Rong's family. That is to say, Zhao Kuangyin knew very well that Chai Rong's heirs were thinly related, so he would pass Chai Xi Rang and Chai Xi To other ministers.
If not, the Zhao family also has many collateral descendants, so why doesn't Zhao Kuangyin pass on the Zhao family to others?
In general, throughout the ages, there are not many examples of the former royal bloodline that can be named, and there are not many examples of good endings. Zhao Kuangyin or Zhao Zhen, even if they were doing things, they still left a little thin noodles for the descendants of the former imperial family, and did not exterminate them all. After all, chai's descendants did get knighthoods.
As for whether the pure bloodline of the Later Zhou Dynasty remains in the world?
The author told everyone that since Guo Wei's death, there have been no descendants of Hongmiao Zheng in the next week. Because Chai Rong is Guo Wei's adopted son, he is not a real "Guo family".
References: "Summer Escape", "History of the New Five Dynasties", "History of the Old Five Dynasties", "Song Huijiao", "History of song", "Continuation of the Long Edition"
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