The Chinese version of the "Prince and Cinderella" love story during the Northern Song Dynasty

The Chinese version of the "Prince and Cinderella" love story during the Northern Song Dynasty

Who was this woman who made the prince suffer for fifteen years until he became emperor and then married back to the harem? She is not only the protagonist of the Great Song Strange Case "Tanuki Cat for the Prince", but also the protagonist of the Chinese version of the prince and Cinderella, she is the first love and favorite of Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong, and thus from a rapper to an empress of the Great Song, her name is Liu E. She was born on the eighth day of the first lunar month in the first year of the reign of Emperor Taizu of Song (968 CE), and her father Liu Tong was an envoy of Hujiedu during the Reign of Emperor Taizu of Song, who led the history of Jia Prefecture (present-day Leshan, Sichuan Province), so the family moved from Taiyuan to Huayang, Chengdu. When Liu E was born, her mother Pang Shi dreamed of bright moons. Shortly after Liu E's birth, Liu Tong was ordered to go out on the battlefield and died on the battlefield. Because Liu Tong was childless and the family was in the middle of the road, Pang Had to take the infant daughter to live in her mother's house. Orphans and widows were discriminated against by relatives, and in the cold language, Liu E grew up with difficulty. When she was fourteen years old, the Pang family married her to Gong Mei, a young silversmith. Because of Liu E's beautiful appearance, Gong Mei's wife could not tolerate her, so Gong Mei took her with her to the capital Kaifeng to make a living.

The Chinese version of the love story of the prince and Cinderella is about to be staged here.

Gong Mei was a man of outstanding craftsmanship, kind and kind, and good at making friends, especially with Zhang Qi, who was on an errand in the Xiang Dynasty. King Xiang was none other than the future Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong, whose name was still Zhao Yuankan and had not yet been crown prince.

Fourteen or fifteen-year-old Liu E did not know when she learned to fight with one hand. The mole is an ancient percussion instrument similar to the rattle we know as it. However, this monotonous instrument in the hands of Liu E, but can knock out a variety of pleasant fancy rhythms, attracting everyone to watch, coupled with Liu E's beautiful appearance, sweet voice, full of delicate and gentle, for a time, in the streets and alleys of Kaifeng, the reputation rose.

On this day, in the crowd of people watching the singing of the shrew, there appeared the figure of a disciple of the government, his eyes were fixed on Liu E, and he refused to move away for a moment, this is not the son of an ordinary official eunuch, he is Zhao Yuankan, the third prince of the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Yuankan had seen Liu E since he had seen herself, and her soul seemed to be hooked, and she smiled and smiled at the figure of Qianxi and Mei Panxi, disturbing Zhao Yuanxiu's tea and dinner. After a matchmaking between his confidant Zhang Qi and Gong Mei, gong Mei learned that it was the royal palace xuanji, and changed her name to Liu E's cousin, and Zhao Yuankan soon made her dream come true and hooked up with Liu E.

The young prince and the singer began to immerse themselves in the sweetness of their first love. Soon, Zhao Yuankan took Liu E to live in the palace.

The fact that the two fell in love was soon known to Zhao Yuankan's nursing mother, Lady Qin Guo. When the nursing mother heard that Liu E was a woman selling songs on the street, her face immediately darkened. How can a Cinderella who walks the streets and alleys and sings with a mole be worthy of being the princess of my Great Song Dynasty? Zhao Yuankan, who had always obeyed the milk lady's words, did not obey this time. Seeing that her words did not work, the nursing mother went to emperor Taizong the next day to file a royal complaint.

When Emperor Taizong heard this, he was furious, and this paid off, and at a young age, he "drowned in female sex", and he was also a singing girl, and immediately threw her out of the palace!

The nursing mother's words can be prevaricated and not listened, but the father and emperor cannot but obey. Zhao Yuankan pretended to obey the order, took Liu E out of the palace, turned a few streets and alleys, and secretly came to the home of Zhang Qi, the commander of the palace and a loyal slave. Zhao Yuankan asked Liu E to live in Zhang Qi's house first, and told Zhang Qi not to make a sound. At the master's request, Zhang Qi dared not listen, and he hurriedly settled Liu E's diet and living. After that, the two lovers secretly met at Zhang Qi's house every three to five minutes.

Song Taizong asked his son to drive away the girl who sold the song, but he was still not at ease, and the following year, he forced his seventeen-year-old son to marry the daughter of Pan Mei (that is, Pan Renmei in the Yang family's story) as his wife, in an attempt to completely break up his son and Liu E, a Mandarin duck couple. But what the emperor did not expect was that a royal wedding did not cut off the love of two young lovers.

In the first year of dao (995 AD), due to the madness of the eldest brother and the death of the second brother, Zhao Yuankan, who was the third oldest, was made crown prince and changed his name to Zhao Heng. Crown Prince Zhao Heng's original partner, Pan Shi, had a thin life, and the princess did not do it for a few years, and died early in her early twenties.

Seeing that the opportunity for his lover Liu E had come, Emperor Taizong then married Zhao Heng to the daughter of Guo Shouyi, the envoy of Xuanhui Nanyuan. A pair of people who are close to each other and love each other deeply, but it is rare to do so. But no matter how his father arranged it, Zhao Hengchao was still worried about the lonely red face that lived in Zhang Qi's mansion, the one who was quietly waiting, and who initially moved his heart.

In the third year of the Dao Dynasty (997 AD), Emperor Taizong of Zhao died at the Hall of Ten Thousand Years, and the crown prince Zhao Heng took over the unification for Emperor Zhenzong of Song.

Since the two met and fell in love, to Zhao Heng ascended the throne as emperor, Liu E hid Zhang Qi's family and waited bitterly for fifteen years. This year, Liu E was thirty years old, and she had changed from a young girl in the cardamom age to a woman with a graceful name, and she was taken into the palace by Zhao Heng.

In the past fifteen years, in the days when the two secretly met, Liu E deeply felt the rock-like love and heart-to-heart affection between them. Liu E was an extraordinary woman, and she secretly thought that in the future, she could not only be a mediocre woman who was entangled in a bed, but a virtuous wife who could help the king. In the long wait days of Zhang Qi's family, she immersed herself in the study of scripture history, studied calligraphy and painting, and worked hard to increase her knowledge. More than ten years of hard work was finally not in vain, and Liu E, who was named a beauty, was graceful and mature, and talked extraordinaryly, which made the concubines who generally only knew how to apply grease and powder ashamed of themselves. Subsequently, Zhao Heng successively promoted Liu E to Xiu Yi and Concubine De. Tianzi's exclusive favor for her, courtiers and concubines were obvious to all, and Empress Guo became a decoration of the harem.

In the first month of the fourth year of Jingde (1007 AD), Zhao Heng, emperor Zhenzong of Song, led a group of concubines, and the Tomb of the Western Jing Dynasty was vast. Shortly after returning to Kaifeng, Empress Guo fell ill and died at the age of thirty-one.

Who will take the throne of the Empress? As Zhao Heng, the first choice in his mind was of course Liu E, and in his opinion, only by giving Liu E's mother the glory of the world could he compensate her for her unswerving waiting for fifteen years. However, Emperor Zhenzong tentatively mentioned liu e's posthumous affairs several times in front of several important courtiers, and none of them supported it. The ministers gave the emperor the following reasons: one was that Liu E was from a humble background and had turned to the streets to sell songs; the other was that she did not give birth to a man and a half woman for Tianzi. It was suggested that Shen Cai, who was fourteen years old, be made empress.

Zhao Heng had an iron heart this time, and he wanted to give Liu E, who had been in love for many years, a satisfactory return, and he would not hesitate to take the sword to the side. Zhao Heng personally planned a plan to have a child by borrowing his belly, and in the dead of night, he put his thoughts and thoughts out, and Liu E was moved to tears.

There is a maid Li Shi beside Liu E, who has become a beautiful woman like a flower. One day, Liu E summoned her to make small talk, and she said timidly that last night she dreamed of a barefoot immortal descending from the sky, snuggling up in front of her bed, saying that he wanted to make her a son. Liu E told Zhao Heng about this matter that night, and Zhao Heng listened to it and immediately decided to implement his plan to have a child by borrowing his belly.

Zhao Heng quickly summoned Li Shi, and soon after, sure enough, Li Shi was pregnant, and the emperor claimed that Liu E was pregnant with a dragon seed. On February 14, 1009, in the second year of the reign of Emperor Dazhongxiangfu (1009 CE), Zhao Hui (i.e., Emperor Renzong of Song) was born, and due to the tight sealing of the news, coupled with the fact that the birth mother Li Shi chose silence and avoidance as promised after her son landed, Liu E became the mother of the crown prince. The birth of the crown prince and the canonization of Liu E as empress became a natural thing. However, there were still people among the ministers who were talking about this, and Zhao Heng had already made up his mind, and in December of the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Xiangfu (1012 AD), he vigorously overcame the public opinion and crowned Princess Liu E as the Empress of the Great Song Dynasty. At this time, Liu E was already forty-four years old, and the love between the two lovers for nearly thirty years had finally come to fruition. Liu E also jumped from the original rapper to become the Empress of the Great Song Dynasty.

Liu E, who became empress, soon became Zhao Heng's right-hand man in governing the country. She has a superb memory, all the affairs of the government, the taxes of nongsang, and even the cold and hot affinity between the ministers, after hearing it, the context and priorities of it, she knows it in her heart; she commands the harem, takes the lead in setting an example, daily life, frugality and nature, rewards and punishments according to the rules, and makes people convinced. Gradually, Zhao Heng became more and more dependent on Liu E, and whenever Zhenzong read the recital late at night, he must be accompanied by the empress and consult the empress from time to time; when he went out on a tour, he would take the empress with him, and in the eyes of the courtiers, they became a pair of inseparable fairy companions.

In February of the fourth year of the Tianxi Dynasty (1020 AD), Zhao Heng was seriously ill and unable to support busy government affairs, and almost all the official documents were read by Liu E.

In March of the first year of Qianxing (1022 AD), the fifty-four-year-old Zhao Heng returned to heaven. Before his death, he still did not forget the empress Liu E, the beloved of his life, and the edict clearly told the crown prince and his ministers: the crown prince succeeded to the throne, and the empress Liu Shi was the empress dowager, "the military state is a heavy matter, and the power is punished." Song Zhenzong Zhao Heng can be said to be loyal to his first love, benevolent and righteous.

However, the matter of "borrowing the belly to give birth to a child" was later interpreted as the Great Song Qi case: "Tanuki cat for prince". Deduction description: During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Concubine Liu conspired with Guo Huai, the internal prisoner, to exchange the baby born to Concubine Li Chenfei with a skinned tanuki cat, and Concubine Li was beaten into the Cold Palace. After Emperor Zhenzong's death, Emperor Renzong ascended the throne, and Bao Zheng was ordered to go to Chen Prefecture to investigate the case of pang Yu, the uncle of the state, for giving relief to fraud. Halfway through, Bao Zheng accepted Li Fei's unjust case and settled her grievances, welcoming Li Fei back to the dynasty, and the interpretation of the story thus became an enduring allusion.

(End of this article)