*Transferred from Hangzhou Literature and History
On the night of May 20, the first year of the Great Song Dynasty (1107), on the edge of the Great Inner Jade Hall of Bieliang, there was a building that, although the area was not large, it was built with great simplicity and elegance, showing the royal style, known as the Painting Pavilion. The cabinet is golden and exquisitely decorated. The four walls are neatly arranged with a variety of cultural relics and antiques and calligraphy and paintings. At the top of the pavilion, a lantern hangs high, and the fragrance of ambergris fragrance is revealed from the smoker, which makes people feel relaxed. The omission shows that it is already time to enter the hour of the sea (about 10 o'clock in the evening), but there are still four palace ladies in the cabinet holding dragon pan giant candles, quietly standing in the four corners of a dark and shiny painting table, illuminating the entire room as if it were daylight. Emperor Huizong, known as the Emperor of Ancient Paintings, wearing a soft scarf and dressed in civilian clothes, was leaning over the painting table, staring at a "Five-Colored Parrot Diagram" that he had just painted during the day, preparing to make some more modifications, and then writing a paragraph on it.
The door of the painting cabinet gently opened a slit, and the head of a small palace girl probed in, and after whispering a few words to Liang Shicheng, the internal attendant (eunuch) who opened the door, she turned around and went back. Liang Nei gently closed the door of the cabinet, then walked quickly to the painting table and said to Huizong with a smile on his face: "The little one has a good news to tell Your Majesty." ”
"In the middle of the night, what's the good news?" Perhaps Liang Nei's words disturbed Emperor Huizong's train of thought, making him feel slightly unhappy.
"Lady Wei gave birth to a son for Your Majesty..." Liang Nei felt that what he had just said was a little inappropriate, and quickly changed his speech, "Gave birth to a prince." ”
"Lady Wei, who is she, why can't she remember anything?" "Lady Wei, she was the one who fished the golden double dragon play beads from the lotus pond in the Back Garden during the Mid-Autumn Festival last year..." Liang Nei said meaningfully.
"Oh, is it her?" Huizong had a smile on his face and said to himself.
Lookout, do you know who this lady with the surname Wei is? She was the biological mother of Emperor Gaozong of Song, the founding emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, and later became the empress dowager Wei. Because Wei's influence on the history of the Southern Song Dynasty should not be underestimated, the author had to explain her life to everyone first.
Song Gaozong
Wei Shi was a kaifeng family, and his father, Wei Anli, was a handyman at The Xichun Restaurant, whose wife died early and had two daughters and a son under his knees. The name of the eldest daughter can no longer be examined, she is sensible and capable, and at a young age she has taken up the burden of taking care of her two younger siblings; the younger daughter is called Qingniang, with a white and lovely complexion, with two big talking eyes, and a clever and cunning look between the eyebrows, this person is Wei Shi; the son Mingyuan, because he has been the pearl in the palm of his parents since he was a child, is particularly naughty and willful.
It is said that Merriam-Webster grew to about 12 years old, and unfortunately his father also died of illness, so the family's life fell into a desperate situation. In desperation, the sister took her sister Qingniang and ran to the Su Song family in ZhifengFu as a maid. There was no precedent for taking her sister as a maid, but at the request of her sister, Su Song, who was quite sympathetic, still took them in. The younger brother Wei Yuan stayed at home, entrusting relatives and neighbors to take care of him, and the sisters occasionally came home to see him and bring him some food and clothing. This made Wei Yuan, who lacked discipline, even more lawless.
Emperor Shenzong of Song had 14 sons, and because the first five sons had died one after another, the sixth son, Zhao Xu, was made crown prince. In March of the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085), Emperor Shenzong died, and the crown prince Zhao Xu succeeded to the throne, known as Zhezong. After Emperor Zhezong ascended the throne, he gave his brothers a generous gift, and each of them was given five beautiful palace maidens. The conditions for being a palace girl in the Song Dynasty were very strict: first, a woman from a good family; second, she had to be under the age of 14; and third, she had to be in good health and good looks. In the end, they had to go through a strict physical examination of the imperial doctor and the old palace maid before they could enter the palace. Su Songshan looked at her face and felt that Qingniang looked different and would definitely be a rich and noble person in the future, so she took this opportunity to recommend her to the palace. After Qingniang entered the palace, she was assigned to the palace of King Zhao Of Duan as a maid.
Emperor Huizong of Song
In the first month of the third year of Yuan Fu (1100), the 23-year-old Zhezong died prematurely due to excessive lust, leaving no heirs, and the successor emperor was to be born among the five princes who were alive, Shen Wangtuo, the eleventh son Duan Wang, the twelfth son Xin Wang, the thirteenth son Jian Wang Xiang, and the fourteenth son Mu Wang Wei. According to the Song Dynasty's principle of "establishing an heir to the throne", when king Shen succeeded to the throne, but this person suffered from eye diseases and it was difficult for him to come to the world, and the next candidate seemed to be the king of Duan. However, some ministers objected, believing that King Duan was "frivolous" and that according to the rules of etiquette, king Shen should be the same as his mother and brother King Jian. The empress dowager, who had always been filial to her, had a good interpersonal relationship in the palace, and who "liked to read, learn to paint, work with pens, and favor ancient tools and mountain stones", to the throne for Emperor Huizong. As a result, Wei Shi also became a palace maid in the Huizong Palace.
Zhao Tuo can be called both an artist and a lustful person. When he ascended the throne, although he was only 19 years old, he was already a group of concubines, and there were 20 palace women who directly served Emperor Huizong alone, and everyone looked graceful and charming. After he became emperor, he also "micro-serve privately" from time to time, of course, not to understand the sufferings of the people, but to go to the Qinglou to meet with Li Shishi, a famous prostitute in Beijing, and sometimes even secretly brought her into the palace.
In the harem full of beautiful women, Wei Shi's appearance is not very outstanding, so she was arranged to empress Zheng's pepper room, doing some rough work of carrying water and sweeping the floor, so that she lost the opportunity to approach Huizong, and of course she was unwilling to be shrewd and capable and far-sighted. So Wei Shi tried to find an opportunity to deliberately approach the palace maids around Huizong, and got close to Qiao Shi, who was also from a humble background, loyal and kind, and was deeply favored by Huizong, and the two also married sisters. In the fifth year of Chongning (1106), Qiao Shi was made a noble concubine, and she did not eat the preface, immediately led Wei Shi to Huizong's side as a palace maid, and persuaded Huizong to give her the title of Pyeongchang Junjun. However, the "Junjun" was only a low-level "palace female official", who was only in charge of the small palace women, and was not yet ranked, and there were still not many opportunities to approach Emperor Huizong.
It is said that in the afternoon of the Mid-Autumn Festival of that year, Huizong, surrounded by a large group of concubines and palace women, came to the houyuan to admire the gui, and he also wanted to catch a few pink butterflies by the way for imitation when painting. At this time, Kaifeng was in the season of autumn high spirits and the fragrance of dangui, and Huizong was very interested on this day, so he first came to the osmanthus pavilion and sat for a moment, while admiring the gui, while slowly sipping the osmanthus tea sent by the palace maid. He also ordered an inner attendant to pick a bouquet of osmanthus flowers that bloomed particularly luxuriantly and bring them to the painting cabinet. Then, Emperor Huizong walked slowly towards the Ju Garden. The chrysanthemums in the Big Cave bloom particularly early, and the outside is still just budding, here has bloomed, the flowers are graceful and colorful, competing and colorful. Looking at all this, Huizong unconsciously conceived a picture of a chrysanthemum eating crab in his mind. However, at this time, Huizong had not yet seen a pink butterfly, and he could not help but feel a little regretful. So he crossed the Jiuqu Bridge and came to the lotus pond, the bridge deck of the Jiuqu Bridge was not wide, everyone slowed down, and Wei Shi took the opportunity to follow behind Huizong. Although the lotus flowers in the pond have not completely withered, they no longer have the scene of the flowers and leaves in the past, so that the fish swimming in the pool can also be clearly seen. Just as Huizong was looking at the pool full of remnants of lotus and thinking, suddenly a large brightly colored butterfly flew towards him one high and one low. When Huizong saw the great joy, he hurriedly used the tuan fan in his hand to pounce on the butterfly, and because of the excessive force, the butterfly flew away far away, but the tuan fan flew to the lotus pond with the wind, first landed on a residual lotus, and soon slid to the surface of the water.
This fan is painted with a picture of the golden double dragon play beads, and at the end of the handle hangs a small mouse carved from mutton fat white jade, and the mouse is exquisite and cute. It is said that this fan is the relic of his grandfather Emperor Yingzong, when his father Emperor Shenzong saw that he was young, the calligraphy was already unique, especially the thin gold body, which could actually be comparable to the calligraphy of the dynasty, Cai Xiang, so he gave him this tuan fan as a reward. Huizong belongs to the rat, and the fan is given by the previous emperor, so Huizong is particularly precious to it, no matter the spring, summer, autumn or winter, always take it with him and play with it from time to time.
Just when people were looking at the fan that was about to sink and were overwhelmed, Merriam-Webster, who was following behind, had rushed to the edge of the pool, she quickly took off her shirt, undid her skirt, "pounced" and jumped into the pool. After swimming for a while, I finally fished out the fan. After Wei Shi came ashore, He could not put on his shirt and directly presented the fan to Huizong, who was anxiously waiting. At this time, Huizong took the fan in his hand, but his eyes were directly focused on Wei's white thighs and plump breasts. When Wei Shi saw this scene, his face unconsciously flashed a red halo, said a "please put away Your Majesty", quickly turned around and lifted his shirt and skirt, and flew to the warm pavilion not far away. At this time, Huizong was actually stirred up a little fascinated, and the ghost made the god go step by step towards the warm pavilion, and everyone stopped when they saw this scene...
After Wei Shi became pregnant, according to the custom, he left Emperor Huizong's palace women and went to a place in Ouchi to raise a fetus. After a little longer, Emperor Huizong had already forgotten all about this matter, and if there was no reminder from Liang Neishi this time, I am afraid it would be as if it had never happened.
In February of the first year of Daguan (1107), the pregnant Wei Shi was named the talent of Zheng Wupin, which made her break away from the status of a maid and officially enter the ranks of concubines. On the evening of May 20, after the baby conceived in October, it landed on the ground, and Merriam-Webster heard that he had given birth to a son, and he was secretly happy. In August, Emperor Huizong gave the baby a name, and conferred on Erpin the Dingwu Army Jiedushi Envoy, the Inspector Taiwei, and the Duke of Fengshu. In the first month of the following year, Zhao Shuo, who was only seven or eight months old, was again crowned as the King of Guangping County. Because Zhao Zhuo was the ninth son of Emperor Huizong, the brothers and sisters in the palace at that time, and even the concubines, called him "Ninth Brother".
In feudal society, "the son is precious to the mother, and the mother is honored by the son", and in the second month after Wei Shi gave birth to his son, he was named the concubine of Zheng Sanpin. In February of the second year of Daguan (1108), he was also enthroned as the grace of Zheng Erpin. The rapid promotion of Merriam-Webster's mother and son caused some people to be jealous in the palace, and some people even used her humble origins and pregnancy to talk about things. Since then, wei shi has rarely interacted with others except for the relationship with Qiao Guifei, which is still good. As the years passed, she was gradually forgotten by Emperor Huizong. Therefore, in the following ten years, the taste of mother and son has been stagnant.
Wei Shi was a person who understood, she knew that just by virtue of herself and her son's lulu and status, although it was enough to live a luxurious and decent life in the palace, as for making Zhao Zheng the heir of the emperor, she did not dare to think about it. First, as early as April of the third year of Yuan Fu (1100), when Emperor Huizong was still in duandi, lady Wang had already given birth to his first son, giving him the name Huan (Qinzong). After Zhao Tuo ascended the throne, Wang Shi was made empress, and soon Empress Wang died of illness, and Concubine Zheng Guifei became empress, but Zhao Huan was still made crown prince by Emperor Huizong. Second, even if there is no prince, there are still seven princes in front of him, and no matter what, it is not his turn to let his son inherit the throne. She knew that her color was fading, and she could no longer have any more thoughts, but she was indignant that the mutual confrontation between the concubines in the palace often made her inferior. Therefore, she placed all her hopes on her son Zhao Zhao. She thought that Imagami loved calligraphy, painting and poetry, and if Zhao Zhuo had achieved something in this regard, she would definitely be able to get his favor. Therefore, Webster paid close attention to Zhao Shuo's study, and every morning before dawn, he asked him to get up to recite poems, practice calligraphy, and from time to time ask famous painters to guide him to learn painting.
Zhao Zhuo, a person with a personality like a mother, was well-behaved and shrewd, and under the education of his mother, he behaved very low-key in the palace, especially when he saw the crown prince Zhao Huan, who was always respectful and very humble. In terms of artistic talent, he is like a father, coupled with diligent study and hard work, it can be said that he is versatile. Teenage people, proficient in piano, chess, books, paintings, especially good handwriting, posterity of his calligraphy is very high, believes that "in the Southern Song Dynasty for more than one hundred and fifty years, he is also a representative of the comprehensive traditional techniques, and has the ability to open the Southern Song Dynasty book world, in the calligraphy creation, theory of the Southern Song Dynasty generation and future generations have had a non-negligible impact."
Although the Song Dynasty set "heavy literature and suppressing martial arts" as a basic national policy, it was only for the military subjects, the purpose was to prevent their stubbornness and threaten their own rule, which was of course an exception for the crown prince. Therefore, in Kaifeng, there was a hall of martial arts and a large-scale archery hall built as a place for the princes to learn martial arts. Every afternoon, after the princes finished their studies in the palace, they would go there for a while accompanied by their attendants, some playing with bows, some learning archery, and some practicing horseback riding and weightlifting. At first, Zhao Zhuo was not interested in Xi Wu, and even when he arrived at the Hall of Martial Arts or the Hall of Shooting, others were playing feverishly, he was just watching as a bystander.
Keju diagram
One day, Wei Shi instructed him: "I heard that your calligraphy and painting now have surpassed the level of other princes, but you still have to work hard in martial arts." ”
"Why? What is the use of good martial arts, and if you can't be a marshal, let me lead the troops to fight? Zhao Asked incomprehensibly.
Wei Shi said, "I just got a message from your uncle that in the northeast region, a people called Jurchen who have been ruled by the Khitan for several lifetimes have become very powerful militarily in recent years, and in order to get rid of the oppression of the Liao Dynasty, they have launched a large-scale anti-Liao struggle, and it is said that the Liao army has lost its armor and retreated one after another. If this war burns into our Song Dynasty in the future, those who do not understand the military will suffer great losses. ”
Listening to his mother's words, Zhao Zhuo also began to seriously learn martial arts from then on.
Zhao Zhuo first developed a strong interest in horseback riding and archery. Under the guidance of the martial arts instructor, after several years of hard training, he has become proficient in riding and archery. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, he not only learned to fly on horseback, but also became very proficient in kung fu immediately. Being able to hold the bridle without holding the reins, only using both feet to step on the stirrups and clamping the belly of the horse with both legs, you can instruct the horse to run, stop or turn left and right, free up both hands to use a knife and gun or shoot arrows on the horse. It is said that in order to practice riding, Zhao Zhuo had fallen off the horse several times and was injured, and after Wei Shi knew about it, he did not feel any pain. In contrast, the crown prince and other princes' immediate kung fu is much worse. As far as the horses were concerned, they had to step on the body of the servant to climb up. Riding on a horse, your hands must hold the reins tightly, lest you fall off the horse's back, so where can you use weapons? According to historical records, Zhao Zhuo's arrow technique is also good, he can "draw the bow to one stone and five buckets" and shoot straight and far. One stone in the Song Dynasty is roughly equivalent to 60 kilograms today, and one stone and five buckets are 90 kilograms. That is to say, being able to pull the bowstring and shoot the arrow out with 90 kilograms of strength is indeed a bit remarkable. No wonder once the crown prince saw Zhao Shuo and praised him sourly: "Brother Jiu's martial arts are really outstanding, and if the country has any problems in the future, it will have to rely on you to lead the troops to fight." Zhao Zhuo could hear that Zhao Huan had something to say, but pretended not to understand it, and said in a loud voice, "How dare you, how dare you, in the future, you will have to ask the eldest brother to take more care of and teach you." ”
At first, Zhao Zhuo was not interested in Keju, thinking that it was just a kind of thing, wasting time in vain, but then he completely changed this view. So, what is the reason for this? Before answering this question, I would like to let me briefly introduce Keju.
Kicking, that is, kicking with feet, bowing, is a leather ball sewn from leather, which is actually made of feathers, silk and linen fibers and the like. The bow can be kicked with the foot or with any part of the body, except that the hands cannot be touched, which is similar to today's football. However, you can't let the bow fall to the ground when you take a bow, which is different from football. Keju can be played by one person, playing a variety of tricks, or several people can play, or two or more people can play against each other.
The sport of Keju has a very long history, and it is said that it began in the era of the Yellow Emperor in the primitive society of our country. During the Warring States period, keju was already popular among the people. Because keju is a full-body sport, it was introduced into the military during the Two Han Dynasties as a sport for soldiers to exercise. In the Tang and Song dynasties, keju was popular, not only a popular folk play, but also loved by emperors and nobles. In the Song Dynasty, the emperors of the previous dynasties below Taizu Zhao Kuangyin were all masters of keju. Some people who played well in Keju were also particularly favored by the emperor, such as Gao Qi, who was born from Xu, because of the high skill of Keju, entered the Duan Mansion in his early years and accompanied Zhao Yi Keju. After Emperor Huizong ascended the throne, he was unexpectedly given the title of commander of the imperial palace from Erpin. In the seventh year of Zhenghe (1117), Emperor Huizong ignored the objections of the chancellors and promoted him to the position of Taiwei of Zhengerpin, and the "Gao Taiwei" mentioned in the Water Margin was this elder brother. At the same time, the Liang Nei waiter was also promoted to Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division because of his outstanding keju skills, and his official qualities were the same as those of Gao Li. Keju is good and can achieve such a big official, which can be said to be unheard of in the history of the Song Dynasty. No wonder others say that Huizong is "frivolous". However, Zhao Zhuo was inspired by the origins of these two people: If I bow well, I will definitely be able to please my father and emperor. So he also angrily practiced Keju, and after less than a year, he finally fully mastered the skill of Keju, not only came up later, surpassing the other brothers, but also creating many new tricks of Keju. Therefore, it often attracted many people in the palace to come to see, including many sisters such as Emperor Ji of Ruofu (Emperor Huizong called the princess Emperor Ji), who actually became fans of Zhao Zhao.
One day in November of the third year of Xuanhe (1121), a grand keju competition was held in the palace, and 31 princes of Huizong, including crown prince Zhao Huan, except for those under 12 years old, who could not participate, the other 20 people participated in the competition. Before the game, Webster instructed his son: "This competition was initiated by your father and emperor personally, he will definitely come to watch, as long as you play well, there will be a chance to be sealed." However, one thing must be firmly remembered, if the opponent is the prince, then you cannot win under any circumstances, you can only lose to him, remember, remember. Zhao Zhuo understood Wei Shi's words and said that he would definitely do what his mother told him.
After the competition began, each prince first performed a personal performance, and everyone performed a variety of tricks according to their daily practice, and everyone did their best to win the applause of the audience outside the venue. Huizong saw it, and his feet were also itching, and he was eager to go down and perform it himself. Then, divided into two groups, the two-two confrontation, Zhao Zhuo was divided into the second group, after many rounds of hard competition, he defeated the opponents and won the first place in the group. Crown Prince Zhao Huan was divided into the first group, and he easily won the first place in this group. In the end, Zhao Zhuo and Zhao Huan competed for the final of the championship and runner-up. The game was divided into a five-game best-of-three system, starting two games, Zhao Shuo was completely out of shape and quickly lost. When Emperor Huizong saw this situation, he called a pause, and he ordered Liang Nei's attendant to call Zhao Zhao to him, pulled down his face, and gave him a stern warning: "I heard that you are very good at bowing, but this game is obviously passive and sluggish, not in the state, and has the crime of deceiving the father and emperor." The following games must be done carefully, otherwise you will be punished. After all, Zhao Shuo was not deeply involved in the world, and after Emperor Huizong's fright, he had already thrown his mother's words out of the cloud of nine clouds. The game continued, this time Zhao Huo played the real level, mercilessly kicked the opponent, so that Zhao Huan did not have the strength to fight back, and soon lost, Zhao Shuo finally won a three-to-two victory. At this time, the princes, emperors and palace ladies who were present in the battle cheered again, and everyone congratulated Brother Jiu on his victory. Zhao Huan retreated to the sidelines sadly, and he could see that at this time, his face was gloomy.
Zhao Zhuo happily returned to Wei Shi's side, but his mother was not happy to hear the result of the game, nor did she want to listen to his explanation, but instead scolded him fiercely. At this time, Zhao Zhuo remembered what his mother had said to him earlier, but it was too late to regret it.
Sure enough, as Wei Shi expected, a few days later, Emperor Huizong issued a hand edict to reward Zhao Shuo for his victory in Keju and enfeoff him as king of Kang from Yipin. This was another promotion that Zhao Zhuo had received after 15 years of being crowned king of Guangping County, but the mother and son were not so happy about this promotion, which was different from usual.
Since the Han and Tang dynasties, the imperial family has stipulated that the crown prince will grow up to 12 to 20 years old, during which the coming-of-age ceremony will be held, which is the so-called crown ceremony. In May of the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), the 16-year-old Zhao Zhao held a crown ceremony, and then left his mother to "go out". When the mother and son were separated, Wei Shi made a long exhortation to Zhao Zhao. People saw from a distance that Zhao Zhuo was in tears and frequently nodded his head.
After that, this prince who lived in the harem and was both literate and martial, spent another two years of peaceful life. In December of the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), a great disaster began to fall on the head of the Northern Song Dynasty, and also threw the young Kang King Zhao Cuo to the cusp.
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The original title of the article was "Make a good heart, Merriam-Webster into a concubine."
Wen Wu Shuangquan, Zhao Zhao Feng Kang Wang》
The author is an advisor to the Hangzhou Literature and History Research Association.
Professor of the Department of History, Zhejiang University