The contemporary poet Shu Ting once wrote in her masterpiece "To the Oak Tree" that "if I love you... I must be a kapok near you, standing with you as the image of a tree. Such a view of love is not unusual today. But in the Northern Song Dynasty nearly a thousand years ago, a harem woman also interpreted her understanding of this with her life, becoming a legendary woman throughout the three dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The empresses of the Northern Song Dynasty accounted for the majority of those who came from famous backgrounds. Empress Zhang Huaipan and Empress Zhang Muguo were all official women, and Empress Xiaozhang Song's mother was still Princess Yongning of Han. But even so, Empress Cao, the second empress of Song Renzong, was born very prominent.
Empress Cao's "Cao Clan", or "Zhending Cao Clan", was praised by the famous Northern Song Dynasty minister Song Kuo as "the head of the family of the princes of the lower princes today". Zhao Kuangyin, a former colleague of the Song Dynasty's Taizu Zhao Kuangyin and a former colleague of the Later Zhou Dynasty, knew that Cao Yun was Cao Yun's great-grandfather. Cao Bin, the founding hero who accompanied Zhao Kuangyin to fight the world, was Cao's grandfather. Shang Shu Yu's subordinate Wailang Cao Xuan was Cao Shi's father.
In the second year of the Ming Dynasty (1033), the first empress of Emperor Renzong of Song, Guo Shi, was deposed, and Cao Shi also happened to enter the palace. Just a year later, with the support of Emperor Renzong's adoptive mother, Yang Shi, Cao Shi was promoted to empress and began to stand in the palace as Kapok.
The first sentence of the "History of Song" for the record of Cao's personal character is "sexual kindness and frugality, heavy crops, often planting grain in the forbidden garden, kissing silkworms, and being good at flying books". "Sexual kindness and frugality", that is, Cao's treatment of people is gentle, gentle and elegant, and can be gentle and rigid.
During Cao's tenure as empress, the favored concubine Zhang Shi was able to fly in the palace. Once, Zhang Shi actually wanted to travel as an empress. Emperor Renzong did not want to care about the twists and turns of these harems, so he pushed the "pot" to Empress Cao and let Zhang Shi go to Cao Shi to "borrow" it. Cao Shi faced the pampered and arrogant Zhang Clan, not only did not get angry, but also kindly allowed Zhang Shi's nonsense. Zhang Shi was overjoyed, but Renzong saw the severity of Cao's move, and then let Zhang Shi converge.
And "heavy crops" is a very interesting feature of Cao's body. Successive empresses, as the mother of a country, have shouldered the responsibility of guiding the women of this dynasty to be good and good. In the feudal society based on farming, persuading nongsang was naturally one of the things that the empresses needed to do. However, personally opening up land in the imperial palace for farming, raising silkworms and reeling silk by themselves, the Cao family is the only one.
Because the Cao clan was keen on nongsang, and even personally did farm work in the palace garden, some people felt that Emperor Renzong loved the Zhang clan and did not love the empress, which was probably related to the fact that the empress was a "peasant woman". Whether this is true or not is probably only known to Emperor Renzong himself. But Cao Shi can be diligent and thrifty to such an extent, by the standards of an empress, she is undoubtedly an excellent empress.
For Cao Shi, an empress from the Shogunate, Emperor Renzong's favor could only be regarded as an embellishment of his later career, which was dispensable. She worked diligently as empress for nearly thirty years, and then as empress dowager and empress dowager for more than ten years, and the most remarkable achievement she had was not to climb the big tree of Renzong.
In the leap month of the eighth year of the Song Renzong calendar (1048), in celebration of the quelling of the rebellion of the King of Beizhou, Emperor Renzong prepared for another Lantern Festival, but this move was eventually dissuaded by the Cao clan. Three days later, the palace guards rebelled.
Because the rebellion took place in the palace, involving guards and some eunuchs and palace women, The Cao clan was able to directly intervene in this matter. In the chaos, she not only prevented Emperor Renzong from going out and protected the emperor's safety, but also considered that the thieves might set fire to create chaos, so she ordered people to prepare water in advance, which greatly reduced the loss of the court. Although Emperor Renzong later turned his face and disapprovingly crowned these credits on the head of the favored concubine Zhang Shi, and even promoted Zhang Shi to a noble concubine on this ground, Cao Shi's unruly general style still made her image in the hearts of the people more majestic.
In the spring of the eighth year (1063) of Emperor Renzong's reign, Emperor Renzong died, and Emperor Yingzong immediately succeeded to the throne. Emperor Yingzong's front foot had just become the new emperor, and his back foot was seriously ill and it was difficult to manage the government. Therefore, Cao Shi, an "excellent employee" who had worked hard in the empress position for decades, rightfully became the second empress dowager after Liu E.
When Cao Shi was hanging the curtain to listen to the government, the scene of Liu E controlling the overall situation is still vividly remembered. Therefore, Sima Guang and other counselors were very jealous of Cao Shi at first, and often advised her to be "pro-xianchen" and to recognize her position. And the Cao clan did indeed participate in the handling of the imperial government only in the small hall of the East Gate of the Imperial Palace, together with Emperor Yingzong, not to go to the main hall, and also to "not establish a birthday festival, and not to send envoys to the Khitans."
Although the gap between Emperor Yingzong and the Cao clan became wider and wider, and the chancellor Han Qi and others also always had dissatisfaction with the Cao clan and ignored the misconduct of Yingzong pointed out by the Cao clan, as the prime minister Fu Bi said: "Your Majesty has only recovered, the empress dowager has returned to power on the same day, and retired to the deep palace, and the people in this world have no knowledge, and the empress dowager has never failed his majesty."
Moreover, as the adopted son of Emperor Renzong, Emperor Yingzong once quarreled with many courtiers because he wanted to honor his biological father as "Emperor Kao". In the end, it was Cao Shi who stood up and personally wrote a letter, saying that Emperor Yingzong's biological father was the emperor and his birth mother was the queen, and the controversy that affected many people in the central government was settled.
At the beginning of the fourth year (1067) of Emperor Yingzong's reign, Emperor Yingzong died of illness at the age of thirty-six. After Emperor Shenzong of Song ascended the throne, Cao Shi was promoted to empress dowager. Compared with the relationship with Emperor Yingzong, the Cao clan and the Shenzong were much more harmonious. Shenzong always remembered this grandmother, "to welcome and entertain, to be endless, to play from the line, and to plan every time." The Cao clan took care of Shenzong as his own grandson, caring for his food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and even took care of Shenzong's diet personally. Later, Cao shi was replaced by a water disease, and Shenzong personally took care of it day and night until Cao Shi died of illness in the second year of Yuan Feng (1079).
Therefore, it can be said that Cao Shi became the empress dowager of Emperor Renzong and sat firmly on the throne, relying on his family lineage and his own excellence; becoming the empress dowager of the Yingzong Dynasty who was able to end well, relying on his own scrutiny and sobriety; becoming the empress dowager respected by everyone in the Shenzong Dynasty, relying on his own kindness and kindness.
The Cao clan is not as brave as the fathers, nor does it do the Climbing Flowers like ordinary women. She undoubtedly lived as a kapok plant that bloomed in the Northern Song Palace Garden, mature, independent, and frugal.