Emperor Hui of Han reigned for seven years, and since the first year of the reign, he no longer listened to the government due to the Ren Yan Incident, and was addicted to alcohol and Yan Le, resulting in many illnesses; Lü Yan came to the court since the death of Emperor Hui, and in the first year and four years of Empress Lü, he was appointed two consecutive young emperors, ruling for a total of eight years. Therefore, the "Records of History", "Book of Han" and other canonical histories record the life of Empress Lü in the style of "Benji", and regard her historical status as equivalent to that of an emperor.
Lü Hou, real name Lü Yan, the character 娥姁. Lü Yan originally lived with his father Lü Gong in Shan Father County (砀郡, in present-day Panzhuang, Zhongxing Town, Dan County, Shandong), but later his father Lü Gong, in order to avoid enemies, led his family to settle in Pei County because he had a friendship with Pei County Ling. After Lü Gong's family arrived in Pei County, Hao Jie of Pei County went to congratulate the Lü family on their housewarming because of the friendship between the county order and Lü Gong. The chief official, Xiao He, was responsible for scheduling the seats of the guests, and he asked the guests with less than a thousand copper coins to sit outside the guest hall. When Liu Bang was the chief of the pavilion, he always despised those officials, so he lied about "He Qianwan" on the famous post of the meeting, but in fact did not bring any money. At the banquet, Lü Gong thought that Liu Bang was very good-looking, and gave his daughter Lü Yan to him as a concubine and performed household chores. Afterwards, Lü Mi was very angry with Lü Gong, so she said to her husband: "You attached great importance to this daughter from the beginning and wanted to give her to a noble person. PeiXian Ling treated you so well, came to ask for it, you didn't give his daughter to him, why did you casually promise to Liu Ji? But Lü Gong told his wife, "This is not something that your wives and children can understand." "Insisted on marrying Lü Yan to Liu Bang. Therefore, Lü Yan, who was not yet twenty years old, married Liu Bang, the forty-one-year-old governor of Surabaya Pavilion, due to his father's order.
Lü Yan was a virtuous woman in her early years, and when she first married Liu Bang, her life was not rich, and Liu Bang often spent official business and dealing with friends, and she did not see anyone at both ends for three days. Lü Yan personally led his children to engage in nongsang knitting, filial piety to parents and raising children, and lived a life of self-sufficiency. In the early years, Liu Bang often wore a homemade bamboo hat to wander around, cheating on food and drink, once escorting prisoners, because he was drunk and made the prisoners escape, and he had to flee to the swampy area under the Mangzhong Mountain. In addition to supporting the family independently, Lü Yan also traveled long distances from time to time, sending clothes and food to her husband. Later, Lü Yan gave birth to a son and a daughter for Liu Bang, namely the later Han Xiaohui Emperor Liu Ying (later omitting the word "filial piety" as "Han Hui Emperor") and Princess Lu Yuanchang.
After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying, the Emperor hui of Han, succeeded to the throne and honored her as empress dowager.
During Liu Ying's reign, with a gentle and generous personality, he actively promoted the Huang Lao theory, paid attention to the state's recuperation and rule by doing nothing, relaxed the policy of cultural despotism, and built Chang'an City, making certain contributions to consolidating the western Han dynasty regime, stabilizing society, and promoting economic and cultural development.
During the reign of Emperor Hui of Han, Empress Lü vigorously suppressed other princes surnamed Liu in order to maintain the emperor's authority; however, Emperor Xiaohui did not approve, but instead kissed King Zhao as a brother and Honored King Qi as a brother. Because Lady Qi and her son Liu Ruyi the Prince of Zhao wanted to seize the position of Prince of Liu Ying several times, Empress Lü regarded it as a threat and hated it very much, so there was the "Ren Yan Incident".
In December of the first year of Xiao Hui's reign (195 BC), Empress Lü first imprisoned Lady Qi in Yongxiang, and it is rumored that Lady Qi sang and sighed privately: "The son is the king, the mother is a slave, and she scoops rice all day long until dusk, often with death!" Mother and son are three thousand miles apart, who are you going to tell you? Empress Lü first summoned Liu Ruyi, the King of Zhao, into the palace and waited for an opportunity to poison her.
In the summer of the second year of Xiao hui (194 BC), Empress Lü cut off Lady Qi's hands and feet, deafened her ears, gouge out her eyes, and threw her poisonous dumb into the latrine, called "Ren Yan", which means "human pig", and after a few days called Emperor Hui to come, Emperor Hui cried bitterly and was ill for a long time, and ordered people to say to Empress Lü: "This kind of thing is not done by people." The subject was the son of the empress dowager, and after all, there was no way to govern the world. "So he ignored government affairs, indulged in drinking alcohol, and became ill."
In August of the seventh year of Xiaohui (188 BC), Emperor Xiaohui died, Empress Xiaohui Zhang was childless, Empress Lü ordered the harem beauty to be deceived as Empress Zhang, and Lü Yan established the crown prince Liu Gong (former Shao Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty) as emperor, and he himself was in charge of the imperial title and exercised the authority of the emperor, and the imperial court orders were all from the empress dowager, the first person in the dictatorship of the Chinese empress.
During Emperor Hui's reign, the government was deeply interfered with by his mother Lü Hou, who had a repressive influence and became the de facto ruler, so Sima Qian's "Records of History" did not set up a filial piety and Hui Benji, but instead set up a "Lü Hou Benji".
Due to the limited historical data and his control by Lü Hou, shi officials, in order to improve the status of his half-brother Emperor Wen of Han, had long regarded Emperor Hui as a "benevolent and weak" monarch, starting with Sima Qian, and ancient scholars said that during his reign, he was deeply controlled by Lü Houlin's government, and often paid little attention to Emperor Hui, and all his sons were killed by Chen Ping, Zhou Bo, Xiahou Bao, and other ministers who had destroyed Zhulu, and there were no heirs to mention, so they only occasionally promoted his benevolent and friendly character.
The history of the Qin and Han Dynasties written by scholars in recent times has often been directly ignored, and the study of Emperor Hui is also very few, and in recent years, a small number of scholars have re-examined him, saying that during his reign, he cooperated with Lü Hou and adopted the way of Huang Lao, and was able to rest with the people. However, other scholars said that political achievements basically belonged to Lü Hou's play, and Emperor Hui was even inferior to some Eastern Han emperors who held real power through eunuchs and foreign ministers, so it was not highly evaluated.
After Lü Hou's death, it immediately led to a bloody struggle between the Liu imperial clique and the Lü clique, which ended in the victory of the imperial clique. Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, the ministers of the Han Dynasty, eliminated Zhu Lü and informed the world that the Young Emperor Liu Hong, Liu Tai the Prince of Liang, Liu Wu the Prince of Huaiyang, and Liu Chao the Prince of Hengshan were not the sons of Emperor Hui of Han and should be deposed and chosen as heirs to the imperial throne in the liu clan. Gaozu and his concubine Liu Heng (劉恒), the son of the Bo clan, were chosen as the new emperor (i.e., Emperor Wen of Han).
Lü Hou's grave was once exhumed by the Chimei army, and his body was insulted. During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, Lü Hou was ordered by Emperor Guangwu to move out of the Gaozu Temple due to various acts that were unfavorable to the Han Dynasty's social orders.