The Western Han Dynasty is an inextricable peak in Chinese history, and when we talk about the glory of history today, we often talk about the Western Han Dynasty. Liu Bang, the emperor of the Internet celebrity Han Gaozu, the Emperor Wen of Han and emperor Of Han, who created the first prosperous situation in China's feudal era, emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han, comprehensively defeated the Xiongnu and opened up the western region, so that the glory of the Han Empire spread to the distant Han Wudi Emperor Liu Che and so on.
Today, the emperor we are talking about is sandwiched between Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, and the founder of the reign of Wenjing. He was Liu Ying, the Emperor of Hanhui, a miserable emperor who had six sons but passed the throne to his younger brother.
As the eldest son of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, Liu Ying was the first son of Liu Bang and Lü Hou. After Liu Bang's death, he inherited the throne, but after his death, the throne of the Han Dynasty was not passed to the heirs of Emperor Hui of Han according to normal circumstances, and Emperor Hui of Han was not childless, so why did the throne pass directly to his younger brother Liu Heng, the Emperor Wen of Han, after Emperor Hui of Han's death?
On this issue, we need to analyze it from two aspects, the first is "Why didn't the throne pass to the son of Liu Ying, the Emperor hui of Han?" As we have already mentioned above, Emperor Hui of Han was the eldest son of Liu Bang and Empress Lü of Han Gaozu, and being the eldest son of these two legendary "empresses" did not mean happiness, on the contrary, because his parents were political strongmen, Liu Ying was actually suppressed by his father or mother everywhere, whether during the period of being a prince or an emperor.
When he was crown prince, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, favored the young and beautiful Lady Qi and did not like Liu Ying's weak character, so Liu Bang often wanted to abolish Liu Ying's position as crown prince during his reign and replace it with Lady Qi's son Liu Ruyi the Prince of Zhao. In this contest to seize the concubine, it was finally Lü Hou who listened to Zhang Liang's advice and invited Shangshan Sihao, so that Liu Ying's position as crown prince was completely confirmed, and finally Liu Ying became emperor.
Although Liu Ying is a person with a weaker personality than her parents, Liu Ying is not really following her mother in everything. After Liu Bang's death, after Liu Ying succeeded to the throne, Lü Hou became the empress dowager and began to liquidate the concubines that Liu Bang had favored during his lifetime, but Liu Ying did not conform to her mother's ideas, and whenever her mother wanted to murder her brothers, such as Liu Ruyi the King of Zhao and Liu Fei the King of Qi, Liu Ying would find ways to protect them. However, Liu Ying was ultimately unable to defeat Lü Hou's means, and in the end, King Zhao was poisoned by Lü Hou, and Lady Qi, the mother of King Zhao, was made into a "human yan" and thrown into a dung pit, and even asked Liu Ying to see it herself, which made Liu Ying's heart completely collapse.
From then on, Liu Ying no longer had the vigor he had when he first succeeded to the throne, which led to the gradual expansion of Lü Hou's influence in the dynasty, and Emperor Hui of Han himself was not in good health, and eventually he died of illness after only seven years on the throne. After the death of Emperor Hui of Han, Empress Lü became even more unscrupulous, and she successively appointed two puppet emperors (these two emperors were not recognized by the later Han Dynasty), and she ruled the Han Dynasty for eight years as the supreme ruler of the Han Dynasty, and wantonly divided the Lü clan and mutilated the Liu clan, causing dissatisfaction among the ministers of the court.
After Lü Hou's death, the kings of the Liu clan and the ministers of the imperial court began to rebel against the rule of the Lü clan, and finally under the combination of the kings of the Liu clan and the ministers of the dynasty, the forces of the Lü clan in the dynasty were completely eradicated. And when the power of Zhu Lü was eliminated, these ministers and kings faced a more embarrassing situation, if they chose to continue to let Liu Ying's heirs succeed to the throne, then these imperial court ministers and the kings of the Liu clan became murderers of the emperor's relatives, and Liu Ying's line was too influenced by Lü Hou, and if it was not easy to control in the future, it would not be conducive to rule, so the ministers planned to depose Emperor Hou Shao, and declared that Liu Ying's other heirs had problems with their bloodlines and planned to destroy them all.
Therefore, at this point, we must analyze the second aspect: "Why did you choose Liu Henglai, the Emperor of Han, to succeed to the throne?" "Among the candidates for the throne at that time, Liu Yingyi had been excluded from the consideration of the ministers, and there were not many candidates left, although there were many sons of Liu Bang, they either fell ill and died or were killed by Lü Hou, and the only older princes left were Liu Heng, the fourth son of the emperor, and Liu Chang, the seventh son of the emperor, Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, and Liu Xiang, the son of Liu Fei, the king of Qi, who succeeded to the throne of Qi, was actually a strong contender for the throne, and he raised an army when he destroyed Zhu Lü.
After that, the group of ministers had a big discussion on the balance of interests, and finally Liu Xiang, the king of Qi, and Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, were out of the game. The reasons for the two people's exit are actually very similar, all because the forces on the side of the matrilineal relatives are relatively strong, and Liu Xiang's side is because some ministers say that his uncle Si Jun is not a good person, and if Liu Xiang is established, he may repeat the mistakes of Zhu Lu. The side of Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, was even more obvious, because his mother Zhao Ji was once Liu Bang's favorite concubine, and Zhao Ji was once the favorite concubine of Zhang Ao, the king of Zhao, which made Liu Chang's maternal line not weak, and Liu Chang had always held a grudge because his mother was killed by Lü Hou, which made the ministers more worried about not being able to control him.
In the end, under the consideration of many factors, Liu Heng, the acting king with a benevolent personality and no power from his mother Bo Ji, became the best candidate for the heir to the throne. Heaven sent pie, Liu Heng was surprised and happy, with trepidation, he finally went to Chang'an to succeed to the throne, and the ministers deposed Emperor Hou Shao and destroyed Liu Ying's other heirs to welcome Liu Heng's arrival. Eventually, Liu Heng ascended the throne as emperor, and his son Liu Qi created the first prosperous era of China's feudal period, "The Rule of Wenjing".