Text: Xia Yan (WeChat public account reading history columnist)
When it comes to the "rule of Wenjing" in the early Han Dynasty, everyone will think of two people, Emperor Wen of Han and his son Emperor Jingdi of Han, both of whom were Ming Emperors in Chinese history. In particular, The Han Wen Emperor Liu Heng, during his reign, exerted great efforts to govern, diligently and loving the people, lived a simple life, abolished torture, and laid the beginning of the "rule of Wenjing"; treated the princes and kings with an attitude of subjugating people with virtue; and Emperor Wen of Han was still a filial piety, and once personally tasted medicine for his mother Bo.
Whether it was in the ministers, the people, the princes and even the family, the reputation of Emperor Wen of Han was very good, and he could be called a model for the emperor in Chinese history.
However, today we want to talk about another emperor of the "rule of Wenjing"--Liu Qi, the Emperor of Hanjing. Compared with his father, Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Jingdi of Han was still very good at employing people and taking political measures, and even surpassed Emperor Wendi of Han in some aspects. However, in terms of personality, the Han Jing Emperor was full of cruelty, insidiousness, and scheming, and was not as generous as his father at all.
Let's take a look at these things that the Han Jing Emperor did, all of them made people feel chilled, and it didn't seem to look like a Ming Jun did it at all.
First of all, the Han Jing Emperor showed a cruel side when he was still the crown prince. One day, his cousin Liu Xian, the crown prince of Liu Hao, the King of Wu, asked him to play chess. The two people's chess pieces are estimated to be different, and they quarrel under the down, Liu Xian is Liu Hao's eldest son, who has been pampered since childhood and is not very polite to Liu Qi. As a result, Liu Qi was even more irritable, and actually directly smashed Liu Xian to death with a chessboard.
Regardless of whether Liu Qi unintentionally lost his hand or intentionally lost his temper, this shows that Liu Qi's temper is not very good, and he will definitely not be a good stubble, and it also lays the groundwork for his future way of doing things.
Liu Qi, the Emperor of The Han Dynasty, had been the crown prince for more than twenty years before he ascended the throne, and he was well versed in the art of emperors, and he also saw the affairs of the court clearly, and liked to read the minds of others, especially the ministers. Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he easily toyed with the ministers in the court between the applause, not at all like a fledgling chick, but like an old and sophisticated politician.
As soon as Emperor Jing of Han succeeded to the throne, he promoted his teacher Chao Mistaken to the position of Imperial Master. Chao Que was Emperor Wu of Han's most favored minister, and the two had worked together for many years as early as when Liu Qi was still the crown prince. Chao Mistakenly proposed to emperor Jingdi of Han to "cut the domain", and Emperor Jingdi of Han immediately accepted it, in fact, this was something he had long wanted to do, but no minister dared to mention it, and Emperor Jingdi of Han could use his teacher as a gun this time.
However, as soon as this edict was issued, it was fried in the princes, and the Seven Kingdoms rebelled in the name of "Qing Jun's side, and chao chao". In the early stage of the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms", the rebel army was like a bamboo, the army of the imperial court could not stand it, and Liu Qi also panicked.
In order to make the Seven Kingdoms Army division unknown, Emperor Jingdi of Han did not hesitate to kill his mentor Chao, and he deceived Chao into going to the upper court and beheaded him on the road.
Although it is said that killing Chao Wrong gave the imperial court a political advantage, it was indeed very unauthentic to kill his mentor in this cruel way of slashing his own, and Chao Wrong was still wearing imperial clothes when he died.
From here, it is evident that Emperor Jingdi of Han jing was a weak and widowed character, first taking his own teacher as a gun, seeing that he could not stop the rebels, and then taking the teacher as a scapegoat and directly killing him.
After quelling the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, emperor Jingdi of Han highlighted his apparently different toughness from his father when dealing with the officials of the rebel states who surrendered. None of the officials of the rebellious princely states of more than three hundred stones were killed, and none of them were spared; and anyone who dared to have doubts about the instructions or perhaps did not act according to the edict was punishable by beheading. ——In the future, Emperor Wu of Han's severe punishment was completely inherited from his father's style.
Then being so cruel to outsiders should be very good for their own families, after all, "tiger poison does not eat children", but this is not applicable to the Han Jing Emperor. Emperor Jingdi of Han's original crown prince was Liu Rong, the son of Concubine Li, and after Princess Li offended Emperor Jingdi of Han because her emotional intelligence was too low, Emperor Jing of Han was already very disgusted with the mother and son, and soon Liu Rong was reported for violating the law by encroaching on the temple.
Originally, Liu Rong was also a prince no matter how he said it, and it was enough to punish him, but Emperor Jingdi of Han sent a cool official, Zhi Du, to handle the case. Whoever he was, he rectified in Shandong, and those Liu Clan Sects who saw him were shivering at the sight of him, and as a result, Liu Rong eventually committed suicide in prison. His own sons were like this, and the Han Jing Emperor really interpreted the "most ruthless imperial family" to the extreme.
Since the mentor and son did not let go, the pair of heroes naturally had to adhere to the consistent style of the old Liu family. The lieutenant Zhou Yafu made a great contribution to quelling the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms and saved the Han Dynasty. Everyone knows that Zhou Yafu is a family of soldiers and will only lead soldiers to fight, but Emperor Jingdi of Han jing let him become a minister, and as a result, Zhou Yafu did not understand anything, and always said the wrong things and did the wrong things. First of all, it was illegal to give the Xiongnu generals a knighthood, and later he was pardoned for illness, plus he had previously offended Liu Wu, the king of Liang, who said bad things about Zhou Yafu in front of the empress dowager and Emperor Jing every time he entered the dynasty.
In addition, because Zhou Yafu had a high prestige in the army and was arrogant, the shelf was very large. This was not good for the young prince. This series of reasons eventually made emperor Jingdi of Han unable to bear the general who had saved his throne, so he found an excuse to arrest him. Zhou Yafu was humiliated and finally starved to death.
Emperor Jingdi of Hanjing not only lived the whole person, but also pit people when he died. The great general Dou Infant was a good keeper and was quite popular, but due to Empress Dou's reasons, Emperor Han Jing did not dare to move him when he was alive, and Dou Infant was cautious everywhere, not as stubborn as Zhou Yafu, nor did he offend Emperor Jing of Han.
In the end, Emperor Jing of Han thought of a poisonous trick, and before he died, he left a will for Dou Bao, so that when things were urgent, he could respond to the situation and meet the emperor directly, so that he could save his life. However, Emperor Jingdi of Han did not leave a copy, so as soon as Dou Bao took it out, this "life-saving edict" immediately became a "death edict", which was really insidious.
One bloody fact after another reflects that emperor Jingdi of Han can really be a victim of anything to achieve his goals. However, you may find that in fact, everything he did was to stabilize the Han Dynasty, to create a good environment for his son to ascend the throne, and his fierce and sinister calculations were always used in favor of the country, from this point of view, maybe he is not a good person, but he is definitely a good emperor.
This article is original by reading history, welcome to pay attention, take you along with long knowledge!