Chapter 10 Five lives and two queens
Back then, because of Song Taizong's opposition, Liu E and Song Zhenzong, a pair of lovers, almost couldn't get married.Logically speaking, Liu E should know how to be more tolerant of Song Renzong's harem affairs after such an experience, but it is not the case.
When Song Renzong reached the age of marriage, Liu E deliberately selected several women with status to enter the palace.One of these young girls will become a queen, and the others will only be named concubines. The status can be said to be very different.Song Renzong fell in love with Zhang, the great-granddaughter of Zhang Mei, the general of Xiaoqiwei, and wanted to make Zhang the queen.But Liu E thought that the Zhang family was not as good as the Guo family, the granddaughter of Guo Chong, the military governor of Pinglu Army.As a last resort, Song Renzong had no choice but to make Guo the queen and Zhang the talented person according to Liu E's will.The melons squeezed by force are not sweet. Although Guo Shi was named queen, she was left out in the cold.After Liu E's death, Empress Guo lost her backing. Not only did she not know how to be modest and tolerant, she also competed with concubines and concubines in the harem everywhere to be jealous, which led to the first incident of abolition since the founding of the Song Dynasty.
At that time, there were two beauties in the harem, Shang and Yang, who were extremely favored.Shang Meiren's father was favored because of his daughter, and he was appointed an official and a nobleman. He was not favored, and he moved the capital for a while.Empress Guo was very dissatisfied with this, and repeatedly found trouble with Shangmei, and had several conflicts.Shangmei is not a fuel-efficient lamp either. She knows that Song Renzong doesn't like Queen Guo, so she often tells Song Renzong about Queen Guo.One day, Shang Meiren taunted Empress Guo in front of Song Renzong, who happened to be overheard by Empress Guo.Guo Hou was so angry that she stepped forward to slap Shang Meiren.Seeing that the situation was not good, Song Renzong hurried over to persuade the fight.Empress Guo had already raised her hand and slapped Song Renzong on the neck with all her strength.
Queen Guo's sharp fingertips drew two bloodstains on Song Renzong's neck.Song Renzong only felt a burning pain in his neck, and Long Yan was furious immediately, but he was weak in character, although he was angry, he didn't attack, and just left with Shangmei.
Prior to this, in order to get rid of the shadow of Empress Dowager Liu's ruling, Song Renzong dismissed the ministers who had been attached to Empress Dowager Liu E, but did not dismiss the prime minister Lu Yijian.Just one day, Song Renzong talked with Queen Guo about the courtiers in the harem, and specifically emphasized that Lu Yijian's loyalty is commendable.The reason why Song Renzong admired Lu Yi's bamboo slips was that he tried his best to argue with the queen mother Liu E, advocating that Song Renzong's biological mother Li should be buried with empress etiquette.Empress Guo thought that Lu Yijian was actually a person who flattered and flattered Empress Dowager Liu, but she was clever and able to deal with it.Song Renzong thought about it for a while, and thought that Queen Guo's words made sense, so he took Lu Yijian as prime minister.The eunuch Yan Wenying made friends with Lu Yijian and told Lu Yijian that it was because of Queen Guo's casual remark that he was dismissed.After Lu Yijian learned about it, she was very angry.
A few months later, Liu Huan, an admonisher, came up to explain current affairs, and specifically mentioned that he urged Empress Dowager Liu to return the government to Song Renzong, but he offended Empress Dowager Liu and was almost killed. Fortunately, Lu Yijian rescued him.Song Renzong was weak-willed and easily swayed by the opinions of others. He also felt that Lu Yijian was a loyal minister, so he recalled him as prime minister.Although the official was reinstated, Lu Yijian has always held a grudge against Queen Guo. It happened that Queen Guo's mistaken beating of Song Renzong gave Lu Yijian a chance to take revenge.
After Song Renzong was beaten, Shangmei continued to fan the flames, and the more Song Renzong thought about it, the more annoyed he became.The eunuch Yan Wenying took the opportunity to say: "In ordinary people's homes, wives can't bully their husbands. Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, but you should be bullied by the queen. How can this happen?" Song Renzong remained silent.Yan Wenying pointed to the wound on Song Renzong's neck and said: "Your Majesty's neck looks like a bloodstain, please instruct the ruling, how should we deal with it?"Song Renzong was incited, couldn't help getting excited, and angrily sent Yan Wenying to summon Prime Minister Lu Yijian.
After Lu Yijian arrived, he immediately talked about Queen Guo's disrespect, which was not enough for her mother to honor the world.This is actually lobbying Song Renzong to abolish the empress.In the Song Dynasty, since the founding of the country by Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, there has been no precedent for abolition.Although Song Renzong resented the empress, when the prime minister mentioned the abolition of the empress, he was more cautious, saying: "Although the empress is hateful, there is a clear discussion about the abolition of the empress." Yes. Emperor Guangwu was the Ming lord of the Han Dynasty, and his Empress Guo was deposed only because of resentment. What's more, today's queen injured Your Majesty!" "Resentment" means dissatisfaction and whining.Yan Wenying also echoed, saying that Empress Guo had lived in the middle palace for nine years but had no heirs, so she should be abolished.Song Renzong became angry and decided to abolish Queen Guo.
The emperor's family affairs have always been not only the affairs of the emperor alone, but also the affairs of the world.After the news that Song Renzong was going to abolish the empress spread, there was an uproar in the court.Originally, the post-abolition had nothing to do with the national economy and the people's livelihood, but in the eyes of the officials, it was a major event involving the monarch's morality.Yushi Zhongcheng Kong Daofu (45th generation grandson of Confucius), admonisher Fan Zhongyan, Tongzhi Admonishment Academy Sun Zude, Shi Yushi Jiang Tang and more than ten people jointly signed a memorial, saying that "there is no fault in the future, and it cannot be abolished", and firmly opposed Song Renzong's abolition Queen Guo.The prime minister, Lu Yijian, had been prepared for a long time, and ordered the ministers not to accept Taiwan's admonishment.Song Renzong rushed to issue an edict to abolish the empress before the officials launched an attack, saying that Empress Guo had no heirs and voluntarily abdicated to practice Taoism. She was specially named Jingfei and Yujing Chongmiao Immortal Master. palace).
Yushi Zhongcheng Kong Daofu and admonisher Fan Zhongyan and others saw that the memorial of Taiwan admonishment could not be delivered to the emperor.This is an unprecedented event.The ministers who came to remonstrate all knelt at the gate of the palace and asked the emperor to summon him to answer the question of Empress Guo being deposed.But no matter how hard Fan Zhongyan and others tried, the envoys guarding the gate of the palace just closed the gate tightly and did not report.Kong Daofu was so anxious that he grabbed the copper ring of the palace gate and knocked urgently, and shouted loudly: "The empress is abolished, which affects the holiness, why don't you listen to our admonisher's opinion?" Fearing that something might happen, he rushed to the newspaper.Song Renzong himself felt that he was wronged, and he did not want to meet the admonisher, so he sent an envoy to spread the word, asking the ministers who were admonishing to go to the Zhongshu Zhengshitang to have a dialogue with the prime minister.
When Kong Daofu, Fan Zhongyan and others came to Zhongshu, Prime Minister Lu Yijian was already waiting there, obviously coming prepared.As soon as Kong Daofu came up, he questioned Lu Yijian, saying: "A minister is to the queen, just like a son is to his parents. If the parents are at odds, you can persuade them to reconcile. How can you only obey the father and not the mother?" Lu Yijian argued: "Abolish The latter matter is not the first of this dynasty, it has existed in ancient times, and there are precedents in the Han and Tang dynasties." Kong Daofu scolded angrily: "Ministers should guide the kings to be holy lords like Yao and Shun. Morality as the standard?" The officials immediately rushed forward, accusing Lu Yijian one after another.Lu Yijian couldn't help it, so he had to cup his hands and said, "Everyone, go see Your Majesty Lichen." Then he left in a hurry.
The next day, Kong Daofu and others entered the court, preparing to call a hundred officials to argue with Lu Yijian in court.However, Song Renzong's imperial decree came suddenly, saying, "Please be right with Fuge, there is no news in the prosperous age, and Kong Daofu and others acted rashly, which is not in general." Kong Daofu and Fan Zhongyan were demoted from the capital. Kong Daofu knew Xuzhou, and Fan Zhongyan knew Muzhou ( Today's Jiande, Zhejiang Province, belongs to Tonglu County, where Yan Ziling, the late Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty lived in seclusion.Therefore, the proposal to abolish it was decided.
The turmoil after Song Renzong's abolition was not a major political event, but this time Taiwan's admonition officials strongly admonished and dared to confront the emperor and prime minister, but it was a major event in the history of the ancient supervisory system, which showed that the Taiwan admonition system had developed to a new level.As Lu Zuqian said in the Southern Song Dynasty, "Since Kong Daofu and Fan Zhongyan dared to resist (Lu) the barbarian bamboo slips, the power of Taiwan's admonition dared to resist the prime minister."
After Empress Guo was abolished, the happiest people in the harem were Shang Meiren and Yang Meiren.Song Renzong also favored the two beauties even more, and they mingled together day and night, making the court look in a trance, resulting in the neglect of political affairs.When Empress Dowager Yang (Concubine Yang Shu) heard about it, she ordered Song Renzong to send the two beauties Shang and Yang out of the palace.Song Renzong was quite reluctant to give up. On the surface, he dealt with Queen Mother Yang, but in secret he still favored the beauty.Empress Dowager Yang ordered Yan Wenying to send the two beauties out of the palace.Yan Wenying went to persuade Song Renzong first, but Song Renzong was so annoyed that he reluctantly agreed.As a result, Shangmei was forced to become a monk in Dongzhen Palace and became a Taoist nun.Yang Meiren was also placed in another room, and she never had the chance to see Tianyan again.
In Song Renzong's imperial edict for the abolition of the empress, there is a saying "seek the door of virtue and govern the interior", which means that women are selected from educated families to serve as the harem, and it is also used to show that Empress Guo was abolished because of her lack of virtue.Although Empress Dowager Liu was dead at this time, Song Renzong was completely in charge, but he still couldn't do what he wanted in terms of establishing a queen.At that time, a woman named Chen entered the palace. Song Renzong liked her very much and wanted to make her queen.But Mrs. Chen is the daughter of a tea merchant in Shouzhou, and her father earned a small official by donating money, so he came from a lowly background.Song Shou, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, persuaded: "If your majesty puts a lowly person in the middle palace, wouldn't it be contrary to what the edict said the day before yesterday?" Prime Minister Lu Yijian and others also persuaded.Song Renzong had no choice but to choose Cao Shi, the granddaughter of Cao Bin, a famous general in the early Song Dynasty, into the palace, and became the queen the next year.Cao Shi was eighteen years old.
Song Renzong didn't like Empress Cao very much because he couldn't get what he wanted after Li Li.At this time, he thought of the abolished Empress Guo.After all, Mrs. Guo was his original partner, and he began to feel guilty about abolishing the empress.At this time, Mrs. Guo had already lived in Yaohua Palace. Song Renzong sent people to visit Mrs. Guo at Yaohua Palace. .The Guo family lived in another palace for a long time, lonely and lonely, and suddenly saw the emperor sending an envoy to greet him.
After Song Renzong saw Guo's poems, his thoughts deepened, and he felt more and more unable to let go, so he secretly called Guo back to the palace.Unexpectedly, Ms. Guo was a virtuous woman, and thought that if the emperor summoned her again, all the officials must witness and re-appoint her as queen.Song Renzong had already established the Cao family as the queen at this time. If the Guo family was registered again, the two queens would stand side by side, which put the emperor in a dilemma.
When Song Renzong was in great distress, Guo fell ill, so Song Renzong sent eunuch Yan Wenying to bring the imperial doctor to see Guo.Unexpectedly, a few days later, Mrs. Guo died suddenly.
If you think of Yan Wenying's abolition of Empress Guo before, it is not difficult to speculate that Guo's sudden death is definitely related to Yan Wenying.If the Guo family is re-established as the empress, and the matter of the abolition of the empress is investigated, Lu Yijian and Yan Wenying, as the main messengers of the abolition of the empress, will definitely bear the brunt of it.Therefore, these two people were in a state of panic. In order to save their lives, it was normal for them to poison and murder Mrs. Guo.Both the palace and the imperial court suspected that Yan Wenying had poisoned Guo Shi to death, but Yan Wenying was clever and did not leave any evidence.Moreover, the secrets of the deep palace, no one dared to check easily.
Song Renzong was very saddened by Guo's death, and issued an imperial edict to restore Guo's title of queen and burial with posthumous rites.At this time, Fan Zhongyan had informed the Kaifeng government to impeach Yan Wenying, and Song Renzong immediately demoted Yan Wenying from Beijing.Yan Wenying later died of illness on the way.
Song Renzong's second queen, Cao, was born in the general family, but she is familiar with classics and history, knowledge of books and rituals, and can write a beautiful Feibai script (one of the calligraphy styles).She is kind and thrifty, and pays attention to farming. She once personally led the concubines to plant grains, pick mulberries and raise silkworms in the garden.It is this seemingly weak queen who is not afraid of danger at critical moments, calm and composed, fully showing the demeanor of a general.
One day after the Lantern Festival in the eighth year of Qingli (1048), Song Renzong stayed in the Palace of Empress Cao.In the middle of the night, strange kicking and shouting noises suddenly came from outside the hall.When Song Renzong heard something was wrong, he wanted to escape from the palace, but was stopped by Empress Cao, who said: "There is such a strange noise in the palace. The decree is to summon everyone to know that Wang Shouzhong leads troops into the guard, which is the perfect strategy." So Song Renzong sent someone to summon Wang Shouzhong.Empress Cao ordered her servants to close the door tightly and block all the entrances to the hall.
At this time, there were strange noises outside the hall one after another, as well as shouts for killing and screams for help. The atmosphere was extremely eerie and chilling.An eunuch guessed: "Could it be that the maid in the palace beat the little palace lady, so there is such a cry?" Empress Cao was furious, and scolded: "The traitor is killing people outside the palace, how dare you talk nonsense!" It is estimated that the rebels made a rebellion, so they immediately gathered the servants of the palace, guarded the palace gates, and cut off a lock of hair for each of them, so that after the rebellion subsided, they would use the hair as a record to reward them for their merits.Empress Cao listened to the movement outside the palace, guessing that the rebellious soldiers would not be able to break through the palace gate for a while, and would definitely set fire to the palace gate, so she ordered the palace staff to prepare cold water.Not long after, the rebels really set fire to it, and the palace people had been prepared for it, and immediately poured water to extinguish it.At this time, everyone knew that Wang Shouzhong had led his troops to capture and kill the rebellious soldiers, and quelled the bloody mutiny.
This mutiny was initiated by attendant Yan Xiu and others, who wanted to take the opportunity to kill Song Renzong and rob the palace.Thanks to Empress Cao's ability to respond well, Song Renzong was able to turn the danger into a bargain. Even Song Renzong himself admired Empress Cao's demeanor.However, Song Renzong did not give Empress Cao any reward afterwards.Not only that, because he dotes on Zhang Meiren, he excuses that Zhang Meiren has contributed to the suppression of the chaos, and he wants to promote Zhang Meiren to the imperial concubine.For a while, the government and the public were very angry. Zhang Fangping, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, said: "Give up the queen and respect the beauties. There is no such ceremony in ancient times." All the officials also wrote letters to remonstrate.But Song Renzong didn't listen, he couldn't make his own claim twice before, this time he wanted to fight for his beloved Zhang Meiren no matter what.So the emperor tried his best to reject all opinions and made Zhang Meiren the noble concubine.On the contrary, Empress Cao was generous and didn't care about it.
Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, it has been adhering to the principle that "scholar-bureaucrats and the emperor rule the world together".Although Concubine Zhang Gui is deeply loved by Song Renzong, she can't do whatever she wants. Not only is there no hope for her post-appointment, but even her wish for Song Renzong to make her uncle Zhang Yaozuo an official post has twists and turns.Before, Song Renzong wanted to designate Zhang Yaozuo as the envoy of Xuanhui South Court (vacant position), but he was violently attacked by Taiwan admonishers, so he had to give up.But Concubine Zhang did not give up, and Song Renzong was also determined to appoint Zhang Yaozuo.One day, when Song Renzong went to court, Concubine Zhang Guifei sent Song Renzong to the gate of the hall, and said: "The officials should not forget the Xuanhui envoy today!"Song Renzong said again and again: "Don't worry! Don't worry!"
When he arrived at the main hall, just as Song Renzong was about to issue an edict to appoint Zhang Yaozuo, Bao Zheng, the court of admonishment, stood up and talked about why Zhang Yaozuo could not be appointed.Bao Zheng is Bao Qingtian in folklore. When he knew Kaifeng Mansion, he was famous for his integrity, enforced the law strictly, and was not afraid of the powerful.Bao Zheng's remonstrance was more than just a few words, he was eloquent and eloquent, and when he talked about excitement, his saliva splashed on Song Renzong's face.Under such circumstances, Song Renzong had to withdraw his order.
When Song Renzong returned to the harem, Concubine Zhang Guifei went up to meet her, but she hadn't had time to speak.Song Renzong wiped his face with his sleeve, and said impatiently: "Bao Zheng went to the palace today, and my saliva splashed all over my face. You only want to be the Xuanhui envoy, don't you know that Bao Zheng is an admonisher?"
The matter was dropped because of this.But Song Renzong still couldn't resist Zhang Guifei's pillow talk, and appointed Zhang Yao to assist Heyang and serve as the envoy of Xuanhui South Court.The censor Tang Jie immediately played to dissuade him.Song Renzong couldn't resist, so he shifted the responsibility to the prime minister, saying that this was an edict drawn up by Zhongshu and had nothing to do with him.This was originally Song Renzong's excuse, but it unexpectedly led to a series of events.
Tang Jie believed Song Renzong's evasive words, and immediately thought that this was the meaning of Prime Minister Wen Yanbo, and asked for Wen Yanbo's dismissal and Fu Bi's appointment as prime minister.The memorial specifically mentions that Wen Yanbo "communicates in the palace, cites noble relatives, not a phase", which means that Wen Yanbo has colluded with Zhang Guifei in the harem.As a result, Song Renzong threw Tang Jie's memorial far away in person.Tang Jie was not discouraged, walked over to pick up the memorial book, read it aloud in the court hall, then stared at Wen Yanbo and said, "Your husband should reflect on himself!" Wen Yanbo was so ashamed that he immediately asked Song Renzong to resign as prime minister.When Song Renzong saw that Tang Jie was threatening the prime minister, he was furious, and immediately demoted Tang Jie out of Beijing as Qingzhou Biejia.
Afterwards, Song Renzong learned that Wen Yanbo had indeed offered Shu brocade as a garment to Concubine Zhang Gui. Only then did he realize that Tang Jie's words were true, so he dismissed Wen Yanbo and went out to know Xuzhou.But Song Renzong did not recall Tang Jie in this regard, but specially sent eunuchs to escort Tang Jie from Qingzhou to Yingzhou.
Later, Wen Yanbo and Fu Bi entered the phase again at the same time.Fu Bi, courtesy name Yanguo, was born in Luoyang (now Luoyang, Henan).In the second year of Qingli (1042), he was ordered to envoy Khitan and refused the request to cede land, but allowed the increase of old coins, and accomplished the mission brilliantly.
Wen Yanbo was also the one who directly forced Di Qing to death.Di Qing, who was born as a soldier, is known as the "God of War". Because of his indomitable military exploits against Xixia, he was promoted to a general, and his reputation spread far and wide.Song Renzong heard of his name, and in order to see the demeanor of a brave general, he even sent a special person to the front line to paint a portrait of Di Qing.Later, Di Qing became a privy envoy, but he aroused the envy of the court.Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the consistent strategy has been to emphasize literature and restrain military affairs, and try its best to lower the status of generals, so as to avoid their coveting hearts.From Song Taizu's "drinking wine to release the power of soldiers", dividing the power of the commander-in-chief of the forbidden army, to the implementation of the "more garrison law", so that the soldiers do not know the generals, and the generals do not know the soldiers, until it develops to the point where all generals must be given battle plans and instructions by the imperial court. It is ridiculous that the general can only fight according to the map.Under such a big political background, the higher the promotion of Di Qing, who was born as a military general, the deeper the imperial court's suspicion and doubts about him.As early as the fourth year of Huangyou (1052), when Di Qing was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, Yushi Zhongcheng Wang Juzheng believed that Di Qing was born in the army and came to power.After Di Qing became the privy envoy, Prime Minister Wen Yanbo also persuaded Song Renzong to remove Di Qing from the post of privy envoy on the pretext that the people and the Song army were too supportive of Di Qing.At that time, Di Qing was not only regarded as a hero of the world by the Song army, but even the people of Kaifeng were impressed by his heroic deeds. Whenever Di Qing went out, many people always waited and watched.Di Qing was only a general, but he had such a high prestige, which not only made many civil servants feel unhappy, but also made Song Renzong worried.Even so, Song Renzong still felt that Di Qing had made great achievements, and couldn't bear to dismiss him publicly, so he said to Wen Yanbo: "Di Qing is a loyal minister." Wen Yanbo said: "Isn't Taizu a loyal minister of Zhou Shizong?" So he sent Di Qing out of the foreign domain.Di Qing was not willing to accept it, so he asked Wen Yanbo why he was ordered to go out.Wen Yanbo said: "Without him, the court doubts you." His voice was so severe that Di Qing took a few steps back in fright.After Di Qing arrived in Chenzhou, the imperial court was still worried, and sent Chinese envoys every half a month.At this time, Di Qing was already panicked by the rumors. Every time the messenger came, he would "surprise and doubt all day long", lest a catastrophe was imminent. In less than half a year, he fell ill and died of depression at the age of forty-nine.This generation of famous generals who once galloped on the battlefield and fought bloody battles made great contributions to the Song Dynasty. He did not wrap his body in horse leather on the battlefield, but died under the suspicion of the emperor and civil servants.After Song Renzong learned of Di Qing's death, he felt guilty and presented Di Qing with a book order, and personally inscribed the monument on it as "Jing Zhong Yuan Xun".Later Song Shenzong came to the throne, hoping to enrich the country and strengthen the army, but suffered from the fact that there was no one who could recruit good fighters in the court, so he couldn't help but think of Di Qing back then.Feeling deeply moved, Song Shenzong personally wrote the article, sent envoys to Di Qing's house to pay homage, and hung Di Qing's portrait in the forbidden room.
On the eighth day of the first lunar month in the sixth year of Huangyou (1054), Song Renzong's favorite concubine Zhang Guifei died of a sudden illness at the age of 31.Song Renzong recalled Concubine Zhang's tenderness and was deeply saddened, so he decided to mourn Concubine Zhang with the Queen's gift.Concubine Zhang Guifei did not become a queen during her lifetime, but she got the title and funeral of a queen after her death.Because he was worried about the opposition of the admonishers, Song Renzong waited until the fourth day of the funeral before announcing the posthumous concubine Zhang Guifei as the queen and bestowing the posthumous posthumous title of Wen Cheng.
At this time, the queen Cao was still alive, but Song Renzong pursued another noble concubine as the queen, so there was an ancient anecdote about two queens who died in their lifetime.This is a major event beyond the etiquette, unprecedented, and the admonishers were furious, and they all played against it.This time Song Renzong was determined and ignored them.This is probably the last thing he can do for the woman he loves.
Song Renzong was definitely not an incompetent emperor. On the contrary, during his reign, there were many famous officials. Bao Zheng, Fan Zhongyan, Di Qing, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, etc. were all famous outstanding figures at that time and later generations.Even Wang Anshi had already put forward his reform proposals to Song Renzong in a ten-thousand-word memorial, which was the basis of the later famous Wang Anshi Reform.Such a large number of talents is obviously inseparable from Song Renzong's knowledge of people and good appointment.However, it is a pity that Song Renzong's character was weak and indecisive. This character not only led to his own tragedy in his life, but also directly affected the state affairs of the Song Dynasty: Fan Zhongyan's reforms were carried out at the last critical moment, but they were suddenly taken by the Song Dynasty. Renzong gave up, so that his previous achievements were wasted; and Di Qing, a military general who was like a god of war, made the enemy famous and fearful, but was eventually suspected by the Song court and died.These are all related to Song Renzong's cowardly character.
Song Renzong had three sons successively, all of whom died young, and later became weak due to excessive indulgence.Empress Cao saw that Song Renzong was weak and worried that he would not be able to have any more children, so she discussed with Song Renzong and planned to take a child from the clan as an adopted son, just in case.If Song Renzong is really childless, he can let his adopted son inherit the throne in the future.Just at that time, Song Taizong's grandson Zhao Yunrang (the fourth son of Song Taizong Zhao Yuanfen) had many sons, and Song Renzong adopted Zhao Yunrang's thirteenth son Zhao Zongshi.Zhao Zongshi was only four years old at the time. After entering the palace, he was raised by Empress Cao. He will become Emperor Yingzong in the future.Gao Taotao, the daughter of Empress Cao's sister, was also raised in the palace at this time. She would become Song Yingzong's empress Gao in the future, that is, the famous Empress Dowager Gao known as "Yao Shun among women" in history.This section will be discussed later.