Chapter 23 Empress Sanyang and Shi Miyuan
Song Ningzong Zhao Kuo had two queens successively. The first queen, Han, was the sixth grandson of Han Qi, a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the grandniece of Han Tuozhou, a powerful minister.Initially, the Han family was selected into the palace together with her sister, but not as a concubine, but to serve the Empress Dowager Wu (Empress Gaozong of Song Dynasty).Han's kindness won the favor of Empress Dowager Wu. For her future, Empress Dowager Wu bestowed it on Zhao Kuo, who was still King Jia at that time.The Han family came from a famous family, and was gifted by the Empress Dowager Wu, so her status was very different. As soon as she arrived at Zhao Kuo's mansion, she was conferred the title of Mrs. Xin'an County, and later was granted the title of Mrs. Chongguo.After Zhao Kuo became the emperor, the Han family also rose with the tide, and was promoted to the queen.However, the Han family's wealth did not last long, she only became a queen for six years before she fell ill and died.It is precisely because the Han family died too early and the middle palace was vacant that the Yang family, who is famous for his work and scheming, was able to be crowned queen.After that, the Yang family stepped onto the political stage of the Southern Song Dynasty, which directly led to the rapid decline of the situation in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Yang's family background was humble, and his father's surname was not found in official history.It is said that at first she followed her mother Zhang into Li Deshou and acted as an actress in the Palace Music Club, which is probably equivalent to a drama actor today.Yang's beauty is outstanding, and she has outstanding talent. She is good at composing poems. She has written fifty palace poems with fresh meanings.Many of her poems have been handed down, such as the poem "The Picture of Layered Ice Cream":
So knowledgeable and reasonable, and well connected with ancient and modern times, Yang soon attracted the attention of Empress Dowager Wu, and became Empress Dowager Wu's maid.Yang's behavior was decent and she was good at dealing with it. The Empress Dowager Wu was particularly fond of her, which even aroused the jealousy of the court ladies.Once, when Empress Dowager Wu was taking a bath, the court ladies deliberately urged Yang to try on Empress Dowager Wu's clothes, saying that she would look good in them.Full of vanity, Yang couldn't stand the instigation, and actually went to try on Empress Dowager Wu's clothes, but was sued by the maids in front of Empress Wu, saying that she had acted abusively and had mischievous intentions.Unexpectedly, instead of blaming Yang, the Empress Dowager Wu reprimanded the maid who made fun of Yang, saying: "You don't need to make a fuss, maybe she (referring to Yang) will wear this dress in the future and have a status like mine." It was just a casual remark, but I didn't expect it to come true later.
At that time, King Jia Zhao Kuo often went to the Empress Dowager Wu's palace to pay her respects.Yang's appearance is beautiful and charming, which easily attracted Zhao Kuo's attention.Yang is intelligent and quick-witted, and often flirts with Zhao Kuo.But because Yang is the maid of the Empress Dowager Wu, and is much older than Zhao Kuang, she didn't dare to have any illusions at first. Unexpectedly, after Zhao Kuo became the emperor, she still couldn't forget Yang, and often took this opportunity to get close, so Yang was lucky. .
When Empress Dowager Wu found out, she was very upset and wanted to punish Yang, probably because she felt that Yang's seducing the emperor behind her back was not only indecent, but also lost face.The eunuchs around the Empress Dowager Wu wanted to take the opportunity to please the new emperor, so they persuaded: "Niang Niang (Ouchi's name for the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager) even gave the world to her grandson (referring to the fact that the Empress Dowager Wu issued an edict to let Zhao Kuo ascend the throne), What is there to cherish about a woman? Besides, this kind of thing is related to the dignity of the royal family, so you must not let outsiders know about it." Some people persuaded: "Your Majesty hasn't embraced her great-great-grandson yet. Judging by Yang's face, she should have an heir." Empress Dowager Wu said Only then was his anger calmed down, and later he simply gave the Yang family to Song Ningzong generously, and told his grandson: "Look at me, treat her well."
Ningzong of the Song Dynasty was overjoyed, and since then he has shown great favor to the Yang family, progressively progressing to Jieyu, Wanyi, until the title of imperial concubine, which is already second only to the title of empress.Yang Shi is six years older than Song Ningzong. Song Ningzong not only loves her very much, but also has a kind of dependence on her.Yang's is different from other concubines in the harem, she has deep plans and wants to show her skills on the political stage.However, her family was in decline and she had no relatives, so she assumed Yang Cishan, who was of her native place, as her elder brother, and wanted to use Yang Cishan as her helper and eyes and ears outside the palace.
In the year when Yang's concubine was made a noble concubine, Empress Han died of illness.At this time, in addition to Concubine Yang, the favored concubine in the harem also had a beauty named Cao.The candidates for the new queen basically did not come out of these two, and a fierce battle was launched in the harem.The important minister Han Yuzhou lost his backer in the harem because of the sudden death of Empress Han, and he also needed to find new allies in the harem. He felt that Yang Guifei was scheming and good at power, while Cao Meiren had a docile temperament and was easy to control, so he urged Song Ningzong to establish Cao The beauty is the queen.Song Ningzong preferred Concubine Yang more in his heart, so he couldn't make up his mind for a while.
After Yang Guifei learned about this from Yang Cishan, she hated Han Yuzhou to the bone. In order to win the queen's position, she carefully planned a good show of retreating first and advancing later.In the winter of this year, Mrs. Yang said to Cao Meiren: "The position of the middle palace is only for you and my sister, but the official family has not yet decided, we sisters may as well set up a banquet separately, invite the official family to the banquet, and ask him what is the matter?" What do you mean?" Cao Meiren agreed.Concubine Yang deliberately expressed her willingness to let Cao Meiren set up the table first, and she was willing to be behind.Cao Meiren didn't know what it was, she was secretly happy.Song Ningzong first went to Cao Meiren's place to drink, and when he was drunk, Cao Meiren was about to ask for the queen's throne, so Concubine Yang rushed over and took Song Ningzong back to his residence under an excuse.At this time, Song Ningzong was already half drunk, and when he saw Yang Guifei's charming and restrained, he asked for joy.Concubine Yang Guifei had been prepared for a long time, took out a pen and paper, and asked Song Ningzong to make herself a queen before going to bed.Song Ningzong wrote down the edict to make Yang the queen while drunk.According to the usual practice, the imperial edict should be issued to the relevant ministers. The shrewd Yang family was worried that Han Tuozhou would reject the canonized edict, so he asked Song Ningzong to write an identical edict, and sent his confidants to send the edict out of the palace overnight.
In the early morning of the next day, when all the officials entered the court, Yang Cishan, Yang's false elder brother, hurried to the palace, took out the imperial edict written by Song Ningzong last night from his sleeve, and announced in public that Song Ningzong canonized Yang as empress.After Han Tuozhou heard the news, even if he disagreed, it would be useless.This year, Yang Shi was forty-one years old, and she finally got her wish and ascended to the throne of queen by virtue of her ingenuity.
Empress Yang has a younger sister, who is called Yang Mei in the harem.Yangmei is not inferior to her elder sister in appearance, and she is equally talented. She can write good handwriting, and imitating Song Ningzong's handwriting can almost confuse real ones.Later, Song Ningzong simply wrote Yang Mei's ghostwriting for all the poems that were approved by the emperor and bestowed on noble relatives and close officials.
As mentioned earlier, Song Ningzong didn't want to be an emperor at first, but after being forced to become an emperor, he also did nothing and didn't want to bother about the country's affairs.The emperor ignored the government, and soon the memorials piled up like a mountain.In order to save trouble, Song Ningzong wrote "yes" on all memorials.The funny thing is that there are ministers who have different opinions on the memorials, and the instructions they get are all "OK", which makes people laugh and cry.When Song Ningzong went to the court, he often kept silent, and the ministers were talking dryly, and he neither expressed his position nor made a decision, which made people have to doubt the emperor's intelligence level.
Not only that, Song Ningzong also adopted the method of "imperial pen" to deal with the government affairs, that is, after the inner palace wrote the memorial, it was directly issued for execution without going through the central organization of the Privy Council of the three provinces.This unsystematic approach directly led to eunuchs, the harem colluding with foreign ministers, abusing the imperial pen, and even forging the imperial pen to act as the emperor's power.The ambitious Empress Yang started to do politics in the incompetence of Song Ningzong. With her support, Shi Miyuan, a famous traitor in the Southern Song Dynasty, reached the pinnacle of power, which caused far-reaching damage to the Southern Song Dynasty government.
Empress Yang held a grudge against Han Tuozhou for obstructing her being crowned empress, and was always looking for opportunities to retaliate.However, at that time, Han Tuozhou, who was a privy secretary, accepted the decree, and opened the three divisions of Fuyitong to take charge of the political power. The power was higher than that of the left and right prime ministers.At best, Empress Yang was calling the wind and rain in the harem. She realized that only by making friends with courtiers could she completely eradicate Han Tuozhou.Empress Yang made a connection through Yang Cishan and took the initiative to show her favor to Shi Miyuan, the Minister of Rites.Shi Miyuan and Han Tuozhou had always been at odds, and they were also looking for an insider in the palace in an attempt to grab more power, so they hit it off with Queen Yang and colluded together.
At that time, the struggle between the main war faction and the main peace faction in the court of the Southern Song Dynasty was very fierce.At that time, the power of the Jin Kingdom was declining day by day, and Han Tuozhou wanted to take this opportunity to recover the Central Plains, conquer the Jin Kingdom in the north, and do a great cause that would shake the world and weep ghosts and gods.The most important thing is that Han Tuozhou has already felt the threat from Empress Yang, and he needs to "establish a world-class fame to strengthen himself".Because of Han Yuzhou's high position and power, the main combat faction finally gained the upper hand in the court, and the Southern Song Dynasty decided to formally send troops to the Northern Expedition.This war was known as the "Kaixi Northern Expedition" in history.
Before the expedition, in order to boost morale, Han Yuzhou suggested that Yue Fei should be crowned king of Hubei, Qin Hui, who had long died, should be deprived of his title, and his posthumous title "Zhong Xian" should be changed to "Yu Chou" (meaning absurd and ugly).For a while, everyone applauded.
The situation at this time was quite favorable to the Southern Song court.It has been more than 70 years since the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the northern territories have always been in the hands of the Jin people. The adherents of the Central Plains have been eagerly looking forward to the Northern Expedition of the Song Army, and the soldiers and civilians in the South also have a strong desire to recover the lost land and revive Ji Gang.Lu You has poems such as "The survivors are in tears, looking south to the master for another year", "The survivors endure death and hope to recover, and there are tears in several places tonight", which truly reflect the state of the people at that time.However, during the reign of Jin Zhangzong in the Jin Kingdom, the country was weakened, especially the rise of northern Mongolia, which greatly weakened its rule.It can be said that this is a great opportunity for the Northern Expedition.However, since the failure of Zhang Jun's Northern Expedition in the Southern Song Dynasty, there has been no military battle for nearly 40 years, and the lack of effective military generals has become a huge hidden danger for Kaixi's Northern Expedition.
Before the Northern Expedition, Han Yuzhou deliberately appointed a group of main combatants, and Xin Qiji, who had been idle for a long time, was appointed as the pacifier of eastern Zhejiang.
Xin Qiji, courtesy name You'an, nicknamed Jiaxuan, was born in Licheng (now Jinan, Shandong).When Xin Qiji was born, Shandong had already been occupied by Jin soldiers.Xin Qiji's grandfather, Xin Zan, was dragged down by his family and failed to travel south in time.But he cared deeply about his homeland, and he often took Xin Qiji to "climb the heights and look far away, pointing to the mountains and rivers" ("Ten Treatises on Meiqin"), hoping that in the future he would have the opportunity to "raise provocations to relieve the sworn anger of the king and father".Xin Zan had high hopes for Xin Qiji and asked him to take the Jinshi examination twice in Yanjing, the capital of Jin, and took the opportunity to observe the situation of Jin and try to restore it.In the thirty-first year of Shaoxing (1161), Wan Yanliang, the gold master, invaded southward on a large scale. The Han people in Shandong and Hebei could not bear the oppression of the gold people and rose up to resist.The 21-year-old Xin Qiji resolutely gathered two thousand people to fight against the gold, and later joined the peasant uprising army led by Geng Jing as the secretary, responsible for drafting the call for action, and in charge of the seal of the rebel army.When there were many internal conflicts among the Jin people, Wan Yanliang was killed by his subordinates on the front line, and when the Jin army retreated northward, Xin Qiji urged Geng Jing to submit to the Southern Song court, and went south to contact the Southern Song court.Song Gaozong thus appointed Geng Jing as the envoy of the Tianping Army, and Xin Qiji as You Chengwulang and Secretary of the Tianping Army.On the way back from Xin Qiji's mission, a mutiny broke out within the rebel army. Zhang Anguo, Shao Jin and others, who were lured by the Jinren, plotted to kill Geng Jing and surrendered to the Jinren, and the rebel army collapsed.The bloody Xin Qiji gathered more than 50 people, rushed to Jinying, captured the traitor Zhang Anguo with lightning speed, and brought him to Jiankang to be executed by the Southern Song Dynasty court.Xin Qiji's witty and courageous move caused a huge shock in the Southern Song Dynasty.Hong Mai records: "The strong voice is heroic, the cowards rise up for it, and the holy emperor sighs three times when he sees it." ("Jiaxuan Ji") After returning from Huainan, Xin Qiji served successively as pacifiers in Hubei, Jiangxi, and Hunan.He persisted in advocating anti-goldenism throughout his life, and put forward many suggestions for restoring the lost land, but none of them were adopted, and he was attacked by the peace faction.
After Xin Qiji was reinstated, he was deeply encouraged by the sound of the Northern Expedition, and his ambition to restore the Central Plains was reawakened.However, he is seasoned and thoughtful, and after careful analysis, he believes that the current opportunity for combat is immature, and he advocates not to act hastily.However, Han Tuozhou just used Xin Qiji's signature as a veteran of the main battle faction as a call, and didn't really want to reuse him, so he sent him out of Jingkou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), an important defense area in Zhenjiang.After Xin Qiji took office, while actively preparing for the war, he was worried.Because he was very aware that when Han Tuozhou monopolized the government, not only was he in a difficult situation, but the Northern Expedition would also find it difficult to make a difference.Under such a complex psychology of intertwined contradictions, Xin Qiji wrote the famous article "Yongyule Jingkou Beiguting Nostalgia" that has been passed down through the ages:
The whole poem lamented that "there are no heroes to be found throughout the ages, and Sun Zhongmou is here", while reminiscing about his fighting career in his youth, expressing his heroic feelings of being a hero and never being willing to be sunk, which was promoted by later generations as a masterpiece ( See Yang Shen's "Ci Pin").
In the second year of Kaixi (1206), Han Yuzhou ordered Guo Ni, the deputy commander in front of the palace, to command Duhuai and the brave general Bi Zaiyu to attack Sizhou, winning the first battle.On the seventh day of May, Emperor Ningzong of Song Dynasty officially issued an edict to cut gold.At that time, the main forces of the Northern Expedition of the Song Army were distributed on the two wings of Jianghuai and Sichuan. Deng Youlong was the Xuanfu envoy of the two Huaihe Rivers and was in charge of commanding the eastern front.Originally, the east and the west were supposed to echo each other, but it turned out that things were broken by this Wu Xi.
Wu Xi is the grandson of Wu Jie, a famous general who fought against the Jin Dynasty.Brothers Wu Lin and Wu Jie were both excellent generals who grew up from the bottom of the Song army. The two brothers led the army and the people to fight against the gold in Sichuan. imperial court.It can be seen that the Wu brothers have a great reputation and great influence.It is a pity that Wu Xi not only failed to inherit the loyalty and bravery of his ancestors, but also willingly became a shameful traitor for his own self-interest.
The general course of events is as follows: first, the Jin people took the initiative to send a letter to Wu Xi. In the letter, he strongly praised Wu Xi's ancestors' achievements: "At that time, it was the ancestor Wu'an Gongxue who defended the two rivers. The commander of Yishi Xun, who was desolate in the western land, grew up as a assistant, swore to the rivers and mountains, even if the descendants were eliminated by Luan, he would still be forgiven for the tenth generation. However, those who shake the master with power are in danger, and those who make great achievements in the world will not be rewarded. It has been like this since ancient times, and it doesn’t stop at the present.” Then it was explained that the Song court had always been wary and suspicious of Wu Xi.For this reason, the Jin people cited the example of Yue Fei being killed in those years, and compared Wu Xi with Yue Fei: "And you think that Yi Zan's contribution is better than Yue Fei's? Fei's prestige and military exploits are violent in the north and south. The punishment of the three barbarians is not to be feared. Therefore, the wise move according to the time, and the wise move according to the opportunity. For the sake of blessing, build an immortal career!" These words are quite powerful, directly revealing the biggest Achilles' heel of the Song court: never trusting generals.Wu Xi was finally moved, and sent someone to communicate closely with the Kingdom of Jin, offering to donate the four prefectures of Jie, Cheng, He, and Feng to the Jin people in exchange for the Jin people making him King of Shu.The golden man immediately agreed, ordering Wu Xi to just stand still.
After Wu Xi's rebellion, the Jin army had no worries about going west, and fully deployed on the eastern front.As a result, the Song Army was defeated one after another on the Eastern Front. Guo Zhuo and Li Ruyi were defeated in Suzhou (now Su County, Anhui), Wang Dajie was defeated in Caizhou (now Runan, Henan), Huangfu Bin was defeated in Tangzhou (now Tanghe, Henan), Li Shuang The army collapsed in Shouzhou (now Fengtai, Anhui) and so on.Only Bi Zaiyu's army won repeated battles, but lost without compensation.
Soon after, Wu Xi was granted the title of King of Shu by the Jin Dynasty, arrogated to be located in Xingzhou (now Lueyang, Shaanxi Province), and dedicated the four states outside the pass to the Jin Dynasty.His shameless surrender was strongly resisted by the army and the people. His subordinates Yang Juyuan and Li Haoyi joined forces with the army and the people to break into the false palace and beheaded Wu Xi.Wu Xi became king for only forty-one days.Yang Juyuan, Li Haoyi and others promoted the transfer envoy An Bing to lead the army and sent troops to recover the four prefectures of Jie, Cheng, He and Feng occupied by the Jin army.Li Haoyi asked to take advantage of the victory to advance to Qin Long, but An Bing not only disagreed, but also vigorously eradicated dissidents within the Song Army. Yang Juyuan, Li Haoyi, etc. were all killed, and the Song Army on the western front was seriously injured. An Bing buried it all by himself.
Han Yuzhou dismissed Su Shidan and Deng Youlong who were in charge of the military because of his failure to send troops, and appointed Qiu Yu as the envoy of the Lianghuai Xuanfu.As soon as Qiu Jie took office, he took a defensive position, and as a result, he suffered repeated failures.Qiu Jie simply negotiated peace with Jin Jun in secret.Both the east and west lines stood still, and Han Tuozhou was immediately isolated.The Jin people immediately divided into nine groups, marched southward in a large scale, and started a comprehensive counter-offensive, with the front spreading across the Song and Jin borders.The Song Dynasty suffered successive defeats and the situation was quite unfavorable. The court of the Southern Song Dynasty was shocked, and the voice for peace talks once again rose.Seeing that the Song army suffered successive military defeats, Han Yuzhou dismissed Qiu Gu and ordered Zhang Yan to supervise the Jianghuai soldiers and horses. At the same time, he sent his envoy Fang Xinru to Kaifeng to ask the Jin people for peace.At that time, the Jin army suffered heavy losses due to the long front line, and was unable to fight any more. However, they took the opportunity to offer high terms of peace to the Southern Song Dynasty court: cut off the two Huaihe Rivers, increase the old coins, pay the army silver, and the head of Han Tuozhou, the leader of the Northern Expedition. .Han Tuozhou was furious and decided to fight again with his troops.However, a coup took place within the court.
Shi Miyuan took the lead in writing a letter to impeach Han Tuozhou, accusing that since the Northern Expedition, countless people had been killed and injured, and public and private material resources were very difficult, causing disasters to the country.Empress Yang also took the opportunity to let the prince Zhao Wei accuse Han Tuozhou in front of Song Ningzong, but Song Ningzong still trusted Han Tuozhou, so Queen Yang decided to take the risk and called Yang Cishan into the palace, ordering him to discuss with Shi Miyuan to kill Han Tuozhou.On the third day of November in the third year of Kaixi (1207), Shi Miyuan, with the support of Empress Yang, pretended to have a secret decree, ordering Xia Zhen, the official in charge of the palace, to lead 300 troops to ambush at the side of Liubu bridge, waiting for Han Tuozhou to enter. During the dynasty, he was robbed to the wall of Yujin Garden and beaten to death.
After Song Ningzong heard the news that Han Tuozhou had been robbed, he hurriedly wrote a letter to pardon Han Tuozhou.Empress Yang grabbed Song Ningzong and wept, "If Your Majesty issues an order, please let my concubine die here first!" Song Ningzong gave up.Later, Lin'an Mansion informed Song Ningzong of the news of Han Tuozhou's death, but Song Ningzong didn't believe it. Three days later, he insisted that Han Tuozhou was not dead.Only then did the ministers realize that Han Tuozhou's death was not ordered by Song Ningzong, but by Shi Miyuan and Queen Yang.
After Han Tuozhou's death, Shi Miyuan monopolized the power, knew the affairs of the Privy Council, participated in political affairs, and worshiped the right prime minister.The most despicable thing is that he cut off Han Tuozhou's head, put it in a box and gave it to the Jinren, and the North and the South negotiated peace again.The heads of important ministers of the court were sent out to beg for peace.
The Kaixi Northern Expedition declared a complete failure with the death of Han Tuozhou. This was also the last Northern Expedition of the Southern Song court.
Compared with the killing of Han Tuozhou by the monarchs and ministers in the Southern Song Dynasty to seek peace, the Jin people admired Han Tuozhou's integrity, "Han Tuozhou sent a letter to the captives, and the prisoner's Taiwan remonstrance article said that Han Tuozhou was loyal to his country, and he was in his body, and he was named Zhongmiaohou. "("Gui Er Ji").However, the Song-Jin peace agreement was finally reached, and this was the most humiliating "Jiading peace agreement" in the history of the Song-Jin peace agreement.Not only that, but the Song court also gave Qin Hui, who was in charge of the peace talks more than 60 years ago, the "Fujue posthumous posthumous title", and the yearly coins given to the Kingdom of Jin also increased to 600,000.This situation was maintained until Mongolia defeated Jin Guo, and the Song court accepted Zhen Dexiu's suggestion and refused to give Jin Guojin new year coins.
Both the government and the opposition were very dissatisfied with Shi Miyuan, but most of them dared not speak out.Finally, Ni Si, Minister of the Ministry of War, wrote a letter to remind Ningzong of Song Dynasty to beware of powerful officials arbitrarily repeating themselves, but was pushed out by Shi Miyuan.In the second year of Jiading (1209), the "Luo Riyuan Change" also occurred against Shi Miyuan.
Luo Riyuan, a native of Jiangxi, during the Kaixi Northern Expedition, once offered advice to Han Yuzhou, so that he could supplementary training of Wu Lang and act as the leader of the loyal army.After Han Tuozhou was killed, Shi Miyuan went after the Han party endlessly, implicating many people, and some of them implicated Luo Riyuan in their confessions.Luo Riyuan was apprehensive and anxious when he learned about it, and was often depressed, for fear of being plotted by Shi Miyuan.Later, when he saw that the government and the public were generally dissatisfied with Shi Miyuan, he conspired with Yang Ming, the training officer of Shenjun in front of the temple, and his disciples Xu Ji, Zhao Min, etc., and planned to gather people to revolt in the name of conquering Heifengdong.According to the original plan, the day of action was chosen when Prime Minister Shi Miyuan crossed the river and all officials greeted him at the Zhejiang Pavilion. He prepared to raise fire as a sign to kill all the officials below Zaizhi, and then sent troops into the palace to coerce Song Ningzong to send an edict to reward the army. , with Luo Riyuan as the privy envoy and Xu Ji as the political adviser.As a result, the coup d'état was still being planned, and was reported by Que Jinyong's deputy Wei Jing Dechang, Luo Riyuan was executed by Ling Chi, and Xu Ji, Zhao Min, etc. were also executed.
Since then, most of the courtiers tolerated Shi Miyuan's perverse actions and remained silent, not daring to speak out.On December 29 of the same year, Lu You died of writing poems.The poem goes: "When you die, you will know that everything is empty, but you will not see the same in Kyushu; Wang Shibei will set the Central Plains Day, and the family sacrifice will never be forgotten!" Wish: Even if you didn't see the recovery of the Central Plains during your lifetime, you still want to hear the news after your death. "Staying in a lonely village is not self-sorrowful, and Shangsi defends Luntai for the country. Lying in the night to listen to the wind and rain, iron horses and rivers falling into dreams." Read Lu You's "November 4th Storm and Storm", and you will be able to deeply understand I realized the poet's deep concern for the people and his tragic ambition to serve the country.Especially when the Central Plains is in a crisis of life and death, when it is sinking and sinking, it makes people's eyes full of tears and blood boil.Although Lu You was deeply saddened by "not seeing the Kyushu Tong", he did not despair. He firmly believed that one day the army of the Song Dynasty would be able to pacify the Central Plains and recover the lost land.However, at this time, the state of Jin was declining, and Mongolian Temujin was rising rapidly.At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was always "but sad that Kyushu is not the same", and the "Wang Shibei set the Central Plains Day" that Lu You was looking forward to finally did not come.
Empress Yang's sons all died young, and as they got older, they had to think about their future.She has a good relationship with the prince Zhao Wei, and they once joined forces to deal with Han Yuzhou, so she strongly advocated making Zhao Wei the crown prince, and Zhao Wei also changed his name to Zhao Xun.It is a pity that Zhao Xun died of illness before he ascended the throne.Song Ningzong no longer had any heirs, so he made Zhao Guihe, the son of the emperor's brother Yiwang Zhao Yan, the crown prince, and Zhao Guihe changed his name to Zhao Mian.
Shi Miyuan already felt that the new prince was not easy to deal with, so he tried his best to monitor the prince Zhao Mian.Zhao Mian liked to play the guqin, so Shi Miyuan bought a beautiful woman who was good at playing the piano as a present for him.Zhao Hong has great ambitions, but no political acumen, and even introduces Qin Nu as a confidant in life.Seeing that Shi Miyuan was so powerful and collude with Empress Yang, he felt aggrieved in his heart, and his dissatisfaction was often expressed in his words.Zhao Mian's teacher Zhen Dexiu advised him to keep a low profile, pay more filial piety to Empress Yang, and win over Shi Miyuan in order to gain a foothold, but Zhao Mian did not accept it.He once wrote about the sins of Shi Miyuan and Empress Yang on the book case, and said: "Miyuan should be married for eight thousand miles." He pointed to Qiongzhou and Yazhou (both in today's Hainan) on the wall map and said: "I If he succeeds in his day, put Shi Miyuan above this." Shi Miyuan is often called "Xin En", which means that he will be sent to Xinzhou or Enzhou (now Xinxing, Yangjiang, Guangdong) in the future.
Shi Miyuan was terrified when he got the information from the undercover Qin girl, and secretly plotted to abolish Zhao Mian's crown prince.He sent people to find a man named Zhao Yuju from the people, saying that he was the descendant of Zhao Kuangyin, the ancestor of Song Dynasty, and he was given the honor and honor. Later, he changed his name to Zhao Yun, made him the son of King Yi, and vigorously supported him.
In the seventeenth year of Jiading, Song Ningzong fell ill.Shi Miyuan called Zhao Yun into the palace at night, but Empress Yang didn't know anything about it.Shi Miyuan falsely passed on the emperor's decree, and changed Zhao Yun to be the crown prince and named him Duke.Five days later, Song Ningzong passed away, and Shi Miyuan told Queen Yang about the abolition of the crown prince.Although Empress Yang didn't like Zhao Mian, she was very unhappy with Shi Miyuan's self-assertion, and said in amazement: "The crown prince Zhao Mian was established by the previous emperor, how could he change it without authorization?" Empress Yang knew her own interests, and Empress Yang couldn't help persuading her again and again, and considering her own interests, she agreed to Shi Miyuan's request.
After Zhao Yun ascended the throne as Song Lizong, Empress Yang's status was guaranteed, and she listened to politics behind the curtain as empress dowager.In the fifth year of Baoqing (1229), the 70-year-old Empress Dowager Yang died of illness.That is, in this year, the Mongolian nobles complied with Genghis Khan's will and embraced his third son, Wo Kuotai, as the Great Khan, namely Emperor Taizong of the Yuan Dynasty.Before Genghis Khan died of illness, he proposed the strategy of uniting the Song Dynasty and destroying the Jin Dynasty.
It is said that Empress Yang and Shi Miyuan had an extraordinary relationship, and such secret affairs of the palace naturally did not appear in the official history.In Song Dynasty Yang Shengan's "Baoqing Poetry", there is a sentence "Night driving old toad concubine mother of the moon", and someone made Yuefu's "Yongyun": "The moon and the moon are lovers, and the scroll and the sky also cover the shade." They are all ridicules. The romantic affair between Queen Yang and Shi Miyuan.
In fact, a discerning person can know that this is a rumor based on speculation.When Empress Yang made friends with Shi Miyuan, she was already nearly fifty years old, no matter how well maintained she was, she was still a gray-haired old woman.And Shi Miyuan is five years younger than Empress Yang, with his shrewdness, how could he risk the world's displeasure by having an affair with the old empress?
Furthermore, Empress Yang and Song Ningzong have a very deep relationship.Song Ningzong was weak and sick, and Empress Yang took good care of him for many years.It takes a lot of patience.As the saying goes: "A long illness becomes a cure." After a long time, Empress Yang can figure out exactly what medicine Song Ningzong should take.Once, Song Ningzong suffered from dysentery and called the imperial doctor into the palace for diagnosis and treatment.The imperial doctor had just taken the pulse and asked about the symptoms, but before he could prescribe a prescription, Empress Yang asked, "Does the official family take induction pills?" Yes, eat well." After Song Ningzong took the induction pill, his illness really recovered.Empress Yang is so considerate, no wonder Song Ningzong relied on her all his life and never disliked her for being old and fading.
After Zhao Mian was abolished as the crown prince, he became King Ji, and was soon forced to death by Shi Miyuan.The upright ministers in the court all wrote letters to express their grievances for the king of Ji, Zhao Mian, and accused Shi Miyuan of being domineering.Shi Miyuan vigorously eliminated dissidents, and the government was completely controlled by Shi Miyuan and his followers.
It is said that Shi Miyuan lived alone for many years, and he knew that the government and the public had little to say about his dominance of the government.In his later years, he felt the crisis even more, so he wanted to find a cemetery in his hometown with good geomantic omen as his final destination, but unexpectedly this caused a big disturbance.The Feng Shui master Shi Miyuan was looking for finally took a fancy to the Ashoka Temple, the "eight auspicious places and six special places".After seeing it, Shi Miyuan also found it very satisfactory, so he ordered the Ashoka Temple to be demolished, so that he could build a tomb for himself on the spot.When the monks of Ashoka Temple heard the news, they were as anxious as ants on a hot pot, but there was nothing they could do.A young monk named Shifan stepped forward and said that he had a way to protect the monastery.Under the half-believing eyes of everyone, Shi Fan left the temple and rushed to Lin'an.He wrote a batch of poem lists and posted them around the city gates, palace walls, and streets in the middle of the night.The poem list reads: "A piece of land for the king of Yu often takes the emperor's anger; if the prime minister wants to make a grave, I don't know what the owner wants?"When the poem came out, it immediately caused a sensation.The people in Lin'an had been resentful towards Shi Miyuan for a long time, and after seeing the poem list, they also spread rumors: "Shi Miyuan wants to occupy the emperor's spirit and seek the emperor to usurp the throne."Shi Miyuan saw that people's words were scary, and he was afraid of causing death, so he hurriedly said: "The tomb of my minister has already been built on Daci Mountain in Dongqian Lake, and the poem list is just something out of thin air." In this way, Ashoka Temple was spared the fate of being demolished , Shi Miyuan also had to really move the tomb to Daci Mountain in Dongqian Lake.
In October of the sixth year of Shaoding (1233), Shi Miyuan died of illness, and his 27-year dictatorship came to an end.After his death, he was posthumously named King of Wei, and his posthumous posthumous title was "Zhongxian".
Here I want to talk about Shi Miyuan's posthumous title of "loyalty".As mentioned earlier, Qin Hui's earliest posthumous title was "Zhongxian", which was later changed to "Absurd Chou" by Han Tuozhou.However, after Shi Miyuan came to power, he restored Qin Hui's posthumous title of "loyalty".It is no coincidence that Shi Miyuan's posthumous title is the same as Qin Hui's posthumous title.Scholars at that time generally believed that Shi Miyuan and Qin Hui belonged to the same "villain", and the ritual officials who discussed posthumous titles probably held the same view.In the second year of Duanping (1235), just over a year after Shi Miyuan's death, the famous literati Liu Kezhuang openly compared Shi Miyuan with Qin Hui in his letter to Song Lizong, pointing out that "the world has been in chaos for a long time".It can be seen that Shi Miyuan and Qin Hui belonged to the same "villain", which was the consensus of the scholar-bureaucrats at that time.Shi Miyuan's posthumous title of "loyalty" is literally a compliment, but the derogatory meaning is self-evident.
