Chapter 10 Nine, Empress Dowager Hu Yueli

Emperor Xiaoming Yuanxu was the ninth emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty (if not counting Tuobayu, the king of Nan'an who was murdered for a short time, he would be the eighth emperor), and he had many firsts.For example, he was the first emperor born in Luoyang after the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital (from the current point of view, he is the so-called "second generation of immigrants"), and he was also the only prince who was born in the Luoyang Palace and survived. Before him, Emperor Xuanwu had two princes.The first one was Yuanchang, who was born with the first empress Yu Shi. Gao Zhao tricked him and died at the age of three.When the second empress Gao was a noble concubine, she gave birth to a prince and a princess for Emperor Xuanwu. The little princess was brought up, but the little prince died earlier than Yuanchang.Empress Gao never had any children, but she was jealous by nature. She was very concerned about the relationship between other concubines and the emperor, and even tried every means to obstruct their actions.Until the death of Emperor Xuanwu, there were still many concubines in the harem who had never served the emperor.

It was in such a harsh monitoring environment that a woman was lucky enough to be patronized by Emperor Xuanwu and had his child; not only had a child, but also a boy; not only a boy, but also became a prince; The crown prince, she herself also escaped the Northern Wei royal family's more than 100-year-old rule of "the death of the son and the mother", and she was saved from death. Relying on her son's status, she became an extremely key figure in the late Northern Wei Dynasty.She is Yuan Xu's biological mother, Hu Shi. The Hu family is Han, and their ancestors came from Long'an Ding (now Jingchuan, Gansu). The great-grandfather Hu Lue and grandfather Hu Yuan served as officials in the Later Qin and Xia Kingdoms for two generations.When the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed Xia, Hu Yuan surrendered to the army of the Northern Wei Dynasty and had the merit of receiving him. Tuoba Tao bestowed him a marquis and made him the governor of Hezhou.

According to the system of the Northern Wei Dynasty, one rank is automatically lowered when one takes over the title. Therefore, when Hu's father, Hu Guozhen, had no talent and no achievements, he had no prominent reputation except for the title of earl.Back Qin, the great country in Guanzhong, took Buddhism as the state religion, and now the Northern Wei Dynasty is also full of Buddhist temples.The Hu family was deeply influenced and has always been devout and Buddhist.Hu Guozhen's elder sister became a nun, and her theoretical level is not low. She often has the opportunity to go to the palace to discuss scriptures and Taoism.Hu Guozhen wanted to glorify her ancestors, but she didn't have any skills, so she came up with an idea: focus on training her daughter, and then let her sister act as the "insider" of the palace and "recommend" the emperor.

This is the right way to go.Hu's appearance and temperament are excellent. Under the influence of Hu Guozhen's sister and brother, he is versatile and understands a lot of Buddhist principles.When others look at it, it really has the taste of an intellectual woman.Every time her aunt who was a nun entered the palace, whenever she had the opportunity, she would talk to the maids and eunuchs about the benefits of her niece. The Hu family was called into the palace and named Chenghua Shifu (Shifu is one of the ranks of the harem, lower than concubine). For a long time, the harem of the Northern Wei Dynasty has formed a set of thinking patterns. The concubines often pray to each other, only wishing to have a princess. Even if it is a prince, they must not be the first—no one wants to lose it because of the birth of a prince. life.Hu was a person who came prepared and scoffed at this kind of thinking.She said: "How can the emperor have no sons alone, how can he make the royal family lose his blood for his own life and death?"

When Emperor Xuanwu heard that Hu's awareness was so high, he favored her even more, and soon Hu became pregnant.She swore in front of the Buddha every night: "I hope that the conceived boy will be the eldest son (Emperor Xuanwu's two sons are dead), even if he kills me because he becomes the prince, he will not hesitate!" Buddha really blessed her once, and Yuan Xu was born.Emperor Xuanwu was overjoyed. He named Hu as a concubine, personally arranged for the nurturing staff, and carefully protected Xiao Yuanxu. No one could get close to him, even Queen Gao couldn't find a chance to do it.

Empress Gao couldn't kill Yuan Xu, but she also had her wishful thinking.She thought to herself that anyway, there is an ancestral motto that "the son and the mother die", and when Yuan Xu becomes the crown prince, the Hu family will have to die, and in the end the crown prince will still be controlled by her. Sure enough, Yuan Xu was established as the prince when he was three years old.But who would have expected that no matter how the queen persuaded Emperor Xuanwu to get rid of the Hu family, Emperor Xuanwu would not listen to her.Emperor Xuanwu had such a precious son in his late thirties (traditionally, the emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty should be a grandfather at this age). Not only should he not be hurt a little, but the Hu family who gave birth to him should also live well.Emperor Xuanwu actually abolished the rule of "the death of the son and the mother". (The abolition of this seemingly barbaric system should be commendable. But history just made another joke here. The Hu family, who survived by luck, became the last empress dowager in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In her hands, she was also involved in the decline and fall of the Northern Wei Dynasty.)

Until the death of Emperor Xuanwu, Empress Gao was still looking for an opportunity to assassinate the Hu family, but failed under the care of the princes.Gao Zhao was punished, and the whole situation was turned upside down.Gao Zhao is full of evil, and the victorious Gaoyang Wang Yuanyong, the leading general Yu Zhong and others are not the embodiment of justice.This is just a power struggle between the princelings and the relatives.The enemy of an enemy is a friend. As the opposite of Empress Gao, the Hu family is naturally strongly supported by the princelings.The princelings first let the outcast Rencheng Wang Yuancheng (the old prince who made great contributions in the era of Emperor Xiaowen hardly do anything in the era of Emperor Xuanwu, because of Gao Zhao's suspicion, he was forced to pretend to be crazy, drinking and having fun all day long, so that he was able to survive. Life) and Emperor Xuanwu's younger brothers Yuan Yi and Yuan Huai served as Sikong, Taiwei and Situ (the "Three Dukes") respectively, and then moved the Empress Dowager Gao (the little emperor ascended the throne and was naturally "promoted" one level) to the vicinity of Luoyang The Yaoguang Temple in the Yaoguang Temple was a nun, and he was not allowed to enter the palace casually (a few years later, the Gao family, who had exhausted all the organs, was secretly poisoned to death by the Hu family, which can be regarded as "the way of heaven is impermanent, and the retribution is not good"). Empress Dowager.

After the power was stabilized, the princes and ministers jointly invited the Queen Mother to come to court.Empress Dowager Hu became the second (and last) empress dowager in the Northern Wei Dynasty after Empress Wenming Feng. (This level has exceeded the goal of his father Hu Guozhen. Old man Hu ascended to heaven with chickens and dogs, and he probably secretly admired his plan. But he only enjoyed three years of blessings before he really ascended to heaven.) The princelings think they are smart, and they will not be as difficult to control as their relatives if they let women with no background handle the court affairs.How could they have thought that this weak woman in front of them has a lot of tricks, and she will do more to ruin the Northern Wei court.

Yu Zhong, who had contributed to protecting Queen Mother Hu, was the first to lose power.Yu Zhong is an old minister beside Emperor Xuanwu, and one of the few close ministers who survived a series of spoofs by Gao Zhao and survived to Emperor Xiaoming's reign.Relying on his old qualifications and high achievements, he grasped the issuance of government orders with one hand and the guards in the palace with the other, intending to arbitrarily rule the government.Shangshu Zuopu shot Guo Zuo and Shangshu Pei Zhi persuaded Gaoyang Wang Yuanyong to find a way to send Yu Zhong to other states as an official.When Yu Zhong knew about it, he falsely preached an imperial decree, killed Guo and Pei, and removed Yuan Yong from his official post.As soon as Empress Dowager Hu came to court, she immediately dismissed him from the positions of servant and leader, and asked him to go to Jizhou as the governor.

Empress Dowager Hu believed that Yu Zhong's contribution was still the main one. After seizing power, she ignored the impeachment of Yuan Yong and others, and did not embarrass him too much.She knew in her heart that Yu Zhong, who was in his fifties, would not be able to jump for a few years, so she might as well be a favor and let him go.A year later, he was asked to return to the capital as an official, which made Yu Zhong not only not resentful, but also tearful of gratitude.In the first year of Shengui (518 AD), Yu Zhong lived up to her expectations and died. With Yu Zhong's example, other members of the princeling party did not dare to underestimate Queen Mother Hu, and Queen Mother Hu gradually became bolder in doing things.According to the law of etiquette, only the documents issued by the emperor to his subordinates have the right to be called edicts, and the documents issued by other people can only be called orders; similarly, subordinates can only be called His Majesty when they are in charge of the emperor, and they can only be called queens, princes, etc. Your Highness.Empress Dowager Hu was dissatisfied with the inferior title, so she changed the decree issued by herself to the imperial edict, asking the ministers to use the title of Your Majesty, while she herself used the emperor's special word "zhen".Later, on the grounds that the little emperor was too young, she proposed that she preside over the sacrificial ceremony on her behalf. This is also an act of Yue etiquette, so the officials in charge of the etiquette system strongly opposed it.She asked Cui Guang, her attendant, for advice, and Cui Guang quoted scriptures and said: "The Empress Dowager Deng of the Han Dynasty once performed sacrifices." Empress Dowager Hu was very happy, so she filmed the sacrificial ceremony.In terms of etiquette, what she did was no different from that of the emperor.

Cui Guangli served in the three dynasties of Xiaowen, Xuanwu, and Xiaoming, and served as the teacher of Emperor Xuanwu and Emperor Xiaoming. He was a relatively daring minister in the late Northern Wei Dynasty.But he advocates the golden mean, and in front of Queen Mother Hu, he always tries to comply with her wishes.Such a person cannot be expected to turn the tide. (By the way, Cui Guang's nephew is Cui Hong, the author of "Spring and Autumn of Sixteen Kingdoms".) Yuancheng, the king of Rencheng, was also a minister who dared to speak out.Empress Dowager Hu believed in Buddhism, and built many large-scale construction projects for it, built Buddhist temples, built Buddhist pagodas, repaired grottoes, dug Buddhist statues, and held open fasting parties, which cost a lot of expenses and the people paid heavy taxes.He has made many appearances, hoping that the imperial court can "accumulate energy and accumulate wealth" and reduce labor.Empress Dowager Hu showed respect to the old prince, but she did nothing to change her behavior.Yuan Cheng died of illness in the second year of Shengui (519 AD), and Empress Dowager Hu became even more presumptuous.In various celebrations and ceremonies of the country, she often held large banquets and rewarded the officials. While buying people's hearts, she also made the officials and nobles more and more greedy. In the year of Yuan Cheng's death, a shocking case occurred in Luoyang. Zhang Zhongyu, the second son of Zhang Yi, the general who conquered the west, made a secret memorial, calling for the reform of the selection system, carefully assessing the qualifications of military officers, and not giving them idle positions.This memorial somehow leaked out, and quickly spread throughout the streets and alleys of Luoyang.The most powerful military officers in Luoyang City are Habayashi and Huben. They post bulletins everywhere and meet regularly, declaring that they will kill Zhang Yi’s family on a certain day (it’s almost the same style as the modern underworld).Zhang Yi and his son were not afraid and didn't take it to heart. In the early morning of this day, nearly a thousand people from Habayashi and Huben ran to the Gongmen of Shangshu Province, shouting and demanding to hand over Zhang Yi's eldest son, Shangshulang Zhang Shijun, and threw stones at the Gongmen while cursing. justice.Seeing that there was no movement, a group of people rushed to Zhang Yi's mansion with torches and firewood on their shoulders, dragged the slow-moving Zhang Yi to the front of the hall, beat and kicked him wantonly, and then began to burn Zhang Yi. Yi's house.Zhang Shijun knelt on the ground to intercede for his father, and the Yulin soldiers beat him again, threw him into the fire, and burned him to death on the spot. Habayashi finished killing people, set fire to them, and left.Zhang Yi was covered in injuries, and passed away not long after he survived. Zhang Zhongyu was also seriously injured and lost his life.Luoyang, the capital of the country, from the officials to the people, watched a tragedy happen before their eyes, but they could do nothing.Afterwards, the Empress Dowager Hu only symbolically captured the eight heads of Habayashi and beheaded her, and the memorial to requesting the qualifications of the military officer was ignored. Coincidentally, a postman who delivered letters to Luoyang watched the incident.After returning home, his temperament changed drastically, and he spent all his money to make friends from all over the world. He said: "The imperial court is afraid of chaos and does not ask. If it is in government, it can be known." The world, clarify the universe.This postman is one of our protagonists - Gao Huan.