Chapter 59 18. Is there a way to rise and fall?

At the beginning of the 23rd year of Taihe (AD 499), Emperor Wei Xiaowen, who was dying of illness, lay on the car and was escorted all the way back to Luoyang.His favored minister Li Chong stayed in Luoyang. Because of his power struggle with Lieutenant Li Biao, although Li Biao was impeached and resigned with his support, it caused old illnesses and he left a year ago.Passing by Li Chong's grave and looking at the grave from a distance, Emperor Xiaowen was filled with emotion, and two lines of tears burst out of his eyes.Looking back over the past ten years, with the assistance and promotion of Li Chong and others, his empire has undergone earth-shaking changes.In his heart, he also hesitated and hesitated. He didn't know whether the reforms of this item would be bad or good, good or bad; How far is the ultimate goal of the author.

Now, Feng Dan is gone, Feng Dan's father Feng Xi is gone, Li Chong is also gone, leaving him alone to suffer from illness.Why is God so cruel, so stingy with a little bit of perfection? In Luoyang, Emperor Xiaowen summoned Yuan Cheng and other ministers.Emperor Xiaowen said to everyone: "In governing the country, etiquette is the first priority; I have been away from the capital for more than a year, is etiquette changing with each passing day?" Yuan Cheng replied: "I think it's because it's changing with each passing day!" Emperor Xiaowen shook his head and said, "I don't think so. When I entered the city yesterday, I saw women on the road still wearing Xianbei clothes. How can this be called changing with each passing day?"

Yuan Cheng hurriedly explained: "Wearing is much less than wearing nothing!" Emperor Xiaowen's tone changed: "King Rencheng, what are you talking about? Do you still want everyone in the city to wear it? The ancients said: 'One word can ruin a country', isn't that what you said? " As soon as this remark came out, Yuan Cheng and a group of ministers staying behind in Luoyang were so frightened that they fell to their knees and kowtowed to apologize.Emperor Xiaowen didn't care about their faults, but only ordered the historian to record the incident as a warning to future generations.Emperor Xiaowen made many achievements in his life, but he only cared about two things in his heart, one was moving the capital, and the other was the change of etiquette and customs.The former has been completed during his term of office, and whether the latter will be truly successful, and how future generations will view it, he is always concerned about it, but he can only lie quietly in the mausoleum and wait for the later judgment.Any great emperor will have a unique ending.Alexander the Great was an all-powerful person throughout his life, sweeping across three continents, but at the end of his life, he ordered his subordinates to dig two small holes in his coffin, and let his hands stick out to show that he died empty-handed. This is the emperor's helplessness.

In April of the twenty-third year of Taihe, Emperor Xiaowen passed away at the age of thirty-three.Before he died, he wanted to entrust state affairs to his most valued younger brother, Situ Pengcheng Wang Yuanxie, and compared him to his own Huo Guang and Zhuge Liang.Yuan Xie didn't want to dominate, and refused to accept his resignation. Emperor Xiaowen had to appoint several ministers to assist the government (I never thought that this would lead to the decline of the court in the future), and issued an edict to Prince Yuan Ke, ordering him to trust and respect his uncle Yuan. Xie. In addition, he also ordered Yuan Xie to secretly bestow death on his queen Feng after his death.Yuan Xie complied, and the once-prominent Feng family withdrew from the political arena of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Empress Feng is the eldest daughter of Feng Xi, the elder brother of Empress Dowager Feng.In the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, Feng Xi could be said to be in power. Emperor Xiaowen allowed him to write a letter and not be a minister, and he would not worship when he entered the court.One of them died in the palace soon, and the problem lies in the other two Fengs, one big and one small. Da Feng entered the palace first, and because of his outstanding appearance, he was named a nobleman and was very favored.Later, Feng Guiren got sick, almost terminally ill, unable to serve Emperor Xiaowen, and Empress Dowager Feng ordered him to be sent home to become a nun.During Da Feng's convalescence, Empress Dowager Feng passed away, and Emperor Xiaowen appointed Da Feng's half-sister Xiao Feng as queen in accordance with Empress Dowager Feng's will.

Emperor Xiaowen was still thinking about Dafeng, and a few years later she recovered miraculously from her illness, and Emperor Xiaowen called her back into the palace again and named her Zuo Zhaoyi.From the point of view of rank, it is indeed a promotion, but Da Feng is not happy. She thinks that she entered the palace earlier and is more favored, but her status is much lower than that of her younger sister, so she repeatedly framed Xiao Feng in front of Emperor Xiaowen.Emperor Xiaowen was able to distinguish right from wrong in major matters, but he couldn't stand the wind blowing around his pillow all the time.In the 20th year of Taihe (AD 496), he abolished the little Feng family who had a serious personality, and made Da Feng the queen the following year.

The Dafeng family became a queen, and she didn't have any demeanor of a mother.Emperor Xiaowen went to war for years, and she became more and more lustful in the harem, and hooked up with an eunuch named Gao Bodhisattva.Although Gao Bodhisattva is called an eunuch, he is actually an old lover that Da Feng met when he was convalescing. Da Feng carefully managed the officials from all over the harem, and unexpectedly sneaked in without castration.The high bodhisattva has no bodhisattva heart at all, and the two queens made the harem into a mess, only keeping in the dark the emperor Xiaowen who is far away from Luoyang.

Paper can't contain fire after all.Emperor Xiaowen's younger sister, Princess Pengcheng, was originally the wife of Liu Chang, the royal family of the Song Dynasty. After Liu Chang died, Empress Feng forced her to marry her half-brother Feng Su.Probably this Feng Su really didn't agree with the princess's wishes, and the princess was unwilling to live or die.She secretly took a small car, braved the showers, and ran to the southeast front to expose the empress' and Gao Bodhisattva's promiscuous behavior to Emperor Xiaowen. Emperor Xiaowen was shocked when he heard the words. He didn't expect his beloved queen to do such a disgraceful thing. At first, he couldn't believe it.After returning to the palace, he personally questioned all the eunuchs in the harem, exhausted all means, and finally got the details of the queen's adultery from a young eunuch Su Xingshou.Emperor Xiaowen kept it secret, thinking that Feng's contribution to the royal family, he only dealt with Gao Bodhisattva and a few eunuchs who partnered in concealment, while retaining the posthumous position for Empress Feng, who was placed under house arrest in the harem and strictly controlled.Yuan Xie and other clans forced her to commit suicide with a glass of poisoned wine, and it was also considered to be on behalf of Emperor Xiaowen to get rid of her troubles after death.

Emperor Xiaowen was the most important emperor in the middle period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and historians have always spoken highly of him.After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital, the center of Chinese culture gradually shifted to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River again. Speaking of which, this can be regarded as the beginning of the first "great rejuvenation" of the Chinese nation.He has been in office for nearly 30 years, and reforms in various aspects of the system have at least made the reunification of the North and the South half a century ahead of schedule.During his reign, Buddhism in the north also flourished. Luoyang Longmen Grottoes and many famous temples headed by Shaolin Temple and Qingliang Temple were built at this time.

However, his untimely death also marked the decline of the Northern Wei Dynasty.The monarchs of the Northern Wei Dynasty who succeeded Emperor Xiaowen lacked his courage and talent. Within two generations, the whole north fell into chaos and became a battlefield again.Regarding the whole story of the chaos, we will explain in detail in the fourth part. The Southern Qi regime, which has experienced two consecutive North-South Wars, has been on the verge of collapse since the death of Qi Ming Emperor Xiao Luan.Xiao Baojuan, who succeeded to the throne, was the most well-known tyrannical ruler in the Southern Dynasty for more than 160 years - Marquis of Donghun. (In the Southern Dynasties, Song and Qi Dynasties, we have nothing but admiration for the stupid and tyrants of the Song and Qi dynasties who "emerged successively and led the way". Regardless of the success or failure of the two dynasties, at least in terms of heir cultivation, Liu Shi and Xiao's ruling clique did extremely badly.)

Emperor Qi Ming left six ministers of Gu Ming for Xiao Baojuan, all of whom were his best friends. Wei Wei Liu Xuan.These six people divided their labor on a daily basis and managed political affairs. They were called "the six nobles in the same dynasty" at that time.For this alone, Emperor Qi Ming's management ability is worthy of questioning.Xiao Yan, the governor of Yongzhou, commented in private: "One country and three princes are still unbearable, let alone the six nobles in the same dynasty? These people are bound to fight each other, and civil strife will break out." The biggest crime of Xiao Yaoguang and others is that they mistakenly accepted the imperial edict of Emperor Ming.The new emperor Xiao Baojuan was not only irreplaceable, but also sent these old officials to hell one by one. Before Xiao Baojuan came to the throne, he was a complete punk.He doesn't like reading, and he only plays and fools around with the boys around him in the East Palace every day.His father, Xiao Luan, didn't think there was anything wrong with his behavior. Instead, he took his abolition of King Yu Lin as an example, and left him a warning, telling him to "not be behind others". Xiao Baojuan kept this sentence in his heart, and he was merciless in killing people.The first to suffer were the two brothers Jiang Er and Jiang Si among the six nobles.Jiang Er felt that Xiao Baojuan was really not qualified, so he found other people to discuss with Xiao Baoxuan, the third son of Emperor Liming, Jiangxia King.Liu Xuan disagreed, and proposed to establish the sixth son of Emperor Ming, Jian'an Wang Xiao Baokui.Jiang Er asked Xiao Yaoguang again, Xiao Yaoguang was a member of the royal family, and he had long been ambitious to establish himself as emperor. Jiang Si also persuaded Jiang Er to support Xiao Yaoguang in order to win the support of the majority.Jiang Er hesitated, and then asked Xiao Tanzhi for advice, Xiao Tanzhi thought that the establishment should not be abolished casually. Just five people have three or four opinions, how can they be united in good faith?Liu Xuan reported the matter to Xiao Baojuan, and the Jiang Er brothers were arrested and executed.Feeling uneasy, Xiao Yaoguang used the name of crusade against Liu Xuan to lead a rebellion with Xiaoqi General Yuan Lisheng and others, but was denounced by Xiao Tanzhi, defeated and killed. The two whistleblowers did not end well either.Only twenty days after Xiao Yaoguang's death, Xiao Baojuan ordered people to surround Xiao Tanzhi's house and kill Xiao Tanzhi's father and son.Liu Xuan's sister, Empress Jing, is Xiao Baojuan's biological mother, so she thinks she can sit back and relax.Xiao Baojuan's favorite eunuch Ru Fazhen falsely accused Liu Xuan of having a different heart. Xiao Baojuan was puzzled, thought for a while and said, "Liu Xuan is my own uncle, how could he rebel?" Another confidant, Xu Shibiao, said: " Emperor Ming and Emperor Wu are cousins, and they have such a good relationship, wouldn’t they also kill all the descendants of Emperor Wu? Uncles have different surnames, how can you believe that?” Xiao Baojuan felt that it was reasonable, and ordered Liu Xuan to be executed as well. Liu Gui left a seemingly neutral Xu Xiaosi, and he could not escape his life.Xiao Baojuan believed that he had participated in the proposal to abolish the establishment, and summoned him to the palace to die.Xu Xiaosi drank more than a bucket of medicinal wine in one breath, and died of despair.Xiao's Qi State has only one last breath.