Chapter 11 2. Concubine Wu Hui who wants to be a queen

The ancient Chinese harem was a silent battlefield.Different from other battlefields, the cause of the war is the favor of the king. There is no smoke of gunpowder here, only powder.To win the war, beautiful weapons are essential, but they cannot last long. The final victory often belongs to one kind of people——beautiful and scheming. After Xuanzong succeeded to the throne, he worked hard to govern for many years. Seeing the peaceful society, he inevitably became complacent.He was born with a flirtatious nature and took countless concubines in his life. It is said that there are 40,000 court ladies in the harem. The famous concubines that have been recorded in history include Concubine Liu Hua, Concubine Zhao Li, Concubine Huangfu Deyi, Concubine Liu Cairen, Concubine Wu Hui, and Gao Jie. Yu et al.Among these people, Concubine Wu Hui is one of Li Longji's most beloved concubines.

Concubine Wu Hui is the daughter of Wu Youzhi, King of Hengan (the grandson of Samurai Yu's brother, and Wu Zetian's nephew).She was originally a golden branch and jade leaf, but because her father died of illness when she was young, she was sent to the palace to be raised by Wu Zetian as usual.However, within a few years of the glorious days, the Wu Zhou Dynasty founded by Wu Zetian collapsed, and this little girl became worthless and ignored, thus reduced to a little court lady.By the time Xuanzong came to the throne, the little maid had grown into a slim girl, fifteen or sixteen years old, with a lotus face and cardamom years, with a beautiful appearance and radiant style.The most commendable thing is that she was born with aristocratic temperament, and she had the demeanor of Wu Zetian in her gestures and gestures.Wu's temperament is well-behaved, good at flattering, and soon won Xuanzong's favor, and gradually became a special pet room, accompanying him day and night.However, although the Wu family was favored by Xuanzong, at that time the entire court was in the climax of unanimous anti-Wu.As Wu Sansi's niece, Wu's will inevitably be implicated, and it has always been difficult for her to obtain the title of "concubine".Until the twelfth year of Kaiyuan (724), the title Huifei was given.

The Wu family gave birth to 4 boys and 3 girls in a row, making them the most prolific among Xuanzong's concubines.It can be seen that for a long period of time, she completely occupied Xuanzong's harem life.The first son born to the Wu family was named Li Siyi, who was the ninth son of Xuanzong. The name "Siyi" represents Xuanzong's great importance, because he thinks this child is the best of all his sons.Unfortunately, this handsome boy died in infancy.Xuanzong was very sad, and he was established as the king of Xia, and he was given the posthumous title of mourning.When Li Siyi died, Xuanzong was still living in Luoyang, the eastern capital, so he was buried in Dongcen, Longmen.

Soon, the Wu family gave birth to another son, Li Min (Xuanzong's fifteenth son), who was "as handsome as a picture", but also died in infancy and was proclaimed King Huaiai.Later, the Wu family gave birth to Princess Shangxian, who still died young.After giving birth to Li Mao (Xuanzong's eighteenth son), Xuanzong was afraid that he would die early, so he did not dare to stay in the palace to raise him, so he let the concubine of King Ning Li Xian (Xuanzong's elder brother) adopt him in the mansion of King Ning, and the concubine Yuanshi of Ning Princess personally Breastfeeding, and announced that Li Mao is the son of King Ning and the Yuan family.Li Mao was later named the King of Shou, implying that Xuanzong hoped that he would live a long life and not die young.By the way, it was Li Mao, the king of longevity, who married Yang Yuhuan as the concubine of longevity when he grew up, thus laying the groundwork for Yang Yuhuan to enter the stage of history.

Afterwards, the Wu family successively gave birth to sons Sheng Wang Li Qi, daughters Princess Xianyi, and Princess Taihua. .Queen Wang has a good face and often reprimands Wu family face to face.Holding a grudge, Wu often cried to Xuanzong at his pillow, saying how the queen was jealous and how she deliberately bullied her.At this time, Xuanzong's thoughts were all on Wu Shi, so he was naturally very angry. He reprimanded the queen and planned to abolish the queen.He summoned the secretary supervisor Jiang Jiao (Li Linfu's uncle) to discuss the matter, and planned to depose the queen under the pretext of having no children.

Unexpectedly, although Jiang Jiao was Xuanzong's confidant, he sympathized with Queen Wang very much, and revealed the matter to Queen Wang in private, which exposed Xuanzong's intentions prematurely.When the Queen knew about it, she ran to Xuanzong and cried, "The concubine has only offended His Majesty's favorite concubine, not His Majesty. It's okay for Your Majesty not to think about getting married. Have you forgotten that when the Supreme Emperor was secluded, The family has no food for the night, so the father of the concubine took off his clothes in exchange for rice noodles, and made soup cakes for His Majesty's birthday?" ("New Book of Tang, Volume 76, Biography of Queen Wang") the original words are "Your Majesty alone Nian Ah Zhong (A Zhong is the name of the queen to her father Wang Renjiao) take off the purple half-armed Yidou face, for the birthday soup cake evil?" Xuanzong finally found out when he heard this, so he stopped talking.

From this point of view, Xuanzong is far behind his uncle Zhongzong Li Xian. Zhongzong is grateful to his wife Webster in distress. Although this caused a catastrophe, he is more worthy of praise from an emotional point of view. When Jiang Jiao's leak was reported, Xuanzong was very angry, but he couldn't find an excuse to deal with Jiang Jiao.At that time, the prime minister Zhang Jiazhen catered to Xuanzong's will, and accused Jiang Jiao of crimes, saying that "Jiang Jiao talked about good and bad things in vain".Jiang Jiao was a great hero who helped Xuanzong ascend the throne, but he was still sentenced to sixty sticks and exiled to Qinzhou.Jiang Jiao's younger brother Jiang Hui, the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, was also implicated and demoted to Sima of Chunzhou.Jiang Jiao died on the way to Qinzhou.After Jiang Jiao's death, Xuanzong recalled the past that he and Jiang Jiao had lived and died together, and missed him quite a lot, and temporarily put aside the matter of abolishing the empress.

A few years later, the Wu family became more and more arrogant, and often told Xuanzong to tell lies, which made Xuanzong think of abolishing the empress again.However, Queen Wang is quite a good person, and she is very popular in the palace. Except for the Wu family, no matter whether it is a concubine or an ordinary court lady, they all get along well with Queen Wang.Xuanzong thought about the fault of Luo Zhiwang and Empress, but he couldn't find anyone to speak ill of her.This made Xuanzong quite surprised, and he couldn't make up his mind to abolish the empress for a while.Empress Wang's elder brother Wang Shou was very disturbed when he saw his sister's status in the middle palace was shaken.He thought that if the queen could give birth to a son, she could avoid the bad luck of being deposed.So he set up an altar in his home to pray to God.A monk named Mingwu knew what Wang Shouyi was thinking, so he suggested to Wang Shouyi: "If the queen wants to have a son, she should first worship Nanbeidou, and then take a piece of Perak wood and carve it inside Put the characters of Tiandi and Xuanzong's name together, and wear them together, and I wish: "Pear this for the empress of Dangru Zetian." Then you can have a son." ) Wang Shou didn't know the truth and immediately believed it was true, and went to the palace and told the queen.Queen Wang was eager to ask for a son, and she didn't distinguish between good and bad, so she did everything.Unexpectedly, Concubine Wu Hui found out about this and reported it to Xuanzong immediately.

Since the Han Dynasty, the practice of witchcraft and Gu was the most taboo in the palaces of all dynasties.As soon as Xuanzong heard this, he immediately ran to the king and queen of the middle palace and searched in person. Sure enough, evidence was found on the queen.Queen Wang said separately: "This thing is actually used for seeking children, not for cursing and hating victory." How could Xuanzong listen to it, he was worried that he couldn't find a reason to abolish the empress. In the eyes of the latecomers, the monk Mingwu appeared strangely, but he didn't know where he ended up.Therefore, many people speculated that the monk was probably instructed by Concubine Wu Hui to deliberately set up a trap to lure the queen into the trap.

In the autumn of the twelfth year of Kaiyuan (724), Xuanzong personally drafted the edict, which was ordered to say: "The Queen Wang's destiny is not blessed, and she is flashy. She made a prison lawsuit, and her friends fanned the court. Seeing the heart of no general, there is a shameful evil. .How can you respect and inherit the ancestral temple, and the mother honors the world? It can be deposed as a commoner, and placed in another court. Punishment in the family, ashamed of the former king, for the country's great plan, and the cover is not your own." ("Old Tang Book Volume 50 1. Xuanzong abolished the Empress Wang) and forced the queen's elder brother Wang Shouyi to divorce Princess Xue Guo, and then ordered him to commit suicide.

Wang's self-defeating, not to mention the loss of the empress position, also caused the death of her elder brother, remorseful and sad, fell ill in the cold palace, and died in October of that year.There are unofficial historical records that say: "The cause of death of Wang Shuren is a mystery." Mrs. Wang is good at caressing and is very popular in the harem.The harem thought about Wang's character from top to bottom, and most of them shed tears of grief over her unexplained death.When Xuanzong heard the news of his wife's death, recalling the past, he felt a little regretful, and ordered her to be buried in Wuxiang Temple in Chang'an with a first-class gift. However, Wang's title of queen was still not restored, and the cause of Wang's death was not investigated.He probably knew it well, and knew that if he pursued it, the Wu family would definitely be involved. Thirty-eight years later, in the first year of Baoying (762), Emperor Daizong Li Yu came to the throne, and the unjust case of Queen Wang was brought to justice, and the Wang family was revered as queen. After Wang's death, Xuanzong wanted to enshrine his beloved Wu as his queen, so he first enshrined Wu as "Concubine Hui".This title was created by Xuanzong, which means that it ranks above the concubines in the harem, and it is similar to the "Concubine Chen" created by Gaozong for Wu Zetian back then.Later, Xuanzong named Concubine Wu Hui's biological mother, Yang, Mrs. Zheng Guo, and her younger brothers Wu Zhong and Wu Xin were promoted respectively. In ancient times, the establishment of an emperor was a major national event, and Xuanzong ordered the officials to discuss it in court, but was unexpectedly opposed by the officials headed by the prime minister Zhang Jiuling.Most people think that Concubine Wu Hui is the niece of the notorious Wu Sansi, who cannot be established as the queen.Among them, Yu Shi Pan Haoli was the one who spoke the most fiercely.He wrote a letter saying: "I have heard about the rites, parents hate each other. "Spring and Autumn" 'If a son does not take revenge, he will not have a son.' Your Majesty wants to use Concubine Wu Hui as the empress, why do you see the world's scholars? The concubine is not him, think twice Yes; the father is not him, and Yanxiu is also. Both of them practice rites and rituals, and the world is jealous. The husband is evil, and the people with lofty ideals are endless; I would like to carefully select the Chinese people, so as to be called the heart of the gods.....The current crown prince was not born to the concubine Hui, and the concubine has a son. Tang Shu Volume 76 Biography of Queen Wang) to the effect: Concubine Wu Hui is not the birth mother of the prince. If she becomes the queen, she will definitely try to shake the throne because she has a son and change her own son to be the prince. The crowd was raging, and the ministers opposed it fiercely.Public anger is hard to offend. At this time, Xuanzong was not very stupid. Seeing that the ministers disapproved, it was not easy to go against the current, so he had to put aside the matter of succession.But he still ordered that in the palace, Concubine Wu Hui enjoys the same rank and treatment as the empress.In this way, Concubine Wu Hui became a queen who was not a queen. Concubine Wu Hui is an ambitious woman.She wanted to be the empress wholeheartedly, but also wanted to seek the position of crown prince for her son Shou Wang Li Mao, so she was very unwilling to be blocked.But she was in the harem, and all foreigners with the Wu surname were slaughtered, so she had no natal family to rely on.When he was suffering from nowhere to go, Li Linfu, who was the Minister of the Ministry of Officials at the time, tried every means to ask someone to bring a message to Concubine Wu Hui in the deep palace, saying: "I am willing to work for the crown prince of Shouwang." Li Linfu is the fourth-generation grandson of Li Yi, the sixth younger brother of Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty. In terms of his generation, he is a generation higher than Xuanzong.However, this identity came to Li Linfu, because the blood relationship is too far away, it has no special effect.However, Li Linfu is very good at drilling, and he grasped Concubine Wu Hui's mentality in a timely manner.From then on, the two began to work together.It can be said that Concubine Wu Hui played a crucial role in Li Linfu's ability to become prime minister later. In the blink of an eye, 11 years passed, and in July of the 23rd year of Kaiyuan (735), Princess Xianyi, the daughter of Concubine Wu Hui, married Yang Hui.Yang Hui was the son of Yang Shenjiao, a descendant of the royal family of the Sui Dynasty, and Princess Changning (born by Zhongzong Li Xian and Empress Wei).Yang Yuhuan, a distant relative of the Yang family, also participated in this unprecedented wedding. It was probably in this wedding that her "beautiful beauty" left a deep impression on the birthday king Li Mao. Five months after Princess Xianyi got married, in December of the 23rd year of Kaiyuan (735), 17-year-old Yang Yuhuan became Princess Shou, and since then she has entered the center of the Tang court.Concubine Wu Hui, the mother-in-law who accepted Yang Yuhuan's worship, was only 38 years old at this time, and she was in her prime. She would never have imagined that this gorgeous daughter-in-law in front of her would become her husband's favorite woman in the future.At this time, Concubine Wu Hui didn't have the energy to think about her daughter-in-law, because she had more important things to do: change the crown prince and make herself a queen.At this time, she was asking Li Linfu to secretly observe the prince's mistakes, so as to take the opportunity to slander him. Prince Li Ying was born to Concubine Zhao Li, the favorite concubine of Xuanzong when he was the vassal king.When Xuanzong first came to the throne as emperor, Concubine Zhao Li favored the harem, so Xuanzong appointed Li Ying as the crown prince.At this time, the prince Li Ying was nearly 30 years old, smart, studious, talented, and always kept himself safe.But sometimes when he saw his biological mother Concubine Zhao Li being angry with Concubine Wu Hui, he couldn't help being angry and complaining behind his back.After hearing this, Li Linfu immediately went to report to Concubine Wu Hui.Concubine Wu Hui knelt down and cried to Xuanzong: "The prince is a gangster, intending to harm my mother and son." Xuanzong didn't care about injustice, went to court the next day, and immediately proposed to depose the prince and his two younger brothers, E Wang Li Yao and Guang Wang Li Ju.Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling remonstrated: "Your Majesty has practiced Zuo for 30 years. The princes and kings have never left the deep palace, and they have received sacred teachings every day. People all over the world celebrate that your Majesty will enjoy the country for a long time and that your descendants will prosper. Now the three sons are all adults, and I don't know the big ones." However, once your majesty uses rootless words, when you are happy or angry, you will be useless! And the prince is the world, and you should not shake it lightly. In the past, Duke Xian of Jin Dynasty listened to Li Ji's slander and killed Shen Sheng, and the third generation was in chaos. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty believed in Jiang Chongzhi Falsely accused the crown prince, and the capital bleeds. Jin Huidi used the empress Jia's slander to depose the crown prince, and the Central Plains were in ruins. Sui Wendi accepted the words of Dugu empress to depose the crown prince Yong, and established Emperor Yang, thus losing the world. From this point of view, one should not be careless Your Majesty must want to do this, and I dare not obey the edict." ("Zizhi Tongjian Volume 214") Xuanzong was speechless, with a sullen look on his face. When Concubine Wu Hui knew about it, she hated Zhang Jiuling deeply, colluded with Li Linfu, tried to slander Xuanzong, and vigorously excluded Zhang Jiuling.Xuanzong appreciated Zhang Jiuling's literary talent very much at first, but he couldn't help the internal and external attacks of Wu and Li. In addition, Zhang Jiuling often spoke out and advised, which was disliked by Xuanzong, so he gradually became indifferent to Zhang Jiuling.After a period of time, Li Linfu finally found an opportunity to prompt Xuanzong to demote Zhang Jiuling as the governor of Jingzhou.After Zhang Jiuling dismissed as Prime Minister, Li Linfu was appointed as Zhongshu Ling and took the top position as Prime Minister. Zhang Jiuling was very open-minded, and entertained himself with literature and history in his later years.Although Xuanzong exiled Zhang Jiuling because of his trust in Li Linfu, he often thought of Zhang Jiuling's demeanor. Whenever he employed someone, he must first ask: "Is the demeanor like Jiuling?" This is the origin of "Jiu Ling Demeanor".After suffering from the Anshi Rebellion in his later years, Xuanzong completely regretted that he should not have demoted Zhang Jiuling. After Zhang Jiuling left the court, Concubine Wu Hui and Li Linfu had no scruples.The two secretly discussed how to step up the murder of the prince.At this time, Prince Li Ying already felt a great crisis, worried, angry and fearful, but there was nothing he could do, so he often had to drink to drown his sorrows, and his depression was clearly visible.E Wang Li Yao and Guang Wang Li Ju were in the same situation, so they came together with the prince.The three of them often play together and talk about Concubine Wu Hui privately through drinking.The power of the wine made the emotions of the three princes agitated, and their words were full of hatred for Concubine Wu Hui.After Concubine Wu Hui learned about it, she naturally stepped up her efforts to eliminate future troubles. One day, Concubine Wu Hui sent someone to tell the prince, King E, and King Guang that there were thieves in Xuanzong's palace, and asked the three of them to put on armor and enter the palace for defense.The three cared about their father, believed it was true, and entered the palace according to the words.Concubine Wu Hui immediately reported to Xuanzong, saying that the prince had colluded with the two kings in rebellion and was already wrapped in armor.Xuanzong sent his servants to investigate. As he said, he was furious and immediately abolished the three sons Li Ying, Li Yao and Li Ju as ordinary people.Soon, the third son was given to commit suicide in the east station of Chang'an City, and dozens of members of the third son's uncle's family were implicated. The reason why there were frequent family tragedies of father and son and sibling fratricide in the Tang Dynasty was that Taizong Li Shimin ascended to the throne with the Xuanwumen Change, Taizong killed Jiancheng, Wu Zetian killed his son, Wei Hou killed his husband, Xuanzong killed Wei Hou and Princess Taiping Chaos is not easily forgotten.Before Taizong and Xuanzong came to power, they risked their own lives, went through life and death, and went through hardships and dangers. After becoming emperors, they had no sense of security and must often experience hesitation and pain in rumors.This is also the unique distortion and sorrow of human nature brought about by imperial power. So far, Concubine Wu Hui has realized her ambition, eliminated all competitors, and cleared the way for her son Li Mao to be a crown prince and herself to be a queen.She thought she could get her wish in this way, but her victory was very short-lived.Xuanzong heard that the death of the prince was wronged, and the courtiers had many objections to Concubine Wu Hui, so he did not dare to make Li Mao the prince easily, so he used excuses to push back the matter of setting up the reserve book.Concubine Wu Hui was anxious day and night, and became sick from accumulated worries. She was seriously ill and was bedridden.She was haunted by ghosts, and every time she dreamed that the prince and the three princes were asking for her life, she would be like a madman, and often shouted: "The three common people, spare your life!" People) make the chickens and dogs in the palace restless, and eventually lead to insanity.In December of the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan (737), Concubine Wu Hui became more and more ill. She was insane and incoherent. She died before the end of winter. She was only 40 years old when she died. Only 7 months.See "Old Tang Book Volume 107 Biography of the Wasted Man Ying". The death of Concubine Wu Hui made Xuanzong very sad.Since he ascended the throne, Concubine Wu Hui has accompanied him in the palace for more than 20 years, almost experiencing the entire "Kaiyuan prosperity".The feelings of more than 20 years cannot be explained clearly in a single word, nor can they be forgotten overnight.Because of the unforgettable old love, Xuanzong specially named Concubine Wu Hui as "Empress Zhenshun", and the order said: "When she is dying, I am deeply mourned, so that the celebration of jade clothes will not be as good as when she was alive, and the glory of elephant clothes will only increase. After death, you can give it to Empress Zhenshun." ("Old Tang Book Volume 51 Xuanzong's Abandoned Empress Wang's") Concubine Wu Hui was buried in Jingling as a queen.Concubine Wu Hui did not get the title during her lifetime, but she finally got it after her death.Xuanzong did this probably out of a compensatory psychology.And from then on, Xuanzong never considered the matter of being a queen.Although the later imperial concubine Yang Yuhuan was favored, she never received the title of Queen Xuanzong's main palace during her lifetime and after her death.From this point, we can also see Xuanzong's deep love for Concubine Wu Hui, and the indescribable entanglement in his heart. Xuanzong's harem is full of beauties, and Concubine Wu Hui can become the best among them, and she has dominated the harem for 20 years, which is definitely not something that can be done just by her looks.If it is only about appearance, a woman who has given birth many times and died at the age of 40 is no match for the beauty of a young girl.It can be inferred from this that Concubine Wu Hui must have special skills beyond ordinary people, so that Xuanzong deeply cherished her.However, searching through the history books could not find any records in this regard. After the death of Concubine Wu Hui, the 52-year-old Xuanzong was depressed and seemed to have aged a lot.After he retired from the court, he often stood alone in the bedroom where Concubine Wu Hui lived, silent, restless, obviously feeling very lonely in his heart.Xuanzong's true love and nostalgia for Concubine Wu Hui can also be seen from this. Although Concubine Wu Hui enjoyed all the favors during her lifetime and after her death, what she never imagined was that the loyal king Li Yu (later renamed Li Heng) was established as the prince because of such high-sounding reasons as "the order of the elders and the younger ones" and "the elders should be established".All the hard work she had worked on during her lifetime was in vain, and she only made wedding clothes for others.And Yang Yuhuan, the concubine of her precious son Li Mao, became Xuanzong's new favorite soon after.This is the greatest irony in the world.If Concubine Wu Hui knew about it, she would definitely die with regret.