Chapter 64 Chapter 64 Li Sanniang: life is harder than drama

In the author's hometown, when people see a person crying very sadly, they often say that he "cries like Li Sanniang".Who is Li Sanniang? She is a character in the opera of the same name, which can be found in many operas, such as Pingju Opera, Henan Opera, Teochew Opera, Xi Opera, Huai Opera, Huagu Opera, and so on.If we want to go back to the source, "Li Sanniang" of these dramas all come from "The Story of the White Rabbit", one of the four major southern operas. "The Story of the White Rabbit" tells us such a legendary story with twists and turns: During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, there were frequent wars. With her temperament and tenacious will, she cared for this temporarily frustrated husband.

However, as soon as Li Sanniang's father died, Liu Zhiyuan was bullied by the Li family's brother and sister-in-law immediately, and was forced to join the army and run away. From then on, Li Sanniang fell into the abyss of pain.She was unwilling to follow the order of her brother and sister-in-law to remarry, so she was subjected to inhuman abuse.On the night of childbirth, Sanniang bit off the umbilical cord alone in the mill and gave birth to a son.The cruel brother and sister-in-law threw the baby into the fish pond while she was in a coma. Fortunately, Gong Dou secretly rescued the baby. With tears in her eyes, Sanniang named the baby "Bite Navel Lang", and hung the Jade Rabbit, a keepsake left by her husband, on the baby. On the body, Duke Dou took the baby to find Liu Zhiyuan in the army.

After traveling thousands of miles, the child was finally delivered to Liu Zhiyuan.At that time, when the two armies were fighting, Liu Zhiyuan could not leave the front line, so he asked someone to visit Sanniang. His brother and sister-in-law panicked that Sanniang had remarried and left. Sixteen years later, on a snowy day, Li Sanniang accidentally found a white rabbit wounded by an arrow by the well, and then met a young general Liu Chengyou who came to hunt it.When mother and son Jingtai meet, although they don't know each other's identity, they seem to have a telepathic connection somewhere.When Liu Zhiyuan (who was already a marshal at this time) heard the news, it was like a bolt from the blue, because he was disheartened and had already married the Yue family who shared weal and woe.Liu Chengyou couldn't face all this, while Liu Zhiyuan had mixed feelings of sadness and joy, and had no way out. Fortunately, the Yue family, who understood the righteousness, was moved by Li Sanniang's spirit and asked her husband to welcome Sanniang back with the highest etiquette.

On a snowy night, Liu Zhiyuan and Li Sanniang met in the mill. The family who had gone through hardships finally came together along their different life paths. In the play, Li Sanniang and Liu Zhiyuan talked about a sympathetic and unforgettable love. After sixteen years of torment, they finally reunited with their husband and son who had been thinking about it day and night. Live a happy life like a prince and princess in a fairy tale.However, the real Li Sanniang in history only has the middle part of the opera story, with neither good memories nor a bright ending. According to the records of "New History of the Five Dynasties", the combination of Liu Zhiyuan and Li Sanniang is probably not the romance of love at first sight performed in the play, but the hot unrequited love with a burning stick.At that time, Liu Zhiyuan was thirty-eight years old, a small soldier, at most a squad leader, and Li Sanniang was a wealthy daughter in her early 20s. History books only say that the man met the woman, fell in love with him, and wanted to marry back to the military camp and take it for himself. , did not mention the woman's reaction, but we can imagine that it is difficult for a beautiful lady to fall in love with a pawn who is already a half-grown man. It has been confirmed that it seems that not only power comes out of the barrel of a gun, but also a wife.

In this way, Li Sanniang was robbed to the barracks and became Liu Zhiyuan's "wife in custody", and gave birth to a son for him, named "Bite Navel Lang" and named Liu Chengyou.Soon, Liu Zhiyuan went to the front line, leaving Li Sanniang, mother and son in her hometown.Sixteen years later, Liu Zhiyuan, who had already been crowned king and general, took Li Sanniang away and named her Mrs. Wei, but the story is far from over. In 947 A.D., Liu Zhiyuan took advantage of the Khitan’s attack on the Later Jin Dynasty and established himself as the emperor. , drove away the Khitan army.Unfortunately, Liu Zhiyuan died less than a year after proclaiming himself emperor from the south to the north. Therefore, Liu Chengyou succeeded to the throne and became the emperor, and Li Sanniang became the empress dowager logically.

In 950, Emperor Yin Liu Chengyou, at the instigation of his favorite ministers Guo Yunming and Li Ye, killed Yang Bin, the important minister, and Shi Hongzhao, the commander of the capital, and then planned to kill Guo Wei, the privy envoy guarding Yedu.Empress Dowager Li advised several times, but Emperor Yin refused to listen, and finally forced Guo Wei to rebel against the Han, led troops to attack Kaifeng, killed Emperor Yin, and the Later Han Dynasty perished.This is the shortest-lived dynasty in Chinese history, existing for less than four years. Because Empress Dowager Li opposed the killing of Guo Wei, Guo Wei respected her as Empress Zhaoren and lived in the harem for the rest of her life.

After the death of her father and her son, Li Sanniang was miserable alone in the desolate harem of another dynasty. She searched and searched, but she was inevitably scorned by the powerless people. A few years later, the ill-fated and exhausted Li Sanniang passed away as the empress dowager (Because Guo Wei had passed away at this time, and Zhou Shizong Chai Rong succeeded to the throne), he was forty-two years old. The miserable Li Sanniang was born in 913 and died of illness in 954. She never walked out of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms that changed the king's banner all her life. She experienced the short-lived dynasties of Houliang, Houtang, Houjin, Houhan, and Houwu. the emperor.Although Li Sanniang finally became the empress, empress dowager, and empress dowager that women all over the world envy, she must have been longing for the love of husband and wife, kindness and filial piety, family reunion, and a peaceful and peaceful life for ordinary people.