In 180 BC, in the palace of the Western Han Dynasty, the general Zhou Bo , Prime Minister Chen Ping held the jade seal in his hand and respectfully said to Bo Ji and the King of Dai Liu Heng: "Her Lu has been eliminated, and the court cannot be without a master for a day. We come and invite the King of Dai to take over Weiyang Palace to be the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. Please go to Chang'an immediately." Bo Ji was overjoyed when he heard this, but said calmly: "Let me discuss with Heng'er."
More than ten days later, Liu Heng and his mother Bo Ji returned to Chang'an City , which had been separated for more than ten years. Liu Heng ascended the throne and became the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty - Emperor Wen of Han. Bo Ji was so sad that he became the empress dowager.
01
Although Bo Ji was the concubine of Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu of Han, he was an illegitimate son. Her mother, Wei Ma, is the daughter of the royal family of Wei State. She elopes with Bo Sheng from Suzhou and gave birth to Bo Ji and Bo Zhao and brothers. Bo died at the age of four.
Wei Ma, raised Bo Ji and his brother alone, and lived a life of not being able to fill his stomach. In the arduous life, Bo Ji learned to be patient and tolerant.
209 BC Peasant uprising broke out in the Qin Dynasty, and the world was in chaos. Liu Bang Xiang Yu and others pulled up the anti-Qin team, and it turned out that the royal families of the six countries also raised the banner of anti-Qin restoration.
Wei Bao, a clan of the Wei Kingdom, called himself the King of Wei and followed Liu Bang to fight. Wei Madam married Bo Ji, who had just grown up, to Wei Bao as her concubine.
In order to make Bo Ji favored, Wei Ma said to Wei Bao : Master Xiangshi Xu Fu met Bo Ji, saying that she was a noble person and would be able to have a emperor in the future.
Wei Bao suddenly had a whim when he heard this: Bo Ji is my concubine, the child she gave birth to is the emperor, and I am the emperor's father, and I must be the emperor. Therefore, he decided to leave Liu Bang and set up a new branch to unify the world.
Liu Bang heard that Wei Bao was rebelled and immediately sent Cao Shen to lead the attack. Wei Bao was defeated and was killed. Bo Ji and others were captured and sent to Liu Bang's weaver room for hard work.
Bo Ji got up at dawn every day in the weaver room and started weaving before loom . He started weaving until it got dark. He dragged his tired body back to the workshop to rest. Although he was very tired, he ate the leaves of taro and the leaves of mulberry leaves . But she felt that it was much better than the days when she was often hungry when she was a child. She sang songs from her hometown every day, worked happily, and had a good relationship with the people in the weaver room. It seems that she has accepted this kind of life.
Liu Bang has never played according to common sense. One day, he suddenly came to the weaver room to inspect work on a whim. He saw Bo Ji who was a little pretty, so he took her back to the bedroom.
02
Luck seems to be coming, but unexpectedly it is just a joke. Liu Bang had three thousand beauties in the harem. Bo Ji could not sing and dance, and was not outstanding in appearance. He was soon forgotten by Liu Bang. In more than a year, he had not attracted Bo Ji.
"Don't forget each other if you are rich and noble." Bo Ji thought that her two former friends, Mrs. Guan, and Zhao Zier, are now favored. So I found them and talked about their agreement to "not forget the nobles" back then, asking them for help. The two agreed with a smile.
On a day, Mrs. Guan and Zhao Zier talked about Bo Ji in a sarcastic tone while drinking with Liu Bang. When talking about their past agreement, they also laughed at him and said: Just Bo Ji looks like that and wants the emperor's favor. It's ridiculous.
Liu Bang heard this and smiled sly on his face. He wanted to spread the emperor's kindness and immediately summoned Bo Ji.
Although Bo Ji's life was very hard at a young age, her mother was from the royal family, so whenever she had time, she would teach her to study and tell her about state affairs, palace affairs, etc. Therefore, when Liu Bang summoned Bo Ji, Bo Ji said shyly to Liu Bang: Your Majesty, I had a dream last night, dreaming of a Canglong plate on my belly.
This is the most critical time for Liu Bang and Xiang Yu to compete for the world. When Liu Bang heard this, Bo Ji said that he was Canglong and the emperor. He was very happy and spent a wonderful night with Bo Ji.
After one night, Liu Bang almost stopped seeing Bo Ji. But Bo Ji was lucky enough to get pregnant with the dragon seed. After becoming pregnant, Bo Ji asked to give birth to Liu Bang's fourth son, Liu Heng, ten months later.
Bo Ji stood up in the palace because she gave birth to a son.Can a dead tree be seen in spring with a son? The struggles in the palace are unfathomable, and you must always feel the crisis of walking on ice on the abyss.
Bo Ji clearly realized that Liu Bang had the favored Concubine Qi and her son. In the harem, there was the original wife Lu Zhi who followed Liu Bang to rebel against Qin and fought on the battlefield for many years. Although Empress Lu was dissatisfied with a widow for many years, her son Liu Ying is the crown prince and the crown prince.
Bo Ji is pretty and has a poor family, with only her widowed mother and a younger brother of Bai Ding. Liu Bang ignored her and did not like her son Liu Heng. Bo Ji knew her position and understood that her son was her support for the rest of her life. She was independent and strong inside and devoted all her energy to protecting and educating her son.
She minimized her presence and said to her son: Mom’s surname is Bo, so don’t argue in everything. Just like your mother, you must be a quiet and low-key person.
In the huge harem, there is almost no sign of Bo Ji and Liu Heng except to pay tribute to Empress Lu. They stayed in their bedroom, wearing plain clothes, weaving cloth, and growing vegetables.
Bo Ji tells Liu Heng the story of Yao, Shun and Yu , Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching", and the story of the old man losing his horse.
Liu Heng was happy to ride a Trojan horse and said: Mother, I won’t study anymore, so I will ride a horse.
Bo Ji asked: What are you asking?
Liu Heng said, "Riding a horse can conquer the world. What's the use of reading?"
Bo Ji heard this and said, "The Art of War" says that those who are good at fighting are the best for attacking the heart." You cannot be a Martial Prince, but you must learn to attack your heart first. He also said: A person who fights for the country and the people is a hero, and your father is a hero.
Liu Heng only grabbed the chicken butt because he did not eat chicken with the princes and returned to the palace with tears in his eyes. He shouted that
wanted to eat chicken, and said that he would eat the rest except the chicken butt.
Bo Ji understood the whole story, picked up the chicken's butt and said to Liu Heng: Heng'er, the chicken's butt is the treasure on the chicken's body. You think, there are two chicken legs and chicken wings, and only one chicken butt, so it is something that cannot be exchanged for even one. It is called Houfu, and it is the most fragrant. You have eaten my father’s blessing today, and you get the most.
Bo Ji and her son exist without any desires and struggles, and are as low-key as the grass on the roadside, being despised by everyone and forgotten by others. But invisibly her kindness also won the favor of the people around her.
03
Bo Ji endured for 8 years. In 196 BC, Liu Bang rewarded Liu Heng with the border Dai land (now in Shanxi), and Liu Heng became the Dai king of the barbaric land.
Liu Heng said to Bo Ji: Father is partial, he confers three people to Zhao, which are close and blessed, and let me go to the poor and poor country.
Bo Ji stroked Liu Heng's head, and she said to Liu Heng: The land is poor and the border is also a border, but that is also the great Han Dynasty ruled by your father for his life. If you are the son of Emperor Gaozu, you must defend the territory. What you can defend is the great Han Dynasty ruled, and it is not better to compete with the princes. You must be brave, courageous and courageous like your father. You must implement your father’s policy of rest and recuperation, develop production, and let the people live and work in peace and contentment. Besides, you can grow up better if you leave the palace where right and wrong.
She repeatedly reminded Liu Heng to unite with his ministers and be a frugal and loving king of the country. Liu Heng looked at his mother's eyes full of hope, bowed and left Chang'an and headed north.
Bo Ji, who stayed in the palace, became more low-key and cautious, weaving cloth, growing vegetables in her palace every day, and reading the "Tao Te Ching". Although she missed her son who was thousands of miles away, she never contacted the land of the land, nor did she find out the land of the land. She abides by the imperial rules in the palace that she cannot contact the outside world.
In 195 BC, Liu Bang was seriously injured again while attacking the rebels and died soon after. Lu Zhi takes real power, and Lu Zhi begins to retaliately clean up the harem.
Bo Ji is as humble and respectful as Lu Zhi, and she is a widow, maybe she is sympathetic, but Empress Lu actually allowed Bo Ji to take her mother and younger brother to reunite with her son Liu Heng.
04
Those who win the hearts of the people will win the world. If the people live and work in peace and contentment, they can win the hearts of the people. So, once you arrive in the generation.Bo Ji went to check the lives of the people. I saw that the spun cloth of women from the land was rough and slow.
From then on, she taught everyone the textile methods she mastered during the day. They also teach them to learn dyed cloth . Under her teaching, textile technology in Daidi has been developed.
Bo Ji always reminds herself: Empress Lu released her and Liu Heng out of the palace, but she must be worried. Therefore, pay attention to everything. really. soon. Empress Lu sent one of her confidants, Lu Qiang, to serve as the court lieutenant. Not only did she monitor Bo Ji and Liu Heng, but she also deliberately created trouble and killed an innocent citizen Huo Qing, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the people.
Lu Qiang saw that something was wrong and fled back to Chang'an. Bo Ji took out her private money and asked Liu Heng to give relief to Huo Qing's family, calming the people's emotions.
After receiving the report from his subordinates, Empress Lü admired Bo Ji's approach very much. A crisis was resolved like this.
Under the governance of Bo Ji and Liu Heng, the wild land economy has been restored and developed, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. They won the support of the people, and their benevolent and generous virtues became famous in 180 BC. As soon as she died, the old Han officials Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and others immediately led their troops into the palace and eliminated the people of Empress Lu's party.
When the heroes were about to establish an emperor, they found that Liu Bang's son was almost killed by Lu Zhi. At this time, they remembered the Dai King Liu Heng who was in the border area. He thought he was a kind and kind person, and her mother Bo Ji was a man with no ambition and no strong family background, so the heroes decided to make the Dai King the new emperor.
Liu Heng, who escaped the palace killing, ascended the throne as emperor in 180 BC and became a wise monarch in history. Bo Ji became the empress dowager who everyone respected.
Kindness is not only a human quality, but also a pass for kind people.
05
Shortly after Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, he believed Zhou Bo's slander and imprisoned Lao Zhou Bo in prison.
Bo Ji was furious after hearing this. She went to the court and threw the headdress on her head at Emperor Wen, cursing: You ungrateful person, if you don’t think about it with your brain, Zhou Bo would have rebelled long ago. When he held the jade seal in his hand, he did not rebel, and did not rebel when he was demoted to a small county court lieutenant? If you believe in slander, you will force the army to rebel, and you will mislead my great man.
Bo Ji's words awakened Emperor Wen of Han like a sudden enlightenment. Emperor Wen of Han hurriedly released Zhou Bo from prison and reconciled with Zhou Bo, winning the support of heroes and stabilizing the political situation. Later, Zhou Bo's son, Zhou Yafu, was appointed as the Grand Marshal, to quell the "rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms".
Bo Ji's sober political wisdom once again resolved the crisis and saved the life of her grandson, Emperor Jing. She is really a wise queen mother.
Bo Ji's "later blessing" for Emperor Wen, gaining more than he wants, having no desires or fighting, being generous and kind, governing without doing anything, and the quality of being frugal and loving the people, all deeply influenced Emperor Wen. Therefore, he implemented rest and recuperation, development of production, and cherished the people, so that the Han Dynasty quickly ended the withering situation after the war, "white bones exposed in the wild, no rooster crowing for thousands of miles", creating the first prosperous era in Chinese history "Wenjing Governance ".
In 155 BC, Bo Ji passed away peacefully and was buried in Bailuyuan . Behind her "look left" her husband Changling of Emperor Gaozu of Han and "look right" her son BAOling , both noble and not offside.
Bo Ji was born in a chaotic world. She had no appearance, but she successfully escaped the palace disaster and transformed into the empress dowager. She also trained a generation of wise kings for the Han Dynasty. She was praised as "mother's virtue and kindness" by the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. She was a winner in life who had experienced ups and downs.
Bo Ji's life once again proves that a person's background cannot be chosen, but the way he walks is up to himself. She spent her life with "no desires and no struggles, low-key life". Is it the favor of God or the wisdom of life?
Author: Mu Tan
Instructor: Mu Wanfeng
References: "Records of the Grand Historian. Volume 49. Family of Foreign Relatives 19"
"Han Shu. Biography of Foreign Relatives"
