Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu's Wife and Concubine-Yin Lihua and Guo Shengtong

Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, had two queens-Guo Shengtong and Yin Lihua. One is after Hebei’s Zhending royal family, and the other is the daughter of a powerful family in Nanyang. The lofty Han Palace witnessed a contest between two women about love and power, intentionally or unintentionally. Guo Shengtong married Liu Xiu by political marriage, and spent his youth in the palaces of the Han Palace, but he couldn't hold back the emperor's heart and eventually lost almost everything. The beauty Liu Xiu dreams of, Yin Lihua, has won the reputation of a generation of virtuous queens for her humility and patience. Among the concubines whose main life goal is to fight for power and favor, her perfect ending is almost a myth.

Liu’s descendants rise up

The Western Han Dynasty was completely defeated in the hands of Emperor Ai. After Wang Mang was recalled by the Queen Mother, Wang Zhengjun, finally could not bear the temptation of power, and his political ambitions gradually exposed. It is said that Wang Mang was worried that Emperor Ping would endanger his life when he grew up and he first poisoned Emperor Ping. After that, Liu Ying, a two-year-old baby in the royal family, was established as the crown prince, and he forced the empress dowager to agree to the rule of the emperor on his behalf. , Thus began his New Deal.

The courtiers who supported the Liu family and the common people who suffered famines and were dissatisfied with Wang Mang's New Deal rebelled. Among them, the army led by Liu Xiu became the most influential road among all the rebels. Liu Xiu is the descendant of Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty and the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty. At the age of 9, his parents died and he was adopted by his uncle.

Liu Xiu is tall, handsome, and loves to do farm work. Liu Bosheng, who is good at making friends with knights, laughs at him frequently. When he was a little older, Liu Xiu went to Chang'an to study in the tenth year when Wang Mang became emperor. In 22 AD, the year before Wang Mang was killed by Liu Xiu (61 AD 57), Liu Xiu's hometown Nanyang suffered a famine and the world was very unstable. At that time, Liu Xiu was selling food in Nanyang Xinye. Later, under the persuasion of Li Tong and others, in October of this year, 28-year-old Liu Xiu recruited soldiers and rebelled with his elder brother Liu Bosheng in Chungling.

Liu Xiu and her brother continued to win battles, their power grew stronger and their reputations grew. In the year when Wang Mang was killed, Liu Xuan, a brother of Liu Xiu's family, was adopted as emperor by an army of uprisings, and he was known as the Emperor of Change. At that time, Liu Xiu's eldest brother was named Great Situ, and Liu Xiu was the general of Taichang.

Liu Xuan has a weak personality and does not have the ability to command the troops and govern the country. He is very suspicious. Liu Bosheng is admired by many soldiers because of his outstanding military exploits. Liu Xuan was worried that this would not be good for him. Taking advantage of the fact that the Liu Xiu brothers were fighting each other, they quickly found an excuse to kill Liu Bosheng who had just captured Nanyang without any defense.

Liu Xiu led the troops out at the time and won a big victory against Kunyang. Liu Xuanzhao ordered him to go back. Although he knew that his elder brother was killed, in the long run, Liu Xiu endured the grief of losing his siblings and returned to Nanyang to apologize. Fearing that Liu Xuan would be suspicious of herself, Liu Xiu pretended to be indifferent, banqueting and laughing with many officials, and showed no sadness to the elder brother who died unjustly.

Liu Xuan was ashamed, and he saw that Liu Xiu would not have big ambitions, so he was named the General of the Puppet and Wu Xinhou. Marrying a wife deserves the respect of Yin Lihua and Liu Xiu, in exchange for the admiration of the Yin family brothers who work under Liu Xuan. The Yin brothers thought that Liu Xiu would achieve great cause sooner or later, so they married his 19-year-old sister Yin Lihua. According to legend, the Yin family is the descendant of Guan Zhong, with strict family education and filial grandson. The Yin family has a daughter, Yin Lihua, who is knowledgeable and reasonable, virtuous and kind, and is the best couple in the hearts of men in Xinye.

Before the uprising, Liu Xiu also left a sigh of "The official eunuch should be regarded as a master of Jinwu, and his wife should be regarded as Yin Lihua". "Zhijinwu" was the official title of the guardian of the palace in the Qin and Han dynasties. When Liu Xiu was studying in Chang'an, she happened to see the majestic and majestic look of the Jinwu, so she wanted to be a Jinwu.

At that time, Liu Xiu was an ordinary person with nothing. Holding Jin Wu and Yin Lihua are unrealistic dreams. Such dreams are just like the rainbow in the sky. Although beautiful, they are far away. and. But what Liu Xiu didn't expect was that these two seemingly distant dreams were realized one after another because of the death of her elder brother.

In June of the first year (23) of the first year of change, under the management of the Yin family and friends, Liu Xiu had a lively event in Xinye to marry his coveted beauty-a family of Nanyang powerful landlordsYin Lihua's daughter seems to have forgotten her eldest brother's death. But this descendant of the Liu family knows that if you can't bear it, you can do a lot of chaos, and you can only endure it when the army you control is not enough to support yourself. It was the last year of Wang Mang's reign. Wang Mang's army was defeated again and again, and was finally killed by the Green Forest Army. The rebel army took advantage of the chaos to claim the king and the emperor, and Liu Xiu's strength became stronger and stronger.

The Emperor Shidi was jealous of Liu Xiu, so he was sent to Luoyang to renovate the palace because he was about to move the capital to Luoyang. This also makes Liu Xiu and Yin Lihua helpless to separate the newly married couple. Liu Xiu sent Yin Lihua to Xinye and got up to go to Luoyang. At the time, the two probably did not expect that the difference was three years.

Because of not being with Liu Xiu, Yin Lihua had no children, which paved the way for the story to follow. In October of the same year, Emperor Gengshi moved the capital to Luoyang and worshipped Liu Xiu as the Lieutenant. On the day when Emperor Changshi entered the city, the people in the capital were amused to see the generals' arrogance and the sloppy team. When the soldiers led by Liu Xiu passed by, the veterans of the Western Han Dynasty shed tears, saying that there was hope for the Han Dynasty again.

Gengshidi was jealous of Liu Xiu's talent and prestige, and designated him as the general of the prisoners to perform Da Sima, and sent him to patrol the north of the Yellow River. It was during this period of Hebei that Liu Xiu had his own territory and independent capital. Liu Xiu defeated the local strong enemy Wang Lang in May of the following year and conquered a large number of rebellious troops, which gradually became the climate.

Liu Xuan saw Liu Xiu's strength gradually becoming stronger, and wanted to recall Liu Xiu and kill him, and first sent envoys to make Liu Xiu the King of Xiao. However, in view of the precedent of the murder of his brother, Liu Xiu, who was quite resourceful, refused to obey his orders on the grounds that Hebei had not been completely put down.

又得新女

During Liu Xiu's stay in Hebei, the city of Chang'an was in chaos. There were as many as 20 rebel forces in the Quartet. The Red Eye Army and the Green Forest Army were in their own hands. Liu Xiu looked for the right opportunity and continued to expand his territory with Hebei as the center. The army grew from a few thousand to a hundred thousand. Liu Xiu manages the army strictly, cares for the white, and the property obtained after attacking a city can be fairly distributed, so the people's hearts and the military are inclined to him.

Two years later, in June of the first year of Jianwu (25), Liu Xiu proclaimed himself emperor under the repeated support of the generals. The country name is still Han and the reign name is Guangwu. The Green Forest Army headed by Liu Xuan was wiped out by the Red Eyebrow Army headed by Liu Penzi, and Liu Xiu took a wait-and-see attitude in this war. After Liu Xuan's death, Liu Xiu agreed to let go of the Luoyang guards who were involved in the killing of his brother and Xu Yi's high-ranking officials. He took Luoyang without a single soldier and decided to stay here. During this time, the woman who accompanied Liu Xiu was a woman surnamed Guo who married in the war.

Since Yin Lihua is Liu Xiu’s dream lover, and this empathetic woman has also given him great support and encouragement, why should Liu Xiu still be in the world? Was he busy marrying another woman? Did Liu Xiu begin to have the emperor's prestige before he became the emperor?

This is not the case. The Guo clan was married by Liu Xiu when he attacked Handan, Hebei. At that time, Liu Xiu’s roots were not stable, and Wang Lang of Hebei was a warlock who made a living by fortune-telling. He lied that he was the son of Emperor Han Cheng and set himself up as the king. The local heroes all obeyed him. True King Liu Yang will command a hundred thousand troops alone.

With Liu Xiu's strength at the time, trying to attack Hebei by force is simply hitting rocks with pebbles. So Liu Xiu sent people to persuade Liu Yang to submit to himself and help get rid of Wang Lang. Liu Yang proposed to marry his niece Guo Shengtong to Liu Xiu. Guo Shengtong was born in the Wang Clan of Zhending Gaocheng. His father was praised by the world for letting a huge family fortune on his half-brother. His mother was the daughter of Emperor Liu Pu, the seventh Emperor of Han Jingding.

Suddenly, Liu Xiu was in a dilemma. He thought of Yin Lihua, his wife of knotting hair. But for the sake of the overall situation, Liu Xiu finally agreed to marry Guo Shengtong and held a grand wedding ceremony in Zhending, Hebei in the second year of the renewal (24). As a result, the 100,000 troops of Zhending Mansion were used by Liu Xiu, which greatly increased his power. Since then, Guo Shengtong has been following Liu Xiu.

立后难

In the second year, Liu Xiu proclaimed himself emperor in Huancheng, Hebei and rebuilt the Han Dynasty, which was called the Eastern Han Dynasty in history. In this year, Guo Shengtong gave birth to Liu Xiu’s eldest son, Liu Jiang, who became Liu Xiushen.The most favored woman on the edge, and was canonized as noble. Soon, the Eastern Han Dynasty established Luoyang as the capital, and Liu Xiu ordered Fu Jun to go to Xinye to welcome Yin Lihua into Beijing, and he was also named a nobleman.

Who will become the mistress of this new dynasty? Liu Xiu named Guo Shengtong and Yin Lihua as nobles, showing his hesitation. Guo Shengtong, this woman played a pivotal role in Liu Xiu’s pacification of Hebei, allowing Liu Xiu to have a stable rear of Hebei, and to get the support of the Hebei Zhending Royal Family Group and the Hebei tycoons, so as to realize the "first Kandong" in the future. "After Bashu", finally put down the great cause of the world (when Liu Xiu proclaimed the emperor, the world was still in a state of independent governance, and he personally led soldiers to conquer, and it took nearly ten years to completely unify the world).

What's more, Guo Shengtong has always been with Liu Xiu and Guo Shengtong. This woman played a pivotal role in Liu Xiu's pacification of Hebei, allowing Liu Xiu to have the stable rear of Hebei and get Hebei. With the support of the Zhending Royal Family Group and the Hebei tycoons, in the future, step by step, "Kantong first, then Bashu" will finally be achieved in the future. (When Liu Xiu proclaimed the emperor, the world was still in a state of independent governance. He personally led soldiers to conquer. It took nearly ten years to fully unify the world). What's more, Guo Shengtong has been with Liu Xiu all the time, and he has bred his eldest son.

But personally speaking, Liu Xiu loves Yin Lihua more. This woman he has admired for many years and married in his hardest time is his wife with hair. Even though the open-minded and rational Yin Lihua is far away from Liu Xiu, she still seems to be able to understand his difficulties. When Liu Xiu mentioned that she would give her a back position, Yin Lihua refused.

Yin Lihua’s Qian De and her family style are inseparable. In the second year of Jianwu (26), Yin Lihua’s brother, Yin Zhi, served with the army for meritorious service. Liu Xiu wanted to give him an exceptional award and also expressed compensation to Yin Lihua. However, Yin Shi was determined by the beginning of the world. I declined on the grounds that I can't get a reward on the basis of the relationship between my relatives.

In the 9th year of Jianwu, Liu Xiu wanted to make Yin Lihua's younger brother Yin Xing the Guan Nei Hou, but Yin Xing refused to resign. Yin Lihua asked Yin Xing privately after hearing about it. Yin Xing replied: "Aren't the nobles (Yin Lihua) not studying? Kanglong regrets, but the prosperous extreme declines, and the relatives don't know how to leave their ears!"

Jianwu Second Year (26) June, Guo Shengtong was The eldest son Liu Jiang was established as the queen and the eldest son Liu Jiang was established as the prince. According to the ancient ritual system, the first to marry Yin Lihua is his wife, and the second to Guo Shengtong is a concubine. To avoid developing a wife and welcome a concubine as a queen is Liu Xiu's last resort in the face of reality.

Grace

At this time, Guo Shengtong, who is in the lower position, has reached the pinnacle of her life. She feels that her position is unshakable. But gradually, with the arrival of Yin Lihua, Guo Shengtong felt that Liu Xiu, who was originally considerate, became more and more distant and cold from her, and more and more favored by Yin Lihua. After the addition, Liu Yang, who came to Guo Shengtong's uncle, was convicted for rebellion, and she lost her important political support. Guo Shengtong, who fell out of favor, pinned all his hopes on his son Liu Jiang. But as the princes grew up, Liu Xiu loved Liu Zhuang, the intelligent fourth son most. Liu Zhuang was the first son of Yin Lihua and Liu Xiu. It was the fourth year that Liu Xiu became emperor, that is, the fourth year of Jianwu (28). Yin Lihua was born in Hebei when Liu Xiubei conquered Peng Chong.

According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", Liu Zhuang "can pass "Spring and Autumn" at the age of ten, Guangwu Qizhi". Guo Shengtong also felt this change, and the grievances and resentments accumulated over the years finally broke out, so that he often "bringed stubborn resentment", that is, constantly complaining to Liu Xiu about the noisiness, and venting all kinds of dissatisfaction to Yin Lihua. Guo Shengtong's behavior not only failed to restore her husband's heart, but also caused Liu Xiu's disgust.

In the seventeenth year of Jianwu (41), Liu Xiu finally made up his mind to abolish Empress Guo and at the same time set up Yin Lihua as Empress. Liu Xiu issued an edict to the world: "The queen has grievances, she has violated teaching orders, cannot caress her sons, and teaches her different rooms. In the palace, if you see eagles and cranes. There is no virtue of "Guanju", but Lu, Huo Zhifeng, how can he entrust the young orphans to honor the worship of the Ming Dynasty. Today, Situ She and Zong Zhengji are sent to the festival, and the empress is on the seal of the empress. The yin noble is a good home in the village, and he belongs to the humble. "I have not seen myself, in this three years. 'It is advisable to Feng Zongmiao, the mother of the world. The master's detailed case is the old classics, and the title is superior at the time. Abnormal things are not a national holiday and cannot be celebrated."

Guo Shengtong handed over the queen's sealAfter Shou, she sadly left the queen's bedroom where she had lived for 16 years, left the harem where she had spent her youth, and followed the second son, King Zhongshan, back to the country and became the queen mother of King Zhongshan. This is really an unexpected ending, because the fate after the abolition is generally from then on to the cold palace, and what is more, a cup of poisoned wine or a three-foot white silk is given, and the world's entanglement is broken.

Moreover, generally speaking, only the emperor has passed away can the mother of the king be respected as the queen dowager, but Liu Xiu made Guo Shengtong the queen dowager, which is really the only one in history. Up. It is estimated that Liu Xiu still feels unbearable for this woman who accompanied her to fight in Hebei and had five sons.

Two years later, in the 19th year of Jianwu (43), the prince Liu Jiang, who had been "uneasy" after Guo Shengtong was abolished, resigned as prince. Liu Xiu agreed and changed Liu Jiang as the King of the East China Sea, and named Liu Zhuang, the son of Queen Yin Lihua, as the prince.

In the twenty-eighth year of Jianwu (52), Guo Shengtong passed away 11 years after being abolished and was buried in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. He failed to enter the imperial tomb, but her tomb was not far from the Hanyuan Mausoleum where Liu Xiu was buried. Because of her posthumous status was abolished, she was later called "Queen Guangwu Guo".

Yin Lihua and Liu Zhuang can be described as mothers and wise men. In February of the second year of the Chinese Yuan Dynasty (57), Liu Xiu died of illness in Luoyang and reigned for 33 years. Liu Zhuang followed the "Guangwu Zhongxing" created by his father Liu Xiu and created the "Ming Zhang Zhizhi". Yin Lihua became the Queen Mother 7 years after Liu Xiu's death. At the age of 60, she never interfered in the political affairs. With the respect of her husband and son, she ended her perfect and prominent life as a woman.