In recent years, various palace dramas have been popular on the screen and are noisy. It has to be said that the content of many palace dramas is actually very exaggerated, far from the real history. However, there were serious various struggles in the harems of many emperors in ancient times, which is a basic fact.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, a relatively rare palace fight occurred in the harem of Emperor Renzong of Song. In this palace fight, the emperor was not only dragged in, but also beaten. This is extremely rare in history.
not only have three thousand beauties in the harem of the emperor, but also countless stories.
Song Renzong Zhao Zhen succeeded to the throne in 1022 and was the fourth emperor of the Song Dynasty. When Song Renzong first became emperor, he favored beauty Zhang very much. The beauties here refer to one level among the concubines of ancient emperors. The beauties of the Song Dynasty were lower than those of the emperor’s concubines, such as the queen, wife and concubine, but they enjoyed the treatment of the fourth rank and had a relatively high status. Song Renzong liked beauty Zhang, so he wanted to make her the queen. However, Song Renzong's mother, Zhuang Xianming , the Empress Dowager , did not like beauty Zhang, so he stopped Song Renzong.
Later, with the support of Empress Dowager Zhuang Xian, the granddaughter of the Jiedushi of Pinglu Army, Guo Chong, was appointed as the queen by Song Renzong in the second year of Tiansheng (1024). This is Empress Guo . Empress Guo relied on the support of Empress Dowager Zhuang Xian and was very arrogant, but after Empress Dowager Zhuang Xian passed away, she was less powerful. At this time, Song Renzong favored beauty Shang and beauty Yang. Queen Guo was very jealous of these two women. These two beauties also relied on the emperor's favor and had many disputes with Queen Guo.
One day, in front of Song Renzong, Shang Meiren said disrespectful words to Queen Guo. Queen Guo was furious and went up to slap Shang Meiren. Song Renzong hurried to stop him, but after , Empress Guo accidentally slapped Song Renzong on the neck, leaving scratches on Song Renzong's neck . So Song Renzong was also furious.
EunuchYan Wenying took the opportunity to discuss the destruction of Empress Guo with Song Renzong, and advised Song Renzong to show the scratches on his neck to the prime minister to convince the prime minister. The prime minister at that time was Lu Yijian. Because Empress Guo had previously suggested that Emperor Renzong of Song had abolished Lu Yijian's prime minister, Lu Yijian had long held a grudge against Empress Guo. Therefore, when Song Renzong pitifully showed Lu Yijian the scratches on his neck and said that he wanted to depose Queen Guo, Lu Yijian immediately agreed and said, "There have also been the case of deposing Queen."
So, Song Renzong issued an edict to depose Empress Guo, but appointed her as Concubine Jing, which means that Empress Guo was demoted from Empress to Concubine. At the same time, Song Renzong also appointed Empress Guo as the Immortal Master of Yujing Chongmiao, and gave her the name Qingwu, allowing her to live in Changle Palace. The method of handling is very interesting. It not only demoted Empress Guo to a concubine, but actually made her become a monk and made her practice Taoism to .
can be seen, Queen Guo paid a very high price for her slap.
Many simple girls grew up to become palace fighting masters after entering the palace. The same is true for Wu Zetian and Empress Dowager Cixi.
At that time, ministers such as Zhongcheng Kong Daofu , Censor Censor Fan Zhongyan all opposed the destruction of Empress Guo, but their opposition did not work, and Kong Daofu and others were also punished for this.
After Song Renzong deposed Empress Guo, no one would control him now, so he boasted about beautiful monk Yang and beautiful woman, and soon he destroyed his body, resulting in sometimes not eating for several days. The eunuchs and ministers inside and outside the palace were very worried about this. Empress Dowager Yang advised Song Renzong, but Song Renzong refused to listen. Because the eunuch Yan Wenying served Song Renzong, he kept talking about this matter every day, which made Song Renzong alienate Yang Meiren and the beautiful monk. One day, Song Renzong finally got annoyed and said, "Okay." Yan Wenying was now considered to have received the emperor's order, so he used a felt truck to transport Shang Meiren and Yang Meiren out of the palace. Both beauties cried and refused to leave. Yan Wenying scolded them, "What else do you two official maids dare to say?" and forced them into the car. This is really "a down-and-out phoenix is not as good as a chicken". The beauty is no longer in power, and even the eunuchs dare to scold them.
The next day, Song Renzong ordered Shang Meiren to be named a female Taoist priest and live in Dongzhen Palace; while Yang Meiren was placed in another courtyard.
After a while, Song Renzong regretted the destruction of Queen Guo and had the idea of restoring Queen Guo's status as queen. Yan Wenying was frightened now. Because he and Song Renzong discussed deposing Empress Guo, once Empress Guo restored its status as a queen, can he have good results?
At that time, Empress Guo was sick, so Song Renzong sent Yan Wenying to take the imperial physician to see Empress Guo. As a result, within a few days, Empress Guo passed away. But the outside world generally believes that Empress Guo was poisoned to death by Yan Wenying.
Song Renzong sent Yan Wenying to take the imperial physician to see Empress Guo, which was equivalent to harming Empress Guo. This incident reflects that Song Renzong has serious lack of experience in political struggles and does not know how to analyze interests. The losers in the palace fighting often have a miserable ending.
In fact, this is also a common problem for many ancient Chinese emperors. These emperors rely too much on eunuchs, resulting in their lack of independent judgment. The end result is that eunuchs are tyrannical and disrupt the government. This is how the decline of many ancient dynasties in my country began.
In short, ancient palace fighting was often entangled with various power struggles. The traditional feudal dynasty lacked a political system that separates the harem from the court politics, which is also a major source of crises that these feudal dynasties may experience at any time.
Reference materials:
"History of the Song Dynasty·Volume 242"
"Continued Zizhi Tongjian·Volume 39"
