I believe that many female friends have had the dream of dominating the six palaces through ancient times! And the most ideal object of crossing in the eyes of many people is of course the princess - the potential is huge and there is room for growth, which can be attacked and retreated, and there is a chance to sit in the position of the empress dowager in the future to live through the addiction of regency. But wait, do you know how difficult it is for a princess to be promoted to empress dowager smoothly?
Princesses are generally promoted in accordance with the order of princesses - empresses - empresses, from the Beginning of the Han Dynasty, there are a total of 39 princesses recorded in china, but of these 39 people, only 6 princesses finally ascended to the position of empress, most of the princesses are stuck in the position of empress it is difficult to take another step forward, and what is more surprising is that only 3 of these 6 empresses are old in the position of empress, that is to say, on average, the proportion of princesses who want to be promoted to empress dowager is only 15%. The chance of a peaceful and peaceful old age in the position of the empress dowager is less than 8%. It can be seen that the real princess wants to be promoted smoothly, but it is many times more difficult than in the TV series.
Let's take a closer look at the ditches and bumps on the road to the "promotion" of the princess.
The first level is to choose the right husband
I often hear people say that it is better for a woman to do a good job than to marry, and as young women in the new century, everyone must sneer at this kind of remark. However, according to statistics, 12 of the 39 princesses were dragged down by their husbands and failed to be promoted smoothly. The situation of these incompetent husbands is diverse: some are too poor to hang up until they succeed to the throne; some are incompetent and lose the great war of succession; but the most miserable ones are those who are unlucky and are destroyed by people. In the first two cases, although these princesses did not hope to become empresses, their personal safety did not have to worry too much, but when they were destroyed, men could certainly die, but women had to face a more tragic fate.
For example, Emperor Qinzong of Song's crown princess Zhu Shi, who had just been transferred to empress for a few days, was taken captive to the Jin Kingdom with Hui and The Second Emperor qin after the Jin soldiers attacked Beijing. At that time, the twenty-six-year-old Zhu Shi was in his youth and was often teased by the Jin people. However, greater shame was still to come, and after the Jin people took them to Huining Province (near present-day Harbin), they asked the imperial family to go to the temple of Yan Akuta to perform the "sheep leading ceremony". This actually refers to a kind of surrender ceremony at that time, requiring the captives to be naked, covered in sheepskin, tied with ropes around their necks, and led like sheep to the temple to show their submission. It is conceivable that what kind of mood Zhu And other female relatives were in when they exposed their upper bodies, this is not the end, in order to further humiliate the Great Song Monarch, the Jin people also ordered the empress dowager and empress to enter the Golden Palace to "give baths" - to put it bluntly, it is collective adultery, Zhu Shi could not bear the insult, and committed suicide by throwing water on the same day.
The second level is to stay healthy
According to research, the average life expectancy of ancient emperors was only about thirty-nine years old, and tuberculosis, appendicitis, bacterial infections and even respiratory infections caused by colds, which can be solved by a drip and a single operation today, are out-and-out killers in ancient times. Seven of the 39 princesses died before they could wait for their promotion.
The most pitiful of these was the crown princess of Sima Dezong, the Emperor of Jin'an, Wang Shen'ai. The grandfather of this Wang Shen's love was the famous "Shusheng" Wang Xizhi, and her father was Wang Xianzhi, who was called "The Second King" with his ancestors, Wang Xianzhi was personable, the god was extraordinary, and he was a famous beautiful man at that time. As the daughter of Wang Xianzhi and Princess Xin'an, Wang Shen'ai was not only beautiful and dignified, but also outstanding in calligraphy, and the Book of Jin called this princess "good book". However, such a talented woman, because of the family climbing the dragon and phoenix, married the famous idiot Sima Dezong, according to the Book of Jin, this old brother "is not favored, self-less and long, the mouth can not speak, although the change of cold and summer, there is no way to argue." Whatever moves and stops is not out of their own hands. That is to say, he is not only stupid, but also unable to speak, and even has the ability to distinguish between hot and cold, such a prince naturally attracts many sinister people to usurp power, Wang Shen'ai has gone through many coups, palace turmoil, panic and uncertainty, and finally died young in the days of fear, only 29 years old.
The third stage is the birth of the crown prince
The ancients believed that "no filial piety has three, and no queen is greater", and in the "Great Dai Li Ji • Divorce", "childless, for its peerless world" is listed as the second of the seven out of seven, second only to filial piety. The first princess in the history of our country, the Crown Princess Bo of the Han Jing Emperor, was deposed after the Han Jing Emperor ascended to the empress throne because of "no son and no favor". After the first abrogation in Chinese history, later emperors began to divorce their wives on this ground, and according to statistics, 4 of the 39 crown princesses were deposed because they were childless. However, many times "childlessness" is just an excuse, if we carefully read the resumes of these princesses who were deposed because they were childless, we will find that they are usually not favored by the emperor! This is the perfect explanation for their inability to have children – you don't come and talk to me hehehehehehe
Fourth level Avoid palace fights
Finally arrived at this exciting link, presumably everyone saw the two words "palace fight" when the mood is already surging can not help themselves, "Beauty Of the Heart", "Golden Branch Desire", "Zhen Huan Biography" and a series of TV series to make the word palace bucket deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but in the historical fact because of the palace fight and lead to the failure to smoothly promote to the crown princess how many princesses? The answer turned out to be – 3! Isn't that unexpected?
In fact, the ancient harem etiquette was strict, and the intrigue between concubines often led to the disaster of killing. The crown princess is the natural lord of the harem, and after becoming an empress, she is the chief of the six palaces, and the identity difference between her and other concubines is huge. For those concubines who competed for favors, instead of taking huge risks and fighting with the empress, it was better to spend all their minds on the emperor's insurance. Therefore, the palace fight that everyone talks about appears less in the harem, but there are exceptions, Xu E, the crown princess of the Hancheng Emperor, is famous, has good color and art, is good at articles, and when the two are just married, they are like glue, which knows that after Xu E's transfer to empress, two strong competitors suddenly appeared: Zhao Feiyan and Hede. The glorious deeds of these two sisters must not need me to introduce too much, Emperor Hancheng has since abandoned Xu E, concentrated on finding fun with the Zhao sisters, Xu E is increasingly snubbed and inevitably resentful, and the powerful Zhao family sisters are not fuel-saving lamps, so after several collisions between Mars and the earth, finally, the Zhao family sisters let the Hancheng Emperor depose Empress Xu by means of Empress Xu's sister's curse on the harem beauty, and then found an excuse to poison her.
Fifth level Keep a low profile
Chairman Mao taught us that women can hold up half the sky. Usually the successive generations of princesses are willing to be the helpers behind their men, but there are also some unrestrained princesses who have stepped onto the political stage and played a talent no less than that of men. Unfortunately, however, the princess who did this basically did not have a good ending... Of course, there are very few princesses in this part, only two.
Of these two, The Crown Princess Sima Zheng of the Jin Dynasty is definitely worth mentioning, this Jia clan is ugly in appearance, it is said that he is "short and fat, his face is blue and black, and his eyebrows are covered with tumors," and he is cruel and lustful. Yes you read that right,. Sima Zheng once had the famous "why not eat meat paste", stupid and timid, obedient to Jia's words, Jia's jealousy, if she heard that any palace girl was pregnant, she would take someone to perform a "caesarean section" for her and take the child out of her stomach - this is naturally a corpse and two lives. However, Jia Shi was not satisfied with only her husband, and the Book of Jin and the Zizhi Tongjian record that she often sent her confidant palace women to the streets, and when she saw a handsome man, she abducted him to the harem for sexual pleasure, and then killed him afterwards - this is also another form of famous history. Obviously, such an arrogant Jia clan was also unwilling in the government, she specialized in the government, cracked down on different parties, forced to kill the crown prince, and single-handedly led the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" of the Jin Dynasty, but the self-inflicted evildoers could not live, and the Jia clan eventually died in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, and was killed by Sima Lun, the King of Zhao, with poison and wine.
Even if you pass the above levels and successfully promote the empress, you must beware of some small probability events. For example, The Northern Zhou Emperor Yuwen Yun's crown princess Yang Lihua, this princess was gentle in temperament and delicate in demeanor, although her husband Yuwen Yun was a famous tyrant and moody, but Yang Lihua was always calm. Finally, in the second year of the elephant (580), Yuwen Yun died, and Yuwen Yu honored Yang Lihua as the empress dowager—it is reasonable to say that this should be regarded as a complete merit and successfully reached the end of her career, but what she never expected was that this Empress Yang had a tough father, and his father was the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty: Yang Jian. Yang Jian was known for his anti-ambitions, the Zhou Jing Emperor Yuwen Yan was not yet 10 years old when he ascended the throne, as the empress's father, the emperor's "imperial grandfather", Yang Jian had great power, first deceived the Northern Zhou Dynasty princes into Chang'an and then executed collectively, and then several false divine decrees to recruit political enemies who were threatening his status in the country, and finally on February of the first year of Dading (581), Emperor Jing of Zhou was located in his grandfather, and Yang Jian was satisfied to ascend the throne. Yang Lihua has also become the only non-typical case in history in which a princess becomes an empress dowager and then a princess.
The last princess in history was the Qing Dynasty's Crown Princess GuarJiashi, kangxi loved and hated this prince, two stands and two wastes, and the Guarjia clan also experienced two ups and downs with her husband. After the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty implemented the secret crown prince system and completely abolished the crown prince, and since then, the profession of princess has completely disappeared from the land of China.