In 272 BC, a sudden cry of surprise came from the Ganquan Palace of the Qin Kingdom, and the palace maid rushed into the palace, only to see Empress Xuan's undressed hair scattered, and beside her lay the king of Yiqu, who was dying of alcohol. Before the palace maid could react, Empress Xuan, who was still trembling on the side, said: Don't blame me! After probing the sniffles of the King of Tanyiqu with his hand, the secret order immediately informed King Zhaoxiang of Qin.
King Zhaoxiang of Qin waited anxiously outside the palace for many days, received the news of his mother and was overjoyed, and with a wave of his sleeves, he took out the tiger charm to pass the order, and poured the strength of Qin to attack Yiqu, at this time, thousands of miles away, people were still chatting about the gossip of the Yiqu King and Empress Qin Xuan, admiring the great king of Yiqu, Empress Qin Xuan's royal sister could handle it, because Yiqu had no preparation at all, the Qin cavalry suddenly rushed to attack, after occupying several important passes, the leaderless Yiqu state was destroyed by the Qin state not long after. The state of Yiqu, which once dominated the northwest for a time, was divided into three counties by King Zhaoxiang of Qin.
This is the famous Empress Qin Xuan in history, who never ceased to risk her life to lure the Yiqu, and it was also a very important turning point in the Warring States period, the Qin State that obtained the land of the Yiqu State for thousands of miles, there was no fierce enemy in the west, and the Qin State, which was no longer worried about the future, was able to concentrate on developing to the east, and how to eliminate the Six Kingdoms of the Kanto was put on the agenda.
In the matter of the destruction of Yiqu by the State of Qin, Empress Xuan of the State of Qin, as the queen of a country, did not hesitate to sacrifice her youth and love, and asked qu to befriend the King of Yiqu, and even legend has it that she gave birth to two sons for the King of Yiqu, after fully gaining the trust of the King of Yiqu. However, for the sake of the Qin State's Jiangshan Sheji, she could not bear to get rid of it with her own hands, and with her own body, let the Qin State expand thousands of miles, just by this merit, her merits in the Qin State were not inferior to Bai Qi and Zhang Yi and others at all.
Therefore, it has also become the most memorable empress in the minds of the people of the Qin state, in order to respect her and commemorate her, the Qin state honored her as the empress, according to the research of historical experts, the word empress dowager also began with her, Sima Qian's "History of Qin Benji": The queen mother of Zhao, the empress dowager, the queen mother then began to think that it was called. She was also the first woman in history to rule the country for decades as an empress dowager, but Empress Xuan, who ruled for too long, although the Qin state has been greatly developed, and laid a solid foundation for the unification of the six kingdoms of Qin, but she has made her son, The King of Qin Zhaoxiang, very uncomfortable, after all, the nominal monarch of the Qin State is the King of Qin Zhaoxiang, but the people of the Qin State are only aware of Empress Xuan and her brother, and the King of Qin Zhaoxiang is of course the hope of regaining real power, but Empress Xuan is his mother who depends on him. The more filial king of Qin Zhaoxiang was unable to do anything until one year when a fugitive from the State of Wei arrived, this person was Fan Ju, after Fan Ju escaped to the Qin State after thousands of dangers, his ability to govern the country was recognized by the King of Qin Zhaoxiang, Fan Ju urged the King of Qin Zhaoxiang to take back real power, and for the hesitant King of Qin Zhaoxiang, he took the history and the three nobles of the State of Lu and the three points of the State of Jin as an example. King Zhaoxiang of Qin, under the persuasion of Fan Ju, finally carried out a series of dazzling operations, seizing real power from Empress Xuan and expelling his uncle Wei from Xianyang.
However, at this time, Empress Xuan was already old, even if she gave power to her son, it was not impossible to put down, after all, the son and she were originally one, and everything she had done before was not for the son, empress Xuan, who was still idle, found her own love, he knew a man Wei Ugly Husband, and Empress Xuan and Wei Ugly Husband loved very much, but although King Qin Zhaoxiang heard some of the Empress Dowager's gossip at this time, he was a filial piety after all, and did not pursue Wei Ugly Fu for any crimes. When Empress Xuan was seriously ill on the verge of death, because she could not let go of Wei Ugly Husband, she ordered Wei Ugly Husband to accompany her to be buried after her death. When Wei Ugly Fu heard that the panic of the fright could not last forever, he finally invited someone to do ideological work for Empress Xuan. This person was called Yong Rui, yong Rui persuaded Empress Xuan to have a very special method, and when he saw the empress dowager, he directly asked the empress dowager, after a hundred years of old age, is there still a perception?
Although Empress Xuan is old, her mind is still very clear, and back to it, she definitely can't! Yong Rui continued to ask the empress dowager, since there is no perception, then do you still bring Wei Ugly Fu to accompany you under Huang Quan? If there is really a perception, then how does the late former king view the behavior of you and the Yiqu King and the Wei Ugly Husband, Empress Xuan thought about it, and felt as if Yong Rui was quite right, remembering the First King and the Yiqu King, she ordered it to go down and not use wei ugly husband to accompany her to the burial.
Just after the autumn of 265 BC, a generation of prominent figures in the Qin Kingdom, Empress Qin Xuan, died and was buried near Zhiyang Lishan by King Qin Zhaoxiang, Empress Qin Xuan, as a chu woman, married to the Qin State as a dowry, but was able to get Qin Huiwen King, it can be said that her appearance must be very high, and she was very scheming, seized the opportunity after the death of King Qin Wu, through strategizing, and finally in many of the princes of the Qin State, her son Qin Zhaoxiang King was elected as the king of the Qin State, and her ability can be seen. Especially in the face of the aggressive Yiqu State, Empress Qin Xuan adopted the beauty plan, using her own advantages and sweet words, paid a lot and finally won the full trust of the Yiqu King, and at this time, the Qin Zhaoxiang King was also very cooperative, and finally the mother and son joined forces to obtain the merit of expanding the land for thousands of miles, although she lost power in her later years and favored the Wei ugly husband, but this flaw could not hide her dedication to the Qin State, so the evaluation of her in later generations was still relatively high, but the other six strong players of the Warring States did not look at it much. Because the Qin state gradually began to become stronger under her leadership, some of the records of her in the Six Kanto Kingdoms liked to discuss her private life.
In particular, a record of Empress Xuan in Korea at that time has become a classic in later generations, "Warring States Policy Han Ce II" In 307 BC, the powerful Chu state attacked the weak Korea, and Korea wanted to find someone to help because it was close to the Qin state, and sent emissaries to ask the Qin state for help.
But the problem, the Koreans are indeed a little sick and rushed to the hospital, and they have calculated that Empress Qin Xuan's hometown is the Chu State, and she is not willing to help South Korea, so in the face of the emissaries from South Korea, Empress Xuan told a very famous example:
"Concubines before the king, the first king with his hips and concubines, concubines are not tired, as many as the concubines, and concubines are heavy, why not? With its few advantages. ”
In fact, it is to tell South Korea that if there are not enough benefits and benefits, I will not help you, Empress Xuan will do what she says, since there is no benefit, why does qin want to help Korea as a shield? Therefore, later, I watched the fire from the other side and did not go to help. However, she did not expect that her rough words were brought back by Korean emissaries and recorded and passed down through the ages. From this point, it can be seen that many of the historical records of Empress Qin Xuan's personal life were not deliberately left by the Qin State, but were reserved for her by the Six Kingdoms of the Kwantung, which led to the fact that she and her lover became a topic of discussion for two thousand years.
From her, we can see the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, in fact, the women's personal thoughts, unlike the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations, are constrained by the concept of etiquette, they are very open, but also fierce love, dare to pursue their own love. However, not all empresses, privately pursuing their love, will be highly evaluated by history, as empress Dowager Xuan's great-granddaughter-in-law, Zhao Ji, the mother of Qin Shi Huang, her encounter is very similar to That of Empress Xuan, but the ending is very different, not only the lover and her son died, the son who almost depended on each other did not recognize her, but also became a scar in the heart of Qin Shi Huang, it is said that Qin Shi Huang did not establish an empress for life, so why did she and Empress Xuan have such a big gap?
Zhao Ji's life can be said to have many similarities with Empress Xuan, for example, both husbands died early, both of them once supported their sons, paid a lot, and the two also served as the real power empress for a period of time, both of them had their own lovers, and also quietly gave birth to two sons for their lovers.
So much similarity, so that later generations often compare the two, but it is undeniable that compared with Empress Xuan and Zhao Ji, Empress Xuan is more like a person who can go out of the hall and enter the kitchen, who can not only run the family, but also be able to take good children, and can also talk with her uncle, Zhao Ji, although born in the zhao kingdom, is only good at singing and dancing, the contrast between the two is more like a copy of Lü Hou and Lady Qi, so Zhao Ji, who lacks the overall situation and ambition, has to rely on men to maintain the survival space of Ying Zheng and herself, and her fate From the moment he was given to Zi Chu by Lü Buwei, he was doomed.
Zhao Ji can become the empress, the most important figure behind it is Lü Buwei, and Zhao Ji's final decline also has a lot to do with Lü Buwei, so Zhao Ji's life and Lü Buwei actually have an inexplicable relationship with Lü Buwei, only then did they have speculations about the identity of Yingzheng in the Six Kingdoms, it can be said that Zhao Ji's lover at the beginning of his love was Lü Buwei, although later Zi Chu's sincerity touched her, but later Zi Chudi died, and Zhao Ji, who was middle-aged, did not look at Empress Xuan, and her mind was focused on the Jiangshan Sheji of the Qin Kingdom. Instead, it was placed on Lü Buwei's body, hoping to join hands with Lü Buwei to let Yingzheng survive the most difficult years.
The two lived a few years like this, and when Yingzheng grew up to become a teenager, a chance encounter, the three of them were very embarrassed, after which Lü Buwei understood that he could no longer be like Zhao Ji, in order to get rid of Zhao Ji, he found a replacement for her, that is, the famous character, the appearance of this person changed Zhao Ji's life, after zhao Ji's approval, Lü Buwei also tried to find a way to make him an unclean eunuch, accompanied by Zhao Ji day and night, and Zhao Ji's contact with Ying Zheng was becoming increasingly rare, and he also found that he was pregnant. Zhao Ji said that he wanted to move out of the palace to live, and Yin Zheng filial piety agreed, but what Yin Zheng did not expect was that in the palace a hundred miles away, Zhao Ji added two half-brothers to himself, he was still in the dark, and later someone quietly told him that someone drunkenly said indiscriminately, "I am the false father of the King of Qin", Qin Shi Huang sent someone to investigate, only to find the truth, so Zhao Ji's matter was only in the east window, and finally the angry Qin Shi Huang cleaned up the "false father", and after two half-brothers, he drove Zhao Ji out of Xianyang. He also said that they would never see each other, if it were not for the fact that his ministers risked death to see him, he successively persuaded Qin Shi Huang that he would never see Zhao Ji in his lifetime, but Zhao Ji was finally taken back to the palace by Qin Shi Huang and enjoyed his old age alone in the deep palace. In 228 BC, Zhao Ji died.
Later histories' evaluation of Zhao Ji is basically one-sided and more derogatory, only a better record, but also the word "absolutely beautiful", compared with the higher evaluation of Empress Xuan, the gap between the two is mainly the following points:
First: In the Jiangshan Sheji of the Qin State, Empress Xuan was in charge of the Qin State for thirty-six years, during which time not only did not let the Qin State decline, but also let the Qin State expand thousands of miles, and the strength and prosperity laid the foundation for the sons and grandchildren.
Second: Both of them have loved each other, and they are still the kind that will not be unswerving until death, but Empress Xuan can sacrifice love for the sake of Jiangshan Sheji, and Zhao Ji almost causes the internal affairs of the Qin State to fall in love because of love, and the gap between Zhao Ji and Empress Xuan is very obvious.
Third: In the thinking of treating her lover, Empress Xuan has always been an active posture, whether it is the King of Yiqu or the later Wei Ugly Husband, she has taken the initiative in her own hands, but Zhao Ji, as the empress dowager, passively used by Lü Buwei and her lover, which directly led to the gap in their later endings.
To sum up, the two have the same encounter, but the ending is different, mainly in the contribution of the two to the Qin State, as well as the impact on history, as well as their own control of love, in various aspects, Empress Qin Xuan can completely defeat Zhao Ji, and Empress Xuan can grasp her own destiny, unlike Zhao Ji, who is swayed by others, which is the biggest difference between the two endings