This article is written with reference to historical sources and personal opinions, and the relevant literature sources have not been indicated.
In the fourth year of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty (153 years ago), the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, which lasted for nearly a year, was completely quelled, in order to calm the hearts of the people, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty on April 23 of that year, the eldest son Liu Rong born to Li Ji was the crown prince, and Liu Che, the son of Wang Huan, was the king of Jiaodong.
Liu Rong is the future prince, Emperor Han Jing's sister Princess Pavilion Tao wants her daughter to be the future queen, so she wants to marry Liu Rong, but Li Ji is jealous by nature and disgusted that Princess Pavilion Tao has repeatedly offered beauties to Emperor Han Jing, so she opposes the marriage, which causes the dissatisfaction of Princess Pavilion Tao, and finally chooses to marry Liu Che.
Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty
Princess Pavilion Tao has always wanted her daughter to be the queen, but now that Liu Rong occupies the position of the crown prince, she can only overthrow him.
In order to make Liu Che the crown prince, the princess of the pavilion Tao contributed a lot, slandering Li Ji in front of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty many times, and then took advantage of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty to be dissatisfied, and encouraged the ministers to ask Li Ji to be the queen, prompting Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty to have the heart of abolishing the establishment.
Of course, if you just rely on the slander of the princess of the pavilion to abolish the prince, it is too child's play, the most fundamental reason is that the forces behind Liu Rong are really too powerful, and Emperor Han Jing has long had the heart to abolish the prince.
Since the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, the power of the Liu clan has been greatly weakened, and the military merit group represented by Zhou Yafu, who quelled the rebellion, and the power of the Dou relatives who supported Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty to cut the feudal domain has been greatly expanded, which has seriously restricted the imperial power, and they are now all supporters of the crown prince Liu Rong.
Obviously, the abolished prince was opposed by Zhou Yafu and Dou Ying, but Emperor Jing of Han still withstood the pressure, and used Li Ji's natural jealousy to provoke her, and continued to corrupt the character of Li Ji and the prince, just to prepare for the abolition of the prince.
After three years of preparation, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty announced in the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty (150 BC) that Liu Rong would be abolished as the king of Linjiang and Liu Che would be the crown prince.
To be honest, Emperor Jing of Han did not mistake Liu Che, the crown prince
The fate of the abolished prince seems to be not good, and Liu Rong's fate also made a very bad start for the future abolition of the prince, according to the "Historical Records" record, in the second year of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty (148 years ago), Liu Rong was denounced, saying that he invaded the walls of the temple to expand the palace, and committed suicide for the sake of Mingzhi.
According to the historical records, his death seems to be inconspicuous, after all, a deposed prince dies when he dies, but in the "Zizhi Tongjian", there is such a sentence:
In March of the second year of Emperor Xiaojing, Wang Rong of Linjiang invaded the temple of Taizong as a palace, and asked the lieutenant's palace to check the book. The king of Linjiang wanted to get a knife and pen, and thanked him for the book, but the lieutenant Zhi forbade the officials to refuse; The Marquis of Wei Qi made the world and the king of Linjiang. The king of Linjiang thanked the book for committing suicide. When the Empress Dowager Dou heard this, she was angry, and then she killed her in danger of the law - "Zizhi Tongjian"
These words seem to be no different from Sima Qian's "Historical Records", but if you look carefully at the latter paragraph: "And Lieutenant Zhi forbids officials not to do it", which makes people wonder, why didn't Zhi give Liu Rong a knife and pen, so that he had the opportunity to write a grievance? Are you afraid that Liu Rong will show favoritism to Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty?
Liu Rong in "The Emperor of the Han Dynasty".
This explanation seems to make some sense, after all, in the history books, Zhidu is indeed an iron-faced and selfless image of integrity:
It is the age of the year, and the servant Liu She is the imperial doctor, and the Jinan Taishouzhi is the lieutenant...... They are all people, brave and honest, do not send private letters, ask for nothing to be left behind, please listen to nothing. And as a lieutenant, first harsh, the law does not avoid the nobles, the princes, the clan see the capital, look sideways, called the goshawk - "Zizhi Tongjian"
Looking at it this way, Zhidu is indeed an iron-faced and selfless person, and it is reasonable not to pursue the lawlessness of the abolished prince Liu Rong for personal gain.
But the problem is that Sima Guang added a paragraph before: "It's the age of the year, the imperial servant Liu She is the imperial historian, and the Jinan Taishouzhi is the lieutenant." ”
On the surface, it seems to be a normal promotion, but Jinan is adjacent to Jiaodong, and the current prince Liu Che is the king of Jiaodong back then, and he was also named a lieutenant in the same year that Liu Che was named the prince, which seems to imply that Zhidu may be Liu Che's person, because Liu Che was named the prince, Emperor Han Jing promoted the people around him to be lieutenants.
If you follow this line of thought, everyone seems to have figured it out a little, that is, the people around Liu Che, in order to consolidate Liu Che's position as the prince, even if Liu Rong has been deposed, there is still a threat, so they took the opportunity to frame Liu Rong and put Liu Rong to death.
Huangdu
It's just that when Liu Rong died, Liu Che was only eight years old, even if Liu Che was talented, but an eight-year-old boy was not enough to have such a mind and resourcefulness.
In other words, there is someone else behind Liu Rong's forced death, who is it? is still in "The king of Linjiang wants to get a knife and pen, thank you for the book, but the lieutenant Zhi is forbidden to refuse; The Marquis of Wei Qi made the world and the king of Linjiang. The king of Linjiang thanked him for the book, but he committed suicide".
What does this mean? It was Liu Rong who wanted to write to Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty to state his grievances, but Lieutenant Zhidu did not allow the jailer to give him a pen, or Wei Qihou (Dou Ying) secretly sent a pen to him, and Liu Rong committed suicide immediately after writing it.
This text is not long, but there are quite a few things that make people wonder:
1, Zhidu is just a lieutenant, even if he is selfless, he has no power to prevent others from writing to complain, and Liu Rong is still the king of Linjiang, the prince of today, with a noble status;
2. The crime is "encroachment on the temple", but is there any encroachment? The history books do not explicitly tell the story.
3. Since Zhi is not allowed to give knives and pens, why did he "omission" to give Dou Ying the opportunity to secretly give knives and pens?
4. Even if it is a major crime of rebellion, even if it is invaded and occupied, it is not a major crime of rebellion, as long as you state it to Emperor Jing of Han, why do you have to choose the path of suicide?
After all, in order to facilitate his conspiracy with Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo privately chiseled through a wall so that he could enter and exit the palace freely, and this wall was not an ordinary wall, but the outer wall of the mausoleum of Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty, a real temple.
Wrong
But what did Emperor Han Jing say in the end? It is not the ancestral temple that is broken, but the ordinary outer wall, and this is what he asked Chao to do, the minister can cover it, but the son can't?
These are the doubts about Liu Rong's death, and then extrapolated back according to these doubts.
Who has the ability to order the lieutenant not to write to Liu Rong? Obviously, there is only Emperor Han Jing, and when he thinks of this, other questions suddenly become clear.
Since Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty wants to force Liu Rong to death, no matter whether Liu Rong invades the temple or not, it doesn't matter anymore, he has to die anyway.
At first, Liu Rong didn't know, until Dou Ying sent the pen, he didn't know who wanted to put himself to death, after all, he grew up in the royal family and understood his father's thoughts, in order to fulfill his father and avoid his father's infamy of killing his son, he chose to commit suicide.
Therefore, it is his father Emperor Jing of Han who wants Liu Rong to die, Liu Rong, as the former prince, was once supported by Zhou Yafu and Dou Ying and others, in case he dies, these people support Liu Rong to make trouble, and the country that has finally stabilized will fall into civil strife again, which he does not want to see.
The rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, the internal friction was too great
In fact, this is also the case, Liu Rong was in prison, Dou Ying secretly sent a pen, the purpose was to protect Liu Rong, after all, Liu Che ascended the throne in the future, and Wang's relatives would inevitably conflict with Dou's relatives.
As for Zhidu, he saw Emperor Han Jing's thoughts, and also saw the huge reward after doing this, after all, forcing Liu Rong to death can please Emperor Han Jing, and consolidate Liu Che's position, Liu Che will definitely be grateful to him when he ascends the throne in the future, and his status will rise.
If Yang Feng Yin disobeys, and Dou's eyebrows come and go, and offends Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che and Wang's relatives will not be able to spare him in the future, which is more important, he will understand after thinking about it.
In addition, in view of the bloody example of Emperor Han Jing killing Chao Cuo, Zhi Du was also afraid that he would be used as a scapegoat afterwards, so he thought of a way to find a scapegoat himself, and this scapegoat was Dou Ying.
In other words, how did Dou Ying know that Liu Rong wanted to write to Emperor Han Jing? How do you know that Liu Rong can't find a knife and pen? Either Dou Ying has his own eyes and ears in prison, but it is obviously impossible to avoid Zhidu and send him in, so the truth is that this news was revealed to him by Zhidu himself.
Empress Dowager Dou
deliberately asked Dou Ying to send a knife and pen, creating the illusion that Liu Rong died because Dou Ying sent a knife and pen, so that everyone's attention shifted to Dou Ying's head, so that he could kill people with a knife.
It can be seen from here that Zhi can be reused by Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, at least with two brushes.
Well, now looking back at Emperor Han Jing's actions, a father killed another son with his own hands in order to stabilize the position of one son, which makes people see the ruthlessness under the imperial power.
It is no wonder that the Empress Dowager Dou was very angry when she learned about it, firstly, her son was so ruthless, and secondly, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty broke off a natural ally of Dou's relatives.
But what can Empress Dowager Dou do? saw his son forcing his grandson to death, but he couldn't blame it, so he could only vent his anger on Zhidu, who carried out this matter:
When the Empress Dowager Dou heard this, she was furious, and then she killed her in danger
However, after all, Zhidu did things for himself, how could Emperor Han Jing sit idly by? just dismissed him and returned to his hometown, and the Empress Dowager Dou couldn't see Zhidu, thinking that she was really dead.
But a few years later, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty once again enabled Zhidu and appointed him as the county guard of Yanmen.
But Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty said that Zhi was a loyal minister and could not be killed, but the Empress Dowager Dou choked: "Isn't the King of Linjiang a loyal minister?" ”
Emperor Jing said: "All loyal ministers." "I want to release it. Empress Dowager Dou said: "King Linjiang is not a loyal minister? So he beheaded Zhidu - "Historical Records: The Biography of Cool Officials"
Empress Dowager Dou finally killed Zhidu, which shows her hatred for Emperor Han Jing and Zhidu.
In fact, Empress Dowager Dou did say that she was right, although the king of Linjiang was deposed, he has been cautious and built water conservancy in the local area, and is deeply respected by the local people.
And when they learned that Liu Rong was ordered to return to Beijing, the local people secretly wept and chanted silently: "My king may not be able to return from this trip!" ”
It is said that after Liu Rong's death, flocks of swallows carried the soil to fill his grave, and the people wept bitterly, and they almost said that Liu Rong was wronged.
With the paving of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was able to play the strongest note of that era
It can be seen that the so-called encroachment on the temple may be a non-existent thing, and even if it is encroached upon, what if the temple is occupied? Isn't it that there is nothing wrong with it? From this point, it can be seen that Emperor Jing of Han's double standard is to force his son to death.
After Liu Rong's death, the history books did not record the relevant description of Liu Rong's death by Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, and he was quite cold-blooded.
As a father, Emperor Jing of Han is obviously unqualified, but as an emperor, Emperor Jing of Han is qualified, in order to continue the country and stabilize the imperial power, he can ruthlessly execute his mentor Chao Cuo, and he can also force his own son to death, and then wipe out a group of forces loyal to Liu Rong.
Is Liu Rong wronged? To be honest, it's quite wronged, but there is really no way to be in the royal family, even if he is cautious, even if he says that he is not interested in the throne, how can the forces that once supported him be willing? will inevitably make trouble under his banner, which is Liu Rong's tragedy.
It's hard to imagine how desperate Liu Rong was on the night of his death? Think about yourself, think about your ruthless father, so he committed suicide in anger after leaving a letter, and it also made future generations understand that the struggle for power is so cruel and ruthless.
Resources
Sima Qian: Historical Records. The Sixty-Second Legend of the Cool Officials
Sima Guang: "Zizhi Tongjian. Volume XVI. Han Ji VIII