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There is a good saying, you have the life to drive a luxury car, and you also have the luck to drive a luxury car. After all, driving a luxury car on a bumpy mountain road is not a good thing. After all, if you are not careful, the car will be destroyed and people will die. Empress Shangguan in the Western Han Dynasty confirmed this sentence.
Empress Changsun, Queen Ma, Empress Xu, Queen Fucha, these stark contrasts make people sigh: Good fate also has good luck?
Glorious birth
Speaking of Shangguan's origin, it is really not strong, her grandfather Shangguan Ji, the military representative at the end of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was named the minister of Tuogu before Emperor Wu's death, assisting Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty Liu Fuling. And her maternal grandfather was praised by later generations as "the most powerful minister" and Huo Guang, who was also a minister of orphanage.
The illustrious background brought endless glory to the Shangguan clan. But everything in the world comes at a price. Behind the endless glory is endless loneliness and the powerlessness of not being able to control one's own destiny.
The center of power is a big vortex that draws everyone into it, whether you want it or not. The Shangguan family was born in such a family, and the struggle for power would run through the beginning and end of this family.
The youngest queen in history
When Shangguan was six years old, Shangguan Ji married her into the palace in order to deepen his control over the emperor. Become the youngest queen in history. At this time, she was only six years old, still a child, she could have had a happy childhood, but now she was imprisoned in the deep walls of the palace.
We have no way of knowing how the couple spent their lives, and we don't know how Emperor Zhao of Han thought of the empress. We don't know if this is fortunate or unfortunate for the Shangguan family, the six-year-old queen is unique in the future. As for the future, she doesn't know, and she also doesn't know, is that in the future, two more historical records will be created.
Xu is the existence of Huo Guang and Shangguan Ji, and no one dares to be disrespectful to this young queen. She should have a peaceful time. But the calm inside the palace does not mean that the outside of the palace is also calm. Outside the palace, the struggle for power never subsides, and her maternal grandfather and grandfather are constantly fighting for power.
Huo Guang, who was expected by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to become the Duke of Zhou in the Han Dynasty, was on the death of Emperor Wu, and he was named the Great Sima and the Great General. As long as he is still there, Shangguan Ji will always be pressed by him.
As long as Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty still recognized Emperor Wu's edict, Shangguan Ji would not be able to bring down Huo Guang. But power can distort people into not being human. For the sake of power, Shangguan Ji was ready to flip the table. He was going to depose the emperor. He wants more power.
As for the granddaughter's husband, he didn't care, he also forgot that he Huo Guang was a relative, after all, the Seven Heroes of the Warring States were not relatives, but did this prevent them from fighting in the dark? He united Sang Hongyang, who disagreed with Huo Guang's philosophy, Princess Gai Chang, who raised the emperor, and Liu Dan, the king of Yan, who wanted to be the emperor. Shangguan Ji and Huo Guang will not die.
The Shangguan family slashed at Huo Guang for the first time, and they took advantage of Huo Guang's absence to report to the emperor that Huo Guang had transgressed the etiquette system and was nepotistic. But the emperor defended Huo Guang, a teenage emperor with political wisdom of different ages. The first cut failed.
But the Shangguan family was still unwilling, they prepared a second knife to assassinate Huo Guang at the banquet, but Huo Guang found out in advance that he and the emperor shot together.
In this way, the queen who stayed in the palace received the news that her family had been wiped out. It was his husband and maternal grandfather who destroyed the family. Because of Huo Guang, the butcher knife was not aimed at her, and she continued to stay in the palace as the queen.
The queen of exclusive favors
After Shangguan Ji's death, Huo Guangquan leaned towards the opposition. At that time, the emperor was 18 years old and should have been in power, but Huo Guang did not hand over power. The Emperor has reached adulthood.
Huo Guang was also anxious to hope that his granddaughter Empress Shangguan would add a prince to the court, so under his instruction, the ministers of the court wrote to Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty and strongly recommended the queen to be favored, with a clear intention: "Your Majesty is less close to women, which is conducive to the health of the dragon and the queen is the perfect strategy!" ”
Moreover, Huo Guang also ordered the palace ladies to wear a kind of tightly sewn pants in case the emperor had a relationship with them. Give birth to a child. I don't know how aggrieved Emperor Zhao of Han was at that time.
But in this way, Shangguan's stomach has not moved. In 74 BC, Emperor Zhao of Han, who was only 21 years old, made a mistake that everyone would make, and he died, leaving no heirs during his lifetime.
At this time, Empress Shangguan was only 15 years old, and she was not an adult now, but at that time she had already become a widow and was lonely.
Regarding the reasons for Shangguan's lifelong childlessness and the cause of the death of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, there are different opinions in the historical circles. If you are interested, you can check, and the editor will express his opinion here.
Embarrassing years
And then her identity changed so quickly that even the historians were surprised. After the death of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, Huo Guang discussed with his ministers to come up with the next emperor, and he planned to establish the king of Changyi, Liu He. But this benevolent brother is really a bit pretentious, he has only been in power for 27 days, and there are more than 1,000 cases of overstepping the etiquette system, Huo Guang can't look at it, so he will abolish it as ridiculous.
After that, Huo Guang established the son of the crown prince Liu Ju as the emperor.
In this way, the Shangguan clan changed from the queen mother to the queen mother.
But the god of fate did not stop, and a few years after Emperor Xuan of Han ascended the throne, the emotionless political machine died. After Huo Guang's death, the Huo family rebelled. After that, the rebellion was put down. The Huo family was wiped out. Wei Huo's relatives prospered because of a woman, and also died because of a woman.
But Shangguan was still not implicated. She continues to be revered as the Empress Dowager. At the age of fifty-two, he died.
We look at Shangguan's life. You say she's lucky! She came from a wealthy background and had a prominent family, and this alone did not know how many people she could win. has experienced two family annihilations in his life, but he has not been implicated, and he still stays in the harem safely.
You say she's unlucky! In her supposed happy childhood, she was imprisoned in the palace walls, and heard the news of the family's demise, but she couldn't do anything about it. When she was 15 years old, her husband died. After that, he stayed alone in the deep palace.
The ending of the Shangguan clan is a classic microcosm of the tragic fate of women in ancient times. Her fate was never in her own hands, and she was willing to marry the emperor at the age of six, which she did not want. But what can be done, in ancient times, emperors were sometimes unable to control their own destiny.
In the middle of the ocean, a giant ship can't know where it is heading, let alone duckweed? A queen who once enjoyed all the glory withered silently in loneliness, embarrassing and helpless?
Here are the real sources of information:
"Inside the Han Dynasty Court: The Legendary Life of Empress Shangguan" Li Xiaodong
"Women's Power in Chinese History" Xu Zhigang
Book of Han, vol. 68, The Biography of Huo Guangjin Riyan
The Book of Han: The Biography of Relatives