Text/Lao Zhang Read History
Throughout the ancient Chinese history of the emperors, there are those who killed their fathers and brothers to seize the throne, and there are those who killed heroes after ascending the throne, but there was an emperor who killed his brother by launching a palace coup, and after ascending to the throne, he killed all his brothers, and his fierceness and cruelty can be seen, this emperor is Liu Sheng, the Emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty.
The Founding of the Southern Han Dynasty
Before talking about Liu Sheng, let's first understand the history of the Southern Han Dynasty. The Southern Han Dynasty was one of the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and its territory was located in the area of present-day Guangdong and Guangxi, including some areas in northern Vietnam. The actual founder of the Southern Han Dynasty was Liu Yin.
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Qian served as an envoy to Fengzhou and Hejiangzhen to defend Wuzhou and guizhou west, with tens of thousands of soldiers and more than 100 warships. In 894, Liu Qian died, and his eldest son Liu Yin served as the assassin of Fengzhou, and in 896, Liu Chonggui died in Qinghai Jiedu, and Li Zhirou was appointed as the envoy of Jiedu, and on the way to his post, the Defenders of Guangzhou, Lu Ju and Qin Xuan, rebelled, and Liu Yin sent troops to kill Lu Ju and Qin Xuan, and welcomed Li Zhirou into the city and was made the deputy envoy of Jiedu. Later, Xu Yanruo replaced Li Zhirou as the envoy of Qinghai Jiedushi, appointed Li Yin as the deputy envoy of Jiedu, and also entrusted him with military and political affairs. After Xu Yanruo's death, Liu Yin was made an envoy of the Qinghai Festival.
After Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yin successively served as a lieutenant of the inspection school, concurrently serving as a lieutenant, a jinghai jiedu, and annan du protector, and in 909, Later Liang added Liu Yin to inspect the school's taishi and zhongshu ling, and was made the prince of Nanping. In 911, he was renamed king of the South China Sea, and in the same year, Liu Yin died.
Liu Qian, Liu Yin father and son started from Fengzhou, suffered from the chaos and change of the world, and made contributions in Lingnan many times, so they occupied a place here. As the founder of the Southern Han Dynasty, Liu Yin was a corporal of the Lixian and had great respect for the Sage. At that time, the world was in turmoil, and there were wars everywhere, and many sages and scholars in the Central Plains fled to Lingnan, because it was the farthest from the Central Plains and could escape the chaos of war. Coupled with the fact that some famous tang courtiers were relegated to Lingnan and died here, their descendants stayed here. There are also officials who cannot go back when they are in turmoil, and they all live in Lingnan. Among them were Wang Dingbao, Ni Shu, Liu Jun, Li Heng, Zhou Jie, Yang Dongqian, Zhao Guangyi, and others, and Liu Yin all recruited them to treat them with courtesy and entrust them with heavy responsibilities.
After Liu Yin's death, Liu Qi attacked the King of the South China Sea. Liu Qi, whose original name was Liu Yan, was Liu Qian's son-in-law and Liu Yin's younger brother. It is said that when Liu Qi was born, Liu Qian's wife Wei Shi was furious when she heard the news, she had always been jealous, and ordered someone to arrest Liu Qi and prepare to stab him to death with a sword, when she saw Liu Qi, she was frightened that the sword fell to the ground, and she was stunned for half a day before saying that this child was not very human. After Liu Qi grew up, he was good at riding and shooting, with a height of seven feet, hanging his hands over his knees, showing a difference.
In 916, Liu Qi proclaimed himself emperor, fixed the name of the state of Dayue, and changed his name to Yuan Qianheng. Liu Qian was posthumously honored as Emperor Shengwu and Liu Yin as Emperor Xiang. In 917, the name of the country was changed to Han (historically known as the Southern Han). Liu Qi was intelligent and perceptive, and during his reign, he relied on scholars to govern the government, and did his best to appoint scholars to assassinate the history of the states; set up a selection department, implemented the imperial examination, and each time there were more than ten people and the first in the Ming Dynasty, imitating the old practice of the Tang Dynasty, every year. However, Liu Qi's personality was harsh and cruel, and he set up torture such as knife sawing, dismemberment, and cutting, and whenever he saw the killing, he was very happy, and smacked his mouth and swallowed his mouth. Liu Qi also loved luxury, collected a lot of Treasures of the South China Sea, and built the Jade Hall of Pearls.
Liu Sheng seized the throne
In 942, Liu Qi died because his eldest son Liu Yaoshu and second son Liu Guitu died very early, and his third son Liu Jue (formerly known as Liu Hongdu) took the throne. Before Liu Qi's death, he summoned the Right Servant King to the throne and said to him:
"Although Shou and Jun are long, they are not enough for me, but Hong Chang is like me, and I want to establish it."
Among them, "Shou" is Liu Jie's nickname, and "Jun" is the nickname of Liu Sheng (formerly known as Liu Hongxi), which means that although the third Liu Sheng and the fourth Liu Sheng are older, they are not enough to take on heavy responsibilities, only Liu Hongchang is most like Liu Jie and intends to make him crown prince. But later, Chongwen made Xiao Yi persuade Liu Qi to say:
"The lesser will stand, the old will fight, and the disaster will begin!"
This means that if the young man does not stand long, the older prince will definitely seize the throne, and this is how the disaster began. So Liu Qi listened to Xiao Yi's advice and made the elder Liu Yue crown prince.
Liu Jie was a man of no talent and no virtue, and during Liu Qi's mourning period, he summoned music officials to play music, drank alcohol in the palace, and let men and women play music naked, or put on black mourning clothes and advocate women's night tours, and entered and exited the homes of the people.
During his two-year reign, Liu Jie summoned people for fun almost every day, drank alcohol in the palace and did not think about political affairs, resulting in great chaos in the territory and the loss of the country. The demon Zhang Yuxian, who claimed to be the Eighth King of Zhongtian, rebelled and captured Xunzhou. Liu Yue sent Liu Hongchang the Yue King and Liu Honggao the Prince of Xun to encircle and suppress them, but they were surrounded by Zhang Yuxian, but fortunately the generals Wan Jingxin and Chen Daoyu fought hard and protected the two princes and the two princes to break through and escape. Liu Yue, who experienced this failure, did not wake up at all, which eventually led to chaos in the Lingdong region. Liu Sheng (liu hongxi), the fourth son of Liu Qi,the Prince of Jin (formerly known as Liu Hongxi), continued to offer prostitutes to lure Liu Yue into indulgence.
Liu Yue was worried that his brother was plotting for the throne, so he ordered eunuchs to guard the palace gates, and anyone who came in must strip naked and check. Liu Sheng, Liu Honggao, and Liu Hongchang secretly sent samurai to practice wrestling and dedicated them to Liu Jie. In 943, Liu Yue held a banquet at changchun palace to watch wrestling, and the samurai killed Liu Yue when he got up drunk and returned to the palace, killing all the people who served him.
Liu Sheng
After Liu Jie's death, Liu Sheng took the throne, changed yuan to Yingqian, and made Liu Hongchang a marshal of the Terracotta Army, a governor of government affairs, a deputy marshal of Liu Honggao, and a reward for Liu Sichao and many other meritorious heroes.
Kill the courtiers
Liu Sheng launched a palace coup and killed Liu Yue to ascend to the throne. Because of the unjustified name of the throne, Liu Sheng was afraid that the people would not be convinced of him, so he used the severe criminal law to intimidate the people.
During Liu Sheng's reign, he became even more brutal, killing all his brothers and wantonly killing his ministers. Liu Honggao repeatedly asked for advice on the thief, and privately advised Liu Sheng to kill Liu Sichao and others to prevent the criticism of outsiders, Liu Sheng was furious, so he summoned Liu Honggao into the palace and killed him.
After Liu Sheng killed Liu Honggao, there was a rift between him and his brothers, among whom Liu Sheng was most jealous of Liu Hongchang. Before Liu Qi's death, he wanted to make Liu Hongchang the crown prince, but because Liu Hongchang was too young, the ministers advised him to become a prince, so he gave up. Soon, Liu Sheng sent some thieves to kill Liu Hongchang when he went to Haiqu to sacrifice Emperor Xiang's mausoleum.
Liu Hongze, the king of the town, lived in Yongzhou and had considerable political achievements, and one year a phoenix appeared in Yongzhou, and Liu Sheng heard that he was furious and sent someone to kill Liu Hongze with poisonous wine. In the following years, Liu Sheng killed all his younger brothers and Liu Sichao and other heroes in succession, the most brutal of which killed 8 younger brothers liu hongbi, Liu Hongdao, Liu Hongyi, Liu Hongji, Liu Hongjian, Liu Hongjian, Liu Hongwei, and Liu Hongzhao in one day.
Liu Qi had nineteen sons, Liu Sheng was the fourth eldest, except for the eldest elder who died early and the oldest who died during the war, the remaining fifteen were killed by Liu Sheng. In the entire history of China, there is no second emperor as cruel as Liu Sheng.
In 958, Liu Sheng died and his son Liu Xun took the throne. Liu Xun was also a strange emperor, who was a man of great contempt, could not handle state affairs, and favored eunuchs, causing the country to decline. He even thought that those who were officials had no family descendants to drag them down, so they could be loyal to the imperial court wholeheartedly, so they demanded that those who wanted to be officials must first be castrated. In 970, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin sent Pan Mei to defend Tanzhou, and the following year, Liu Xun surrendered to the Song Dynasty and the Southern Han Dynasty fell.