If the emperors in the history of the Western Han Dynasty are listed separately and selected as an emperor perfection index, then the top two are likely to not include the founding monarch Liu Bang of Han Gaozu, nor the Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty, but it is more likely that the two emperors who were "selected halfway" - Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han Wen and Liu Qing, the Emperor of Han Xuan.
Why is Emperor Wen of Han closer to a perfect emperor? Let's see what he did.
1, the adoption of the "recuperation" policy, in the years of his reign, the people's life is getting better and better, the economic situation is getting better and better, and the population is also increasing. It was during his reign that the Han Dynasty began to gradually enter a situation of strength and stability, which was also the most basic indicator of his place in the ranking of ancient Chinese emperors.
2. The construction of water conservancy, the abolition of corporal punishment, and the abolition of the law of sitting together are all great things that are conducive to the national economy and the people's livelihood and the happiness of the people.
3. The harem is stable, and the mother is kind and filial. He himself is the protagonist of the soup medicine in "Twenty-Four Filial Pieties", his mother Empress Bo is ill, he personally decocts the medicine every day, tries to be bitter, hot or not, feels almost, and then feeds it to his mother to drink.
4, simple: the next edict forbade the county to contribute rare treasures, usually wear some clothes made of rough black silk; even his future home, the mausoleum, requires Jane.
Emperor Wen of Han still had many advantages that were difficult to count. In short, Emperor Wen of Han was indeed a rare good emperor, but in his body, there are still some historical records that are difficult to explain clearly, such as the following four:
If you simply consider Bo Ji and Liu Heng themselves, they are liu bang's least favored concubines and sons, and lü hou has nothing to blame for letting them go. However, there are two other things in the historical record, and if Lü Hou knew about it, it would be a bit unspeakable to let them go.
1. The prophecy of the first female teacher "to be born of the Son of Heaven"
At that time, Bo Ji was still a concubine of the Wei King Leopard in the anti-Qin rebellion, and her mother, Mrs. Wei, took her to find Xu Negative, the world's first female xiangshi, to see the picture, and Xu Negative was immediately shocked and bluntly said that Bo Ji would "be born as a son of heaven" in the future.
Wei Wangbao later believed this sentence, and he regarded it as a guiding ideology for his future actions, which eventually led to his demise.
2. The legend of "the dragon in the belly"
Later, because Liu Bang defeated the Wei king Leopard, Bo Ji also became a prisoner and was sent to the weaving room. By chance, Liu Bang saw Bo Ji, who was still beautiful, and brought her back to the palace.
A year later, when Liu Bang had already forgotten Bo Ji, Bo Ji's two young concubines, Lady Guan and Zhao Zi'er, who were now Liu Bang's favorite concubines, mentioned Bo Ji in front of Liu Bang, which made Bo Ji feel fortunate to Liu Bang.
Afterwards, Bo Ji said to Liu Bang that he felt that "the dragon was in the belly", and Liu Bang naturally knew that this was an auspicious omen, but the development of the matter showed that Liu Bang did not take this auspicious omen seriously, and Bo Ji was once again snubbed, fortunately, Liu Bang left a son to Bo Ji, that is, the later Han Wen Emperor Liu Heng.
Therefore, the reason why Lü Hou would let Bo Ji and Liu Heng go was only two possibilities, either these two things were fake, or Lü Hou had no way of knowing these two things.
Regarding the Acting Queen and her four sons, there is only one cold record in the Chronicle of History:
"The Queen of the Acting King gave birth to four males. The previous king did not become emperor and the queen died. And the acting king was established as emperor, and the four sons born to the queen died of illness. ”
That is to say, when Liu Heng was the acting king, there was once a generation queen, and this generation queen also gave birth to four sons for Liu Heng. However, it is a pity that the empress dowager died before Liu Heng became emperor, and her four sons fell ill and died within a few months after Liu Heng became emperor.
If the death of the Queen Dai may have been a normal death, the death of her four sons is more bizarre, and what kind of infectious disease took four lives at once.
Therefore, there is speculation that the acting queen was the daughter of the Lü clan that Lü Hou gave to Liu Heng, after all, his fifth brother Liu Hui and sixth brother Liu You had also been "gifted" to the daughter of the Lü clan. Therefore, in order to avoid future troubles, under the pressure of the Qunchen, Liu Heng acquiesced to the "bizarre death" of his four sons.
As mentioned earlier, Emperor Wen of Han was frugal all his life, his clothes were only wearing rough black silk, the mausoleum was also extremely simple, and even the concubines and sons around him were also very frugal, but he allowed Deng Tong to be rewarded with hundreds of millions of dollars, and later he was allowed to open mines and mint money and become rich in the world, which seemed a little abnormal.
Who is Dunton?
Deng Tong was a native of Nan'an, Shu County, with a well-to-do family, who had studied for several years, and his father Deng Xian, in order to be able to honor his ancestors, paid deng Tong to buy an official with a yellow head. Later, Emperor Wen of Han dreamed that a person who looked exactly like Deng Tong helped him ascend to heaven, so he went to find Deng Tong in his dream and found Deng Tong, and since then Deng Tong has become the male favorite of Emperor Wen of Han.
Deng Tong's personality is still very easy-going, and he is also very cautious, not ostentatious and unpretentious, so he is quite loved by Emperor Wen of Han. However, even this cannot explain why Emperor Wendi of Han would be extravagant in his body, in comparison, Lady Shen, who was favored by Emperor Wendi of Han, was very different from him. Emperor Wen of Han was a lady of Ming Lingshen, her clothes were not allowed to be too long, she could not drag the ground, and even the drapery could be embroidered, "to show Dun Pu, for the world first", this painting style and Deng Tong are completely two scenes.
The only explanation is that Deng Tong was entrusted by Emperor Wen of Han to carry out some orders.
For example, the matter of minting money on Tongshan Mountain is likely to be entrusted by Emperor Wen of Han to Deng Tong. At that time, the most widely circulated private minted money was Wu Guo (Liu Hao) money and Deng Tong money, and Wu Guo Qian's circulation was particularly large, while Deng Tong Qian used fine craftsmanship to win with good quality, and issuing Deng Tong money was also a means to inhibit the development of Wu Guo.
Emperor Liu Heng of han was born in 203 BC and became emperor in 180 BC at the age of 23.
Emperor Wen of Han had a total of eight sons and two daughters in his lifetime, but it is very strange that these eight sons and two daughters were born before he became emperor.
As mentioned earlier, Emperor Wen of Han's acting queen gave birth to a total of four sons for Emperor Wen of Han.
The other four sons were Liu Qi, Liu Wu, Liu Shan, and Liu Sheng (also known as Liu Sheng), of whom Liu Qi and Liu Wu were born to Empress Dou, and Liu San and Liu Yi had unknown birth mothers.
Of these four sons, Liu Qi clearly records that they were born in 188 BC, when Emperor Wen of Han was 15 years old.
The history of the remaining three sons is not stated in the year of their birth, but it is recorded that in the second year of Emperor Wen of Han, that is, in 178 BC, Emperor Wen of Han made the third son king. Normally, it is unlikely that Emperor Wen of Han would have made his newborn son king, and it is normally speculated that the three sons should be over 6 years old, that is, born before 184 BC.
Historia. Liang Xiaowang's family: "Emperor Xiaowen's four sons: the eldest son, Prince Yue, was Emperor Xiaojing; the second son, Wu; the second son, San; and the second son, Sheng. Emperor Xiaowen ascended the throne for two years, with Wu as the acting king, San as the king of Taiyuan, and Sheng as the king of Liang. ”
The two daughters of Emperor Wen of Han Liu Heng were Princess Liu Yan of Guantao and Princess Daiyi.
Liu Yan was born in 189 BC, when Liu Heng was 14 years old, and she was also Empress Dou, and in 177 BC she married Chen Wu, the Marquis of Tangyi, so she was also known as Princess Tangyi.
Princess Daiyi was born and died in an unknown year and her birth mother is unknown, and she was also known as Princess Daihou because she married Zhou Shengzhi, the son of Zhou Bo, the Marquis of Daihou. Although the history books do not record the birth and death year of Princess Daiyi, it is recorded that when Zhou Bo was imprisoned, the prison officials had signaled him to ask Princess Daiyi to testify on her behalf, and this year was 176 BC, that is to say, Princess Zhenyi had married Zhou Shengzhi at least in 176 BC, so his age should not be much younger than Liu Bo, at least before 186 BC.
"History of the Zhou Bo Family of The Marquis of Qihou" is terrified and does not know how to say it. The officials insulted him slightly. Bo yi qianjin and the prison guard, the prison guard is the book of mu back to show it, that is, "to the princess as evidence." The princess, the daughter of Emperor Xiaowen, and the prince of Bo, Shengzhi Shangzhi, so the prison official teaching is cited as evidence.
It turns out that the eight sons and two daughters of Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty were all born before he became emperor, so what is the reason why Liu Heng did not have children when he was still young after becoming emperor? Is it because he has no favored concubines? However, in the "Records of History", it is clearly recorded that he also had at least two favorite concubines, Lady Shen and Yin Ji.
"History of the Foreign Relatives family": "Emperor Wen was fortunate to have Lady Handan Shen and Yin Ji, both of whom were sons. ”
This "childless mystery" is almost unsolvable.
According to emperor Wendi's timeline, Shui Yibai boldly made the following speculations:
1. Empress Dou's arrival in the Daiguo should be before the Daiwang, between about 190 and 191 BC.
2. The time of the queen to the kingdom is probably between 184 and 186 BC.
3. Before the Empress Dowager arrived in the Kingdom of Dai, Liu Heng already had four sons and two daughters.
4. After the Queen Dai arrived in the Dai Kingdom, Liu Heng should only favor the Queen dai and give birth to four sons.
5. Because Liu Heng handled the relationship with the Empress Dowager very well and maintained relations with other concubines, Empress Dou and her four sons and two daughters were not harmed.