Name: Yuan Xue, the young emperor who ascended the throne at the age of 5, the Northern Wei Began to decline in an all-round way
Date of birth and death: 510-528, only 18 years old;
Reigned: 515-528 years, did not live long, but became emperor for 13 years;
Origin: The second son of Emperor Xuanwu Yuanke, the eldest son died prematurely, and he was made crown prince at the age of three.
How to ascend to the throne: Crown Prince inherits the throne
How to die: after being poisoned by his mother, the emperor could not fully guarantee his own safety;
Meaning of the imperial title: Emperor Xiaoming, Temple name Suzong, an emperor who was poisoned by his mother, was actually given the word "filial piety", and he did not know what it meant.
Meaning of era names: Xiping, Shengui, Zhengguang, Xiaochang, Wutai, these era names are basically the meaning of his mother Empress Hu, named after expectation and the so-called Xiangrui.
The main auxiliary ministers: Yuan Fork, Yuan Yong, Yuan Cheng, mainly the sons of the Yuan clan, mainly because of their young age to ascend the throne, these are auxiliary ministers, so they have not seen Han officials. It can also be seen that after the rule of his father Xuanwu Emperor, Han officials have begun to lose power, and the dynasty has begun to decline.
Life:
Yuan Xue was the ninth emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and judging from the history of the Hu regime in the north, this is a relatively long-lived regime. Mainly due to the fact that most of the northern steppe was effectively controlled by a part of the Xianbei forces at that time, it was able to often attack and expel the steppe overlord Rouran, making it impossible to harass the Central Plains. However, the center of this regime was placed in the Central Plains, and even successfully moved the capital to Luoyang, which could effectively rule the Central Plains. In this model, in which both sides can be taken care of and managed, this regime has lasted for a long time. In the end, it lost control of the situation because the old and humble forces in the north were dissatisfied with the distribution of interests of the center of the regime and rebelled, which led to the division and collapse of the dynasty.
Young ascension to the throne:
Yuan Xuan ascended the throne at the age of 5 and was killed at the age of 18, and the killing of the emperor also shows that the dynasty is already in chaos, and the central government and military are already out of control. Such a young man ascending the throne and being killed at a young age has basically made no policy, which has an effective impact on dynasties and history. Therefore, for Yuan Xue, the emperor who was known as the "Emperor Xiaoming", he could only understand and narrate from his life.
Origin of the Empress:
In 510, Yuan Xue was born, his mother's name was Hu Xianzhen, and the specific name was not determined. There are also two theories about the experience of this Hu mother's youth. The first is that Hu Xianzhen was young, intelligent, studious, and later became a nun; and the emperor at that time, Yuan Ke, was a very devout Buddhist, who not only vigorously supported the development of Buddhism and built temples, but also often invited senior monks to the palace to preach. And this Nun Hu was invited to give lectures to Yuan Ke many times because of her proficiency in Buddhism. Moreover, because of his natural beauty, he was favored by Yuan Ke and became one of the beauties of Yuan Ke's harem, and his status was not high, not even a concubine.
Another is that Hu Xianzhen's aunt was a nun, who often entered the palace to preach the scriptures, and after the introduction of his aunt, Hu Xianzhen finally joined the palace as a "Chenghua Shi woman", and her status was not high. It's just that all the sons born before Yuan Ke died prematurely, and after this Yuan Xue was born, he was lucky to survive. It was only after he was given the title of "Chong Hua", which was of the middle status of a harem concubine, until he was crowned as a prince and was given the title of noble concubine.
In 512, Yuan Xue, who was only 2 years old, was made crown prince because of his father's negligence, and was identified as the heir of the emperor as the only son of Shu Chu. Because of the strong advice of the ministers, and because Yuan Ke had already made it clear that he wanted to abolish the bad habit of the death of his son and his mother, Hu Xianzhen did not execute his son because he was made crown prince.
The Mad Empress:
In 515, Yuan Ke died, and the 5-year-old Yuan Xuan ascended the throne as a prince. Yuan Ke's empress Gao shi was made empress dowager, and her birth mother Hu Xianzhen was given the title of empress dowager. Not long after, Princess Hu forced Empress Gao to become a nun and then established herself as empress dowager. From then on, Empress Dowager Hu began to bow to the curtain and embarked on the road of doing politics.
The rest of the time is basically the time when Empress Hu messed around. The empress dowager of this kind of behavior is estimated to be rare in history. As a fervent supporter of Buddhism, she first built a temple in the capital. It is said that during her reign, there were more than 1,300 temples in Luoyang alone, and she donated to build one, the tallest pagoda 90 meters high, which can be seen throughout the city. There were thousands of monks inside. There are more than 2 million monks and more than 30,000 temples in the country. And the modern Buddhist kingdom of India and Thailand are not comparable.
Then it was to exclude the powerful ministers and get rid of the auxiliary ministers Yuan Yong and Yuan Cheng one by one. The beginning of the era of its one-man hegemonic regime. The hegemonic regime is still a trivial matter, and the most nonsense thing is that she not only raises her face and commits adultery with handsome courtiers; it also triggers a national extravagance. Some ministers can raise hundreds of singers, thousands of slaves, and a meal can cost millions of dollars. Empress Dowager Hu was even absurd enough to open the treasury and let the princes, concubines, and princesses around her support her move away freely, moving as much as they could, resulting in an emptiness in the imperial treasury. This kind of madness is estimated to be something that can only be done by generations of rich and noble people who do not know the sufferings of the world. Because all the concepts of the state, wealth, politics, and society are all there, just the concept of how not to be bound by man and then act freely.
Six Towns Uprising:
In 524, when Yuan Xue was 14 years old, the greatest unrest in Northern Wei occurred. Originally, the six military towns in the north, which guarded against the overlord of the northern steppe, Rouran, were also the foundation of the humble military aristocracy, and because they were dissatisfied with the imperial court for snubbing the soldiers for a long time, the supply of grain and food was insufficient, and the corruption of the various "town generals" in the military towns was rampant, regardless of the lives of the soldiers, they killed and rebelled. This led to the so-called "Six Towns Uprising", that is, the six military towns all rebelled, some of which were led by generals, and some of which were killed by the soldiers below.
This was a turmoil that directly shook the foundations of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it also caused a series of problems. First, the military town rebellion, that is, the most important military force in the Northern Wei Dynasty, rebelled, and the imperial court was unable to suppress the rebellion. In the end, it was necessary to rely on the original sworn enemy, Rouran, to lead 100,000 steppe cavalry to quell the rebellion.
After quelling the Six Towns Uprising within Xianbei, more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians surrendered, and the imperial court was powerless to appease them, so they could only be placed in the Henan area. The following year, it coincided with a natural disaster and a poor grain harvest, so these soldiers and civilians rebelled again, and it spread throughout Henan and many surrounding areas. The court was once again in great turmoil. Counterinsurgency became almost the only thing that mattered.
In this process, almost every dynasty will happen as usual, that is, when the imperial court is unable to quell the rebellion, it is bound to decentralize the local power, let the localities organize their own military forces to suppress the rebellion, and the rise of warlords is inevitable. Therefore, the key warlord force that later collapsed in Northern Wei, Erzhu Rong and more than a dozen of his family's descendants, grew into the largest warlord force in Northern Wei in the process.
Erzhu Rong, who was exterminated:
At a time when the world was in turmoil, Luoyang was still relatively peaceful, and the crazy extravagant life of Empress Dowager Hu and her ministers continued. One of Yuan Xue's concubines gave birth to a daughter, but Empress Dowager Hu, in order to consolidate her power in the future, went so far as to declare that this was the crown prince and was to be made crown prince. At this time, Yuan Xue understood how unreliable this mother was. The fascination with power has reached a terminally ill level. Therefore, it was decided to unite with a warlord named Erzhu Rong, use force to regain power, and get rid of the empress.
Unfortunately, this plan failed in the process of contact because of leaks, and Empress Hu took the lead in making a strong move and sent someone to directly poison Yuan Xue. This year, Yuan Xue was only 18 years old. As an emperor, such an ending, such a life, such a life, is not rare, but it is indeed too meaningless. It is not necessarily better than the average person's life.
After that, this Empress Dowager Hu really made Yuan Xue's daughter the crown prince, and then embraced her as emperor, and soon killed the girl, and set up another Yuan zhao as emperor. Only then did Empress Dowager Hu's evil deeds and the plot to poison Yuan Xue be suspected and known by the people of the world. Therefore, the warlord Erzhu Rong, whom Yuan Xuan originally wanted to contact, claimed to be under the will of Yuan Xue, and led troops to attack Luoyang, attack Empress Hu, and return the descendants of the Yuan clan. After the attack on Luoyang, Erzhu Rong massacred more than 2,000 descendants of the Yuan dynasty, and sunk Empress Dowager Hu and Emperor You into the Yellow River and died. History is called "the change of Heyin".
The most frightening thing is that this Empress Dowager Hu was the first empress dowager who was not executed after the first son of Northern Wei was made crown prince, so it can be seen that the Xianbei Hu people's rule of "the death of the son and the noble mother" still has certain hidden dangers. Empress Hu's various actions did hasten the demise of Northern Wei.
After that, Erzhu Rong, as a powerful courtier, because the major forces in the dynasty did not support him, he did not dare to claim the title of emperor himself, and could only support another son of the Yuan clan, Yuan Ziyou, to take the throne, as Emperor Xiaozhuang. After only two years on the throne, Erzhu Rong was lured to the palace and killed in the arrogance of Erzhu Rong. After the warlord leader was killed, his power was not clear, and after that, Northern Wei was in turmoil, and the sons of the Erzhu family everywhere led troops to rebel, and Yuan Ziyou was attacked by Erzhu Rong's younger brother Erzhu Zhao, who attacked Luoyang three months later, captured him north, and hanged him at the third-level Buddhist temple in Jinyang, at the age of twenty-four.
After that, the chaotic world in the north was fully opened, and warlords in various places continued to support the descendants of the Yuan clan as emperors. Within a few years, Gao Yang, the second son of Gao Huan, a former subordinate of Erzhu Rong, successfully usurped the throne of Northern Wei, seized control of the north, and established Northern Qi. The Northern Wei Dynasty perished.