In the later years of the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial heirs gradually withered, and Emperor Liu Zheng of the Han Yuan Dynasty only had 3 sons, namely the crown prince Liu Biao (ào), Liu Kang, the king of Dingtao, and Liu Xing, the king of Xindu.
After the death of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, the crown prince Liu Biao ascended the throne as Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, who had no heirs over forty years old.
With the help of the Zhao sisters, Emperor Cheng adopted Liu Xin, the grandson of the Empress Dowager Fu (son of Liu Kang), as his stepson and named Liu Xin the crown prince.
In 7 BC, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty died violently in Weiyang Palace, and the crown prince Liu Xin ascended the throne as Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty, which opened the situation of four empress dowagers and established a dynasty.
Stills of Emperor Han Ai.
Wang Zhengjun is the queen of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, since she gave birth to the emperor's eldest son Liu Biao, she has lost her favor, rarely saw Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, at this time it is Fu Zhaoyi who is favored, Fu Zhaoyi is quite scheming, and sociable, very good at winning people's hearts, people inside and outside the palace are all praised, plus her son Liu Kang is proficient in music and rhythm, quite the style of Emperor Yuan, Fu Zhaoyi wants to make his son the first person on the throne.
In order to help his son Liu Kang ascend to the throne, Fu Zhaoyi tried the wishes of Emperor Yuan many times, and once, the shrewd Fu Zhaoyi said under the banner of caring about the prince's body, I heard that the prince likes wine recently, and the wine hurts his body. Emperor Yuan also felt that it was difficult for the crown prince to take on the great responsibility, and he would definitely bury the Han dynasty in the future.
Fu Zhaoyi was overjoyed when she heard this, so she followed Emperor Yuan's words and thought about the country's society, why not change the crown prince?My family Kang'er is the most like his father among the princes.
Fu Zhaoyi's words went to Emperor Yuan's heart, and Emperor Yuan originally felt that Liu Biao was not like him, and Liu Kang was like him.
So Emperor Yuan discussed with his ministers about the abolition of the crown prince, but the ministers tried their best to oppose it, especially the auxiliary minister Shi Dan resisted the most fiercely, he was originally the teacher of the crown prince Liu Biao, and he had a lot of feelings with the Wang family, and the crown prince Liu Biao was the favorite grandson of Emperor Xuan of Han during his lifetime, plus Shi Dan was the brother of Emperor Xuandi's grandmother Shi Liangdi, he was naturally unwilling to go against Emperor Xuan's wishes, and the ministers in the court were not willing to go against Emperor Xuan's wishes.
Stills from Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty.
Although Fu Zhaoyi's hopes were disappointed, she did not stop there, she continued to blow the pillow wind of Emperor Yuan, and did everything possible to please Emperor Yuan of Han, wanting Emperor Yuan to change his son as the crown prince, although Emperor Yuan also had this idea, but was repeatedly hindered by Shi Dan.
When Emperor Yuan was seriously ill, he felt that his time was short, so he wanted to seize the last opportunity to change the crown prince.
When Empress Wang heard this, she was very worried, and she was at a loss, and she couldn't even see the emperor, so how could she change the situation.
Later, Queen Wang found Shi Dan, Shi Dan broke into Emperor Yuan's bedroom alone, and admonished each other with death, and Emperor Yuan gave up, and since then, he has never mentioned the abolition of the crown prince.
Soon Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty died, and the Son of Heaven Liu Biao ascended the throne as Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, and Empress Wang also became the empress dowager.
After Wang Zhengjun ascended to the throne of the queen mother, she knew the horror of losing power, so she began to cultivate her own mother's power, and the first to take power was her eldest brother Wang Feng.
Wang Zhengjun stills.
After Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, he named Wang Feng as a general, and since then the Wang family has begun to appear on the political stage.
The queen mother had a total of eight brothers, after she became the queen mother, several of her brothers took turns to succeed as auxiliary ministers, and almost all the important positions in the court were occupied by the Wang family, and gradually the imperial power fell aside, and Emperor Han Cheng could not control his uncles.
So Emperor Han Cheng ignored the government in a fit of anger and began to play around, on the way to play, Emperor Han Cheng met Zhao Feiyan and brought it into the palace, and later Zhao Feiyan introduced her sister Zhao Hede into the palace, and since then the Zhao sisters have been favored in the harem.
After Zhao Feiyan was favored, her ambition began to swell, and she tried her best to overthrow Empress Xu and become the second empress of Emperor Cheng of Han.
However, Zhao Feiyan, who ascended to the throne of the queen, became worried, she tried everything to fail to conceive a prince, and how could she stabilize her position without an heir.
Zhao Feiyan herself couldn't have children, and she also tried her best to prevent other concubines in the harem from giving birth to princes, so Emperor Cheng had no sons when he was in his forties.
Emperor Cheng had no children and gave the Empress Dowager Fu a chance, at this time the Empress Dowager Fu's son Liu Kang had died, she wanted her son to be the prince back then, but now the emperor has no son and gave her grandson a chance.
Zhao Feiyan stills.
In 8 BC, a year before the death of Emperor Cheng of Han, Empress Dowager Fu took her grandson Liu Xin, the king of Dingtao, to Chang'an, and spent a lot of money to bribe the Zhao sisters and the auxiliary minister Wang Gen, with their help, Liu Xin passed on to his uncle Emperor Cheng of Han, and was made the crown prince, and Zhao Feiyan naturally became Liu Xin's mother.
In the second year, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty died violently, and the crown prince Liu Xin ascended the throne for the Emperor of HanThe Queen Mother is the Queen Mother, and the adoptive mother Queen Zhao is the Queen Mother
Emperor Liu Xin of the Han Dynasty has a good relationship with his grandmother Empress Dowager Fu, but he is not so close to his mother Ding Ji, because Liu Xin was brought up by Empress Dowager Fu, and Ding Ji once wanted to take care of the children by herself, but her mother-in-law did not let her, and when Liu Xin grew up, she naturally kissed her grandmother.
After Liu Xin ascended the throne, his nominal mother was the Empress Dowager Zhao, and his nominal grandmother was the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun.
Empress Dowager Fu and Ding Ji have never had an honorific title, Empress Dowager Fu is not a fuel-efficient lamp, she is scheming, she tried her best to support her grandson to come to power, just hoping to be on an equal footing with Wang Zhengjun one day.
Stills of Empress Dowager Fu.
After Mrs. Fu lived in the palace, she began to intervene in the government affairs, one day she said to Liu Xin, although you became the emperor, but your family does not have an honorific title, I am just a vassal queen mother, your biological parents do not even have an honorific title, the first emperor has always advocated "governing the country with filial piety", so what kind of filial piety is it.
Liu Xin thought about it, what her grandmother said made sense, so she began to discuss the matter of honorific titles with the ministers, but was opposed by the ministers headed by Wang Mang, and Liu Xin had no choice but to give up, but the Empress Dowager Fu did not stop there, he continued to cry and cry in front of his grandson, coerced and tempted, and asked to give himself an honorific title.
Emperor Han Ai didn't want to make his grandmother sad, so he ordered to respect the Empress Dowager Fu as the "Empress Dowager Gong" and Ding Ji as the "Empress Gong", and their food was equal to the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun and the Empress Dowager Zhao Feiyan.
From then on, Empress Dowager Fu began to cultivate her own power, reused her own family, and attacked the Wang group, and the Fu family began to emerge in the court and gained the upper hand.
But the Empress Dowager Fu was not satisfied with the status quo, she wanted to be on an equal footing with the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun.
So the Empress Dowager Fu asked Emperor Han Ai to give her a title as noble as the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, and Emperor Han Ai convened the ministers to discuss, but was opposed by the auxiliary ministers headed by Fu Xi, Fu Xi is the cousin of the Empress Dowager Fu, and even he could not tolerate the arrogance of the Empress Dowager Fu.
Emperor Han Ai did not want to go against the public opinion, and did not want to make the old grandmother sad, this matter was delayed for more than a year without a decision, the speculator Zhu Bo wanted to hug the thigh of the Empress Dowager Fu, so he wrote to the Emperor Wai to ask the Empress Dowager Gong to be the "Empress Dowager", Empress Gong was the "Empress Dowager", Emperor Wai was hindered by the affection of his ancestors and grandchildren, and in order to repay their nurturing grace, Zhu Bo's suggestion was adopted.
Wang Mang stills. In this way, the Empress Dowager Fu became the Empress Dowager, Wang Zhengjun became the Empress Dowager, Ding Ji was the Empress Dowager, and Zhao Feiyan was the Empress Dowager.
After the death of Emperor Han Ai, the Wang family returned to power, except for Wang Zhengjun, the other three queen dowagers did not die well, the first was the empress dowager Zhao Feiyan, the Wang family thought that it was Zhao Feiyan who threaded the needle for the Empress Dowager Fu, and gave Emperor Han Ai a chance.
Wang Mang, the nephew of the Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, demoted Zhao Feiyan to a concubine and ordered her to guard the spirit of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty.
Immediately after Wang Mang surrendered the target to the Empress Dowager Fu and the Empress Dowager Ding, these two empress dowagers had already died, Wang Mang ordered their honorific titles to be abolished, the graves were dug and reburied, and they were moved back to the vassal state of Dingtao, and reburied near the king of Fan according to the etiquette of the vassal queen mother.
In 13 AD, Wang Zhengjun completed her 84-year-old journey and drove the crane immortal, and since then she has become the longest-lived queen mother in the history of the Western Han Dynasty.