In order to allow his son to ascend to the position of the prince, concubines often fight to the death, which is also the theme of many of our palace fighting dramas today.
If the son can become the heir to the throne, according to the corresponding court system of the previous dynasties, the status of the concubine will inevitably be improved, and she will become an enviable concubine, queen, and even the queen mother. Such as the Empress Dowager Sun of the Ming Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, etc.
This practice began during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In his later years, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted to appoint the young Liu Fuling as the crown prince. However, Liu Fuling's biological mother and wife were in their prime at this time, and Emperor Wu was worried that after his death, there would be a situation of the heroine's dictatorship and relatives' interference in politics, so he ordered Mrs. Gou Yi to be executed.
Mrs. Gou Yi was so frightened that she suddenly didn't know what to do, and hurriedly took off her jewelry and knelt down to Emperor Wu of Han to beg for mercy. Emperor Wu did not leave her a trace of affection, and ordered the guards to pull her down from the palace and send her to the palace prison.
According to legend, when Mrs. Gou Yi was executed, Chang'an City was full of wind and dust, and the people said that God was grieving for her. But Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not think so, and he said to the ministers: "The reason why the country is in turmoil is mostly due to the young monarch and the queen mother's control of the government. The heroine is arrogant and presumptuous, no one can prohibit it, haven't you heard of Queen Lu?”
It can be seen how hard-hearted an emperor is.
By the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty, "establishing a son and killing his mother" became a legal system. Starting from Emperor Daowu, all the concubines whose sons were made princes had to be given to death, and this system was implemented for seven generations, for a century, and I don't know how many innocent mothers were sacrificed.
Emperor Daowu's favorite concubine Liu, the eldest son Tuoba heir, after Tuoba heir was established as the crown prince, Liu was given death. Tuoba missed his mother and wept sadly. Emperor Daowu comforted him and said: "In the past, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would set up a crown prince and kill his mother first. Now that you are the crown prince, in order to avoid the troubles of the heroine's interference in politics, I also have to follow the example of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. But the prince was still sad and couldn't help himself. For an adult crown prince, state affairs are far less important than his own mother.
The Northern Wei Dynasty was able to profoundly implement the old system of "the death of the son and the mother", in fact, it had a lot to do with the old system that the Tuoba clan already had. At that time, the Northern Wei Dynasty had not yet established a set of inheritance system for the eldest and youngest of the descendants inherited from father to son, and the establishment and enthronement of the prince often depended on the strength of the maternal family, which can be described as a succession system"Mother and son stand"。
By the time of Emperor Daowu, this situation had changed. Emperor Daowu first used war to forcibly disperse the mother tribe Helan tribe, the wife clan Dugu tribe, the grandmother clan Murong tribe and other large tribes, and later forced his mother Empress Dowager Helan to death, and gave death to the mother of the crown prince Tuoba Empress Liu. Although the old system of establishing a son and killing his mother was exchanged for a stable monarchy inheritance order in the Northern Wei Dynasty and promoted the stability of the Tuoba Department, it was exchanged for sacrificing innocent mothers.
During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, Emperor Xiaowen's father believed in Buddhism and was not interested in politics, so he gave up the throne to Tuoba Hong when he was only five years old. Since Tuoba Hong's mother, Li, had been given death as early as when he was made the crown prince, the young Tuoba Hong had been raised by Empress Dowager Feng.
However, Feng treated him very badly, and often punished the young Tuoba Hong. Even in winter, the little emperor in single clothes was locked in an empty house for three days without food. Although Empress Dowager Feng's approach seems to eliminate the possibility of harem interference, we can also try to infer that this kind of system cannot fundamentally solve the possibility of the Empress Dowager interfering in politics: if Empress Dowager Feng uses means to make the young Tuoba Hong obey her orders, what is the difference between this and the Empress Dowager's interference...
Later, the son of Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong's concubine Lin, Tuoba Sui, was made the crown prince, and Lin was also given death. The concubines prayed to each other, all wishing to give birth to a princess, but not a prince, resulting in Emperor Xiaowen leaving only a single seedling of Emperor Xiaoming. For this reason, Emperor Xiaowen begged the ruling Empress Dowager Feng to abolish the old law, but was refused.
It was not until the period of Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke that because he believed in Buddhism and could not bear to kill, the system of "the death of the son and the mother" was finally canceled, and the concubines in the harem no longer had to endanger themselves as before.
Born in the emperor's family, there is no normal family affection at all. Whether it was the Northern Wei Dynasty with the death of the son and mother, or the Tang Dynasty with the Xuanwumen Change, or the Ming Dynasty with the Door Seizure Change, the beginning of all struggles was for the throne, and all unscrupulous means were to consolidate the imperial power in their hands.