In July 170 AD, in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the palace maids received a notice from a superior that when they "went to work" tomorrow, they must dress uniformly - wear open crotch pants.
After receiving the notice, although the palace maids felt awkward in their hearts, they could accept it after thinking about it.
In ancient times, there was no air conditioning, in the hot July, everyone was so hot and sweaty, the concubines could use ice cubes to cool down, the palace maids did not have this treatment, one by one they wore strict clothes, and under the stuffy heat, it was really miserable, not to mention how uncomfortable it was.
Now, the emperor allows everyone to wear open crotch pants to work, at least the temperature can drop a few degrees, everyone is a woman, and they don't care if they are ugly or not.
The next facts proved that the emperor's original intention was not to understand the suffering of the palace maid, but to have his ideal pursuit.
The palace maids not only did not complain about the emperor because of this, but felt that he was understanding, why is this?
There are many lustful emperors in history, and the more famous one is the Ming Dynasty's leopard room emperor Zhu Houzhao, who built a leopard house for personal indulgence, allowing animals to mate and reproduce there, and he also happily participated in it.
Another point, this Zhu Houzhao likes other people's wives the most, and often goes out at night and breaks into people's homes to play overlord hard bow.
One day, he fell in love with Liu Liangnu, the wife of Yang Teng, a musician in the Taiyuan Jin Dynasty, and took the family to the palace for himself.
He also took people to Nanjing for a vacation, and he played for seven months.
The most ridiculous thing is that he also opened a brothel in the palace, let the palace maid pretend to be a prostitute, he became a prostitute, went to bargain inside, and spent money to have fun.
However, messing around in the palace, Zhu Houzhao is not the first, and Emperor Han Ling is the ancestor.
Emperor Ling of Han was the twelfth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty and reigned for 21 years.
Readers who are familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms should not be too unfamiliar with this emperor.
The last two emperors of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bi, the Shao Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Xie, the Emperor of the Han Xian, were both his sons, and both of these emperors were very aggrieved and puppets.
This is not unrelated to the Spirit Emperor, or it is all the sins created by his father.
Zhuge Liang once said to Liu Chan in his "Teacher Table": "Pro-virtuous ministers, far villains, this ancestor is so prosperous; Pro-villain, Yuanxian Chen, after that, the Han Dynasty fell into decline. ”
said this passage of the Later Han Dynasty, referring to Liu Hong, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.
So, how ridiculous was the reign of Emperor Liu Hong of the Han Dynasty? Listed as a negative typical by Zhuge Liang?
In 167, the 35-year-old Emperor Huan of Han died in the front hall of Deyang, and there was a crisis in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
This Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty is a faint monarch, who regards eunuchs as more important than his own father, and is drunk and dreams all day long, ignoring the government and politics.
He is still a strict wife, and seeing the queen is like a mouse seeing a cat (Liang Ji's sister Liang Nuying).
This Liang Nuying herself can't give birth, and she doesn't allow her concubines to get pregnant, who has a big belly, she has to beat other people's children.
Poor Emperor Han Huan was obviously busy with work, but he only sowed seeds hard, did not harvest, and did not even have a son.
And Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty got by, and he did not designate ** people during his lifetime, which caused a power vacuum in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The country cannot be without a monarch for a day, and the Empress Dowager Dou, who holds great power, chose Liu Hong, the Marquis of the Pavilion, as the new emperor after repeated consideration.
Liu Hong was only 10 years old at the time, and he was still wearing open crotch pants.
Why don't you choose an older one, but an ignorant little kid?
The reason is very simple, this is convenient for Empress Dowager Dou to monopolize power.
In the first month of the following year, Liu Hong put on a dragon robe and sat on the dragon chair amid the earth-shattering "long live" sound of the ministers, and became the emperor, which was for Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.
Since then, the Eastern Han Dynasty has entered the era of Emperor Ling.
No one thought that Emperor Ling would become the de facto terminator of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
When Emperor Ling first ascended the throne, the power was held by the Empress Dowager Dou, and her biological mother was only promoted to "Shenyuan Noble", which shows that Emperor Ling of Han was just an ornament and had no real power.
In fact, the Empress Dowager Dou didn't have much ability, relying on her father, the general Dou Wu.
Under the operation of Dou Wu, the power of Dou and others was further consolidated, and it was decided to eradicate the eunuchs.
A group of guys who have no male function, it is not a matter to eradicate them, just send a general to take a hundred people to the palace and behead them.
However, Empress Dou and her father are not sophisticated in politics, and they prefer to follow procedures.
They first let their cronies write a letter when they were in the court, listing all kinds of charges against the eunuchs, and then issued a document in the name of the emperor, interrogated them in a grand manner, convicted them, and finally sentenced them.
Although the eunuchs are not men, they have a good IQ, how can they sit still and wait to die?
As a result, the eunuch preemptively launched the famous "September Xinhai Coup", Dou's father was beheaded, and the Empress Dowager Dou was also deposed.
History is always strikingly similar, and later when Queen He and her brother He Jin, who was born in killing pigs, eradicated the eunuchs, they also followed the same process, and in the end they were also killed by the eunuchs, which is a later story.
This time, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty had a bright future, and his biological mother Dong was awarded the title of Jin and became the Empress Dowager Dong.
It is not difficult to see that without eunuchs, there would be no day when Emperor Han Ling's mother and son would have come out, so Emperor Han Ling was grateful to the eunuch group.
At that time, Emperor Han Ling put a sentence on his lips: "Zhang Rang is my father, and Zhao Zhong is my mother." ”
Who are Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong? They were eunuchs in the palace, responsible for serving the emperor, and were called "permanent attendants".
At that time, there were a total of ten senior permanent servants in the palace, known as the "Ten Standing Attendants".
That's right, it was the "Ten Standing Servants" who cut down the general He Jin and was killed by Yuan Shao, which is also a later story.
An emperor is not ashamed to call the eunuchs father and mother, and the ministers are not allowed to call grandpa and grandma?
From this, it is not difficult to see how much power the eunuchs have.
And these eunuchs also understood that good days were short-lived, because the emperor would soon grow up, and then they would lose the power in their hands.
At that time, not only will he lose power, but he will also have to worry about his life, maybe there will be a minister like Dou Wu, and he will give the emperor ideas to eliminate the eunuchs.
They have first-hand experience of this.
Therefore, these eunuchs racked their brains to make Liu Hong a waste emperor.
Historical experience has proved that the best way to depose an emperor is to let him eat, drink, and indulge in pleasure.
A group of eunuchs changed their tricks to let the little emperor enjoy and have fun, and Emperor Han Ling soon became a waste dim sum.
In his opinion, it is right to enjoy himself, as for national affairs, let his father Zhang Rang and mother Zhao Zhong deal with it, anyway, they are not outsiders.
Despite this, the eunuchs did not rest easy, they were still thinking of ways to entertain the emperor.
No matter how good the gameplay is, you will get tired of playing, once the emperor gets bored, maybe he will change his ways and want to take care of the government, so he must be updated in time and bring forth the new.
For example, they said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, it is not interesting for you to take money directly from the treasury and spend it, you must learn to generate income and make money yourself." ”
When Emperor Han Ling heard this, he became interested: "The emperor makes money by himself? It's a new idea, it's the first time I've heard of it, you tell me, how to make money? ”
Your Majesty, if you clearly mark the price of the official positions in the whole country, let everyone spend money to buy them, and put the money into your small treasury, won't you soon become a local tyrant? ”
When Emperor Han Ling heard this, he thought it was funny, and began to openly sell his official position.
From the imperial court officials to the Qipin county order, as long as you have money, you can buy it, regardless of whether you are talented or not, and regardless of your character.
Soon, Emperor Han Ling's personal pockets gradually bulged, and the small treasury was full of money.
Despite this, he still felt that it was not enjoyable, and introduced a new rule, the newly appointed ** must pay one-third or one-quarter of the emperor's salary for 25 years in advance.
In other words, before taking office and receiving a salary, he had to pay out of his own pocket and give the emperor a huge sum of money, which is really ruthless.
This move has embarrassed many **, and some of them simply quit.
Just as the eunuchs were worried, as soon as Emperor Han Ling's freshness passed, he soon felt that selling officials was boring.
The eunuch's eyes rolled, and he thought of a good idea, that is, to set up a bazaar in the palace, move the downtown to the palace, and set up many stalls there, so that the concubines and palace maids could take the goods and become merchants, shouting loudly in the palace.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty dressed up as a consumer, not only wandering around the "downtown area", but also taking money to drink tea, drink wine, and buy goods.
Naturally, the emperor has to pay.
This made the concubines and palace ladies also very interested, and they began to do business.
Because Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty did not inventory the goods, and did not register the purchases, many concubines or palace maids simply took those goods as their own.
In cultivating the emperor's lust, the eunuchs are also renovated and have frequent tricks.
For example, they kept searching for beauties all over the country, so that the emperor couldn't play enough.
In most dynasties, the emperor chooses girls for two purposes, one is to be concubines, that is, drafts.
Another purpose is to select palace maids and let them enter the palace as waitress.
Depending on the use, the selection criteria are also different.
Girls participating in the draft must, first, be well-looking, second, be cultivated, and third, be noble.
If you are a palace maid, you don't pay so much attention to it, as long as it's a woman, it's neat and tidy.
In terms of looks, it's not so picky, and it's okay to be almost.
In order to attract the emperor, the eunuchs selected the palace maids who were all like flowers and jade, and there were all kinds of styles. This gave Emperor Han Ling more options to find time to play with the palace maids.
However, there are so many concubines in the palace watching, and it is unreasonable for the emperor to do so publicly.
So, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty formed a song and dance troupe of palace maids and asked them to perform for themselves at night.
After the singing and dancing party, you have to interact with the palace maid and play games.
This time, the emperor can play justifiably.
When the fun was not enough, in order to improve efficiency, Emperor Han Ling ordered some open crotch pants and asked the palace ladies to wear them.
At first, the palace maid thought that the emperor was afraid of everyone's heat, so she did that.
Who knows, Emperor Han Ling has ulterior motives.
In the process of playing the game, once Emperor Ling of Han arose, he forcibly pushed down the palace maid.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty didn't care whether there were people around him or not, exchanging feelings on the artificial moss, and turning the phoenix upside down. In order to make the game more interesting, Emperor Ling of Han also ordered people to build a "naked game hall" in the palace.
The so-called "naked swimming hall" is actually outdoors.
First build a large artificial lake, then plant a lot of lotus flowers in it, and then build a lot of houses on the lake.
Every time the moon rises on the willow tops, the palace maid must untie her clothes and jump into the lotus pond to play and frolic. Emperor Han Ling himself was naturally naked, and he enjoyed with the beauties in the water all night.
In April 189, Emperor Liu Hong of the Han Dynasty died in the Jiade Hall of Nangong at the age of 33.
This is clearly the age of normal life, death is too abnormal, no need to ask, it is death from indulgence.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was shameless and bleographed, sounding the death knell for the Eastern Han regime, and he was the best among the faint monarchs, and he was notorious.
Even the traitor Dong Zhuo looked down on Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, saying, "Every time I think of Emperor Ling, it makes people angry"!
Historical references:
"The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Eighth Book of Emperor Ling".
"Zizhi Tongjian", Volume 56. Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty in the Forty-eighth Century