In 7 BC, Emperor Cheng of Han died, and Emperor Ai of Han ascended the throne. At the beginning of his tenure, Emperor Han Ai named his grandmother Empress Dowager Fu as the empress dowager. However, Empress Dowager Fu was not satisfied with this title, and she always longed for the title of Empress Dowager.
The question is, how can one emperor have two empresses? Empress Dowager Fu is not the original queen, but the concubine of the first emperor. In desperation, Emperor Han Ai convened a meeting of ministers to discuss the matter of granting the title to the Empress Dowager Fu, but the result of the meeting was unexpected, and most of the ministers were opposed.
Obviously, Empress Dowager Fu's move was unreasonable, but Emperor Han Ai lost his parents since he was a child, and he was raised by his grandmother, Empress Dowager Fu.
At this critical moment, Empress Dowager Fu's cousin Fu Xi stood up against her idea of asking for an honorific title. Fu Xi believes that in ancient China, there was a difference between dignity and inferiority, and if the title of the empress dowager was given to the empress dowager, then there would be a mistake in the title, and the Han Dynasty would be ridiculed by the world because of this.
He not only opposed the decision of the Empress Dowager Fu himself, but also united Prime Minister Kong Guang and Da Sikong Shidan to jointly resist the idea of the Empress Dowager Fu. However, Empress Dowager Fu was very dissatisfied with Fu Xi's objections, and she believed that Fu Xi was deliberately targeting her.
As a result, she was full of hatred for Fu Xi, and forced Emperor Han Ai to remove Fu Xi from his official position, and even seized his title. Although Emperor Han Ai realized that Fu Xi's decision was correct, he was forced to remove Fu Xi from his official position under pressure from the Empress Dowager Fu.
Although Fu Xi was treated unfairly because of his sense of justice, his decision was ultimately proven to be correct. His opposition protected the Han dynasty and prevented a struggle that could have led to even greater chaos.
Why did Fu Xi offend the Empress Dowager Fu? The glory of the Empress Dowager Fu's family comes from her contributions, isn't Fu Xi betraying the family by doing this? In fact, Fu Xi did deviate a little from the interests of the family.
But some of the Empress Dowager Fu's behaviors are too absurd, and if this continues, the entire Fu family will collapse because of Empress Dowager Fu. For the long-term development of the family, Fu Xi believes that he must correct the behavior of the Empress Dowager Fu and cannot let her go.
In other words, Fu Xi belongs to the kind of person who can sacrifice family affection for justice, which is very rare. In other cases, other relatives may go with the flow and join forces with the Empress Dowager Fu, but Fu Xi did not do this.
Fu Xi, whose name is Zhiyou, is a native of Wen County, Hanoi County, and is famous for being cousins with Empress Dowager Fu. Empress Dowager Fu was a female official next to the Empress Dowager Shangguan, and because of her beauty, she was favored by Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, became Zhaoyi and gave birth to Liu Kang, the king of Dingtao.
Later, Liu Kang died, leaving behind a two-year-old son, Liu Xin. Liu Xin was originally raised by her biological mother Ding Jieyu, but Empress Dowager Fu took it away because she didn't like Ding, raised it herself, and did not let Ding often visit Liu Xin, making Liu Xin the new king of Dingtao.
In 8 BC, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty was seriously ill and found that he had no heirs to inherit the country, so he had no choice but to choose the child of the Liu clan as the crown prince, and selected Liu Xin, the king of Dingtao, as the crown prince.
A year later, Emperor Cheng of Han died and Liu Xin succeeded him as Emperor Ai of Han.
After Emperor Han Ai ascended the throne, he honored his grandmother Empress Dowager Fu as the empress dowager. Empress Dowager Fu leaned towards the government and the opposition and vigorously promoted the children of the Fu family. Among them, Fu Xi was the most outstanding, was awarded the title of Captain of the Guard, and was later promoted to the right general.
Emperor Han Ai obeyed his words, after all, he left his parents since he was a child, and he relied on Empress Dowager Fu extraordinarily. Empress Dowager Fu took advantage of this to appoint her own people on a large scale, so that most of the important positions in the court were held by the children of the Fu family.
On the contrary, the high-ranking Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun was estranged from Emperor Han Ai and had no right to intervene in the government.
Wang Zhengjun realized that the Fu family's power in the court was invincible, and he was worried that the Empress Dowager Fu would attack his family, so he advised the family members to keep a low profile so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.
She recalled that she and Empress Dowager Fu were both concubines of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, but in the end, Emperor Yuan of Han made her son Liu Biao the crown prince, which made Empress Dowager Fu very jealous. Now that Empress Dowager Fu is powerful, if she takes revenge on the Wang family because of old grievances, she will be powerless.
In order to preserve the family, Wang Zhengjun decided to let his family members resign from their official positions and return home. Wang Mang, who served as the Great Sima at that time, resigned, he had a very high prestige in the court, Wang Mang's departure put everyone in danger to the courtiers, and they pinned their hopes on the fair Fu Xi, after all, Fu Xi was the cousin of the Empress Dowager Fu, and the Empress Dowager Fu should not hurt her own people.
However, Empress Dowager Fu turned her face and didn't recognize anyone, and she didn't even let go of her own relatives.
Fu Xi was a person who was clear about things, and he saw that Empress Dowager Fu was excessively interfering in court politics and thought that this was inappropriate, so he tried to dissuade Empress Dowager Fu. However, Empress Dowager Fu did not listen to him, but became bored with Fu Xi because she often prevented her from participating in court politics, and finally stopped letting him assist her.
The reason why Fu Xi opposed Empress Dowager Fu's excessive interference in court politics was because he thought that Empress Dowager Fu had pushed the Fu family to the peak with her own ability, which was very remarkable.
However, as the saying goes, prosperity must decline, Empress Dowager Fu only needs to enjoy the benefits of power and wealth, and there is no need to hold all the power in her hands. Power and wealth can sometimes make people lose their minds and become a talisman.
Empress Dowager Fu's demands on Emperor Han Ai were often inconsequential, such as her insistence that Emperor Han Ai grant her the honorific title of Empress Dowager, and at the same time demanded that Emperor Han Ai pardon Fu Qian, despite Fu Qian's unforgivable crimes.
Such an unreasonable demand, even if Emperor Han Ai fully satisfied, would make Emperor Han Ai and Empress Dowager Fu look mediocre in the eyes of the courtiers. Under the rule of Emperor Han Ai, the Fu family could act recklessly, but if there was a change of emperor without the support of the Fu family, the Fu family might be punished for the actions of the Empress Dowager Fu, with exile and punishment at best, or the entire clan being wiped out.
For the survival of the family, Fu Xi repeatedly advised the Empress Dowager Fu not to participate in court politics and not to fight against the same party, but the Empress Dowager Fu did not follow his advice.