After the Jin army easily broke through Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Ji and Zhao Huan, father and son, were captured by the Jin army. At the same time, many royal families, nobles, harem beauties, princesses and palace maids of the Northern Song Dynasty were taken captive by the Jin army. The Jin army's treatment of these women was extremely cruel, even the queen, concubine and princess were not spared.
According to historical records, Zhao Huan was forced to order more than 5,000 civilian women to sacrifice to the Jin people in order to sue for peace with the Jin State. These innocent women were tortured under the clutches of the Jin people, and the mortality rate was as high as one-third.
That period of history was a nightmare for the Northern Song Dynasty royal family, and it was also a very dark page in Chinese history.
Merriam-Webster, from an ordinary background. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a famous prime minister, his name was Su Song. When he retired, he chose a lifestyle like no other. He bought many young and beautiful girls to serve his life. In this group of little girls, there is a girl named Webster.
One quiet night, Master Su asked Wei to stay and sleep with him. However, not long after lying down, Master Su noticed something unusual. He felt the bed be wet, as if something was leaking out. He was surprised to find that Merriam-Webster had wet the bed. This scene caught Master Su a little off guard, and he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed in his heart.
Su Song did not blame Merriam-Webster for this. On the contrary, he saw it as a harbinger of Merriam-Webster's wealth. He was convinced that this young girl had a destiny like no other. So, he decided to send Wei to the capital to participate in the palace maid selection competition.
In those days, the unmarried daughters of ministers had to run for the palace maids for the palace selection. Su Song hoped that his daughter would be able to avoid this fate, so he chose to send Webster to the palace. With Su Song's recommendation, Wei successfully passed the selection and became a member of Song Huizong's harem.
Life in the harem is not as rosy as Webster imagined. Although she harbored the dream of the emperor's favor in her heart, the reality was cruel. Many palace maids may never see the emperor in their lifetime, let alone be favored. Merriam-Webster began to realize that it would be a difficult road to make his mark in the harem.
Fortunately, God did not give up on Merriam-Webster. In the new palace maid distribution, Wei was assigned to the palace of Empress Zheng. There, she met a best friend who had been with her for half her life - Qiao's. The two hit it off at first sight and soon became friends who talked about everything. In the harem, a place full of intrigues, they rely on each other to face the challenges of life together.
Webster, a young and beautiful woman, is difficult to compare with her beauty. Among the many beauties, she is indeed slightly inferior to Qiao's who is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.
Qiao's heart is kind, and he deeply loves Merriam-Webster's innocence and simplicity. The two girls share the same illness and often travel together, bringing a touch of joy to their lonely lives. They solemnly swore that no matter who received the emperor's favor first, they would support each other and never let each other down.
At the beginning of Song Huizong's accession to the throne, his relationship with Empress Zheng was acceptable, and he sometimes went to the queen's bedroom to sit. As Empress Zheng's maids, Wei and Qiao, naturally have the opportunity to show themselves in front of Song Huizong.
Song Huizong had a soft spot for Concubine Liu, which made Empress Zheng unhappy. She knew that she would not be able to keep the emperor's heart for a long time, so she began to plot to bring Qiao and Wei close to Song Huizong. She deliberately arranged for the two to serve the emperor, and even deliberately left at some point, leaving them a chance to be alone.
With his beauty and talent, Qiao's quickly attracted the attention of Song Huizong. Her delicate and graceful demeanor made the emperor's heart move. Soon, Qiao was made a concubine, second only to the queen.
Joe has not forgotten the oath he made with Merriam-Webster. She recommended Webster to the emperor many times, but under the graciousness, Song Huizong summoned Webster once. This time of favor, Song Huizong almost never came again, and this favor allowed Wei to give birth to the prince Zhao Gou, which was the only glorious moment in her life.
After being favored, Wei was named the prince of Pyeongchang, but his status in the harem was not prominent.
In February of the first year of Daguan (1107), Wei was canonized as a talented person. Just five months later, she gave birth to the prince Zhao Gou. This speed promotion seems to be a special reward for her giving birth to Zhao Gou. In June, she was further promoted to Jieyu, and in the second year of Daguan, she was even promoted to contouring.
However, Webster was not favored by Huizong, and she did not have any other children except for Zhao Gou. Zhao Gou, as the ninth son of Huizong, was not conspicuous among the many children of Song Huizong. Huizong has many heirs, a full thirty-one sons, and Zhao Gou's position is not up or down, and the situation is quite embarrassing.
He was very different from his father Huizong's personality and hobbies, Huizong was obsessed with calligraphy and painting, while Zhao Gou preferred martial arts, which made the father-son relationship not close. After Song Qinzong ascended the throne, the relationship between the two brothers did not improve.
In the first year of Jingkang, the relationship between Jin and Song was extremely tense, and the opportunity of a peace talk gave Zhao Gou a chance to emerge. The Jin people put forward the conditions for peace talks, asking the Song Dynasty to send a prince to the Jin camp.
Song Qinzong looked around at the princes and asked, "Who can do it for me?" ”。All the kings usually hope to show their talents in front of the emperor, but this time going to the Jin army camp is tantamount to nine deaths, all the kings are silent, only Zhao Gou stepped forward.
History of the Song Dynasty praised Zhao Gou: "King Kang is wise and martial, and has the style of an art ancestor". This is indeed an exaggeration. Although Zhao Gou is not a mediocre person in the folk impression, his talent and courage are still inferior to Zhao Kuangyin.
As the neutron of Huizong, Zhao Gou originally had no possibility of succeeding to the throne. Perhaps realizing this, Zhao Gou decided to give it a go. Before leaving, he said to Qinzong: "If the court is cheap, don't think of a prince." This decision moved Huizong and Qinzong very much. In order to show his gratitude, Huizong instructed Qinzong to make Zhao Gou's mother Wei a virtuous concubine of Longde Palace, second only to the queen and the concubine.
When Wei heard the news that her son Zhao Gou had been selected as an envoy to Jinying, her heart was full of worry and reluctance. She wept silently, knowing that this was the way to Huangquan Road. In her heart, going to the Jin Army camp is tantamount to a sheep falling into the mouth of a tiger, and life and death are uncertain.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, it was this envoy that allowed Zhao Gou to escape the pursuit of the Jin people. And those princes and concubines who were originally cowering in Bianliang City failed to escape the clutches of the Jin people, and finally became prisoners.
In 1126, the Jin launched a powerful Northern Expedition and successfully conquered Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. In Bianjing, the Jin people carried out large-scale burning and looting, and almost the entire city was looted. In this catastrophe, more than 3,000 members of the royal family such as Song Huizong and Song Qinzong, as well as a large number of ** and palace maids, were captured by the Jin people and escorted to the north.
As one of the captives, Song Gaozong's biological mother, Empress Dowager Wei, suffered many humiliations on the way north. Compared with ordinary captured women, Empress Dowager Wei's treatment is relatively good. The Jin people prepared a special bullock cart for her as a means of transportation, so that she would be slightly more comfortable during the escort. In addition, Empress Dowager Wei's movements were relatively free. She even secretly sent someone to send a letter to her son Kang Wang Zhao Gou, asking him to come to the rescue.
However, Zhao Gou was too busy running for his life to care about the safety of his parents and siblings. He had a heavy army in his hands, but he failed to come forward, which undoubtedly made Empress Dowager Wei feel deeply disappointed and helpless.
After arriving in Shangjing in the Kingdom of Jin, Empress Dowager Wei and the other captives faced an even more difficult fate. They were asked to attend the ceremony of sacrificing prisoners at the Temple of Kim Taejo, during which they suffered unprecedented humiliation. The Jin people ordered Song Huizong, Song Qinzong, and the princes and ministers to wrap their heads in handkerchiefs, wear sheep furs, and expose their tops to participate in the "sheep holding ceremony".
For female captives, this humiliation was even more unbearable. They were forced to participate in the "sheep holding ceremony" of the Taimiao Temple naked, and only Empress Zhu was "taken care of" by the Jin Kingdom because of her special status, so that she wore a sheepskin to participate in the ceremony. Empress Zhu was deeply ashamed and committed suicide soon after.
Although Empress Dowager Wei endured humiliation and secretly survived, her heart was also deeply traumatized. In the "laundry house", she lived a miserable life like most of the concubines and palace maids, enduring heavy labor and endless humiliation every day.
This experience was a long and painful one for Empress Dowager Wei, as she had to face not only physical torture, but also great mental pressure.
Wei, the biological mother of Song Gaozong Zhao Gou, was also imprisoned by Jin Guo and suffered humiliation. In those years, in order to humiliate Zhao Gou, the Jin State deliberately exaggerated Wei's affairs in the Jin Kingdom, which spread to the Southern Song Dynasty.
Jin Guo not only humiliated Zhao Gou with this, but also sent him a letter, the content of which was infuriating: "Congratulations, Lao Zhao, you are going to be a brother, your mother is doing well here, and she is about to give birth to a second child?" Such a provocation made Zhao Gou angry, and he vowed to welcome his mother back at all costs.
As a result, after lengthy negotiations, the Song and Jin countries finally reached the "Shaoxing Peace Conference". The conditions for redrawing borders, claiming vassals, and paying tribute were met one by one, and Wei was able to return to the Southern Song Dynasty. However, the question of whether Merriam-Webster actually gave birth to two sons in the Kingdom of Jin has been troubling people.
First, there is a story recorded in Xin Qiji's "Continuation of Stealing Anger". When Song Qinzong was detained, through the crack in the wall, he saw Wei Shi with a Jin Guo **, Wei's abdomen bulging, and the maid next to him was holding a three-year-old child, and the child called Wei "Mother". This seems to be a conclusive piece of evidence.
Second, Wei Shi, who returned to the Southern Song Dynasty, questioned Princess Roufu. Roufu was the daughter of Huizong of the Song Dynasty and also fled back to the Southern Song Dynasty from the Jin Kingdom. But Webster insisted that she was a fake, and sent her to prison and sentenced her to a heavy sentence. Why did Webster treat Princess Jo-Fu like this? The reason is puzzling. It cannot be ruled out that Princess Roufu witnessed some of Webster's situations when she was in Jinguo, which caused Webster's to want to kill people and kill people.
Third, in order to refute the rumors about Webster's birth, Zhao Gou actually increased Webster's age by ten years. "History of the Song Dynasty: The Biography of Concubine Wei Xian" records: "Empress Wei hunted in the north, nearly fifty years old, nearly fifty ......years oldThis emphasizes that Merriam-Webster was nearly 50 years old at the time of his abduction and had long since lost his fertility. However, this does not obscure the truth of the facts. Merriam-Webster was only 38 years old at the time of his abduction, but he was still fertile.
These doubts and rumors make the truth of Webster's birth confusing. Perhaps only history can reveal the truth of all this. And now we can only look for clues from these stories, trying to unravel the mystery of that history.
On September 20, the 29th year of Shaoxing (1159), Wei Shi died at the age of 80. She was buried in the west of the Yongyou Mausoleum, and was nicknamed Empress Xianren. And her death also brought up that dusty history again. Those past sufferings have become sad memories with the passing of Merriam-Webster.
In general, Wei's life was tormented, although he was taken back by his son later, but when he returned to the Southern Song Dynasty, he never wanted to mention this matter again, and she was also a poor woman. It can be said that Merriam-Webster is the "tragic queen mother" in history.
In fact, when the country is ruined and the family is ruined, the most miserable thing is the woman, and this is the case in any dynasty, and the woman is the most pitiful and innocent after all.