After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying succeeded to the throne, why did Empress Lu be included in this era?
Benji"It refers to a legal discipline, usually based on the actions of the Son of Heaven and the monarch, and reflects the change of dynasties and major events of the time in the form of chronicles and chronicles. As an important part of the official history, the "Benji" before the Anshi Rebellion was not actually written for the emperor, nor was it a biography for the emperor, its main role was to record some important events of the dynasty in the form of a chronicle, of course, as the main corpus to record the events of the Han Dynasty as the actual ruler of the Han Dynasty after Empress Lu, Liu Bang, and Liu Heng, and before Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, it is more appropriate.
After Liu Bang's death, Empress Lu ascended the throne.
Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty Liu Ying was the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and the son of Liu Bang and Lü Pheasant, the ancestors of the Han Dynasty. In the second year of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (205 BC), Liu Bang defeated Pengcheng, and Liu Ying was made the crown prince and guarded Liyang. Three years later, in February of the fifth year of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (202 BC), Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu and ascended the throne, and Liu Ying was made crown prince.
However, in the tenth year of Gaozu of Han (197 BC), Liu Bang intended to replace the crown prince. He planned to abolish the crown prince and replace Mrs. Qi's son Liu Ruyi as the crown prince instead of Liu Ying. However, Liu Bang did not expect that Empress Lu would also be affected by this move. After a series of incidents, Empress Lu no longer had any hope for Liu Bang, and only thought about his own children, not knowing that his son would lose the position of crown prince.
Later, Empress Lü recognized the Lü family as the foundation of the dynasty, and soon gathered a large number of courtiers, forming a powerful force. Liu Bang found that the ministers of the DPRK and China opposed the change of dynasty, and finally had to give in. Empress Lü then took control of the imperial government, and eventually took over the imperial government after Liu Bang's death.
In December of the first year of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty (194), Empress Lü took advantage of Liu Ying's absence to kill Liu Ruyi, and then turned Mrs. Qi into her"Human", and asked her son Liu Ying to observe her"A masterpiece"；Liu Ying could not accept this warning, so she ignored the government until her death a few years later. Liu Ying could not accept such a warning, so she did not care about the government until her death a few years later.
After Liu Ying's death, Empress Lü first appointed Liu Ying's son Liu Gong as emperor. Liu Gong learned that Empress Lü had killed his biological mother, so he said that he would avenge his mother when he grew up, so Empress Lü imprisoned Liu Gong, secretly killed him, and renamed Liu Ying's second son Liu Gong as emperor. During the reigns of Liu Gong and Liu Hong, Empress Lü was in power.
Before the introduction of the era name, the Benji did not refer specifically to the emperor, which is why Sima Qian did not include Liu Ying in the Benji.
As mentioned earlier, after Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty Liu Ying ascended the throne, the power of the court was in the hands of Empress Lü, Empress Lü"Drinking and eating, not listening to the government, so he fell ill"("Historical Records - Empress Dowager Lu Benji"), until she died of illness.
In fact, this type of chronicle was not written specifically for the emperor, it only recorded the words and deeds and exploits of the emperor in the format and chronological order of the chronicle, as well as the important events of the time. In other words, the main function of the Benji is not to establish a biography for the emperor, but to record some important events of the dynasty in the form of a chronicle. As Liu Zhiji said in "Stone Benji":"The Chronicle, the Son of Heaven is only. If you remember the big things, you can see them in the years and months"。
The main reason why people think that the current chronology is for the exclusive use of emperors is that the chronology method of later generations is the chronology method of later generations. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the era name system, the era name chronology method has become an important method of ancient chronology, which is convenient to identify the main events of a dynasty, and often uses the emperor's chronology as the order of the record, so according to the historical book "Historical Records", this chronological method has become the exclusive use of the emperor.
Therefore, before the appearance of "Historical Records-Twenty-four History", it became a special case, such as "Empress Dowager Lü Benji" and "Xiang Yu Benji" The protagonists are not emperors.
In fact, Sima Qian has already explained Liu Ying's interpretation of this chronology in the "Historical Records":"During the reign of Emperor Hui, the system was controlled by the Empress Dowager Kou, the government was no longer restored, the world was peaceful, there were fewer punishments and criminals, and people planted crops and had enough food and clothing. (This shows that during the reign of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, the power of the court was in the hands of Empress Lü, and the major affairs of the court and China were basically in the hands of Empress Lü).
In short, in order to correctly account the events after the death of Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han dynasty, and before the accession of Liu Heng, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, due to the lack of a biography, it would be more appropriate to use the original ruler Empress Dowager Lü as the main body of the narrative, because the Empress Dowager Lü actually ruled three generations of emperors: Liu Ying, Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, Liu Gong, the former Young Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Xiong, the last Young Emperor of the Han Dynasty.