The Northern Song Dynasty historical drama "Qingping Le" was recently released, and the plot revolves around the relationship between Song Renzong and Prime Minister Lu Yijian.
However, the throne of the royal harem was indispensable, and Song Renzong decided to marry Cao Shi, the granddaughter of Cao Bin, the founder of the Northern Song Dynasty, as the empress, which is the Empress Cao as we know it.
Empress Cao was unanimously recommended to Song Renzong by the ministers in the play, but in history, she was not recommended by the ministers, but by Song Renzong's adoptive mother, Empress Dowager Yang.
Song Renzong had a total of three mothers, namely his mother-in-law Liu E, his biological mother Li and his adoptive mother Concubine Yang, who had a close relationship with Liu E in the harem. Before Liu E died, she had instructed Song Renzong to respect Concubine Yang as the queen mother, and Song Renzong did not dare to disobey.
In the end, Empress Dowager Yang helped Song Renzong choose Cao as empress.
Regarding the real name of Empress Cao, it is not recorded in the history books. And in the play, her name is set to Danshu. So, why did Empress Dowager Yang choose Cao as her empress?
There are three main reasons: noble birth, the Cao family is the family of the founding general Cao Bin, and it was once a princely family. However, after Cao Bin's death, the Cao family lost support in the court, which met the requirements of the election.
With excellent conduct, the Cao family was once married to the Li family by his grandfather Cao Bin, but because the Li family was single-minded, Cao's parents wanted to repent of the marriage. But Cao chose to wronged himself in order to maintain his grandfather's credibility.
With a mediocre appearance, after Cao's marriage, her husband Li Zhi ran away as soon as he saw her, so people thought she was ugly. However, Empress Dowager Yang thought that "ugliness is not confusing to confuse the king", so she finally chose Cao as the queen.
The Cao family entered the palace and became the second queen of Song Renzong, which was not Song Renzong's own choice, but was forced by Empress Dowager Yang. As a result, the relationship between Empress Cao and Song Renzong has been tepid.
However, Empress Cao knew that the emperor had no special liking for herself. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of her predecessor Empress Guo, on the one hand, she relied on her famous background and superb cultivation, and on the other hand, she strictly abided by the way of the Middle Palace, treated people tolerantly, and did things decently.
Whether inside or outside the palace, people praise her as a virtuous lady and a mother in the world.
Empress Cao was very wise, but she was still almost deposed by Song Renzong. In the eighth year of Qingli, there was a rebellion among the guards in the palace, and Empress Cao and the eunuch Zhang Mao joined hands to resist. Empress Cao's thieves will set fires, so she ordered the palace maids to prepare water in advance.
In the dark night, Empress Cao cut off the hair of the palace ladies and told them that she would be rewarded according to their hair tomorrow. Encouraged by this, the palace ladies and eunuchs did their best to extinguish the fire, and finally succeeded in quelling the rebellion.
Empress Cao, with her extraordinary wisdom and decisive actions, successfully coped with this crisis. However, Song Renzong suspected that the turmoil was deliberately arranged by Empress Cao to demonstrate her ability to handle things.
Although Song Renzong tried to depose Empress Cao, the campaign was unsuccessful because he failed to provide sufficient evidence and the ministers opposed the deposition.
In the imperial city, the person Song Renzong really fell in love with was Zhang Guifei. With the emperor's favor, Concubine Zhang often challenged Empress Cao's authority, but Empress Cao always endured humiliation and never escalated the fight.
After the death of Concubine Zhang Guifei, Song Renzong was extremely sad and even intended to posthumously crown her as the queen. At that time, the harem was in charge of Empress Cao, and it was actually unruly to posthumously crown a queen, and the ministers admonished one after another, but Song Renzong insisted on giving him the title of queen of his favorite woman.
Empress Cao had no grudge against this matter, which made the ministers admire her even more deeply, praising her as a model for the harem.
What few people know is that behind Empress Cao's reputation as a "model of the harem", there are actually countless patience and bitterness. Her marriage to Song Renzong was a tragedy, Song Renzong did not love her, but she could only silently stick to her duties as queen.
In that era, as long as Empress Cao was not wrong, Song Renzong could not abolish her status as empress. Therefore, she was more forbearant and walked cautiously, although she was not favored by the emperor, but at least she protected the honor of the East Palace and the honor of the family.
Empress Cao sat on the throne of the middle palace for a full 28 years, until Song Renzong died, Empress Cao was honored as the queen mother by Song Yingzong, four years later, Song Yingzong also passed away, Empress Cao became the empress dowager, and was endlessly admired by Song Shenzong.
Song Shenzong often took the Cao family out of the palace to play, and took good care of him. As the "Emperor of the Law Change" in the history of the Song Dynasty, Song Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as the governor in the second year of Xining, and began the leading role of "Wang Anshi's Law Change".
However, the Empress Dowager Cao was conservative and opposed to the new law.
Wang Anshi is talented, but he has many enemies. The emperor should love and protect him, it is better to transfer him outside the capital for the time being. ”
Although the Empress Dowager Cao opposed Wang Anshi's reforms, this did not prove that there was something wrong with Cao. After all, even Su Shi, who is considered one of the literary heroes, has been favored by the Cao family.
In this process, the Empress Dowager Cao and the Empress Dowager Gao, the mother of Song Shenzong, both played a role, so that Wang Anshi's reform ended in failure. In that era, everyone could have their own limitations, Ouyang Xiu, Sima Guang and others were still critical of Wang Anshi's changes, and the elderly Empress Dowager was no exception.
Back then, Su Shi was because"Wutai poetry case"Imprisoned, it was the hardest moment of his life. Although the Song Dynasty did not easily execute scholars, Su Shi suffered great torture in prison and his life was in danger.
The Empress Dowager Cao, who heard about this, said to Song Shenzong: "I heard that Su Shi was imprisoned for writing poems, so he couldn't have been framed by his enemies, right?" If the crime is only poetry, then the mistake is too trivial.
My condition is already very serious, and I should not affect the harmony of the country because of unjust, false and wrongful convictions, and I should carefully investigate. On the grounds that he was seriously ill, the Cao family did not let Song Shenzong kill Su Shi by mistake, and finally Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou and was freed.
In the winter of that year, the legendary Empress Cao of the Great Song Dynasty died of illness at the age of 64 years and was buried with Emperor Renzong in the Yongzhao Mausoleum. This remarkable woman has gone through the course of her life.
After the death of Empress Cao, Zeng Gong, one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, wrote an elegy for her, one of which reads: "The human morality has been passed down for three generations, and the royal merits belong to the two dynasties." "Empress Cao went through three dynasties and made great contributions to the Song Dynasty, and in the hearts of ancient literati and doctors, Empress Cao was a rare virtuous queen.