Controversy Project
Put it in poisoned wine. Typical case: Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty was poisoned by the case of the murder of the Suspect: The Great Sima Wang Mang Among the hundreds of emperors in China, the first emperor who was directly poisoned was Emperor Liu Jin of the Han Ping Dynasty. Liu Jin is one of the two little emperors of the Western Han Dynasty, became the emperor at the age of 9, and was the last emperor of the Western Han Dynasty. Liu Jian was born in the fourth year of Yuan Yan (9 BC), and was the grandson of Emperor Liu Zheng of the Han Yuan Dynasty, the son of Liu Xing, the king of Zhongshan, and his mother Wei Ji.
Liu Jian became king when he was 3 years old. According to the Book of Han and Emperor Ping (Volume 12), in June of the second year of Yuanshou (1 BC), Emperor Liu Xin of the Han Dynasty died in Weiyang Palace. The Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun presided over the administration, removed the position of the great Sima Dong Xian, who was favored by Emperor Liu Biao of the Han Dynasty, and reappointed Wang Mang, the marquis of the new capital, as the great Sima, and at the same time sent people to welcome the Zhongshan Wang Jizi as the emperor. Wang Zhengjun is Wang Mang's aunt, she is nepotistic and has put her nephew in a high position, creating conditions for Wang Mang to usurp the throne in the future. It can be said that it was Wang Zhengjun who directly buried the Western Han Dynasty. When Wang Mang usurped the throne, Wang Zhengjun was furious, smashed the jade seal of the country to the ground, and finally died in grief. Wang Zhengjun is old, and Liu Yin is too young, which provides the ambitious Wang Mang with the opportunity to monopolize power. In order to prevent the power from being taken away by the Wei family, the emperor's mother's mother, Wang Mang simply cut the grass and eradicated the Wei family. In order to get the emperor, he married his 14-year-old daughter Wang Yan to 12-year-old Liu Yin as the queen. After becoming the emperor's father-in-law, Wang Mang's ambition became even greater.
In the first five years of the Yuan Dynasty (5 AD), Liu Jin knew the inside story of his mother's victimization, and was very dissatisfied and his face was displeased. Wang Mang was worried that something would happen in the future, so he suddenly started to kill in order to prevent future troubles. On the day of December of that year, Wang Mang took the opportunity to offer pepper wine to the emperor and poisoned the wine. Liu Yin was poisoned after drinking, and soon "collapsed in Weiyang Palace". Wang Mang's poisoning is seen in the "Zizhi Tongjian", and there is such a record in the "Han Ji Twenty-eighth: Emperor Xiaoping": "Mang was poisoned because of the pepper wine on the day of the lap. After Liu Yin was poisoned, he couldn't speak, and in the end he didn't even leave an edict. And Wang Mang also pretended to say that he was willing to die on behalf of the emperor. Historians do not agree on the truth about Wang Mang's poisoning, and some think it is nonsense, because there is no such record in the Book of Han, which was written earlier than the Zizhi Tongjian. In addition, there are different theories about Wang Mang's motives for poisoning, and there is a theory that he poisoned Liu Yin in order to prevent his daughter from becoming pregnant with the "dragon seed" and facilitate the usurpation of the throne in the future. It is not clear what kind of poison was thrown, and the mystery is difficult to solve. Killing people with poisoned wine is called "killing"; Killing the emperor in this way is called "killing the emperor".
This kind of poisonous wine was called "wine in ancient times". According to the Qing Chen Shiduo's "Dialectical Record: Poisoning Gate", the plover is a poisonous bird, mainly eating poisonous snakes and poisonous scorpions, and the dung of the plover is highly poisonous, and it is put into the wine to become a doom wine. "If you drink wine, you will not die." The typical symptoms of poisoning are, "white eyes, shivering, ignorance, like a drunken state, the heart understands, but can not speak, until the eyes are closed, and death". Later, the wine was no longer confined to the preparation of bird dung, and there were many poisons that could be put into the wine to kill people, and "the wine" became a common name for poisonous wine. It should be noted that it is not uncommon for emperors like Emperor Ping of Han to be killed, such as Emperor Huai of the Jin Dynasty Sima Chi was poisoned by Liu Cong with wine, and Emperor Zhaoxuan of Tang Dynasty Li Ji was killed by Zhu Quanzhong, the founding emperor of Later Liang, ...... with wine
Food adulteration. Typical case: Emperor Hui of the Jin Dynasty was poisoned by eating cakes Suspect: Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, The most famous case of poisoning of the emperor occurred in the Western Jin Dynasty, and the victim was Sima Zhen, the emperor of Jin Hui. The background of Sima Zhen's poisoning is quite complex, and a series of court events took place during it. Sima Zhen was the second emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty and a famous "mentally handicapped emperor" in Chinese history. To what extent is the mentally retarded? One year, when there was a famine, the common people had no food to eat, and many people starved to death, so he even asked: "Why don't you eat minced meat?" "Emperor Sima Yan of the Jin Dynasty has given birth to 26 sons, and he is not optimistic about this ** person at all, but because he is the eldest son and was born to the queen Yang Yan, under the ** person establishment mechanism of "establishing a grandson but not a concubine, establishing a long and not a young", Sima Zhen is qualified in all aspects, so, although he is reluctant, he is still canonized as the crown prince when Sima Zhen was 9 years old.
Sima Yan is always worried about fools sitting in the country, and wants to find a capable daughter-in-law for his son to assist. When Sima Zhen was 15 years old, he was elected as the crown princess. Queen Yang Yan was given a gift by Guo Huai, the wife of the lord Jia Chong, and wanted to marry her son to the daughter of the Jia family. According to the Biography of Empress Huijia in the Book of Jin, several ministers who had received bribes also said that the daughter of the Jia family was good. Sima Yan changed his original intention and decided to choose the crown princess among the daughters of the Jia family. At first, she chose the second daughter of the Jia family, but because she was small and short, she couldn't even hold up the dress, so she chose Jia Nanfeng, the eldest daughter of the Jia family, who was ugly and two years older than Sima Zhen. Sima Zhen's eldest son, Sima Shu, was born to Mrs. Xie and was very smart. It was precisely because of the excellence of the eldest grandson that Sima Yan did not abolish Sima Zhen in the end and pinned his hopes on his grandson.
Because he was worried that Sima Shu would be poisoned by Jia Nanfeng, Sima Yan kept it secret. But Sima Yan's plan for the crown prince did not come to fruition, and after his death, Jia Nanfeng designed to depose the crown prince. After Sima Shu was deposed, he was first imprisoned in Kim Yong City, and then moved to Xuchang Palace. But Jia Nanfeng was still not at ease, so he discussed with his lover and the imperial physician Ling Cheng to kill Sima Shu. Cheng Ju used croton to make the poison "Croton Apricot Pill" and asked his subordinate Sun Ji to take it to Xuchang to poison Sima Shu. Sima Shu had already taken precautions, fearing that someone would poison him, so he cooked by himself every day. Seeing that the poisoning failed, Sun Shu changed from ** to forced killing, and simply forced Sima Shu to take the poison pill. Sima Shu was not convinced, so Sun Shu took advantage of his toilet to directly kill him from behind with a pestle used to pound medicine. From this incident, it can be known that there is a precedent for poisoning in the Western Jin Dynasty, and it is not accidental that Sima Zhen was poisoned later. Interestingly, Jia Nanfeng was also poisoned soon after. Due to Jia Nan's ruthlessness, the government and the opposition were angry, which triggered the "Eight Kings Rebellion" that directly shook the foundation of the Western Jin Dynasty.
Jia Nanfeng was forced to drink gold dust wine by Sima Lun, the king of Zhao, during the palace change——— gold dust wine is actually a special poison, but it is not poison, but gold crumbs. After Sima Lun poisoned Jia Nanfeng, the Jin room became even more chaotic. Sima Lun directly forced the stupid emperor Sima Zhenzen to make himself the emperor. But the other kings are gone, who doesn't want to be an emperor? Sima Lun had no choice but to abdicate again, allowing Sima Zhen to continue to be the emperor. But the hearts of the kings were wild, and they all wanted to "coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes", so Sima Cheng became a bargaining chip and was taken away by the kings as treasures. In the end, Sima Cheng was taken back to the old capital Luoyang by Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, from the capital Chang'an (now Xi'an) with an ox cart, a "high-end car" at that time. According to the record of "Jin Shu Hui Di Ji" (Volume 4), in November of the first year of Guangxi (306 AD), Sima Zhen, who had returned to Luoyang for only half a year, "collapsed in the Xianyang Palace, at the age of forty-eight, and was buried in the Sun Mausoleum".
How did Sima Zhen die? The record in the history books is very simple, only four words——— food poisoning". So who poisoned it? There is no definite answer in the history books, and the biggest suspect is Sima Yue, because only Sima Yue has the motive, conditions and time to commit the crime, but because no one saw it and the evidence is insufficient, the historian can only leave a record of "or Yun Sima Yue's Bird". In the above three poisoning cases, the poison used and the method of poisoning were different. Kill Sima Shu with croton, traditional Chinese medicine said that croton has "great poison", is one of the poisons commonly used by the ancients for poisoning, and it has been forbidden to be casual in the past dynasties. The article "Prohibition of the Sale and Purchase of Poisons" in the Imperial Statutes of the Great Yuan Shengzheng Dynasty, the Criminal Department, and the Prohibitions (Volume 19) lists it as a prohibited drug along with arsenic. Kill Jia Nanfeng using gold dust. "Swallowing gold" was a common method used by the ancients to commit suicide. A person who drinks gold dust wine will not die immediately, but will die slowly in excruciating pain, worse than drinking authentic poisoned wine.
The method of killing Sima Zhen is to poison the rice, which is simple and easy to succeed, so it is also common in modern times. The Eastern Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Zhang was also poisoned in this way. ** Liang Ji asked his cronies to secretly mix poison into the cake eaten by the emperor. In view of this, ancient emperors often had eunuchs, doctors and others taste food before eating, and only use chopsticks when they are fine.
Poison in medicine. Typical case: Suspect in the death case of Qing Dezong: The last emperor who may have been poisoned by the great eunuch Li Lianying was Qing Dezong Aixin Jueluo Zaiyan, that is, Emperor Guangxu. Zai Xiang was the penultimate emperor of the Qing Dynasty. According to the Qing Historical Manuscript Dezong Benji I, his father was Prince Yi, the younger brother of Emperor Xianfeng, and his mother was Yehenala Wanzhen, the sister of the Empress Dowager Cixi, the actual ruler of the Qing Dynasty. After the death of Zaichun, the childless Qing Muzong (Tongzhi Emperor), Cixi decided to let her sister's 4-year-old son Zaichun inherit the throne on the 20th day of the first month of the first year of Guangxu (February 25, 1875).
Zai Yan was too young, and after ascending the throne, the Empress Dowager of Ci'an and Cixi first listened to the government, and then by Cixi and the first palace. In February of the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), Emperor Guangxu began to govern in person. At this time, the Qing Dynasty was plagued by disasters, internal and external troubles, which deeply stung the young emperor and wanted to change. In June of the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (A.D. 1898), Zai Xiang promulgated an edict announcing the change of the law, which was known as the "Wuxu Change Law" in history. However, the reform movement was opposed by the conservative faction led by the Empress Dowager Cixi, resulting in a "dispute between the emperor and the empress". The old school was too strong, and the result of the game was that Zai Yan not only failed to settle Cixi, but instead made himself imprisoned in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai. The entire reform lasted only 103 days, and it was known as the "Hundred Days Restoration" in history.
The failure of the Wuxu Reform Law made Zai Xiang lose his freedom, and it was not until October 21, 1908, the 34th year of Guangxu (AD 1908), "collapsed in the Yingtai Hanyuan Palace", and Zai Xiang never lived a good life again. What is strange is that the day after Zaiyan's death, that is, on October 22, the Empress Dowager Cixi also died in the Yiluan Hall in Zhongnanhai. The 38-year-old emperor and the 74-year-old empress dowager died one after another within 24 hours, and the sky really fell, and the people of the Qing Dynasty were stunned. How did Jae-yan die? There are many rumors in the market, some say that they died of poisoning, and some say that they died of illness. Among them, the "poisoning theory" is the most widespread. In order to find out the truth, the research group of the National Qing History Compilation and Revision Project "The Cause of Death of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty" used modern technical means to conduct toxicity tests on the hair, clothing and bones obtained during the cleaning of the coffin of Zai Xiang Chongling in 1980, and found that the content of arsenic trioxide in the hair, clothes and bones of Zai Yan was obviously abnormal compared with the normal value. Arsenic trioxide is arsenic, and it has been calculated that the total amount of arsenic ingested into the body of Emperor Guangxu is significantly greater than the lethal amount, and finally the conclusion is that Emperor Guangxu died of arsenic poisoning.
This conclusion finally clarified the true cause of Jae-yan's death, but the mystery has not been fully solved, who poisoned it? And who instructed it? One said that after the Empress Dowager Cixi was bedridden, she heard that "the emperor was very happy" and ordered poison to be put in the medicine that Zai Yan was taking, so that the emperor died in front of her. It is said that she once took the opportunity to donate dim sum to secretly poison and get rid of her biggest opponent, the Empress Dowager Ci'an, and achieved the purpose of a palace. Another theory is that the eunuch was worried that Zai Xiang would not be good for him after his comeback, so he killed Zai Xiang in the name of Cixi.
Princess Deling, who had lived in the palace for two years, directly said in her book "Yingtai Weeping Blood" (also known as "The History of Blood and Tears in the Life of Emperor Guangxu") that the great eunuch Li Lianying had poisoned her. After all, legends are legends, and who exactly wanted to poison the emperor of the Qing Dynasty may always be a mystery! Arsenic is one of the most commonly used poisons in ancient China, and its poison is so fierce that it is tied with "donkey". In Chen Shiduo's "Dialectical Record: Poisoning Gate" in the Qing Dynasty, arsenic is talked about at the beginning, and the description is quite detailed: "People have the poison of taking arsenic, and they want to die of pain, and if they don't give first aid, they will rot their intestines and rotten stomach, vomit purple blood and die." In fact, arsenic is a traditional Chinese medicine with significant curative effect, and traditional Chinese medicine is still used by patients. It is the way of "taking medicine" that conspirators use to poison and kill others. In order to prevent arsenic from being used by bad people, it has been listed as a banned drug in ancient times, and it is not allowed to be bought and sold casually on the market. The Yuan Dynasty also implemented a "real-name system" for the purchase of medicines, and arsenic transactions were registered one by one.
The Great Yuan Shengzheng Dynasty Statutes, Criminal Divisions, and Prohibitions (Volume 19) "Prohibition of Buying and Selling Poisons" stipulates that if something happens, both those who buy and sell must be put to death. The court has long summed up a simple detection method for dealing with arsenic poisoning, in addition to using special people to taste food, there are also special poison detection tools. The court of the Ming and Qing dynasties generally used "silver plates" and "silver needles" to test, once the food was poisonous, the pure white silverware immediately turned black!