Among the more than 240 feudal emperors in Chinese history, historians speak highly of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty Liu Xiu, who is an almost perfect image of a feudal emperor.
"Book of the Later Han Dynasty" comments: Although the (Guangwu) Emperor contributed to great undertakings, he was unable to compete with others, so he was able to understand the political system clearly and carefully, grasp the outline of power, measure the time and efforts, do nothing wrong, and retreat from the heroes. Literary officials wield bows and arrows and scatter horses and oxen. Although the way is not ancient, this also stops the martial arts of fighting. It means that Liu Xiu not only has great talents and strategies for governing the country, but also has a good nature of being generous to others. He does not use force but convinces people with morality. Historians all believe that he fulfilled his promise of "I manage the world, and I want to do it through judo."
Sima Guang commented on Liu Xiu: "Since the death of the Three Dynasties, the beauty of the weather has never been as good as that of the Eastern Han Dynasty." Since then, later generations have repeatedly praised the beauty of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The great man Mao Zedong used three "best" to evaluate Liu Xiu: the emperor who was the most knowledgeable, the best at fighting, and the best at employing people.
However, the most influential thing about Liu Xiuchuan in later generations was not his great achievements in recovering the Han Dynasty and reviving the Han Dynasty, nor the "28 Yuntai Generals" that storytellers talked about, but that he had a virtuous character Yin Lihua, the best queen in the world and the perfect queen recognized by feudal society.
Being a good emperor is difficult, being a good queen is even harder. On the other hand, it is not easy to pick out a good emperor from history, and it is even more difficult to find a perfect and good queen. Because there are few good emperors and even fewer recognized good queens.
There are many comments about Queen Yin. The most famous one is what Liu Xiu once said: "A wife should be Yin Lihua." This is a famous saying that has been passed down through the ages and has been regarded as a guideline by later emperors.
In 5 AD, Yin Lihua was born into a wealthy family in Xinye County, Nanyang County (now Xinye, Henan Province).
The Yin family is the descendant of Guan Zhong, a famous prime minister in the Spring and Autumn Period. Why did they change their surname to Yin? According to historical records, when the seventh generation descendant of the housekeeper was Guan Xiu, he moved from the state of Qi to the state of Chu and was named Doctor Yin. From then on, he took the surname "Yin". At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Yin family moved to Xinye.
Ancient Chinese people changed their surnames very casually. They often changed their surnames according to their titles, official positions, rewards from the emperor, place of birth, avoiding disasters, etc. They even changed their surnames because they admired a certain celebrity and were loyal to the owner. When the Hu people in the north studied Han culture, they often adopted a Chinese surname. For example, Tuobahong, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, implemented Chinese reforms and was named Yuanhong. After the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Qing royal family changed their surname to Jin. There are many such examples, found in every dynasty. Now some people are joking that you and I have the same surname and that we were the same family five hundred years ago. This cannot be taken seriously. The vicissitudes of time cannot prove that the surname is pure and the blood is from the same origin.
Although Yin Lihua's family is not an official, it is as wealthy as any other prince. It is a well-known wealthy family in Nanyang. Yin Lihua has stunning beauty and refined temperament, and is famous all over the world. Admirers come to her house to propose marriage in an endless stream, almost breaking down the threshold.
Liu Xiu was also from Nanyang and a fellow villager of Yin Lihua. Liu Xiu is the ninth grandson of Liu Bang and the successor of Emperor Jing. Although he is from the royal family, he no longer has the wealth and honor of the royal family back then. His father died when he was nine years old, and his uncle Liu Liang raised him.
Regarding Liu Xiu's appearance, history books say that he was seven feet three inches tall, with beautiful beard and large mouth. He was indeed a dragon species of the Han Dynasty and was unique. He was seven feet three inches tall, which would be about 1.75 meters in today's terms. Liu Xiu has a high nose, full forehead, fair skin, and lively eyebrows. No matter where he is, he will always have a feeling of standing out from the crowd, and he has an extraordinary bearing, like a jade tree facing the wind. Liu Xiu's handsome appearance attracted countless women to flock to him. But Liu Xiu had a very high vision, and ordinary women were not in his eyes. Historians thought it was because of the dragon species. However, there are so many kinds of dragons in the Han Dynasty, how come he is the only one with outstanding magnanimity? Of course it was because he restored the Han Dynasty and founded the Eastern Han Dynasty, and later generations deliberately flattered him.
Back to the story, one day, Liu Xiu followed her brother-in-law Deng Chen on the street. Suddenly she saw a beautiful woman walking across the street. She was immediately attracted by her beauty and temperament, and stared at her motionless. look. Deng Chen knew that Liu Xiu had fallen in love with the woman at first sight, so he briefly introduced the beauty Yin Lihua to him.
Liu Xiu asked his brother-in-law if he knew Yin Lihua, and his brother-in-law said of course he did. It turns out that Deng Chen and Yin Lihua are distant relatives, and are good friends with Yin Lihua's brother Yinshi. They often go to the underworld, so they naturally know Yin Lihua. When Liu Xiu heard this, she was very happy and impatiently begged her brother-in-law to introduce him to Yin Lihua. Deng Chen agreed. However, Deng Chen told Liu Xiu that to marry Yin Lihua, one must be successful and ordinary people are not worthy of her. He also smiled and pointed at Liu Xiu's nose and said, "Your current status as a farmer is not good enough."
How did Liu Xiu become a farmer after becoming an emperor? This has to be said about Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's grace order. In order to solve the problem that the princes and kings were powerful and easily challenged the centralization of power, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued the "Tianfa Order", which granted the fiefdoms of the princes and kings to the king's children and grandchildren. In this way, the power of the princes and kings would be reduced, and the rebellion would The danger is removed. After a few generations of extending favor like this, some of the descendants of princes and kings became small landowners, and some became farmers. The Liu Xiu family became self-reliant from the princes and kings who were prosperous during the reign of Emperor Jing. Wealthy farmers.
Liu Xiu liked farming. In the words of his eldest brother, he was "diligently devoted to farming." Therefore, he often teased Liu Xiu because he only knew how to do farming, and compared him to the honest farmer Liu Xiu, the brother of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. Zhong.
After Liu Xiu met Yin Lihua, he couldn't help but said, "You should marry Yin Lihua" without thinking about food and tea. Unexpectedly, it suddenly became a popular saying for thousands of years.
Liu Xiu loves Yin Lihua, and Yin Lihua is also very discerning. She also falls in love with Liu Xiu at first sight, and they are in love with each other until death.
They were born in the troubled times of the late Western Han Dynasty and were destined to be extraordinary. In the last years of Xinmang, the world was in chaos. In the 23rd year, Liu Xiu followed his brother Liu Yan in his hometown to join the army, and soon defected to the Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan. In May of the same year, Wang Mang devoted all his strength and assembled a million-strong army in an attempt to annihilate the Green Forest Rebel Army in one fell swoop, attacking Kunyang City where Liu Xiu was firmly defending in the first battle. Faced with the siege of a million troops, Liu Xiu remained calm and composed. Taking advantage of the enemy's underestimation and unsteady footing, he personally led 3,000 elite soldiers to achieve a surprise victory and took the initiative to attack the enemy's camp. The Xinmang army was unexpected and retreated hastily. Liu Xiu Xiu Yi worked hard and defeated the main force of Xin Mang. He became famous all over the world and became famous. He also had the capital to marry Yin Lihua.
In June, Liu Xiu married Yin Lihua in Wancheng. She was 29 years old and Yin Lihua was 19 years old.
After the great victory at Kunyang, the Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan wanted to use Liu Xiu's talents for his own purposes, but he was also afraid that his abilities would overwhelm his master, so he first asked him to move to Luoyang and deprive him of his power. Military power, giving a false name to Wu Xinhou. In September of the same year, Liu Xuan sent Liu Xiu to do Sima affairs and cross the Yellow River north to comfort the prefectures and counties in Hebei. In fact, he was squeezing out Liu Xiu and asking him to recruit troops in Hebei, which was in chaos.
In Chinese history, Hebei is a very special place. It is not only the main area where the Han royal family raised troops and horses in the past dynasties, but also the place where Han and Hu met. Various forces came to intervene, and it has always been a battleground for military strategists. At that time, there were more than 30 forces in Hebei, the larger ones were the Bronze Horse Army, Wang Lang and Zhending King Liu Yang, all of which had more than 100,000 troops and were powerful.
Liu Xuan's calculation was that if Liu Xiu succeeded in recruiting Hebei forces, it would expand the territory and military strength of the reform regime; if it failed and Liu Xiu was killed, he would kill someone with a borrowed knife to remove a potential rival, and The Gengshi Emperor will not be blamed for killing heroes, and he will not suffer any loss no matter what.
Liu Xiu was a smart man and knew that the Hebei group was very dangerous. For the safety of Yin Lihua, he had to say goodbye to his newlywed wife of only three months and asked Yin Shi to escort Yin Lihua back to her parents' home from Luoyang to stay temporarily. .
After bidding farewell to Yin Lihua, Liu Xiu took hundreds of cronies and went to various states and counties in Hebei to comfort her, holding a staff representing the reform regime. The so-called comfort is actually co-optation, and the forces in Hebei have gone through ups and downs and have seen the world, and they will never surrender after just saying a few empty words. Wang Langtuo claimed to be the son of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty. With the strong support of Zhao, he established himself as emperor and established his capital in Handan. He was very powerful and would never tolerate Liu Xiu encroaching on his territory, so he kept sending people to hunt down Liu Xiu.
When Liu Xiugang went to Hebei, he had no one to support him and no place to stand. He had to avoid Wang Lang's pursuit. You can imagine how difficult the situation was. Fortunately, Liu Xiu was brave, chivalrous, loyal, benevolent, and good at making friends. He gradually gained the support of some state and county forces, which made Liu Xiu's power suddenly grow a lot. The world-famous "Yuntai 28 Generals" basically came to be at this time. Support his heroes in Hebei.
Liu Xiu understood that the key and most difficult thing to win Hebei was to eliminate Wang Lang, and to eliminate Wang Lang, he must get the support of the true king Liu Yang, otherwise he would not succeed. In order to persuade Liu Yang to surrender, Liu Xiu sent his general Liu Zhi to Zhending County many times to lobby Liu Yang, and later he personally came to Liu Yang's door to have in-depth talks. Liu Yang also wanted to maintain contact with the reform regime, and finally agreed to surrender to Liu Xiu, but there was one condition: Liu Xiu must marry Liu Yang's niece Guo Shengtong to strengthen mutual trust between the two parties. For the sake of the overall situation, Liu Xiu agreed. Soon, Liu Xiu's coalition forces captured Handan and eliminated Wang Lang.
After Wang Lang was destroyed, all the states and counties in Hebei Province surrendered one after another, especially the powerful Bronze Horse Army, which gave Liu Xiu an army of hundreds of thousands and his power increased greatly. Soon, Liu Xiu pacified Hebei and had millions of troops, finally having the capital to break with Emperor Gengshi. In the 25th year, Liu Xiu expanded his territory in Hebei and proclaimed himself emperor, with the reign name Jianwu.
After Liu Xiu took control of Luoyang, he immediately sent someone to bring Yin Lihua to his side. The two met again after two years of separation, and were filled with emotions. During the past two years, Yin Lihua did not know any news about Liu Xiu, and she was always looking forward to Liu Xiu's return. At the same time, she was also preparing for the funeral, and suffered a lot.
Liu Xiu hoped to make Yin Lihua his queen because she was "elegant and tolerant, with the beauty of a mother". But Yin Lihua refused, believing that she was not qualified to assume the position of queen. So Guo Shengtong was made the queen, and Yin Lihua was named a noble.
Now I don’t know why Yin Lihua refused to accept the position of queen. It was definitely not the reason why she said she was not qualified. It was obviously an excuse. Now it seems that this may be related to the situation at that time. Although Liu Xiu proclaimed himself emperor in 25 years, the world was divided, various forces were separatist, and wars continued. It was not until 36 years that Liu Xiu truly wiped out the forces from all over the world and unified the world. Yin Lihua politely appointed Guo Shengtong as queen, probably in order to consider the overall situation and help Liu Xiu appease Liu Yang and other various forces and heroes who conquered the world, because Liu Yang and some other forces supported Guo Shengtong, and Guo Shengtong accompanied Liu Xiu and gave birth to a son. , everyone knows about Guo but does not know about Yin. Forcing Yin to be the queen may make the regime unstable. Yin Lihua knew the pros and cons of this, and she acted in a way that was beneficial to Liu Xiu, and resigned from the position of queen. She really understood the righteousness of the matter.
Yin Lihua not only accepted the title of noble, but also willingly respected and treated Queen Guo without any emotion. She was also courteous, kind and friendly to other people in the harem. As Liu Xiu's first wife, doing this is extremely valuable and impossible for ordinary people. This kind of broad-mindedness and magnanimity are rare among harems in the past dynasties, so they are unanimously praised.
Yin Lihua and Liu Xiu share the same mind and heart, using her gentleness and generosity to solve Liu Xiu's problems, and do her best to safeguard Liu Xiu's status. To be fair, Yin Lihua does not have the most powerful force and should be assisted.
After all, Liu Xiu had a love relationship with Yin Lihua. In the 17th year of Jianwu (41 years), Liu Xiu made up his mind to depose Queen Guo Shengtong and make Yin Lihua queen. Later, the crown prince Liu Jiang was deposed, and Yin Lihua's son, the fourth son of the emperor Liu Yang (renamed Zhuang), was made the crown prince, and became Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty.
In the first month of 64 AD, Yin Lihua died at the age of sixty. She was buried in the original mausoleum with Liu Xiu, and was given the posthumous title "Guanglie".
Yin Lihua was the first person in Chinese history to implement the posthumous title system for queens. From then on, the posthumous title of the queen was the emperor's posthumous title plus the original posthumous title, which became the custom of the past dynasties and was used until the early Tang Dynasty for six hundred years.
Before Liu Xiu married Yin Lihua, he said these words of admiration because he admired Yin Lihua's beauty. Later, facts proved that Yin Lihua took the overall situation into consideration, established the general situation, understood the righteousness, was broad-minded, friendly to others, virtuous and benevolent. She was a good woman with beautiful appearance and wisdom, a virtuous and good wife, and a good housekeeper for Liu Xiu. She was truly worthy of Liu Xiu. The praise of "Yin Lihua deserves to be the wife", and later generations using Yin Lihua as the queen's "measuring ruler" also fully illustrates that Yin Lihua's virtues and virtuousness impressed the world and was praised by historians. She should be regarded as a person who hides greatness in the ordinary and ordinary. A wonderful woman with wonderful things.