12dz Chapter 241
Chapter 241
A daughter is her father's little cotton-padded jacket, and a princess is the emperor's little cotton-padded jacket. Throughout Chinese history, princesses enjoyed high status in some dynasties, while in others they were very pitiful.
Let’s talk about those with higher status first.
[The princesses of the Han Dynasty, especially the eldest princess, had a very high status. For example, Princess Lu Yuan, the daughter of Liu Bang, was the most favored person of Empress Lü.]
In order to survive the tyranny of Empress Lü, his half-brother Liu Fei gave Chengyang County to Princess Lu Yuan as a place for her to bathe.
[However, from the perspective of later generations, Princess Lu Yuan did some things that were indeed problematic. She relied on Empress Lü's favor and forced her daughter to become the empress of Liu Ying.]
[This was Liu Ying's niece. Because of this incident, Liu Ying died of depression.]
汉朝
Liu Bang looked at Empress Lu with a cold gaze. The incident with Liu Fei had already made him unhappy. Although Liu Fei was a concubine's son, he was his eldest son.
Even Liu Fei had to cede land to save his life, so the other sons might not be able to save their lives either.
The latter incident made him even more furious. Other things could be forgiven, but this was absolutely unforgivable.
"What do you want to tell me?" Liu Bang said in a deep voice, "If you don't tell me, I will punish Lu Yuan. What she did was a bit too much."
"Lu Yuan is your daughter."
"Issue an imperial decree: Take Lu Yuan into the imperial court and do not allow her to come to Chang'an City at will."
[During the Han Dynasty, in addition to Princess Lu Yuan, there was also Princess Guantao during the reign of Emperor Jing and Princess Eyi, who was able to compete with Huo Guang.]
……
Tang Dynasty
Li Shimin shook his head and said with a smile: "The princesses of the Han Dynasty were indeed domineering, not as good as the princesses of our Tang Dynasty. Look at my sister Princess Pingyang, she has made military achievements."
Changsun Wuji coughed.
Tianmu mentioned a princess from the late Tang Dynasty before. I hope the emperor won’t forget her.
The princesses of the Han Dynasty were powerful, and those of the Tang Dynasty were no less so. During the reign of Wu Zetian, there was Princess Taiping, who was capable of launching a palace coup.
[Her niece, Princess Anle, the daughter of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian, was even more powerful. She established a government and set up officials, selling official positions and titles. Many officials in the court at that time were from her school.]
[Later, she even sought the position of Crown Princess, which the then Crown Prince Li Chongjun could no longer tolerate, so he directly launched a coup and deposed Princess Anle.]
The Crown Princess? Li Shimin stared at the sky with wide eyes. This must be Wu Zetian's granddaughter, so his great-granddaughter. After just a few generations, is the Tang Dynasty like this?
It's really unbelievable.
"Issue an order: Have the palace maids take good care of the princess."
Wu Zetian raised her eyebrows. Her granddaughter was good and had her own style, but she did not agree with it. Not every woman was like her.
She didn't want to be ashamed to face her husband after she went down.
"Princess Anle is confined to her house, and the other princesses must be carefully instructed," Wu Zetian ordered. "Send Li Xian over, I want to teach him how to raise children."
……
Song Dynasty
Zhao Kuangyin called Zhao Dezhao over and told him that when he became emperor in the future, he must take good care of the princesses and not let them do whatever they want.
The people who were lost were from the Song Dynasty.
Princesses of the Han and Tang dynasties certainly enjoyed high status. Were there princesses with lower status? Yes, there were princesses of the Song and Ming dynasties, two of whom lived rather miserable lives.
[The first one is Princess Fukang, the daughter of Emperor Renzong of Song. She was his most beloved daughter, but he made an unforgivable mistake in his daughter's marriage.]
[We've previously discussed the story of the cat-for-prince story. The protagonist is Emperor Renzong of Song, who was not born to Liu E, but to Consort Li Chenfei.]
After Liu E's death, Emperor Renzong of Song bestowed many rewards on Li Chenfei's family, but he felt it was still not enough, so he married his daughter, Princess Fukang, to the Li family.
[However, Princess Fukang's husband was actually her cousin, and he was also rather ugly, making him unworthy of the princess.]
[Furthermore, the Li family treated the princess badly, forcing her to knock on the palace gate at night.]
Zhao Kuangyin's face turned green. He had just asked the prince to take good care of the princess, but Tianmu said that the princess of the Song Dynasty was bullied by her in-laws. This showed that he did not take the emperor of the Song Dynasty seriously.
This not only applies to Zhao Guangyi, but also to himself, the founding emperor.
He now wants to know how Song Renzong handled this matter.
If it were me, the Li family should have reported to the underworld by now.
Song Renzong later took the princess back to the palace, but everyone knew that he was easily influenced, and some ministers wrote letters of objection, so he sent the princess back.
[He died during this period of ups and downs. Since he had no biological son, his successor would not get along with the ministers for the sake of a princess. In the end, the princess was abused by her in-laws.]
[It is said that he died in tattered clothes, which describes his haggard appearance.]
"What good reputation Renzong has for him is nothing more than a bone thrown to him by the civil officials."
"If they can't even handle the problem of a princess, how can they handle the problems of the Liao Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty? If it weren't for a few capable ministers, they would probably suffer repeated defeats."
The Song Dynasty emperors had difficulty having children, which was related to their worship of cinnabar. Their clothes and walls were covered in cinnabar, so it would be strange if they didn't suffer from heavy metal poisoning.
After seeing the sky curtain, Song Renzong burst into tears. He didn't expect that his most beloved princess would be so miserable. He must have given the Li family face.
After seeing the last comment, he quickly took off all his clothes and left with the children and concubines in the palace. As for where to live? Anyway, it was impossible for the emperor to sleep on the streets.
……
Seeing that later generations put the blame on Song Renzong for this incident, several emperors of the Ming Dynasty trembled in fear, wondering who would be blamed for the Ming Dynasty princess.
[There was a princess in the Ming Dynasty who was even more miserable. She was the daughter of Emperor Longqing and the sister of Emperor Wanli, Princess Yongning. She was married to the son of a wealthy businessman to bring good luck.]
[A year later, the wealthy businessman's son died, and Princess Yongning became a widow. She later died of depression in her thirties.]
This incident certainly falls on the shoulders of Feng Bao, the eunuch who accepted bribes at the time, but Zhu Yuanzhang is also closely linked. If he hadn't set the rule that marriages could only be made between ordinary people, Feng Bao wouldn't have dared to do so.
[Why did Old Zhu marry his boss's goddaughter? You could just find a random refugee to marry.]
Zhu Yuanzhang was completely stunned. Wanli was very far away from him at that time. How could he be blamed for this? If anyone had to blame someone, it should be put on the fourth brother.
The eunuchs at that time were very honest.
Princess Yongning, who was already a widow, burst into tears, never expecting that someone in later generations would speak up for her.