Anecdote of the Fifth Queen Mother

Chapter 23 Empress Dowager Xiao (1)
(953-1009)
Li Huarui

The story of Yang Jiajiang in the Song Dynasty is well-known to every household.The Yang family will produce many heroines, such as She Taijun, Mu Guiying, the twelve widows of the Yang family, and the eighth and nine younger sisters of the Yang family. Most of them are characters rendered in literary works.However, Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao Dynasty who confronted General Yang was a truly illustrious Khitan heroine in history.

As an "artistic image" in literary works, Empress Dowager Xiao often appeared on the stage of novels and operas, but as a "historical figure", she rarely appeared in people's field of vision.If you want to know the story of Queen Mother Xiao who is not exaggerated by "art", then please follow our brushstrokes to that distant era.

[-]. Talk about the Liao state

In ancient times, people often called the area north of the Great Wall of my country "Beyond the Great Wall". "The sky is dark, the wild is vast, the wind blows the grass and the grass looks low, and the cattle and sheep are low." This is a famous sentence describing the scene of the prairie beyond the Great Wall.The blue sky, the vast wilderness, the lush aquatic plants, and the gusts of wind have bred many brave grassland peoples.According to the process of history: the Xiongnu, Donghu, Wuheng, Xianbei, Turks, Uighurs, and the Khitan, the protagonist of the anecdote in this biography, all lived here, ruled the roost here, and performed scenes here. Swallow thousands of miles like a tiger" historical drama.

Khitan is one of the ancient ethnic groups in northern my country. It was developed from the Eastern Hu Xianbei in the Qin and Han Dynasties.Khitan officially appeared in historical documents in 389 AD (the fourth year when Tuobagui, Emperor Daowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, ascended the country).At that time, they were scattered in the area of ​​Huanghe (Xilamulun River in the upper reaches of Liaohe River) and Tuhe (Laoha River), which is the vast area of ​​today's Liaoning and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.They live a nomadic life in which they live in no fixed place and migrate back and forth by water and grass in the form of grouping and branching.

From the first historical document to the fact that the Khitan people ruled the roost in Shuoye, the Khitan people went through the stage of military democracy in the primitive society of the eight tribes of the ancient times, the eight tribes of the Dahe clan and the eight tribes of the Yaoren clan, and entered the period of slavery development. About five hundred years.During this period, they had close vassal relationships with the Northern Wei, Sui, and Tang dynasties of the Central Plains, and they also successively clinged to the Turks, Uighurs and other powerful clans that ruled the roost.

History books say that the Khitan "started at the end of the Han Dynasty and flourished between the Sui and Tang Dynasties".In the year when the Tang Dynasty perished (AD 907), Yelu Abaoji, Yili Jin (tribal leader) of the Dieti tribe among the eight tribes of the Yaoren clan, had basically unified the tribes of the Yaoren clan and officially proclaimed himself emperor; in 916 AD The Great Khitan regime was established, the title of the year was the book of gods, and the imperial capital was built along the Huanghe River. Yelu Abaoji was historically known as the Taizu of the Liao Dynasty.

The founding of Khitan took about 210 years, and it was destroyed by the Dajin regime established by the Jurchens who rose up in the Liao Dynasty in 1125 AD.During this period, there were nine emperors: Taizu Abaoji reigned for 20 years (907-926 AD), he launched a series of plundering wars around the Yellow River Basin, which made the emerging slave system develop rapidly, basically laying the foundation for The historical position of the Liao Dynasty in the long history of the Chinese nation.In the first month of 926 A.D., Abaoji destroyed the Bohai Kingdom and established the Dongdan Kingdom in his old place. He named his eldest son Yelubei the King of Dongdan—the famous "Emperor of the Kingdom" who was forced to surrender the country in the history of the Liao Dynasty.Yelubei is also an outstanding scholar who is deeply cultivated in literature and art of the Central Plains, capable of poetry and painting.A Baoji had made him the crown prince before he was alive, but when Taizu was on his way back home in triumph after destroying Bohai Sea, he suddenly fell ill and died in Fuyu Prefecture.Taizu died, and the empress Shulu's Yueli Duo proclaimed the system and took charge of the state affairs of the army.In November 927 AD, Yelu Deguang, the second son of Taizu, with the support of his mother, deprived Yelubei of the power to inherit the emperor, and inherited the Datong as Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty.Yelubei fled from the Later Tang Dynasty in November 930 AD because he was "ashamed to see the villagers", and asked for "political asylum".Although Yelubei fled to the Central Plains, his descendants and followers of his feudal ideology became the rulers of the Liao Dynasty after Taizong (except Mu Zong, who was Taizong's eldest son).Yelu Deguang ascended the throne, inherited his father's behest and continued to conquer the north and south.It was during Taizong's reign (927-947 A.D.) that the ruling system and domain of the Khitan state were further determined.After the death of Emperor Taizong, the Liao Dynasty experienced a period of fierce struggle within the two ruling classes of Shizong Yelvruan and Muzong Yelujing from 947 to 969 AD. This stage is called the "middle decline" period of the Liao Dynasty.Due to the turmoil, they were all killed by the so-called "rebellious officials and thieves".

By the time of Emperor Jingzong Yeluxian (969-982 A.D.), the rule of the Liao Dynasty was relatively stable again, and a turning point began to appear.The feudal system, which has been bred for a long time, has been in the final contest with slavery. It finally replaced slavery and became the mainstream of Khitan social development during the reign of Emperor Yelulongxu (982-1031), and the Liao Dynasty also entered its heyday. .Of course, the failure of slavery does not mean that it has completely withdrawn from the historical stage of the Liao Dynasty, but it is like a heavy tail, tightly dragging the progress of the history of the Liao Dynasty, and it was not cut off until the year when the Liao Dynasty perished. go.

In June of 1031 AD, Shengzong was 61 years old and died of illness in the north of the Dafu River.The era of Xingzong (1031-1055 A.D.) was the end of the "prosperity" of the Liao Dynasty.During the reign of Emperor Daozong Yelu Hongji (AD 1055-1101), it went downhill more and more. After half a century of development, various increasingly acute contradictions finally led to Tianzuo Emperor Yelu Yanxi (AD 1101-1125). , the rule of the Liao Dynasty finally fell apart.By the way, we now call the regime established by the Khitan people the Liao Dynasty, which is probably a general name for the convenience of later generations.In fact, the Liao Dynasty was the regime that changed the name of the country the most times in Chinese history. The Taizu of the Liao Dynasty was named Daqidan when it was founded. Death.

These 200 years are equivalent to the Five Dynasties of the Central Plains and the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, they were also called the Southern and Northern Dynasties. is here.

In the first year of the fall of the Liao Dynasty, Yelu Dashi, the royal family of the Liao Dynasty (the eighth grandson of Taizu Abaoji), led some people to establish a political power in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains and Central Asia. Near Tokmak in the former Soviet Union), this regime lasted for more than 90 years, until it was wiped out by Genghis Khan in 1219 AD. At this time, the Central Plains were already in the Southern Song and Jin dynasties.

my country's current territory to the north of the Great Wall was developed on the basis of the development and construction of the Liao Dynasty.During the most prosperous period of the Liao Dynasty, it occupied a vast area bordering the Sea of ​​Japan in the east, the Altai Mountains in the west, the Kherlen River in the north, and the present-day Xiongxian County, Hebei Province in the south.

In this vast land, there are also ethnic groups such as Xi, Shiwei, Turkic, Uighur, Tubo, Dangxiang, Jurchen and Han.At the same time, due to the different geographical environment, the degree of political and economic development in each area of ​​the Liao Dynasty was not the same. The general situation was that the further northward the social and economic life became.And it is close to the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, the southern area, which is an agricultural area comparable to the Central Plains, because it was originally the former place of the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, which gave birth to the glory of Yanzhao. It includes large areas in the northern and central parts of Hebei, northern Shanxi, and Beijing. land.

In 936 A.D., Shi Jingtang, the son-in-law of the Later Tang Dynasty, in order to be able to become emperor, ceded You (Beijing), Ji (Jixian), Ying (Hejian), Mo (Renqiu), Zhuo (Zhuo County), Tan (Miyun), Shun ( Shunyi), Xin (Zhuolu), Wei (Huailai), Confucianism (Yanqing), Wu (Xuanhua), Yun (Datong), Shuo (Shuo County), Ying (Ying County), Huan (East of Shuo County), Wei (Yu County) and other sixteen prefectures as conditions in exchange for Khitan's support.In this year, Yelu Deguang sent troops to defeat the army of the later Tang Dynasty, Shi Jingtang became the emperor of Jinyang in Jinyang (Taiyuan), and the sixteen prefectures ceded became the southern border area of ​​Liao Kingdom, which was called Yanyun in history. sixteen states.For the gains and losses of this area, a series of wars took place between the Han regime after the later Jin Dynasty and the Khitan regime.

The above is the general history of the development of the Liao state.Empress Dowager Xiao, the protagonist of this biography, is the queen of Jingzong and the mother of Shengzong.From being selected as the noble concubine of Jingzong in AD 969 to Shengzong Youchong's accession to the throne (AD 982), she was in charge of the court until she returned to power one month before her death (AD 1009), and she was active in the political arena of the Liao Dynasty. 40 years.

[-]. Queen Yanyan

In the history of the Liao Dynasty, there were two most distinguished surnames, Yelu and Xiao.Before the founding of the Khitan nation, they had no names. During the reign of Taizu Abaoji, they took the surname Shili from the name of their birthplace. Shili translates into the Chinese homonym Yelu, and the Yelu family is the royal family.The Xiao family was already a descendant of the royal family before the establishment of the surname.Regarding the origin of the surname Xiao of the later family, one says that A Baoji gave the royal family the surname Yeluhou, and Taizong gave the surname Xiao to the later family; He Fuzuo is the same as the Liu family, so the surname is Xiao.But in any case, the descendant's surname is Xiao.

Yelu Abaoji made a law before his death: "The royal family only intermarries with the descendants, not to mention the high or low. If the royal family and the descendant's two tribes are not ordered by the Northern Lord (referring to the Khitan Emperor), none of them are allowed to marry each other. Tribal people intermarry...so the Northern Fan only belonged to the Yelu and Xiao clans." ("Khitan Kingdom Chronicles: Original Family Surnames") Therefore, several empress dowagers in the history of the Liao Dynasty were all surnamed Xiao.The Empress Dowager Xiao written in this biography is known as the Empress Dowager Chengtian in history.

The Empress Dowager of Chengtian was named Chuo, with the small character Yanyan, and people in Song Dynasty called it Ya Yake.Born on May 953th in the third year of Yingli in Emperor Muzong of Liao Dynasty (the third year of Guangshun in Later Zhou Dynasty, AD [-]), she was the third daughter of Xiao Siwen, Prime Minister of the Northern Mansion of the Liao Dynasty.

If we push forward, Siwen's uncle Xiao Dilu was not only the founding prime minister, but also the younger brother of Empress Chunqin (later Empress Dowager Yingtian) of Taizu Abaoji.After her, the two nieces of Empress Chunqin were in the middle palace respectively, that is, Empress Jing'an of Taizong Yelu Deguang and Empress Huaijie of Sejong Yeluruan.Siwen married Taizong's eldest daughter Lu Bugu as his wife. This son-in-law, riding a dragon, had a prosperous official career and served in the three dynasties of Shizong, Muzong, and Jingzong.Because of his achievements in supporting Jingzong, he was promoted by Jingzong as Privy Envoy of the North Court and Prime Minister of the Beifu. Gao Xun and Nvli's status, the two power ministers, conspired to assassinate Xiao Siwen.

Xiao Chuo was born in such a prominent family.She was quite smart when she was a child, and she was very serious in doing things. Even for trivial things like sweeping the floor, she was never sloppy, and she would not stop until she was clean. Her father was very touched by this and thought that Yanyan will surely achieve great things in the future.Therefore, Xiao Siwen pinned infinite hopes on his little daughter, and poured more paternal love than other daughters, and handed down many of his own writings to Yanyan.In this way, under the influence of her father, Yanyan became full of writing and ink as she grew older.The world of books and history broadened her vision and made her yearn for a new life.This new life is no longer limited to the grasslands and herds that I am used to seeing, but contains the content of longing for the continuous civilization on both sides of the Yellow River...

Yanyan is not only smart, but also talented and famous, and she also has the charm that women are proud of.It was called "Xin Niang" at that time. "Xiniang" is what the Khitan people call beautiful women.Although the Khitan women grew up in the grasslands where the north wind blows, their skin is so delicate and white that it does not surpass the young girls in the south of the Yangtze River.This is inseparable from the custom of natural protection of facial complexion prevailing on the grasslands at that time.

According to legend, women from good families in Khitan do not keep their hair before they get married.In winter, the roots and fruits of a perennial climbing herb called wither, which belongs to Cucurbitaceae and blooms white in summer, are used to protect skin color, which is very effective.The specific method is to put the fat of the withered fruit and the starch made from its root as white as snow on the face, which is called Buddha costume.Peng Ruli, a native of the Song Dynasty, wrote in a poem: "There is a woman who is called Xi Niang every day, her arms and face are painted yellow with pearls, and the southerners suspect it as a miasma, and Mo officials boast that she is a Buddha." (Quoted from "The Chronicle of Liao History") Once it is put on, it is no longer washed, and it is not removed until the next spring when the flowers bloom.Because the smeared face "has not been invaded by wind and sun for a long time, it is as white as jade" (Zhuang Chuo's "Chicken Ribs").

Yanyan's natural beauty, coupled with her good use of the nation's custom of protecting her complexion, made her look charming and quite attractive when she was [-] and [-] years old.

At this time, Mu Zong was murdered, and Ye Luxian, supported by Xiao Siwen and others, ascended to the throne of emperor as Jing Zong.Yeluxian was newly enthroned, and in order to repay Siwen's support and support, and was moved by Yan Yanying's handsome appearance, she immediately chose Yanyan to enter the palace and made her a noble concubine.This was the most critical step in Xiao Chuo's life, and also her first step into a political career.

Relying on his courage and good looks, Xiao Chuo quickly won Jingzong's favor and made him a noble concubine.Three months later, she was canonized as empress again. From then on, Xiao Chuo stood at the forefront of the Liao Dynasty as a prominent figure of an extremely powerful minister.This year was 969 A.D., which was the first year of Baoning when King Jingzong came to the throne.It can be said that Xiao Chuo accompanied Jingzong to the historical stage of the Liao Dynasty at the same time.

Great men in history are often inseparable from historical opportunities.Unfortunately, Jingzong suffered from chronic illness since childhood and his love for Empress Yanyan provided Xiao Chuo with such an opportunity.

When Jingzong was four years old, he accompanied his father Sejong and his grandmother to conquer the last dynasty of the Five Dynasties in the Central Plains—the Later Zhou Dynasty. On the way, they encountered a coup. Both his father and grandmother were killed by Yelv Chagao who launched the coup.At that time, Jing Zong was lucky to be wrapped in felt by a chef and hid in the woodpile, so he was saved from death.But the excessive fright left him with a sequelae—infant wind disease. Therefore, although Jingzong became emperor, he often lay on the sick bed, and even had difficulty riding a horse.This is just as Tang Gaozong's illness provided Wu Zetian with a place to use his skills. Jingzong's illness became a barrier for Empress Yanyan to interfere in politics.

The 16-year-old Yanyan was made a noble concubine as soon as she entered the palace, which can be said to be lucky enough.Yanyan really felt the joy from the bottom of her heart.But Yanyan, who has a great vision and vision, is not an ordinary woman. She thinks about the future, so she has a vague uneasiness amidst the joy.Because she knows very well that the status of a noble concubine is only one step away from that of a queen, but this step is like an insurmountable gap, and a noble concubine and a queen are not the same.The queen is the mother of the world, and the imperial concubine is just the emperor's favorite concubine.If once he falls out of favor, he will fall into a long night. Even if he is favored by the king of Changbao, he will only be looked after by others, and even his son will be divided into the queen's son.Yanyan could not tolerate such a status.What's more, what Yanyan longs for is not only the status of queen, she has higher ideals.What is this ideal? The 16-year-old Yanyan couldn't tell for a while, did she also want to try driving thousands of people like driving a war horse?She can't think about it anymore...

So she started a new pursuit with the wisdom and conditions that surpassed the uniqueness of ordinary women.During the day and night with Jingzong, she not only made Jingzong forget the pain caused by illness in the gentle hometown, but also helped Jingzong resolve the troubles after returning from court.Jingzong felt that he had found a charming and caring companion, and he couldn't do without Yanyan.In this way, Yanyan flew like a kite and became a queen.

Yanyan is also very skilled.When Jingzong encountered some difficult military affairs, once he asked about Yanyan, although Yanyan's words were not surprising, they still hit the point.This gave Jingzong an extra level of respect in addition to being attached to Yanyan.In the second year of Baoning (970 A.D.), the tribes in the north of the Liao Dynasty rebelled against the Liao court. Jingzong quickly quelled the rebellion according to Yanyan's strategy.In the sixth year of Baoning (974 A.D.), the Song Dynasty sent envoys to seek peace. Some ministers in the Liao court thought it was impossible to make peace with him.Jingzong couldn't decide for a while, so Yanyan analyzed the situation of the confrontation between the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty at that time, and thought that the peace negotiation would be beneficial to the Liao Dynasty.Jingzong adopted her opinion, and added Yeluchang Shu, the governor of Zhuozhou, as his servant, and went to negotiate peace with Song Dynasty.

Handling the military and state affairs is so handy, but also so "lonely", Jingzong is relieved.He handed over punishments, rewards, political affairs, and military conquests to the talented Queen Yanyan for decision-making.In the eighth year of Baoning (976 A.D.), in order to facilitate Empress Yanyan's participation in the government, Jingzong specially "instructed the bachelor of the History Museum to write the Queen's words, also known as 'zhen' and 'yu', and wrote them as a set formula" ("Liao History·Jing Zong Ji") 》), using the emperor's special words "望" and "依" to publish the remarks of the queen who has no title system, which is probably the first and only one in Chinese history.

Historical records commented on Yanyan's intervening in politics: "Empress Yanyan came to the court as a female leader, and the state affairs were decided. Great punishments, great conquests, the officials of the Fan and Han gathered together, the queen made a ruling, and reported to her." God's only." ("Khitan State Affairs") This shows that Empress Yanyan had taken power when she was in Jingzong, which paved the way for her later experience.

Jing Zong had been ill since he was a child, and he had been suffering from severe illness for many years. Although he received various medical treatments, he did not get better in the end, so he developed a depressed character.In normal times, I either express my depression by playing and singing on the piano, or express the unspeakable pain in my heart with wine and sex.In the ninth month of Renzi in the fourth year of Qianheng (982 A.D.), Jingzong finally got rid of his long-term illness and died in Jiaoshan Palace at the age of 35.

After Jingzong's death, the eldest son Yelu Longxu took the throne according to Jingzong's edict, and he was the famous holy emperor in the history of the Liao Dynasty.He was only 12 years old this year. Since he was young and did not understand political affairs, Jing Zong specially enjoined in his will: "The military and state affairs must be ordered by the queen". ("Liao History·Jing Zong Ji") Xiao Chuo began to proclaim the system in front of the dynasty.

[-]. Before and after the Regency

In June of the second year after Jingzong's death (AD 983), the little emperor and a group of civil and military ministers changed the year name to Tonghe according to the usual practice, and honored the widowed mother Yanyan, who had just turned 30, as the Empress Dowager Chengtian.Thus, Empress Yanyan became Empress Dowager Xiao.

(End of this chapter)