? Every cloud has a silver lining, every cloud has a silver lining? . On the surface, the emperor of China was extremely powerful and glorious. In fact, they are the most unfortunate people in the history of China. There are the following facts as evidence:
First of all, in China society, emperors have the shortest life span and the worst health condition. According to a statistic, there are 209 emperors with exact dates of birth and death. The average life expectancy of these 209 people is only 39.2 years.
It has been pointed out that the average life expectancy of China's ancient population was only 35 years old, so the average life expectancy of emperors was not low. However, the average life expectancy of 35 years old includes a large number of premature deaths. In fact, the low average life expectancy in ancient times was mainly caused by the extremely high neonatal mortality rate. If this factor is removed, demographers estimate that the average life expectancy of the ancient population in China can reach 57 years. As we all know, people who are born and die cannot become emperors. Therefore, if you subtract 39 from 57, the average life expectancy of Emperor China is lower than that of ordinary people 18 years old.
Except for abnormal death, the low health level of the emperor is an important reason for the low overall life expectancy of the emperor. The political order in Song and Ming Dynasties was good, and most emperors died naturally, but the average life expectancy was still lower than the social average. Eighteen emperors in Song Dynasty, with an average life expectancy of 44.6 years. Sixteen emperors in the Ming Dynasty, with an average age of 42. 1.25. Of the sixteen emperors in the Ming Dynasty, only five lived longer than the average age, and the other eleven emperors were all below the average age: the five generations of grandparents and grandchildren, from Emperor Xuande to Emperor Zhengde, all died around the age of 30, and Emperor Chenghua was just over 40. Among them, only one month after Ming Guangzong ascended the throne, he died because of the luck of several women. His weakness is obvious.
Second, the abnormal mortality rate among emperors is high. There were 6 1 1 emperors in all dynasties in China, including the great dynasty with national unity and the small dynasty with a corner of peace, among which 339 emperors died of illness or aging. Natural death, that is, 272 people died abnormally. The abnormal mortality rate is 44%, which is much higher than other social groups.
Third, the overall quality of life of the emperor group is poor, and the pressure of survival is huge, so the probability of abnormal personality, psychopathy and even schizophrenia is much higher than that of ordinary people. Turning to the biographies of the Twenty-four History, we can see that the crazy and abnormal behaviors that surprised and disgusted us at first and then made us numb and bored are really countless books. Nearly a quarter of biographies of emperors recorded abnormal personality, psychopathy and even schizophrenia:
Liu was the sixth emperor of the Song Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. He was extremely dissolute and cruel. He hates hero Liu, but? Cut off Liu's limbs, cut open his stomach, gouge out his eyes and pickle them with honey. What do you mean? Ghost eye? . ? He founded an exclusive palace brothel, which gathered many princesses and princesses, and let the lucky ministers have sex with them on the spot. These women are all his elders or sisters, and they will be killed immediately if they are not obedient. Tired of playing this game, he told the maids to mate with monkeys, sheep and horses, and he watched. He raised Liu Xiang's uncle naked in a pit, asked him to eat from a wooden trough, and called him? Pig king? :? Try to hold rice in a wooden trough, stir it with omnivorous food, dig the ground into a pit, and expose it with muddy water, so that you can eat it with your mouth and enjoy it. ? ("Zi Jian? Volume 130 ")
The former emperors were so abolished, and the later emperors were even worse. The late emperor Liu Yu was very violent. When he went out to play, he ordered his followers to kill anyone who got in the way, whether human or livestock. This makes the capital sanitary, and the doors of every household are closed and the roads disappear during the day. He ordered the guards around him to hold needles, hammers, chisels, saws and other instruments of torture at all times. If the liegeman disobeys a little, he will be tortured by hitting his head, hammering his scrotum and laparotomy. Dozens of people are tortured every day, and he enjoys it. As long as no one bleeds, he is unhappy.
These behaviors are undoubtedly useless? Wan Wan? By definition, these two people suffer from schizophrenia.
Tuoba GUI, Emperor Daowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, suffered from bipolar disorder: if he didn't eat for a few days or couldn't sleep, he could count on the success or failure of his life. Suspected officials can't be trusted, and hundreds of officials play everything to the front, remember their old evils and kill them; The rest, with color change, irregular breathing, disrespectful footsteps, or poor speech, all think that they have evil thoughts, their hair is out of shape, and they often beat them to death. The dead are all in front of Chen Tianan Temple. ? (History as a Mirror 1 15) means not eating for several days, or not sleeping for several nights. You are depressed, and sometimes you talk to yourself all night, as if you were talking to a ghost that others can't see. When he was in court, he was moody. He remembered the old grievances of courtiers and killed them. Seeing that the minister's face was different, or his breathing was irregular, or he made a slip of the tongue, he shouted and killed himself in class. The bodies lined up in front of Tiananmen Square.
Others have abnormal appetites. Mentioned before? Pig king? Liu Mi was lucky enough to survive and became emperor, known as "Emperor Song Ming" in history. This person is used to overeating to relieve mental stress. He can eat fish marinated in honey, and he can eat several liters at a time. Eat roast pork, once you can eat 200 yuan. (Song Shu)
The symptoms of Levin, Wen Xuandi in Northern Qi Dynasty are pathological. He suspected that his favorite concubine, Shi Xue, was having an affair with the minister. He personally cut off Shi Xue's head and hid it in his arms for dinner. During the dinner, he took out Xue's head and put it on a plate. Everyone present was shocked. He asked people to dissect Xue's body in public, take out Xue's moustache, make it into a pipa, and play, drink, cry and sigh. Beauty is hard to get again? It hurts. Finally, he buried Xue with long hair and tears as a grand gift from concubines.
Compared with these abnormal behaviors, Gao Qiu, Queen of Northern Qi Dynasty, loved to be a beggar, while Xiao Baojuan, Emperor of Later Qi Dynasty, caught mice, slept late and drove people away. The failure of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty for 20 years, Emperor Hongwu's killing heroes, Emperor Jiajing's paranoia and Emperor Apocalypse's obsession with carpentry are not shocking.
Fourth, among the emperors of past dynasties, only a small part of them have successfully performed their duties, which basically conforms to the Confucian moral standards? Sage? It's even harder. There are no more than a dozen successful emperors commemorated and admired by later generations, while mediocrity, bad emperors and tyrants abound, accounting for more than 90%. Because the emperor's career is too challenging, people in this class have the greatest difficulty in experiencing success and the most frustration at work. Most emperors are in this position? Fuck? Those who have lived all their lives, because their talents, energy and knowledge are not enough to rule such a complex and huge empire.
Excessive power is the root of the misfortune of Emperor China. The emperor is the freest man in the world, because his power is infinite. The emperor is the most unfree person in the world, because his power knows no boundaries.
The emperor knows very well that everything he owns comes from his own power. In order to maintain his supreme honor, the emperor must firmly grasp the power and never let go. The focus of interests must be the focus of strength. How many elites in the whole world covet, weigh, peep and plan greatness day and night. In order to make the whole world his slave, the emperor himself became a slave to power. He must cherish his rights as much as his eyes, and he can't relax for a moment. The fear of being deprived of power made the emperors nervous all the year round, even nervous, showing some kind of mental illness. Zhu Yuanzhang's Instructions to Ming Taizu, written to his successor, clearly showed this kind of over-alert mentality. He said: When the emperor is at peace, he should always be vigilant and not relax day and night to avoid being peeped. Every day, the country regards it as a battlefield, paying attention to the words and deeds of people around it during the day and making close inspections at night to ensure the safety of the palace. Even bosom friends who meet each other day and night should be vigilant. The so-called preparation is also safe If you have confidential matters to discuss with your cronies and need to screen out others, then you can't let the guards back too far. Ten feet at most, no further! You can't control your weapons and armor, but you should choose a few good horses and put them at the palace gate and the city gates, and prepare saddles to prevent accidents.
In order to ensure the absolute smoothness of his will and the exclusive power, the emperor repeatedly smashed any threats and challenges to the imperial power, and at the same time had to turn himself into an ox and a horse, shouldering a heavy workload. Under the emperor system, everything in the world, big or small, depends on it? Those emperors who are brilliant and capable have to be workaholics. Qin Shihuang stipulated that you must read 120 Jin of bamboo slips every day before you can rest. Zhu Yuanzhang said it himself? Every star goes out, enters in the daytime, takes a rest, worries about danger and guards against danger, and walks on thin ice. If you are not sick, you dare not be lazy, and you can be self-sustaining. ? According to historical records, during the eight days in September of the 18th year of Hongwu, he read 1660 memorials and handled 339 1 pieces of state affairs, averaging more than 200 memorials and more than 400 pieces of state affairs every day! During Yong Zhengdi's reign, he boasted? Diligence first? No patrolling, no hunting, and politics all the year round. During his thirteen years in office, he wrote Zhu Pi with more than ten million words.
Emperor Kangxi had his own explanation for the short life of emperors. He once said with deep feelings in his testamentary edict: Long live the emperor since ancient times, and scholars often ridicule it. How do they know that the government troubles faced by the emperor are overwhelming? As a minister, you can be an official if you want. If you don't want to be an official, you can't do it. You can go home and have grandchildren and enjoy it. The emperors were not so happy. The emperor's important task cannot be entrusted to others, so he did not enjoy peace until he died in Cangwu and Yu until he died in Huiji. When the emperor, there is no retreat, how dare you think about ease! ?
In addition to fatigue, the emperor's life also has a prominent feature: rigidity.
Let's take the Qing Dynasty as an example to observe what kind of condom the emperor lived in. In the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor got up at about five o'clock every morning. After getting up, the first thing is to get dressed. The emperor can't wear clothes and hats as he likes. In different seasons, different months, different days, and even at different times of the same day, there are strict regulations on the texture, style, color specifications and decoration of leather, cotton, clips, single products and yarns.
What's the first thing after grooming? Read a record? In other words, we should learn from the glorious deeds of our ancestors and recite their teachings.
7 am to 9: 30 am is the time for the emperor to have breakfast. The recipes for imperial meals are delineated daily by the Minister of the Interior and integrated into one volume every month. When cooking a royal dinner, the home secretary should also be responsible for supervision. The ingredients of each dish have regulations and cannot be increased or decreased at will. After the emperor sat down, the eunuch shouted and the food filed in. The eunuch tried to check whether the poison test card in each meal changed color, then tasted it himself, and then the emperor began to eat it. You can only eat three mouthfuls of each dish at most.
Then there is dealing with government affairs. That is to say, the Imperial Gate listens to politics and the Emperor sits at the Gan Qing Gate. There are strict etiquette requirements in the whole process of hearing politics: civil and military officials enter from Jingyunmen and arrange shifts in the square under the door. At the beginning of the performance, the minister came to the door from the east stairs and knelt down. The minister ranked first, the assistant minister ranked second and the accompanying officials ranked second. Shangshu went in with a folding box in his hand, knelt to the north of the case, put the folding box on the case, then stood up and hurried to Japan, kneeling at the beginning of the class and reciting something. Every time something was played, the emperor made an imperial edict and announced the handling opinions, and the university students and bachelors accepted the edict. When things were finished, the university students and bachelor students stood up and noticed the officials from the east and the west, and the emperor returned to the palace by bus.
Every morning 1 1 to 2: 30 pm, it is the time for the emperor to rest and have dinner. According to the records in the royal palace, the emperor usually has dinner at one or two o'clock every afternoon, then he reviews the memorials of various ministries and local officials, and then begins to study.
During the period from 2: 30 pm to 5: 00 pm, the emperor had to study and study besides working.
From 7: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm, the emperor will offer sacrifices to the gods, burn incense in front of the gods and buddhas in various temples, and then go to bed. According to the rules, the emperor can't spend the night in the palace of concubines. If the emperor wants any concubines to sleep with him, he can only call them to the emperor's bedroom. Lucky? . The eunuch wrapped the concubine handed over with a big quilt and sent it to the emperor's bedroom. The princess had to climb in from the foot of the emperor's quilt and began to get lucky. Fortunately, at the appointed time, the eunuch shouted outside the window. The emperor saves labor. ? So the emperor turned over and the eunuch wrapped the concubine and sent her away.
365 days a year, almost every day.
Therefore, the emperor of China is easier said than done, and any fatuous * * * can ascend to the throne by blood; It is difficult to say that the requirements of the emperor in traditional culture are extremely difficult and dangerous. No one is always smart. For super emperors with great energy and great will, such as Qin Huang Hanwu Tang Zongsong Zu, power is overwhelming to them, not to mention far less than their powerful descendants. Those clever and cunning customization kings didn't think that the imperial standards they formulated would bring much pain and suffering to their mediocre descendants.
There is an iron law in China dynasty: the founding emperor who struggled to start a business was often determined and energetic. And the person who ascended the throne after him is often worse than a crab. This is due to the special growth environment of the royal family in China: in traditional China, people often regard material enjoyment as the only measure of happiness, and take unconditional obedience, love and flattery as the unchanging attitude towards the prince. Heirs to the throne who grew up in this special environment are prone to various psychological and personality problems, the most common of which are weak will and poor self-control. In addition, in the deep palace, women's hands make it difficult for governors to get in touch with society and understand people's livelihood, and they can't afford to cultivate practical ruling experience. Therefore, most emperors who succeeded to the throne lacked the ability to govern the country.
On the one hand, it is low in ability, on the other hand, it is extremely demanding. On the one hand, it is such strict regulations, on the other hand, it is actually the omnipotent power in the hands of the emperor. Therefore, emperors of past dynasties rarely strictly demand that they execute the emperor's code. This pair of armor of power was originally designed to ensure the enjoyment of emperors, but many times emperors tried their best to bear this thick armor, so their survival became a struggle under the weight of power, which was very pitiful.
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When reading the history of China, a puzzling phenomenon is why so many emperors indulge in debauchery. There is so much fun in life, especially the rich emperor in the world, so many things to do and so many lives to experience. Why do so many emperors keep their eyes open and concentrate on the wine table and bed like rich people? These two things are really fun, but they are not fun enough to kill people. The reason is actually very simple, it is an escape. The heavy power and strict rules make them unbearable, and the expectations of their ancestors, the accusations of their subjects, and the superego in their own bodies make them waste their time in government affairs. While seeking pleasure, they have to feel deeply guilty, incompetent and inferior, and have to give up on themselves. Wine and color are just places where they escape. To be exact, so all the drunken kings who indulge in debauchery are actually? Alcohol? Or? Sex? Dependence on patients. (Author: Zhang Hongjie Source: "Sitting in the world is very tired")