Emperor Zhou E died in anger. In order to cover up the scandal and divert the public's attention from the much-loved palace scandal, Li Yu sent his wife away like his own mother. However, my sister-in-law did not fill the gap immediately and officially filled my sister's position four years later. So some people said that I was heartbroken. Li Yu was not that bad at all. He still loved Zhou Ehuang very much, otherwise how could he be patient? What about three or four years?
The reason is that Li Yu was very filial, and November 968 was the day when his filial piety period expired, and he observed filial piety for his biological mother, the Empress Dowager Zhong. As mentioned earlier, Empress Dowager Zhong passed away smoothly in November 965 under Li Yu's filial piety.
As early as when Xu Wen alienated the Yang family, Xu Wen first conspired with Zhang Hao to kill Yang Wo. Later, Xu Wen sent his confidant Zhong Taizhanghuo to annex Zhang Hao, thereby controlling the real power in Huainan and laying the foundation for the Southern Tang Dynasty. In order to win over Zhong Taizhang, Xu Wen asked his adopted son Xu Zhigao to marry him. Xu Zhigao was ordered to marry Zhong Taizhang's second daughter for his eldest son Xu Jingtong.
Xu Jingtong was later Li Jing, and Zhong Taizhang's second daughter was the Empress Dowager Zhong, Li Jing's queen and Li Yu's biological mother.
In November 964, Emperor Zhou E died of illness. If you straighten your sister-in-law right away, it doesn't seem to be good. Wait a few days;
A few days later, Queen Mother Zhong fell seriously ill. His mother is seriously ill and bedridden, how can his son marry his lovely wife? If it seems unfilial, wait a few days;
A few days later, in October 965, Empress Dowager Zhong died of illness. Li Yu's "stick and then stand up" is indeed the same etiquette as giving a gift to his wife. It is not suitable to get married because of the importance of filial piety. Wait three years...
Three years later, in October 1968, Li Yu was almost going crazy. "Is it almost done? It was agreed upon for three years, and three years after that, and three years after that... is it over yet? No more waiting!"
Li Yu couldn't wait to make his sister-in-law the queen of the country. This sister-in-law was the "Little Empress of Zhou" in the history books. Li Yu ordered relevant departments to draw up detailed wedding details with reference to ancient and modern etiquette, and specifically named Xu Xuan, Pan You and other cultural Vs to participate in the discussion.
As a result, Xu Xuan and Pan You had serious differences in many details, such as whether to use bells and drums to wait for sex, whether couples should worship each other... They quoted scriptures and each explained their own reasons. No one could convince the other and neither gave in. .
Li Yu asked Xu You to rule, and Xu You supported Pan You's plan, so the wedding finally adopted Pan You's plan, and Xu You offended Xu Xuan.
More than a month later, Xu You unfortunately contracted gangrene. Xu Xuan gloated about his misfortune and made sarcastic remarks to his friends: "Xu You was willing to be the licking dog of the ignorant boy Pan You. He violated the ancient rites and holy precepts of Zhou Gong and Confucius. Look - he has been punished. Well, the sky has eyes!"
One more comment. In fact, Xu Xuan's opinions are more in line with ancient and modern etiquette. So why did Xu You, as the referee, support Pan You?
Xu You has a good background. His original name is Xu Jingyou. His father is Xu Zhihui and his grandfather is Xu Wen. He is Xu Wen's grandson.
After Xu Wen's death, during the power struggle between Xu Zhigao and Xu Zhixun, Xu Zhigao sided with Xu Zhigao and volunteered to act as an undercover agent for Xu Zhigao, exposing Xu Zhixun's truth and making great contributions to Xu Zhigao. After Xu Zhigao seized power, he treated his family favorably. Although Xu Zhigao changed his surname to "Li" after becoming emperor, Xu Zhigao and his descendants were still regarded as clan members. In terms of seniority, Xu You was Li Yu's uncle and Emperor Xu's uncle.
Xu Yougui belonged to the royal family and was quite good at literature. He often chatted and laughed with the cultural influencers and Internet celebrity scholars at that time, and he had a place in the cultural circle of the Southern Tang Dynasty. When Li Jing was on the throne, he established the Qinghui Palace, and the first direct bachelors of the Qinghui Palace were Xu You and Zhang Jie. After Li Yu came to the throne, he admired the literary talent of his uncle very much, and the uncle and nephew often wrote poems and lyrics at banquets. To help him enjoy drinking, he became a poetry friend and lyricist with Li Yu, and was appreciated by Li Yu, which shows that Xu You has a profound and solid literary foundation.
He was born into a noble family and had extremely high attainments in literature, so Xu You was appointed by Li Yu to be the final arbiter of this dispute. Of course Xu You knew that Xu Xuan's plan was more reliable, but Pan You was at the height of his power at that time and was Li Yu's confidant, so Xu You sided with Pan You without hesitation. Just like his father Xu Zhigao, he was very good at adapting to the situation.
Li Yu built Chengxintang behind Qinghui Hall, which became the "imperial court interior" and was the heart of the Southern Tang Dynasty. The imperial court within the court was the real core of power in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and those in charge of Chengxintang were Xu You and his brother. Xu Liao. In order to consolidate their power, the two brothers also used their nephews, Xu Yuanyu and others as outsiders, and turned Chengxintang into a family business.
This explains a foreshadowing in the previous article, why the brothers Xu Yuanyu, Xu Yuanji, and Xu Yuanshu were able to cut off the Southern Tang court's contact with the outside world and keep Li Yu in the dark. This is the reason. Xu Yuanyu and others are said to be Li Yu's cousins.
When Li Jing was in power, he was more fond of Buddhism, but he was still restrained. After Li Yu came to the throne, Xu You went out of his way to suit his interests and wasted a large amount of financial revenue on Zhaiseng's preaching, which caused great harm to the national finance. A huge gap that cannot be filled.
On the day of his wedding to Xiao Zhouhou, Li Yu threw a lot of money on the spot:
"Li Tang spread the account money, and the text said: Long life and wealth, the house is full of gold and jade. There are also loyalty and filial piety to inherit the family, five sons and two daughters, peace in the world, and the title of a prince and the prime minister."
This is what ancient coin collectors call "spending money".
Li Yu is a well-known "second-generation" literary young man who likes art and advocates luxury. Needless to say, his wedding must be extravagant and extravagant. There is a detail that can prove it:
"When the people came to welcome him, the people watching might climb to the top of the house, and some of them would fall down from the tiles and die."
On the day after the wedding, the groom Li Yu held a banquet for all the ministers. Han Xizai and other ministers wrote poems to advise him. Now almost all sources translate "sarcastic" as "sarcastic". In fact, "sarcastic" in ancient Chinese means "admonished". The meaning is, for example, and the meaning of sarcasm and ridicule is often reflected by the word "ridicule" in ancient Chinese. I won’t complain too much about Du Niang.
Here, it should be translated as "admonition", advising Li Yu not to be so willful, not to marry a new love just after the period of filial piety, let alone the heroine of the "Painting Gate" scandal. How can such a woman be established as the queen of the country? ?
Combined with the last sentence of the original text, "Then the Lord did not send him away", most people took it for granted and translated it into "Li Yu did not care about Han Xizai and others and did not kick them out of the banquet."
"Bu Zhi send" is the preposition of the object of the negative sentence, that is, "Bu Zhi send". This is no problem. The key lies in who "Zhi" refers to. Look at the whole sentence: "Han Xizai wrote poems and satires after him, but the master did not send him back."
The "zhi" here is not Han Xizai, but Xiao Zhouhou. It means that Han Xizai and others wrote poems to advise. Li Yu highly praised their spirit of outspoken advice, but he did not adopt their suggestions and still stubbornly made his sister-in-law the queen of the country.
The above is a literal translation. In fact, we can translate it freely, which is shorter than classical Chinese, just three words: Ran Bing Egg. Zhu Aiqing said it very well, but it is not the same.
As for sarcasm, history books record a nursery rhyme from that time:
"So De Niang has forgotten her home, and there are no flowers or peaches or plums growing in the backyard.
All the pigs and dogs died, and the cats were raised to suffer from scars. "
The "mother" in the first sentence means mother-in-law, referring to Xiao Zhou. The first sentence means that Li Yu is a big-tailed wolf who forgets his mother after marrying his wife;
In the third sentence, all pigs and dogs died. The explanation in the history books is "Zuodu in the year of Xuhai". The Southern Tang Dynasty died in the eighth year of Kaibao, Yihai year, the year of the pig. As for the explanation of dogs, my personal guess is that it was the beginning of the war in the Song Dynasty. Bao seven years, Jiaxu years old. War started in the Year of the Dog and ended in the Year of the Pig;
The word "red lump" in the fourth sentence is an eye disease. This sentence talks about a blind cat. A blind cat cannot catch mice. It corresponds to the word "peaches and plums do not bear flowers" in the second sentence. Peaches and plums are supposed to be " It is said that "peaches and plums are their own faults", but as a result, the peaches and plums that should be everywhere in the world do not bloom or bear fruit. The peaches and plums without flowers and the blind cat are used to satirize the little Empress Zhou.
The marriage between Li Yu and Xiao Zhouhou was just a joke in the eyes of everyone, and their romantic affair was a topic of conversation after dinner.
In 975, the Southern Tang Dynasty fell. Xiao Zhou was captured and went north to Bianzhou with Li Yu. After Li Yu's death, Xiao Zhou was "overwhelmed with grief" and died soon after at the age of 28.
