The witchcraft disaster was a major event that occurred in Emperor Wu's later years. It lasted for several years, and tens of thousands of people died for it, including royal nobles such as queens, princes, and princesses, as well as important court officials such as prime ministers and imperial censors, including local ruffians and scoundrels. For prisoners on death row, even if the witchcraft disaster was over, their "wounds" were far from healed, and even affected Emperor Wu's internal affairs and diplomacy in the "post-witchcraft era".
The ancient sound of "gu" in "witchcraft" refers to "ghost" and "curse". It is a kind of curse technique. The specific method is to carve the name and birth date of the cursed person on a small puppet made of paulownia wood, apply magic and curses through certain rituals, and then bury it in the residence or place where the cursed person often goes. People believed that witchcraft could control and ingest the souls of the damned.
The strong witchcraft style in the Han Dynasty can be said to be a social and cultural background for the witchcraft disaster.
Whether you practice witchcraft out of jealousy or seek witchcraft out of fear, the source is not witchcraft, but jealousy and fear. However, once jealousy and fear are expressed and unfolded through the form of "public culture" such as "witchcraft", it often exceeds the scope of personal control, creating a social atmosphere of fear and suspicion, causing crazy movements, the so-called "tree desire" It’s quiet but the wind doesn’t stop.”
What's worse is that if witchcraft occurs in the palace, the center of power, and is used by "interested people", it will often set off a bloody storm and cause human tragedy.
As mentioned before, Chen Ajiao, the first queen of Emperor Wu, cursed her with witchcraft because she was jealous of Wei Zifu. After the incident, Emperor Wu was furious and killed more than 300 people. He also deposed Chen Ajiao as queen and relegated her to the cold palace.
After that, Chen Ajiao's mother, the key figure in supporting Emperor Wu's ascension to the throne, and the eldest princess Liu Piao, also became disheartened and retreated to pursue pleasure. She could no longer exert her huge influence in the government and the public as before. It is difficult to tell the truth of this matter now.
Coincidentally, Wei Zifu, who "cleared the way" and was named queen because of the witchcraft, also hanged himself to death due to the witchcraft. It can be said that the success of the witchcraft failed. Not only her, but also the Wei family, which used to be the most powerful in the world, suffered a collective defeat due to the witchcraft disaster. Therefore, witchcraft can only be regarded as a "starting point" or excuse for the witchcraft incident. Behind the incident is the game of the various forces and the ups and downs of honor and disgrace.
Prince Liu Zhi was the eldest son of Emperor Wu when he was twenty-nine years old. He was also the only legitimate son. He was once favored by Emperor Wu. As soon as Liu Jufu was born, Emperor Wu ordered someone to write "Ode to the Crown Prince" for him. His joy was beyond words. When he was seven years old, Liu Ju was established as the prince, and Emperor Wu built "Bo Wang Yuan" - "Bo Wang" means learned. Zhang Qian, who was on an envoy to the Western Regions, was named "Bo Wanghou" - let He interacted with guests there, and invited famous scholars from all over the world to teach him Gongyang Chunqiu and Guliang Chunqiu.
Dong Zhongshu, the great Confucian of the generation who was the theoretical backer of Emperor Wu's founding of Confucianism, was a descendant of the Gongyang Chunqiu school. Therefore, Emperor Wu asked the prince to learn "Gongyang Chunqiu" to prepare the prince for governing the country in the future.
Everything is fine. What will greet Liu Zheng will be a golden throne and a majestic river and mountain. It's a pity that time is the most powerful poison in the world. Under its corrosion, everything will be changed beyond recognition, so the ancients lamented the changes in the world.
When Liu Zheng grew up, he became more and more courteous, which was a good thing. However, Emperor Wu was a promising hero, and the gentle Liu Zheng was not to his liking. Wei Zifu was old and Emperor Wu was no longer as interested in her as before, and the newly favored Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Li both gave birth to boys for Emperor Wu. As a result, Wei Zifu, mother and son gradually fell out of favor, and felt uneasy in their hearts.
Emperor Wu noticed their thoughts and said to Wei Qing: "The common people of the Han family have created things and invaded China. If I don't change the system, future generations will be unable to do so. If I don't go out to conquer, the world will be uneasy. For this reason, I have to work hard for the people. If Later generations will do what I did again, which is the trace of attacking and destroying the Qin Dynasty. The prince is loyal and quiet, and he can calm the world and not make me worry. Do you want the master who keeps the text to be more virtuous than the prince? I heard that the queen and the prince are uneasy. Is there any evil in your intention? You can understand it." Wei Qing kowtowed and thanked him. When Wei Zifu heard about this, he also took off his hairpin to apologize to Emperor Wu.
Emperor Wu cared about what the prince thought, and did not tell him directly. Instead, he comforted him through Wei Qing, who had great military achievements, which shows that Emperor Wu still loved Liu Ju very much at this time.
The prince is the future emperor, and a group of people will naturally gather around him. "Zizhi Tongjian" says, "The ministers who are generous and elders are all attached to the prince."
The people around Emperor Wu were different. Among the people he used, there were many grammatical officials. These people were very different from the nobles in the military circles in the early Han Dynasty. Most of them came from the lowest level. If such a person wants to stand out and shine, he can only make meritorious deeds. Where does power come from? He is not a hero if he does not kill thieves, and thieves are not always available everywhere. When they are not available, they have to be "created" by themselves. So those who deserve to be imprisoned are sentenced to beheading, and those who deserve to be decapitated are tortured to extract confessions and lure them. Bring others in and kill them one by one. When the emperor saw the dense work reports submitted by these grammarians, he would naturally marvel at how capable this person was, so he praised him greatly and promoted him to a noble title.
Of course, Emperor Wu's harsh punishments were fundamentally due to his character and a series of policies. Emperor Wu was an extremely authoritarian person at heart. He could not tolerate his power being divided up by others, so he supported the grammarians from the lower class and let them punish the nobles with laws. This was to attack them and take power from the nobles' private families into his own hands. Up - The number and proportion of grammaticians and law clerks in the dynasty continued to increase. Grammar clerks did not have family support like the nobles, so Emperor Wu tightened his grip on the power of life and death. Emperor Wu's policies, such as cracking down on the powerful and forcibly collecting property taxes in order to replenish the national treasury (shumin, suingmin), must be implemented with force, otherwise they will not proceed at all. Grammar officials just met this need of Emperor Wu.
Emperor Wu was strict, but the prince was lenient. He was against Emperor Wu's harsh punishments, so whenever he was sentenced to prison, the prince mostly vindicated him. This blocked the way for literary officials to make meritorious deeds, so although the prince gained the support of the people Loved him, but offended these grammatical officials. Wei Zifu had experienced many vicissitudes at this time. He was afraid that the prince would be convicted of this over time, so he advised him not to always insist on his own opinions, but to keep in step with Emperor Wu.
When Emperor Wu heard about this, his reaction was very strange. He praised Liu Zhi and criticized Wei Zifu. However, in this case, why didn't he listen to the prince's advice on frivolous corvee and meager taxation and not engage in conquests? He also said: "I will do my work and leave you with leisure, why not!" It's fine if he doesn't listen. He continued to appoint grammatical officials, but did not strengthen the protection of Liu Zhi. After Wei Qing, the biggest pillar of the Wei family, fell, the spring of the grammarians came, and they openly slandered the prince unscrupulously.
At this time, Emperor Wu was already old, his health was getting worse day by day, and he was becoming more and more suspicious. He hid in Ganquan Palace for a long time, and the queen and the prince rarely saw him. This created a gap between father and son for these people. It leaves room to create rifts and confrontations.
One of Emperor Wu's favorite eunuchs in his later years was Su Wen, who was also a member of the "deep cruel users". Once the prince went to the palace to visit the queen, and it took him a long time to get out of the palace. Su Wen "reported" to Emperor Wu that "the prince was molesting the maids in the queen's palace." Emperor Wu then increased the number of maids in the prince's palace to 200. When Empress Wei heard about this, she asked Liu Zhi to report the truth to Emperor Wu and request that Su Wen be killed. Liu is said to have said: "The Qing Dynasty will be Qing Dynasty. Why should I be afraid of the slander of such villains? What's more, my father is wise and will not believe these slanders. There is no need for my mother to worry."
Chang Rong is a young eunuch under Su Wen. Once Emperor Wu was ill and sent him to summon the prince. Chang Rong came back and reported that the prince was happy when he heard that the emperor's body was not in harmony. Emperor Wu sneered and said nothing. When the prince arrived, Emperor Wu found that there were tears on the prince's face, but he still forced a smile in front of Emperor Wu. Emperor Wu then discovered Chang Rong's instigation and executed him.
It can be seen from this that the poisonous tricks of the "deep cool users" are coming one after another. And Liu Zheng's confidence in Emperor Wu was too much. The so-called "people's opinions make gold" and "heaps of destruction and bones", if he could not even see the emperor's face, in the long run, even if he had confidence in Emperor Wu, Emperor Wu would not have any confidence in him. Confidence.
