Quick Wear: Random Cheats

Chapter 223 Extra - The Most Tragic Emperor

#On the most tragic emperors in history...#
#Note: This discussion focuses only on emperors of unified dynasties!#
[Emperor Xianghe, from ancient times to the present, throughout the five thousand years, he is the only one who was openly overthrown by a woman and then directly demoted to a prince and sent to marry a foreign ruler.]

Unprecedented, and likely to remain so...

He's only considered "relatively miserable," not the "most miserable." Or rather, "most miserable" should at least be preceded by a prefix, like "most miserable in terms of being humiliated."

[Agreed, +1]

[Yes, how can he be considered the most tragic? There were those who burned to death, those who were hacked to death, those whose heads were cut off and used as drinking vessels, those who were poisoned, and those who died suddenly in private for unknown reasons—the list goes on and on.]

Dying of old age is actually quite rare...

[It should definitely be Emperor Xianghe. Given the premise of a unified dynasty, Emperor Xianghe would absolutely be among the top three, if not the most tragic emperor. For example, the last emperor, although he lost the throne, committed so many acts of betrayal against the country and its people, yet still lived to be over sixty; he can't possibly be the most tragic. Going further back, those who committed suicide at the end of their dynasties, or were beheaded, don't really count.]

As far as I know, one person had their head cut off and made into a drinking vessel; another not only only controlled half the country and never unified it, but was also desecrated many years after his death and his head was used to make a drinking vessel. That probably isn't the most tragic case.

Emperor Xianghe should be considered to have had a tragic fate. You haven't seen an archaeological survey from ten years ago. It didn't get much attention then, and it still doesn't get much attention now. But I do research in this area, so I have seen that survey.

At the time, it was a rescue excavation of the tomb of Queen Hailina of the Western Rong. The remains of Prince Xianghe were unearthed in one of her burial tombs. According to the results of the skeletal examination, he suffered a lot of torment in his life and died in his early thirties. It is estimated that he died less than three years after marrying Hailina in a political marriage.

In addition, his burial objects were quite rare.

Based on the test results, it is very likely that Empress Anguo deliberately sent him to the Western Rong to be tortured.

A dignified emperor was reduced to a son-in-law, and not even a legitimate one.

And to be tortured to death, how can that not be considered tragic?

Wow, that's really terrible...

"Ha, if he's considered tragic, what about his three aunts and great-aunts who were sent to marry foreign rulers? During his father's reign, three princesses were sent to marry foreign rulers in three consecutive years, and each of them died within a year. Two of them were never found. Nobody knows what they went through; even their dowries were all lost. Just because he was originally the emperor, so many people pity him after his tragic death in a foreign marriage."

The three princesses who died and were sent to marry foreign rulers were not even given names.

They didn't even leave behind a title.

Let's not get sidetracked...

I think he should be content. Throughout history, apart from the last emperors of the last dynasties who survived the fall of their kingdoms and even lived to their sixties, which other deposed monarch has ever managed to survive...?

Uh... does the person upstairs have particularly poor history knowledge? The number of surviving deposed emperors is actually not small. The most famous one, Emperor Xian, lived a good life after abdicating, didn't he? And the Duke of Anle also lived a decent life after surrendering. The situation of the last emperors of the previous dynasties only became slightly worse afterward. Moreover, Emperor Xianghe survived.

But he didn't live much longer.

He died in his thirties.

And I suspect he would have preferred to be dead!

"I know this. After Prince Xianghe learned that he was really going to be sent for a political marriage, he attempted suicide many times. It's recorded very clearly in the historical records. I guess many of the wounds on his body were self-inflicted. He kept trying to commit suicide, and neither the Empress of Anguo nor the Queen of Xirong wanted him to die like that. As I understand it, he was tortured to death."

Whether they were trying to commit suicide is hard to say!

I really don't understand why so many people still say that Empress Anguo was particularly ruthless. Please, what was ruthless about Empress Anguo? She was incredibly kind!

Isn't it normal for male emperors to exterminate the entire clan of the previous emperor? Even if it's a conflict between brothers, they would kill all the brothers' families, or at least wipe out all the male members, while demoting the female members to commoners.

However, Empress Anguo should not be too lenient towards Emperor Xianghe.

He wasn't killed; he was merely demoted to a prince. His concubines could then return to their own homes. Those who didn't want to go could establish their own households and remarry. Those who wanted children could take them away and raise them; those who didn't want children could leave them, and Empress Anguo would take responsibility for their upbringing.

They were all treated as ordinary descendants of princes.

The subsequent members who were taken hostage to rebel were not harmed because they were young and probably didn't know much about the world; they were just being held hostage.

Twenty years later, the son of the Prince of Xianghe wrote a particularly famous travelogue, which indirectly proves that they were not imprisoned and were able to travel freely. Throughout history, which emperor has been so benevolent? Frankly speaking, even emperors haven't been so benevolent towards their own children and grandchildren.

I just don't understand. There are always so many people who think Emperor Xianghe is so pitiful, so incredibly pitiful. He was once an emperor, what's so pitiful about him? Being forced into a marriage alliance as a son-in-law and acting like he's going to die for him? It's ridiculous!

If you ask me, Emperor Xianghe should thank his sister, Empress Anguo. If it weren't for the things Empress Anguo did and the fact that she demoted him to a prince and sent him to marry a foreign ruler, how could he be famous in history books, and why is there still a section about him in the current history books?

Throughout history, how many of those emperors who were only in the middle of dynasties, mediocre at best, are truly well-known?

Who wants to go down in history because they're being ridiculed?

Come on, with all this talk about them now, let alone hundreds or thousands of years from now, even a few decades from now, probably no one except their families will recognize or remember us. And you're worrying about them being remembered in history?

Anyway, he's definitely not the worst off; it's a bit shameful. Or maybe he's the only one who married into the emperor's family after becoming emperor himself!

[Isn't there someone who calls him the "Emperor of Marrying into a Family"?]

[No wonder he wanted to commit suicide. Even after all these years, people are still saying this about him. I can't even imagine how his former subordinates, officials, and even ordinary people must have viewed him. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he died of shame and indignation.]

There were no more marriage alliances after him.

[Please, it was the Tianhong Empire that stopped holding marriage alliances after him. After the Tianhong Empire fell, subsequent dynasties still engaged in similar practices one after another; it was just a repeat of the past!]

But he was indeed the only prince to be sent to a marriage alliance.

[He was a deposed emperor who was forced into marriage!]

I heard that his descendants felt quite ashamed of this, so many of them changed their surnames to their mothers'.

……