Ancient women had a low status and could not be free for almost all their lives. Even if they were queen, they were only accessories of the king, or even reduced to tools of reproduction. Their mission in life was to flatter the emperor and open branches and leaves for the royal family. Based on this, there were many unfortunate women in ancient life, and today she is just one of them. She and her husband were unpredictable and childhood sweetheart. It was natural for her to marry when she grew up. After 15 years of marriage, she gave birth to 12 children, but after her husband ascended the throne, she was mercilessly killed. She was only 31 years old.
She is Queen Yifu. She was born in Luoyang, Henan Province in 510 AD. In fact, her forefather lived in Qinghai and was the king of Qinghai. Her father served as Yitong Sansi and Yanzhou governor. Her biological mother was born in a prominent family. She was the fourth daughter of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the eldest princess of Huaiyang. This shows that she was born in a prominent family. When Emperor Xiaowen moved his capital to Luoyang, the Yifu family also settled down with him and became Luoyang people.
After Yifu’s birth, her parents were very happy. They didn’t look at her differently because she was a daughter. In addition, she was beautiful and intelligent since she was young, so she was even more favored. However, although Yifu is gifted with intelligence, he is always unsmiling. His parents often say to others, “What about having a daughter? Our daughter is much better than boys.”. Yifu gradually grew up in such an excellent and favored life.
In 525 AD, Yifu was 16 years old, and she was more beautiful. Therefore, it was logical to marry Yuanbao Ju. Yuan Baoju, the grandson of Emperor Xiaowen, was born in 507. After his father, Yuan Yu, was killed in rebellion, he and his brothers were put under house arrest together. Only after the death of Emperor Xuanwu, Yuan Ke, did they regain their royal status. The political affairs of Jiangshan are changing rapidly. Maybe even he didn’t expect that after a few years, he should be crowned emperor.
After Yuanbaoju ascended the throne, she made Yifu the queen in 535 AD. Yifu was frugal by nature, and so was she when she became the middle court. She still wore old clothes and vegetables every day, and never wore gold and silver jewelry. What is more rare is that when her husband became the emperor, she had three palaces and six courtyards. She never envied her husband and other concubines when they were having fun. Such tolerance and understanding made Yuanbao Ju love her more.
Moreover, she is also beyond the reach of other women in terms of fertility. It is amazing that she gave birth to 12 children for her husband after 15 years of marriage. Unfortunately, most of these children died early, leaving only Yuanqin and Yuanwu. There are no more than three reasons. First, they are too early to marry and have children, which is hard for them to bear, leading to the loss of children; Second, the medical conditions in ancient times were so limited that it was difficult for newborns to survive; Third, the children of the royal family were caught in the palace fight, and most of them had a bad fate.
After Yuan Baoju ascended the throne, the northern nomads harassed the border, but because the military strength of the Western Wei Dynasty was too weak to defend the border, Yu Wentai, the powerful minister, tried to persuade the emperor to marry and marry the daughter of the northern Rouran leader. However, Rouran Khan said that if he wanted to marry her daughter, he must be a queen. Yifu was originally a queen. In this way, Yuanbao Ju could only be abolished. Finally, he had to be abolished in 538 for the sake of Jiangshan. Yifu moved out of the palace and married as a nun.
After she married, Princess Rouran was indeed crowned Queen, but the princess was very jealous. She learned that the emperor’s beloved was still in the capital, and she also corresponded with the emperor from time to time. Even the emperor asked her to reserve hair and be ready to welcome her back to the palace at any time. The princess was naturally discontented, and she was noisy and threatened. The emperor had to send Wang Yuanwu, the capital of Wu, to Qinzhou as an envoy, and went to the town with his mother Yifu.
However, although he has gone away, his heart has always been thinking about the former empress. Princess Rouran became more discontented and complained to her father in anger. Finally, the army of Rouran invaded again in 540 A.D., and all the officials persuaded him. The emperor had to kill Yifu, and Yifu was so shameful at the age of 31. What’s more, Yi Fu was not angry when she learned the emperor’s order, and left a message to advise the emperor that as long as the emperor and the mountains were safe, she would not hate even if she died.
In 551 AD, Yuanbao Ju died, and the prince, Yuan Qin, ascended the throne. After he ascended the throne, he posthumously named his mother Yifu as Empress Wen and buried with his father. In this way, although Yifu did not enjoy with his husband before his death, he was able to sleep with him after his death, which was the only consolation. However, looking back at her life, it was bleak. After marriage, she had been giving birth all the time. After 12 times of giving birth, her body also naturally deteriorated. Finally, she lost her life instead of being expensive. It was really sad. From this point of view, I don’t know whether she was lucky or unlucky to get the favor of the emperor?