There is probably no group in the world that is more narcissistic than emperors.
When the first emperor shouted "I am the emperor", this group was mythologized.
Emperor!
Son of Heaven!
What human beings fear the most is God. They believe that everything in the world is arranged by God, including everyone’s destiny.
The sky is invisible, but it has a son!
Its son is in the world and governs the world as its agent.
The first emperor knew that he was deceiving the world, but the second emperor began to believe that he really had some inexplicable relationship with God.
Dynasties changed, and hundreds of years later, the emperor was convinced that he was the son of God.
The Son of God is naturally the most noble thing in the world.
Things are used here instead of people because emperors often feel that they are not human beings.
I am a god!
But this god, like ordinary people, has to eat, drink, have diarrhea, and sleep.
Their desires are even stronger than ordinary people, so they have many women in their harems.
From then on, these women became the emperor's taboo, and no male creature was allowed to touch them.
So they used palace maids and chambermaids who had castrated their male characteristics. They felt safe.
But when they were about to die, they sighed again: What if someone is unwilling to be lonely after I pass away?
Moreover, I will be lonely underground!
Then, let’s be buried!
The childless concubine followed me to another world and continued to serve me.
Other emperors felt it was a bit cruel, so they changed their approach and asked the women to become monks after their death to pray for themselves. By the way, it was also a destination for them.
Look, I am so kind!
This policy was most thoroughly implemented in the Tang Dynasty. When the emperor died, the concubines who had sons would go to their sons' fiefdoms. But the concubines who had no sons would go to other places to practice and end their lives.
The place outside the square is called Chuchenyuan, and you will know what it is just by the name... Chuchen means to break with the world of mortals.
The city of Chang'an is like a big chessboard, and the towns are like the grids of the chessboard. They look square and regular. But behind the palace, there is a place that deviates from this square and regular shape, called the Forbidden Garden.
As the name suggests, the Forbidden Garden is the property of the royal family. At this time, it can be understood as a separate courtyard of the royal family.
The Chuchenyuan is in the Forbidden Garden.
In this way, I am isolated from the world of mortals and aligned with my name.
After the filial emperor Li Xun was killed by poison, most of his women were thrown into the monastery.
Chen Yun'er, the daughter of left prime minister Chen Shen and the deposed crown princess, was also there.
It is said to be a monastery, but it is a bit complicated here. For example, those outsiders who monitor the emperor's women look like nuns, but the objects they monitor have long hair and are dressed more like Taoist robes.
The old Li family shamelessly clings to a certain Taoist master, but their own beliefs are a bit chaotic.
When it was still dark, Chen Yuner woke up.
Get up calmly, wash up calmly, and start morning classes calmly.
After morning class, she had to clean up.
The chuchen courtyard is not small, so there are many places that need to be cleaned.
Chen Yun'er kept a rhythm while sweeping the floor. The nun monitoring the situation said: "Chen Yun'er, hurry up. Don't make me miss breakfast."
Chen Yuner looked at her calmly and said, "Yes."
The nuns all said, "When we get here, even the queen has to bow her head."
After the emperor's women were thrown here, they were isolated from the outside world. There was no such thing as family visits. After the emperor died, the family treated them as dead people.
And in the palace... I'm sorry, the palace has always been a place where only the newcomers laugh and the old ones cry.
Therefore, these nuns here are the sky, and those women who were once high above are the earth and slaves.
Sweeping, washing clothes, fetching water, helping in the kitchen... these women became maids here.
Most women are spoiled and cannot do it, so they protest, but if they don't give them food for a few meals, they immediately burst into tears and say that they can try it.
After Chen Yun'er came in, she was very taciturn and did whatever she was told. At the beginning, the chamberlain who delivered rice and grain said that she was poisoned by the emperor because of her filial piety to the emperor, and she was poisoned to death. So the attitude of the nuns towards them changed drastically, and they were very angry.
Been treated harshly for a while.
It wasn't until the emperor regretted it and gave the deposed prince a posthumous gift as a token of filial piety to the emperor that Chen Yun'er's situation got better.
But even so, you still have to work every day.
After sweeping the floor, Chen Yun'er followed to the dining hall.
There are long tables and benches in the dining hall, and each person has a meal: a cooking cake, and vegetables are shared. In this early spring season, there are no fresh vegetables, so it is dried vegetable soup.
A bowl of soup and a pancake, so plain and hopeless.
Chen Yun'er chewed very slowly, as if she was eating delicacies in the world.
After breakfast, she still had to sweep the floor...
When the Chuchenyuan was first established, the first steward once said: Once these once noble women are knocked down to dust, all kinds of unwillingness will make them crazy. The best way is to give them no time to think.
Therefore, their days in the monastery were to work, work, and work again...
The days when you can see your head at a glance make many women despair. Some people twist their clothes into ropes at night and hang themselves behind the door. Nuns who have not seen anyone early in the morning will come looking for them aggressively. As soon as they open the door...
Before they die, they also have to vent their anger.
There are also many people who have become lunatics, muttering words or yelling filial piety all day long, treating everyone as their former servants and maids.
Chen Yun'er took a broom and swept it slowly.
A nun came over and said, "Chen Yun'er, someone sees you."
Chen Yuner slowly raised her head and followed calmly.
Outside the Chuchen Courtyard, an old man in green shirt stood there. When he saw Chen Yun'er, he couldn't help but burst into tears, "My son, I have suffered so much for you."
The person who came was Chen Shen, the former left prime minister.
Chen Yun'er's calm body said, "Aye."
This is the first man with a full beard and tail to appear in the Forbidden Garden in the past twenty years.
It is said that the whole thing needs to be the whole tail, but Chen Shen is getting old and probably has no function anymore.
When father and daughter met, Chen Shen felt guilty, but Chen Yuner was very calm.
"This is all fate. Besides, I am fine here."
"How can this be good?" Chen Shen sighed: "Your Majesty is merciful. Yesterday, he summoned my father and said that if any of the late emperor's women were willing to return home, he would take them. One of them was you. When my father heard this, he couldn't wait.
Coming."
"Your Majesty?" Chen Yuner showed disgust for the first time.
"You are isolated from the world here, and those nuns are unwilling to tell you. After Shi Ni, Your Majesty went to Chang'an and ascended the throne. Li Mi was hiding in Shu. His Majesty conquered Shu next year and captured Li Mi and his son..."
"Okay!" Chen Yuner nodded.
"Your Majesty has found out what happened back then, Yun'er. The incident involving Concubine De was the work of Li Mi and his son."
"I know he wouldn't do such a bastard thing."
"Do you know who poisoned me back then?"
"Li Mi!"
"It was Li Bi's idea but Yang Songcheng's hand."
Chen Yuner closed her eyes, "The emperor is..."
"Your nominal son."
"That child of Huang's back then?"
"right."
"At first, I thought about his intention of sending the child away at the last moment. After much deliberation, there was only one explanation: he was unwilling to accept it. I thought he was wishful thinking, but I didn't expect... this must be God's arrangement!
"
"Yun'er, come home with your father!"
Chen Shen said: "After returning from Shu, Your Majesty wanted my father to take care of the area in the court, but my father didn't want to go out into the muddy water anymore, so he begged for the bones. Let's go back. My father knows that you have suffered all these years.
After a lot of suffering, I happened to resign for my father, so I took you out for a walk..."
Chen Yuner shook her head, "No need."
"Yun'er, you..." Chen Shen was stunned.
"If Aye had come when I first came here, I would have been overjoyed, as if I had received an amnesty. If it had been ten years ago, I would have been overjoyed, feeling that God had treated me well. But now I have long been accustomed to life here..."
Chen Yun'er said: "Every day I recite scriptures, do cleaning work, eat, sleep... I am so busy that I have no time to think about the old things that disgust me. Without thinking or worrying, I actually feel that this is living. And
The mortal world outside, Aye, I don’t care about at all anymore.”
Chen Shen smiled bitterly, "What about being a father?"
"Aye, you have been an important minister for many years, and now your merits are considered to be complete. The children and grandchildren in the family will naturally be filial to you. As for me, when I got married, you said: The daughter you marry is the water you throw away. From now on, you will be the wife of the Li family.
.”
Chen Yun'er said happily, "From now on, I am an outsider, please take care of yourself."
Chen Yuner went in, but Chen Shen stayed outside for a long time and refused to leave.
Until more than ten riders arrived.
"His Majesty?"
It was the emperor who came.
"Why is this, Mr. Chen?" the emperor asked.
Chen Shen smiled bitterly, "My little girl doesn't want to go back."
The emperor was startled and then entered the Chuchen Courtyard.
"I have met His Majesty!"
This is the first time in many years that an emperor has entered the monastery.
There was a commotion throughout Chuchenyuan.
"How many of those women are willing to leave?" the emperor asked.
The nun in charge said respectfully: "Most of them are unwilling to leave. They all say that they have been in the monastery for many years and have cut off contact with their families. If I go back now, I will be disliked by others."
"There is no filial son before a long-term illness, let alone a woman who has been married for many years!" the emperor sighed.
"Your Majesty is wise. Earlier, those women desperately wanted to leave. After staying here for a few years, they stopped."
You must provide for the emperor's women, but who has the heart to do so?
The nun asked: "I wonder who your Majesty is here to see."
"Chen Yuner!"
…
Later, the emperor waited for Chen Yuner in a pavilion.
"I have met His Majesty!"
Chen Yuner is blessed.
It looked very peaceful.
"In name, I have to call you mother!" The emperor handed over his hand. This was the first meeting between the two after many years, and the last time the emperor was in his infancy.
"Don't dare!" Chen Yuner returned the favor.
"I will not interfere with you whether you stay or go. I came here to ask about the relationship between the former emperor and the late emperor."
"The late emperor?"
"yes."
Chen Yun'er raised her eyes, and many images flashed through her mind.
Her cheeks trembled slightly, "Emperor and Empress? I haven't thought about it for many years, and now that I think about it, I feel unbearable to look back."
"Oh!" said the emperor: "What happened back then!"
"That year... I had just entered the palace. When the emperor and the empress saw me, they all praised me for saying I had a nice room. The days that followed were uneventful. Until one day, the prince told me that the Tang Dynasty could not continue like this.