Grain History Plus 000261 "Historical Records" Volume 9 "Lv Empress Benji" 10: Empress Dowager Lu had rabies? Or heart disease?

──────────Original text──────────

Taifu Chan and Prime Minister Pingping said that the Marquis of Wuxin, the Marquis of Lu Lu, and the first in rank, please make him the king of Zhao. Empress Dowager Xu Zhi, chasing and honoring Lu's father Kanghou as King Zhao Zhao. In the ninth month, King Jian of Yanling passed away. There was a beautiful son, and the queen mother ordered someone to kill him. In the tenth year of the eighth year, Lu Tong, the Duke of Dongping, the prince of Lu Su, was established as the king of Yan, and Tong's younger brother, Lu Zhuang, was named the Duke of Dongping.

In the middle of the third month, Lu Houyi returned to the road and saw something like a dog. According to Gao Houye, he suddenly saw him again. According to the prediction, the king of Yunzhao was wishful thinking. After high, he fell ill and was injured.

Empress Gao was the grandson of Lu Yuan Wang Yan, who was young, lost his parents, and was orphaned, so he enfeoffed Zhang Ao Qian Ji's two sons, and was lavishly named Xindu Marquis. And Zhang Shi, who was named Zhong Da Ye, was the Marquis of Jianling, and Lu Rong was the Marquis of Zhuzi. The eunuchs of the various middle eunuchs are all lords of Guannei, with five hundred households in food towns.

──────────Translation──────────

After the adjustment of the title of the marquis in the previous paragraph, "Taifu" Lu Chan, "Prime Minister" Chen Ping and others made a statement to the Empress Dowager: "Marquis of Wuxin" Lu Lu (that is, Empress Dowager Lu's nephew) is Shanghou, and is in Liehou. He was the first in the middle row and asked to make him the king of Zhao. The Empress Dowager agreed and honored Lu Lu's father "Kanghou" (that is, Empress Dowager Lu's second brother) as King Zhao Zhao.

In September of the seventh year of Empress Dowager Lu's reign, King Yanling "Liu Jian" died. He had a son born by a concubine (a son of a beautiful woman), and the Empress Dowager sent someone to kill him, so "King Yanling" had no descendants. , the feudal state was abolished ( without the post, the state was removed ).

In October of the eighth year of Empress Dowager Lu's reign, "Lv Tong", the son of "King Lu Su" (that is, the grandson of Empress Dowager Lu), was named Prince of Yan, and Lv Tong's younger brother "Lv Zhuang" was named Marquis of Dongping. .

In mid-March of this year, Empress Lu held the "Yuan [Yin Tong Fu] Festival" to eliminate disasters and seek blessings. When she came back and passed by the place where Qin Ziying surrendered - "Zhu Dao Pavilion", she saw a black The dog's thing suddenly hit Empress Lv's armpit ( seeing the thing is like a dog, according to Gao Houye ), and then suddenly disappeared again ( see you again). It was divination, saying that the little Zhao Wang "Liu Ruyi" who was killed by poison was at work, and the queen mother suffered from armpit pain from then on.

Empress Dowager Lu, because her grandson "Lu Yuan Wang" Zhang Yan was young and her parents died very early, so she was lonely and weak, so she conferred the two sons born to the former concubine of her deceased son-in-law "Zhang Ao", "Zhang Lu. ” was the Marquis of Xindu, and “Zhang Shou” was the Marquis of Lechang, who came to assist Zhang Yan, the King of Lu Yuan. He also named "Zhang Shi" as the Marquis of Jianling, and "Lu Rong" as Marquis of Zhuzi. The eunuchs in the palace who served as commanders and ministers were all named Marquis of Guannei, and there were five hundred households in food towns.

──────────Explanation and experience──────────

Confucius once said: " It is also old, and the blood and energy are weakened, so it is necessary to take precautions."

Judging from these few historical materials, it is indeed as described by Confucius. The old lady Lu, who was still in power at this time, tried her best to help the Lu family consolidate its power and take care of her grandchildren as much as possible as a grandmother. . In the face of this "greedy" old man in line with human nature, the Hero Group did not choose to confront or persuade them, but complied with Empress Dowager Lu's thoughts, giving her the opportunity to make more members of the Lu family kings.

Why did the hero group make such a concession? In fact, the reason why the Lu clan members were able to confer the title of lord and the prime minister was only because the Empress Dowager Lu was in power in the imperial court. However, no matter how often Empress Lu suffers, she must eventually die. Therefore, when Empress Dowager Lu dies, the kings of the Lu family will lose their support and can be removed together at that time. This is why the hero group is not in a hurry to confront the Empress Dowager Lu at this stage, because "time" is their best weapon against the Lu family. In other words, this is just like what Lao Tzu said, "If you want to take it, you must solidify it. " The heroic group is like boiling a frog in warm water. As the power of the Lu regime slowly rises, it will also The beginning of the fall of the Lu regime.

On the other hand, with the age of Empress Dowager Lu, she should also realize that she was the means by which Zhu Lu was able to be crowned king. Perhaps her physical strength had deteriorated, or she might have watched her peers wither one after another. At this time, Empress Dowager Lu specially went to hold disaster relief. The blessing ceremony of , should be hoping that he can live longer, so that he can have more time to stabilize the regime of the Lu family. In contrast, Liu Bang, who was injured in the past, chose not to see a doctor and faced death directly, which was even more open-minded.

However, Sima Qian left us with a pair of bizarre contents: After Empress Dowager Lu attended the blessing ceremony, on the way back to the capital, she was hit by something similar to a black dog in the suburbs and injured her armpit. Why didn't the people on the side stop her when "I see things like a dog " approaching Empress Dowager Lu? Could it be that this dog-like thing is so fast that the people on the side can't react in time? Furthermore, this " thing like a dog " disappeared after bruising Empress Lu's armpit? Does this dog-like thing really refer to a black dog? Or something else that looks like a black dog? This act of assassination, in the absence of other historical evidence, gives future generations unlimited imagination.

If you don't consider the background of the times, the speed is too fast to respond, and the characteristics of the empress dowager disappear after the armpit of the queen mother is injured, the experience of the queen mother is more like a modern shooting and assassination incident. However, if there was a bullet that looked like a canine, the Empress Dowager Lu would have been killed on the spot, and it was impossible to only hurt the armpit. Of course, such inferences are even more unreasonable in the context of the Han Dynasty. After all, it was an era of cold weapons.

On the other hand, after searching for some information, I found some articles on the Internet that the Queen Mother Lu was bitten by a black dog, so she later died of rabies. Judging from the fact that Empress Dowager Lu later felt pain in her armpit and then died four months later, it was indeed similar to part of the situation after she contracted rabies. It is a pity that Sima Qian did not describe the change in Empress Dowager Lu's temper after the injury. If there are similar records of more brutality, it may be more proving whether Empress Dowager Lu really had rabies. However, if it was really bitten by a dog, why didn't the people beside the Queen Mother stop him, but let the black dog drive straight to bite the Queen Mother? And why did the black dog disappear out of thin air after biting someone?

Whenever I encounter this kind of problem, my usual way is to go back to the author and the historical material where there is the least doubt.

Considering the era in which Sima Qian lived, the power of the Lu family had already been eradicated, so the image of Empress Dowager Lu should have been stigmatized to some extent. Secondly, the clearest record in these historical materials is that Empress Dowager Lu died of a pain in her armpit. Searching for diseases related to armpit pain, it is surprising to find that armpit pain may be related to heart disease, swollen lymph nodes, or even breast cancer. In other words, Empress Dowager Lu's armpit pain may have nothing to do with Cang Dog or Liu Ruyi's ghost, but because of her old age and illness.

Furthermore, some of the materials Sima Qian wrote in the "Historical Records" were collected or interviewed from various places, so this content may have come from some people who disliked the Lu family. Legend has it that this made up for his dissatisfaction with the Lu family, which indirectly caused Sima Qian to leave this incredible record! ?

All in all, judging from these records, whether Empress Dowager Lu suffered from rabies, heart disease, breast cancer or other diseases, it is certain that Empress Dowager Lu's physical condition was not very good at this time. So, how should she arrange things behind her next? Let's keep reading.

The above is just a small harvest of these historical materials for me.