History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 949: The Yangtze River's Back Waves Push Forward

【The Yangtze River's back waves beat the front waves】

Zhou Ehuang died with hatred, and Li Yu, in order to cover up the scandal and divert the public's attention from the palace scandal, destroyed the Yue system and sent his wife away like his own mother. However, the sister-in-law did not immediately fill the position, but only officially filled the position of the elder sister four years later (November 968). So some people said that I was a rotten heart, but Li Yu was not that bad at all, he still loved Zhou Ehuang very much, otherwise why would he wait patiently for three or four years?
The reason was that Li Yu was in deep mourning, and in November 968, he had completed his mourning period for his biological mother, Empress Dowager Zhong. As mentioned earlier, under Li Yu's great filial piety, Empress Dowager Zhong passed away smoothly in November 11.

As early as when Xu Wen was trying to undermine the Yang family, Xu Wen first conspired with Zhang Hao to murder Yang Wo (Yang Xingmi's eldest son), and then Xu Wen sent his confidant Zhong Taizhang to kill Zhang Hao, thus controlling the real power in Huainan and laying the foundation for the Southern Tang. In order to win over Zhong Taizhang, Xu Wen asked his adopted son Xu Zhigao to marry his children to Zhong Taizhang's. Xu Zhigao was ordered to marry Zhong Taizhang's second daughter to his eldest son Xu Jingtong.

Xu Jingtong, later known as Li Jing, and Zhong Taizhang's second daughter was Empress Dowager Zhong, the queen of Li Jing and the biological mother of Li Yu.

In November 964, Zhou Ehuang died. If the younger sister-in-law is promoted to the position of wife immediately, it will not be a good idea. Let's wait a few days.

A few days later, Empress Dowager Zhong became seriously ill. How could a son marry his beloved mother when she was seriously ill and bedridden? It would be unfilial. Wait a few days.
A few days later, in October 965, Empress Dowager Zhong died. Li Yu "got up after using a cane", which was indeed the same etiquette as sending his wife off. He was in deep mourning and it was not appropriate to get married. He had to wait for three years...

Three years later, in October 968, Li Yu was almost going crazy. "It's almost time, right? We agreed on three years, and then another three years... Is it going to end? I won't wait any longer!"

Li Yu couldn't wait to make his sister-in-law the queen, who was the "Little Queen Zhou" in history books. Li Yu ordered relevant departments to refer to ancient and modern rituals to formulate detailed wedding details, and specifically named cultural celebrities such as Xu Xuan and Pan You to participate in the discussion.

As a result, Xu Xuan and Pan You had serious disagreements on many details, such as whether to use background music such as bells and drums, whether the couple should bow to each other... The two quoted from classics and explained their own reasons, but neither could convince the other and neither would give in.

Li Yu asked Xu You to make a decision. Xu You supported Pan You's plan, so the wedding finally adopted Pan You's plan, and Xu You also offended Xu Xuan because of this.

More than a month later, Xu You unfortunately contracted carbuncle. Xu Xuan gloated to his friends and said: "Xu You was willing to be a bootlicker of the ignorant child Pan You, violating the ancient rituals and teachings of Zhou Gong and Confucius. Look - he got his retribution. God has eyes!"

Let me add one more thing. In fact, Xu Xuan's opinion is more in line with the ancient and modern etiquette. Then why did Xu You, as the referee, support Pan You?

Xu You was from a prominent family. His original name was Xu Jingyou. His father was Xu Zhihui and his grandfather was Xu Wen. He was Xu Wen's grandson.

After Xu Wen's death, in the power struggle between Xu Zhigao and Xu Zhixun, Xu Zhihui stood on Xu Zhigao's side and volunteered to act as an undercover agent for Xu Zhigao, revealing Xu Zhixun's true intentions and weaknesses, and made great contributions to Xu Zhigao. After Xu Zhigao seized power, he treated Xu Zhihui's family well. Although Xu Zhigao changed his surname to "Li" after he became emperor, Xu Zhihui and his descendants were still regarded as members of the royal family. In terms of seniority, Xu You was Li Yu's uncle, Xu Huangshu.

Xu You was a member of the royal family and was fond of literature. He often chatted and laughed with cultural celebrities and internet celebrities at the time, and had a place in the cultural circle of the Southern Tang Dynasty. During the reign of Li Jing, the Qinghui Palace was established. The first batch of Qinghui Palace scholars were Xu You and Zhang Li. After Li Yu succeeded to the throne, he admired the literary talent of this uncle very much. The uncle and nephew often wrote poems and lyrics at banquets to help with drinking. The fact that Xu You became a poet and lyricist friend with Li Yu and was appreciated by Li Yu shows that Xu You had a solid literary foundation.

Born into a royal family and with great literary attainments, Xu You was chosen by Li Yu as the final arbitrator of the dispute. Xu You certainly knew that Xu Xuan's plan was more reliable, but Pan You was at the height of his power at the time and was a trusted and favored minister around Li Yu, so Xu You did not hesitate to stand on Pan You's side. Just like his father stood on Xu Zhigao's side, he was very good at changing his stance according to the situation.

Li Yu built Chengxin Hall behind Qinghui Hall, which became the "inner court", the heart of the heart of Southern Tang, the court of the court, and the real power core of Southern Tang. Xu You and his brother Xu Liao were in charge of Chengxin Hall. In order to consolidate their own power, the two brothers also appointed their sons and nephews, such as Xu Yuanyu, as Yuanwailang, and turned Chengxin Hall into a family business.

This explains a foreshadowing in the previous article. Why were the brothers Xu Yuanyu, Xu Yuanji, and Xu Yuanshu able to cut off the connection between the Southern Tang court and the outside world and keep Li Yu in the dark? This is the reason. Xu Yuanyu and others are Li Yu's cousins. When Li Jing was in power, he was more fond of Buddhism, but he was still restrained. After Li Yu succeeded to the throne, Xu You tried his best to please him and wasted a lot of financial revenue on feeding monks and preaching, which caused a huge gap in the national finances that could not be made up.

On the wedding day with Xiao Zhou Hou, Li Yu spent a lot of money on the spot:
"Li Tang scattered money on the account, and the words on it said: Long life and wealth, a house full of gold and jade. There were also words like loyalty and filial piety passed down from generation to generation, five sons and two daughters, peace in the world, and being granted a title of nobility and appointed as prime minister."

This is what ancient coin collectors call "spending money".

Li Yu was a famous literary youth with a strong "second-generation flavor". He liked art and advocated luxury. Needless to say, his wedding must have been extraordinarily luxurious. There is a detail that can prove this indirectly:
"When the bride was welcomed, the common people who watched, some climbed to the top of the roof, and some even fell off the tiles and died."

On the second day of the wedding, the groom Li Yu held a banquet for all the ministers, and Han Xizai and other ministers wrote poems to advise and remonstrate (Han Xizai and below all wrote poems to satirize). Now almost all the materials translate "讽" as "嘲讽", but in fact, "讽" in ancient Chinese more means "to advise and remonstrate", such as "邹忌冯启王納荐", while the meaning of satire and ridicule is often expressed by "嘲嘲". I won't complain about Baidu any more.

Here, it should be translated as "advise", advising Li Yu not to be so willful, not to marry a new love just after the mourning period was over, and not to marry the heroine of the "Huatangmen" scandal. How could such a woman be made the queen?
Combined with the last sentence of the original text, "But the later lord did not send them away", most people would naturally translate it as "Li Yu did not care about Han Xizai and others and did not drive them out of the banquet."

"不之放" is a sentence with the object placed in front of the negative sentence, that is, "不出之". There is no problem with this. The key is who "之" refers to. Look at the whole sentence: "Han Xizai and others all wrote poems to satirize him, but the later lord did not send him away."

The "zhi" here is not Han Xizai, but Xiao Zhouhou. It means that Han Xizai and others wrote poems to persuade Li Yu, and Li Yu highly praised their spirit of speaking frankly, but did not adopt their suggestions and still stubbornly established his sister-in-law as the queen.

The above is a literal translation. In fact, we can translate it in a more paraphrase, which is even shorter than the classical Chinese text, with just three words: 然丙卵. All my dear ministers have said it very well, 然丙卵.

Speaking of irony, the history books do record a nursery rhyme from that time:

"My mother came to me and I forgot about home, and the peach and plum trees in the backyard did not bloom.

All the pigs and dogs died, and the cats I kept got rashes."

The "niang" in the first sentence means wife, referring to Xiao Zhou Hou. The meaning of the first sentence is that Li Yu is a big-tailed wolf who married a wife and forgot his mother.
The third sentence, "All the pigs and dogs died", is explained in history books as "the end of the year of Xu and Hai". The Southern Tang Dynasty died in the eighth year of Kaibao (975), the year of Yi Hai, the year of the pig. As for the explanation of the dog, I personally guess it was the seventh year of Kaibao (974), the year of Jia Xu, when the Song Dynasty started the war. The war started in the year of the dog and ended in the year of the pig.

The "red tumor" in the fourth sentence is an eye disease. This sentence is about a blind cat, which cannot catch mice. It corresponds to the "peaches and plums do not bloom" in the second sentence. Peaches and plums should be "peaches and plums do not speak, but people will come to them". However, the peaches and plums that should be everywhere in the world do not bloom or bear fruit. The peaches and plums that do not bloom and the blind cat are used to satirize Xiao Zhouhou.

The marriage between Li Yu and Concubine Xiao Zhou was just a joke in the eyes of everyone, and their romantic affairs were the topic of conversation after dinner.

In 975, the Southern Tang Dynasty fell, and Xiao Zhouhou was captured by Li Yu and brought north to Bianzhou. After Li Yu's death, Xiao Zhouhou "was overwhelmed with grief" and died soon after at the age of 28.

(End of this chapter)