How bizarre was the system of conferring the queen in the Northern Wei Dynasty?

China's feudal dynasty lasted more than 1000 years. In this long history, there were hundreds of empresses. These hundreds of outstanding women, before their death, have become the most respected women in the world, which can be said to be at the peak of women. These queens were basically married into the royal family by prominent families. At worst, they also had beauty that was beyond the reach of ordinary people, and they were very popular with the emperor. Generally speaking, as long as the emperor puts forward the opinions and candidates after the establishment, as long as the courtiers don't object, it is basically certain to be a queen. However, in the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it depends on God's will whether you can become a queen.

Ancient women

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, there was a wonderful post-establishment system, that is, the queen candidate needed to "cast a golden man with his own hands" under the gaze of everyone, and the golden man could only become a queen if he succeeded. Otherwise, if you don't succeed, even if you are favored by the Sixth Palace, have a distinguished life experience and have superior means of managing the harem, you can only be a lady in your life, but not a queen.

Casting gold people is one of China's methods of divining God's will since ancient times. Since the Qin Dynasty, weapons from all over the world can be collected to cast the Twelve Golden Men. Moreover, this incident was not initiated by the Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty. During the Huns' reign, it happened that the gold caster asked God's will. Whether Xiongnu, Jie or Tuoba of Xianbei belong to the northern nomadic people, they are relatively closed in folk education, and religion and sacrifice play a very important role in their lives. The gold casting man, said to be a gold man, should be a bronze gilded portrait, and some researches say it is a Buddha statue. It should be the candidate who pours the molten copper into the mold with the help of the foundry craftsman. But at that time, the skill was limited, and the success rate of bronze casting was not high, so some experts speculated that gold casting was made of pure gold, because pure gold was softer and more difficult to image. But most people agree that the so-called Golden Man is a gilded bronze statue, because the artifacts of the Northern Wei Dynasty handed down to later generations have never seen a Buddha statue made of pure gold.

The most famous event in the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty was the establishment of Tuoba GUI, the five emperors. Tuoba GUI had no children for a long time, and his younger brother Tuoba Yi had great influence in the DPRK, so Tuoba GUI was afraid of this younger brother. Later, Tuoba GUI finally had his son Tuoba Si, so he wanted to establish his son Tuoba Si's mother Wei Liu as the heir. If Tuoba Si has the birthright of the eldest son, his natural identity will be more noble and it will be easier to compete with Tuoba Yi. So TaBaYi for their own power, and courtiers launched concubines Mr. Murong and queen Wei Liu. Murong is a descendant of the Northern Yan royal family in the former dynasty, with noble status and pure blood, and is considered by the people to be the best candidate for the mother instrument in the world.

So Mr. Murong and Liu performed the ceremony of casting gold people in front of everyone. It may be that Liu wants to help his son to take the upper position too quickly, or it may be that someone did something in this activity. The final result is that Murong Zhujin succeeded and Liu failed. Because Mr. Murong became the queen and Liu became the imperial concubine.

Ancient women

Even with the help of the emperor, Liu had the authority of the queen in the related affairs of Zaixiang Neigong, but he still did not have the title of queen before his death. Only after his death, his son Tuoba Si succeeded to the throne and was chased as the queen. Of course, due to the system of "killing mother at the beginning", Liu was given death after his son Tuoba Sili became a prince.

According to records, in the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were only three queens who participated in the ceremony of casting gold, except Murong, Liu and Yao, the empress of the Ming Dynasty.

Yao was the daughter of Emperor Yao Xing at the end of Qin Dynasty. The marriage between Yao and Tuoba Si in Ming Dynasty can be said to be a marriage between the two countries, which is a kind of "marriage". In order to ease the relationship between the two countries, Tuoba Si ordered to greet the bride with the queen's etiquette. I didn't expect the two to play the piano and sing after marriage, and they were very affectionate. Tuoba Temple also held a ceremony of casting gold people to establish Yao's family. I didn't expect Yao to be a gold caster. Tuoba Si not only let him enjoy the treatment of the queen, but also wanted him to be the queen several times. However, Yao is a woman who knows how to advance and retreat. She resolutely resigned in front of Tuoba Si Feng, so the name of the queen was sealed after her death.

Only one of the three people who participated in the gold casting ceremony succeeded, and the probability of success was relatively low. Then how was this system abolished? This is about the relationship between the Northern Wei Dynasty and Buddhism.

During the Southern Dynasties, the whole country believed in Buddhism. "Four hundred and eighty halls in the southern dynasties, how many towers are misty and rainy." Through Du Mu's poems, we can imagine the prosperity of Buddhism at that time. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was even called "Buddha". Tuoba GUI once praised Buddhism for "benefiting from merits, being invisible, believing in miracles." And ordered a major overhaul of the Buddhist temple. Xianbei people are very good at sculpture, so it is natural to cast a large number of metal Buddha statues in the context of worshipping Buddha. From this point of view, Tuoba GUI can understand the ritual of casting Buddha statues after the establishment. Then why did this system last only three people, and the replacement of two thrones ended?

Ancient nobles

The main reason lies in Tuoba Tao, the third emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty. When Tuoba Tao was born, his posture was different from that of an ordinary baby. His grandfather Tuoba GUI once said, "It must be this child who can achieve my career in the future."

When he succeeded to the throne, Tuoba Tao resisted a mild attack, and later conquered Huxia, Beiyan and Beiliang, breaking many scenes of the founding of the Southern Dynasties and the unification of the North. Apart from his military achievements, his most famous cultural event was the destruction of Buddha in Wu Tai.

Because of the large number of Buddhist children, the population is sparsely populated and the military war is insufficient; On the other hand, Buddhism participated in the political struggle in a demagogic way, which aroused Tuoba Tao's strong dissatisfaction. In five or seven years, the True Prince of Taiping successively issued imperial edicts to destroy Buddhism, declared Buddhism a cult, burned and damaged Buddha statues and Buddhist scriptures, and arrested Buddhist monks and nuns. In this case, it is absolutely impossible for his concubines to cast Buddha statues as queens, so the ceremony of casting gold people ended after the two emperors handed it down.

Although this system has been abolished, it has a very strong nomadic color, which is a unique custom and distinctive symbol of the minority regime established by China as a multi-ethnic country.