Chapter 351: Cultural Prosperity
The emperor has no private affairs.
This is an ancient saying that has been circulated in the Zhou Dynasty. Based on this ancient saying, a series of rules for the emperor were extended. One of the most important rules is the marriage of the Zhou emperor.
King Zhao of Zhou was a student of Luo Su, and King Yi of Zhou was a student of Luo Cheng. Their relationship was almost equivalent to that between father and son, but the marriage between these two Zhou emperors was also a purely political marriage, and there was no room for them to choose the person they liked.
The last King You of Zhou who favored Bao Si has already died.
But in fact, it was not just the Zhou emperor. Most of the nobles' marriages were arranged marriages. Now Luo Jing's marriage was the same. The only difference was that Liu Heng had given him a bunch of girls with both talent and beauty, and he could always find one or several of them that he liked.
Luo Jing walked out of the palace in a daze and began to think about the political implications of this. He still remembered his father's evaluation of the emperor - a man who was born to be an emperor, whose every word and action, even his unintentional actions, carried political implications.
Luo Jing's marriage had important political implications, second only to the choice of the queen.
He was a staunch royalist and the son of the former regent.
The political resources of Ying Hou Luoyi and Shouguang Hou Luochen all fell on him, and even many resources of Anyang Hou Luocai were also in his hands.
He is one of the stabilizers of the court, and his status in the current Han Dynasty is even higher than that of the crown prince.
The crown prince might still be deposed, but his position could be said to be as stable as a rock.
In exchange, it was normal for his marriage to be a condition for winning over certain people. Luo Jing had such awareness, but Liu Heng married so many women for him, and with Luo Jing's political wisdom, he could not imagine the reason.
But he knew that the emperor would not harm him, so he could only shake his head and stop thinking about it.
Liu Heng is very fast.
The Queen Mother invited all the noble ladies to the Weiyang Palace for a banquet, and then Liu Heng announced that he was going to choose a wife for Luo Jing.
The whole city of Chang'an went crazy all of a sudden!
This adjective is not an exaggeration. Whether it was the group of meritorious officials or the emerging dignitaries who rose in the later period, almost all of them were trying to get some information from the emperor.
As for sending letters to the Queen in Changle Palace, there were even more people, after all, the Queen was in charge of all marriage matters in the world.
This is the guarantee of family wealth!
A position not much lower than that of the Crown Princess.
Who wouldn't be tempted by the idea of achieving the same effect without having to get involved in the factional struggles among the princes?
As for the circle of noble ladies, there is no need to say more. Luo Jing is the most handsome guy in Chang'an City and the dream man of most noble ladies.
I wish to obtain Dong’a’s heart, and never leave me until we are old.
This is what a noble lady named Liu said who did not want to reveal her name.
In this era of extremely open-mindedness, if it weren't for the obstruction of the family elders, I'm afraid that a noble lady would have come to pursue Luo Jing long ago.
But now Liu Heng directly lifted this restriction, and everyone's minds became active.
…
After hearing about Liu Heng's plan, the queen was even more shocked than Luo Jing, and couldn't help asking, "Your Majesty, what do you mean by this?"
Liu Heng chuckled and said, "Wouldn't it be a good thing to marry more noble ladies?"
“It’s a good thing.”
The Queen hesitated and said, "But this is unreasonable."
Liu Heng said softly: "A Jing's influence is too great, but he doesn't realize it. This is like a baby holding a sharp knife and swaggering through the streets. Isn't it too dangerous?
The women I chose for him are like embroidered yet tough silk, wrapping up his sharp edge so that he won’t hurt others or himself.”
The Queen then nodded as if she understood, but Liu Heng actually hadn't finished saying the second half of the sentence.
After decades of reigns of Empress Gao, Emperor Xiaohui and Liu Heng, the Marquisate of Dong'a became the largest marquisate.
There is no problem if Luo Jing is still here now, but this will lead to disaster in the future. After all, the vassal kingdoms are gradually splitting apart, and the Kingdom of Dong'e cannot remain in its current state forever.
Rather than causing unhappiness to future generations or even bringing ruin to Luo Jing’s reputation after his death, it is better to resolve it now.
Marry more wives and have more children. When Luo Jing dies, those children will divide up all the political influence of the Dong'a Marquisate and the Dong'a lineage.
Night banquet.
The lights in the Weiyang Palace were bright. It was a rare occasion that the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the Empress attended together. Those who came here were all ministers, princes, and their families, wives, and daughters.
Regardless of whether they were legitimate daughters or illegitimate daughters, as long as they were of the right age, they were basically all brought along. Since they were all concubines anyway, there were not so many requirements on their status.
Moreover, in this era of frequent political marriages, in most powerful families, concubines' daughters usually live better than concubines' sons, because concubines' daughters are more valuable.
In an instant, the entire hall was filled with beautiful girls, even more lively than the emperor's harem.
When the emperor and his men walked into the hall, everyone bowed and said loudly, "Your Majesty, Queen Mother, Your Majesty, and the Queen, may you live long and well!"
Then he saw Luo Jing sitting in a seat very close to the emperor, which was fundamentally different from the other ministers in the hall.
Most people looked at the gorgeous Luo Jing with sparkling eyes. Seeing this, Liu Heng immediately smiled and said, "Ah Jing, look at this palace. There are countless beauties, beautiful ladies that you have never seen before, and they are everywhere. They all come for you.
All the nobles in the palace are counting on you to become their son-in-law.
Isn't it true that a real man is born into this world, something that ordinary people envy but cannot even envy?
This feeling and this scene should be written for all the princes and nobles to express this feeling and pass it on to future generations. "
Everyone knew that Luo Jing had the ability to speak eloquently. After hearing the emperor's words, many women looked a little shy, but their eyes lit up and they stared at Luo Jing intently. Seeing this, Luo Jing said, "Your Majesty has ordered, and I dare not disobey. Please allow me to ponder for a while."
Liu Heng also ordered court painters to come and paint a picture of tonight's banquet. Liu Heng believed that this kind of material that publicizes the prosperous scene should be circulated to later generations so that people in later generations can be fascinated by this era.
It is just like the scholars and nobles of this era all want to return to the era when King Su was regent.
Luo Jing had already started composing a fu at this time. He first described the prosperity of the night, then praised the grace of the Queen Mother and the Emperor and Empress, and then praised the princes and ministers who came to the banquet. Finally, he used a lot of space to praise the noble ladies who came to the palace.
The literary style of Hanfu emphasizes gorgeous words, and it also requires the words to be meaningful and not empty, so the requirements for the person who writes fu are very high.
But of course there was no problem for Luo Jing. It was basically a piece of cake for him, especially this kind of aria of praise. The first things Luo learned were various hymns, so this kind of aria was basically instinctive for him.
Each paragraph of this fu ends with a four-character or two-character phrase, ending with "哉" or "矣", which is a typical Luo style aria.
In the land of Zhu Xia, there is almost no one who doesn't know it, and it can be seen in various sacrifices and ceremonies.
Whenever this happened, everyone in the hall would cheer in unison and even sing along with him. This was the subtle influence of the Luo family on the world.
Luo Jing paused from time to time, and there were bursts of praise in the hall. Liu Heng looked at Luo Jing and felt proud of him. When the whole fu was finished, the hall was completely noisy. Liu Heng laughed loudly and said: "I will name this fu "The Long Night Fu", and it should be included in the classics for future generations."
After a long while, the palace finally quieted down, and the queen said, "I summoned all of you wealthy people here tonight because of Dong'e Hou Jing's marriage.
Hou Jing of Dong'e is the legitimate son of King Luo Wen, the offspring of Princess Lu Yuan, and a member of the royal family. Is there any more noble man in the world than him?
Your Majesty and I both think that there is none.
Even in terms of literary talent and appearance, is there anyone who can surpass Hou Jing of Dong'e?
Your Majesty and I think not.
What kind of woman in the world could marry such a handsome man?
Then I'm afraid it would require the legendary Xizi, Luoshen, etc.!
Are there such women in the world today?
Your Majesty and I think not.
Zhao Gongling said that the Luo family did not consider family background when marrying, but only considered character and talent. Your Majesty agreed with this, so in addition to the noble relatives, there were more than a hundred carefully selected good women from Shandong.
But even so, there was no one who could match Hou Jing of Dong'a in terms of talent and appearance.
Can a swan be in the company of sparrows?
Can a pheasant be paired with a phoenix?
Of course not, so what should we do?
I am very worried.”
The Queen's words can be said to be a severe PUA. All of you families want to marry your daughters to Hou Jing of Dong'e, but you are not worthy of him.
The Luo family and we don’t care about your family background, but what should we do if you are not as talented or beautiful as us?
The Zhu families looked a little embarrassed. They wanted to say that as long as a wife was virtuous and had good morals, it would be enough. Your requirements were too high. Besides, there were people with excellent looks among the Zhu families who could be good matches.
The queen continued, “The majestic and towering palace is built of logs, bricks and stones.
The turbulent sea is formed by the confluence of gurgling streams.
There are pieces of gravel on the towering mountains and tiny grains of sand in the endless desert.
One person may be weak, one person may be inadequate, but if ten or a hundred people each make use of their excellence, then they will surely be able to compete for glory.”
The real purpose is revealed!
If one person can't do it, just marry a few.
The whole hall was filled with shock and silence.
————
The Dong'e Marquisate underwent a large-scale expansion during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, and became the largest marquisate, with an area more than ten times that of other marquisate's. Most of them were inhabited by the concubines of Dong'e Marquis Luo Jing, who were described by people at that time as "half of the beauties in the world go to the imperial palace, and half go to Dong'e."
"One Hundred Beauties of Dong'a" and "A Night Banquet at Weiyang Palace" were hung in the Marquis's Mansion. The originals were painted on the walls of the imperial palace and the Marquis's Mansion. The paintings selected in this book were copied from the murals after paper was invented. There are countless details to appreciate, which fully demonstrate the prosperity of the Han Dynasty at that time and have extremely high artistic value. ——"Appreciation of Ancient Famous Paintings"
(End of this chapter)
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