Legend of Lantern Festival
During the
period of the Western Han Dynasty in China's history Emperor Liu Bang was particularly
fond of his concubine Lady Qi and wanted to make her son Ruyi the crown prince.
Although he failed to do so because of the obstruction of Queen Lu, the vicious queen
harbored resentment against Lady Qi in her bosom.
After Liu
Bang's death, Liu Ying, son of Queen Lu succeeded to the throne to be Emperor Han Huidi.
Huidi, weak in characer, was irresolute and hesitant. So the power fell gradually into the
hand of the queen mother who was both cruel and astute.
To vent her
ranking hatred Queen-mother Lu killed Prince Ruyi with poisoned wine. Then she had Lady
Qi's hands and feet cut off to turn her a cripple deaf and blind and then had her prisoned
in a toilet all year round.
Emperor
Huidi was very resentful to the cruelty and imperiousness of his queen mother, but he had
no power to resist her. So he fell ill with anxiety and melancholy in the end and died
soon afterwards.
From then on
Queen Mother Lu arrogated all the powers to herself at court and took over the command of
the army from Marshal Zhou Bo. In order to take the state power from Liu's hand to Lu's,
she offered the titles of princes and marquises to her maternal nephews and grand nephews
to let them assist her to grasp the power at court.
To Remove
possible perils Queen Mother Lu not only pushed out the old officials but also killed in
succession prince You, Gong and Yan, sons of the late emperor Liu Bang. Members of the
royal family and the officials felt deeply indigant at this, but being afraid of the Lu's
cruelty and ferocioousness they were forced to keep their resentment to themselves.
The death
of Queen Mother Lu put the members of the Lu family on tenter-hooks. They feared very much
to be squeezed out or harmed. One day they met secretly at General Lu Lu's house to plot a
rebellion so as to take over the state power from the Liu family once for all.