Someone once commented on Liu Ziye as follows: “The provocation of King Wu against Yin and Zhou cannot be ignored; Huo Guangshu’s fault in Changyi is not worth mentioning.” There have been many tyrants in Chinese history, but there are not many as cruel, vicious, debauched and shameless as Liu Ziye. What kind of cruel and absurd behavior did he have? Today, the history encyclopedia editor brings relevant content to share with you.
In 464 AD, Emperor Xiaozong of Song passed away and Liu Ziye succeeded to the throne. After his father passed away, Liu Ziye’s face showed no signs of sadness, and he even refused to pretend to be upset. Emperor Xiaozong of Song was a man with a nose of wine lees. One time, while visiting the imperial temple, Liu Ziye saw a portrait of his father in the temple and found that the portrait did not include a nose of wine lees. He was very dissatisfied and immediately had it painted. Not only that, Liu Ziye once pointed to his father’s portrait in front of ministers and said, ‘This person is lecherous and does not choose between superiority and inferiority!’ Later, he even splashed feces and water on the tomb of his father, Emperor Xiaozong of Song.
Liu Ziye’s disrespect towards his father is not much better for his mother. When Liu Ziye succeeded to the throne, his mother, Empress Dowager Wang, was seriously ill. He not only never went to greet and pay his respects, but even said when his mother sent someone to call him, “There are many ghosts in the patient’s room, how can we go?” Empress Dowager Wang was furious and said, “Take a knife and cut open my belly to see how I gave birth to such a beast.” In the end, he died of anger.
Liu Ziye had a rebellious and bloodthirsty personality, seemingly taking pleasure in killing. After ascending to the throne, he abused and killed the royal family at will, massacred ministers on a large scale, and countless palace maids and attendants died at his hands. The kings of Xiangdong, Jian’an, and Shanyang, Liu Yu, Liu Xiuren, and Liu Xiuyou, were relatively overweight. Liu Ziye ordered them to be placed in bamboo cages and weighed, and they were respectively called Pig King, Kill King, and Thief King. Liu Yu was most afraid that Liu Ziye would order someone to dig a pit on the ground, fill it with mud and water, and let Liu Yu lie naked in the pit, licking and eating with his mouth in a wooden trough filled with pig food. Liu Ziye even summoned all the queens and princesses and forced his courtiers to humiliate them. Moreover, due to the disobedience of Jiang Shi, the concubine of Prince Liu Shuo of Nanping, he killed all three of his sons.
Liu Ziye was debauched, shameless, and inhumane, mingling with his own sister, Princess Shanyin. The two of them spent their days frolicking in the palace, and Princess Shanyin even killed her own husband in order to stay and socialize in the palace. After seeing his beautiful aunt, Liu Ziye forcibly took her into the harem, thanked her for being a noble concubine, and killed a palace maid, pretending to be her aunt by tattooing her face, and falsely claiming that her aunt was dead. His uncle, General Ning Shuo He Mai, was dissatisfied with this, and Liu Ziye personally led the soldiers to kill He Mai.
Such behavior naturally makes Liu Ziye unacceptable to the world. Liu Ziye only reigned for two years and was assassinated by his uncle, Prince Liu Yu of Xiangdong, and others in 466 at the age of 17. After Liu Ziye’s death, his body was left unattended. Later, he was hastily buried in the south of Moling County without a temple or posthumous title, and was known as the “former deposed emperor” in history.
