Gao Taotao was born in 1032 and died in 1093. He was born in Mengcheng, Bozhou. Cao Shi, the queen of Song Renzong, is her aunt, and her family has a prominent position.
When Gao Taotao was four years old, he was sent to the palace and raised by his aunt, Empress Cao. When she grows up, Queen Cao intends to dedicate it to Song Renzong. However, perhaps because he watched Gao Taotao grow up since he was a child, Song Renzong had no other thoughts about him. Therefore, Renzong rejected the suggestion of Queen Cao and finally betrothed Gao Taotao to Song Yingzong.
Song Renzong died in 1063, and Song Yingzong succeeded to the throne. In A.D. 1065, Gao Taotao was crowned Queen by the British Sect and became the mother of the British Sect. After Song Yingzong's death, his son Song Shenzong succeeded to the throne, so Gao Taotao was honored as the Queen Mother.
In 1085, the eighth year of Yuanfeng, Song Shenzong died, and Song Zhezong, who was only nine years old, became the Empress Dowager. Because Song Zhezong was too young to handle state affairs, Gao Taotao, regarded as the queen mother, began to listen to politics and became a member of the imperial court.
Empress Dowager Gao is a staunch opponent of Wang Anshi's political reform. After she took control of the state power at the beginning, she abolished all the new laws previously implemented by Wang Anshi. In order to "take the restoration of ancestral laws as the primary task and implement the policy of benevolence", conservative ministers Sima Guang, Lv Gongzhu, Wen Yanbo and Fan Chunren were appointed. At the request of Xixia, Wang Anshi returned the four villages of Anjiang, Ganlu, Futu and Mizhi occupied by the Song Dynasty during the political reform to Xixia. Empress Dowager Cixi abolished the political reform policy promoted by Wang Anshi and other reformists, which was called "Yuan You modernization" in history.
Although Empress Dowager Gao resolutely opposed the new law and carried out a series of actions to suppress the new party, she could not ignore her political talents. She is diligent and honest, makes great efforts to govern, handles affairs fairly, pays special attention to restraining consorts and strictly abides by feudal women's morality. She was later called Yao Shun, a female middle school student.
The reign of Song Zhezong was the last period of economic prosperity, well-off society, clear politics and strong national strength in the Northern Song Dynasty. The immortal achievements made in this period can not be separated from the virtues of the empress dowager. It is said that when Song Yingzong was in power, Gao Shilin, the younger brother of the Empress Dowager, had served in the Inner Hall for a long time, and Yingzong wanted to promote him. However, this matter was eventually rejected by the Queen Mother Gao. She said: "It is an excessive grace for a scholar to be an official in North Korea. How to help according to the practice of the previous generation? "
In addition, after he succeeded to the throne, he tried many times to build a luxurious mansion for Gao's family, but his mother refused. In the end, the court only awarded an open space, and the Gaos built the house at their own expense, without using the state treasury for a penny. This persistence is as persistent as that of Empress Dowager Cixi herself when she was in power.
It can be said that without the strong insistence of the Empress Dowager in the court, when Song Zhezong came to power, she might face arrogant consorts and dignitaries.
However, it needs to be pointed out in particular that the Queen Mother Gao set too high a demand on Zhezong, even to the extent that Zhezong was not allowed to see a doctor when he was sick, which aroused the hatred of Zhezong. Song Zhezong's hatred for his grandmother later turned into a worship of his father's gods. Therefore, after Zhezong succeeded to the throne, he immediately resumed Wang Anshi's political reform policy and attached importance to New party member. This series of actions made the struggle between the old and new parties more serious and eventually turned into a national disaster.
In the autumn of Yuan Hu's eighth year, Empress Dowager Gao was seriously ill, and died in Bianjing a few days later at the age of 62. She went to posthumous title and was buried in Yongyuling. It is said that the Queen Mother summoned Fang Lu, Fan Chunren and other conservative ministers before her death, pointing out that Song Zhezong would never reuse them after her death. Advise them to avoid as soon as possible, so as not to cause great disaster. It can be seen that the Empress Dowager Gao has long fully understood the contradiction between herself and Zhezong, but it is a pity that it cannot be redeemed.