The eldest grandson was a prime minister for more than thirty years, a man of literary and martial talent, and a famous politician in the early Tang Dynasty. As a noble relative, he was powerful but not specialized, loyal to the Tang royal family, and did his best to contribute to the formulation of the Tang Dynasty's canonical system.
The Tomb of Changsun Wuji is a tomb of Zhaoling, located in Yongshoufang Village, Quzi Township, Yongshou County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. Located in Wulong County, Chongqing City, Jiangkou Town, Wujiang River, under the Lingqi Mountain, the eldest grandson of the eldest grandson of the crown tomb, commonly known as the "Imperial Tomb" and "Tianzi Tomb". Guqian Prefecture is the area around Wulong and Pengshui in present-day Chongqing. The scale of the cemetery originally covered an area of three acres, the main base was simple and solemn, the pavilions and pavilions were exquisitely crafted, and the stone steles, stone lions, stone rabbits and stone horses were arranged in an orderly manner.
Then, why did such a heavy courtier end up in disgrace? It all started with the seventeenth year of Zhenguan.
It is said that in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, because the two brothers-in-law Li Chengqian and Li Tai were deposed one after another, Li Zhi transformed from the former King of Jin into the crown prince. Twenty-three years after Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong of Tang died, and Li Zhi successfully ascended to the throne, that is, Emperor Gaozong of Tang.
Before Emperor Taizong of Tang's death, Li Zhi, who was afraid of being weak, could not protect the prosperous country of the Tang Dynasty, and left three auxiliary ministers, Nameless Sun Wuji, Chu Suiliang, and Li Ji. Among them, especially the tai lieutenant's eldest grandson Wujie is the head. In addition to being the founding father of the country and the chief chancellor of a dynasty, the eldest son Wuji was also the uncle of Emperor Gaozong of the dynasty. Under the blessing of many auras, the position of the eldest grandson wuji in the dprk is well-deserved under one person and above ten thousand people.
However, under the corrosion of power, the eldest son Wuji gradually forgot the warnings of Tang Taizong and his sister Empress Eldest Sun.
In the fourth year of Yonghui, the case of the rebellion of the horse house was finally settled, and with the end of this matter, the power of the eldest son Wuji also reached its peak. At this time, except for Li Ji, the other six members of the "Prime Minister's Team" in the DPRK were all the eldest grandsons. And this Li Ji was originally one of the three great trusts, and When Emperor Taizong was dying, he was demoted to a foreign country with the art of emperor. It was not until Emperor Gaozong ascended the throne that Li Ji was promoted to a member of the "Prime Minister's Team" and appointed Shangshu Zuo as a servant.
This top official, obviously, is not so good.
In the first year of Yonghui, the eldest grandson Wuji's position in the palace was like a day in the sky, and under pressure, Li Ji chose to retreat bravely and Protect Himself, and took the initiative to resign from the post of Shangshu Zuo Servant, retaining only the honorary titles of "Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division" and "Tongzhongshu Menxia Sanpin". As we all know, the "Three Pins under the Tongzhongshu Gate" are comparable to the prime minister, and nominally Li Ji can still participate in the decision-making of the DPRK and China. However, this retreat of Li Ji became a dark son of Emperor Gaozong in dealing with the eldest grandson in the future.
In the case of Fang Yi'ai, the eldest grandson Acted extremely fiercely, and the thunderous means made Emperor Gaozong have a great sense of crisis. It was from this moment that Emperor Gaozong unveiled the prelude to the "Dispute Between the Emperors and The Emperors" and gradually embarked on the road of political breakthrough. Emperor Gaozong's first step was to appoint Li Ji as Sikong and repaint the portrait of Ling Yange for him to show the importance he valued, and even to personally write a preface to him.
In the harem of the former dynasty, the harem was one, and in the harem, Emperor Gaozong loved Wu Zhaoyi, who was extremely talented in politics, and alienated and snubbed Empress Wang. At this point, Emperor Gaozong's intention to control the imperial power was well known.
Emperor Gaozong's actions made the harem people panic, and Empress Wang's uncle Liu Yi finally recognized the meaning behind her niece's imminent fall from favor. Therefore, he asked to resign from the post of Zhongshu Ling, and when Emperor Gaozong saw this, he demoted him to the position of official Shangshu. However, all this was not enough, and Emperor Gaozong was above the court, saying that the courtiers did not dare to enter the court and had lost the legacy of chastity, but in fact he was testing the attitude of the ministers of the court.
It can be said that with the cooperation of Emperor Gaozong and his political partner Wu Zhaoyi, this road to seizing power went very smoothly.
In the sixth year of Yonghui, following the sudden death of Princess Andingsi, Wu Zhaoyi launched a fatal blow against the empress, accusing the empress and her mother Liu Shi of performing witchcraft in the palace. As soon as this accusation came out, Emperor Gaozong could not wait to issue a punishment edict: immediately expel the Liu clan from the palace and make it impossible for him to step into the palace for half a step for the rest of his life. The following month, Liu Yi, who had been demoted to the post of official Shangshu, was expelled from the imperial court, and Empress Wang was left alone.
Immediately afterward, Emperor Gaozong prepared to break the custom of the four concubines of Gui Shu Dexian for Wu Zhaoyi and to make her a concubine. However, this move has encountered obstacles. Perhaps feeling that he could not allow Tianzi to act arbitrarily, with the support of the eldest son Wujie, Zhongshu Ordered Laiji to join forces with Han Yao, the attendant, to fight with his face and put Back Emperor Gaozong's will.
This failure made Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zhao, who had just entered the court, realize that if they wanted to suppress the eldest son and completely regain the power of the dynasty, they must build a political force of their own. In the official arena, the most intolerable are those who have no mind, and the first to perceive this contest is naturally the politically sensitive ministers in the vortex of power.
While watching the two factions compete, they did not have the intention of selling for a price. Among them were Li Yifu, who was appointed as a zhongshu sheriff, Cui Yixuan, the imperial envoy, and Xu Jingzong, the wei weiqing.
Like Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu, they are all young and famous, and people with bad luck, who does not want to be enshrined in the cabinet and worship the prime minister, and become a very popular subject? Such an opportunity may only be once in their lives, so after seeing the situation clearly, they did not hesitate to join the camp of the Son of Heaven and began the great cause of supporting wuzhao as a successor for the sake of strengthening their own forces.
With the growing strength of political forces, Li Wuzhao was once again put on the agenda. On this day, Emperor Gaozong summoned several prime ministers and proposed: "The empress has no children under her knees, only Wu Zhaoyi has a son, and now, I want to re-establish Zhaoyi as empress, what do you think?" There is no doubt that as soon as this idea was proposed, it was strongly opposed by several prime ministers.
However, Emperor Gaozong did not want to give up on this, and repeatedly tossed and turned. In the end, Chu Suiliang, who couldn't bear it, directly broke through the fig leaf: "The Wu clan once served the former emperor, this is a well-known thing, how can the eyes and ears of the people of the world be blinded?" In this matter, Chu Suiliang's opposition was extremely fierce, and he even made a move to enter the court with death, but even if Chu Suiliang touched the pillar with his head and stained the Danqi with blood, he could not stop Wu Zhao's road to sealing.
However, at this time, Li Ji entered the palace again and declared: "The fact that the sealing is a family affair of His Majesty, why should we ask outsiders again?" With this phrase "Tongzhongshu Menxia Sanpin", Xu Jingzong, after exhorting the eldest son on behalf of Emperor Gaozong to be rejected, directly said: "The old peasants who cultivate the land collect more wheat grain and want to change their wives, not to mention that you want to establish an empress for tianzi. ”
This absurd "theory of wife swapping" actually achieved Gaozong's field of public opinion.
In September of the same year, Chu Suiliang was demoted to the position of governor of Tanzhou.
In the second year of Xianqing, Chu Suiliang was demoted to the increasingly remote guizhou, and at the same time, Li Yifu was promoted to Zhongshu Ling. In August of the same year, Wu Hou, who held great power, realized that the time had come, so she launched a crackdown on the eldest son's party. Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu took the lead and jointly wrote a letter to report that Zhongshu Ling Laiji, Han Huang and Chu Suiliang had secretly communicated with Chu Suiliang, and the two of them transferred Chu Suiliang to guilin, a military stronghold, in order to establish foreign aid and with the intention of misconduct.
On August 11, Han Huang, Lai Ji, and Chu Suiliang were demoted to Zhenzhou, Taizhou, and Aizhou as assassins, respectively. At this point, the eldest grandson of the DPRK and the central government were suppressed and expelled to the end, leaving only the eldest grandson alone, and he was alone and lacked the skills to return to heaven.
Three years after Xianqing, Chu Suiliang died in endless grief and loss after the last time he wrote to Tianzi, at the age of sixty-three.
With the successive fall of the eldest son's faction, Tianzi's long sword finally pointed at the biggest "enemy",-the eldest son Wuji.
In the fourth year of Xianqing, Empress Wu instructed Xu Jingzong that it was time to attack the eldest grandson. At the time, Hsu Kyung-jong and another official, Yukihmo, were working on a partisan case involving the crown prince of the imperial court, Ma Wei Jifang, and the overseer, Yushi Li Chao. Under the coercion of Xu Jingzong's words and deeds, Wei Jifang was tortured and intended to commit suicide, but the result was unsuccessful.
At this time, Xu Jingzong, who was worried about how to complete the order of Empress Wu, immediately went to Gaozong and said: "Wei Jifang committed suicide in fear of sin this time, not because he formed a party for personal gain, but because he had another major hidden plot. Xu Jingzong said, "Wei Jifang and others want to collude with the eldest son Wuji to frame Zhongliang, so as to regain power in the government, and then wait for the opportunity to launch a coup." How to expect the conspiracy to be exposed, which led to the suicide of Wei Jifang. ”
At this point, the development of the case has gone far beyond the scope of officials forming parties for personal gain, but it is a case of conspiracy to commit crimes. Moreover, the mastermind of this attempt to rebel was still the emperor's lieutenant, the uncle of the Son of Heaven.
Clear-eyed people can see that Xu Jingzong's remarks are completely "wanting to add to the crime", but before there was a case of fang's love as a "foreshadowing", now, this case is not surprising. History is so similar, in those days, the eldest son Wuji single-handedly concocted the case of the love of the house, and Xu Jingzong's current method is exactly the same as his.
The news of the eldest son Wuji's suspected rebellion reached Gaozong's ears, and his first reaction was surprise, saying: "How is this possible?" My uncle is now alienated by a despicable villain, and may have some disagreements with me, but why did he do such a rebellious thing? ”
Xu Jingzong replied: "Wei Chen's repeated deliberations on the beginning and end of the case, the eldest son Wuji's intention to plot rebellion has been revealed, but His Majesty is still suspicious, which is not the blessing of Jiangshan Sheji." ”
At this time, Emperor Gaozong was in tears and said, "It is the misfortune of my Li family, there are many people with different ambitions among the foreign relatives, in those years, Princess Gaoyang conspired with her horse, and now the uncle is the same, which makes Shuo how to face the people of Jiangshan." If this is true, what should be done? ”
Xu Jingzong then said: "Fang Yi loves a small child, and it is naturally impossible for the same woman to start an incident, and it is impossible to generalize with the eldest grandson." He had followed the emperor all the way and laid down the Tang Dynasty, and his wisdom made the world worship. So far, he has served as the prime minister for more than thirty years, and everyone is afraid of his power. Once he starts a fight, who can stop him? Now fortunately, the temple has a spirit, and the former emperor has blessed it, and it is indeed a great fortune in the world to pull out this great adulterer from a small case. ”
Wei Chen was worried: "After the eldest son learned of Wei Jifang's suicide attempt and the conspiracy was exposed, he simply shook his arm and launched a coup d'état. If it really comes to this time, it will be a worry for the Temple, so I hope that Your Majesty will make a quick decision. Emperor Gaozong was silent for half a minute, and finally ordered Xu Jingzong to investigate one or two more times and be sure to find conclusive evidence. Living up to expectations, Xu Jingzong entered the palace early the next morning with evidence from the overnight trial to inform Emperor Gaozong.
He said: "Wei Jifang has already confessed that he and the eldest son Wuji and others want to plot against each other. Wei Jifang confessed: "Han Huang once said to the eldest son Wuji, 'In the beginning, Chu Suiliang and Liu Yi advised you to support the King of Liang, but you did not want to. Now that the crown prince has been deposed, His Majesty must have been suspicious of you, and high fulfillment is not the best example. When the eldest grandson heard this, he felt trembling. In addition, later, the nephew of the clan, Sun Xiang, was degraded, and Han Huang and others were convicted one after another, and in order to protect themselves, the eldest son, Wu Jie, decided to conspire with Wei Jifang and prepare for rebellion.
The case has developed so far that even the "evidence" has been obtained, and the eldest grandson is doomed.
After Emperor Gaozong heard this, he pretended to be sad and said, "I can't bear to kill my uncle myself." Xu Jingzong, on the other hand, mentioned Bo Zhao during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han without hesitation, saying: "At the beginning, Bo Zhao committed the crime of murder, and Emperor Wen of Han ordered hundreds of officials to weep and mourn, and then, Dayi killed his relatives. Emperor Wen of Han's practice is still praised by the people of the world, and Emperor Wen of Han is regarded as a Ming Emperor. The eldest grandson Wujie forgot about the great favor of the two dynasties, and intended to rebel, which was even worse than Bo Zhao's crime, and now that his conspiracy has been exposed, the evidence is like a mountain, what does His Majesty hesitate? ”
Seeing that Emperor Gaozong had some squid, Xu Jingzong said: "The ancients said: When the judgment is continuous, it is chaotic. This matter cannot be postponed, and I hope that Your Majesty will make a decision as soon as possible! ”
Xu Jingzong's words quoted the scriptures and were impeccable, and under some persuasion, Emperor Gaozong naturally stopped his grief and ordered the arrest of the eldest son Wujie.
In several conversations, Emperor Gaozong showed great grief and a look of leniency and filial piety. However, in fact, this was just a show that Xu Jingzong accompanied Gaozong, and the two of them cooperated appropriately. The purpose of this is only to maintain Emperor Gaozong's consistent image of a benevolent prince and avoid falling into the historical infamy of killing his uncle.
From beginning to end, it seems that Xu Jingzong could not wait to condemn the eldest son to be unscrupulous, but in fact, it was Emperor Gaozong who secretly instructed and guided.
Because the identity of the eldest grandson is too special, if you want to justify his crime, you must come up with conclusive evidence. Therefore, after the first conversation between the emperors and courtiers, Emperor Gaozong "ordered Emperor Jingzong to be more scrutinized", not so much to let Xu Jingzong prove that the eldest son was innocent, but rather to completely confirm his accusations. And Xu Jingzong, who understood the Divine Society, found "ironclad evidence" overnight, which made the eldest son Wuji completely a sinner.
On April 22, Emperor Gaozong ordered that the eldest son be stripped of all his posts and titles and sent to Qianzhou. In July of the same year, Emperor Gaozong had Changsun Wuji's conspiracy case retried, and later sent Yuan Gongyu to Qianzhou to "re-ju Wu Jie rebellion".
Soon after, the glory of that year was like a passing world, and the elders of the two dynasties were unscrupulous, and finally, they died under a white silk. After the death of the eldest grandson Wuji, the family property was confiscated, and the close relatives were exiled to Lingnan as slaves. In the first year of the First Yuan Dynasty (674), Emperor Gaozong of Tang posthumously restored the eldest grandson Wu Jieguan And ordered his grandson Changsun Yuanyi to inherit the title of Duke of Zhao and bury him with Zhaoling.
Resources:
[Old Book of Tang, Fourth Emperor Gaozong of benji, Old Book of Tang, Biography of Chu Suiliang, Old Book of Tang, Biography of Changsun Wujie]