In the history of our country for thousands of years, there are many emperors who have spared no effort to ascend to the throne, but Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty and Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty have very similar experiences, but this similar experience is not the same. Like the Xuanwumen Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin killed his own brothers Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji's family in a mutiny, but did not kill them all in one breath, but spared the courtiers who had been following the two brothers, and even began to reuse Li Jiancheng's close confidant Wei Zheng.
However, the Ming Dynasty's mutiny and jingnan that broke out by Zhu Di was even bloodier than the Xuanwumen rebellion, and in order to seize the throne and stabilize the rule, Zhu Di not only killed his fellow siblings, but also exterminated all the officials and their families who had worked under Jianwen. Why did the two emperors, who were also bloody on the throne, have very different attitudes towards their rivals?
Wei Zheng was a famous politician in the early Tang Dynasty, and his first term was loyal to many people, from the beginning of Li Mi to the later Li Jiancheng, and then to the last Li Shimin. Wei Zheng, who was working under Li Jiancheng, also strongly advised Li Jiancheng to get rid of Li Shimin when Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin had a conflict, but Li Jiancheng did not accept Wei Zheng's request, which eventually led to the killing at Xuanwu Gate.
After Li Jiancheng's death, Li Shimin asked Wei Zheng why he wanted to break up the feelings between his brothers, and Wei Zheng said that if Li Jiancheng could do what he asked, then he would not die at the hands of his own brother today. Such a blunt answer to Wei Zheng made Li Shimin feel that he was a usable talent, so he left him around and became his cronies. And Li Shimin took in Wei Zheng and gradually let the rest of Li Jiancheng's former former department see hope and choose to surrender.
In the later years, Li Shimin also achieved the rule of Zhenguan with the assistance of Wei Zheng, which became a good story throughout the ages. However, Fang Xiaoru, who was also a hostile crony, did not receive the same treatment as Wei Zheng. Fang Xiaoru, as a doctor of literature at the Hanlin Academy in the early Ming Dynasty, was no worse than Wei Zheng at the time of the Xuanwumen Revolution, and because his research in Confucianism was not suitable for the fledgling Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang never reused Fang Xiaoru but recommended him to his children and grandchildren.
It was not until the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunzhuo ascended the throne that Fang Xiaoru became an important vassal of the emperor. When the Yan king Zhu Di rebelled, Fang Xiaoru also persuaded Zhu Yunru not to be blinded because he was his own relative, but in the end, to no avail, Emperor Jianwen still set himself on fire and died when Zhu Di entered the city, and on the same day Fang Xiaoru was also arrested and imprisoned.
Zhu Di, who was very obedient to Fang Xiaoru and the monk Yao Guangxiao, had no intention of killing him at first. At first, Zhu Di persuaded Fang Xiaoru to draft an edict, but Fang Xiaoru scolded Zhu Di, and Zhu Di, who was unable to calm his anger for a while, directly executed Fang Xiaoru and exterminated his ten tribes, and the books he wrote were also listed as banned books.
The reason why Li Shimin was able to accommodate Wei Zheng was because of his ideas, for talent he is a very precious person, he once said that the talent that was built does not actually belong to the built but belongs to the talent of the Tang Dynasty, and at that time, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng were all heirs who were fully qualified to compete for the throne, no matter who sat on the emperor's world, it was Li Tang's world.
But Zhu Di was different, saying that his usurpation did not change the surname of the Ming ruler, but he was not like Li Shimin, he lacked orthodox recognition, coupled with his lack of great military and political achievements, the prestige was insufficient so that the usurpation of the throne made him worry all day, in order to establish his prestige had to choose the road of killing people and establishing his prestige.