The crown prince was the heir to the imperial power in the feudal era, and once the former emperor died, then the prince would inherit the unification with the support of the courtiers. Power is a very dangerous thing, but even so, people still flock to it.
In order to compete for the position of crown prince, the princes of successive dynasties and other princes will often fight each other. Therefore, becoming the prince of the Eastern Palace does not mean sitting on the dragon chair, but it makes the environment in which the prince is located dangerous. Because of this, nearly half of the princes in history failed to succeed to the throne smoothly, and they were either plotted during their time as princes or deposed in political struggles.
In ancient times, there were countless people who wanted the emperor's head, and the "profession" that was second only to the emperor in danger was the prince. The longest time as a prince in history is Tang Shunzong Li Shu. Li Xuan's road to the throne can be described as extremely long, and he waited for twenty-six years in the position of crown prince before he finally took over his father's position. The most difficult thing was that after becoming the crown prince, Li Xuan was paralyzed by a stroke and was bedridden, and his body was worse than a day, and he almost died in front of his father Tang Dezong.
In history, there were also emperors who died of crown princes, such as the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Taizu's body was very good, and he had to die of his crown prince Zhu Biao, and when he was dying, he had to pass the throne to the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao. It can be said that if Li Xuan's health is worse, he may have to drive the crane west ahead of his father Tang Dezong. Li Xuan survived twenty-six years with amazing perseverance and finally sat on the dragon chair he dreamed of.
However, because his body was already decaying, he could not spend a Spring Festival as emperor. Less than two hundred days after he succeeded to the throne, he had to pass the throne to his son, and he himself became the Emperor Taishang. What is more interesting is that Tang Shunzong is not only the guy who has been crowned prince for the longest time in history, but also the ruler who has completed the identity transformation from emperor to emperor as emperor the fastest. If the Guinness World Records open up these two categories, it is estimated that Tang Shunzong can also receive an award.
Due to the short reign of Emperor Shunzong of Tang, most of the scholars who studied Li Shu focused their energies on the twenty-six years during which he was crown prince.
As mentioned earlier, prince is a high-risk profession, so Li Xuan's career as a prince is by no means smooth sailing, but full of twists and turns and ups and downs. In 787, Li Xuan's mother-in-law, Princess Gaoguo, united with foreign relatives and formed a party for personal gain. Just as the so-called "if you don't die, you won't die", princess Gao Guo, who is a relative of the emperor and the state, would not have been severely punished, but this woman used witchcraft to curse the current saint, violating the royal taboo, so she was imprisoned by Tang Dezong to death.
Her mother-in-law was involved in the witchcraft case, and Li Xuan naturally could not escape her father's suspicions. Princess Gao guo cursed the emperor with witchcraft, and must have wanted to curse the emperor to death and then support the new king. Who is the candidate for this new emperor? Naturally, li shu, who is the prince. Tang Dezong believed that li shu, who had been the prince for ten years, must not be able to sit still and wanted to take over the job in advance. Tang Dezong planned to depose the crown prince, so he convened a meeting of the civil and military officials. Fortunately, the old minister Li Bi guaranteed Li Shu with his death, which allowed Tang Dezong to take back his life.
After this incident, Li Xuan became more and more cautious, and from then on he did not show the mountains and dew, for fear of being suspected by his father. Li Xuan was an upright man and won the hearts and minds of the people. Both the people and the ministers hoped that he would take over as soon as possible and lead Datang back to the prosperous world. However, Tang Dezong sat on the dragon chair and did not leave, living for sixty-four years, enough to be emperor for more than thirty years. Just a year before Tang Dezong drove Hexi, Li Xuan's body went wrong first, and he was paralyzed and bedridden due to a stroke, and he could not even speak.
After Li Xuan fell ill, his brothers seemed to see an opportunity to take the throne, and the dispute over the crown prince intensified. Since Tang Dezong had cultivated Li Shu for many years, it was undoubtedly a fool's dream to change the heir at this time, so he did not depose Li Shu. Before Li chanted his breath, Tang Dezong also fell ill. Unlike Li, his father suffered from an emergency and died within a few days of his illness. Because Li Shu was sick and could not visit in bed, the father and son could not meet before the yin and yang separation.
Hearing that his father had died, Li Xuan did not know whether to sigh or be sad, but he "sat up in shock on the bed for a long time" and stood up. I have to say that in the history of medicine, it is absolutely a miracle that Li Xu, who had a late stroke, could stand up on his own. Although Li Xuan was still unable to speak, he still braced himself to organize a great funeral for his father and took over the throne. After being emperor for eight months, Li Xuan's body finally could not hold up, and he had to pass the throne to his son Li Chun, who became the emperor himself.
It can be said that the year when Li Shu became emperor has returned to the light, and when he handed over the orthodoxy of the dynasty to the next generation of emperors, he died as if he had completed his mission. The day before Li Xuan's death, Emperor Xianzong announced to the outside world that Shunzong was seriously ill, and a day later Shunzong died, which made people think that Li Xuan's death was like acting. Through some notes and the details of the poems, some people found that Shunzong had been secretly calculated by Emperor Xianzong and the eunuchs before. As for the cause of death of Tang Shunzong Li Shu, both the Old Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian record that he died of illness.
Even so, given that Li Shu had suffered a late stroke before his death, there has long been little controversy about the cause of his death.
Fengling is the joint burial tomb of Emperor Shunzong of Tang and Empress Zhuangxian, located about 20 kilometers northeast of the present-day county seat of Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, about 20 kilometers northeast of the yang of Jin'ou Mountain (present-day Caocun Xianglingqian Village), because the mountain is a mausoleum, 20 kilometers around the mausoleum area, and 26 kilometers northeast of tang Ruizong's bridge mausoleum. Shunzong Li Was One of the Shortest Reigning Emperors of the Tang Dynasty, and the mausoleum was smaller. Due to the changes of history and the destruction of natural factors, few architectural remains in Fengling Cemetery have survived. According to local people, during the "Cultural Revolution", the Fengling Xuangong Tunnel was excavated for more than 10 meters, and most of the stone carvings were damaged.
Resources:
[Old Book of Tang, Zizhi Tongjian]