In the early 1960s, when Mr. Guo Moruo was hanging the grave of Li Xian, the prince of Zhanghuai, he improvised a poem: Qianling funeral Enshuwo, the depth of maternal love Mo Man guessed. What he meant was that being able to bury Qianling after death was already a great gift, so don't randomly guess Wu Zetian's feelings for his son! Indeed, it is indeed a great blessing to be buried in the imperial tomb after death, but did the historical Wu Zetian really treat Li Xian kindly?
Li Xian, courtesy name Mingyun, was the second son of Wu Zetian. This man was very talented, having made annotations for the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, and in addition to his status as a prince, he was also a very famous scholar at that time. Li Xian's burial with the imperial tomb after his death is indeed a great honor, but his experience before his death is incomparably bumpy.
According to historical records, after the death of his eldest son Li Hong, Wu Zetian made Li Xian the crown prince and granted him the right to oversee the country, he was already very talented and very capable, and for a time won the praise of everyone in the government and the public, but such an honor would also attract the jealousy of others.
At that time, Empress Wu favored a person named Ming Chongyu, who often said things like "the prince is not worthy of heirs" around Empress Wu, and coupled with the rumors in the palace at that time, saying that the crown prince Li Xian said that he was the son of a Korean lady, these rumors successfully aroused Empress Wu's suspicion of the prince. Empress Wu immediately sent someone to send books such as "Shaoyang Zhengfan" and "Biography of Filial Piety" to Li Xian, and Empress Wu's abnormal behavior caused Li Xian to panic all the time.
In order to avoid the fate of his brother Li Hong, Li Xian wrote a poem: Planting melons under the yellow stage, the melons are ripe and the seeds are separated. One pick makes the melon good, and then picks the melon thin. Three picks are especially good, four picks hold dreams. This poem is actually a hint to Empress Wu, don't kill her son, otherwise she herself will not end up well. In this way, Li Xian lived a relatively peaceful life.
Later, Ming Chongyu was killed, and Empress Wu always believed that Li Xian was secretly black hand, so she found an opportunity to depose Li Xian as a shuren and drove him to Bazhou. He thought that Li Xian would be able to spend the rest of his life as a Shuren, but unexpectedly, after Empress Wu came to power in 684, he sent someone to Bazhou to kill Li Xian.
In fact, the death of Li Xian, the crown prince of Zhanghuai, has long been determined in history, and after Wu Zetian came to power, he sent someone to kill him, but Mr. Guo Moruo did not think so, he thought that at that time, Wu Zetian sent people to Bazhou in order to take Li Xian back and re-appoint him as the prince, which led to the opening sentence "Mother's love is shallow Mo Man guess".
Although Elder Guo had different views on this matter, his arguments were insufficient, because the relevant history books did not record that Wu Zetian wanted to reinstate Li Xian, and if Wu Zetian really wanted to re-establish Li Xian as crown prince, then why did she want to make Li Dan (Wu Zetian's fourth son) emperor?
In the case of Prince Zhang Huai, the most controversial thing is not who he died at, but why Wu Zetian killed him! You must know that at that time, Li Xian had already been deposed as a Shuren, and neither wu Zetian nor Li Dan could pose any threat, so why did he have to die?
Regarding why Wu Zetian killed Li Xian, there are four mainstream theories in the academic circles, the first is the "conspiracy theory", that is, Li Xian secretly hid weapons in an attempt to rebel, so he was killed; the second is the "mother-son struggle for power", that is, Wu Zetian wanted to become emperor himself, which deliberately designed to kill Li Hong and Li Xian; the third is the "life theory", which is related to the aforementioned rumors in the palace, saying that Li Xian was not born to Empress Wu, and that Wu Hou had reluctantly made him crown prince, and when he learned of his own lineage, he would not be able to escape the fate of being killed; the fourth is" Rumored", this statement mainly comes from the story on Li Xian's epitaph, which describes the allusion that Emperor Wu of Han listened to rumors and killed the crown prince Liu Zhao, and Emperor Hui of Jin listened to rumors to abolish prince Huanhuai.
Why Empress Takego killed her son, presumably only she herself knew the reason. The depth of maternal love, the author does not dare to evaluate at will, but the supreme imperial power is definitely a fatal temptation!