"Once you go to Zitai Lianshuo Desert, leave Aozuka alone to dusk."
The distant figure of Princess Wencheng dissipated in the vast desert, but her contribution to sino-Tibetan cultural exchanges will forever be recorded in the annals of history, writing a chapter of friendly exchanges between ethnic groups.
At the same time, it also highlights the inclusiveness of Tang culture.
However, people only know that she went to Tibet and kissed, and made great contributions, but they do not know her final ending. What was Princess Wencheng's life like after she married?
Is her life in Tibet happy?
First, the true and false princess
Princess Wencheng, recorded in the history books as the daughter of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, was not the biological princess of Emperor Taizong of Tang.
However, in the face of the rising Tubo and the Tubo emissaries who repeatedly proposed marriage, Tang Taizong Li Shimin hesitated.
It turned out that in the eighth year of Tang Zhenguan, Zampsong Zanganbu had sent an envoy to The Tang Dynasty, and the purpose of this trip was to propose to marry a Tang Dynasty princess
However, in the face of such a sudden request, it was immediately rejected by Tang Taizong.
Because since ancient times, sending princesses and ethnic minorities and relatives is a manifestation of the decline of national strength and the incompetence of rulers.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty was in a prosperous era, the national strength was strong, and all the countries came to the dynasty. How could Li Shimin easily marry the princess to the tribes of the frontier ethnic minorities?
Moreover, at this time, Tubo had already been defeated by the Tang Dynasty, and there was no reason at all to marry the princess to a distant place.
So Songtsen Gampo's first request to reconcile with his relatives ended in failure.
However, Songzan Gampo admired the Tang culture very much and very much hoped that a princess of the Han royal family would be his wife.
Therefore, in the twelfth year of Zhenguan, Songzan Gampo found an excuse to threaten to send troops from Tibet to Songzhou of the Tang Dynasty, and if Tang Taizong still did not agree to peace, he would lead an army from Songzhou to invade in a large scale, so as to force Li Shimin to obey.
Unfortunately, his strength was still lacking, and only the Tang Dynasty vanguard army beat their army to a pulp. Songtsen Gampo saw that the situation was not good, so he quickly sent envoys to apologize for their sins and then asked Li Shimin's forgiveness. After all, his purpose was to marry a princess, not to be an enemy of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, after asking for marriage again, he immediately sent an emissary with gold and countless treasures to formally lay down the dowry.
Since Li Shimin's princesses were not of marriageable age at this time, and the Tibetan emissaries were so persistent, Tang Taizong mated a young woman with royal blood to Songzan Gampo.
Songtsen Gampo naturally knew the true identity of the princess. However, this did not affect Songtsen Gampo's future favor for her.
2. The princess's contribution
"Since your lord and your relatives, half of the Hu style is like the Han family."
This poem praises Princess Wencheng for her outstanding contributions to Sino-Tibetan culture after she entered Tibet. It brought close economic and cultural exchanges between Tang and Tibet and promoted friendly relations between Han and Tibet.
In two hundred years, whenever the new Zampu ascended the throne, he would ask Tang Tianzi to "register his destiny."
After entering Tibet, Princess Wencheng introduced the profound Han culture and advanced production technology of the Tang Dynasty to Tibet, and devoted her life to the development of the economy and culture of Tibet. The princess's efforts were particularly outstanding in terms of culture, and because she was a nomadic people and perennial war, there was no writing in The Tibetans at that time.
People still record in the original way, which is very inconvenient.
Therefore, Princess Wencheng advocated the writing of the text, laying the foundation for the Tibetan language.
Songtsen Gampo greatly appreciated Princess Wencheng's Zhishu Dali, and although the ethnic groups were different, he was very attentive to Princess Wencheng.
Since Songtsen Gampo's wife at this time was a Nepalese princess, according to the rules of the Central Plains, Princess Wencheng should have been a concubine when she remarried, but Songtsan Gampo did not do so.
He treated Princess Wencheng as a proper wife, and even Princess Wencheng's status was higher than that of the Nepalese princess.
Not only that, Songzan Ganbu did things according to Princess Wencheng's preferences. The Tubo people have a custom called ochre noodles, but Princess Wencheng does not like it after reading it.
Therefore, Songtsen Gampo did not allow the Tubo people to conduct ochre noodles in front of Princess Wencheng.
Out of love for the culture of the Central Plains and his desire to alleviate his wife's homesickness, Songzan Gampo usually wore silk clothes and asked Princess Wencheng to explain Chinese literature to herself.
Third, the years of old age
"The good things in the world are not firm, and the clouds are easy to scatter and the glass is brittle."
When Princess Wencheng was twenty-six years old, Songzan Gampo suddenly died violently.
She was left with a regime that no one inherited. Princess Wencheng was only seventeen years old when she married Songtsen Gampo, and in just eight years, they left no heirs. Songtsen Gampo's son also died early, leaving only a young grandson.
In the end, the position of King of Tubo was left to his grandson Mangsong Mangzan.
The power in charge of Tubo naturally fell into the hands of Lu Dongzan, the prime minister who supported Mangsong Mangzan.
If Princess Wencheng had children, she could also help manage things in Tibet. Now that the prime minister is in power, Princess Wencheng has lost the reliance of Songtsen Gampo, and these are all internal affairs in Tibet.
Although she was a princess of the Tang Dynasty, she was not suitable to intervene. And the prime minister also hindered her from her noble status and did not do anything to her, but she gradually withdrew from the stage of history.
Until he died of smallpox at the age of fifty-six.
During these thirty years, the chancellor Lu Dongzan changed the policy of friendship with the Tang Dynasty during Songzan Gampo's lifetime, and began to expand outwards, or chose to march from Tuguhun, where the tang dynasty had last exchanged fire, this year
Princess Wencheng was thirty-nine years old. A year later, Turpan's army finally completely destroyed the small country of Tuguhun and single-handedly expanded the territory of Tubo by half.
However, at this time, Tuguhun was already a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, and Tubo's occupation of Tuguhun must not be a friendly signal.
Coupled with the growing power of the Tibetan forces, a change from the previous decline can threaten the security of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty decided to send the famous Tang Dynasty general Xue Rengui into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau when Princess Wencheng was 46 years old, to give Tubo a little color to see, and let him keep to himself.
In order to deal with the Tang Dynasty general Xue Rengui, he gathered 400,000 troops and wanted to fight with the Tang Dynasty to the death. At first, Xue Rengui went all the way smoothly and wanted to go straight to Lhasa.
However, the Tang army was partially disintegrated, and while they were busy with civil unrest, the Tubo army quietly cut off the food and grass of the Tang army. In the end, Xue Rengui was besieged and forced to negotiate peace with the Tubo army. Princess Wencheng looked in her eyes and was anxious in her heart.
At this time, although her attitude was not important, she had come for peace, and even though she had been hiding for many years, she still could not change this situation.
4. Summary
Princess Wencheng is a great woman, she understands the overall situation and is general.
Be able to sacrifice the selfish interests of the ego for the sake of the great righteousness of the family and the country. She has not returned to Datang since she left Datang at the age of seventeen.
Songtsen Gampo's early death made her situation even worse.
For more than thirty years, how easy is it for a person to live on a plateau where he is not familiar with life, and he has no one to rely on, and he still has to adapt to the harsh environment of Tibet. However, when Princess Wencheng died of illness at the age of fifty-six, she kept her mission in mind and never said a word of homesickness.
The perseverance and tenacity she shows us shows us that she is a well-deserved princess.