Tang Gaozong Li Zhi is a more controversial emperor in history, but also a contradiction, when you first understand Li Zhi, you will think that he is a cowardly and afraid of his wife, but after a deep understanding of some of him, you will find that under his weak appearance, there is actually a heart that is fierce enough, and when you go deeper, you will find that Li Zhi actually has many deficiencies.
In the history of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, in fact, can be regarded as a very powerful person, Wenzhi martial arts are quite successful, but this does not mean that Li Zhi does not have shortcomings, his shortcomings are also very obvious, it can be said that Wu Zetian's usurpation of power is the biggest failure of Li Zhi's life.
Li Zhi's Wenzhi martial arts
Among Li Shimin's many outstanding sons, Li Zhi originally had no chance to become the crown prince, in order to avoid the tragedy of Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng robbing the crown prince that year, Li Shimin soon after he ascended the throne, he established his eldest son Li Chengqian as the crown prince, Li Chengqian, who is also a very smart child, but it is a pity that he gradually deteriorated later, which made Li Shimin very sad.
Seeing that Li Chengqian's image in the hearts of the ministers was getting worse and worse, Li Tai began to step up his pace, intending to replace Li Chengqian, and under the pressure of Li Tai's step by step, Li Chengqian had no choice but to plan to launch a coup d'état and rebel to force Li Shimin, and as a result, before the action had officially begun, he was recognized by Li Shimin and put down the rebellion, and after the incident, Li Chengqian was deposed by Li Shimin as a shuren.
Seeing that the opportunity had come, Li Tai ran to Li Shimin to show his loyalty, and said that if Li Shimin could not bear it, he could help Li Shimin get rid of Li Chengqian, which shocked Li Shimin very much, and he was worried that once the throne passed to Li Tai, the rest of his sons would suffer in the future.
Li Ke is a descendant of Yang Guang, with the blood of the Sui Dynasty royal family, plus he is not Li Shimin's concubine, so in terms of political resources, there is still a lack of political resources, Li Zhi is just the opposite of Li Ke, in terms of personality, not as decisive as Li Ke, but the eldest son Wuji is Li Zhi's uncle, he can assist Li Zhi, which is what Li Shimin values most, originally Li Shimin asked Changsun Wujie, just to see what he meant, and as a result, Li Shimin did not hesitate to support Li Zhi, and Li Shimin could only follow his wishes to establish Li Zhi as the crown prince.
In the early days of Li Zhi becoming the crown prince, he was still very weak, when Li Shimin went out to fight, Li Zhi often cried and cried at home, making people feel that he was like a child, after many experiences, Li Zhi made progress, but during Li Shimin's illness, Li Zhi actually had feelings with the martial talents who took care of Li Shimin, and this relationship became the biggest failure of Li Zhi's life.
After Li Shimin's death, Wu Zetian went to the Ganye Temple according to the regulations of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Zhi naturally ascended the throne as emperor, and after becoming emperor, Li Zhi's tough and vicious side finally showed. Before Li Shimin died, he chose the eldest son Wuji, Chu Suiliang, and Li Ji as his lonely ministers, and when Li Shimin died, the three of them really helped Li Zhi a lot.
Eldest Sun Wuji as Li Zhi's uncle, the discipline of Li Zhi is more strict, which makes Li Zhi very unhappy, he wants to find an opportunity to clean up the eldest Son Wujie, while concentrating the imperial power in his own hands, but the eldest Son Wujie does not have any rebellious heart, Li Zhi is really difficult to find a good way to clean him up, after careful consideration, Li Zhi intends to first work on the position of Prime Minister, he set up a total of nine Prime Ministers, the purpose is to disperse the power of the Eldest Sun Wujie, the result of the eldest Son Wujie personality charm is too strong, Li Zhi's method not only failed, but dug a pit for himself, and those prime ministers became supporters of the eldest son Wujie, and Li Zhi's desire to abolish the eldest son Wujie was simply a fantasy.
Since the first method did not work, Li Zhi could only find another way, at this time an important person appeared in Li Zhi's mind, this person was Empress Wang, Li Zhi wanted to suppress the courtiers by means of suppressing Empress Wang, and Empress Wang was still foolishly still fighting with Xiao Shufei to the death, in order to be able to completely suppress Xiao Shufei, Empress Wang finally went to the Ganye Temple to get out the Wu Meiniang that Li Zhi had in mind, and from then on this court war began.
In the first stage, Li Zhi wanted to use Wu Zetian to help him win over the ministers of the court, such as Li Ji was one of them, and Empress Wang also wanted to use Wu Zetian to clean up Xiao Shufei, so Wu Zetian played a very important role, and after Li Ji was also co-opted and Xiao Shufei was also suppressed, Li Zhi's second step plan came.
Of course, this plan can be smoothly implemented, Wu Zetian still played an important role, she first used the death of her newborn daughter to frame Empress Wang to murder her daughter, so that Empress Wang was ruined, and then Li Zhi used this incident to speed up the abolition of Wang Liwu.
At the beginning, Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang did not agree, and Li Zhi was also very embarrassed, and later after Li Ji said that "this is the emperor's family affair", Li Zhi officially made up his mind to abolish Empress Wang and establish Wu Zetian as empress, after this incident, Changsun Wuji and others were also punished for treason, as to whether there was really rebellion, there are still many doubts, but overall, Li Zhi achieved his own concentration of imperial power.
From the simple point of view of Li Zhi's means of cleaning up the eldest son Wuji and others, we can understand that Li Zhi is not a cowardly person, under the appearance of cowardice, he has a vicious heart, even his own uncle can do it, do you say that Li Zhi is a good emperor? After realizing the concentration of imperial power, Li Zhi did not slacken off, and constantly stepped up the pace of governing the country, and the rule of Yonghui after the rule of Zhenguan appeared, which can also be regarded as a major achievement of Li Zhi in civil rule.
To say that Li Zhi is powerful, of course, we can not only say Wen Zhi, he has made many achievements in martial strategy, the most difficult to deal with Goguryeo in the Sui and Tang Dynasties was conquered during the Li Zhi period, such as Xue Rengui and other fierce generals also got the opportunity to give full play to their talents in the Li Zhi period, even the land area of the Tang Dynasty was also the largest in the Li Zhi period, so it can be seen that Li Zhi is not a weak person, and being tough can make the surrounding countries tremble.
Li Zhi's character flaws are also obvious
To evaluate a person, we need to analyze objectively, Li Zhi is indeed a capable and effective emperor, but his character defects are also very obvious, such as excessive obsession with power, which is one of Li Zhi's biggest flaws. You may say that all emperors in history are obsessed with imperial power, but have you ever seen anyone who, because of his obsession with imperial power, led his wife to usurp the throne? In the entire ancient feudal history, there was only one person, Li Zhi.
Perhaps many people will still think that Wu Zetian usurped the throne because Wu Zetian's ability is too strong, in fact, this view is not objective enough, in the Tang Dynasty, a person's ability is strong, if there is no family background support, the same can not set off any big winds and waves, Wu Zetian although he was also born famous, but at that time the background and Empress Wang's family background compared with the far difference, Ming Wu Zetian is a bad hand, but can eventually counterattack, relying on Li Zhi.
In the very beginning, in order to eradicate the eldest son Wujie, Li Zhi constantly used Wu Zetian to make Wu Zetian his own imperial power spokesman, and later he pushed him to the position of empress, relying on his own position, coupled with the political experience accumulated by helping Li Zhi stabilize the imperial power along the way, Wu Zetian has changed from a political white to a master, but unfortunately Li Zhi still does not know.
Then Li Zhi continued to delegate power to Wu Zetian, and after he fell ill, Li Zhi actually tried to speak for himself through Wu Zetian, it was this wave of operations that directly made Wu Zetian's status rise and become the most powerful person in the DPRK, and later Li Zhi wanted to clean up Wu Zetian, it was already too late, such as Shangguan Yi impeaching Wu Zetian, Li Zhi did not dare to speak, and could only let Shangguan Yi be a scapegoat, and all kinds of things showed a signal: Li Zhi was unable to suppress Wu Zetian.
The reason why such a situation will be caused is because Li Zhi is too obsessed with imperial power, he wants to continuously centralize power, but the methods and methods used are inherently flawed, he only wants to prevent his uncle and other people, but he has never thought of guarding against his wife, he can constantly take back power, but he can not cope with it when he is decentralization, it is this kind of divine operation, which directly leads to his own power falling, and when he regrets it, everything is already too late.
From this point of view, in fact, Li Zhi's political skills and ability still owe some fire, otherwise it would not have led to his own mess and could not end, becoming the rake ear emperor that posterity has always been talking about, no matter how we affirm Li Zhi's Wenzhi martial arts, we can't cover up his mistakes here in Wu Zetian, this is the reality.
epilogue
From the perspective of Wenzhi martial arts, Li Zhi is indeed remarkable, saying that he is an underrated emperor is also excusable, but we cannot ignore Li Zhi's mistakes because of these achievements of Li Zhi, Wu Zetian's usurpation of power was caused by Li Zhi's hand, this pot Li Zhi must be backed, no matter how many years, can not change!
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