In the history of the imperial power struggle in ancient China, a "thousand-year-old unsolved case" is exactly "how Zhao Guangyi took over the class".
Even from the official's "History of Song" and "Continued Zizhi Tongjian" and other historical materials, Zhao Guangyi, the "Song Taizong" and "successor" of the hall, received a strange reception: on the night of October 19, 976 AD, the seriously ill Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin urgently summoned Zhao Guangyi, the king of Jin, to the palace for discussion, and after he called Zhao Guangyi to his side, let the palace eunuchs all retire, and then the brothers had a long conversation, and the people outside only saw the candle flame projecting Zhao Guangyi's shadow onto the window, and then heard the sound of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin poking the ground with an axe, plus a "good self-help." The entrustment...
The next day, Zhao Kuangyin, the ancestor of the Song Dynasty, who created the three-hundred-year-old Jiangshan of the Great Song Dynasty in the form of "yellow robe plus body", completely closed his tired eyes. Zhao Guangyi, the "King of Jin", also changed his life, and after making a promise to his "sister-in-law" (Empress Song of song Taizu) that "I will protect your wealth together", he officially became emperor, and was the second emperor in the history of the Great Song Dynasty, Song Taizong. However, the "legitimacy" of his ascension to the throne has been controversial in later generations: when Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, died, he actually had a son, especially the second son Zhao Dezhao was twenty-five years old. Why did he leave his adult son alone and pass the throne to his younger brother?
As a result, the rumors about Zhao Guangyi's "improper position" have since become more and more nose and eyes, and even the scene of the "candle shadow axe sound" before the death of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, has evolved into countless wild history legends in the past thousand years, and in each "legend", Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi is a hypocritical and vicious face. Such bad comments as "killing brothers and usurping the throne" are even more smashed. However, to seek truth from facts, although he has done a lot of absurd things in his lifetime, this kind of evil criticism is a real injustice to Song Taizong.
Because, although there are still many difficult doubts to this day, combined with all aspects of historical data, the ascension of Zhao Guangyi, Emperor Taizong of Song, is most likely reasonable and legal.
What is the probability? You can look at the power position of Zhao Guangyi, the younger brother of the Younger Brother before the death of Zhao Kuangyin: in the farce of the "Chen Qiao Mutiny" in which Zhao Kuangyin "added his body in yellow robes", the "good brother" Zhao Guangyi was one of the behind-the-scenes plots. In Zhao Kuangyin's many years of military career, Zhao Guangyi often stayed in the rear and did a good job in "logistical work", which was his down-to-earth "big housekeeper". In 961, Zhao Guangyi was appointed as the governor of Kaifeng Province, and from then until the "candle shadow axe sound" in 976, he stayed in this post for "fifteen years".
In Zhao Guangyi's own words, it was this experience that made him deeply aware of the "hardships" of people's livelihood and the "sincerity and falsity" of people's hearts. His power has since been deeply rooted in the capital of the Great Song Emperor. But more important than this is the fact that Zhao Kuangyin, the Song Taizu who dared to put him in this key position, was equivalent to using him as a successor to cultivate.
The detailed experiences of many other characters in the History of song also corroborate this fact. A typical example is Zhang Qixian, the "rice bucket prime minister". In the early years, when Zhao Kuangyin inspected Luoyang, he specially invited Zhang Qixian, who was a wizard but was poor at the time. At the banquet, Zhang Qixian ate the sea plugs while drawing on the ground with his oil hands and put forward ten strategies for governing the country. However, zhao Kuangyin was mad on the spot and ordered someone to throw Zhang Qixian out. However, after returning from Luoyang, Zhao Kuangyin specially summoned Zhao Guangyi and instructed: "Luoyang is also Zhang Qixian a talent, I will not use him, keep it for you to use when you are emperor."
Just by looking at the development process of this "famous appearance" who worked hard in the early Song Dynasty, we know what weight Zhao Guangyi, who has a "suspicion of killing his brother", has in the heart of his brother Zhao Kuangyin.
Before the "sound of the candle shadow axe", another major event in 976 AD proved the "right to speak" of Zhao Guangyi, the "King of Jin", when Zhao Kuangyin was alive: when Zhao Kuangyin inspected Luoyang, he deeply felt that the northern Liao state was a great threat, and Kaifeng had no danger to defend, and planned to move the capital to Luoyang. However, Zhao Guangyi, who was accompanying the Kaifeng Governor Yin, desperately opposed it after hearing the news, and in front of the courtiers, he said the famous saying that "there is no danger in Germany" in front of Zhao Kuangyin, and he forced this matter to be yellowed. Is it right or wrong to move? This matter is controversial, but what is not controversial is that at this time, Zhao Guangyi's position as "successor" has been very stable.
As for another "competitor", Zhao Kuangyin's precious son Zhao Dezhao? Although he was already twenty-five years old at that time, until Zhao Kuangyin's death, he was not crowned king, let alone "princely title". In this sense, no matter whether Zhao Kuangyin had "given the right words" before his death, the only person who could sit on the throne at that time was Zhao Guangyi.
So the question is, since Zhao Guangyi is the successor that Song Taizu has painstakingly cultivated for many years, why did Song Taizu let his own son not cultivate, but instead single-mindedly cultivate his younger brother? In this matter, we must talk about the early Song Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, when the atmosphere in the political arena was: the wind of arrogance.
When later generations talk about the Song Dynasty, they often lament that the Song Dynasty "emphasized literature and light weapons", so that it was poor and weak. But why did the Song Dynasty choose the national policy of "light force" under great national defense pressure? It is really because it is fed up with the suffering of "arrogant soldiers": before the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, China experienced the chaos of "five generations and ten kingdoms". In the era of "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" in just fifty-three years, the so-called "legal system" and "imperial succession system" have all become decorations, in the words of An Chongrong, the head of the clan town, "The son of heaven, the strong soldier and the strong horse should do it, rather have a kind of Yay?"
In such a sick and chaotic world, the status of "proud soldiers" with military power has risen sharply, and rebel soldiers have become commonplace. In the fifty-three years of the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms", the "Five Dynasties" in the north produced fifteen emperors, seven of whom came to power through mutiny usurpers. As for the scene of Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty "adding yellow robes to the body", it was a traditional trick of the "proud soldiers" in the Five Dynasties period, and the ascension to the throne of Tang Mingzong, the late Emperor of Tang, Zhou Taizu and others basically followed a similar routine.
Under such a custom, the soldiers did not have the righteousness of the court in their hearts, the interests of the soldiers were more tightly tied to their bodies, and "mutiny when they were unhappy" became a common phenomenon, and the consequence was round after round of war, bringing bloodshed to each dynasty. Although zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, who was well aware of the threat of "arrogant soldiers", relieved the power of the fierce generals by "releasing the power of the soldiers with a glass of wine", and did not hesitate to create an elite forbidden army loyal to the court of the Great Song Dynasty, and even weakened the local military strength with the governing concept of "the prime minister needs to use readers", and tried his best to eliminate the hidden dangers of "proud soldiers".
However, until the death of Zhao Kuangyin, the Northern Song Dynasty at this time was only sixteen years after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and even the country had not yet completed unification. The centralization system of the Northern Song Dynasty was also unstable, and many important military and political reforms were not completed. And all this also requires that the Great Song needs an older and prestigious "successor". And Zhao Guangyi is obviously the most suitable candidate. As for Zhao Kuangyin's own precious son Zhao Dezhao? The fact is that even if Zhao Kuangyin really left a will to "pass the throne" to him, he could not sit still on the throne.
In this sense, Zhao Guangyi's "succession" is indeed difficult to understand in the taiping and prosperous years, with the imperial succession system of "the son inheriting the father's business", but under the special historical conditions of the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is actually natural.
Of course, it is precisely because of this arrogant military atmosphere that has brought countless bloody disasters that Song Taizong, who has ascended the throne, continues to firmly promote the national policy of "light force". But compared with his elder brother Song Taizu, who had excellent military ability, Song Taizong was obviously off the way: he was extremely jealous of military generals, and invented a ridiculous "formation map" system, depriving military generals of their front-line autonomy. With the sigh of Tian Xi, a direct minister at that time, he said: "The emperor has set up a formation map system, so that the generals will fight according to the formation map, and if the front-line generals ignore your formation map, they will also be guilty of winning the battle. How can this win the battle? ”
Therefore, it is not surprising why the Northern Song Dynasty ming and ming cut down the Liao twice, and the beginning of the battle was even victorious, and the Liao state once had to give up the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, but then they were all confused and defeated. Because of Song Taizong's overcorrection system, the elite soldiers that Song Taizu painstakingly built before his death were tied alive.
What is even more overcorrected than this is the "light force" national policy that became more and more fierce in the Northern Song Dynasty. Due to the serious precautions against military generals, famous generals such as Di Qing, who were loyal to the country, were in a position of suspicion all their lives, did not fall on the battlefield, but died in fear in the suspicion of the imperial court. The dilemma of the "lack of generals in the Northern Song Dynasty" was actually "done" by generations of monarchs and subjects themselves.
What is even more "done" is that for more than a hundred years in the Northern Song Dynasty, it has been desperately defending against arrogant soldiers. Like the "proud soldiers" in the early five dynasties of the Song Dynasty, they were indeed "extinct" in the middle and late Period of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the millions of forbidden troops in the Great Song Dynasty were transformed into "petite soldiers": because the Northern Song Dynasty was more corrupt from generation to generation, the training and management of the army was also corrupted from generation to generation. The so-called "forbidden army" has become a waste soldier. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, the Jin army invaded the south, and the Song army cavalry sent to meet the battle could not even ride a horse, and one by one "got on the horse and used both hands to promote the saddle, and could not be released." Such waste firewood, even if there are millions, will be cut up.
Therefore, on the Song and Jin battlefield before the shame of Jing Kang, there will be a scene of thunder: the Song army in Cizhou besieged seventeen Jin soldiers with 2,000 people, but was killed and defeated. The Jin army on the Yellow River beat the drums of war overnight, and the Song army on the other side ran away. The Great Song Dynasty, which turned the "proud soldiers" into "petite soldiers," naturally had no escape, and endured the bitter fruit of Jing Kang's shame alive.
The matter of "Succession of Emperor Taizong of Song" is reasonable and legal, but it also witnesses the causes and consequences of the Northern Song Dynasty's national policy. How many vivid lessons still have the meaning of empathy today.
References: "The Great Biography of Emperor Taizong of Song", "Detailed Discussion of Song Taizu", "Preliminary Study of Formal Military Training in the Song Dynasty"