Throughout history, we often find out. The founding fathers often had many difficulties that we ordinary people could not imagine, one of which was to face the unusually fierce competition for the throne for future generations.
To say that the struggle for the throne is actually commonplace in Chinese history, but the sons of the founding prince (or promising lord) are often more intense. For example, emperor Qing in the recent TV series "Qing Yu Nian" is facing his son's repeated competition for the throne. For example, in the previous TV series "Tiansheng Long Song", The Chu King NingYi and the Crown Prince and others also fought for the throne.
And often the founding fathers will be helpless in the face of this situation, or even make a big mistake, why is this so? What are the deeper reasons for this?
Above_ Bust of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan
1. The strong prince and the weak emperor
We may wish to take a look at the story of Li Yuan, the ancestor of Tang Gaozu. Li Yuan was the founding prince of the Tang Dynasty, but as a founding prince, his name was far inferior to that of his son Li Shimin. It seems that he, the founding prince of the country, is like a dispensable gift. As the first monarch of the Tang Empire, Li Yuan also faced this problem - his sons competed for the position of crown prince.
At that time, Li Yuan's sons were mainly divided into two factions, the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the Qi king Li Yuanji were one faction, and the Qin king Li Shimin was the other faction. Needless to say, Li Jiancheng, as the eldest son and also the crown prince, undertook the heavy responsibility of inheriting the throne. However, why can Li Shimin compete with the prince as the second eldest? In fact, the reason is very simple - he is too strong, the credit is too great.
Li Shimin (李李) (28 January 598 – 10 July 649) of the Tang Dynasty, was a native of Chengji, Longxi (present-day Qin'an County, Gansu).
As early as when Li Yuan raised his army from Taiyuan, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng were the main planners of Li Yuan's army. After Li Yuan raised an army, in the process of attacking Chang'an, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng both made great contributions, and later Li Shimin marched on Wang Shichong Dou Jiande, which was known in history as the Battle of Dongdu.
At that time, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande were the most powerful enemies facing the Tang Dynasty, and Wang Shichong had previously defeated Li Mi, the Duke of Wei, who had a million troops, and occupied Luoyang with great momentum. Dou Jiande also had hundreds of thousands of troops in Shandong, and Li Shimin was only a few tens of thousands of men, but in the Battle of Dongdu, Li Shimin eliminated Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande at one time with fewer victories and more. This time the credit shocked the world, and then Li Shimin continued to work hard, defeating regimes such as Western Qin and other regimes that divided various places in succession. It can be said that the credit is already unmatched.
In order to reward Li Shimin for his exploits, Li Yuan decided to give him a special official position: General Tiance. (The Old Book of Tang records: In October, admiral Tiance was added.) To say what kind of official position General Tiance is, it may not be clear to everyone, in the Tang Dynasty system, Tiance Shang will be higher than the status of the kings, that is to say, at that time, Li Shimin was the third person in the world besides Li Yuan and the crown prince Li Jiancheng. In addition, Li Shimin also served as Shang Shu Ling and Zhongshu Ling, and also served as Situ. (This also led to the Fact that the Tang Dynasty almost never appointed Shang Shuling) It can be said that it is almost a power tilt to the opposition, which can't help but make the crown prince Li Jiancheng feel pressure.
Above_ Map of the situation of the peasant revolt at the end of the Sui Dynasty
In many works, Li Jiancheng is portrayed as an unlearned, extremely incompetent, weak and inferior being, and not enough to fail. But in fact, in history, Li Jiancheng also has considerable talent. From the early stage, because he was the crown prince, it was difficult to sit in the center, so he could only sigh weakly in the face of Li Shimin's aggressive threat. However, it did not mean that he did nothing, and in the face of threats, Li Jiancheng's aide Wei Zheng (that is, the later famous Wei Zheng) suggested that Li Jiancheng should strike decisively:
Crown Prince Zhongyun Wang Gui and Sima Wei zheng said of the prince: "The King of Qin has conquered the world, and the Chinese and foreign countries have returned to their hearts; His Highness is in the Eastern Palace with his elderly age, and has no great merit to serve the sea." Now that Liu Heimin has scattered and died, the crowd is dissatisfied, the food is scarce, and the army is coming, and the situation is like a decay, and His Highness should attack himself to take the name of merit, because he has taken advantage of Shandong Haojie, and Shu can be at ease.
But Li Jiancheng hesitated, facing his brothers and sisters, he still had difficulty making up his mind. However, Li Shimin had already realized that on the fourth gengshen day of the first month of June of the ninth year of Wude (July 2, 626), Li Shimin led his cronies into the dynasty and set up an ambush at Xuanwu Gate to kill the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the Qi king Li Yuanji in advance, and Then Li Yuan "very consciously" abdicated.
Referring to Li Shimin's change of Xuanwumen, we can find a problem, although the founding prince often appears in the image of a very wise and divine warrior, why does the prince look tougher, while the founding prince himself appears to be very weak?
Above_ Xuanwumen coup d'état
Second, the three reasons for helplessness
In fact, as the founding prince, the reason why he often encounters cannibalism is that generally speaking, there are the following three helplessness.
1. Entrepreneurship is difficult, and the tail is not big
The founding fathers often started their own businesses from a relatively low starting point. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang's starting point can be said to be very low, the beggar is born, and some are not much better, for example, although Liu Bang has some brothers, he is only a pavilion chief (basically the youngest official in the Qin Dynasty). These people had to rely on their most reliable helper, their son.
For example, Nurhaci, at the beginning of his business, was very dependent on his two sons, the eldest son Chu Ying and the second son DaiShan, who can also be called Nurhaci's right and left arm at the beginning of his business. At that time, Nurhaci did not rely less on these two sons to charge between the white mountains and black waters. But this also leads to a problem: they are too strong, and the tail is too big.
At that time, Nurhaci's eldest son and Nurhaci's most important five ministers (Fei Yingdong, Eyidu, He Heli, HuErhan, and Anfei Yanggu) especially Fei Yingdong and Chu Ying, could be said to be incompatible. Because Chu Ying's merits were too great, he had a group of his own cronies, and the five ministers were afraid that Chu Ying would reuse his cronies after he came to power. His position is in jeopardy. Therefore, he always instigated Nurhaci to replace the prince.
Above: Aisin Kyora Chu Ying (1580–1615)
Moreover, Chu Ying himself also had ideas, he believed that his father's Jiangshan himself was the most creditable, and did not pay attention to those founding ministers at all, in order to balance the contradictions between the real power faction and the prince, Nurhaci was forced to depose Chu Ying's position as prince. But Nurhaci did not expect that just after he abolished Chu Ying, his second son Dai Shan actually swelled up.
Nurhaci's second son, Daishan, was already the most suitable heir in Nurhaci's heart at that time, and he was naturally happy to see Chu Ying deposed, so he did one thing - he hooked up with Nurhaci's eldest wife, Abhay. According to the Manchurian tradition, after Nurhaci's death, his wife Abhay naturally inherited Daishan, who knew that Daishan actually took the lead, Nurhaci found out that after thunder (after all, green), so Daishan's position as the prince was also blown away.
The reason why Chu Ying and Dai Shan dared to do this was because their merits were too great, the tail was too big, and Nurhaci could not do anything with them, which was also a problem that the founding prince could not avoid.
Above_ Aisin Kyora Daisan (19 August 1583 – 25 November 1648)
2. The father of the tiger has no dogs, and the power is difficult to control
In the story of Li Shimin, we can see that Li Yuan's son, whether Li Shimin or Li Jiancheng, or even Li Yuanji. They are all remarkable, not idle people, because they have experienced the baptism of swords and swords, and they have both strategy and martial arts. In this way, the temptation to power is difficult to resist, and they have formed their own forces.
For example, li shimin's Qin palace had a large number of his cronies, and these people were all over the government and the public, especially the military generals. At that time, they were extremely hopeful that Li Shimin could be called emperor, after all, if Li Shimin became emperor, they would be the heroes of the new king. But if Li Shimin is not going to be the emperor, then they are just the prince's cronies, and the future is much worse.
Sun Quan (182 – 21 May 252)
This kind of struggle often also has the struggle of the family behind these princes, which is most prominent in the dispute between the two palaces in the Sun Quan period. The so-called dispute between the two palaces is the struggle between Sun Quan's two sons, one is the crown prince Sun He, and the other is the struggle of Sun Ba, the king of Lu, for the position of prince.
This struggle took place in the late Three Kingdoms period, when the entire State of Wu was divided into two factions, one supporting Sun and the other supporting Sun Ba. Who do you want to say Sun Quan supports? Sun Quan smiled but did not speak. Because he provoked this struggle. His purpose was to support Sun Hegemony and balance the power of the family behind Sun He.
At that time, there were four major families in Eastern Wu, that is, the so-called Wuzhong four surnames "Lu Gu Zhu Zhang", the strongest representative of which was naturally Mr. Lu Xun, who was an outstanding meritorious person in Eastern Wu at that time, but he was also suspected by Sun Quan, believing that he was a high-ranking lord. Therefore, Sun Quan used his support for Sun Ba to balance Lu Xun, and as a result, Sun Quan got away with it. In the end, the two factions could not control the situation completely, and in the end, Sun Quan could only end hastily, killing Sun Ba, deposing Sun He, and establishing a small emperor Sun Liang. It can be said that the excessively fierce struggle behind the two factions is the direct cause of this result.
Lu Xun (183 – March 19, 245), real name Lu Yi (陸議), was a Chinese poet
3. Harem intervention, difficult to control
Behind the founding fathers of successive dynasties, there was often a powerful woman standing behind them. These women are really important promoters of the brotherly wall, such as Shu Luping, the wife of Yelü Abaoji, the founder of the Liao Kingdom, who is one of them. At that time, Shu Luping favored his third son Yelü Lihu, who did not learn any techniques. But Yerushalayim is really not a tool, and the generation is really too small.
There are two roadblocks on the head of Yerushalayim, one is the eldest brother Jeroboam, and the other is the second brother Yelü Deguang. If Yelü Lihu wanted to become emperor, he first had to have a brother and a brother, and it was possible to wait for the death of his two brothers. But Shu Luping said that this was not a problem, in order to make her young son, who did not learn any skills, become emperor, she was riveted. First, she forced away her eldest son Jeroboam, and secondly, she knew that the second eldest Jeroboam was not in good health, so she let Jeroboam succeed Jeroboam to the throne.
Above_ Lü Hou usurped power
Sure enough, within a few years, Yelü Deguang also died, but he finally failed to do so, and YelüBe's son really couldn't bear to see it, rebelled, and finally obtained the throne that his father deserved. To say that the women of these founding monarchs are indeed mostly not fuel-saving lamps, think of Lü Hou and Yang Jian's empress Dowager Jialuo, both of whom were quite insightful about the government of the dynasty, and they fanned the flames behind their backs and even directly manipulated, which naturally led to the men of the former dynasty fighting to the death.
It can be said that it is precisely because of these complicated reasons that the founding fathers of China's history have to face the separation of flesh and bones again and again, and the situation of brotherly walls will happen again and again. It should be said that this is also the reincarnation and tragedy of history.
Text: The Holy Hand of The Green Word
bibliography:
[1] Xue Juzheng et al. Old Book of Tang
[2] Ouyang Xiu et al. New Book of Tang
[3] Sima Guang et al. "Zizhi Tongjian"
[4] "History of Liao" such as Detachment
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author