According to historical records, on the night of October 20, the ninth year of Kaibao (976 AD), The Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin and the Jin King Zhao Guangyi had a long drinking conversation under the shadow of a candle, and that night Zhao Kuangyin died, and his brother Zhao Guangyi succeeded to the throne for Song Taizong, whose original name was Zhao Kuangyi, and later changed his name to Guangyi to avoid Taizu.
Why is it Zhao Guangyi who ascends the throne, not Zhao Dezhao, the son of Zhao Kuangyin?
Why was Zhao Kuangyin fifty years old, but he died after drinking with Zhao Guangyi?
The reason for this is still unknown, so it has become a suspected case for thousands of years.
According to legend, after The Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, he honored his mother Du Shi as the empress dowager, but du Shi loved his second son Zhao Guangyi the most, and on his deathbed, he made an "alliance with Taizu and Zhao Pu", leaving behind the last words of "brother and brother". The "Chronicle of the History of song" records: "After a hundred years of Ru, when the transmission is located in Guangyi, Guangyi is transmitted to Guangmei, and Guangmei is transmitted to Dezhao."
What does it mean, that is, after a hundred years of Zhao Kuangyin, the throne was passed to his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Guangyi was passed on to his younger brother Zhao Tingmei, and Zhao Tingmei was passed back to Zhao Kuangyin's son, so that the throne would be reincarnated.
Since then, although Zhao Pu has always advocated the establishment of Taizu's son, in August 973 Zhao Pu was deposed, and in September of the same year Zhao Guangyi was made "King of Jin". However, until the snowy night of his sudden death, Zhao Da did not clearly state whether to pass the throne to Zhao Er.
There are only a few records of Zhao Kuangyin's death in the Song Shi Taizu Benji: "On the eve of the decay, the emperor collapsed in the Hall of Ten Thousand Years, at the age of fifty, and was buried on the western steps of the temple", but there are more descriptions in some other history books and personal notes.
At that time, in Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi Province: a "black killing general" who called himself the Jade Emperor's assistant came to the home of a villager named Zhang Shouzhen, who could predict the good fortune of the people, and the local people believed it to be true, regarded Zhang Shouzhen as a true god, and bowed down to him and prayed. After Zhao Kuangyin learned of this, he ordered someone to invite Zhang Shouzhen to the palace, and he often set up a sauce in the palace. On October 19, Zhao Kuangyin set up an altar and ordered Zhang Shouzhen to ask the gods to divinate his auspicious and evil blessings. The Black General came on time and said a word.
"The Heavenly Palace Has been completed, the jade lock has been opened, and the King of Jin has a benevolent heart."
The meaning of these two sentences is, Zhao Kuangyin, you are about to die, king Renyi of Jin, you can pass the throne to him.
Zhao Kuangyin listened, asked the eunuch Wang Ji'en to call the emperor's brother Zhao Guangyi, and all the people left and right were screened back, leaving only their brothers in the sleeping hall to discuss, outsiders could not hear the sound of speaking, but only saw the candlelight flickering in the distance, during which Zhao Guangyi had left his seat, looking as if he was humble. Not long after, Song Taizu picked up the pillar axe standing next to him, stomped on the ground, and loudly said to Zhao Guangyi: "Good for yourself!" ”。
This passage is exactly from the record in the "Chronicle of the History of song": "When the shadow of the remote candle is in the shadow of the King of Jin, or when he leaves the table, if there is a sign of inferiority." Even if the upper pillar axe pokes loudly, he says to the King of Jin: Good for it. ”
However, the description in the Northern Song Dynasty monk Wen Ying's "Records of the Continuing Xiang Mountains" is as follows: "Taizu led the pillar axe Zhai Xue, Gu Taizong said: "Easy to do, easy to do." ”
Was it Zhao Kuangyin who wanted to pass the throne to Zhao Guangyi and let him do a good job?
Or did Zhao Kuangyin accuse his brother of being self-sufficient and not coveting the throne?
Regarding this period of history, it is not known that the two brothers of the Zhao family talked about the middle of the night, and Zhao Guangyi came out in the snow. After Zhao Kuangyin fell asleep, the servant official first heard him snoring like thunder, and soon found that the situation was different, and when he saw that he had swallowed a lot of breath, he hurriedly informed Empress Song. Empress Song was the third empress of Zhao Kuangyin, and he wanted to summon a man to come in to deal with the aftermath, and the death of his father and son were buried in a matter of course, so he ordered the king of The Inner Servant To pass on the defense of Guizhou to make Zhao Defang enter the palace.
As for why Zhao Defang, not Zhao Dezhao? Perhaps when Empress Song was the nominal mother of Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Defang, Zhao Defang was younger, so the two were closer, and it was not ruled out that they wanted to help him ascend to the throne, but all possibilities were broken by Wang Ji'en.
At that time, Wang Ji'en was supposed to go to Zhao Defang on leave, but he went straight to the Jin King's mansion and happened to meet the medical officer Cheng Deyuan, so the two of them knocked on the door together to see the King of Jin, and they asked him to enter the palace quickly. The King of Jin was stunned and hesitated about whether to enter the palace, and delayed for a long time before he came to the inner palace with Wang Ji'en and Cheng Deyuan. When Empress Song saw that Wang Ji'en had actually summoned the King of Jin, she was terrified, and remembering the cruel old things of the past to compete for the throne, she had to beg Guangyi: "The fate of my mother and son is entrusted to the official family." ”
Zhao Guangyi cried and replied, "Protect the rich and noble, don't worry!" ”
Later, Zhao Guangyi succeeded to the throne and changed the Yuan Taiping revival. In history, the four-character era number is not common, it is worth mentioning that Wu Zetian, the founding emperor of Wuzhou, seems to like the four-character era number, and its sixth year number is Long Live the Heavenly Book, the seventh year number is Long Live Dengfeng, and the eighth year number is Long Live Tongtian.
Zhao Guangyi, in order to facilitate the avoidance of his subjects, changed his name to Zhao Jiong for the third time, and posthumously awarded the temple title Taizong, the title of Emperor Shengdewenwu of Shengong, and the historical title of Song Taizong. During the twenty-two years of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, he roughly swept away the separatist forces.
Chen Hongjin of Zhangquan and Wuyue Qian of the two Zhejiang provinces surrendered to the Song Dynasty
Unification has been basically achieved, centralization has been further strengthened, and social and economic recovery and development have been achieved.
Although Song Taizong can also be regarded as a achievement, the "candle shadow axe sound" behind his throne has been discussed for a thousand years.
Those who believe that Zhao Kuangyin really wanted to pass the throne to Zhao Guangyi proposed that as early as the sixth year of Kaibao, Zhao Guangyi sat in the position of Kaifeng Fuyin as the King of Jin, and prince + Jingyin has been the standard for the crown prince for five generations, and Zhou Shizong Chai Rong has sat on this seat. Therefore, Zhao Guangyi was fully in line with the status of the crown prince at that time, and he had great power and participated in various korean and Chinese affairs.
To put it more, after Zhao Guangyi, the official position of Kaifeng Fuyin was no longer granted to the chancellor, and the official position responsible for the administrative affairs of Kaifeng Prefecture was "Quan Zhi Kaifeng Fu Affairs", which was one of the important officials in the central hub of the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Kou Zhun, Bao Zheng, Ouyang Xiu and others who had held this position.
And Zhao Kuangyin had four sons, Zhao Dexiu, Zhao Dezhao, Zhao Delin, Zhao Defangzhong, Zhao Dexiu died early, and the second eldest, Zhao Dezhao, was originally the most likely person to inherit the throne. However, zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne from 960 AD to his sudden death in 976 AD, reigning for 16 years, but he never made Zhao Dezhao crown prince, and his two adult sons, Zhao Dezhao (26 years old) and Zhao Defang (18 years old), were only nominal emissaries and defensive envoys, not only had no real power, but also never participated in state affairs.
Proponents of conspiracy theories believe that Zhao Kuangyin was only 50 years old when he died, and his father Zhao Hongyin died at the age of 57 after falling seriously ill due to the night rain during the war. His brother Zhao Guangyi died of an arrow attack, and his life was very improper, but he also lived for 58 years, Zhao Kuangyin had been the emperor for 15 years before his death, the country had been on the right track for many years, there was no bad habit, and many years of horse career, laid a good foundation for his body, has not been crown prince, but also proved that he did not have any physical discomfort before his death. It can be inferred from this that There are hidden feelings in Zhao Kuangyin's sudden death, and Zhao Guangyi, the biggest beneficiary after his death, is naturally very suspicious. Moreover, the medical officer Cheng Dexuan predicted in advance that something big would happen, and he ran to the Jin King's Mansion to stand by, which was also one of the evidences.
Looking back at history, the first to write the "sound of candle shadow axes" into the book was the Southern Song Dynasty historian Li Tao's "Continuation of The Zhizhi Tongjian Long Compilation", but at that time it was more than two hundred years before the Taizu Dynasty, and Li Tao did not believe that Song Taizong killed Zhao Kuangyin, so when he wrote this excerpt, he also marked it as "unavoidable".
And although the "Continuation of the Zhizhi Tongjian Long Passage" is more detailed, but in the key parts is also ambiguous, ambiguous, after all, the "Long Edition" is also derived from the "Continuation of The Xiangshan Wild Record", "The Continuation of the Xiangshan Wild Record" in this record is even more flashy, so the authenticity of this matter has been impossible to verify.
As far as the existing literature is concerned,
The earliest use of the "Candle Shadow Axe Sound" as evidence of Zhao Guangyi's murder came from the last year of the Ming Dynasty, when more than six hundred years had passed since Zhao Kuangyin's death. However, the history of the Song Dynasty, the Long Edition of the Continued Zizhi Tongjian, the Continuing Zizhi Tongjian, and the Siku Quanshu do not think that Song Taizong killed his brother, and Sima Guang also defended Zhao Guangyi.
Let's talk about the ending of Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Defang, who were called "princes" by Zhao Guangyi, when Zhao Dezhao followed Zhao Guangyi on the expedition, only because Zhao Dezhao proposed to reward meritorious ministers, Zhao Guangyi reprimanded: "Wait until you become emperor." Such a harsh remark forced Zhao Dezhao to kill himself, only 28 years old. And Zhao Defang also died at the age of 22, the real cause of death is unknown, in the "Song Shi Zong Room Biography", only the three words of "Sleeping Disease" are used to describe.
According to the follow-up of the "Alliance of the Golden Plateau", after Zhao Guangyi, his younger brother Zhao Tingmei should inherit his throne. However, Zhao Guangyi was naturally unwilling, and in 982, Zhao Tingmei's plot to usurp the throne was exposed, and Emperor Taizong Zhao Guangyi took the opportunity to remove Zhao Tingmei from his official position and move him to a foreign country, and soon became angry and died of vomiting blood, at the age of 38.
Finally, in my opinion, in the early days of the founding of the Song Dynasty, it was still in a state of division, and although Zhao Kuangyin destroyed the Southern Tang And Later Shu, as well as the Two Lakes and the Southern Han, the Northern Han still existed, and there was still the Khitan tiger. Moreover, after experiencing the chaos and bloodshed of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Zhao Kuangyin worried about whether his son, who was only in his early twenties, could continue the Song Dynasty, after all, Zhao Guangyi was less than ten years old when he followed the Southern Expedition and the Northern War, when Zhao Guangyi was very famous and second only to him in influence.
Therefore, it is possible that Zhao Kuangyin had considered letting his younger brother succeed to the throne, but not in accordance with his mother's orders, but a trade-off of the actual situation, and in Zhao Kuangyin's later years, Zhao Guangyi had already received the support of many ministers in the DPRK. Maybe at this moment of hesitation, he suddenly died of illness, and Wang Ji'en made a choice for the first time, which has the story behind.