Li Xian was the second son of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian, and after the death of his eldest son Li Hong, Li Xian succeeded to the throne as crown prince. There are many opinions about Li Hong's death, but most people believe that he was poisoned by Wu Zetian, after all, Wu Zetian poisoned his niece Lady Wei Guo. Therefore, in people's impressions, Wu Zetian tiger poisons the child. After Li Xian became crown prince for 5 years, he was also deposed, not only that, but 4 years later, Li Xian was hunted down and killed by Wu Zetian. All kinds of indications show that Wu Zetian's heart was like a snake and scorpion, and he killed his own flesh and bones.
But is that really the case? Is Li Xian a wronged soul who died in vain, or a "white lotus" in disguise?
Below, we will unveil the true face of the Ruthless Emperor's family together.
Lee Hyun stills
According to historical records, Li Xianren was as friendly as his name. Li Xian, who was more than ten years old, read the Analects in front of Li Zhi, and when he read "Xianxian Yise", he deliberately repeated it. Li Zhi asks why he read it repeatedly, and Li Xian says that he likes this sentence very much, which makes Li Zhi greatly appreciative, and he also shows off Li Xian's intelligence to Sikong Li Ji. The sages are transfigured, and it is said to respect the learned and moral sages.
Li Xian knew that his father was benevolent, so he showed a state of honor and honor, so as to win Li Zhi's favor. Why is it said that Li Xian is pretending, looking at Li Xian's people around him, you will know whether Li Xian has real talent, and this person is Li Xian's companion Wang Bo.
Wang Bo stills
Wang Bo is the fourth master of the early Tang Dynasty, and his own talent is naturally outstanding,
However, during Li Xian's appointment of Wang Bo, there was no rumor of the sage name, but it was a matter of sinking into the sound of dogs and horses being widely known
。 In 668, the Tang Dynasty was popular in cockfighting, and the princes in the palace were not exempt from vulgarity, not to mention that they were humble and humble people who liked these things. Li Xian and his younger brother Li Xian fought cocks, and Wang Bo created a "King Chicken of The King of Qiying" to help xingxing, quoting scriptures throughout the scriptures, in order to describe the fight between two roosters. When Li Zhi learned of this, he was furious, believing that this move provoked brothers to fight and drove Wang Bo out of the palace.
The orange born in Huainan is an orange, and the talented son born in Li Xian's mansion can only be reduced to writing articles for roosters. Moreover, when Li Xian was deposed, he found the "Hai Huan Collection" written by The Crown Prince's Washing Horse Liu Neyan, which contained some small paragraphs, and these flattering acts showed that Li Xian's character was also average.
Cockfighting game
In fact, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi also borrowed the topic to play, and fighting a chicken affected the brotherhood? And Li Zhi himself also likes such entertainment competitions. In 674, Li Zhi also held a large-scale sports event in the palace, in which one of the two sides was the eastern representative team led by Li Xian, and the other was the western representative team led by Li Xian, so that the two teams could win or lose the game for fun. Typically only the governor is allowed to set the fire! At this time, Li Zhi forgot how to educate Li Xian 6 years ago.
Maybe Li Zhi just hates Wang Bo, how did he bring his good child badly, how did my xian'er, who loves to read, become like this? It's all near ink black, and this person can't stay! So Wang Bo became cannon fodder, and Li Xian kept his name.
Tang Dynasty played polo
In the second year of Li Zhi's organization of the competition, Li Xian, who was famous, ushered in the peak of his life. In 675, Li Hong died and Li Xian succeeded to the throne. Li Zhi ordered Li Xian to supervise the country, and Li Xian performed very well, "handling things clearly and in a clear manner, as the theory of the times called", and also received praise from Li Zhi's hand edict. Before Li Xian ascended to the throne, Wu Zetian had already "killed" two princes in succession: one was li zhong, a former deposed prince with solid evidence, and the other was his own brother Li Hong, who was rumored to have been poisoned by Wu Zetian.
However, in this tense situation, Li Xian not only did not avoid his sharp edge, but instead showed great activity. Li Xian also summoned the literati and scholars of the time to jointly annotate Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han Dynasty, and his literary merits were remarkable. This is the same as the practice of Li Tai, the son of Li Shimin, in order to win the Sacred Heart, he took the road of being virtuous and studious.
It is not difficult to see that Li Xian is fighting with Wu Zetian for power. Did Li Xian fight? I'm afraid he doesn't have confidence himself, but if he joins forces with Li Zhi, he may not be able to lose. Therefore, he tried every means to please Li Zhi.
So are Li Zhi and Li Xian together? Not necessarily. This person who was tortured by his wife for half his life has lost his fighting spirit, not to mention that Wu Zetian still has a set of handling political affairs. So in 676, Li Zhi even had the idea of abdicating Wu Zetian, which shocked the courtiers enough. This matter was later put to rest,
But Wu Zetian saw the opportunity, it turned out that he could walk from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, and women could also become emperors. In this way, Li Xian's status as crown prince was the biggest obstacle for Wu Zetian, and mother and son completely became political enemies.
Li Zhi stills
Wu Zetian was not a vegetarian, and Li Xian was not her opponent at all. First of all, she released rumors to create public opinion and shake the legitimacy of Li Xian's identity. After Li Xian succeeded to the throne, it was rumored in the palace that Li Xian was not the son of Tianhou, but the illegitimate son of Li Zhi and Lady Wei Guo.
The matter of the harem must have come from the mouth of the harem people, but the initiator of this matter is probably Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian is a master of using "villains", and some insignificant small people can often play a big role. At that time, Wu Zetian relied on bribing harem slaves as an internal line to overthrow the former Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei, so this time it was mostly Wu Zetian's handiwork.
Stills of Lady Wei Guo
Public opinion has risen, and Wu Zetian still has to build a conclusive conclusion.
In 677, the demon Ming Chongyu entered the palace as a doctor. This man is proficient in witchcraft, under the pretense of Shinto,
It is Wu Zetian's dog leg. Ming Chongyu is a master of creating rumors
Privately spread rumors such as "the prince is unsustainable, the British king looks like Taizong", "Xiang Wang Xiang is the most expensive" and so on. He even said something surprising, calculating that Lee Hyun was born prematurely, and was born on the way to Zhaoling, the real Lee Hyun was already dead, and now this was replaced by the illegitimate son of Lee Ji and Lady Han.
Li Xian, who was already frightened by public opinion, was even more overwhelmed. But he was not suspicious of his own identity, but the impact of the rumors on his status. Whose children can do it now, and inheriting the unification is what he wants.
Ming Chongyu stills
Li Xian decided not to sit still any longer. In 679, Ming Chongyu was assassinated, and there was no real murderer, and Wu Zetian suspected that Li Xian was responsible, but there was no evidence. Zheng Shi does not exactly state that Chongyu was killed by Li Xian.
But from two aspects of analysis, Li Xian's possibility is very large. First, Li Xian has motives. As mentioned earlier, Ming Chongyu slandered Li Xian's identity, leading Li Xian to kill him. Second, a year later, the case was implicated in an ethical case, and Li Xian's male favorite Zhao Daosheng confessed that "the prince made Daosheng kill Chongyu", so it is very likely that Li Xian killed Ming Chongyu. But Li Xian's biggest intention was not to get rid of the little demon, but to force the heart of the palace.
Stills of Zhao Daosheng
In 680, Li Xian became obsessed with sound and color, fell in love with a domestic slave named Zhao Daosheng, and frequently gave him gold. This matter was advised by Wei Chengqing, the silang, but Li Xian did not restrain it. However, Wu Zetian saw the opportunity and sent someone to report Li Xian's corrupt life, and also sent Pei Yan, the current chancellor, to lead a group of three people to try.
As a result, Li Xian's ethics case of living an unruly life was tried as a case of treason
: The "soap armor hundreds of collars" were found in the horse workshop of the Prince's Eastern Palace, and Zhao Daosheng also confessed that Li Xian had killed Ming Chongyu.
If the evidence of Li Xian's rebellion is conclusive, if these armors were prepared to kill Ming Chongyu, Ming Chongyu has been dead for a year, leaving this evidence waiting to be arrested? Therefore, this was prepared by Li Xian after Ming Chongyu's death, and the prince did not concentrate on supervising the country, but secretly hid weapons.
Tang Dynasty armor
However, in response to this incident, although the Zizhi Tongjian records the episode of Zhao Daosheng, the Old Book of Tang does not record it. Therefore, some people think that Li Xian's conspiracy to rebel cannot be conclusive. However, the Zizhi Tongjian has always denigrated the authority of Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian's personal killing of his own baby girl is also described as if the author himself was present, although the Old Book of Tang does not provide evidence that the baby girl was killed by Wu Zetian. Therefore, if there is any black material that can discredit Wu Zetian, the Zizhi Tongjian will not let go. However, in this matter, he recorded Li Xian's faults, which shows that the historians of the Zizhi Tongjian also believe that Li Xian is really "unwise", and the intention of rebellion can be seen.
Wu Zetian stills
After this incident, Li Xian was deposed as a Shuren, and 4 years later, Wu Zetian sent a cool official to kill Li Xian in Bazhou in order to avoid the consequences. The mother-son fight finally came to an end, and Wu Zetian won in an all-round way.
Someone asked, Li Xian had already been deposed, why did Wu Zetian have to kill him? At this time, Wu Zetian was already on the verge of becoming emperor and was preparing for his own title of emperor, and Li Xian had become a thorn and stumbling block in his eyes. Although he is now nameless and has no points, it is not excluded that there are groups that support him as a puppet to rebel against himself.
Wu Zetian was really like a god, after Li Xian's death, there were still people who pretended that Li Xian was not dead and raised troops to rebel, this person was Xu Jingye, the mastermind of the Yangzhou Mutiny, but this is an afterthought.
[References: Zizhi Tongjian, Old Book of Tang]