When it comes to the Northern Song Dynasty, people first think of the shame of Jing Kang; secondly, Zhao Guangyi's brother-killing succeeded to the throne, and later people also created an idiom to describe this matter, which is the famous "candlelight axe shadow".
But is that really the case?
Zhao Guangyi was the younger brother of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, and succeeded to the throne as emperor in the ninth year of Kaibao. After becoming emperor, he successively unified Wuyue and Northern Han, recovered Zhangquan Prefecture, and completed the de facto territorial pattern of the Northern Song Dynasty, which can be said to be one of the founders of the Northern Song Dynasty.
A man of such merit has a bad reputation in history, and people always suspect that he killed his brother and thus seized the throne. Why?
There are two reasons for this:
The failure of the two conquests made it historically unworthy
Zhao Guangyi, who did not have much military talent, did not have a clear self-awareness, adhering to the simple idea of "I do what I do", and in the case of the northern expedition, the situation was very good, he forcibly drove the imperial conquest, resulting in the defeat of the Song army, and he almost became a prisoner of the Khitans. At this point, the Song Dynasty completely lost the opportunity to unify the north.
Passing the throne to a younger brother instead of a son is a very strange decision in the eyes of future generations
Not to mention the royal family, on the ordinary people's family, the family property must also be passed on to the son; the daughter belongs to the outsider, let alone his brother, that is the outsider among the outsiders.
Therefore, judging from everyone's simple thinking, this throne must have been snatched by Zhao Guangyi from his brother, so the conspiracy theory about Zhao Guangyi's succession to the throne has become more and more widespread. Until the Qing Dynasty's rural field history "Burning Embers" made further exaggerations of this, and slowly became a kind of "history of faith" in the folk.
So, was Zhao Kuangyin really killed by Zhao Guangyi?
This is unlikely for three reasons:
Between the Tang and Song dynasties, brotherhood and brotherhood are a tradition
Different from the Tang Dynasty, and also different from the Song Dynasty, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was a period of history known as the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms". What does that mean? That is, in just a few decades, the dynasty changed five times, and the emperor changed more than a dozen times, and on average one to two years, an emperor had to be changed.
The general idea at that time was: "The emperor takes turns to do it, and this year comes to my house". Therefore, if Zhao Kuangyin passed the throne to his son, it is possible that the Song Dynasty would not be long gone.
Passing the throne to Zhao Guangyi is the choice of the times.
Zhao Guangyi's strength was inferior to Zhao Kuangyin's
When considering the matter of the two brothers, the force value of the two people had to be taken into account.
As the founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin's force value is the number one in history, while Zhao Guangyi is biased towards civil rule, and he usually manages logistics and the like, and it is impossible to fight.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Zhao Kuangyin alone can beat Zhao Guangyi ten.
Zhao Guangyi is the de facto "prince"
The Song Dynasty did not have the custom of making a prince, and the general heir to the throne was to be the Yin of Kaifeng Province and called the king. These Zhao Guangyi all have. What is more interesting is that Zhao Kuangyin's two sons did not have the title of king at that time. Zhao Defang, the Eight Sages, was the only throne after Emperor Taizong of Song succeeded to the throne.
From a comprehensive point of view, Emperor Taizong's position was as stable as Mount Tai, and there was no need to do anything to kill his brother.
The interesting thing about history is the uncertainty in the fog, and seeing all kinds of facts that are very different from impressions is also a kind of fun in life.
What are your views on Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi?