The saying "Fight the tiger and brothers, fight the father and son soldiers" is not exaggerated when applied to Li Shimin of Tang Taizong. Li Hu was a member of the Northern Wei Dynasty and was given the title of one of the "Eight Pillar States", and Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, inherited the title of his grandfather Li Hu and was given the title of "Duke of Tang". In the last year of the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan saw that the Sui Dynasty was in a state of turmoil, and had the idea of replacing it, so he rebelled against the Sui Dynasty, known in history as "Jinyang Uprising".
In the year of Jinyang's rebellion, Li Shimin was only sixteen years old, and he and his eldest brother Li Jiancheng led a large army and made great achievements for Li Yuan to unify the world.
Xi'an unearthed Li Jiancheng's tomb, the epitaph is engraved with 55 words, exposing Li Shimin's personality, tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi's sentence "the most ruthless imperial family", also used on Li Shimin, the most unavoidable.
01. East Palace vs Qin King's Mansion
Within a year of Jinyang's army, Li Yuan attacked Chang'an City, and the Sui Dynasty was actually destroyed, and when Yu Wenhua and killed the Sui Emperor Yang Guang, the Sui Dynasty also nominally perished, and the Sui Gong Emperor Yang You, who was supported by Li Yuan as emperor, ceded the throne to Li Yuan, and Li Yuan changed the country name to "Tang" and announced the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
It is said that after the Jinyang rebellion, Li Shimin's military achievements became more prominent, and Li Yuan promised to make Li Shimin the crown prince after the matter was completed.
After sitting on the throne, Li Yuan felt that Li Shimin's merits were high, so he made his eldest son Li Jiancheng the prince of the Eastern Palace and Li Shimin the King of Qin.
As a result, between the Eastern Palace and the Qin Dynasty Palace, the open and secret struggles were not inferior to the "Nine Sons and Concubines" during the Kangxi Dynasty.
02. The change of Xuanwu Gate
The role played by Tang Gaozu Li Yuan seemed to be a "chip on the balance", from the very beginning, the balance was biased towards the crown prince Li Jiancheng, and Li Jiancheng had the help of Li Yuanji and others, naturally, the Qin royal palace was in the inferior position, coupled with the fact that Li Shimin, the king of Qin, led more troops outside, and could not take into account the court struggle within the dynasty.
This led to an ending: the staff under the Qin King's palace, everyone was in danger, and they could not live in fear.
At the suggestion of everyone, Li Shimin decided not to stop and launch a Xuanwumen coup d'état that killed his brother and killed his brother.
On the fourth day of the first month of June in the ninth year of Wude, that is, on July 2, 626 AD, the morning of this day rose as usual, and in history, this morning was not ordinary.
Li Shimin, the King of Qin, gathered Qin Qiong, Wei Chigong, Cheng Zhijie, Hou Junji, and others to lay a heavy ambush at Xuanwu Gate, and when The Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and the Fourth Emperor's son Li Yuanji saw that they were passing through Xuanwu Gate, the ambushed soldiers attacked, and Li Shimin personally shot the crown prince Li Jiancheng with an arrow, and then killed Li Yuanji.
Li Jiancheng had a total of six sons, the eldest son died young, the remaining five sons were all killed by Li Shimin, cut the grass and removed the roots, and the members of the royal family related to Li Jiancheng were expelled from the royal family.
Li Shimin completed a coup d'état, known in history as the "Change of Xuanwu Gate", and only two months after the change of Xuanwu Gate, Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang Gaozu, ceded the throne to Li Shimin.
03. Li Jiancheng Mausoleum
For Tang Taizong, Li Shimin created the "Rule of Zhenguan" of the Tang Dynasty, which was a very famous grand era in feudal history.
Most of the evaluations of Li Shimin in history are positive, such as Li Shimin's humble heart, vigorous efforts, and people's livelihood, etc. After Li Shimin's death, his posthumous title was "Emperor Wenwu Dasheng DaguangXiao", and the title was the ancient people's conclusion on the coffin of the deceased before his death, and this evaluation of Li Shimin was very high.
However, for his own brothers, for brotherhood, Li Shimin has only one word - "fierce", the change of Xuanwumen, the killing of brothers, can be said to be a stain on Li Shimin's life.
How cruel is Li Shimin to Li Jiancheng? From Li Jiancheng's epitaph, we can see a little bit.
In 2005, Li Jiancheng's mausoleum was found by archaeologists in Xi'an, and experts entered the mausoleum to excavate cultural relics and found that this mausoleum had been patronized by tomb robbers, but the epitaph was still there, and Li Jiancheng's epitaph was only fifty-five words.
As the first prince of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Li Jiancheng's epitaph is only fifty-five words, which is obviously unreasonable, and Li Jiancheng has also made military achievements since the Jinyang army, and what is surprising is that his epitaph has nothing but to introduce the name, nickname and time.
Under normal circumstances, the epitaph is to record merit, equality of life, etc., it is obvious that Li Jiancheng's epitaph is very special, his deeds and history, there are nine times out of ten by Li Shimin deliberately hidden, which is also one of the possible reasons why there are not many records about Li Jiancheng in the historical materials.
From the only records in the epitaph, it can be seen that Li Jiancheng's mausoleum was built in the second year of Zhenguan, that is, the second year after Tang Taizong Li Shimin ascended the throne, and it can be inferred that Li Jiancheng's epitaph was written with Li Shimin's knowledge.
Although Li Jiancheng's epitaph is only fifty-five words, and there is no mention of his merits, Li Jiancheng's actual merits are also indispensable, and if nothing else, it is said that Tang Gaozu Li Yuan's Jinyang army, before the army, Li Jiancheng took precautions, raised soldiers and horses in the Hedong area, everyone suggested that Li Yuan Taiyuan raise troops, Li Yuan believed that Li Jiancheng's soldiers and horses did not arrive in Taiyuan and did not want to raise troops. As soon as Li Jiancheng's soldiers and horses arrived in Taiyuan, they immediately solved Li Yuan's worries and strengthened Li Yuan's determination to raise troops in Jinyang.
People are most concerned about Li Shimin's posthumous title of Li Jiancheng, and from the excavated epitaphs, it can be seen that the crown prince Li Jiancheng was demoted to the title of "Hidden King", and the nickname was "Hidden".
"Nickname" is the ancient people's evaluation of some important people after death, either praise or depreciation, as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were already nicknames.
What does it mean to be hidden in a nickname? It is not the hidden of the corpse country, the position of the corpse is hidden, and the unknown mistaken country is hidden. Obviously, the nickname that Li Shimin gave li Jiancheng was an "evil name."