introduction:
Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, with the era name Zhenguan. Li Shimin was an outstanding military figure, during which he established the Tang Dynasty and unified the country. He made great achievements and achieved a decisive role, he loved literature and calligraphy, and had ink treasures passed down to the world. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin was made the Duke of Qin and later the King of Qin, and led his troops to pacify warlords such as Xue Rendu, Liu Wuzhou, Dou Jiande, and Wang Shichong, and finally unified China.
In 626, he launched the Xuanwumen Rebellion and killed his brothers Li Jiancheng, the Prince of Qi, Li Yuanji, and their sons, and was made crown prince, and Li Yuan, the emperor of Tang, was soon forced to abdicate the throne, and Li Shimin took the throne. After Li Shimin ascended the throne as emperor, he actively listened to the opinions of his subjects, ruled the world with culture, and expanded his territory, becoming a famous Ming Emperor in Chinese history. Tang Taizong humbly accepted advice, practiced strict economy in the country, and enabled the people to recuperate, which finally led to the emergence of a situation of national peace and security in society, and created the famous rule of Zhenguan in history, laying an important foundation for the later Kaiyuan prosperous era.
Li Shimin launched the Xuanwumen Rebellion
Speaking of the famous Xuanwumen Rebellion in history, it occurred on June 4 (626) in the ninth year of Tang Gaozu Wude. In 618, Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty and established Li Jiancheng as his son. The Taiyuan rebellion was a strategy of Li Shimin, who promised him to make him crown prince after the matter was completed. However, after the world was pacified, Li Shimin's fame grew, but Li Yuan hesitated. The crown prince Li Jiancheng immediately joined forces with his fourth brother Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi to exclude Li Shimin. Li Yuan's indecisiveness also caused the government decrees of the DPRK and China to conflict with each other, and accelerated the soldiers of the sons to meet each other.
Li Jiancheng once poisoned Li Shimin. In the ninth year of Wu De, when the Turks invaded the border, Li Jiancheng suggested to Li Yuan that Li Yuanji be the commander of the Turks, so as to grasp the soldiers and horses of the King of Qin and prepare to set up an ambush at Kunming Pond to kill Li Shimin. The Crown Prince's mansion led King Qi to tell the King of Qin about this secret discussion. Li Shimin decided to fight a battle at a critical moment and preemptively attacked. Preemptively killing the eldest brother Li Jiancheng and the fourth brother Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi, this is the famous Xuanwumen change in history. Three days later, Li Shimin was made crown prince. Two months later, Li Yuan abdicated and Li Shimin ascended the throne.
Why did Li Shimin have to kill his brothers' descendants?
Although the xuanwumen change was over, there were still people in the Li Tang imperial family who would pose a threat to Li Shimin. Although the prince and the king of Qi have been removed, their ten sons are still there. For Li Shimin, this means that the remaining political dissident forces are still there, and a potential vengeful force is still there! And no one can guarantee that in the future there will be no suspicious people who will use their hatred and use their banner to stir up trouble. Therefore, Li Shimin can only choose to slaughter his nephew!
To speak of cruelty, this may be a kind of cruelty. However, this is the rule of the game of power struggle. Within such rules, everyone is an involuntary pawn. You may be able to choose what role you play, but you can never change the inherent prescriptiveness of the role. In the cage of history and the conditions of the times, you can only adapt to and use the rules to the greatest extent, but you are absolutely powerless to change the rules.
Further, if what happened in Wude in the ninth year was the "change of Kunming Pond" rather than the "change of Xuanwu Gate", if the final victory of this peak duel was Li Jiancheng instead of Li Shimin, then would Li Jiancheng, after killing the King of Qin, swing the butcher's knife at the sons of the King of Qin? The answer is yes. Therefore, once history chooses the change of XuanwuMen, once the god of fate loves Li Shimin, then the prince and the ten sons of king Qi are doomed to escape!
On the afternoon of June 4, when the two teams of flying horses of the Qin Royal Palace were ordered to rush into the Eastern Palace and the Qi Palace, these golden branches and jade leaves of the Li Tang Imperial Family immediately cried out in fear and despair. Before the ten young and young princes could get out of the great sorrow of losing their father, death came to them again. The history books do not record their ages. Perhaps this is a good thing for future generations of readers, because people's hearts can avoid being touched by some kind. But Secretary Shi gave their names. In the yellowed annals of history, they are just a small string of featureless symbols, two or three lines of text that are easy to ignore.
After killing the sons of the prince and the king of Qi, the generals of the King of Qin also wanted to kill more than a hundred of their cronies. Wei Chi Jingde vigorously objected, saying: "All evils are only in the two culprits!" Since they have already been killed, they cannot expand the scope of the attack, and this will not make people feel at ease. Li Shimin took his advice, and the massacre was terminated. On the same day, Emperor Gaozu issued an edict granting amnesty to the world, saying: "The crime of rebellion shall end with Jiancheng and Yuanji, and the rest of the henchmen shall not be prosecuted; all government affairs shall be handed over to the King of Qin for adjudication!"
Li Shimin succeeded, and he not only eliminated his political enemies in one fell swoop with unparalleled wisdom, boldness, and boldness, and achieved the success of the coup, but also eliminated the political turmoil that might arise after the violent seizure of power with his clever political skills and palliative and lenient policies, thus successfully sitting on the throne of the crown prince he dreamed of!
However, June 4, 1999, was destined to become a wound in Li Shimin's life that could never be healed, and it was also destined to become a hidden pain that could never be resolved in the memory of the Li Tang Dynasty. If the entire Zhenguan great cause that Li Shimin later created is a monument that shines through the ages, then its base is undoubtedly a grave of barren grass. Inside, not only Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji were buried, nor were they only their ten young and young sons, but also the soul of another Li Shimin.
After the outbreak of the Xuanwumen Incident, it had a deep impact on Li Shimin
Perhaps we must draw our eyes to the Zhenguan years to see how this bloodshed in the ninth year of WuDe deeply entangled Li Shimin's life. In the rainy spring of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, when the news came that the fifth son, Li Weizhan, the King of Qi, had rebelled in Qizhou, Li Shimin indignantly wrote down a handwriting condemning Li Qi. At the end of the book, Li Shimin wept uncontrollably.
When this kind of tragedy of frying the same root and killing each other almost repeated in front of Li Shimin, the striking similarity of history will certainly make him greatly shocked. Although time has changed and the difference in roles has led to differences in behavior and values, Li Shimin must have a moral shadow left by Wu De in his heart when dealing with the case of Li Chengqian and Li Tai. The more severe and bitter the condemnation of his sons, and the more he admired and emphasized the "principle of filial piety" of "loving and respecting the king", the more it showed that Li Shimin had never really escaped the great influence of the Xuanwumen incident in his lifetime.
Author's Note:
History is sometimes so ruthless, especially in the power struggle of ancient Chinese emperors, I don't know if every emperor who relied on killing succeeded, when looking back on the past, did he ever blame himself or regret it? But for Tang Taizong Li Shimin, the change of Xuanwumen can be said to be a stain on his lifelong political career, but it is also something that must be done. In fact, the change of XuanwuMen has left us with a reflection, that is, is the inheritance system of ancient emperors really reasonable? You are welcome to discuss with me~