The historical Tang Taizong Li Shimin was portrayed by the history books as a wise god and an emperor. He made great achievements in the Tang Dynasty's unified eastern expedition to the west. After ascending the throne, he ruled the world over Neiwen and guotai and the people, and created the "rule of zhenguan". He opened up territory to the outside world, attacked the Eastern Turks and Xue Yantuo, conquered Gaochang, Guizi and Tuguhun, and severely damaged Goguryeo. The establishment of the four towns of Anxi, in harmony with the various ethnic groups in the northern region, was awarded the honorific title of "Heavenly Khan", laying the foundation for the later prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
However, later celebrities still have many different evaluations of it and history books, such as the mediocre lord of medium material, good and great achievement, incoherent absurdity, selling fame and reputation... Have these later comments subverted your impression of Tang Taizong Li Shimin? Let's compare them one by one.
Good joy and great achievement, diligent soldiers far away
Ouyang Xiu, a great poet of the Northern Song Dynasty: His (Tang Taizong) is involved in many loves, the restoration of floating maps, the great joy of merit, and the diligence of soldiers in the distance, which is often the practice of the mediocre lord.
This evaluation was made by Ouyang Xiu to Li Shimin in compiling the New History of Tang. "Involved in more love" refers to Tang Taizong's indulgence in lust, such as Zhenguan eleven years, and the 14-year-old Wu Zetian was admitted to the palace.
"Good great achievements, diligent soldiers in the distance" refers to Li Shimin's exhaustive military strength, during his reign, the war almost did not stop, after fighting the Eastern Turks, conquering the Western Regions, fighting the Western Regions, and also personally conquering Liaodong. Fortunately, he had many capable generals, such as Li Jing and Fang Xuanling, who were almost invincible. If you were to lose and fight repeatedly like the Sui Emperor, you would only be afraid that the Tang Dynasty would exist for a shorter time than the Sui Dynasty.
Therefore, in the end, Ouyang Xiu evaluated Li Shimin as nothing more than a mediocre monarch of medium material. This point is also very agreed by historians and master of traditional Chinese studies,
I don't know the shame of the boudoir
Wen Tianxiang, the last loyal soul of the Southern Song Dynasty: "Emperor Taizong did not know the shame of the boudoir, the exaggeration of the general, the liaodong in the last years, and the final inability to overcome the violence of his flesh and blood, and his heart was also proud."
The shame of the boudoir means that after Li Shimin killed his fourth brother Li Yuanji and all his sons in the Xuanwumen Rebellion, he took Li Yuanji's beautiful wife Yang Shina as a concubine, messed up ethics, and did not know shame.
False benevolence borrows righteousness
Zhu Xi, the master of southern Song Dynasty science: good at false benevolence and practicing his selfish desires through righteousness
Criticize Li Shimin for his false benevolence and false righteousness, and use the moral banner of Wei Guangzheng to satisfy his selfish desires.
Absurd as the Sui Emperor
Chen Pu, a master of science in the Southern Song Dynasty: "Emperor Wen Renyi sowed the heavens, and Li Shi was without lun for three hundred years." The end road is as absurd as the Emperor, and the Shu River is even more a Liao ship. ”
"Three Hundred Years of Li's Incest" is that there was no ethics and morality during the three hundred years of Li Tang, and various incest incidents occurred from time to time. Beginning with Li Yuan, the Emperor Gaozu of Tang, when he raised an army from Taiyuan, he first slept with two concubines, Zhang and Yin of jinyang Palace, and Li Yuan was the cousin of Yang Guang, the Sui Emperor. From here, Li Tang began to do something incoherent. Li Shimin took his sister-in-law Yang Shi as a concubine, and Emperor Gaozong of Tang included Li Shimin's concubine Wu Zetian in the palace, and later turned her into empress. Then to the later Tang Xuanzong ash picking incident. It can be said that Li Tang is stronger than a generation in the matter of invincibility.
The absurdity of Li Shimin's later years was comparable to that of the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang, who was a good and great hero, a poor soldier, an arrogant and indulgent, and a lustful woman... If it were not for the victory of the Sui Emperor's three conquests of Liaodong, which caused the people to complain, it is estimated that li Tang would not have anything to do.
Speaking of Li Shimin's arrogance and indulgence, we must talk about an interesting thing about his flaunting wealth. In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing broke the Turks and took back the Sui Emperor's empress Xiao Shi by the way, and the arrogant Tang Taizong showed Xiao Shi's wealth and showed him the grandeur of the celebration, and as a result, Xiao Shi said that the Sui Emperor was engaged in celebrations, and he could burn 200 carts of agarwood wood and 200 stones of incense in one night, and hit Tang Taizong's face fiercely. This is just a microcosm of Tang Taizong's arrogance.
In order to satisfy the arrogance and indulgence, Tang Taizong constantly increased the people's servitude.
There is no love for the people
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang: Former Tang Dynasty Emperor Taizong's heavy labor, good fighting.
During the tang dynasty, the burden of servitude was very heavy, otherwise how could there be so many financial resources and manpower to support his conquest of the east and the west? Li Shimin once said to Wei Zheng and others: "When the people have nothing to do, they are arrogant, and labor is easy to make." This means that the only value of the common people is to give him Li Shimin a cow and a horse. In order to escape the burden of shaking service, the common people had to flee one after another; they even cut off their own hands and feet, which were called "lucky hands" and "lucky feet". His image of loving the people is nothing more than that of historians.
It can only be said that Tang Taizong caught up with the good times, and the people who suffered from the war and chaos for too long should rest and recuperate, as long as they can survive, they will not make trouble, otherwise the absurdity of Tang Taizong's later years is only afraid of the same as the sui emperor.
Fish for fame and reputation
Li Zhen, the first "madman" of the Ming Dynasty: A good Wei Zheng, if Taizong, has the idea of selling his name at the bottom... Emperor Taizong's good name is a teasing omission here.
The story of Tang Taizong and Wei Zheng has always been sung by historians, and has also left a famous saying throughout the ages: "With copper as a mirror, you can wear a crown; with ancient times as a mirror, you can know the rise and fall; with people as a mirror, you can see the gains and losses." However, in Li Yan's view, this was just a trick made by Tang Taizong to gain the reputation of Renjun, and it was a means of selling fame and fishing for reputation. Later, Hou Junji and Du Zhenglun participated in the rebellion of the crown prince Li Chengqian, and Tang Taizong had people tear down Wei Zheng's tombstone just because Wei Zheng had recommended these two people, and there was no shadow of Xianjun.
Extremely fierce
Late Ming Dynasty thinker Wang Fuzhi: Emperor Taizong personally held a bow to shoot his brother, and shouted to add a blade to his brother, Si Shiye, who was extremely fierce and miserable, and the survivors of the human heart had no hair.
During the Xuanwumen Rebellion, Tang Taizong personally shot his brother Li Jiancheng, ordered lieutenant Chi Gong to shoot Li Yuanji, and then beheaded all the sons of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, regardless of their size, which can be said to be cutting grass and roots. Therefore, Wang Fuzhicai said that Tang Taizong was extremely vicious and inhuman.
Tampering with national history to beautify oneself
Guoxue master Zhang Taiyan: Emperor Taizong was standing, afraid of his posthumous name, and began to supervise the revision of the history of the country with the prime minister, so the "Records of the Two Dynasties" had no faith...
Tang Taizong did too many bad things, especially the change of Xuanwumen, afraid that the history books of later generations would be written truthfully, originally recorded by historical officials, and became the prime minister to supervise the revision of national history.
The "Zhenguan Politicians" clearly records that Tang Taizong asked Fang Xuanling and others to delete and revise the history of the country, and also demanded that the "change of Xuanwumen" be written as a great cause of "An Sheji, benefiting all people".
The Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang were compiled on the basis of the Records of gaozu and the Records of the Present Dynasty, which were instructed by Li Shimin. After tampering with the history books, he did his best to beautify Li Shimin and scandalize Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji.
The Tang Dynasty was able to unify only in line with the times
Historian and master of traditional Chinese studies, Lü Simian: Tang Taizong is only a medium material, and in terms of his virtue of frugality and deep thinking, he is actually not as good as Emperor Wu of Song, let alone Emperor Wu of Liang; his martial strategy is not as good as Emperor Wu of Liang, let alone Emperor Wu of Song, emperor Wu of Chen", "to the point that he can make peace and prosperity, is that "after the long chaos of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Han Dynasty, Wei, and Jin, the people were reunited, the people were fortunate to rest, and there were no strong troops outside the Country, all of which would be done from time to time, not because of manpower."
This means that Tang Taizong was only a mediocre talent, and the Tang Dynasty could be unified, but after the long war and chaos of the Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties, the unification of Uchi became the voice of the people of the world, which was in line with the situation of "dividing for a long time and must be divided for a long time", and it was not determined by Tang Taizong's ability.
The rule of chastity was exaggerated
Sui and Tang Dynasty historian Wang Zhongji: "The Rule of Zhenguan" is rendered a bit excessively, its hukou is less than 1/2 of the Sui Dynasty's extreme prosperity, and some areas are still vast and sparsely populated.
Before the unification of the Tang Dynasty, years of war, especially in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, grass kings rose up in various places, and the lives were ruined, resulting in a rapid decline in population.
In fact, under the vigorous rule of Emperor Wen of Sui and Emperor Ju of Sui, the Sui Dynasty prospered rapidly, and the population grew rapidly, and by the ninth year of Daye, the Sui Dynasty had reached more than 9 million households and a population of tens of millions. Nine years before Daye, the Sui Emperor was a diligent emperor who governed the Sui Dynasty more and more strongly on the basis of Emperor Wen of Sui. Unfortunately, he fell ill in his later years, and after the failure of the three conquests of Liaodong, he also planned to conquer Liaodong for the fourth time, coupled with heavy servitude such as the construction of the Grand Canal, and finally lost the trust of his family and the people.
However, the rule of Zhenguan was blown so badly, and the population was less than half of the sui dynasty's heyday, which showed that Tang Taizong was far inferior to Emperor Wen of Sui in governing the country, or even inferior to Emperor Sui. The Tang Dynasty barely reached the population of the Sui Dynasty at its peak until emperor Xuanzong's Kaiyuan dynasty.
The End
Past highlights
Count Zhu Xi's nineteen "sins": Can a saint really do ash picking and ugly things?
The sage Zhu Xi resigned after a word, was he really poor and did not like to be an official?
How unbearable Cao Cao, Li Shimin, Li Bai, and Bai Juyi in Zhu Xi's eyes are, look at his evaluation