Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty and was known as the "First Emperor of the Ages". Under his leadership, the Tang Dynasty was economically prosperous and powerful, and his achievements were insurmountable pinnacles in ancient Chinese history.
However, Tang Taizong Li Shimin was not perfect.
In his later years, Li Shimin's life became more and more luxurious, not only rejecting the advice of hundreds of officials, but also making the people live a miserable life.
What happened to Li Shimin in his later years? Even Wu Zetian scoffed at what he did at that time!
Rejection and arrogance rise
After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin had many ministers around him who dared to speak out, the most famous of which was Wei Zheng. He wrote more than 100,000 words of opinions for Li Shimin and put forward more than 200 suggestions on matters.
But later, Wei Zheng clearly sensed that the emperor had changed, and "gradually spoke out."
In 636, Wei Zheng shangshu criticized Emperor Taizong Li Shimin for his refusal and arrogance.
Wei Zheng said that although the Tang Empire under Li Shimin became the most powerful country in the world at that time, morality was not strengthened, and benevolence and righteousness were not more extensive. The reason is that Li Shimin's feelings towards his subordinates do not fully reflect integrity, and although he has a good beginning, he has not seen the beauty of overcoming the end.
In the early days of Zhenguan politics, Li Shimin was still able to accept outspoken advice, but gradually became averse to outspoken advice, and although sometimes reluctantly tolerated, it was no longer as open-minded as before.
In 637, Ma Zhou criticized Li Shimin's labor in building palaces, arguing that Li Shimin should reduce the burden on the people so that they could rest.
In 639 AD, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin made the people's labor increasingly heavy because of "decorating the palace and visiting the pond platform", and some courtiers advised him, but Li Shimin replied that "the people are arrogant if they have nothing to do, and labor is easy to do", which caused Wei Zheng's unease, so he presented a famous "Ten Gradual Alienation" criticizing Li Shimin's shortcomings in ten aspects. One of the most important points is Li Shimin's attitude towards the people, and he believes that Li Shimin's remarks may not be the words of Xingbang.
In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan (641 AD), Li Shimin showed a habit of indulgence and refusal to advise. Once, Fang Xuanling and Gao Shilian met Dou Desu, a young supervisor in charge of the construction of the palace, and asked casually: "What has the North Gate (Xuanwu Gate) been building recently?" When Li Shimin heard this, he was very angry, and immediately called Fang Xuanling and Gao Shilian to talk, saying that they only needed to manage the affairs of Nanyan, and did not need to manage the small project of the north gate.
Seeing the emperor's reaction, Fang Xuanling and Gao Shilian were very scared and quickly apologized.
Wei Zheng was puzzled, saying that Fang Xuanling and Gao Shilian were important assistants to Li Shimin and should understand the affairs of the government and the public. If the North Gate project should be built, they should assist Li Shimin to complete it; If it should not be built, ask Li Shimin to stop work. It is natural for them to ask the competent authorities, and they do not know why Li Shimin reproached them, let alone what crimes they had and apologized.
Faced with Wei Zheng's words, Li Shimin did not speak guiltily. This little thing shows that Li Shimin in the later period of Zhenguan is not as good as before, and his style has changed.
Large-scale construction and search for beautiful women
In history, nothing has cost the people more than large-scale civil engineering and years of war. If you have to do it, it is understandable to go all out to fight.
However, for the pleasure of one, building a large number of civil works is an act of greed and tyranny.
In April of the 21st year of Zhenguan (647), Li Shimin felt that the capital was sultry, so he spent a lot of money to build Cuiwei Palace on the top of Lintong Li Mountain. However, three months later, Li Shimin accused the palace of being too stingy and insulting the Great Tang Weiyi, so he began to rebuild the Yuhua Palace.
Such extravagance and squandering made the people dissatisfied, but it made Li Shimin happy and insisted on going his own way.
Moreover, Li Shimin personally grasped the infrastructure matters and built large-scale palaces in Chang'an, Luoyang and other places, spending hundreds of millions of silver.
The "Luoyang Palace" located in the eastern capital was originally established by the Sui Emperor to strengthen the rule of the north and south of the Sui Dynasty, but later became a place for the Sui Emperor to eat, drink and play.
After Li Shimin took over, he continued to carry out construction projects, and the public and private labor expenses were unbearable. Among them, the huge building complex, including the "Feishan Palace", is gorgeous and magnificent, and extremely extravagant. The whole project is made of gold and silver and even the lives of skilled craftsmen.
In his later years, Li Shimin not only indulged in building luxurious palaces and spending huge sums of money, but also indulged in wine without restraint.
In June of the tenth year of Zhenguan (636 AD), Li Shimin's virtuous Empress Sun died of illness, and Li Shimin, who should have been immersed in grief, uncharacteristically began to indulge himself more and more.
He often ordered people to search for delicate women to fill the inner court. Even his own sister-in-law, he did not hesitate to reach out and take it down.
At that time, Wu Meiniang, who was only 14 years old, was also summoned into the harem. Because of her beauty and well-behaved, she was quickly canonized as a talent. In order to satisfy his desires, after the death of King Li Yuanjiqi, his sister-in-law Yang Shi quickly became Li Shimin's pillow person.
And when King Lujiang was killed, his Aiji was also forced to become a member of the emperor's inner palace.
Of course, this unrestrained life eventually hollowed out Li Shimin's body and aggravated the deterioration of his health.
Moreover, in the later period of Zhenguan, Li Shimin often went hunting and patrolling, and was addicted to the flower sky and wine, which had reached the point of complaining. His actions not only aroused dissatisfaction and disgust, but also had a serious impact on the governance and stability of the country.
In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, the Yulin army mutinied, and the guards "shot the palace at night, and the five who slept in the court", hoping that Li Shimin would stop wandering, and in the end, these guards were executed for "great rebellion".
Although this mutiny was suppressed, Li Shimin was no longer the enlightened and just emperor in the mouths of the people.
In his youth, Li Shimin fought in the south and the north for many years, and he still loved war in his later years.
In the nineteenth year of Jeongguan (645 AD), Li Shimin did not listen to the advice, issued an edict to attack Goryeo, divided the land and water armies into troops, the water army led by Zhang Liang, a total of 43,000 people, more than 500 warships, and the land route led by Li Xun, nearly 100,000 people.
The Tang army attacked Goryeo and met with stubborn resistance, losing troops and generals, and had to withdraw in October of that year. Later, Li Shimin switched to the method of taking turns to attack and harass, trying to exhaust Goryeo first and then attack in a big way, but the result did not gain much, but aroused the dissatisfaction of neighboring countries, and the domestic people were full of grievances.
After Zhenguan's 22-year crusade against Goryeo, because "the army was frequent, the palace was built in a competition, and the people were exhausted", even the concubine Xu Hui could not stand it, and wrote a letter to Li Shimin:
I found that in recent years, the strength of the common people has been used not only for labor, but also for the battles of the Eastern Expedition to the Liaohai Sea and the Western Expedition to Kunqiu, and the soldiers have become exhausted, wearing heavy armor, and tired of long-distance transportation in boats and carts.
Conscripted soldiers, their life and death and stay, are blocked by the wind and waves, and they may lose their lives and food. A person who works hard may only harvest grain for decades, but a damaged ship can cause hundreds of stones of grain to capsize.
It is like filling the raging sea with endless agricultural resources, losing ungained benefits but already causing losses to our military.
Although there is a national routine in addition to ferocity, belligerent behavior and playing with the army have been warned by the ancient sages... Therefore, the vast land is not a solution to stability, and human fatigue is the source of chaos.
The north was first built, and the south camp was Cuiwei; Once before the time, Yuhua created. This requires not only labor for construction workers, but also a lot of capital.
Xu Hui was Li Shimin's favorite concubine in her later years, she was smart and studious since she was a child, proficient in scripture and history, and was known as "virtuous concubine", and had the same temperament as Empress Changsun at that time. Her piece is not only beautifully written, but also very to the point. After reading it, Li Shimin appreciated her words very much, although there was no reflection in action, but "very generously" rewarded Xu Hui for the book.
Interfere with the revision of history, and the lady is not ashamed
The reign of Zhenguan forged the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Shimin's tenure was the most active period of history revision in the Tang Dynasty, and with the diligent joint efforts of historical officials, he successively completed the compilation of huge works such as "Southern History", "Northern History", and "Sui Shu".
At this time, Li Shimin, as the emperor of the Great Tang Dynasty, was very concerned about his honor during his lifetime and after his death.
In the process of encouraging historical officials to revise history, he not only paid attention to the "lessons of succession", but also interfered with the independence of historical officials in sorting and compiling, and Li Shimin always inadvertently hinted that they should "write straight", which surprised and frightened the incumbent historical officials at that time.
Because the most taboo thing in writing history books is subjective assumptions and distortions of historical truth.
The author of the history book must have an objective and impartial attitude, respect the truth, do not distort or fabricate history at will, and cannot be swayed by his own prejudices.
At the same time, the authors of historical books should also pay attention to the verification and research of historical materials, and improve the scientific and authoritative nature of historical research. Only in this way can the credibility and historical value of the history books be ensured.
Sima Guang, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, was deeply angry about this, believing that the weak-hearted Li Shimin had set a bad precedent by forcibly asking for a juji, which triggered the intervention of later emperors of the Tang Dynasty in historical records, and the history books lost their impartiality.
At that time, Li Shimin, who had read a lot of poetry, would not be clear about the principle of objectivity in historical revision? He knowingly committed the crime, even if the martial artist at that time later became Wu Zetian, he was deeply dissatisfied with Li Shimin's move, and even looked down on Li Shimin's narcissistic approach.
When Li Shimin's life was nearing the end of his life, he asked for a large number of immortal medicines, and asked for a large number of "old and strong" medicines, but they could not alleviate the torment of illness.
Finally, the emperor who opened up a prosperous era came to the last moment of his life.
In May 649, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, who spent the summer in Cuiwei Palace, deteriorated and was in great pain. Prince Li Zhi guarded him day and night, and he had not eaten for several days, so worried that even his hair turned white. Li Shimin looked at this son who had always been gentle and filial, tears welled up in his eyes, and said: "You are so filial, how can I have any regrets?" ”
On May 26, Li Shimin's spirit improved slightly. At this important moment, he once again summoned Changsun Wuji and Yu Suiliang into the dormitory to formally explain the political will. After the will was drafted, Li Shimin gently closed his eyes.
In history, the reign of Zhenguan came to an end.
epilogue
Although, in his later years, Li Shimin became increasingly extravagant, extensively controlled palace rooms, and toured all directions, resulting in heavy taxes and aggravating social contradictions.
However, when Li Shimin felt that his life expectancy was short, he spent time writing an article called "Di Fan" to impart political wisdom to the crown prince Li Zhi by studying history and summarizing his ruling experience.
Li Shimin made a weighty statement, which was not only his teaching to the crown prince Li Zhi, but also a self-criticism and summary: "The profit is more and the loss is less, so people do not complain; The sentence "Great merit is too small, so karma does not fall" can indeed be used as a summary of Li Shimin's life.
After all, no one is perfect, but it is very rare and admirable that Li Shimin can look at his life with such a sober attitude in his later years, and evaluate his merits so sincerely, neither shy away from his shortcomings nor exaggerate his own advantages.