Throughout history, which emperor did not go through a bloody storm before he came to the throne, and finally succeeded in ascending the throne.
After these emperors ascended the throne, what they would generally do was to grant amnesty to the world, give the people of the emperor great grace, and even more powerful to the close ministers who protected their throne.
This has almost become the unspoken rule for the success of this job competition.
However, the world is so big, there is such a strange emperor in neighboring Vietnam, after he was proclaimed king, he actually killed and beheaded the whole family of his adoptive father who had sheltered him for 12 years, and staged a realistic version of the story of the farmer and the snake.
This controversial emperor is the ninth monarch of the Tran Dynasty of Vietnam, Tran Huan, known as the Righteous Emperor and the temple number Tran Yizong.
According to historical records, Chen Yizong was not a violent person, why did he kill his benefactor after he took the throne? Is there something unspeakable in it? How did Chen Yizong become emperor? Let's walk into the Chen Dynasty to find out.
The "inner Zen" inheritance system opens the two masters to rule together
If you want to understand Chen Yizong, let's first briefly understand the Chen Dynasty.
The Tran Dynasty was the fourth dynasty in Vietnam, preceded by three dynasties, namely the Dinh Dynasty (968-980), the Former Le Dynasty (980-1009), and the Le Dynasty (1010-1225), which followed the succession system of father death and son.
However, this inheritance system was not explicitly written into the code, and fratricidal incidents occurred from time to time in order to compete for the throne, and because of this, the previous dynasties of the Chen Dynasty ended hastily without many years of maintenance.
In 1211, a peasant uprising in Vietnam swept the country, and the Tran clan led troops to suppress the rebellion and supported the crown prince Li Xun to the throne, known as Li Huizong, in order to stabilize Jiangshan, Li Huizong married a woman of the Tran clan.
Although this newly appointed Li Huizong is young, his health is very weak, and he sees that the Chen family is full of talents, and he relies on him even more.
During the period when the queen's cousin Chen Shoudu was in power, major and minor matters in the dynasty were basically decided by him, and Li Huizong was already weak, and when he saw this, he was even more happy to be a handshaker behind the scenes, but he had a lot less troubles.
As everyone knows, this also laid a huge hidden danger for the later destruction of the Li Dynasty.
Because of his illness, Li Huizong's heirs were pitiful, and after he became seriously ill, he knew that his time was numbered, so he passed the throne to his seven-year-old daughter, Princess Li Fujin of Zhaosheng, the Zhao Emperor of the Li Dynasty, and Li Huizong himself became the emperor.
As a result, the Li Dynasty had a situation of co-rule between the two lords, which also created the first imperial throne in Vietnamese history.
Chen Shoudu, who held great power, was originally unwilling to look up to others, and after Emperor Zhao took the throne, he captured a subtle taste, and immediately arranged for his nephew Chen Yan to enter the palace to serve Emperor Zhao, making plans to win Li's Jiangshan.
Eight-year-old Chen Yan was very intelligent, and soon won the favor of Emperor Zhao, Chen Shoudu was very happy to see this, and soon began to arrange their marriage affairs impatiently, even the wedding ceremony that the royal family should have was exempted, the ambition to seize power was obvious, and the courtiers did not say anything when they saw it, and they only wanted to protect themselves.
There is no impermeable wall in the world, Chen Shoudu painstakingly planned to replace it, there were already traces to follow, Li Huizong would not know, but he had a weak heart, so he pushed the boat along the water and asked Emperor Zhao to cede the throne to Chen Xuan.
Chen Shoudu did not expect that so smoothly he would put the Li family into the hands of the Chen family, and he simply arranged a grand banquet, and Emperor Zhao handed over his crown representing imperial power to her husband Chen Yan in public, and completed the handover of the imperial throne in the shocked eyes of the ministers, the imperial husband became the emperor, and she retired to the harem to become the empress.
In this way, Chen Shoudu took the Li Dynasty without spending a single soldier, and immediately changed the dynasty to the Chen Dynasty, Chen Yan took the throne of Chen Taizong, he worshipped Chen Shoudu as the father of the nation, and granted amnesty to the world, the Chen Dynasty's reign period began, and since then, the Chen Dynasty's succession system has been following this Zen concession system.
The Zen concession system stipulated that the crown prince could ascend the throne when he reached adulthood, and the original emperor, as the emperor Taishang, still had a lot of power, responsible for providing technical guidance to the new emperor until he was able to stand alone, thus achieving a smooth transfer of power and effectively reducing many incidents of chaos in the party and government.
Fleeing in disgrace to escape the pursuit and killing of the new emperor
When Chen Wei was born, the Chen Dynasty had reached the reign of the fifth generation of monarchs, and the emperor at that time was his father Chen Mingzong, the third oldest Chen Huang, who did not have much interest in the imperial throne, so he was just at ease as his Prince Gong, trying to be as kind as possible with people in the dynasty, not taking sides at will and not making enemies easily.
Perhaps because he grew up with his father, Chen Wei had a deep affection for Chen Mingzong, who was sad for a long time when his father died, and in order to express his deep sorrow, he even stayed away from his favorite delicacies and only ate vegetarian food.
Chen Wei was loyal to the imperial court, and did not take credit for arrogance, such loyal courtiers were naturally used by the emperor, from the reign of Chen Xianzong to Chen Yuzong, he had a prosperous official fortune all the way, a smooth career, neither great achievements nor great deeds, and was a true elder of the Second Dynasty.
Chen Yu's fate underwent a huge change after the death of Chen Yuzong, and since then he has entered the darkest moment of his life, and what brought about this change was the next emperor Yang Rili.
Seeing this, you may wonder, how can the Chen family's world let a foreigner take power?
This has to start with Yang Rili's origin, Yang Rili's biological father is Yang Jiang, a good lady in the palace, and his mother was as beautiful as a flower when she was young, and was taken in by Chen Yuanyu, the king of Gongsu at the time, and was included in the palace.
At that time, Yang's mother was already pregnant, but King Gongsu was infatuated with her beauty and did not mind it, and after Yang Rili was born, she also treated him as her own and loved him very much.
King Gongsu, as the eldest son of Concubine, was supposed to inherit Chen Mingzong's throne, but because he listened to the rumors of his courtiers, Chen Mingzong changed his mind and made someone else emperor, and Empress Dowager Xianci was worried about this until Chen Yuzong's death.
It was logical that it would be Chen Xuan's turn to take over the imperial power, but the ministers strongly opposed it, believing that there was no reason for her brother to take over the position of her younger brother, and Empress Dowager Xianci did not approve of Chen Xian, feeling that Chen Wei was just a mediocre person and not enough to manage the country, and she tried to put King Gongsu's concubine Yang Rili on the throne.
However, Empress Dowager Xianci's rhetoric was quickly slapped in the face by the facts, because Yang Rili was not at all the material to become an emperor.
After Yang Rili took the throne, he indulged in his voice every day, often invited the acrobatic troupe into the palace for entertainment, and often traveled to the mountains and rivers, but did not care about the affairs of governing the imperial government, and even whimsically changed his surname back to Yang.
What is even more egregious is that because Empress Dowager Xianci accused him of his behavior, Yang Rili actually sent someone to cruelly poison her, causing extreme dissatisfaction inside and outside the court.
In September of the second year of Dading, Dazai Chen Yuanchen's father and son, together with the two sons of Princess Tianning, staged a coup d'état and led the Chen clan to attack the city and kill Yang Rili.
The next day, Yang Rili led his soldiers and horses back to the palace, looking everywhere for those who were pursuing him, and for this reason, he wantonly killed the Chen clansmen, and all those courtiers who disagreed with him were killed without amnesty, and Chen Huang saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly fled the imperial city and took refuge in the countryside.
He was proclaimed emperor, but he killed his adoptive father
Chen Wei was stabbed on the way to escape, a kind farmer kindly healed his injuries and took him in, Chen Wei, who was recovering from his injuries, was very depressed, thinking that he would hide everywhere to save his life, and his heart was extremely desperate, and he once wanted to commit suicide to end his life, but he was stopped.
Under the kind dissuasion of everyone, Chen Wei had to live, this stay was 12 years, during this period, the farmer has always treated Chen Wei as his own relative, dirty work and heavy work are not allowed to do, Chen Wei usually only does some light farm work.
After years of production and labor in the countryside with his back to the sky, Chen has adapted to the ordinary life in the countryside, and at first glance he looks no different from the villagers, and because of this, he has been able to successfully escape the war and be unharmed.
Chen Wei originally thought that he would spend the rest of his life without desire in this poor mountain and evil water, and who knew that the god of fate had pushed him to the peak of that supreme power.
Yang Rili's atrocities eventually drew condemnation, and he was ousted by the masses of courtiers, ending his absurd monarchy.
After Yang Rili was overthrown, the ministers began to look around for the blood of the Chen family to take over the throne, but because of Yang Rili's mutilation, many royal children had died in Huangquan, and the rest were nowhere to be found.
At this time, someone reported Chen Xuan's hiding place to the imperial court, and the ministers heard the news and asked him to come out of the mountain to preside over the overall situation.
Chen Hui returned to the palace to ascend the throne, changed the year name to Shaoqing, became the righteous emperor, and was known as Chen Yizong.
The first thing Chen Yizong did when he ascended the throne was to kill Yang Rili, even if the other party had raised a white flag to surrender, he still killed the killer, and quickly eliminated his henchmen, without mercy, under the pressure of a series of thunder means, the Chen dynasty gradually recovered.
Chen Yizong's adoptive father was terminally ill at this time, and when he was dying, he asked the other party to treat his son well and ensure that he had a peaceful life and worry-free, and watched Chen Yizong say yes before he died, but Chen Yizong's next behavior was very incomprehensible.
Chen Yizong thanked his adoptive father for his nurturing grace and buried him, but he did not want anyone to mention this embarrassing career in the future.
Therefore, after returning to the palace, instead of giving his adoptive father's descendants knighthoods or generous silver taels, Chen Yizong ordered his adoptive father to be killed and forbade anyone to talk about it.
The ministers complained about his ungrateful behavior, but the new emperor's accession to the throne was insignificant compared to the political stability, so they all chose to keep silent.
However, the leisurely mouth of the domestic people cannot be blocked, and everyone privately evaluates Chen Yizong for his lack of consideration in the handling of this matter, and he is a white-eyed wolf who is alive.
With the support of the ministers, Chen Yizong calmed the civil unrest in only one year, recovered the Chen family, and restored the system that Chen Mingzong had put in place, and took great care of the Chen family in order to improve their lives.
After doing all this, Chen Yizong, who had no intention of becoming emperor, chose to cede the imperial throne to his eleventh brother Chen Xiao, that is, Ruizong, and he retired to the second line to become the emperor, during which there were three emperors, and Chen Yizong exerted great influence.
Relying heavily on foreign qi, he pushed the Chen Dynasty to the end
Chen Yizong was pushed to the throne by the group of ministers, somewhat a bit of a tigerless monkey in the mountains as the king, after all, there are not many alternative talents, he is a tepid one, and what is more embarrassing is that even if he is the emperor, he is still not recognized by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty at that time, and he is also recognized as a usurper, does not have the legal right to inherit the throne, Chen Yizong is deeply inferior to this.
During his retirement to Emperor Taishang, Chen Yizong did not achieve much, and because of the domestic economic downturn caused by years of conquest, the people's life was not good, the national treasury was also very empty, and the Chen Dynasty faced a situation of decline.
What's more, the neighboring city of Champa came from time to time to invade, and the domestic chaos was also frequent, but Chen Yizong was helpless under internal and external troubles, so he had to move to help the rescuer, and this rescuer was his foreign friend Li Ji Yak, who appointed him as the ambassador of the Privy Council.
In May 1380, Li Ji led an army to repel the Champa crushing army, alleviating the external troubles of the Chen Dynasty, and Chen Yizong relied on him even more.
Li Ji was particularly prominent among the imperial ministers, and Chen Yizong specially gave him a Shangfang sword to show his reuse.
As Li Jiyang's power became more and more powerful, some ministers reminded Chen Yizong to be careful, but Chen Yizong could not do without Li Jiyang, so the criticism of Li Jiya inside and outside the court was completely ignored by him.
Although Chen Yizong did not make a sound on the surface, he secretly ordered someone to make a painting called "Four Auxiliary Pictures" to give to Li Jiyan, suggesting that he learned from Huo Guang and Zhuge Liang and carefully assisted the emperor in managing the imperial government.
But in the face of power and desire, how many people can hold it, Li Jiyan promised on his lips, turned around and found a reason for Chen Yizong to depose the emperor who was dissatisfied with him, he excluded dissidents in the dynasty, killed many Chen clansmen, and the ministers who were implicated were not spared.
After Chen Yizong's death, he became the assistant to the new emperor, and the imperial government was basically his final say, which also laid a solid foundation for him to usurp the throne.
Chen Yizong's excessive reliance on foreign Qi Li Ji caused the Chen dynasty to accelerate its demise.
In 1397, Le Ji Ji forced Emperor Tran to move the capital to Thanh Hoa and establish a new capital, and the following year he deposed the emperor and established himself and changed the name of the country to Dayu, which is the Hu dynasty in Vietnamese history.
Throughout Chen Yizong's life, he has neither great achievements nor great deeds, not only has the ability to govern the country and the world is general, but also listens to and believes in understanding and employing people, has no opinion, and originally wanted to carry forward the inheritance left by his ancestors, but because he did not pay attention to the use of people, he personally ruined the good rivers and mountains.
Just as the so-called most ruthless imperial family, under the royal power, there is no him in the eyes, Chen Yizong said that the emperor's beheading of the adoptive father's family is even more criticized, because that little bit of vanity, doing grace will take revenge, it is really difficult to convince the public.
Resources:
"History of Dayue Records · Ben Ji Quanshu · Emperor Huizong "
"Two Masters and Co-rule" under "Nei Zen": On the Succession System of the Tran Dynasty in Vietnam
In the 13th century, the Annan and Chen dynasties studied the strategies of the Song and Mengyuan dynasties