Author: Li Dakui
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, the eldest grandson is unscrupulous</h1>
Among the great celebrities of the Tang Dynasty, the eldest grandson Wuji, who ranked first among the twenty-four heroes of Ling Yan Pavilion, was undoubtedly on the list and second to none.
He was born in Luoyang, Henan in 594 AD, a Xianbei man, who originally had a prominent family scene, his father Sun Sheng was a sui general of the Right Xiao Wei, and his mother was the daughter of Gao Jie, the king of Northern Qi Le'an (later Yangzhou and Taozhou of the Sui Dynasty). Only because his father died early when he was young, and his half-brother Changsun Anye was in charge, the eldest grandson was not welcome, so his mother led him and his sister Changsun to the bohai uncle Gao Shilian (then Sui Dynasty Zhi Lilang, later The Duke of Shenguo of the Tang Dynasty, one of the twenty-four heroes of LingYange) to raise him.
The eldest grandson has been diligent and studious since childhood, and he is intelligent by nature. Under the careful cultivation of his uncle Gao Shilian, Botong literature and history were quite scheming. He is a friend of Li Shimin and has a very good relationship. After Li Yuan led his son Taiyuan to raise an army, the eldest son Wu Ji joined Li Shimin and followed Li Shimin to fight in the four directions, as his "think tank", his confidant, and made great achievements. Later, he was enfeoffed as the Duke of Dang County and became an important member of the Tiance Mansion of Li Shimin, the King of Qin.
(Empress Eldest Grandson)
Changsun Wuji's younger sister, Changsun Shi, was ruled by her uncle Gao Shilian and later married Li Shimin (later empress Wende, who was very famous). After that, the relationship between the eldest son Wuji and Li Shimin went one step further, becoming an in-law and an uncle.
When the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the Qi king Li Yuanji sharpened their swords and prepared to attack Li Shimin, the eldest son immediately contacted Fang Xuanling, Du Ruyi, and other key personnel, urging Li Shimin to "start first and be strong" to win the throne, and after obtaining permission, he participated in the planning of the famous "Xuanwumen Revolution" and succeeded.
Li Shimin thus ascended the throne and ascended the throne as emperor, which is the famous Tang Taizong in history, who gave the highest evaluation to the eldest grandson Wujie: "Unscrupulous and intelligent, elegant and martial." I have the world, most of them are this manpower. "
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the spirit of the Zhenguan years</h1>
When Li Shimin ascended the throne as empress, he trusted his eldest son wujie and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, listing him as the head of the Twenty-Four Meritorious Heroes of the Tang Dynasty, and ordering the painter Yan Liben to draw a picture in real proportions and hang it in Ling yan Pavilion to show his merits.
The eldest grandson Wu Ji also faithfully assisted the Tang Dynasty and became a famous politician in the early Tang Dynasty.
In the first year of Zhenguan (627), the 33-year-old eldest grandson Wujie was appointed as the official Shangshu and was made the Duke of Qi. In July of the same year, he was crowned as the right servant of Shangshu and assisted the country with the honor of the prime minister.
After that, Changsun Wuji successively served as the Grand General of the Marquis of Zuowu, the Assassin of Zhao Prefecture, the Governor of Yangzhou, the Consul Sikong and Situ, the Inspector of Zhongshu Ling, the Prince (Li Zhi) Taishi, presided over the affairs of Shangshu and Menxia Province, changed the title of Duke of Zhao, and honored the most dazzling official Fenglu with the honor of "Meritorious Hero First".
In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan (645), he accompanied Emperor Taizong of Tang to li shimin on his eastern expedition against Goguryeo, served as a lieutenant, personally led more than 10,000 elite troops to prevent enemy reinforcements, forced the enemy commanders Gao Yanshou, Gao Huizhen and others, and won the victory in the siege of Anshi City.
Later, on the issue of Li Shimin's lipu, which was related to the "foundation of the country," the advice of the eldest son was like "fixing the needle of the sea god" and played a vital role and influence.
Li Shimin and Empress Eldest Sun had the eldest son Li Chengqian, the fourth son, Li Tai the Prince of Wei, and the ninth son, Li Zhi the Prince of Jin. According to common sense, the throne is not the turn of Li Zhi, who is mediocre and somewhat cowardly.
But history is such a yin and yang, some unexpected things, turning the corner, turning the page, turning the original impossible unexpected into reality.
Because the crown prince Li Chengqian was absurd, unlearned, and only loved to have fun, and because of a foot disease that caused his legs to be lame, his personality changed greatly, and under the distortion of his heart, he saw that his father Tang Taizong did not favor him, so he brazenly launched a coup d'état. This was undoubtedly a pebble hitting the stone, and before the army could be raised, the news was leaked, and Emperor Taizong easily disposed of Li Chengqian, deposed the crown prince, and degraded him to a commoner.
The ambitious fourth son, Li Tai, thought that he would be the crown prince and had a safe victory, and in a state of oblivion, he made a ridiculous act of threatening his younger brother Li Zhi: "You have made good friends with your uncle Li Yuanchang, and now Yuanchang and Chengqian are rebelling together, aren't you afraid?" "
Li Tai's move made Emperor Taizong furious, and he became suspicious of him, believing that he was pregnant with a ghost fetus, and beat Li Tai into another book.
After Chengqian and Li Tai were both deprived of the title of "crown prince", Li Shimin summoned the eldest grandson Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Li Ji and other important ministers to discuss the selection of a reserve in the Two Yi Palaces.
Under the support of his uncle and eldest grandson, he asked the king of Jin to be the crown prince, and those who did not obey him were invited to be reprimanded. Li Zhi, the King of Jin (nicknamed Pheasant Nu), stood out and was eventually promoted to crown prince. Although Emperor Taizong later feared that Li Zhi's cowardly disposition would be difficult to govern, he had the idea of making li ke the prince of Wu, the third son of Wu, who was "able to write and be able to use martial arts, and was loved by the people", but also gave up due to the dissuasion of the eldest grandson:
"The prince (Li Zhi) is benevolent and generous, but he is the lord of shoucheng. Moreover, the Crown Prince is of great importance, how can it be changed many times, please think carefully about it. "
The implication is that Li Ke's birth mother was the daughter of the Sui Emperor, and Li Ke's appointment as crown prince violated the ancestral system, and at present, only Li Zhi was the best candidate for the crown prince.
After Emperor Taizong's death, the powerful eldest grandson Wuji arranged with his own hands to make the Cuiwei Palace secret, and the crown prince Li Zhi returned to Chang'an City under the escort of Flying Horse, and only then announced the death of Emperor Taizong at the Taiji Palace and read out the will of Li Zhi's succession.
Relying on the support of his uncle Changsun Wujie, Li Zhi successfully ascended the throne, which is the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty in history, Tang Gaozong.
It can be seen that the eldest grandson Wujie was in the Zhenguan Dynasty, and his strength and luck were very explosive. Not only did he gain the trust of the male lord Li Shimin all his life, but Li Shimin still remembered to take care of him until his death, and Li Shimin said to Chu Suiliang, the minister of the Ministry of Commandment: "After assisting the government, do not let the slanderers harm him." If so, Er is not a subject of restoration. "The eldest son Wuji had a huge influence on the Zhenguan Dynasty, especially the Li Chu of Emperor Taizong, and to some extent directly determined the direction of the Tang Dynasty After zhenguan.
The eldest grandson has no scruples about such a special honor, good or bad. If he can consider justice, it is conducive to the long-term development of Datang; if he is confined to private feelings, it will produce inevitable evil consequences.
The later ending of the eldest grandson Wujie just proves this.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the glory of the Yonghui years</h1>
After Emperor Gaozong of Tang ascended the throne, the eldest grandson Wu Ji also had a period of radiance.
At that time, as the eldest grandson of the Yuan Uncle, Wu Ji gained the absolute trust of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and he was even more extremely popular and a lieutenant, still serving as a lieutenant, still concurrently inspecting the Zhongshu Ling, Knowing the Shangshu and the Second Province of Menxia. As a result, the "three provinces and six ministries" and "three provinces" of the Tang Dynasty in the early years of Yonghui were directly under his control.
At the same time, Emperor Gaozong of Tang also personally added to the family, and matched Princess Xu of Hengshan to the eldest grandson.
For a time, the eldest grandson had no scruples of power to the opposition, and his dictatorship reached its peak, so that history recorded: No scruples were used to assist the government with the uncle of the Yuan, and everything that was said was said by the superior.
According to legend, there was a Luoyang man named Li Hongtai, who, for some reason, wanted to sue the eldest son for rebellion. Emperor Gaozong did not bother to investigate his complaint at all, and immediately issued an order to behead the man.
At that time, Emperor Gaozong had absolute trust in his uncle and grandson, and he relied on him with all his power, so why would he allow others to manipulate right and wrong?
This is the anecdote of the famous "son of heaven hanging arch, uncle in charge" in history.
As a result, the eldest son Wuji became more loyal and monopolized power during the Yonghui period, and did his best to help Li Zhi sit firmly on the throne, and did not hesitate to carry out a cruel and decisive purge of the Li Tang imperial family.
Because of the arrogance and arbitrariness of Princess Gaoyang, who married Fang's beloved, after the adultery with the famous monk Discerning Machine was exposed, the Discerning Machine was beheaded and executed, which made Gao Yang dissatisfied with being born in the imperial family. In the third year after Li Zhi became Emperor Gaozong (Yonghui three years), Princess Gaoyang, together with Ma Fang's widow, contacted the Right Wu Wei general Xue Wanche and the servant Shaoqing Chai Lingwu and others to launch a coup d'état, intending to install Li Yuanjing, the King of Jing, as emperor.
However, the matter was not confidential, and the plan was leaked, so the cadres were quickly arrested. Eldest Sun Wuji was ordered to investigate the case thoroughly, and quickly strangled a large number of clans, including Princess Gaoyang. In addition, because Li Ke the King of Wu, Li Daozong the King of Jiangxia, and Du Wei of Qima had a gap between li ke and changsun Wujie, the eldest son Wuji, in handling the "Princess Gaoyang conspiracy case", incidentally killed Li Ke, the king of Wu, and exiled Li Daozong, Zhi Zhi Sili, and other royal nobles to Lingnan.
The Li Tang Dynasty, which was a threat to Emperor Gaozong's throne, was completely purged.
The eldest grandson thought to himself that he could sit back and relax and sit happily in the world with his nephew Tang Gaozong.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the sadness of old age</h1>
Who knows, the praying mantis catches cicadas, and the yellow finches are behind.
As the years went by, Li Zhi, who had gradually become independent, sat on the emperor's throne, and suddenly found that the ministers of culture and military affairs such as Chu Suiliang, Han Yao, and Lai Ji were almost all of the eldest grandson faction, and their power was controlled everywhere.
In their minds, where was Emperor Gaozong?
Back in the harem, Empress Wang relied on herself to be a faction of eldest grandsons, and did not seem to be so obedient to Emperor Gaozong.
What was even more infuriating was that Emperor Gaozong wanted to add concubines to the harem so that he could take the position of Zhaoyi Wu Zetian, but he was pushed back by the chancellor Han Yi and Lai Ji on the grounds that there was no precedent for this and that yu was not in line with etiquette.
Li Zhi also planned to depose the childless Empress Wang, and after replacing Wu Zetian with Wu Zetian, he interceded with His uncle Changsun Wusun's family, and also rewarded him with a golden treasure and appointed the three sons of Changsun Wuji as the Grand Master of Chaoshan. However, the eldest grandson Wuji, who was already firmly unable to "abolish Wang Liwu", pretended not to understand Emperor Gaozong's intentions, looked around and talked about it, and did not consider the matter of Wu Zetian's establishment at all.
Later, Wu Zetian's mother Yang Shi visited the door many times to request, and the eldest son Wujie was iron-hearted, that is, he did not agree; Xu Jingzong, the head of the Rebbe, also spoke bitterly and advised the eldest son Wuji to support Wu Zetian, and Xu Jingzong was scolded by the eldest son Wujie, angrily accusing him of turning to Wu Zetian for not obeying the instructions of the former emperor.
(Wu Zetian)
The eldest grandson's unscrupulous move has thus formed a deep grudge with Wu Zetian.
Emperor Gaozong also felt that he was "overlooked", and felt that his uncle and eldest grandson were cold-blooded and ruthless, did not give him face, the power was too great, and if he did not cut it, he would face the abyss of imperial power.
Wu Zetian, who had long had the ambition to "usurp the Tang Dynasty", perceiving the serious dissatisfaction of Emperor Gaozong, he catered to support Emperor Gaozong's recapture of the monarchy at every turn, and as a result, the two worked closely together to implement a series of combined fists to cut off the eldest son:
Wu Zetian first obtained the support of the "Beimen Scholar", and ordered the Hanmen official Zhongshu Sheren Li Yifu to play a song: Please establish Empress Wu Zhaoyi. He also secretly instructed Xu Jingzong, Yuan Zongyu and other cold officials to support and cooperate in the court, echoing each other.
Emperor Gaozong, who planned to gain power in the harem for a breakthrough, had to blow the "pillow wind", and knowing it early, he immediately promoted Li Yifu to the position of Zhongshu Waiter and allowed these ministers to create public opinion for Wu Zetian to ascend to the throne in the court.
In the fifth year of Yonghui (654), when Chu Suiliang, the chancellor who supported Changsun Wuji and was known for his good advice, raised an objection to "deposing Wang Liwu", Emperor Gaozong immediately took him and pretended to kill him, forcing Changsun Wuji to compromise and say: Suiliang is an old minister and cannot be executed at will. Chu Suiliang was thus assigned and demoted to the post of Governor of Guizhou.
At the crucial moment, Li Ji, the first general of the Tang Dynasty representing the military, seemed to be "neutral" and said: "After Your Majesty's establishment, this is a family affair, so why ask outsiders." This military attitude of Li Ji greatly pleased Emperor Gaozong, who was slightly uneasy, and immediately strengthened his determination to eliminate the forces of the Changsun faction.
The eldest grandson faction, which represents the Guanlong group and the hereditary door valve, the death knell of its demise is played in this fluttering sentence.
In the sixth year of Yonghui (655), Wu Zetian sent a clean-up signal to Emperor Gaozong on the grounds that "Empress Wang and her mother Lady Liu of Wei performed a trick of disgust in the palace to curse the emperor".
Empress Wang's uncle Zhongshu (中書) implicated Liu Dayi (奭大奭) was first implicated and demoted to the title of Cai Prefecture Assassin.
Subsequently, Emperor Gaozong issued an edict: Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu plotted to poison the dove, deposed as shuren, mother and brother, and removed from their names, and fled to Lingnan.
In October of that year, Emperor Gaozong again issued an edict: Li Wu Zetian was made empress.
In the second year of Xianqing (657), Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu jointly falsely accused Han Yan and Lai Ji of colluding with Chu Suiliang to plot rebellion. As a result, Chu Suiliang was relegated to the title of Aizhou Assassin History, Han Yao was the Zhenzhou Assassin History, and Laiji was the Taizhou Assassin History, and was not allowed to enter the Dynasty for life.
In the fourth year of Xianqing (659), Xu Jingzong also said that Li Fengjie, a native of Luoyang, reported that the crown prince Hadi Wei Jifang had colluded with the inspector Yushi Li Chao to try to contact the eldest son Wujie to rebel.
This flawed false accusation is just a pretext. When Emperor Gaozong would go to check, he immediately readily agreed and directly decided the case: the chief evil Sun Wuji was demoted to the governor of Yangzhou, and then he stripped the officials and feudal titles, exiled Qianzhou (present-day Wulong, Chongqing), and his family was exiled to Lingnan as slaves.
After changsun Wuji arrived in Qianzhou, Emperor Gaozong ordered Yuan Gongyu, a Zhongshu sherman, to go to Qianzhou for interrogation, forcing Changsun Wuji to hang himself and die.
It was not until the first year of the First Yuan Dynasty (674) that Emperor Gaozong posthumously restored the eldest grandson Wu Jie and allowed his coffin to be buried in Zhaoling.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >5, afterword</h1>
Looking at the illustrious and tragic life of the eldest grandson, people are lamented.
He became famous at a young age, actively participated in the "change of Xuanwumen", supported Li Shimin to ascend to the throne, and under the trust of Li Shimin, made great contributions to the "rule of Zhenguan"; but because of his selfishness, he was only loyal to the so-called "own people", and did not care about the interests of the state, was not loyal to the world, acted in a narrow manner, and supported his nephew Li Zhi to succeed to the throne.
Although the eldest son Wuji also worked hard during the Yonghui years, he also presided over the revision of the Tang Law on the basis of the Zhenguan Law, laying the foundation of the law for the Tang Dynasty in 289.
However, when Emperor Gaozong was about to arbitrarily decide the imperial program, the eldest son Wuji was too fond of power, and his private feelings were too heavy, always thinking that he was the first, the emperor was second, arrogant to the extreme, directly usurped the imperial power, and challenged the emperor's bottom line.
Such solipsism will definitely lead to disaster. Even if the emperor is his own nephew, it is still unacceptable after a long time. Not to mention that later, Emperor Gaozong's beloved and domineering generation of empress Wu Zetian jointly counterattacked against him?
Character determines destiny.
The eldest grandson, who did not know how to advance or retreat, had been trapped in the strange circle of power for too long, and it was difficult to control himself, so that there were too many enemies, and it was not far to set himself on fire. No wonder when he wrongfully killed Li Ke, the King of Wu, Li Ke cursed:
The eldest grandson is unscrupulous in stealing authority and framing the good, and the ancestor has a spirit, and will let his clan perish.
This realization was later fulfilled.
It's just a pity that the eldest grandson didn't wake up until he died. On the major issue of Emperor Gaozong's intention to "depose Wang Liwu", the eldest son Wuji also thought that if he did not agree, he would be "ironclad", he was the first hero, and he was the emperor's uncle, and no one could take him.
The overly conceited eldest grandson Wu Zetian despised Wu Zetian, and also ignored the energy explosion after his nephew Emperor Gaozong Emperor Li Zhi had been suppressed for a long time, so that in his later years he was still arrogant and arrogant, empty-eyed, lacking the arrogance of the world, showing no political sensitivity, showing full short-sightedness, so that he was easily crushed, and had no choice but to commit suicide in desperation, and his dismal end was lamentable.
Objectively speaking, the eldest son Wuji was a loyal minister and a nomadic minister, and he ranked first among the twenty-four meritorious men of Ling yan Pavilion, assisted the two dynasties, and made immortal contributions to the "rule of Zhenguan" and "the rule of Yonghui", and definitely would not waste his name.
However, in his later years, the eldest son Wuji was still disposed of by his nephew Emperor Gaozong, who was supported by himself, and his tragic end should be said to be self-inflicted.
I can't help but think of a sentence: When I cover the sky with one hand for a long time, and I am so crazy that I can't distinguish between the southeast, the south, and the northwest, it is not far from the disaster.
It's for The Book!
【About the author】Li Dakui, male, Han ethnicity, post-70s, Bachelor of Laws, Guizhou Meitan people, literature lovers.
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