In April of the second year of the first century, the 23-year-old crown prince Li Hong died of illness at the Hebi Palace in Luoyang. Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi made a move that had never been done before or since: he posthumously honored his son as emperor of filial piety and buried him in the imperial tomb.
Since the inheritance of the imperial throne in ancient times, it must follow the etiquette law, and the posthumous title is applicable to the current emperor's respect for the ancestors, why did Li Zhi do such a thing that violated the etiquette law? His own explanation was: Yuan's health has been bad, and he was ready to zen in the prince, and the posthumous sealing is a fulfillment of my wish.
After Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian (Li Hong's half-brother) was restored to the throne, he gave Li Hongjia the temple name "Yizong", posthumously honored Crown Princess Pei as "Empress Of Sorrows", and the husband and wife were sacrificed to the Temple.
Except for Li Hong, who had never sat in the Dragon Chair for a day, his other treatment was completely the same as that of the Emperor. Interestingly, this super treatment of his was later revoked by his son.
Didn't Li Hong leave no heirs? Where's the son? The successor, and this stepdaughter is very famous, he is Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, the son of Li Hong's half-brother Li Dan.
[Side note: Logically, Li Longji was passed over to Li Hong, and he was not eligible to inherit the throne of Li Dan of Ruizong, and the history books did not explain, under what circumstances Li Longji reverted to the status of "Dansheng". 】
Yao Chong, the chancellor, and Song Jing believed that according to the etiquette law, if the monarch died without a new year's eve, he could not enjoy the treatment of the Zhaomu system, and Li Hong had not been emperor for a day, so he was not eligible to enter the ancestral temple and the zongmiao temple.
Li Longji accepted the suggestion to remove Li Hong's temple number and move his tablets to the mezzanine of the Taimiao Temple. Since then, Li Hong has lost the Tang Dynasty special meal ticket, but still retained the title of "Filial Piety to the Emperor".
After Li Hong's death, he left a lot of mysteries, such as why did he get his father's love for breaking through the etiquette? Is the record of him being killed by his mother Wu Zetian true or false? What happened to the princess being raped?
Li Hong was the fifth son of Li Zhi and the eldest son of Wu Zetian. After Li Shimin's death, Wu Zetian entered the Ganye Temple to become a nun, and the next year, Li Zhi went to the Ganye Temple to pray for his father's incense and "met" Wu Zetian, so the two of them rekindled their old feelings.
Three years after Yonghui, Wu Zetian returned to the palace with a pregnancy and gave birth to Li Hong. In the first year of Xianqing, Li Hong, who was only four years old, replaced his half-brother Li Zhong and was made crown prince.
Li Hong's life was short, and the most profound engraving left on people was two words- renxiao.
As a child, he taught Li Hong to read Spring and Autumn, but soon Li Hong refused to read this Confucian classic. The reason is that when he read shangchen's story, it caused a strong dissatisfaction.
Shangchen was king of Chumu, the son of king Cheng of Chu. In his later years, King Cheng of Chu wanted to depose the crown prince Shangchen and replace him with another son, Xiong. When Shang Chen received the news, he killed King Cheng of Chu, and even his father's wish to eat a bear paw before his death was not satisfied.
Li Honghe sighed: "How can the classics record such a heinous story?" The teacher told him: "Confucius wrote "Spring and Autumn", not only to praise the virtuous, but also to build a negative example to warn future generations. Li Hong said: "I can't talk about this kind of thing, and I can't bear to listen to it, and mr. Li Hong will never teach me to read "Spring and Autumn" again." ”
A person is so kind and filial that he can't bear to listen to the negative story, have you touched the heart of this pure teenager? Let's tell three more stories.
During the conquest of Liaodong, there were a large number of fugitive incidents of soldiers, so the imperial court ordered that all these fugitive soldiers should be arrested and executed, and all their families should be punished as official slaves.
Li Hong raised objections: There are many reasons for the soldiers to flee, some people are sick on the way and cannot arrive in time, some are hijacked by thieves and cannot come, and some are inconvenient boats and ships that delay time.
Therefore, he proposed two amendments: first, to adopt different disposal plans for different situations; second, to abolish the joint sitting of family members.
After reading this story, I wondered why the ministers of the DPRK and the CENTRAL Government could not think of this, Li Hong was only a teenager at the time, how did he think of it? I think that some things are not intellectual problems at all, but mood problems, and benevolent people do not need to think through the brain, they will instinctively stand in the other person's position and think about problems.
In the second year of Xianheng, Li Zhi was in Luoyang, and the 19-year-old Li Hong stayed in Chang'an for the first time. That year coincided with the Great Famine in Guanzhong, and the prince who lived in the palace was surprised to find that the guards on duty under the porch actually ate elm bark and lotus heads.
Li Hong's heart was like a knife, and he immediately asked people to take a batch of grain from the tai womb and distribute it to these guards, and clearly instructed that they must always be able to eat grain.
Another day, he passed by the Court and found two women locked up inside, and when he inquired, he realized that these two people were actually his half-sister Princess Yiyang and Princess Xuancheng.
The birth mother of the two princesses was Xiao Shufei, and after Xiao Shufei was killed by Wu Zetian, the two daughters remained imprisoned here for fifteen years. The New Book of Tang says that both of them were over forty years old at this time, which is nonsense, and the epitaph of Princess Xuancheng records that she was 22 years old at the time, and it is estimated that Princess Yiyang will not be more than 25 years old.
Even so, the princess in her twenties is not married, and she is already an elderly leftover woman. To be honest, seeing this, I would like to scold Li Zhi, you father is too asshole!
The benevolent Li Hong immediately couldn't stand it, and he immediately sent Li Zhi a letter, asking for the release of the two sisters and choosing a son-in-law for them to marry.
Four stories, the first for the love of father and son, the second for the people of the world, the third for the staff around him, the fourth for the enemy family, Li Hong all repaid with the most instinctive love, he really deserves our respect, but also worthy of the father's love beyond etiquette!
Regarding Li Hong's death, the history books have different records.
The Old Book of Tang does not record the cause of death, but it says two details, one is that Li Hong's long-term health is not good, and the other is that Li Zhi clearly stated in the posthumous edict that Li Hong's health was in trouble at that time. Therefore, the meaning of the Old Book of Tang is actually very clear, Li Hong died of illness.
The New Book of Tang records use two words—酖 (鸩)薨, i.e. killed by poisoned liquor. Curiously, whether the book explains who killed the prince, and no one even traces this matter, but posterity unanimously believes that Wu Zetian did it.
The reason why Wu Zetian was so "expected by all" was very simple: one of them, Li Hong, helping the daughter of a love enemy, clearly did not have the same heart as his mother, angered Wu Zetian; the second Li Zhi had intended to be located in Wu Zetian at that time, and later prepared the Zen throne for Li Hong under the opposition of the chancellor, if this was true, it would hurt the interests of Wu Zetian.
I don't think either of these two reasons holds water.
First of all, I would like to express my strong dissatisfaction with the position of the New Book of Tang, which was compiled by Song Qi, Ouyang Xiu, and others, and falsified too many historical facts in order to maintain orthodox thinking, especially the serious smear on Wu Zetian. For example, the age of the two princesses mentioned above deliberately said that the princess was over forty years old to cause indignation of future generations towards Wu Zetian, but deliberately ignored Li Zhi's responsibility.
For example, the New Book of Tang also said that in order to express his dissatisfaction with his son's "eating inside and outside", Wu Zetian deliberately married two princesses to two lowly guards. I specifically checked it out, and the two horse masters were one of the Yingzhou Assassin Shi Wang Xun and the other was Quan Yi, the son of Quan Zhijie, the governor of Guizhou. Both were from a large family and may have served as guards, but they were by no means inferior, because it was a privilege for the sons of the rich to stay in the palace.
Therefore, to read history, we must have a pair of wise eyes and not be deceived, and this record in the New Book of Tang is too false.
Secondly, Li Hong's sympathy for the two sisters must mean that he does not have a heart with his mother? Can the two princesses represent Concubine Xiao? Did Wu Zetian resent Concubine Xiao Shufei for having to put the two princesses to death? Not necessarily, right? Concubine Xiao Shufei had been dead for more than ten years, and if Wu Zetian had such a small heart and eyes, she would not have been able to become a great politician.
Even if Wu Zetian's heart is small, just because of this little thing, he poisoned his own son? I don't believe it anyway.
Third, if Li Zhi zen gave The throne to Li Hong, would it definitely hurt Wu Zetian's interests? On the contrary, I think it is more beneficial to Wu Zetian.
The relationship between Li Zhi and Wu Zetian is complicated, and the political couple is both mutually constrained and interdependent, both allies and rivals. Li Zhi was in a position of great power, and Wu Zetian could only act within the circle limited by Li Zhi; but Li Zhi was limited to personal health problems, and many things that damaged his reputation required Wu Zetian to carry the pot, so he could not do without Wu Zetian.
Therefore, Li Zhi loves and hates Wu Zetian and fights while using it, and Wu Zetian is also bitter and mixed with Li Zhi, and he kicks his feet while serving him. I can say with certainty that the so-called Li Zhi wants to give the Zen position to Wu Zetian is actually a play performed by Li Zhi to test how powerful Wu Zetian really is.
When he said this, Wu Zetian's two most loyal dogs, Xu Jingzong and Li Yifu, were all taken away by Li Zhi, and from any point of view, it did not look like the Zen position was given to Wu Zetian.
In this way, if Li Hong became emperor, this young man also needed people to assist the government, and he was also inseparable from the guidance of Wu Zetian. This point from Li Zhi's clear instructions before his death that Wu Zetian must make decisions on major policy decisions, which shows that Li Zhi has a clear understanding of Wu Zetian's political talents.
Therefore, Wu Zetian's reason for poisoning Li Hong was not valid at all.
Some people also said that Li Hong had a bad relationship with his mother, because the Wu family had brought him harm, and his unmarried crown princess was harmed by the Wu family.
Li Hong's first crown princess was Yang Sijian's daughter, but before the big day, Yang was raped by Helan Minzhi. Helan Minzhi was the son of Wu Zetian's eldest sister Wu Shun, and was made a grandson by Wu Zetian's father, Wu Shiyan.
This bizarre incident was indeed bizarre, but it was even more illogical for Li Hong to hold a grudge against his mother, as Wu Zetian was also furious at Helan Minzhi's actions and later stripped him of his status as the heir of the Wu clan and exiled him to the frontier.
To tell the truth, the matter of Helan Minzhi is also full of doubts, there are too many untruths in the history books, and the "scratching" brought about by the position problem is even more numerous, which makes people have to play a few more question marks.
Li Hong's early death is indeed regrettable, maybe he is too perfect, the so-called heavenly jealous talent. But with this matter "rubbing" Wu Zetian, I expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Ouyang cultivators!