Preface
To say that the most accomplished emperor in Chinese history, Tang Taizong Li Shimin is definitely qualified to compete for the first place and compete with the Qin Emperor and Han Wu, but such a great king is the shortest lived of the three emperors who can be called the first emperor of the ages, and he died after only 52 years of life.
But Li Shimin was obviously in good health when he was young, and on the way to Li Yuan overthrowing the Sui Dynasty and unifying the whole country to ascend the throne as emperor, many battles were won by Li Shimin with his troops, which shows that his physical fitness must be extraordinary, but why did he settle down after ascending the throne but couldn't live longer?
In fact, the reason for Li Shimin's short life was precisely because of the conquest in the early years, and there was a direct reason that was obscure but not uncommon for emperors, at least the first two Qin Emperors and Han Wu had also done so.
1. The Xuanwumen Revolution seized the throne
Li Shimin Li Shimin is the second son of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, Li Yuan was originally a minister of the Sui Dynasty and a relative of Emperor Wen of Sui, but he was also very ambitious, after the Sui Dynasty inherited the hands of Yang Guang, the Emperor of the Sui Dynasty, this faint monarch immediately began to ignore the government and build a large number of buildings for the sake of pleasure, making the people miserable.
In this environment, the common people rose up one after another to resist the mediocre rule of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan saw that this was a good opportunity to realize his grand cause, so he took the forces he had accumulated over the years to rise up and began the battle against Sui.
During his reign in the world, Li Yuan's sons also played a significant role, the eldest son Li Jiancheng was able to write and martial arts, Li Yuan was fighting abroad, Li Jiancheng managed the government affairs in the rear for Li Yuan, and was trained by Li Yuan as a successor.
The second son Li Shimin has been very interested in martial arts since he was a child, so Li Yuan focused on cultivating Li Shimin's ability to fight, and Li Shimin did not live up to his father's expectations, and made a lot of achievements in the process of the establishment and unification of the Tang Dynasty, and became the most influential figure in the army when the Tang Dynasty was first established.
But Li Shimin's ability to be capable, influential and influential, and to use force and force undoubtedly made his father and brother feel jealous after Li Yuan ascended the throne, after all, the army is hard power, and the army is in the hands of Li Shimin, how can the emperor Li Yuan and the crown prince Li Jiancheng sleep well, for fear that Li Shimin's cavalry will rebel that day, so they began to plan to reduce Li Shimin's power.
The paper can't contain the fire, this matter was first known by Li Shimin, although Li Shimin was a little dissatisfied with his father's decision to favor his brother, but he did not want to take the power of his brother, but since he was jealous, Li Shimin would definitely not sit still.
In the ninth year of Tang Gaozu Wude, Li Shimin claimed that the prince had the intention of rebellion, and led troops to launch the Xuanwumen Rebellion in the name of the Qing monarch, and shot Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, the fourth brother who was in collusion, in Xuanwumen when Li Jiancheng was unprepared, and then sent troops to hold Li Yuan hostage in the name of Su Wei.
Seeing that only one of his four sisters-in-law was left with Li Shimin, and his life was also controlled by his second son, Li Yuan had to compromise and set up Li Shimin as the crown prince, and let Li Shimin have full authority to manage various government affairs.
2. Injuries and illnesses during the battle are a curse
Because it was a coup d'état, there were also some ministers in the court who had very opinions about Li Shimin, so in order to make himself more recognized by his courtiers, Li Shimin worked very hard after ascending the throne, and was very willing to listen to the advice of his courtiers and actively correct his own shortcomings.
However, Li Shimin's diligent work day and night also caused damage to his body, and the status of "Heavenly Khan" in the later dynasties was not obtained by sitting on the throne, but by subduing the surrounding countries by force.
Historical records record that Li Shimin personally led the army to attack the Turks after the Xuanwumen Incident, in this battle, Li Shimin led several light cavalry directly to the hinterland of the Turks, and took the Turkic leader Jieli Khan in a battle, so that the Tang Dynasty's martial might deterred the Turkic ambitions.
But this battle was not completely smooth for Li Shimin, in the course of the battle, Li Shimin was injured in the cheek by the Turkic soldiers, and the injury was not shallow, because the war was critical at that time, so Li Shimin simply treated the wound and continued to fight, resulting in the remains of metal fragments of the enemy's arrows in the wound, which continued to affect Li Shimin's body in the following decades.
Not only that, during the expedition to Goryeo, Li Shimin was also injured in the battle, as the saying goes, "an inch is long and an inch is strong", Li Shimin not only could not get close to the enemy with a spear, but was also stabbed in the abdomen by the enemy, causing a lot of injuries, but Li Shimin just asked the doctor to bandage it briefly and went to the battlefield again.
The abdomen is an important part of the human body, but Li Shimin did not treat it carefully, which directly led to the injured internal organs not being well recovered, Li Shimin did not show it when he was young, but with the increase of age, the root of the disease will gradually be revealed.
In addition, Li Shimin's arms and legs were inevitably injured during the battle, although the injuries were not necessarily serious, but in ancient times, when medical technology was not developed, every time the injury was not properly treated, it would become one of the reasons for taking Li Shimin's life many years later.
3. Congenital diseases and indiscriminate use of pills
In addition to the injuries left on his body during the early years of the war, which led to the recurrence of Li Shimin's old diseases in his later years, in fact, the Li family is likely to also have hereditary diseases.
According to historical records, Li Shimin had a sudden headache when discussing political affairs with his courtiers, so that he could not speak fluently, which made the courtiers very panicked, and this headache is likely to be a family disease inherited by the Li family, because not only Li Shimin, but also his son Li Zhi, who was later Tang Gaozong, also had a headache, so later scholars thought that this may be a family genetic disease.
For example, this headache is likely to be caused by high blood pressure, not to mention that high blood pressure is a fatal disease now, and high blood pressure is even more fatal when there was no effective treatment for high blood pressure in ancient times.
In addition, Li Shimin also has the common desire of all emperors, that is, to seek immortality, especially emperors with great achievements like Qinhuang Han Wu Tangzong are not willing to face their own death, but hope that their rule can last for thousands of generations.
Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty are classic examples of asking for immortal medicine and praying for immortality in their later years, and Li Shimin is not far behind, in order to pray for longevity in his later years, he began to take the elixir offered, but ancient chemistry was not developed, and not only herbs were added when refining pills, but also various toxic ingredients.
Therefore, a very likely reason for Li Shimin's early death was an overdose of pills, which led to the accumulation of toxins in his body, coupled with the fact that his body was not good in the first place, and finally various factors crushed his body, making him die in his early fifties.
epilogue
It can be seen from this that physical health is a very important thing, even a British master like Tang Taizong can be dragged down by health problems, it can be seen that illness is not picky, we should pay more attention to our body, after all, the body is the capital of the revolution.