The second article of the "Seventeen Years of Zhenguan" series, the previous article talks about why Wei Zheng can become a minister through the ages, which mentions the case of the crown prince Li Chengqian's rebellion, this article will talk about how Li Chengqian went from an aspiring young man to a rebellion and was abolished.
One
Li Chengqian is the eldest son of Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and his mother is the eldest grandson of the empress. In the second year of Wude (619), Li Chengqian was born in the Chengqian Hall of Taiji Palace, so he was named Li Chengqian.
The inheritor, "inheriting the imperial industry, leading the Qiankun", it is said that this name was given by Li Yuan himself.
Li Chengqian was born with thousands of favors, and was named the King of Hengshan in the second year of his birth, and was crowned the King of Zhongshan when he was 6 years old. In order to train Li Chengqian, Tang Taizong also asked Lu Deming and Kong Yingda, two Confucian masters, to teach him personally.
For this son, Tang Taizong not only has a fist love, but also has strong expectations.
In October of the ninth year of Wude (626), after Li Shimin ascended the throne and became emperor, he appointed Li Chengqian as the crown prince at the age of 8. Since then, Li Chengqian's life has begun to be more than 10,000 people under him, and the high-profile life has begun.
When Li Chengqian was 11 years old, Tang Taizong appointed 83-year-old Li Gang as the crown prince and teacher, responsible for teaching him.
Li Gang was not only an important minister across the Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties, but also once served as a teacher of Yang Yong, the crown prince of Sui, and Li Jiancheng, the crown prince of Sui, and can be described as experienced and qualified.
Due to his age and inconvenient legs, Li Gang was allowed to enter the palace in a sedan chair. Every time, Li Chengqian had to personally greet him, salute respectfully, and then lead the teacher to the hall. When I asked questions, I was also very humble and respectful.
Li Gang died of illness, and Li Chengqian personally erected a monument for him.
The young Li Chengqian was quite satisfied with Tang Taizong in respecting his teachers and respecting his ways, and he did not disappoint his father in terms of government affairs.
Two
In May of the fourth year of Zhenguan (630), Tang Taizong issued an edict: "From now on, anyone who is dissatisfied with the judgment of Shangshu Province can appeal to the prince and let the prince decide." If you are still not satisfied, the emperor's ruling will be played in the end. ”
At this time, Li Chengqian had just turned 12 years old. Tang Taizong deliberately cultivated his administrative ability and placed it under his own supervision, which was both a father's love and an expectation.
Tang Taizong didn't want to be like Emperor Wen of Sui and cultivate a second lord who ruined the country.
After years of training, Li Chengqian lived up to the high expectations of Tang Taizong, and his ability to govern was rapidly improved.
In May of the ninth year of Zhenguan (635), Tang Taizong issued an edict to "edict the prince to accept the cadres in the East Palace to settle the government", and let the 17-year-old prince handle daily government affairs.
The prince is so capable, Tang Taizong is naturally happy, and often acts as a shopkeeper, making the prince supervise the country.
Li Chengqian also enjoys this state, he can not only give full play to his strengths, but also get the approval of his father, not to mention how much motivation he has. If this development continues, Li Chengqian will also become an outstanding emperor like his father.
It's a pity that God made a big joke with Li Chengqian, and since then his life trajectory has taken a 180-degree turn.
Three
I don't know when Li Chengqian suffered from foot disease and walked with a limp. As for how it was caused, it is not recorded in the history books.
This problem is not a big deal for ordinary people, or other princes, but it is different for Li Chengqian.
For the prince of a country, limping when walking, in addition to inconvenience, it is also an obstacle to the "appearance of the emperor" and the loss of the emperor's prestige.
This problem has brought tremendous psychological and political pressure to Li Chengqian.
Fortunately, Li Chengqian has a good mother, who has always supported and encouraged him behind him, so he has not lost confidence and fighting spirit. It can be said that his mother is an important reason why Li Chengqian is still willing to continue to struggle.
On June 21, the tenth year of Zhenguan (636), the 36-year-old Empress Changsun died in the Lizheng Hall of Taiji Palace, which was a huge blow to Li Chengqian.
The death of his mother made Li Chengqian's extremely fragile, like a crumbling building that would collapse with just a little external force.
As a father, Tang Taizong made up for his fragile heart three times.
If these three knives go down, Li Chengqian can be regarded as useless.
Four
Li Chengqian, who has lost his mother's love, has undergone obvious changes in his personality.
In front of his father and courtiers, he still pretended to be "loyal, filial piety and virtuous", but behind him was "riding and shooting political tours, singing and playing", and he simply became a gentleman.
After a long time, his father Tang Taizong still noticed a trace of abnormality. In order to correct his son, he deliberately arranged for several ministers who were brave to advise him to be the prince's master.
Before the change, Li Chengqian was very willing to accept advice, but since the death of Empress Changsun, his temperament has changed drastically, and he has become very resistant to advice.
Zhang Xuansu was loyal and upright and dared to speak out, so Tang Taizong appointed him as the young Zhan Shi and the right concubine of the East Palace to assist the prince. Not long after taking office, Zhang Xuansu wrote to advise the prince to study hard and not lose his mind.
Li Chengqian definitely didn't listen!
This Zhang Xuansu is also a stubborn temper, if you don't listen, I will continue to admonish, until you listen. So, one kept admonishing and the other kept refusing.
Tang Taizong saw Zhang Xuansu working so hard, and immediately promoted him, and crowned Zhang Xuansu as the doctor of Yinqing Guanglu and the left concubine of the prince. At this moment, Tang Taizong was very satisfied, Zhang Xuansu was very happy, and only Li Chengqian was very angry.
As a result, Li Chengqian sent people to assassinate Zhang Xuansu, but he was unsuccessful; Zhang Xuansu, who had escaped death, simply let himself go out and continued to admonish him.
Like Zhang Xuansu, there is also the prince Zhan Shi Yu Zhining, in order to give advice to the prince, this guy directly wrote twenty volumes of "The Garden" and sent it to the prince.
When Li Chengqian saw these admonitions, one head and two big ones, he didn't even bother to turn them over, and directly refused to accept them. So, Yu Zhining also played the set of death advice.
It didn't take long for Li Chengqian to be provoked and secretly sent assassins to assassinate Yu Zhining. Fortunately, the assassin felt that Yu Zhining was a good official and couldn't bear to do it, so he had to pick up a life.
Similar people include Kong Yingda, Du Zhenglun, Ling Hude, etc.
Tang Taizong's knife is tantamount to driving Li Chengqian to the road of rebellion.
Five
Like most rebellious children, the more you don't want him to do something, the more he has to do it.
Li Chengqian, who is the crown prince, is no exception! Gradually, he stopped pretending, went straight to a showdown, and let himself go.
Li Chengqian ordered people to make an eight-foot copper stove and a six-grid tripod, and then sent people to steal folk cattle and horses, cook them himself, and then call fox friends and dog friends to drink wine and eat meat together.
This is not over, Li Chengqian also likes to imitate the Turkic language, wear Turkic costumes, let the people around him dress up as Turks, and live in tents to play the role of Turkic khan.
When others are khans, they want to lead thousands of troops and horses to gallop on the battlefield, but Li Chengqian is better and pretends to be a dead khan. He made the left and right dress up as a team of canes, and he lay down and pretended to be dead, and the people wailed around him and wept.
These weird behaviors are outrageous enough, but I didn't expect Li Chengqian to have even more special habits.
He privately pampered a child named "Satisfactory" and got up and slept with him. Although the history books do not say whether the heart is a man or a woman, there is such a sentence in the "Old Tang Book" that "he is still buried in the palace with a grave, and an official tree tablet is given to express mourning".
This is after the death of Chengxin, Li Chengqian buried it in the palace and presented the official tree stele. The word "gift" was the main point, and at that time only men would be gifted to officials.
Because of this, after Tang Taizong knew the prince's special habits, he directly executed Chengxin.
After this knife, Li Chengqian's spirit completely collapsed, and he began to give up on himself, and even openly fought against his father.
In order to express the thoughts of symmetry, Li Chengqian set aside a special room in the palace, erected a statue of satisfaction, and made sacrifices every day, and wept every day. He also buried the body of his heart in the garden, built a tomb, posthumously gave him an official position, and erected a tombstone.
In the end, he simply said that he was sick for several months and couldn't go to court.
Six
No matter how Li Chengqian messed around, Tang Taizong still had no intention of abolishing the crown prince, but gradually distanced himself from him, but he favored Li Tai, the king of Wei, even more.
Li Tai is the fourth son of Tang Taizong, and like Li Chengqian, he is also the eldest grandson of the empress, he belongs to the second son, and is the most favorable contender for the throne.
At first, Li Tai had no ambition to compete for the prince, but as Tang Taizong's favor intensified, coupled with the prince's nonsense and foot disease, these all stimulated Li Tai's ambition.
According to the law, the prince will go to various states to take office when he becomes an adult, but Tang Taizong has always been reluctant to let Li Tai leave. In order to facilitate Li Tai's recruitment of talents, Tang Taizong also authorized him to open a "Literature Museum" and let him recruit bachelors.
This treatment was also experienced by Tang Taizong when he was the king of Qin, and later it was these talents who won the victory of the "Xuanwumen Change" and then won the throne of the Tang Dynasty.
In order to let Li Tai spend money happily, Tang Taizong gave him a higher amount of expenses every month than the prince, so that the ministers couldn't stand it anymore, and they stopped it one after another.
Seeing that it had provoked the anger of the public, Tang Taizong not only did not reduce the amount of Li Tai's expenses, but simply let go of the amount of the prince's expenses, and now the ministers had nothing to say.
Tang Taizong's favoritism and indulgence not only bred Li Tai's idea of seizing the heir, but also deeply hurt Li Chengqian, who was the crown prince, and gradually forced Li Chengqian to the road of rebellion.
In fact, Li Chengqian didn't want to rebel, but he didn't have a choice!
Seven
In all dynasties, there have been several good endings for the abolished prince, let alone the abolished prince of the Tang Dynasty. More than ten years ago, the fate of the hidden prince Li Jiancheng is still vivid.
For the sake of the throne, Li Tai is willing to kill even his own son, let alone his eldest brother. If he really becomes the throne, then Li Chengqian, who has become the abolished prince, will end very miserably.
In order to survive, Li Chengqian must take a chance. He was going to follow his father's example and seize the throne through mutiny.
It's a pity that Li Chengqian is not Li Shimin, although he has Li Shimin's ambition, he doesn't have his ability. After preparing for a pass, before he had time to raise troops, he was reported by his subordinates. Tang Taizong's will was served to a pot.
A farce of rebellion was strangled in the cradle.
Afterwards, under the painstaking protection of Tang Taizong, Li Chengqian was deposed as a commoner and exiled to Qianzhou (now Pengshui County, Chongqing).
In less than a year, Li Chengqian died in Qianzhou, and Tang Taizong was very sad when he heard the news, so he abolished the dynasty and buried him with the rites of the Duke of State.