In the first month of 686 AD, Wu Zetian announced that the world would return power to his fourth son, Li Dan, and Li Dan did not have any joy after hearing about it.
At this time, Li Dan has been on the throne for two years, but Wu Zetian listens to the government, he is no different from a puppet, knowing his mother Mo Ruozi, Wu Zetian's desire for power, Li Dan knows better than anyone else.
Therefore, Li Dan didn't dare to accept Wu Zetian's return to power this time, so he immediately went up to the table to express his humility, Wu Zetian looked at this sensible son, and the smile on the corner of his mouth deepened a little.
With Li Dan's regression, Wu Zetian's ambition was even more inflated, and he wanted to seize Li Tang Sheji, which caused the uneasiness of the Li Tang kings, Li Chong, the evil king of Lang, and Li Zhen, the king of Yue, successively raised troops to attack Wu Zetian, but all of them were killed, and then, Wu Zetian began to build momentum for himself to ascend the throne.
In 690 AD, Wu Zetian officially ascended the throne and became emperor, changed the Tang Dynasty to Zhou, and set the capital Luoyang, and the era of Wu Zetian came.
Some people may say, how could Li Dan is emperor hand over the imperial power so easily, use the emperor's power, fight with Wu Zetian, and if he succeeds, he can enjoy the delicious taste of the imperial power alone, isn't this fragrant?
Xiang, of course Xiang, but Li Dan understands that he can't fight his mother at all, and the end of failure is to hand over his life, and his brothers are bloody examples in front of him.
Li Dan is Wu Zetian's fourth son, and he has three brothers above him, namely Li Hong, Li Xian, and Li Xian.
During the period when Wu Zetian hung the curtain to listen to the government, it was logically not Li Dan's turn to be the emperor, but his brothers all wanted to seize power, but they were all beaten to the end by Wu Zetian, and his second brother Li Xian even paid the price of his life.
Li Xian became the crown prince after Li Hong's death, he trembled all day long, and even wrote a poem to Wu Zetian in order to protect himself, the content of which was almost crying word for word, which was even sadder than Cao Zhi's "Seven Steps Poem".
Let's take a look.
Li Hong is the fifth son of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and the eldest son of Wu Zetian.
When Li Hong was four years old, Tang Gaozong deposed the original crown prince Li Zhong and made him the crown prince.
Li Hong, as a prince, treats people and things very decently every day, and is loved and valued by Tang Gaozong, and when he grows up, he has also been praised inside and outside the government and the opposition because of his benevolence and filial piety.
Concubine Xiao Shu, who had competed with Wu Zetian for favor and was deposed, she had two daughters who had been imprisoned in the palace, and after Li Hong learned about it, he immediately wrote to Tang Gaozong, asking for the two half-sisters to marry, Li Zhi was also moved by compassion under Li Hong's persuasion, and agreed to the matter.
But Li Hong didn't expect that his unintentional act of kindness laid the groundwork for his sudden death, because this move offended his mother Wu Zetian.
In 675 AD, Li Hong died violently, only 23 years old, Tang Gaozong was extremely sad and angry, and made an exception to posthumously crown Li Hong as the emperor, but the real cause of his death was avoided in the history books, but Wu Zetian should not be able to get out of it.
Li Hong died early, the position of the crown prince could not be vacant, as the second son of Wu Zetian, Li Xian was made the prince, the prince is the prince, and he is the heir to the throne in the future, Li Xian seems to have ushered in the spring of his life.
Compared with Li Hong, Li Xian is more talked about in terms of literary attainments, and Wang Bo, one of the four masters of the early Tang Dynasty, is Li Xian's companion.
The so-called red one who is close to Zhu and black one who is close to ink, Li Xian's talent can be imagined, and if he doesn't say it, there is absolutely no problem in writing poetry.
As Li Xian grew up, he was handsome and dignified, and once again won the appreciation of Tang Gaozong with his strength, and as Tang Gaozong's health deteriorated, Li Xian's position in his mind became more and more important.
Whenever Li Zhi goes out to recuperate or go on vacation, he will let Li Xian come to supervise the country, Li Xian is not only talented, but also very fair in handling political affairs, Li Zhi who feels that he has a successor is very happy, he waved his pen and wrote a letter of praise to Li Xian in person, which reads:
The crown prince is in charge of the country and pays attention to the dignitaries. The way of soothing words is to be done in mourning, and the punishment is to be carried out in the examination. In his spare time, he specialized in the grave scriptures. To the holy relics compiled, salty peep at the pot of mystery, the first king of the Ce Mansion, prepare for the Jinghua. Good and kind, as a chastity, the sending of the family and the country, deeply embraced.
To explain this passage in today's words, it means that Li Xian is very dedicated to the country, very proficient in government affairs and punishments, very erudite in the classics of the saints, and good and upright are the hope of the country.
However, Li Zhi's high evaluation did not bring any benefit to Li Zhi, but made his relationship with Wu Zetian very tense.
There was a very trusted charlatan by Li Zhi's side, and he said to Li Zhi and Wu Zetian:
The crown prince is unbearable, King Ying (Li Xian) looks like Taizong, and King Xiang (Li Dan) is the most expensive.
This sentence made Wu Zetian quite happy, and Li Xian's status as the prince became very mysterious, and then for some reason, there were rumors in the palace that Li Xian was not Wu Zetian's biological son, and later Li Xian received a letter of reprimand written by Wu Zetian himself, Li Xian thought of Wu Zetian's ruthlessness, and began to tremble, walking on thin ice.
When people are in crisis, they will think about self-preservation, Li Xian is no exception, after careful thinking, he wrote a poem to Wu Zetian, entitled "Huangtai Melon Ci":
Under the stage of planting melon yellow, the ripe seeds of melons are separated.
One pick makes the melon good, and then the pick makes the melon thin.
The three picks are still free, and the picks are not returned.
The meaning of this poem is very down-to-earth, it is about the melon farmer picking melons, a melon vine grows a lot of melons, picking a melon can make other melons grow better, and picking a melon will look less, if you pick three, there may be melons, but all the melons are removed, only the melon vines are left.
Li Xian means that he is a melon in Wu Zetian's melon field, Li Zhong is the first melon to be picked, Li Hong is the second melon to be picked, and he is the third melon, once it is picked, although there may be other melons, but once the melons are all picked, there will be no melons.
Reading through this poem, many people must have thought of Cao Zhi's "Seven Steps Poem":
Boiled beans are used as soup, and the soybeans are used as juice.
The beans are burning under the kettle, and the beans are crying in the kettle.
This is born from the same root, why is it too anxious to fry each other?
The poem expresses the fierce confrontation between brothers over status, but the enemy Li Xian faces is not his brother, but his mother, and he has no way and does not dare to blame Wu Zetian.
But the content is crying every word, he is begging his mother to let him go, so that his melon can ripen naturally, but Wu Zetian is vicious, and she will not really let go of Li Xian because of a poem.
In 680 AD, Wu Zetian ordered people to expose Li Xian's conspiracy, falsely accuse him of rebellion, and arranged a group of cronies to interrogate Li Xian in person, Li Zhi felt pity after hearing about it, and wanted to forgive Li Xian, but Wu Zetian said that the prince rebelled to destroy his relatives in righteousness, so Li Xian was demoted to a concubine, and later Li Xian was exiled to Bazhou, and lived a miserable life.
But such days did not last long, after the death of Tang Gaozong, Wu Zetian ordered the general of Jin Wuwei, Qiu Shenxian, to go to Bazhou to investigate Li Xian, and Li Xian was forced to commit suicide.
As the saying goes, tiger poison does not eat children, but how can there be family affection in the emperor's family, in front of Wu Zetian, family affection is not worth mentioning, the fate of Li Xian and others is a tragedy that cannot be reversed in that era, which is really amazing!