Preface
Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian was the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, he was not only a scholar and a martial artist, but also well aware of the importance of "establishing a prince".
However, during his reign, Emperor Wen of Sui deposed the crown prince many times, which is puzzling, and there are many records of this in the history books, but there are different opinions.
Some people believe that the princes were arrogant and arrogant, so that they angered Emperor Wen of Sui, and some people say that it was Yang Guang who sowed discord behind his back, causing his father to lose trust in the prince.
What's more, did Emperor Wen of Sui deliberately let his sons compete with each other in order to choose the best heir?
What is the truth behind all kinds of speculations? What is the real reason why Emperor Wen of Sui repeatedly deposed the crown prince?
The dangers of standing reserves
In the 40 years before Yang Jian ascended the throne as emperor, he lived most of the time during the confrontation between the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou regimes, and he witnessed the rise and fall of these two dynasties, and even he himself was a party in this changing situation.
After the establishment of a new dynasty, the supreme ruler often reflects on the maladministration of the previous dynasty and draws lessons from its demise to ensure the long-term stability of the new dynasty, which seems to be a law in the history of dynastic succession in ancient China. Yang Jian's establishment of the Sui Dynasty was the closest to the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties in terms of time and geographical space, so it was only natural that he would learn lessons from the demise of these two dynasties, either indirectly or directly.
There are many reasons for the decline and fall of the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasty, but the main reason is that the fierce and brutal struggle within their respective royal families either overwhelmed the original ruling order (Northern Qi), or seriously consumed the internal strength of the ruling group (Northern Zhou), so that they perished under the action of external forces.
The founding of the Northern Qi Dynasty began in 550 years when Gao Huan's son Gao Yang became emperor on the basis of his father's and brother's efforts, officially replacing the Eastern Wei Dynasty and establishing the Northern Qi Dynasty.
After Gao Yang became critically ill, he entrusted his younger brother, Gao Yan, who was already in power at that time, to warn Gao Yan not to kill his son, Gao Yin, the crown prince, but Gao Yin was deposed by Gao Yan shortly after he ascended the throne.
Ten years later, the Northern Qi Dynasty was destroyed by the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Look at the Northern Zhou again. The Northern Zhou Dynasty was founded in Yuwenfeng. After his death, the sons were young, and the power fell into the hands of his nephew Yuwen Hu. In the year, Yuwenhu forced the late Emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty to give way to Yuwentai's son and established the Northern Zhou Dynasty. In less than five years, Yuwen Hu successively killed Emperor Xiaomin and Emperor Ming (both sons of Yuwentai), and finally established the word Wenyong (Yuwen Taizi) as the emperor, which is the famous Northern Zhou Emperor Wu in history.
After careful planning, Emperor Wu of Zhou finally killed Yuwen Hu and regained the ruling power. However, on the issue of succession to the throne, Emperor Wu of Zhou made a difficulty. Several of his princes, including the crown prince, were mediocre and incompetent, but Emperor Wu was unwilling to pass on his talented younger brother, and out of helplessness, he still gave the throne to the crown prince for Emperor Xuan.
After Emperor Xuan came to power, his rule was very corrupt and brutal, and he wantonly killed the important ministers of the Yuwen clan who threatened his throne; He passed the throne to his son early and became the emperor himself. Soon after his death, Yang Jian seized power in the Northern Zhou Dynasty as a foreign relative.
It can be seen that the fierce struggle within the royal family of the ruling group of Qi and Zhou is the internal cause of their demise, which is also the background of Yang Jian's establishment of the Sui Dynasty.
Of course, due to the constant and complex changes in the political situation, it is impossible for Emperor Wen of Sui to reflect on the historical lessons of the fall of the two dynasties at the same time, and generally focus on pacifying the Chen Dynasty and unifying the whole country. After that, the main focus was to learn the lessons of Qi death.
This can be seen in the change in his attitude towards the prince. When the Sui Dynasty was just established, Emperor Wen "punished the loss of the Zhou family, did not use his power to pretend to be a relative, and his brothers were just generals and assassins".
Therefore, he put the Hebei Road in Bingzhou, and the Southwest Road in Yizhou, respectively, with Yang Xiu, the king of Jin, and Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, as the Shangshu order of these two lines, and entrusted them with great power, this is because Emperor Wen "punished the Zhou family for being lonely and weak, so that the two sons were divided into aspects", and "the two kings were young, and the virtuous and talented people were selected as their wingmen".
Around this time, Yang Guang, the king of Jin, served as the governor of Bingzhou and Yangzhou, Yang Jun, the king of Qin, served as the governor of Qinzhou, Yangzhou and Bingzhou, and Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, served as the governor of Yizhou. Yang Yong was inaugurated as the governor of Luozhou on the eve of Yang Jian's establishment of Sui, "the president I old Qi land", and after being made the crown prince, he was also "sentenced to death in military affairs and Shangshu, and he was ordered to participate in the execution".
At that time, the governorate was a large military defense area set up on the north-south border and important towns, so the position of governor was extremely powerful. It can be seen that Emperor Wen already has the hint of the idea of separation, and the reason why the princes have such military and political power.
For this reason, of course, he must pay attention to precautions, "so that the princes will divide the big towns, and the autocratic side will have power in the imperial family" to ensure the rule of the Yang family.
External hazards
At that time, the whole country was still facing off from the north and the south, and the Chen dynasty in the south still existed. In order to achieve the great cause of unification, this important task must be entrusted to the person he trusts the most, and the prince is undoubtedly the best candidate, so Emperor Wen handed over the important task of Ping Chen to Yang Guang.
Facts have proved that Yang Guang is indeed capable, and he has played a major role in the elimination of Chen, taking charge of the overall situation, selecting generals, formulating combat plans, and so on. After the destruction of Chen Pingjiangnan, the whole country was reunified, and the political and economic reform measures were also quite effective, and a temporary reconciliation was reached with the Turks in the north, and the whole society tended to be stable.
Because the princes held a certain amount of military and political power in the early days, after the world was initially decided, the power given to them by Emperor Wen because of the lessons of Zhou's death became their arrogant and domineering capital.
Yang Jun, the king of Qin, "gradually became extravagant, violated the system, paid money for interest, and the people suffered"; Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, was also "gradually extravagant, violated the system, and the chariots and horses were served, intended to be the Son of Heaven"; Yang Liang, the king of the Han Dynasty, "takes the elite soldiers in the world where he lives, and the prince is greedy, and he is always cowardly, and there are different plans"; Even the crown prince Yang Yong is "willing".
Emperor Wen obviously could not tolerate the continuous development of this situation, and so the tragedy of the princes began. First of all, Yang Jun, the king of Qin, sat down and dismissed the official, and the ministers Liu Sheng and Yang Su admonished bitterly, but Emperor Wen did not listen, saying: "I am the father of Wu'er, not the father of Zhaomin." If it is the public will, why not make the law of the Son of Heaven! I'm not as honest as Zhou Gong, and I can't afford to lose the law!" Immediately after that, the incident of deposing the crown prince occurred.
The abolition of Yong Liguang was the most important event in the development of contradictions within the Sui imperial family, and Emperor Wen said angrily afterwards: "Who is not born to parents, and even this...... I took a closer look at the "Book of Qi" and saw Gao Huan's son, he was overwhelmed with indignation, and he was very angry, and he was emerging!" It can be seen that Emperor Wen has begun to learn the lessons of the internal struggle of the Northern Qi royal family, since Gao Huan is indulging his son, then of course Emperor Wen has to do the opposite.
Even for Yang Guang, who had just ascended to the throne of the crown prince, Emperor Wen was "the official subordinates of the Zhaodong Palace are not allowed to be subordinate to the crown prince." Soon, Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, was also deposed as a concubine.
At the moment before his death, Emperor Wen realized that he had made a big mistake - passing the throne to Yang Guang, but the matter was irreparable.
Emperor Wen thought that the death of Zhou was weak for the sons of the Yuwen clan, so after learning the lesson of Zhou's death, he pushed his princes to the front of the political stage and gave them greater military and political power; Later, with the development of the situation of the dynasty, the princes gradually became arrogant, and he felt that the situation of Qi dying and indulging by the Gao prince might appear again, so after learning the lesson of Qi's death, his attitude towards the princes underwent a big change, from decentralization to strict control.
In a society ruled by the "family world", Emperor Wen's drastic change in his attitude of one leniency and one strictness not only brought a devastating blow to his family, but also fundamentally shaken the rule of the dynasty. First, judging from the situation at the time, none of the princes of the Yang family could die well.
It is no wonder that the people who cultivated history in the Tang Dynasty exclaimed: "The five sons of Gaozu have no destiny to end, which is amazing!" Since ancient times, there have been many people who have overthrown the clan, and the disaster of their chaos and death has not been as cool as Sui. "The ups and downs of the prince's fate are closely related to the process by which Emperor Wen learned the lessons of Zhou Qi's demise.
Due to the Northern Qi Dynasty, the reasons for the internal conflict within the Northern Zhou royal family were contradictory in the form of expression, and it was indeed difficult for Emperor Wen to grasp a "degree" when learning a lesson.
The struggle of the Northern Qi royal family "really contains the meaning of ethnic conflict", "it is the struggle of the Northern Qi regime to implement the policy of sinicization and anti-sinicization", and in the form of expression, as mentioned earlier in this article, it is the sons of Gao Huan who hold the real power of the imperial court and can easily get rid of their brother's heirs.
As a result, the result of the dispute was largely a transfer of power between the different interests of the Gao clan, and on the whole, the ruling power remained in the hands of the Gao clan, but the original ruling order was disrupted.
The Northern Zhou Dynasty was different, the slaughter within its royal family, "the result was the split of the Yuwen family, weakening its own power", so that Yang Jian could take advantage of the opportunity to further eradicate the power of the Yuwen family. "Because the victory came too easily, the new dynasty could not but inherit the achievements and shortcomings of the old dynasty in its entirety, and thus could not but pay a heavy price in consolidating the victory."
Secondly, the flaws in the personality of Emperor Wen of Sui were an important cause of the tragedy. Emperor Wen was "contemptuous by nature, never academic, good at decimals, not up to the general situation", "especially strong in the law, moody, and too murderous", the historian's comments may not be completely accurate, but Emperor Wen is good at going to extremes, it is certain that as an emperor above 10,000 people, this kind of character defect is extremely harmful to the stability of the rule, and it is easy to cause violent fluctuations in various policies and attitudes.
His attitude towards the prince was too fast and overkill, so Hu Sanxing said: "Although the restraint is urgent, it cannot be recovered even if it is longitudinal", and if it is forced, it will inevitably produce tragic results. Thirdly, the inherent shortcomings of the system of absolute monarchy have been thoroughly exposed.
The Sui Dynasty was an important period for the further development of centralized power, and one of the consequences of centralization was the rapid expansion of absolutist imperial power, "excessive centralization of power did not help to overcome potential divisive factors, but aggravated the political contradictions within the Sui Dynasty", in order to compete for the throne of the emperor, father and son struggle, brother cannibalism was inevitable.
epilogue
The occurrence of historical events is not overnight, it is often the result of the gradual accumulation and evolution of various factors, and the demise of the Sui Dynasty is also the result of the long-term combined action of various factors.
From the perspective of the tragic fate of the princes, it may be helpful to study the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties and to understand the traditional Chinese political system from the perspective of Emperor Wen's lenient and strict behavior when he learned the lessons of history.