In the feudal society, the emperor has supreme power, life and death are all in one thought, in this case, the transition of imperial power is bound to set off a bloody storm, blood splashed palace, fratricidal incidents are not uncommon in the royal family.
Even those virtuous kings who have left their names in history, there are many who ascended to the imperial throne through usurpation, such as Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, who created the rule of Zhenguan, and Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor who created the prosperous era of Yongle, the strange thing is that they are obviously usurped, but in history, Li Shimin's reputation is much better than Zhu Di, why is this?
They are both usurpers, and the way of obtaining the throne is very different
On July 2, 626, Li Shimin, the second son of Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, staged a bloody coup d'état in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and personally slaughtered his brothers, the then crown prince Li Jiancheng and the king of Qi Li Yuanji, forcing Li Yuan to make himself crown prince, and soon after, forcing Li Yuan to cede the throne to himself.
The cause of this coup d'état is that the crown prince Li Jiancheng was jealous of Li Shimin's military exploits, and his younger brother King Qi jointly excluded and framed Li Shimin, if Li Shimin fell, the meritorious group behind Li Shimin would naturally suffer an unprecedented blow, in this case, the meritorious group headed by Li Shimin could only launch a mutiny in order to protect itself.
Although the method seems to be a little bloody and cruel, it is actually an excessive dispute over the throne, which is not a usurpation or rebellion, after all, what he usurped was not the throne, but the crown prince who could have fought for himself.
And the way Yongle Emperor Zhu Di got the throne was much bloodier than Tang Taizong Li Shimin.
Although Li Shimin and Zhu Di are both sons who have made great contributions to their father's fight against the country, but unlike Li Jiancheng's mediocre talent, Zhu Di's eldest brother Zhu Biao is a very qualified prince, and his ability to govern the country is far above Zhu Di.
Zhu Biao died early due to illness, Zhu Yuanzhang passed the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunwen, that is, Emperor Jianwen, in order to consolidate the imperial power, Emperor Jianwen ordered the reduction of the feudal domain as soon as he ascended the throne, and Zhu Di, the king of Yan, was forced to rebel under the pressure of cutting the feudal domain, and after several years of hard fighting, he seized the throne from the hands of his nephew.
Zhu Di took the throne from his nephew, this kind of blatant seizure of the position of the current emperor, no matter what the reason is, is rebellion, from the influence of traditional Chinese ethics, Zhu Di's behavior is more excessive than Li Shimin's behavior, which is why Zhu Di has been criticized.
Li Shimin's Xuanwumen Rebellion was a bloody coup, he did not directly compete for the throne, he launched a coup d'état to fight for the position of the crown prince, and from the beginning to the end it was just a few days, and the impact was only a few thousand people.
Zhu Di's battle of Jingyan was a war to subvert the imperial power, this war from the beginning to the end, fought for a full 4 years, affected hundreds of people, and finally directly completely changed the entire court pattern, his usurpation was much more difficult than Li Shimin, and the impact was much greater than Li Shimin.
Different political means have different social impacts
The performance of the two after the success of seizing power is also very different, Li Shimin first sat in the position of the crown prince for a period of time, and then forced his father to give himself the throne, although at that time he had already mastered most of the real power in the court, but at least on the surface it seems that there is no problem with the transition of power.
And Zhu Di is different, he entered the imperial city through a protracted war and openly seized the throne of Zhu Yunwen, whether it was as a courtier to seize the emperor's throne, or as an uncle to seize the throne of his nephew, it was not easily accepted in the ancient society with strict hierarchies and adherence to traditional Confucian morality and ethics.
After Li Shimin successfully became the emperor, his political methods were much softer, and it can be seen from his attitude towards his former political enemies that Li Shimin was more tolerant of the old subordinates of the crown prince Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, and some of them were entrusted with important tasks.
For example, Wei Zheng, he was originally the old department of the crown prince Li Jiancheng, after Li Jiancheng failed, he even scolded Li Shimin above the court, but Li Shimin did not kill Wei Zheng in the end, not only did he not kill, but also regarded him as the minister of the humerus, and later mentioned the famous ministers of the Zhenguan period, and the first thing that many people thought of was Wei Zheng.
In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, there were many talents in the court, and a large part of the reason was that Li Shimin reused a large number of original political enemies, and he reached a reconciliation with Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji's old ministry through soft and tolerant political means, and minimized the impact of the change of seizing the door.
And Zhu Di's political methods are much more iron-blooded and cruel, his treatment of political enemies is the same as that of his father Zhu Yuanzhang to treat heroes, he really did how cruel and how to come, crazy slaughter of the old ministers during the Jianwen Emperor period, only a few people were able to save their lives.
Zhu Di also knew that his throne was not properly named, and his words were not good, but he did not allow anyone to discuss it, so he also set up a series of spy agencies such as Dongchang and Jinyiwei, although this was used to supervise the misdeeds of courtiers and people, but more he wanted to use bloody means to suppress those who were dissatisfied with him.
Although Zhu Di's original intention was to eliminate the negative impact of seizing the throne, the high-pressure policy he implemented made him lose the hearts of the people, and he himself was not open-minded enough, Tang Taizong was kind to the ministers, and Zhu Di did not have much tolerance for the ministers, Xie Jin was killed by him, and Huang Huai, Yang Pu, and Yang Shiqi were all imprisoned by him because of their outspoken advice.
Zhu Di maintained his rule by killing and consolidating his throne through the spy group, but after a series of bloody and brutal repressions, these negative effects became deeper and deeper, and his reuse of the spy group and the eunuch group also brought many troubles to the late Ming Dynasty.
If it weren't for the prince at that time, that is, the later Akihito Sect's means of dealing with national affairs and benevolence, whether the Ming Dynasty could be passed on smoothly is a question.
After consolidating the imperial power, the next step is to realize his political ambitions, and in this regard, Zhu Di and Li Shimin are also very different, and the problem of political performance has also become the reason for Zhu Di's bad reputation in later generations.
The achievements of political achievements are different, and the evaluation of later generations is different
Tang Taizong Li Shimin created the rule of Zhenguan, Yongle Emperor Zhu Di also had Yongle prosperity, Tang Taizong Li Shimin's martial arts are not bad, and Yongle Emperor Zhu Di was also full of talents during his reign.
However, the two of them have different emphasis on national governance, both of them have made great contributions when they fought the world, and they both ascended to the throne through military merits in the early days, but Tang Taizong relaxed his martial arts after inheriting the throne, and more often he relied on the Wenchen group to govern the country.
Emperor Yongle is different, he is a king who kills and conquers, expands his territory, and after sitting on the throne, he still wants to fight everywhere, and the handling of national affairs depends more often on the crown prince Zhu Gaochi.
Most of Zhu Di's political achievements were in the military aspect, such as the five conquests of Mongolia, the management of the frontier, the capture of Annam, and the continuation of the policy of cutting feudal domains, etc., which continued Zhu Yuanzhang's political style to a large extent.
Although Yongle also made great achievements in culture, such as the "Yongle Canon", the compilation of which is a milestone in the history of Chinese culture, a collection of ancient and modern books, and has a far-reaching impact in the cultural field, but Yongle did not pay much attention to culture himself, but just wanted to attract more literati.
Li Shimin's Zhenguan rule made people almost forget the Xuanwumen Change, and later generations only remembered that he was a Ming monarch, the "Heavenly Khan" of the Tang Dynasty, and created a prosperous era in which all countries came to the dynasty.
Although Zhu Di also created a prosperous era, during his reign, everyone in the Ming Dynasty officials was in danger, and the high-pressure and iron-blooded policies of officialdom lasted for decades.
In the later period of Zhu Di, there were even many large-scale peasant uprisings, and the political reform system of Zhu Di's dynasty was also criticized later, and the precedent of eunuchs interfering in politics and secret services in the Ming Dynasty was opened from Zhu Di, and the increasing power of Jinyiwei and Dongchang was one of the important reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.