In 681, a grand wedding was held at the Wannian County Pavilion in Chang'an, and the luxury of the wedding had not been seen for several years, when the torches of the lighting scorched the trees along the way, and the walls of the county pavilion had to be torn down to allow the wide wedding car to pass through.
Whose wedding can have such pomp?
The bride is Princess Taiping, the only daughter of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, and the groom is Xue Shao, the nephew of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and the second son of Princess Chengyang.
It is no wonder that the marriage of two people like this will cause such a big sensation, but how sensational the wedding started at that time, how tragic the marriage ended later.
In fact, just before Xue Shao and Princess Taiping were about to get married, Xue Shao's brother Xue Yi was very worried about this marriage, for no other reason, Princess Taiping was favored.
Princess Taiping is the youngest child of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, and the only surviving daughter, she has been the object of everyone's pampering since birth, especially Wu Zetian felt guilty because of the death of her first daughter, Princess Andingsi, who was born shortly after birth, and loved Princess Taiping who was born later even more, and almost responded to her needs.
Princess Taiping became a female Taoist priest at the age of 8, saying that it was to pray for the deceased Mrs. Rongguo (Wu Zetian's mother) Yang, but Princess Taiping has been living in the palace, and later Tubo asked to marry Princess Taiping, Wu Zetian was naturally unwilling to let his daughter marry far away, so he directly built a Taiping Temple for Princess Taiping to make Princess Taiping officially monk.
Of course, the so-called female Taoist priest is only temporary, it is a means for Wu Zetian to refuse to marry Tubo, and it didn't take long for Princess Taiping to change into the clothes worn by the military attache and dance in front of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, and the two also smiled and asked Princess Taiping why she couldn't be a military attaché.
As a result, Princess Taiping said solemnly: "Is it okay to give it to the concubine?"
Li Zhi and Wu Zetian still don't understand something, this is Princess Taiping wants to get married, so the two carefully selected a suitable horse for Princess Taiping, and Xue Shao, the second son of Princess Chengyang, the sister of Li Zhi's mother, was chosen.
Xue Shao is a few years older than Princess Taiping, the two belong to the relationship between cousins and sisters, it is customary to be close to each other, after the marriage is decided, Xue Shao's brother Xue Yi is very worried, after all, Princess Taiping's favor is well known, and it is really unclear whether such a princess is a blessing or a curse.
So he went to ask one of the uncles in the clan, that is, Xue Kegou in the then Tobu Langzhong. According to the record of "Shufu Yuan Turtle", Xue Kegou said such a paragraph:
"The emperor's nephew is still the master, the origin of the story. If you do it with prudence, you will not be afraid! But there are proud women in the room, and good men are evil. Therefore, the contemptuous proverb says: 'Marry a woman and get a princess, and buy an official mansion on flat land'. Far away, Pingyang, cover the lord, the demon will be defeated, and near will be Xincheng and Jin'an, which will be commanded by the time. I heard that Xincheng died of illness, and the master was humiliated by him. The scandal of Jin'an has been heard, and there is a case of pushing it, Bianzhou judicial Li Sizhen, Yousi Yu Dugu Yuankang, etc., who are filthy at the same time, and there are ten people who are executed with rods. If there is such a person, the husband is not gifted and virtuous, and he is a gentleman, and it is difficult to ask for no patients!"
The emperor's nephew, Princess Shang, this is a long-standing practice, if you can be humble and prudent, there is nothing to be afraid of, but there are exceptions to everything, so there is that sentence: "Marry a woman and get a princess, and buy an official mansion on the ground." ”
Here Xue Ke gave a few examples, as far away as the princess of Pingyang and the eldest princess of Eyi (also known as the lord of Gai) of the Han Dynasty, both of whom were well-known figures in the Western Han Dynasty, and to some extent they were involved in politics.
Princess Pingyang dedicated Wei Zifu to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the eldest princess of Eyi, as the only sister of Emperor Zhao of Han at that time, lived in the palace for a long time, and set up a 6-year-old Empress Shangguan for Emperor Zhao of Han.
There are Princess Xincheng and Princess Jin'an, Princess Xincheng is the youngest daughter of Li Shimin and Empress Changsun, first married to Changsun Quan, and later Changsun Wuji was framed by Wu Zetian after the incident because of preventing Wu Zetian from being the queen, and the eldest grandson's family was overturned, and Changsun Quan was exiled and killed by local officials in the penal colony.
Later, Li Zhi made the decision to marry the princess of Xincheng to Wei Zhengju, the marriage between the two did not last a few years, in 663, the princess of Xincheng was violently ill, Li Zhi investigated the cause of death, because there were rumors that Wei Zhengju "met the lord and was not polite", so Li Zhi thought that Wei Zhengju caused the death of the princess of Xincheng, so he killed Wei Zhengju.
As for Li Shimin's other daughter, Princess Jin'an, the two Tang books only record that "I married Wei Si'an, and then married Yang Renxi." ”
As for why he remarried, he didn't say the reason, but Xue Kegou gave a reason, it turned out that Princess Jin'an's scandal was exposed, implicated many people, and finally 11 people were executed by the cane, which shows that Princess Jin'an is very involved.
Xue Kegou didn't mention Princess Gaoyang, who was more favored by Li Shimin, after all, Princess Gaoyang was more widely implicated, but it was the same whether she said it or not, in short, it all showed one thing: marry a woman to get a princess, and buy an official mansion on the ground.
Princess Shang is really a very dangerous thing, especially the kind of favored princess, it is easy to bring trouble to her husband's family, it's good if you can't meet this, it's a disaster if you encounter it, but this can't be helped, the princess is not something you can not do if you don't want to.
For example, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian set Xue Shao for Princess Taiping, can Xue Shao refuse? No. Fortunately, after the two got married, they were harmonious and very affectionate.
Not to mention anything else, in the eight years that the two were together, Princess Taiping gave birth to two sons and two daughters for Xue Shao, Princess Taiping was very satisfied with this marriage, and she also taught her husband and children after marriage, she was like an ordinary wife, her married life was plain and happy, and nothing bad happened.
But in 688, Li Chong and Li Zhen raised troops against Wu Zetian, and Xue Yi also participated, Wu Zetian ordered Xue Yi to be executed, and Xue Shao, as Xue Yi's younger brother, was also implicated.
In November 689, Xue Shao was beaten with a hundred rods and thrown into prison until he starved to death. "Zizhi Tongjian" recorded: "Xu, Xu Fu Xu, Shao to the Taiping princess, a hundred rods, starved to death in prison." ”
Xue Shao's death hit Princess Taiping very hard, looking at the child waiting to be fed, she didn't know where to go in the future, she didn't know who to hate, but she didn't have time to think about it.
Because soon after Xue Shao's death, Wu Zetian began to look for the next concubine for Princess Taiping, and she first chose her nephew Wu Chenghe, but because Wu Chengsi was sick at that time, it may be that Princess Taiping didn't look down on Wu Chenghei at all, in short, the two didn't succeed.
Later, Wu Zetian fell in love with another nephew, Wu Youji, this time Wu Zetian did not tell Princess Taiping in advance, because Wu Youji still had a wife at the time, Wu Zetian directly executed Wu Youji's wife, and then asked Princess Taiping to marry Wu Youji.
was so strongly arranged for a marriage, perhaps because she had not yet come out of Xue Shao's death, Princess Taiping agreed in frustration, this marriage was completely arranged by Wu Zetian, Princess Taiping was not satisfied, but she compromised and started a new married life.