According to the "Old Tang Book", in the fourth year of Zhenguan (630), the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Eastern Turks and captured Jieli Khan. The leader of Zhufan is called "Khan", so "Heavenly Khan" means "the largest and highest Khan". Tang Taizong was happy to call himself "Emperor" and "Heavenly Khan" when he issued edicts to the leaders of the subject states or tribes in the northwest in the future, and used both of these names.
What is the heart disease of such a "heavenly khan"?
In the ninth year of Zhenguan (635), Li Yuan, who had been the emperor for ten years, died. On October 27, the "Emperor Gaozu Taiwu", the founder of the Tang Dynasty, was solemnly buried. However, just ten days before the funeral, Tang Taizong informed the historian that he wanted to personally consult Emperor Gaozu and his own "Actual Record", but the historian politely refused. Because according to the system, the emperor himself could not read the "Actual Records" of his own dynasty; And Emperor Gaozu has just died, and his historical record cannot be seen.
In April of the sixteenth year of Zhenguan (642), after a lapse of several years, Tang Taizong asked the counselor Chu Suiliang again: "Are you still responsible for recording the "Living Note"? What did you remember, can you let me see it? "The Living Notes are a very detailed record of what the emperor did every day, at what time. Chu Suiliang replied to him: "The historian records the monarch's words and actions, both good and bad, so that the monarch will not dare to do bad things, and I have not heard that the monarch himself can take it to see." Tang Taizong asked: "Then if I have anything bad, do you remember it?" Chu Suiliang replied: "This is my duty, and I dare not remember it." Liu Xun, the waiter of the Yellow Gate, interjected beside him: "If Chu Suiliang doesn't remember it, everyone in the world will remember it." Tang Taizong hit another nail. However, just two months later, Tang Taizong suddenly ordered that the eldest brother Li Jiancheng, who was killed sixteen years ago and was posthumously seized of the title of prince, be restored from his original nickname "King Xiyin" to the crown prince, and the younger brother Li Yuanji was changed from "King Hailing" to "King Chaora".
Of course, we have no way to guess why Tang Taizong suddenly remembered this matter again. But connecting a series of things, it can be seen that Tang Taizong's heart is empty, and he is very worried that the records made by the historian will be unfavorable to him.
In April of the following year (643), the crown prince Chengqian was deposed as a concubine for his crimes, and Tang Taizong's uncle, Li Yuanchang, the king of Han, was killed for participating in the conspiracy. Tang Taizong agreed to make his fourth most favored son, Wei Wangtai, the crown prince, but later changed his mind and appointed his ninth son, Li Zhi of Jin (later Tang Gaozong), as the crown prince. Wei Wangtai was demoted to the title of King of Donglai County, and soon changed his title to the King of Shunyang, and placed under house arrest in the remote and isolated Yunxiang Township of Junzhou, in the mountainous area of today's northwest Hubei.
In those days, Tang Taizong was exhausted and lamented: "I made these three sons and one younger brother look like this, it's really not interesting to think about living." As he spoke, he fell to the ground from the seat of the chair, and before his confidant minister could help him up, he pulled out his saber and wanted to commit suicide, but was snatched away by Chu Suiliang. This incident dealt a great blow to Emperor Taizong, who had always regarded himself as wise, and he personally went to the Taimiao Temple to worship and apologize to his ancestors for the matter of his son Li Chengqian.
Then, on the first day of June, there was a solar eclipse, which was a major event in ancient times. In July, rumors spread among the people that the emperor sent evil ghosts to dig out people's hearts and livers to sacrifice to the Tengu Star, which caused panic for a while, and Taizong had to send people to various places to refute the rumors and comfort the people, and it was only calmed down after more than a month.
We don't know whether the folk rumors have anything to do with the changes in the court, but this will undoubtedly prompt Taizong to be more concerned about what the historian has written for him, so he put forward a third request to Fang Xuanling, the prime minister who supervised the revision of the national history, to read the national history: "My intentions are different from those of the previous monarchs." The emperor wants to read the history of the country himself, so that he can understand his past mistakes, and as a warning for the future, you can write it down to me in order. Zhu Zihao, the counselor, resolutely objected: "Your Majesty, of course you have a high moral character, your words and deeds have never been wrong, and the content recorded by the historian must be perfect, so it is not inappropriate for you to consult the "Living Note" now." But if it becomes a system from now on, I am afraid that your great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren will not be able to guarantee that there are no monarchs who cannot reach the level of wisdom, and they will be punished. So in order to protect themselves and avoid disasters, the historian will definitely cater to the direction of the wind and obey the will, so can the history of thousands of years still be believed? This is the reason why emperors have always been not allowed to consult the history of their own dynasty. But Tang Taizong still insisted on reading it, so Fang Xuanling had no choice but to delete and modify the "Actual Records" of Gaozu and Taizong with Xu Jingzong and others, and submit them to the imperial review.
In fact, Fang Xuanling and others all knew in their hearts that Tang Taizong's greatest concern was naturally what happened on the fourth day of the sixth month of that year (626), in fact, they had already worked the text and tried their best to cover up the relevant facts, but Tang Taizong was still not satisfied after reading it. Tang Taizong said: "Back then, Duke Zhou killed Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai to stabilize the Zhou family, and Ji You poisoned Uncle Ya to bring peace to the Lu State. I have done this entirely for the sake of stabilizing society and benefiting all people. Why should the historian be particularly secretive when he writes? It should be amended to remove inaccuracies and to make the facts straightforward. With such clear instructions, the historians headed by Fang Xuanling were naturally only able to perceive the sacred heart and revise the relevant texts in the "Actual Records" of the two dynasties until Tang Taizong was satisfied. This is what we can see today as the "Xuanwumen Change" recorded in books such as "Old Tang Book", "New Tang Book" and "Zizhi Tongjian".
How is this event told? According to the historical books, in June of the ninth year of Tang Gaozu Wude (626), the Turkic army invaded, and the crown prince Li Jiancheng suggested that his fourth brother Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, lead the army to the north, and recruited the generals of the Qin Palace, Chi Jingde, Cheng Zhijie (that is, Cheng Biting Jin, as the folk say) and Qin Shubao and others went out with the army, which was approved by Tang Gaozu Li Yuan. The crown prince Jiancheng, who has always been jealous of the military merits and prestige of Li Shimin, the king of Qin, has been looking for an opportunity to murder the king of Qin, trying to take advantage of the opportunity of traveling with the king of Qin in the Kunming pool, ambushing the armor and stabbing him to death. King Qin soon got the news from the prince's subordinate he had bribed, Donggong Wang, so he discussed countermeasures with the eldest grandson Wuji, Fang Xuanling and others overnight. Everyone advised King Qin to strike first, but Li Shimin couldn't bear to kill each other and hesitated. The aides gave him many reasons and finally persuaded him to take action.
It just so happened that the Taibai Star appeared during the day many times in June, and Fu Yi secretly played to Tang Gaozu: "The Taibai Star is above our Qin Land, it seems that the King of Qin is going to own the world." "Gao Zu was furious when he heard this, didn't he mean that Li Shimin was going to rebel and usurp the throne? So he immediately summoned Li Shimin to question, how could such public opinion appear? Li Shimin pleaded that this was a scandal in which the two brothers Jiancheng and Yuanji wanted to murder him, and secretly played the scandal of Jiancheng and Yuanji's "fornication harem", saying that they actually had an improper relationship with the harem. Tang Gaozu was taken aback when he heard this, and prepared to summon the three brothers to confront him the next day.
Early in the morning of the fourth day of the first month of June, Li Shimin led his eldest grandson Wuji and others to ambush at Xuanwu Gate. When Jiancheng and Yuanji walked to the Linhu Palace, they found that the situation was abnormal, and they immediately turned their horses around and wanted to escape back to the East Palace, but it was too late. Li Shimin rushed out with people and chased after him. Li Jiancheng pulled up his bow and fired arrows at Li Shimin, but because of panic, the bowstring was too late to pull open, and he didn't even shoot three arrows. Li Shimin opened his bow and fired back, and he was killed with an arrow. At this time, Wei Chi Jingde led more than 70 cavalry to arrive and shot Li Yuanji's mount, and Li Yuanji fell off his horse. But Li Shimin's own horse was also frightened and fled into the woods, tripped over a branch. Li Yuanji came from behind, grabbed the bow and arrow and strangled Li Shimin, and Wei Chi Jingde jumped on his horse angrily and shot Li Yuanji with an arrow. At this time, more than 2,000 elite soldiers from the East Palace and the Qi Palace's Mansion rushed to attack the Xuanwu Gate when they heard the news, and the situation was very critical. Seeing this, Wei Chi Jingde hurriedly cut off the heads of Jiancheng and Yuanji to display, and their subordinates saw that their masters had been killed, and they immediately dispersed.
Li Shimin sent Wei Chi Jingde to be fully armed and enter the palace to defend Li Yuan. Who knew that Emperor Gaozu, who was originally scheduled to interrogate the three brothers in person that morning to determine the merits, was actually full of interest and was on a cruise ship in the back garden pool. He was shocked when he saw Wei Chi Jingde, armed with a spear and dressed in armor, break in. Yu Chi Jingde reported that the crown prince had rebelled with the king of Qi and had been killed by the king of Qin. The ministers persuaded Gaozu to hand over state affairs to the King of Qin. Gao Zu agreed very happily: "Okay, this is exactly what I have been wishing for a long time!" He immediately wrote an edict in his own handwriting, ordering the armies to obey the orders of the King of Qin. When the overall situation was decided, the king of Qin rushed to meet with Gaozu, and the father and son hugged and cried. Gaozu then issued an edict appointing Li Shimin, the king of Qin, as the crown prince, and Jiancheng and Yuanji had a total of ten sons, all of whom were executed for treason. That is, he ordered the killing of ten of his own grandsons. Two months later, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan announced his abdication, he became the emperor, and Li Shimin, the king of Qin, ascended the throne ahead of schedule. (Excerpted from "Within the Four Seas: Forty Lectures on Chinese History" by Ge Jianxiong/Author, People's Literature Publishing House/Publishing)