In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the official would selectively sacrifice the previous emperors. Among them, for the emperors of the Tang Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty sacrificed 4 people, namely Tang Gaozu, Tang Taizong, Tang Xianzong and Tang Xuanzong; the Qing Dynasty only sacrificed 3, namely Tang Gaozu, Tang Taizong and Tang Xuanzong.
In these two lists, Tang Xuanzong Li Chen (810-859) is a "dark horse".
Tang Gaozu Li Yuan was the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and Tang Taizong Li Shimin was a generation of male lords, the founder of the rule of Zhenguan and the "Heavenly Khan", and they were revered by the royal family of later generations, which is not difficult to understand. But Tang Xuanzong Li Chen, as the fifth emperor from the bottom of the Tang Dynasty, when he died, less than half a century after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, why was he recognized by the Ming and Qing dynasties?
Because Tang Xuanzong was an example of a late dynasty set by the official history. In particular, Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian, a must-read history book for Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, was highly respected by Tang Xuanzong. Sima Guang said in the book:
Xuanzong is discerning and assertive, uses the law selflessly, follows the flow of advice, cherishes official rewards, is respectful and frugal, and loves the people. Therefore, the government of the Great Middle School was written by the Tang Dynasty, and people thought of Yongzhi, which was called "Little Taizong".
Tang Xuanzong is thus considered to be a replica of Tang Taizong.
However, what kind of emperor was the real Tang Xuanzong?
▲ Portrait of Tang Xuanzong Li Chen
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Li Chen was the 13th son of Li Chun of Tang Xianzong, and li Chen was only 10 years old when Tang Xianzong died violently in 820. The throne was first succeeded by his half-brother, Li Heng of Tang Muzong. Four years later, Li Heng died, and for the next 20 years, Li Heng's three sons successively became emperors, namely Tang Jingzong, Tang Wenzong, and Tang Wuzong.
Li Chen became the "Emperor of the Three Dynasties".
Although he was an uncle, Li Chen was about the same age as the three emperor's nephews. The three nephews had a bad attitude towards this imperial uncle of the same age. According to historical records, Li Chen has been silent since childhood, has a wooden personality, and is stupid all day. Every time he attended a royal family banquet, his nephews took pleasure in making fun of him and jokingly called him "Uncle Guang".
Emperor Wuzong of Tang had particularly disrespect for Li Chen, and after succeeding to the throne, he was even more wary of this imperial uncle and wanted to put him to death. The reason may be that Li Chen once said to his birth mother that he dreamed of ascending to heaven by dragon. True or false, this is a very taboo dream.
The ye shi records the story of Tang Wuzong's persecution of emperor Li Chen, saying that Tang Wuzong secretly had Li Chen imprisoned and thrown into a cesspool. Fortunately, thanks to the eunuch's pity, li Chen was secretly transported out of the palace by dung truck and secretly protected. There is also Ye Shi who said that After li chen escaped from death like this several times, he became a monk and traveled to Jiangnan to avoid disaster. The authenticity of such stories is questionable, but Li Chen's precarious situation during the reign of several nephews as emperors should be true.
In 846, in the sixth year of Huichang, Tang Wuzong was seriously ill and could not speak, and the eunuchs such as Ma Yuanzhen, a lieutenant of the Left Army, conspired to establish Li Chen as emperor for Tang Xuanzong.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, eunuchs were so powerful that they could depose emperors. Traditional history books believe that the reason why Li Chen was selected by eunuchs such as Ma Yuanzhen was because the eunuchs felt that this stupid imperial uncle was stupid, had a low IQ, and was easy to control as an empress. Who knows, after Li Chen succeeded to the throne, "ruling on the affairs of the people, the salty should be reasonable, and the people have always known that there is hidden virtue."
It turned out that Li Chen was an acting school, and his stupidity and humility were all pretended to be self-protection in the fierce court struggle.
This is not a puppet emperor.
▲Image source/photo network
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On the day that Tang Xuanzong ascended the throne, he saw Li Deyu, the chancellor of the Wuzong Dynasty and the leader of the Li Party, so he said to the left and right: "The person next to me just now is Li Deyu, the grand lieutenant, right?" Every time he looked at me, he made me shudder. ”
Li Deyu was twice in the Wenzong Dynasty and the Wuzong Dynasty, a total of more than 7 years. Especially during the reign of Emperor Wuzong huichang, Li Deyu "used wu to fix the chaos and use the culture to govern Huaxia", cut down eunuchs, pacified the town, and broke the Uighurs, so that the political situation in Huichang was invigorated, and "the royal family was a few zhongxing". Historians therefore praised Li Deyu as a "first-class figure in the Middle Tang Dynasty" and a sage who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Yao Chong and Song Jing.
Such a capable subject, in the eyes of the new emperor Tang Xuanzong, was a figure that made him shudder.
Less than a month after taking the throne, before Emperor Wuzong of Tang was buried, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang released Li Deyu as an envoy to Jingnan Jiedushi, and some of the officials promoted by Li Deyu also fell. After Emperor Wuzong of Tang was buried, Li Deyu was relegated to the position of Staying in The Eastern Capital. The Song Ren Sun Fu's "Treatise on the History of Tang" said: "Emperor Xuanzong was not allowed to take the throne for a long time, and he was not honored by Emperor Wuzong, and his old anger was already deep, and Deyu was a minister who used things and could not tolerate it." ”
Starting with Li Deyu's knife, Tang Xuanzong opposed all the policies of the Wuzong Dynasty, whether good or bad. The anti-Wuzong government, the speed of action, basically did not leave a buffer time.
Two examples.
Emperor Wuzong implemented a policy of eliminating redundant officials and reduced the number of state and county officials. This was a good policy in itself, but Tang Xuanzong could not tolerate it, and a year after he succeeded to the throne, Emperor Wuzong added more than 380 officials to the prefectures and counties where redundant officials were reduced.
The destruction of Buddhism was a very important national policy of the Wuzong Dynasty, and judging from the objective results, this movement was conducive to releasing social labor, reducing the burden on the people, and increasing the revenue of the national treasury. However, after Tang Xuanzong ascended to the throne, he completely did the opposite, and the temples that had been destroyed were restored one after another, and the bells and Buddha statues that were used to mint coins were re-cast into bells and Buddha statues. The Buddhist policy of the late Tang Dynasty was superficially a religious problem, but in essence it was a social and economic problem, involving a large number of people and fields in the country to avoid taxes, and Tang Xuanzong's overcorrection of Emperor Wuzong's extermination of Buddhism aggravated the country's financial difficulties.
Why did Tang Xuanzong Li Chen oppose for the sake of opposing?
The traditional explanation is that he had a feud with Tang Wuzong (as I said above, Tang Wuzong ridiculed and persecuted Li Chen), so he had to oppose the people used by Tang Wuzong and the policies he had decided.
In fact, this is not the main reason.
▲ Tang Wuzong, Tang Xuanzong opposed all targets
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Tang Xuanzong did his best to oppose Emperor Wuzong's government, mainly in order to portray himself as the legitimate heir of Li Tangjiangshan who "corrected the chaos".
As mentioned earlier, after the death of Tang Xianzong, the four dynasties of Mu, Jing, Wen and Wu ruled the world for more than 20 years, basically establishing the status of MuZong as the right line of the Li Tang royal family. Tang Xuanzong was Muzong's half-brother, the uncle of the three dynasties of Jing, Wen, and Wu, although he was the son of Emperor Xianzong, after Emperor Wuzong, he obviously belonged to the imperial family branch, not to mention that his birth mother's status was relatively lowly, which cast a shadow on his legitimacy after succeeding to the throne.
What Tang Xuanzong did after succeeding to the throne was first and foremost to establish the legitimacy of his rule.
On the one hand, he vigorously exaggerated his father-son relationship with Tang Xianzong, and even deified Tang Xianzong, even choosing a prime minister, and had to pray in front of Xianzong's tablet. Through this operation, he declared to the government and the public that his identity as emperor was directly inherited by Tang Xianzong, which was full of legitimacy.
On the other hand, he desperately wanted to characterize the four dynasties below Tang Muzong as "pseudo-dynasties", so as to give himself a position to correct the chaos. Although the death of Tang Xianzong more than 20 years ago is inconclusive, Tang Xuanzong insisted that Empress Guo and Tang Muzong's mother and son were involved in rebellion and the killing of the emperor's father. After Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ascended to the throne, there were many cases involved, and in May of the second year of the second year of the great middle school (848), Empress Guo died in the Xingqing Palace, and the history books say that "the empress dowager collapsed violently, and The Shang (referring to Tang Xuanzong) Zhiye". This means that Empress Guo's death was done according to Tang Xuanzong's wishes.
In Tang Xuanzong's view, since Tang Muzong killed his father and ascended to the throne, then his rule and his three sons naturally did not have legitimacy. Therefore, Tang Xuanzong instructed his men to characterize the four dynasties of Mu, Jing, Wen, and Wu as "pseudo-dynasties", and at one point to drive the four emperors out of the Taimiao Temple. But because this recognition has too much scope, you think, a dynasty, four emperors, close to 30 years, suddenly declared to be in the rule of a puppet dynasty, how much impact on the courtiers and society? Therefore, Tang Xuanzong's characterization that Muzong was an anti-party and the Four Emperors were a pseudo-dynasty ultimately failed to gain the support of his subjects and could only be dismissed.
Under these circumstances, Tang Xuanzong announced to the government and the public through the practice of opposing Tang Wuzong's government that he would restore all the "pseudo-government" since Muzong. In this way, he could put himself in a position where he had the merit of rectifying the chaos of the Li Tang Dynasty.
However, the problem arises.
If Tang Xuanzong was opposed to the personnel and policies of Muzong, Jingzong, or Wenzong, it might be a good thing, because these dynasties did not do much, and instead they did so, and they might be able to do something big. The Wuzong Dynasty, which was succeeded by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, with the support of the minister of power, Li Deyu, made many political reforms and deeds, and achieved good political achievements; now, he opposes for the sake of opposing and for the sake of establishing legitimacy, and as a result, he can only turn back politically and economically.
Traditional historians headed by Sima Guang have many praises about the dazhong period of Tang Xuanzong's rule, calling it "the rule of Dazhong", but in fact, from the time he rushed to prove his legitimacy after succeeding to the throne, it was already doomed that his reign period would be a major setback in politics and economics.
▲ Tang Xianzong, Tang Xuanzong's "props" to prove his legitimacy
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The three major political problems of the late Tang Dynasty, the division of feudal towns, the eunuch dictatorship and the dispute between the partisans, Tang Xuanzong could not solve any of them.
At the beginning of his reign, after Tang Xuanzong deposed Li Deyu, the leader of the Li Party, Niu Monk, Li Zongmin, Yang Sifu, and other Niu Party dignitaries were transferred back to the imperial court on the same day. The Lee Party suddenly lost power, and the Bull Party was fully restored.
Generally speaking, the Lee Party belongs to the reform faction, which advocates the strengthening of centralized power and is quite enterprising, while the Bull Party belongs to the conservative faction, which is obedient and does nothing. In the late Tang Dynasty, when the rivers were declining, it was impossible for any emperor who tried to exert himself to rule with all his might. However, Tang Xuanzong, known as "Little Taizong", indiscriminately exiled all the Li Dang figures, and even Li Deyu was degraded again and again, and finally died in Hainan.
Tang Xuanzong used people, in addition to using bull party figures, he also liked to use the children of famous courtiers of the Xianzong Dynasty.
Once, he talked to Bai Minzhong, the prime minister, and said that when my father Tang Xianzong came out of the funeral, when the Road encountered heavy rain, hundreds of officials went to avoid the rain, and only one mountain envoy still escorted the spiritual driver and refused to leave. Bai Minzhong replied, Ling Fox Chu. Tang Xuanzong asked, does he have a son? Bai Minzhong replied that the eldest son, Ling Huxu, was now the Assassin of Suizhou. Tang Xuanzong asked, can I be the prime minister? Bai Minzhong replied that Ling Huxu had suffered from wind paralysis since childhood, but Ling Huchu's second son, Ling Huxuan, had done the history of Huzhou Thorn, "a talented instrument". After Tang Xuanzong heard this, he immediately promoted Ling Huxuan to an official. Three years later, Ling Huqiu was appointed chancellor for 10 years, becoming the longest-serving chancellor of the Xuanzong Dynasty.
Just by virtue of his father's performance at Tang Xianzong's funeral, it is really incredible that he has finalized the future prime minister. But for Tang Xuanzong, he felt very normal, and in the final Xuanzong dynasty, the descendants of famous courtiers were his favorite type of people. In addition to Ling Hu chu's son Ling Hu, Bai Juyi's cousin Bai Minzhong, Pei Du's son Pei Su, Du Huang's son Du Sheng, and Niu Cong, the son of a cow monk, were all reused.
The history books say: "Shang (referring to Tang Xuanzong) traced the old affairs of Yuan he (Tang Xianzong's era name), but wen was a descendant of Emperor Xianzong's qing dynasty, and he would be promoted." ”
Tang Xuanzong thought that through this way of employing people, it was possible to create version 2.0 of the famous ministers, but most of the descendants of these famous ministers did nothing, resulting in the situation of Wen Wuxian and Wu Wuliang in the Xuanzong Dynasty.
The historian Cen Zhongmian said in the "History of Sui and Tang Dynasties" that Tang Xuanzong's disparagement of Li Deyu was "a vain and private anger, self-billet (bad) of the Great Wall, that is, this end, has been small." The prime ministers used, such as Bai Minzhong and Ling Fox, were incompetent. Although it is clear to see what is clear, it is frugal in the face of trouble, and it is only the lord who cooperates with the prosperity of the world, and it is not the material to save the crisis." From Tang Xuanzong's employment pattern, it can be seen that he is by no means an emperor capable of saving the crisis of the late Tang Dynasty.
Due to the ability to employ people to emphasize their birth, the two major chronic diseases that dragged down the Tang Dynasty, namely fan towns and eunuchs, could not be solved at all in the Tang Xuanzong Dynasty.
Tang Xuanzong had discussed with Wei Ao, a scholar of Hanlin, how to deal with eunuchs, but Wei Ao could not come up with any good suggestions, so he had to suggest the old method of "using eunuchs to make eunuchs". Tang Xuanzong was very helpless, saying that this was the next strategy, and I was afraid that it would be difficult to work. Later, he also discussed with the prime minister Ling Huxiu how to kill the eunuch, but Ling Huxiu had no courage and was afraid of provoking the fire, so he advocated taking it slowly- "But if you are guilty, do not give up, do not make up for it, naturally gradually consume, as for the end." Unfortunately, the secret song of the fox was seen by the eunuchs, resulting in a relationship between the eunuchs and the courtiers.
After the death of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the history of eunuchs launching coups and reforming the edict to re-establish the heirs of the empire happened again.
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The main contradictions of the late Tang Empire are unresolved, and their collective outbreak is only a matter of time. In this context, Tang Xuanzong's historical reputation is somewhat unworthy of its name.
Speaking of which, Tang Xuanzong has a good reputation in the official history, mainly relying on those good stories he "made" that were good at receiving advice, observing the people's feelings, and reprimanding the princess.
Tang Xuanzong likes to travel in micro-clothes and interview people's feelings. He once met several woodcutters on his hunting trip, and the woodcutters said that they were the people of Jingyang County. Emperor Xuanzong asked, Who is your county order? Answer, Lee Xingyan. Emperor Xuanzong also asked, how is this county decree governed? The woodcutter replied that this man had a personality, had captured several robbers, and the eunuch in charge of the Divine Strategy Army came to ask for people, but he resolutely refused to give them, and killed them all with their staffs. After returning to the palace, Xuanzong wrote Li Xingyan's name on the post and glued it to the temple pillar. Two years later, Li Xingyan was promoted to Haizhou Assassin. When he thanked him, Xuanzong asked him, "Have you ever done the Jingyang County Order?" Li Xingyan replied that he had been in Jingyang for two years. Emperor Xuanzong said, "Give gold and purple clothes." Li Xingyan did not know why he could receive this special favor, and Emperor Xuanzong ordered people to take the name from the temple pillar and show it to him, and explained the reason.
Such stories are often recorded in the main history, indicating that Xuanzong really has a very good set of understanding the voices of grass-roots officials. However, the selection of central officials of the imperial court was decided by praying to The Constitution or casting lots. In contrast, paying so much attention to the details of grass-roots officials gives people a feeling of caution in small things and chaos in big things. No wonder the Northern Song Dynasty historian Fan Zuyu commented on Tang Xuanzong, saying that he only had "the talent of county orders". The implication is that Tang Xuanzong did not have the talent to govern the country.
But Tang Xuanzong himself would certainly not admit this. During his reign, he imitated Tang Taizong Li Shimin at every turn, and wanted to make the country under his rule another zhenguan rule. It was these imitations that earned him the reputation of "Little Taizong". Only those who delve deeper will know that the people of the world were originally blinded by Tang Xuanzong's self-propaganda.
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang had the chancellor Ling Huxuan read the Golden Mirror written by Li Shimin himself. Reading that "to chaos is not to be appointed to the end, and to the rule is not to be loyal", he gestured to make the fox stop for a moment, saying: "Whoever seeks peace should be led by this word." Frankly, this realization is in place, but he didn't do it. As I said earlier, Tang Xuanzong was quite hasty in the appointment and dismissal of important officials.
Tang Xuanzong's use of Wei Zheng's fifth grandson Wei Mo was, in his heart, a clumsy imitation of the rule of Zhenguan. He believes that with the embellishment of famous descendants, he can achieve the same outstanding feats as his predecessors. Just as Wei Mo said to him, I look at Your Majesty like Tang Taizong, and I hope That Your Majesty will look at me like Chu Suiliang. However, at the end of the dynasty, the monarchs did not make great achievements in the governance of the dynasty, there was no foundation for the historical merits of the Tang Taizong Dynasty, and only the handan toddler's historical stories as a comparison, after all, it was just a castle in the air.
Of course, Tang Xuanzong was finally able to invite the name of "Little Taizong", in addition to simple mechanical imitation and manufacturing of good stories, mainly due to good luck. The return of the Hehuang region was often regarded as a major martial art under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. However, after careful analysis, it can only be said that Tang Xuanzongsheng picked up the great advantages of history at the right time, and it cannot be said how powerful his own Wenzhi martial arts were.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the imperial court dispatched northwestern troops to quell the rebellion, so that the border states were unprepared, and Tubo took the opportunity to invade and occupy the Hexi and Longyou regions. From 758 onwards, Kuozhou, Liangzhou, Lanzhou, Guazhou, Shazhou and other places fell one after another, and the Tang Dynasty lost control of these areas. All along, the Tang Dynasty wanted to take back these places, but it was suffering from its own weakness and inability to take care of them, and the Tubo forces were relatively strong, so they could only let these places fall for a hundred years.
In the spring of the fourth year (844) of Emperor Wuzong of Tang,844, the imperial court learned of the decline of the Uighurs and the civil unrest in Tibet, so they summoned a group of ministers to discuss how to recover the eighteen prefectures of Hehe and Huangsi, but did not implement it specifically. After Tang Xuanzong succeeded to the throne, he seized the opportunity and pursued the policy of recovering Hehuang by force. At the same time, Zhang Yichao, a large clan of Shazhou, launched an uprising in the second year of Dazhong (848), vowing to fight tubo to the death, and successively recovered eleven prefectures such as Sha, Gua, Yi, Su, Yan, Gan, He, Xi, Lan, Min, and Kuo. In the fifth year of Da Zhong (851), Zhang Yichao sent his brother to Chang'an to win the victory, and offered the eleven prefectures of Sha and Gua, declaring allegiance to the Tang Dynasty. In the winter of that year, the Tang Dynasty set up a Gui rebel army in Shazhou to command the gua and Sha eleven prefectures, and awarded Zhang Yichao the title of envoy of the Gui rebel army. After nearly a hundred years, the Hehuang area finally returned to the territory of the Tang Dynasty.
However, from this process, it is not difficult to see that during the Tang Xuanzong period, the restoration of Hehuang mainly relied on two external conditions: one was the internal strife in Tubo and the inability to control Hehuang; the other was the local righteous people led by Zhang Yichao, who revolted and took the initiative to submit to the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Xuanzong had good luck and just sat back and enjoyed his success. If you really want to say that this is his personal martial arts achievement, it will be glorified or even fake.
▲Shaanxi Jingyang Tang Xuanzong Li Chen Zhenling Shinto stone carvings source / figure worm creative
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Probably because of imitating Tang Taizong, Tang Xuanzong's greatest skill was that the imperial technique was very slippery.
As early as when he was the emperor of the Three Dynasties, he was well aware that Taoguang was obscure, pretending to be crazy and stupid to avoid disasters, and after he ascended to the throne, in order to control the various ruling groups, he played a balancing and supervision technique within and between the various groups of prime ministers, eunuchs, and Hanlin scholars, so that the various groups could contain each other, and finally centralized imperial power. Wang Fuzhi said that Tang Xuanzong made good use of shen and han techniques.
In the 14 years of the final Xuanzong dynasty, there was no power like Li Deyu of the Wuzong Dynasty. Ling Huxuan, who had been the prime minister for 10 years, could be called the number one person in the Xuanzong Dynasty, but he was not allowed to use power in front of Xuanzong. In his later years, Ling Fox often said to people, although I have held political authority for ten years, every time I play correctly, even if it is a severe winter and a waxing moon, I still sweat.
If the prime minister has no real power, he can only be a mediocre minister, and the mediocre phase cannot lead the Xuanzong Dynasty to do anything great. This is the reason for the mediocrity of Xuanzong's dynasty, and the root cause is that Tang Xuanzong's desire for power is too strong.
No matter who it was, Tang Xuanzong refused to relinquish power until his death. In the first month of the tenth year of Da Zhong (856), the chancellor Pei Xiu asked Xuanzong to establish the crown prince early, and Xuanzong was furious and said: "If you build a prince, you will become an idle person." After Zhou Qi was promoted to prime minister, he asked Wei Ao for advice on how to do a good job as prime minister. Wei Ao said to him: "I wish to be fair and have no right." ”
Tang Xuanzong did have talent and wisdom, but unfortunately it was all used in the art of power.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the military rebellions in Fanzhen rose one after another, and military coups occurred in Youzhou, Xuzhou, Hedong, Rongzhou, Lingnan, Hunan, Jiangxi and other places. Peasant revolts also occurred from time to time, and uprisings occurred in Pengzhou, Hengzhou, Eastern Zhejiang and other places. These military disturbances and insurrections, although they have been put down, have shown that the situation throughout the country is quite bad. Under the cover of the "rule of the Great Middle", the entire empire was actually in ruins.
The New Book of Tang says, "After the death of the Tang Dynasty, all the thieves were born in the Dynasty of the Great Middle, and the remnants of Emperor Taizong were also long gone, and the sages rebuked death, and the cowardly reigned, and the punishment was thick and deep, and the world was miserable." A veiled and profound critique of Tang Xuanzong's rule was given.
Wang Fuzhi also said that the Xuanzong Dynasty was beautified as the "rule of the Great Middle", and Xuanzong was touted as "Little Taizong", in fact, "those who know the ruler of the country will be destroyed." "A Kou rises at the beginning, and it is destroyed, and a Koo rises up, and then it is extinguished, and then it is invincible, and the chaotic people move in all directions, and disappear into no land, although the slight yizong is obscene, the waves of the world will be uncertain... At that time, Tang Liguo's vitality has been exhausted, people are dying and the six veins are in unison, and this is the end of it. This means that tradition holds that the Tang Dynasty died in the hands of Emperor Xuanzong's heir, Tang Yizong, but in fact, the illness of Tang's death had been buried during the time of Emperor Xuanzong, just waiting for the onset of the disease.
The tang xuanzong dynasty is precisely the return of the light of the Tang Dynasty.
In August of the thirteenth year of Da Zhong (859), Tang Xuanzong died of poisoning by taking elixirs. Before his death, he issued a final decree, entrusting Li Zi the Prince of Kui to the Privy Counsellor Wang Guichang, Ma Gongru, and the Xuanhui Southern Yuan envoy Wang Jufang, so that these three eunuchs would support him as emperor. Soon, however, the eunuch Wang Zongshi, who served as a lieutenant in Zuo Shence's army, relied on the forbidden army of the court in his hands to lead an army to meet Li Wen, the king of Yun, and proclaimed him emperor for Tang Yizong. Later, Wang Zongshi executed Wang Guichang, Ma Gongru, and Wang Jufang for the crime of forging the Holy Will.
A eunuch coup d'état pushed the dimwitted Tang Yizong to the forefront. Datang, time is running out.
The root cause of this coup d'état lies in Tang Xuanzong's desire for power, because his desire for power is too strong, and he refuses to appoint a prince for a long time, resulting in the eunuchs holding power after their deaths, and turning over is a palace coup.
In this way, Tang Xuanzong, who had no prescient vision, was obviously seriously overestimated in history.
bibliography:
Ouyang Xiu, Song Qi, et al.: New Book of Tang, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1975
Sima Guang: Zizhi Tongjian, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2011
Huang Lou: A Study on the Political Situation of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, 2012
Zhang Weidong, "A Review of Tang Xuanzong's "Politics of Dazhong"", Journal of Central China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), No. 4, 2007
Zhang Hongzhou and Bai Xian: "A Small Discussion on Tang Xuanzong", Journal of Guangxi University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2007 Supplement