If Kangxi and Tang Taizong sat together and chatted, talking about their sons must be an indispensable topic for them. Both emperors formed a family relatively early, and although Emperor Taizong lost to Kangxi in terms of longevity, he was no less than Kangxi in terms of his sons' love of making trouble.
Kangxi had more than thirty sons, and in order to compete for the emperor, he gave birth to a famous historical event: "Nine Sons And Concubines", but in any case, when Kangxi was alive, the sons were still passable, and Kangxi could still suppress them, and he dared not think or dare to do rebellion.
But Li Shimin's son is different, Oh, my father is on it, I am still the opposite, and it is real. Isn't that how you my grandfather back then? Therefore, there is some truth in this sentence that if there is a father, there must be a son. As an elder, the shadow of the body cannot be crooked, otherwise it will be a scourge to the descendants.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="7" > the emperor's heart</h1>
Tang Taizong achieved a great situation of zhenguan rule, and the harem also added a lot of beauties, but he was still sullen and unhappy, because he had a troublesome thing in his heart, which caused him a headache. What's the matter? It's a matter of establishing reserves.
Emperor Taizong of Tang had fourteen sons, and as shown below, three of them died early: Li Kuan (second son), Li Huan (eleventh son), and Li Jian (twelfth son), which means that Emperor Taizong was chosen from among eleven sons. But to put it bluntly, if you want to be a prince, the family background of the mother concubine is a hard indicator, and the sons born to women who have no level are basically not eligible for election.
Therefore, the sons who are qualified to be crown princes fall among the sons born to empress dowagers, concubines of the eldest grandson, concubines of the great Yang and other mothers who have a high-gate background. The most powerful sons were naturally from the three under the eldest grandson empress, in fact, the eldest son Li Chengqian was also made crown prince as early as the age of 8, and was also loved by Emperor Taizong.
So what else was Taizong worried about? Aren't the princes all standing up early? Li was standing, but he was not satisfied, why was he not satisfied, because Li Chengqian had something special about it.
Li Chengqian may have had polio as a child, which caused him to walk somewhat lame. However, at first, Li Shimin should not care, invited more than a dozen teachers to educate him, and the prince was also very powerful, and began to help his father deal with government affairs at the age of 17, which made Li Shimin very pleased.
But this situation did not last long, Li Chengqian self-directed and self-acted to a big change of life, 18-year-old he repeatedly did some strange things. For example, he brought a group of Turks into the palace, set up a tent in the courtyard, and then lived in it every day in Turkic clothes. At first, Li Shimin did not pay attention to the reaction of the officials, and it was no big deal for the child to let him play, and when he got tired of playing, he would stop.
But as the days went on, the too much not only did not give up, but also became more and more inching. He simply carried out "military exercises" in the palace, and the two sides fought each other until they "stabbed and bled," never gave up, and even sometimes caused human lives.
Things have developed to this point, Li Shimin, who has a keen sense of political smell, looked at this posture, which is not right! This boy did not want to emulate the "change of XuanwuMen" of that year, and after driving Lao Tzu out of power, he sat in the world. However, according to the current situation, it is not so easy for the prince to turn over, and he can observe it again.
Therefore, Li Shimin mobilized his courtiers to advise the prince to restrain himself. Who knows that the prince has a small belly and chicken intestines, whenever a minister gives him advice, he looks down on him as a person, and the key is that after these ministers have put forward their opinions, they turn around and go to Li Shimin to receive the reward, which means that I helped you educate your son, and you have to thank me. This made the prince even more unhappy, which was not clearly playing his small report, but also called it "advice".
After coming and going, the prince not only did not appreciate it, but became more and more arrogant. In half a year, he built a new building with 70,000 pieces, bought a song, sang and drank, rode a horse, and lived a good life. The contradictions between him and the ministers who advised him deepened, and even the auxiliary ministers around him could not tolerate them.
However, Li Chengqian's crown prince crisis was still intensifying, because his younger brother Li Tai the Prince of Wei, who was born to his half-mother, could not sit still. He saw that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, so why didn't he take advantage of the situation? Maybe the prince's seat would also run to his own bowl.
Empress Eldest Sun was originally a large family woman who knew Dali, and the son born to her also inherited her excellent genes. The second son, Li Tai, was also quite talented and diligent in reading, and he also set up a literary museum and compiled the royal "Chronicle of The Lands", which is a geographical book that covers the customs and customs of all parts of the Tang Dynasty, and its significance is to symbolize the unity of the world. Li Shimin, who was the father, greatly appreciated this and included the book in the royal collection.
Li Chengqian was quite dissatisfied with this, saying that the establishment of the literary museum should not be my prince's appearance according to the rules? How it was Li Tai's turn. However, this rule was actually broken by Li Shimin long ago, and Li Shimin, who was still the King of Qin, had already set up the HongwenGuan, and the courtiers who carried out the coup d'état in the "Xuanwumen Change" were all from his name.
Li Chengqian couldn't help but think about it, this Li Tai's motives were not pure. Moreover, the father and emperor seemed to eat his set, giving him pocket money even more than himself, Li Tai also built a large mansion in Chang'an, and later Wei Wangchi and Wei Wangdi also became the punching spots of major poets, and Li Bai and Du Fu wrote poems for it.
Li Chengqian felt that he had fallen out of favor, closed the door all day, and also raised a male pet, and Emperor Taizong was furious and killed the male pet. Since then, the father and son have completely turned against each other, and Li Chengqian's abolition has been nailed down.
Whoever didn't struggle twice when he was about to die, anyway, the fish was already dead and the net was broken, and Li Chengqian was afraid of breaking some more. In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), he plotted to assassinate Li Tai, but he was defeated, and he tried to force the palace, and then lost, and finally he was sent to prison, deposed as a commoner, exiled to Qianzhou, and died two years later.
So who is the new prince? Li Shimin naturally hoped that Li Tai, who had a little more of his own, would be crown prince, but some people disagreed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="76" > re-established the prince, and the turmoil continued</h1>
Li Chengqian was deposed, and the happiest of course was Li Tai, who thought that the position of crown prince was none other than him, but he did not want to stand up against his mother-in-law, Empress Eldest Sun.
Anyway, they are all their own children, who is not standing? Where there is a reason why the birth mother ran out to oppose. This scene Yongzheng has the most experience, the birth mother Princess De does not want the old fourth to be the emperor, she is more inclined to the old fourteen, because the fourteen and her feelings are even worse. So is the same reason for the empress dowager?
Non-also, Empress Eldest Sun is a very self-disciplined and righteous woman, as an empress, her actions are all based on the Tang Dynasty. Li Tai was strong in nature, and although he had the style of his father, in the Taiping years, the Tang Needed a monarch who ruled together with his subjects, not a hegemon.
Empress Changsun's view was endorsed by Chu Suiliang and other courtiers, and Chu Suiliang even bluntly said that if Li Tai passed the throne, Li Zhi and Li Chengqian would undoubtedly die, that is to say, the tragedy of the "change of Xuanwu Gate" would be repeated again. The suggestion of Empress Changsun and her courtiers was to make Li Zhi, who was moderate, crown prince.
Tang Taizong was shaken, and the eldest son, Li Chengqian, once said that his younger brother Li Tai coveted the crown prince's throne, not to mention that Li Tai really had a bad reputation. His relationship with the courtiers was not good, and the reason why the crown prince Li Chengqian's temperament changed greatly, in addition to the pressure from Emperor Taizong, Li Tai's secret evil was also one of the reasons.
And when Li Tai learned that his father intended to make Li Zhi the crown prince, he also ran to intimidate Li Zhi, Li Zhi was timid and quickly ran into the palace, following the father emperor all day, Emperor Taizong was strange, this child followed him every day, what is the matter? So he asked Li Zhi, and Li Zhi said it, and Emperor Taizong's heart was also very cold, and finally decided to make Li Zhi the crown prince.
In April of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, Li Zhi, the King of Jin, was made crown prince. It is said that in addition to the sons born to Empress Dowager Taizong, there were also sons born to concubines, so how could it be the turn of Li Zhi, who behaved mediocrely?
There is an old Chinese saying that there is no dispute, and no dispute is a dispute, and Li Zhi has achieved "great controversy" by relying on "no dispute." In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, in addition to the deposed crown prince Li Chengqian and a rebellion, Emperor Taizong also had a son who also rebelled, that is, the fifth son, Li You, the Prince of Qi. This also shows that at that time, there were still many princes who coveted the position of prince. Therefore, the selection of the prince is easy to be determined early, and it is not easy to postpone.
But for Emperor Gaozong of Tang, how should we evaluate it? From Emperor Taizong's point of view, he finally failed to live up to his father's expectations of him, the Tang Dynasty was not only gone in his hands, but also fell into chaos after Wu Zetian's death, if it were not for Tang Xuanzong Li Longji's efforts to turn the tide, the direction of the Tang Dynasty is really difficult to say.
For this point, Emperor Taizong did not fail to think that in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), Emperor Taizong was dying on his sickbed, but he still could not let go of one thing in his heart, that is, could the heir of the Tang Empire sit firmly in Jiangshan?
To this end, Emperor Taizong specially selected a number of entrusted and important ministers, such as Changsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang, Yu Zhiyu, Gao Jifu, and Li Ji. These are all brothers who followed Emperor Taizong's birth and death, and the Tang Dynasty can also be regarded as having their share of "dry stocks" and are trustworthy. It can be seen from this that the Son is like a Father.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="77" what happened to Emperor Taizong's other sons >?</h1>
Above we talked about the four sons of Emperor Taizong, three of whom were from Empress Changsun and Li You from Concubine Yin. In addition, Princess Dayang's two sons, Li Ke and Li Yan(李愔), were deposed as Shuren in the fourth year of Yonghui (653) for plotting rebellion, and exiled to Bazhou, where they died in the second year of Qianfeng (667).
The seventh son, Li Yun the Prince of Jiang, indulged in sound and color, and committed suicide in the first year of the first year of Emperor Suzong of Tang. The eighth son, Li Zhen,the Prince of Yue, committed suicide by taking poison after his failure to rebel against Wu Zetian. The tenth son, Li Shen (李慎), was deposed by Li Zhen for rebelling against Wu Zetian and died in exile in 689. The thirteenth son, Li Fu,a mediocre man, died in Liangzhou in the first year (670) of Emperor Gaozong of Tang at the age of seven Chinese New Year's Eve. The fourteenth son, Li Ming, was forced to die in the first year of Yonglong (680) by Xie You, the governor of Qianzhou, in the first year of Yongchun (682) for his involvement in the rebellion of Li Xian (the eldest son of Wu Zetian) the Prince of Zhanghuai.
Ancient emperors were really embarrassed, no sons can't do it, and more sons are also troublesome. It can be seen that the road to the family world is just like this, the gold and jade are outside, and the defeat is in it.