In August of the sixth year of Tang Zhenyuan, a ridiculous incident occurred in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Empire, when Li Shi, the son of the Emperor, forced the crown princess Xiao shi to kill the crown princess Xiao on the pretext that his ill son Li Shu was blessed.
Li Shi believes that this can drive away disasters and shelter for his son. It seems to be a tragedy caused by superstition, but in fact, it contains a scandal of royal cannibalism during the middle decline of the Tang Dynasty.
Pretend to be Princess Xiao
Princess Xiao was just a sad victim of this scandal, and what if she was the daughter of a princess? What about her being the Emperor's cousin? What about her being the crown princess of the Tang Dynasty?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > born noble and married to cousins</h1>
The empresses of the Tang Dynasty were extremely important, especially the main chamber, such as the empress of Tang Taizong from the Changsun clan of Henan, the original mate of Tang Gaozong from the Taiyuan Wang clan, and the original mate of the Emperor Xiaojing from the Pei clan of Hedong.
The protagonist of this article, Princess Xiao, is also from a famous family, in fact, once you hear this surname, wenyou who have knowledge of history can guess that Xiao Fei's is definitely from the Lanling Xiao clan of the Southern Dynasty.
Crossing the river is the "overseas Chinese surname" Wang, Xie, Yuan, and Xiao weida. Shandong is the "county surname" Wang, Cui, Lu, Li, and Zheng Weida. —New Book of Tang Confucianism ▪
Yes, the Lanling Xiao clan arose in the late Jin Dynasty and the early Song Dynasty, and was a national clan of Southern Qi and Southern Liang, and in the Tang Dynasty, there were 10 prime ministers, and there were also differences in the Lanling Xiao clan.
Lanling Xiao clan is divided into two rooms, one is the Emperor's Uncle's Room, the other is the Qi Liang House, the name of this Qi Liang House can be described as clear at a glance, they are developed by the Qi Liang State, and in this room there is also a noble branch, that is, the Zhaoming Family.
The ancestor of this line was Xiao Tong, the eldest son of Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu, Xiao Yan had no concubines, so Xiao Tong was established as the crown prince, Xiao Tong was virtuous and virtuous, but unfortunately died early, so he was posthumously honored as the Prince of Zhaoming, and his descendants continued to develop, and 8 of the 10 prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty from the Lanling Xiao clan were his descendants.
Concubine Xiao was from this magnificent Lanling Xiao clan Qi Liang Fang Zhaoming lineage. Her great-grandfather Xiao Song, her uncle Xiao Hua, and her uncle Xiao Fu all served as prime ministers, and her father, grandfather, uncle, and brother were all high-ranking officials.
If that were all it, the Xiao clan was still a true royal blood relative. This picture made by the author is really confusing, because the marriage between the Tang Dynasty and these high gates is too complicated.
However, there are two points that everyone can clearly see that Concubine Xiao's father and grandfather were both donkeys, Li Yu (Li Li) of the Tang Dynasty was her uncle, and her father-in-law Li Shi was actually her cousin.
Princess of Gaoguo, first sealed Yanguang. He married Pei Hui, and then married Xiao Sheng. - The Biography of the Princess of the New Book of ▪ Tang
It is necessary to say that Princess Xiao's mother, Princess Yanguang, was the creator of the luck and tragedy of Princess Xiao's life. Princess Yanguang was married twice, the first time to Pei Hui, who was born in the Pei clan of Hedong, who was not only born of cattle, but also his mother was the famous Lady Yuguo. The two married and gave birth to a son, Pei Li.
Lady Yu Chuntu
However, I think everyone can guess that Pei Huicheng's mother was also defeated by his mother, and he was killed along with his mother Yang clan in the Ma Song Rebellion, and later, Li Heng married his daughter to his cousin Xiao Sheng.
Princess Yanguang and Xiao Sheng had four sons and a daughter, and this daughter was Concubine Xiao. During the reign of Emperor Daizong, Li Yu married his daughter Princess Jinyang to his nephew Pei Lian, and his niece Concubine Xiao married Li Shu, the Prince of Xuancheng County, the Emperor's eldest son.
Yes, there is indeed a difference between them, but this kind of difference is not uncommon in the Tang Dynasty, because there are too many marriages, such as Pei Li's father, they have five horses in one door, which inevitably has a situation of poor generations.
Although Li Xuan was Concubine Xiao's cousin, they were of similar age. Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty married his niece to his grandson, which shows his love for his sister Princess Yanguang and his niece.
Pretend to be Wei Liangdi
Why? At that time, the crown prince Li Shi did not have a princess, and the highest status in the eastern palace court was Wei Liangdi, who was born in the Jingzhao Wei clan, her grandfather and father were also horses, and her mother, Princess Yongmu, was the sister of Princess Yanguang.
In fact, according to the Wei's epitaph written by Bai Juyi, she was originally Li Shi's concubine (originally matched), but somehow, when Li Shi was crowned prince, she was not named a princess, but only a liangdi.
Wei Liangdi had no children, in other words, the crown prince had no concubines, so although Li Shu was only the eldest son of the crown prince, he was the most likely person to become the future emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
When Li Yu married Concubine Xiao to Li Shu, he gave her an entrance ticket to the Queen's Club in advance. Li Yu was well aware of the importance of Li Xuan, and naturally chose a proper wife for her grandson according to the standards of the empress, which also confirmed that Concubine Xiao was definitely a person of good character and good looks.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > accompanying husbands, it is not easy for this couple</h1>
Li Shu in the film and television drama
Li Xuan and Xiao Shi have been childless after marriage, and Wei Liangdi, the cousin who contacted Xiao Shi, is also childless, speculating that this is likely to be related to their blood relationship with their husbands, if it is really only a generation of blood relatives, it is enough, three consecutive generations of marriage, it is likely to cause some genetic problems, resulting in them not having children.
In the fourteenth year of the Gregorian calendar, he was made the Prince of Xuan, and in the first year of Jianzhong, he was made crown prince. - Records of Emperor Shunzong of Tang
Li Xuan's first son was Li Chun, who was born to Wang Shuren, and just one year after his birth, Li Yu died, li Shi succeeded to the throne, and then promoted Li Shu to the title of Prince Xuan, and at the end of that year announced that he was crown prince.
When Li Shigang ascended the throne, Li Shu's position as crown prince was very stable. Li Shi favored Li Shu's birth mother Wang Shi, and after taking the throne, he crowned her as the harem of Concubine Shu, but Wei Liangdi did not see the seal, not to mention that Wei Shi was his original match, it was said that she ruled the inner court of the Eastern Palace for many years as Liangdi, and should not be without expression, this is good, a concubine room has overpowered the original match.
Pretend to be Princess Wang Shufei
However, from the perspective of the Imperial Mind Technique, Li Shi may also be thinking about his son Li Shu. If wei shi and Wang shi were to be established in the eastern palace, wei shi should be crowned a noble concubine even if he did not make an empress, in short, it would definitely be higher than the wang clan.
The head of the harem is not the mother of the prince, which is easy to cause problems. For example, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Concubine Wu Huifei and crown prince Li Ying, while Emperor Tang of Tang did not appoint an empress after taking the throne in view of the persecution of his stepmother Empress Zhang when he was crown prince.
Li Shi did not give Wei Shi the name he deserved, which was ruthless for the sake of conjugal relations, but it was beneficial to the stability of the imperial system.
Princess Xiao was not like her cousin Wei Shi, who was obviously the original match but was only crowned as a good concubine, which was indeed a bit lucky. The Tang Dynasty in Li Shi's time was not very peaceful, and the most turbulent was the Jingyuan Mutiny, because the imperial court mishandled the jingyuan army to a mutiny, and then besieged Chang'an, Li Shi led his concubines, princes, and others to flee to Fengtian (Qianxian County, Shaanxi).
Li Xuan's sister Princess Tang'an also died in fengtian's horror, and her mother, Princess Wang Shufei, saddened by the death of her daughter Xue, thus falling ill. In the end, the Tang army that rushed to Qinwang eliminated the rebels and recaptured Chang'an.
On the afternoon of November, Princess Shu of the Wang clan was made empress. Ding You, Empress Dowager Wang. It is the future collapse, known as Zhaode. — Old Book ▪ of Tang
After Li Shi and his party returned to Chang'an, Wang Shufei's illness became more and more serious, until November of the second year of Zhenyuan, Li Shi ordered Wang Shufei to be crowned empress, and three days later, the empress dowager was crowned, and soon after the ceremony, the Wang clan collapsed.
For the crown prince Li Xuan, the death of his mother was undoubtedly a huge blow to him, not only because of the natural mother-son relationship between them, but also because the Wang family was also the link between Li Shi and Li Xi.
Although the emperor and the prince are father and son, there are also natural contradictions and conflicts. The emperor suspected the crown prince, which seemed to be an insurmountable disease under the imperial system, not to mention other dynasties, just look at Tang Taizong and Li Chengqian, Tang Xuanzong and Li Ying and Li Heng, Tang Suzong and Li Yu, Li Shi was originally a suspicious person, And Empress Wang could reconcile the relationship between her husband and son when she was alive, but once she went, this balance was broken.
Actor Tang Guoqiang plays Tang Dezong Li Shi
A few days after Empress Wang's death, Li Shi made Wei Shi a concubine (the history is unknown, only that it was November of the second year of Zhenyuan, perhaps she was registered as a concubine at the same time as the Wang family), making her take charge of the harem, and she finally survived after nearly ten years of living under the concubines.
However, Wei Xianfei did deserve a "Xian" character, and she did not interfere with the throne like Wu Huifei and Empress Zhang, but only tried to assume the role of a Xiannei assistant.
Although Princess Wei Xianfei did not provoke trouble, the matter still found Li Xuan's head, and the root cause of this major event that almost made Li Xuan deposed was in Princess Xiao's mother.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the family lost and innocently killed Princess Xiao</h1>
Because of the relationship between her daughter Xiao Shi and being made a crown princess, Princess Yanguang was made the princess of gaoguo by her nephew Li Shi, and for a time she was very powerful.
Pretend to be princess of gaoguo
The main daughter is the princess concubine, and the first one is very generous, and the lord often arrives at the East Palace by shoulder. All the clans are sick. or accuse the Lord of fornication and prayer. - Zizhi Tongjian ▪ Tang Dynasty
The rewards of the princesses of gaoguo were very rich, and the treatment was also very solemn, and those clans who were also relatives and nobles felt very unfair, so they reported to the emperor that the princess of gaoguo had adultery with people.
The clan denounced princess Gao Guo as related to many people, including crown prince Zhan Shi Li Sheng, Shu Prefecture Bei Driver Xiao Ding, Fengyang County Ling Wei Ke, pengzhou Sima Li Wan, of which Li Wan was also a descendant of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan.
Li Shi was furious when he heard this. In fact, if only the princess had a few lovers, the Princess Taiping, Anle and other princesses of the Tang Dynasty were not all like this, and the emperor was not unaware, but he still connived at them.
At this time, princess Gao Guo had been widowed for many years, and if she only made friends with people in private, the emperor would turn a blind eye even if he knew.
However, Princess Gao Guo is not an ordinary person, she is the mother of the crown princess, just imagine, the character of a future empress's mother is like this, what will the people of the world say? Moreover, princess Gao Guo still had an affair with so many people, which really made Li Shi unable to indulge lightly.
Emperor Dezong was angry, Yu Beidi, Li Wan was killed, Sheng Lingling was demoted, Xiao Ding and Wei Ke were forty, and ChangliuLing was watched. —The Old Book of ▪ Tang Xiao Fu et al.
Li Shi ordered the princess of Gao Guo to be imprisoned, and the four lovers were killed and degraded, which was originally to this extent, so as not to further affect the Xiao family and Xiao Concubine, but another bombshell followed.
Someone accused the princess of Gao Guo of practicing prayer and asked her son Xiao To pray to curse the emperor.
Li Shi was completely angry at this point, and he demoted Xiao to Lingnan, the other four sons of Princess Gao guo to Fangzhou, and even Xiao Fu, who had once served as the prime minister, was deposed to Raozhou, and died of illness the following year.
Wei Fei in the film and television drama
Li Xuan was very frightened, he knew that the affairs of his mother-in-law's family were ultimately implicating Concubine Xiao and himself, and he thought of Li Linfu's false accusations against Wei Jian, who was then crown princess Wei's brother, during the Tianbao years, and his great-grandfather Li Heng asked Tang Xuanzong for a divorce from the crown princess in order to get rid of his interference, and Xuanzong agreed to this and comforted Li Heng with kind words.
The prince is afraid, and please divorce the concubine. —The Old Book of ▪ Tang Xiao Fu et al.
Therefore, he also asked Li Shi for a divorce from the crown princess, but for some reason, Li Shi did not agree to this. Perhaps because at that time, Li Shi wanted to change his adopted son Li Yi, the King of Shu, as the crown prince, and felt that it did not matter whether his son and daughter-in-law divorced or not.
However, under the persuasion of the chancellor Li Bi, Li Shi finally did not take this step, dragging on for three years, and the princess of Gao Guo died, just at this time, the crown prince Li Shu fell ill.
Li Shi took this coincidence to say things, and had to give his cousin and daughter-in-law Concubine Xiao to pray for the crown prince's blessing, so that the future empress carefully selected by Emperor Tang for the Tang Dynasty was thus destroyed.
Pretend to be the prince and the princess
Perhaps Li Shi also did not believe that his son's illness was caused by the ghost of Princess Gaoguo, because the history books recorded the five words "Emperor Fear and Concubine Resentment", and he was worried that since he still chose Li Shu to continue to be the crown prince, then one day he died and Concubine Xiao became an empress, would he come to a counterattack.
If this is the case, from this point of view, it is proved that Li Xuan did not want his wife to have an accident, and he requested a divorce at that time in the hope of emulating the affairs of his great-grandfather Li Heng and saving his and Xiao Concubine's lives, because after Li Heng and Princess Wei divorced, Tang Xuanzong really did not embarrass the two of them anymore, and Wei Concubine became a nun, at least did not embark on the most miserable road.
Seeing that three years have passed, Li Shi still refuses to let go of Concubine Xiao, which shows that the relationship between the prince and his wife is still good, and even Li Shi feels that his son will still make Concubine Xiao empress at that time, so he kills his daughter-in-law in advance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Weiluan said:</h1>
Li Shi killed the innocent daughter-in-law, and when he wanted to set up a memorial arch, he posthumously gave his daughter-in-law a nickname "Hui", and recalled several of Concubine Xiao's brothers except Xiao Wei to Chang'an, hoping to make the people of the world think that he was a benevolent prince.
Since then, Li Shu has never made a crown princess again, and after ascending the throne, he has not mentioned anything about the establishment of the posthumous, or it was after his son Li Chun (Li Chun changed his name to Li Chun after he was crowned prince) who proclaimed him emperor Taishang, and only issued an edict on his behalf, and wang Liangdi was made empress taishang.
Concubine Xiao was undoubtedly a victim of the struggle for imperial power, and the history books did not record her slightest lack, but she was only burdened by her mother, and also, in the face of imperial power, how could she have a noble birth, a beautiful virtue, and a good appearance?