The Tang Dynasty was a relatively powerful dynasty in Chinese history, and during the strongest period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a phenomenon of four dynasties coming to the dynasty, and the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was also called "Heavenly Khan". Nowadays, there are also elements of the Tang Dynasty around the world, such as "Chinatown", "Tangfu" and so on. However, it was such a powerful era that the "Anshi Rebellion" occurred, which caused the Tang Dynasty to fall from the peak to the trough at once, and the status of the emperor was also declining. In the Tang Dynasty, there was such an emperor, he was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty who had been the prince for the longest time, and it was not easy to survive to become an emperor, and after only being an emperor for more than three months, he became the Emperor Taishang.
This emperor was Tang Shunzong Li Shu, his father was Tang Dezong Li Shi, and his mother was Empress Zhaode Wang. Li Was born on January 8, 761, when the Anshi Rebellion continued. He also witnessed the Tang Dynasty from strong to weak, and also saw the Tang Dynasty in ruins.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Li Shu's career as a prince</h1>
In May 779, Li Xuan's grandfather, Emperor Daizong of Tang, passed away, and Li Shi's father, Li Shi, became the new emperor of the Tang Dynasty, that is, Tang Dezong. In December of that year, Li Shu was ordained crown prince, and in the first month of 780 AD, he was prepared to register the ceremony. At this point, Li Xuan began a 25-year-long career as a prince.
Although Li Xuan had been the crown prince for 25 years, the prince's tenure was not smooth sailing, and he almost lost the position of prince on one occasion. The thing is, this matter is related to Li Xuan's mother-in-law. Li Xuan's mother-in-law's identity is not ordinary, she is the daughter of Tang Suzong, Princess Gaoguo, that is, Tang Dezong's aunt, and also Li Xie's aunt. However, Princess Gao Guo married her daughter Xiao Shi to Li Xuan, so she was Li Xuan's aunt and Li Xuan's mother-in-law, and this relationship was really chaotic enough.
Even more chaotic is still behind, Princess Gao Guo's life is very lonely after the death of her husband Xiao Sheng (that is, Li Shu's husband), and she thinks of red apricots out of the wall. So she successively had scandals with Some officials such as Li Wan, Li Fu, and Xiao Ding. In the Tang Dynasty, such a thing as a princess cheating was not new at all, but the princess of Gao Guo practiced witchcraft and was reported to Tang Dezong. It should be known that the art of witchcraft was the thing that the emperor hated the most, and Liu Zhao, the crown prince of Emperor Wu of Han, was executed because of the magic of witchcraft. Now that Princess Gao Guo was engaged in witchcraft again, Tang Dezong naturally would not let her go, so Princess Gao Guo was imprisoned by Tang Dezong and died.
As for Princess Gao's son-in-law, Li Xuan, Tang Dezong was not polite and criticized him fiercely. Li Xuan was afraid of this in his heart, worried that his mother-in-law would be involved, and simply proposed to his father and emperor to divorce his wife Xiao Shi. Because of the matter of Princess Gao guo, Tang Dezong saw that Li Shu was more and more unpleasant, so he had the idea of deposing the crown prince and replacing Li Yi, the king of Shu. Fortunately, the chancellor Li Bi came forward, and he strongly dissuaded the emperor from deposing the crown prince, and listed the harm caused by Tang Taizong and Tang Suzong deposing the crown prince, and finally Li Xuan still kept his position as crown prince.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Li's years as emperor</h1>
On the 23rd day of the first month of 805, Tang Dezong died, and Li Xuan, who had been the crown prince for twenty-five years, finally ascended the throne as the new emperor of the Tang Dynasty, that is, Tang Shunzong. When Li Xuan became emperor, he began to find ways to deal with some of the problems left over from the Tang Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion. Mainly the problem of the eunuch's monopoly and Fan Zhen's division, after the Anshi Rebellion, the emperor became more and more distrustful of the courtiers, so the eunuchs who were deeply trusted by the emperor were able to go to the center of power, after the development of several emperors, the eunuchs had mastered the command of the most elite troop in the capital, the Shen Ce Army, and took back the power of the eunuchs, which was now what Li Xuan wanted to do most. Also because of the Anshi Rebellion, the town was gradually freed from the control of the central government, and how to control the localities again and strengthen the centralization of power was also more urgent.
In response to these problems, Li Xuan immediately appointed Wang Shuwen, Wang Ling, Liu Yuxi, Liu Zongyuan, and others, who formed a reformist power group with "Second King Liu Liu" as the core. Advocating the strengthening of centralized power, opposing the division of feudal towns, opposing the dictatorship of eunuchs, and actively promoting innovation, a series of reform measures were adopted, known in history as the "Yongzhen Reform".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Li Was deposed as Emperor Taishang</h1>
Li Xuan's reforms were in full swing, but at that time, the eunuchs were in charge of the army in the capital, and the power was still very large, and the reform touched the interests of the eunuchs, and at the same time, the reform also touched the interests of the local envoys. Therefore, the eunuch Ju Wenzhen and other eunuchs joined forces with some feudal towns to put pressure on Li Shu and imprisoned Li Shu, demanding that the reform be abolished. Eunuchs dared to directly imprison the emperor, which shows how powerful the eunuchs were during this period of the Tang Dynasty. Under the control of eunuchs, Li Xuan watched as his dependent vassals were degraded and killed, and the "Second King Liu Liu" clique was forced to disband. Reforms ultimately failed.
Later, the eunuchs and emissaries, looking at Li Shu, the emperor, were quite obstructive, and directly forced Li Shu to make his son Li Chun the crown prince, and in August 805, he ceded the imperial throne to Li Chun, and Li Shu became the Emperor Taishang. In this way, Li Shu was the emperor for more than three months, and suddenly became the Emperor Taishang.
Do you think Li Shu will be blessed to be the Emperor Taishang? The answer is no. On the eighteenth day of the first month of 806, Li Chun issued an edict informing the Emperor Taishang of the world that he was infected, and the next day, Li Chun announced that the Emperor Taishang was incurable and died. After being the Emperor taishang for half a year, he suddenly and inexplicably died. Although it is very suspicious, it is recorded in the history, but later in the Poems and Notes of the Tang Dynasty, it was found that Li Shu may have been killed by eunuchs and Li Chun.
Whether Li Xu died of illness or was killed by someone is still an unsolved mystery. But that's not important anymore. From the moment his reform failed, it was doomed that his end would not be much better, and at the same time, the politics of the Tang Dynasty was even darker, and the Tang Dynasty fell into another dark abyss, no longer able to turn over until it perished.