In 598, Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang, successively served as an assassin in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, and Xilong. Li Yuan's wife Dou Shi was pregnant, and Dou Shi was born into a famous family, and had already given birth to a son and a daughter before, which was the third child. Li Yuan did not want his wife to run with him in office, so he placed her in the Li Family Courtyard in Wugong County, Shaanxi Province, to give birth. On the afternoon of the fifth day of the lunar month of that year, Dou gave birth to a baby boy. When this baby boy was first born, he had a "different phase", the Old Book of Tang Yun: "When there is a second dragon play outside the door of the museum, it will go away in three days." ”
When Li Yuan heard that his wife had given birth to a son, he hurried home from his post and hugged his son in a hurry. At this time, a scholar who was good at meeting each other visited, and Li Yuan hugged his son and asked the scholar to look at him, and the student said to Li Yuan:
"The posture of the dragon and phoenix, the watch of the heavens and the sun, the year will be twenty, and it will be able to help the world and the people."
Shusheng means: "You gave birth to a noble son, and when he is about 20 years old, he will be able to help the people of the world."
When Li Yuan heard that his son could "help the people of the world", he named his son "Li Shimin".
This is the origin of the name Li Shimin of Tang Taizong. A few years later, when Li Shimin ascended the throne as emperor and became Emperor Taizong of Tang, he was still very nostalgic for his birthplace, the Li Family Courtyard in Wugong County, Shanxi, and not only sent people to repair it often, but also renamed the Li Family Courtyard "Qingshan Palace".
In the sixth year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin drove to Qingshan Palace in Wugong County, saw the place where he was born, was very emotional, and wrote a poem "QingwuGong Qingshan Palace" with a pen, two of which were:
Ladder mountain salty into the money, ride the sea to think. Shan Yu accompanied the Wu tent, and wei Wenfang every day.
It can be seen that although Li Shimin has achieved the cause of the emperor, he still has great feelings for the place where he was born. Perhaps, here, Li Shimin once had a very unforgettable childhood.
In fact, in Qingshan Palace, Li Shimin was not only composing a poem, but also entertaining his ministers here. After the banquet, Li Shimin said a passage that affected Wei Chigong's life.
Wei Chigong, the character Jingde, blacksmith origin. In the last year of the Sui Dynasty, Wei Chigong followed Liu Wuzhou to rebel against the Sui. Later, he surrendered to Li Shimin and became a member of Li Shimin's side. In Li Shimin's campaign to pacify Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, and Liu Heimin, Wei Chigong's role could not be ignored.
In the ninth year of Wu De, Li Shimin launched the Xuanwumen Rebellion, and Wei Chigong was the main planner and participant of the incident, and personally killed Li Yuanji at Xuanwumen. Therefore, after Li Shimin ascended the throne, Wei Chigong was awarded the title of Grand General of the Marquis of Right Wu and duke of Wuguo, and was listed with Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji, and others, with 1,300 households.
Wei Chigong was originally a blacksmith, did not read much, and won the favor of Li Shimin by virtue of his bravery. If it is in the era of war, Wei Chigong will certainly be able to play a useful role. However, after Li Shimin ascended the throne, the world gradually became peaceful, and Wei Chigong gradually found that his role in Li Shimin's side was gradually inferior to that of Fang Xuanling, the eldest grandson Wujie and other courtiers, so he felt resentment.
The Old Book of Tang records:
Respecting virtue is good and straight, and he is responsible for his merits, and whenever he sees a short and long such as unscrupulousness, Xuan Ling, and obscure, he must face and argue with the court, and he is not even with the government.
The more unbalanced Wei Chigong's heart was, the more he liked to stare at Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhan, and others, and often complained in front of Li Shimin that these people were not, and Li Shimin also felt that Wei Chigong had some villainous hearts, so he transferred Wei Chigong out of the capital and took up posts in other places.
After six years of Zhenguan, Li Shimin visited the Gonggong Qingshan Palace and arrived at the old place where he was born, in a good mood, not only drinking and feasting poems, but also arranging for 64 boys to dance. Li Shimin let 64 boys line up in 8 rows and 8 columns, first dancing "The Dance of The Nine Skills" and then dancing the "Broken Chen Dance", which attracted a round of applause, and Li Shimin could not close his mouth. The people who enjoyed the dance with Li Shimin, as well as Wei Chigong.
During the banquet, Wei Chigong was slightly drunk, and suddenly said to the person sitting on his head: "Ru He Gong, sit on me?" ”
It turned out that Wei Chigong thought that he had done a great job and should sit on the top. Someone who dared to sit on top of him was obviously disrespectful to him. As Wei Chigong spoke, he wanted to take advantage of his drunkenness to beat people. Sitting down Wei Chigong was Li Daozong, the king of Rencheng, li Daozong saw that the situation was not right, and rushed to dissuade him, without thinking, Wei Chigong launched a fire to ignore it, a heavy punch hit Li Daozong's face, and one of Li Daozong's eyes was almost blinded.
Li Daozong was Li Shimin's cousin, and during the founding of the Tang Dynasty, he made great military achievements, and Li Shimin once commented in his later years that Li Daozong's skills and merits were enough to be on a par with the famous general Li Ji. Moreover, Li Daozong, as a relative of the imperial family, was also named the King of Rencheng. He was not proud of his merits, and not only sat on Wei Chigong's hand, but also spoke out to persuade Wei Chigong, and Wei Chigong actually shot him.
Li Shimin was watching the dance brought by the 64 boys with full concentration, and he was very happy, he did not want to be disturbed by Wei Chigong, and his mood was suddenly bad, so he called Wei Chigong and said to him:
"Seeing that Han Gaozu had destroyed the heroes, he wanted to protect the wealth with Qing and others, so that his descendants would not stop." However, the number of officials in Qingju was a crime committed by knowing Han and Gu Shu, and it was not the crime of Gao Zu. ”
The meaning of Li Shimin's words is: Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, killed the hero, and I used to blame him before. When I became emperor, I wanted to share the wealth with the heroes. However, there are always some people who have repeatedly broken the law and are proud of their achievements. Now I finally understand that Liu Bang's killing of Han Xin and other heroes is not entirely Liu Bang's fault!
Li Shimin was using the stories of Han Xin and others to beat up Wei Chigong. Condensing Li Shimin's words into one sentence, that is:
Ai Qing, do you know how Han Xin died, I think Han Xin is not wronged, he is to blame himself!
As soon as this remark came out, Wei Chigong was suddenly walking on thin ice, and Li Shimin's words had a profound impact on Wei Chigong, because Wei Chigong did not want to become Han Xin.
The Old Book of Tang records the situation of Wei Chigong in his later years:
In the last years of Jingde's life, he believed in xianfang, flew alchemy stones, took mica powder, wore chi chitai, worshiped Luo Qi, tasted Qing Shang music to cultivate himself, did not communicate with outsiders, and spent sixteen years.
After Li Shimin's beating, Wei Chigong began to think about how he could die as a founding hero. From this year on, Wei Chigong began to believe in the art of immortal elixir, entertained himself behind closed doors all day, did not interact with outsiders for 16 consecutive years, and became an "honest and responsible" hero. In 658, Wei Chigong died of illness at home at the age of 74.
Compared with Han Xin, Wei Chigong's ending was lucky. However, if it were not for Tang Taizong Li Shimin's words to beat Wei Chigong, Wei Chigong's ending might have been different.
Reference to this article: "Zizhi Tongjian", "Old Book of Tang"