<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > wen/Feng Xuanyi</h1>
In the Benji of the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang, historians fully affirmed Tang Wenzong's performance, calling him "courteous and courteous" and "determined to govern". Unfortunately, as an emperor, it is not enough to have these things. Or the Old Book of Tang summed it up brilliantly, Tang Wenzong Li Ang "has the way of the emperor, but no talent of the emperor".
01, the bloody road to the throne
Emperor Jingzong of Tang was suddenly killed by eunuchs, and the court fell into panic and chaos.
In the imperial court, the health of the emperor touched the nerves of every official in the empire. Any slight news about the emperor's health coming out of the palace would be seen as significant information about regime changes. However, Li Zhan's reign was not long, and he was young and energetic, and no one would have imagined that he would die at the hands of eunuchs overnight.
Li Zhan's death created a vacuum in the supreme power of the empire. The country cannot be without a monarch for a day, Li Zhan has no children, and he has never been crown prince before he died, who will inherit the unification?
The mastermind who killed Li Zhan was the eunuch Liu Keming. He had killed the emperor, and the question of the heir he had considered. In his plan, he wanted to find Li Wu, the son of Tang Xianzong, to inherit the throne. After killing the emperor, he and his cronies forged a will and welcomed Li Wu into the palace.
Li Wu was the sixth son of Emperor Xianzong of Tang and the Prince of Fengdi. It is said that he will become emperor, and it is not impossible. However, liu Keming's favorite person does not mean that others also like it. Another eunuch, Wang Shoucheng, was not satisfied. Wang Shoucheng was active in the imperial court since the time of Emperor Xianzong, and had long been in charge of the Divine Strategy Army, with great power. When the news came that Liu Keming and others had supported Li Wu, he joined forces with another eunuch, Liang Shouqian, to secretly mobilize the Divine Strategy Army and plan a coup d'état. Two days after the edict was issued, Wang Shoucheng commanded the Divine Strategy Army, entered the imperial palace, killed Liu Keming and Li Wu on the spot, and proclaimed Li Ang as emperor. Li Ang became the fifteenth emperor of the Tang Dynasty, with the courtesy name Emperor Wenzong.
Li Ang was the second son of Emperor Muzong of Tang, Li Heng, and the younger brother of Li Zhan. In fact, Li Ang and Li Zhan were born in the same year, only a few months in the month. Li Zhan's birth mother was Empress Wang, and Li Ang's birth mother was Empress Xiao. This year, Leon was 19 years old.
02. Kill the Grand Eunuch Wang Shoucheng
After Li Ang ascended the throne, the biggest problem he faced was the eunuch dictatorship.
The Tang Dynasty was one of the most serious eunuchs in history. Li Ang's grandfather Li Chun of Tang Xianzong and his brother Li Zhanzong of Tang both died at the hands of eunuchs. Li Ang's father, Li Heng of Tang Muzong, and Li Ang himself were eunuchs. The eunuch Wang Shoucheng, who supported him, had already participated in the emperor's abolition. The eunuch dictatorship almost dissipated the imperial power of the Tang Dynasty, brought great disasters to the entire society, and seriously threatened the stability of the empire.
Leon wasn't faint, he wasn't as stubborn as his brother. He enjoyed reading and reading the history of the scriptures. After taking the throne, he had the heart to work hard. Soon after taking the throne, he ordered the abolition of 1,270 redundant officials such as the Jiaofang Music Officials and the Hanlin Emperor, and released 3,000 palace women in the inner court. The history books say that he took the throne and was responsible for political affairs, and was frugal and elegant. Soon after he ascended the throne, the imperial court, which had been made into a miasma by Li Zhan, had a new atmosphere, and a scene of "soldiers and people celebrating each other" appeared.
As an aspiring emperor, Li Ang was not willing to be a marionette in the hands of eunuchs. When he gradually became familiar with the political situation and had a certain foundation, he was ready to fight back.
His main helpers were two, one was Zheng Zhu, the imperial master, and the other was Li Xun, the chancellor, both of whom were Li Ang's confidants. At this time, the biggest eunuch in the palace was Wang Shoucheng, and his power came mainly from the Divine Strategy Army in his hands. In order to divide and disintegrate his power, Li Ang adopted Zheng Zhu's suggestion, first promoting another eunuch, Qiu Shiliang, who was at odds with Wang Shoucheng, as a lieutenant of Zuo Shence, and taking charge of part of the forbidden army, weakening Wang Shoucheng's military power. Then, under the planning of Li Xun and Zheng Zhu, Li Ang appointed Wang Shoucheng as the envoy of the Left and Right Divine Strategies Army, which was nominally the highest rank in the Divine Strategies Army, but in fact did not have the power to mobilize military power, and Wang Shoucheng was completely deprived of military power. At this time, the newly promoted lieutenants of the Shen Ce Army were all recommended and promoted by Li Xun and Zheng Zhu, and the sword of the Shen Ce Army was in the hands of the emperor. With a favorable sword in his hand, Emperor Wenzong naturally had the confidence to do things. In October of the ninth year of Yamato (835), Emperor Wenzong of Tang ordered the eunuch Li Haogu to go to Wang Shoucheng's mansion with poisoned wine and secretly kill him. In order to cut the grass and remove the roots, after Wang Shoucheng's death, Emperor Wenzong could order Wang Shoucheng's younger brother Wang Shoujuan to be killed.
Wang Shoucheng, the eunuch who experienced the four dynasties of Xianzong, Muzong, Jingzong, and Wenzong, and participated in the emperor's dethronement three times, vanished.
03, the change of manna
Although Wang Shoucheng and his brother died, the power of the eunuchs in the palace was still very large. Another great eunuch, Qiu Shiliang, still held the military power of the Divine Strategy.
Qiu Shiliang was originally a pawn of the emperor to balance Wang Shoucheng, but after he took charge of the Divine Strategy Army, he was arrogant and difficult to control, and Li Xun, Zheng Zhu and others could not control him at all, and even the emperor did not pay attention to him. In order to wipe out the eunuchs' power, Emperor Wenzong conspired with Li Xun and Zheng Zhu to murder the eunuchs.
Here, it is necessary to talk about Qiu Shiliang's life. This person entered the Eastern Palace during the reign of Emperor Shunzong of Tang and started his family as a waiter for the crown prince Li Chun. After Li Chun ascended the throne, Qiu Shiliang also gained favor, and from then on, he played with power in the palace and steadily rose to prominence. If you count from Emperor Shunzong to Emperor Wenzong of Tang, he is already the elder of the Five Dynasties.
A month after Wang Shoucheng was killed, one morning in the imperial court, the General Han Yue of Kingo reported that nectar had fallen from the pomegranate tree in the courtyard of Zuo Kingo. Prime Minister Li Xun said: Heaven has descended on Xiangrui once in a hundred years, and I also ask Your Majesty to take a look at it. Therefore, Emperor Wenzong Li Ang led a group of ministers and eunuchs to the Hanyuan Hall, and he first ordered the chancellor and the officials of Zhongshu and Menxia Provinces to first inspect and explore the reality. After a group of officials read it, they returned to the Hanyuan Hall, and they said that it was ordinary dew, nothing special. The emperor looked suspicious, and sent Qiu Shiliang and Yu Zhihong, the lieutenants of the Left and Right Guards of the Divine Strategy Army, as well as their cronies and a group of eunuchs to inspect them.
When Qiu Shiliang and a group of people went to the Zuo Jinwu Temple, Han Yue, who first claimed to have found Ganlu, looked panicked. The old and spicy Qiu Shiliang found the atmosphere abnormal at this time. Therefore, he immediately made a decision and led the eunuch to withdraw from the Kingo Palace. At this time, the court really rushed out of the sword and axe hand and ran towards the eunuchs.
It turned out that the so-called nectar was arranged by the emperor and Li Xun, Zheng Zhu and others, who planned to trick the eunuchs into the Jinwu Palace and let the Jinwuwei who had ambushed them in advance wipe out the eunuchs. Unfortunately, Qiu Shiliang was too vigilant.
Qiu Shiliang led a group of eunuchs to flee to the Hanyuan Hall. The eunuchs took Emperor Wenzong hostage and fled to the Inner Temple. At this time, the Divine Strategy Army in the hands of the eunuchs arrived, and they closed the imperial city and killed as many as a thousand people when they saw people in the palace. Li Xun and other ministers were arrested and killed. At the time of the incident, Zheng Zhuzheng led 500 of his own soldiers to Chang'an, and on the way to learn that the matter was exposed, he hurried back to Fengxiang and was killed by the supervision army halfway. Li Xun, Zheng Zhu and other ministers were exterminated, and some members of the imperial court were implicated and died. This massacre at the behest of eunuchs almost left the Tang court almost empty.
After the Ganlu Rebellion, Li Ang was placed under house arrest by eunuchs. According to the Tang Dynasty Su Yan's "Duyang Miscellaneous Compilation", Li Ang hated Qiu Shiliang, but he had no choice. Sometimes yu Houyuan came to play, even if the palace plays were displayed in front, it could not make him stretch his eyebrows a little; but he often saw him staring at his eyes, talking to himself alone, and where did the attendants dare to come forward and inquire. The power of the imperial court was in the hands of Qiu Shiliang, and the prime minister was only a clerk. The curse of the eunuchs, especially here.
04. The "Great Tang Tianzi" who has the way of the emperor and does not have the talent of the emperor
The eunuchs in the inner palace had exclusive power, and the party strife continued in the court, which was the true portrayal of Tang Wenzong Li Ang's fourteen years as emperor. During the reign of Emperor Wenzong, the courtiers were divided into two factions, Niu and Li, and the friends attacked each other, and the miasma of black smoke in the imperial court was black.
After the change of Ganlu, Emperor Wenzong never cheered up again, and from then on he was sullen and unhappy, and only lived with poetry and wine. In his later years, during a retreat from the dynasty, he had a conversation with the minister Zhou Qi, which showed the sadness in it.
He asked Zhou Qi, "Which monarch can you compare with your predecessor?" "
Zhou Qi replied, "Everyone in the world says that Your Majesty is the Lord of Yao and Shun." "
Emperor Wenzong sighed, "How dare you compare yourself with Yao and Shun?" The reason why I asked you is to know how Shuo compares to King Zhao of Zhou and Emperor Xian of Han. "
Zhou Qi exclaimed, "Both King Zhou Zhao and Emperor Xian of Han are kings of the fallen country, how can they be compared with The Holy Virtue of Your Majesty?" Emperor Wenzong said sadly, "King Zhao of Zhou was subject to the princes Qiang Qin, Emperor Xian of Han was subject to the powerful minister Cao Cao, and now Emperor Huan was subject to domestic slaves." From this point of view, It is still inferior to the King of Zhou and the Emperor xian of Han! "
As soon as he finished speaking, the tears were already wet, and Zhou Qi also cried bitterly. Since then, Emperor Wenzong has fallen ill and can no longer sit in court to receive his courtiers. Two months later, Tang Wenzong died at the age of 31.
Resources:
1. Old Book of Tang
2. New Book of Tang
3. Shen Gan: The Fate of The Characters in the "Change of Manna"