In the period of ancient Chinese feudal society, the emperor, as the king of a country, had supreme power and status, and could even control the life and death of others.
Under such a situation, the emperor's every move, every word and deed, is naturally concerned by everyone, and their lives will often leave a very obvious trace in the long river of history, and it is easy to cause discussion in later generations. It is precisely because of this that after the emperor's death, he often gets a temple title of his own, summarizing the merits of their lives.
▲Portrait of Song Taizu (reproduced from an encyclopedia entry)
For every emperor, the temple was a very important existence, and the temple number was something they valued. The basic principles for an emperor to take the temple name are: meritorious ancestors, virtuous ancestors. The "ancestor" who opened up the territory and created a piece of family business was the "ancestor", and the "ancestor" who kept the family business had meritorious deeds and carried forward the family business.
And this also shows a problem, most of the founding emperors are ancestors, and the second generation of emperors are generally zong, the most typical examples are Song Taizu and Tang Taizong.
Of course, for zu and zong, in fact, there are many differences in the previous modifiers, such as "zu" can be divided into gaozu, taizu, shizu, and shengzu. So the question is, what are the criteria for the formulation of these temple numbers? Why are Song Taizu and Tang Gaozu both founding emperors, but they have different treatment?
▲ Most of the founding emperors were ancestors, while the second generation of emperors were generally zong (reproduced from the encyclopedia entry)
In fact, the difference between Gaozu and Taizu can be seen at a glance, and the identity and status of the former are obviously not as high as those of the latter. Just like Zhao Kuangyin and Li Yuan, the identities of the two are actually not the same, the former was originally just the son of a petty official, while the latter was the core figure of the Guan Long group, one of the Eight Pillar States.
In other words, Li Yuan's identity should be higher than Zhao Kuangyin's. But it is a great pity that the development route of the two is not the same, and the personality charm is also different. Although Zhao Kuangyin's origin is not good, he is a capable person and a hard worker, so he gradually grows into the leader of the team by relying on his own struggle, and adds a body to the yellow robe of Chen Qiaoyi.
▲Portrait of Li Yuan of Tang Gaozu (reproduced from an encyclopedia entry)
Unlike Li Yuan, he was originally a duke, so his success was actually related to his official position and family appeal in a sense. Therefore, the merits made by the establishment of the two dynasties, the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, cannot be said to be the same.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this that although Tang Gaozu was the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, he did not dare or could not put all the credit on himself, did not dare to use Taizu as his temple name, and could only retreat to the second place and choose the title of Gaozu.
▲ Although Li Yuan was the founding emperor, he could not put all the credit on himself (reproduced from the encyclopedia entry)
Of course, from another aspect, in fact, When Li Yuan was alive, he cut off the back road, and when he ascended the throne, he directly posthumously named his grandfather Li Hu as the Taizu Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and he naturally had no possibility of grabbing the title.
Therefore, from another point of view, in fact, under relatively normal circumstances, the emperor's temple number, as well as the nickname given to them by later generations, all have certain representative significance, at least a judgment of their life.
It is precisely because of this that most emperors are very concerned about their temple numbers, nicknames, etc., but the latter they do not have too strong control ability, so they will produce some relatively bad titles.
▲ Ancient emperors are very concerned about their temple numbers, the picture is a portrait of Tang Gaozu (reproduced from an encyclopedia entry)
References: Old Book of Tang, History of Song