Through the winter and the spring: from Zhongzong to Ruizong anyway

Courtesy of Visual China

Two choices for a mother and a sibling

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Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian and Ruizong Li Dan were the third and fourth sons of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian, who ascended to the throne after Emperor Gaozong's death, and were deposed by their mother Wu Zetian one after another, and succeeded to the throne for the second time after Wu Zetian abdicated. The great ups and downs of life can be described as "winter and spring".

In the face of the special historical period when Wu Zetian changed tang to Zhou, the two brothers had their own advantages in their administrative styles, and the evaluation of later generations was different, Zhongzong was known as dimwitted, and Ruizong had the name of wisdom. However, whether they were dimwitted or wise, the two brothers pushed the Tang Dynasty to find a new direction of progress on the basis of inheriting the legacy of Emperor Gaozong Wu Zetian.

Back to Yongchun

On the twenty-fifth day of the first month of the first year of the Shenlong Dynasty (705), the crown prince Li Xian, with the help of the five ministers Zhang Kamzhi, Cui Xuanwei, Huan Yanfan, Jinghui, and Yuan Shuji, re-ascended to the throne for Emperor Zhongzong. On the fourth day of the first month of February, Emperor Zhongzong issued an edict to restore the country to the Tang Dynasty, changing the political and cultural etiquette system back to the era of Emperor Gaozong Yongchun, which can be regarded as a complete negation of the zhou period of his mother Emperor Wu Zetianwu.

The personnel change reflected the political line of a comprehensive negation of Wu Zhou. Emperor Zhongzong appointed Zhang Kamzhi as chancellor and xia official, that is, Bingbu Shangshu, Cui Xuanwei as the governor of Neishi, that is, Zhongshu Ling, Yuan Shuji entered the zai chancellor's team, and Jinghui and Huan Yanfan were also in Nayan, that is, the governor of the province under the door, Shizhong, which was equivalent to handing over all the government affairs to five people.

Although Zhang Kamzhi and five others were able to judge major matters, they lacked foresight and courage, and not only failed to purge Wu Sansi and other martial forces in a timely manner, but also failed to unite other high-ranking officials, and Prime Minister Yao Chong, Wei Chengqing, Fang Rong, and others were demoted or exiled. "Cui Shenqing, Cui Rong, Li Zhao, Song Zhiqing, Du Zhenyan, Shen Qi, Yan Chaoyin, etc. all sat in Erzhang (Wu Zetian's favorite Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi) and chased away, all dozens of people", of which Li Zhao, Cui Rong and others only intersected with Erzhang, not a dead party, and were also degraded together.

Among the dozens of scribes, especially Du Zhenyan, Song Zhiqing, and others, were the farthest to belittled, the longest to denigrate, and the most tragic situation. When Du Zhenyan crossed the Xiang River in the south, he wrote "Crossing the Xiang River":

Late days of garden sadness in the past, this spring flowers and birds as a side sorrow.

The people of Beijing are channeling south, not like the xiang river flowing north.

It is spring back to the earth, and flowers and birds are welcoming. As the Xiang River went north, the poet watched the mighty Xiang River water flow in the opposite direction to him, remembering Chang'an, remembering the past, and the sorrow and sorrow were touched.

This sentiment is not unique to Du Zhenyan alone, and other poems of the Southern Detractors also present a low mood of mourning. Fang Rong's "Who Nanhai Passed through the Shixing Guangsheng Temple Guoshang Renfang" has a saying that "zero fallen dreams, depression to win the cause"; Wei Chengqing wrote in "Farewell to the South", "Falling flowers and hating, to the ground is silent"; "Ling Dynasty Floating Water Travel Thoughts" says "Looking at the wounds for thousands of miles, long songs send four sorrows"; Yan Chaoyin in "Duling Second Song" is even more directly embraced, "looking back and bowing his eyebrows but weeping, I don't know where is the township pass".

When Song Zhiqing passed through DayulingLing North Station, he also wrote "Title Dayuling North Station":

Yang Yue Nan Flying Geese, rumors have come back to this time.

When will I return?

The tide of Jiang Jing began to fall, and Lin was dazed.

In the Ming Dynasty, looking at the countryside, you should see Longtou Mei.

Dayu Ridge is one of the largest transverse tectonic mountains in the south, "Five Ridges", located in Dayu, Jiangxi, with many plum blossoms on the ridge, also known as Meiling. Dayu Ridge and other four ridges jointly demarcate the Yangtze River system and the Pearl River water system, and in October the north and south of the wild goose returned to this place, no longer crossing the mountain. Song Zhiqing looked at the vast mountains, thought of the long heavenly geese flock, and thought of the gap between the mountains after the mountains, and he surged into his heart with the central plains, the pain of who was frustrated, and the sorrow of homesickness. Dusk has arrived, the Zhangjiang River at the foot of dayu Ridge has begun to set, calm without a trace of waves; the miasma between the trees, the misty scene adds to the poet's heart. Where the township is closed, it is difficult to see; the road ahead is difficult to predict. The poet can only borrow the allusion of The Southern Dynasty Xiao liang Lu Kai's "folding plums and sending them to the Longtou people; Jiangnan He all, talking about giving a branch of spring", and praying that tomorrow morning when he steps on the dayu Ridge to look back at his hometown, he will be able to see the plum blossoms of Longtou.

Song Zhiwen continued south, arriving a few months later in Duanzhou (in the area of present-day Zhaoqing, Guangdong) and staying at the post where Du Zhenyan, Shen Qi, Yan Chaoyin, Wang Wujing, and others had stayed earlier. Song Zhiqing saw the poems inscribed by the people on the walls of the caravanserai, and with great emotion, he wrote "Zhidu Prefecture Yi see Du Wu Trial Speech Shen Sanqi Period Yan Five Dynasty Hermit King II No Competition Wall Into a Song":

One by one, the north of the country underwent strict reprimands, saying that every time they met in the south and middle schools.

There are many roads in the south, thousands of mountains and thousands of water townships and counties.

The clouds swayed and the rain scattered and flew, and the sea and the sky were long and the news was rare.

Everywhere the mountains and rivers are miasma, self-pity can get a few people to return.

The poets collectively degraded from the north to the southern wilderness, thinking that they could accompany each other and often meet each other, but they did not expect that all parts of the south were thousands of rivers and mountains, and there were many gaps. Du Xianyan exiled FengZhou (in present-day northwestern Hanoi, Vietnam), Yan Dynasty Hidden Cliff Prefecture (around present-day Haikou, Hainan), Shen Yu (沈佺) who moved to Qizhou (in present-day Chongzuo, Guangxi), and Song Zhiwen's demotion was Taki Prefecture (泷州, in present-day Luoding, Guangdong), which was far away and no news was transmitted. The miasma in the south made Song Zhiwen fearful of nine deaths, and gao jian who was demoted to Duanzhou a year earlier fell ill and died.

At this time, Song Zhiqing, who was full of sorrow, would not have expected that just when he was full of sorrow, the Chang'an Chaotang was no longer as undisturbed as the surface of the Zhangjiang River, but an undercurrent. Emperor Zhongzong's attitude toward Zhang Kamzhi and the other five was undergoing meaningful changes. The political fate of the degraded poets will soon take a major turn for the worse.

Poetry is absurd

Emperor Zhongzong, who ascended the throne for the second time, soon found that after sixteen years of governance exploration by his mother Emperor Wu Zetian, the economic basis on which the political, cultural and ceremonial system of the Tang Dynasty relied had undergone major changes, and the readers of ordinary landlord origins had become the main body of the official team. In this situation, "returning to Yongchun" is really impossible. And Zhang Kamzhi and the other five people who controlled the government seemed to be restricting his imperial power, similar to the siege of Gaozong by the nobles of Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang.

Unable to reverse the system back to Emperor Zhongzong of the time of his father Emperor Gaozong, he began to learn from his father in terms of political strategy. Just as his father used his mother Emperor Wu Zetian and promoted and reused the operation methods of Li Yifu, Xu Jingzong and other upstarts, Emperor Zhongzong began to let Empress Wei Shi intervene in the politics of the former dynasty, deliberately re-activating Wu Sansi, introducing foreign forces to oppose the power of zhang Kamzhi and other five people, balancing the five people to shock the lord and high merit, and reviving the imperial power.

However, at that time, Emperor Gaozong was able to absolutely control Wu Zetian and Xu Jingzong, Li Yifu and others, while Empress Wei's ambitions and Wu Sansi's ambitions were unrestricted by Emperor Zhongzong.

Wu Sansi sensed the change in Emperor Zhongzong's political attitude and quickly took action, pulling Emperor Zhongzong to his side through Empress Wei. Emperor Zhongzong "discussed political affairs with Sansi tu, and Zhang Kamzhi and others were subject to twice before they thought twice." Soon, Zhang Kam zhi told the old man to return to his hometown, and the other four were also relegated to the local area.

After deposing the five, Wu Sansi "ordered the hundred officials to restore the government of heaven, those who did not attach to the Wu clan rebuked them, and those who were expelled by the five kings were restored, and the power was returned to the three thoughts." The poets who "scattered the clouds and rains and flew each other" also returned to the Chang'an court from the southern wilderness by chance. When Song Zhi asked the north to return to the Han River, he gladly gave the poem "Crossing the Han River":

Lingwai pronunciation book breaks, through winter and spring.

The nostalgia is more timid, and I dare not ask the people who come.

After a long period of winter and spring, the poet's depression during the period of depreciation was soon released at the court feast of poetry and wine. Emperor Zhongzong "widely placed Zhao Scholars, Shengyin was a minister of lexicography in the dynasty, gave several feasts, and gave poetry to sing and sing", and fixed the situation of the dynasty through Daxingwen. At the feast, although there are poems and masterpieces, they are more of a pleasure.

On December 29 of the second year of Jinglong (708), Emperor Zhongzong set up a banquet palace, and when the wine was hot, he wanted to introduce a good match for Dou Congyi, the imperial master who had died for many years. Dou congligation promised one after another, and the internal attendant drew out a dressed woman from the harem. Emperor Zhongzong asked the woman and Dou Cong to sit side by side, and then ordered Dou Congyi to "recite several poems" from one.

At Tang Dynasty weddings, after the bride removed her makeup and removed the flowers, she had to cover her face with a fan. The groom needs to chant poetry to get the bride to remove the fan, for "but fan" and "but fan poem". Dou chanted from a "but fan poem", and the woman took away the gold wire ball fan and took off the bouquet of flowers. Everyone fixed their eyes on it, and it turned out to be Empress Wei's elderly nursing mother Wang Shi, "laughing with the attendants", and Emperor Zhongzong immediately named the Wang clan "Lady Juguo, married as a cong".

Empress Wei's marriage of her nursing mother to Dou Congyi, although not absurd, was also an important means for her to emulate her mother-in-law Wu Zetian in the politics of the former dynasty. After Emperor Zhongzong ascended the throne for the second time, Empress Wei wanted to emulate her mother-in-law Wu Zetian as empress, and Emperor Zhongzong "gradually feared it". The minister Pei Tan had the name of fear of the inside, and during the inner temple feast, there were people who composed the "Echo Words":

When I return to Pol, it is also good to be afraid of women.

There was only Pei Tan on the outside, and there was no Elder Li on the inside.

The "Echo Words" is a six-word sentence, and the opening sentences are all based on the four words of "back to Pol". In the "Echo Words" composed by Lingren, Empress Zongwei was upside down, and Empress Wei not only did not introspect herself when she heard it, but was "self-satisfied".

It was not only Empress Wei who wanted to be empress, but also Princess Anle, who relied on the support of her father and emperor to interfere in the affairs of the dynasty, and "there were more people below the prime minister." Under the connivance of Emperor Zhongzong, Anle put forward the idea of "asking himself to be the empress's wife", and Emperor Zhongzong "did not obey, nor condemned". In the second year of Jinglong (708), Anle asked that the Kunming Pool be given to her. Emperor Zhongzong disagreed, and Anle forcibly robbed mintian and dug another lake, named it "Dingkun Pond".

After the construction of the Dingkun Pond was completed, An Le invited his father to visit it. On August 21, 709, the third year of Jinglong (709), Emperor Zhongzong took a visit to Dingkunchi with a hundred officials of Wenwu and Wu, "from the officials to pre-feast and give poetry", and patted horses and whiskers. Only the minister Li Rizhi composed the poem "The Admonition of Existence Alone", in which it was written that "those who wish to live temporarily are easy, and do not make the time to call the author Lao", and people of insight praised it one after another. After Emperor Zhongzong's younger brother Li Dan ascended the throne for the second time, he also praised Li Rizhi on this matter, "Even if Xiang Shi is degenerate, he does not dare to advise, not Qing Liangzhi, He Neng'er"!

During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong, although Li Dan was cautious and did not dare to say much, he was the only son outside of Emperor Zhongzong who had the blood of Emperor Gaozong and Tianhou Wu Zetian, which had made Empress Zhongzong quite suspicious. Li Dan and Li Longji and five other sons lived next to Longqingchi, and in April of the fourth year of Jinglong (710), a feng shui master identified Longqingchi as having the qi of the Son of Heaven. On April 14, Emperor Zhongzong personally visited Li Dan's house, rowing a boat on LongqingChi, performing elephant juggling, and trying to suppress Tianzi qi in Longqingchi with the body of Tianzi and the weight of the elephant. At the banquet, Emperor Zhongzong and his courtiers were drunk and asked the scholar to compose the "Echo Words", and the counselor Li Jingbo wrote a poem alone as a proverb:

When he returned to Bol, he was drunk, and wei chen was in the proverb.

The feast has passed through the three lords, and the noise is not a ceremony.

Li Jingbo advised Emperor Zhongzong not to make three rounds of wine, and to pay attention to the identity of the Son of Heaven when seeking pleasure. Emperor Zhongzong was displeased and drove back to the palace, but unexpectedly confronted his wife and daughter in the harem. Empress Wei and Princess Anle, who wanted to be empresses and empresses, believed that as long as Emperor Zhongzong died, they would be able to ascend to the throne smoothly. They added severe poison to the cake, and Zhongzong took a bite and died of poisoning at the beginning of June, at the age of 55.

Initial confusion

After Emperor Zhongzong's death, Empress Wei was in control of everything, and Li Dan was completely excluded from the core of power. The situation was critical, and Li Dan's third son, Li Longji, with the support of his aunt Princess Taiping, launched a coup d'état on June 20 to kill Empress Wei and Princess Anle, in order to support Li Dan's ascension to the throne.

After the Tang Long coup, Li Dan was put on the throne by his son and sister for Emperor Ruizong. On July 27, Emperor Ruizong made Li Longji crown prince, and around this time, he transferred Yao Chong and Song Jing back to the imperial court as prime ministers to systematically rectify the chaotic government. Ruizong's strategy was to conform to the socio-economic development trend since Emperor Gaozong Wu Zetian, especially the rising momentum of the economic power of ordinary landlords, respect the pattern of officials who were born of ordinary landlords who gradually became the main component of the official ranks, comprehensively inherit the results of Gaozong Wu Zetian's exploration of the national political system and governance system, and at the same time adjust the maladministration of the late Wu Zetian and Zhongzong periods, and gradually clarify the direction of the Tang Dynasty.

With the support of Emperor Ruizong, Yao Chong, and Song Jing "entered zhongliang, retreated, rewarded and punished the public, please do not do it, gang ji xiuju", at that time "suddenly thought that there was a revival of the style of zhenguan and eternal emblem". However, soon, Yao Song's efforts to eliminate maladministration were obstructed by Princess Taiping, who "had power over the lord and tended to follow his disciples such as the city", and together with the crown prince Li Longji, he took charge of the imperial government, and Emperor Ruizong had to consult his son and sister in turn to deal with important military affairs. Taiping occupied the beautiful ponds around Chang'an and built private villas. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Han Yu's poem "You Taiping Princess Villa" once showed this:

The princess wanted to occupy the spring that year, so she pressed Tai Xie to the city.

I want to know how much is spent in front of me, until Nanshan does not belong to people.

Taiping actually "wanted to occupy the spring", wanted to occupy the spring alone, and encircled the spring color of Chang'an with a vast private manor, so that its luxurious style overwhelmed the imperial palace. "Alone" and "pressed" will bring the princess's hot hand to the extreme. The poet does not ask about the size of the Princess Villa, but about "how much to spend." All the way to see the flowers and flowers, until the "non-human" place of the Zhongnan Mountain is the border of the mountain villa. On the surface, the poet seems to be exclamation and boasting, but inside he is a deep mockery of the princess's arrogance and greed.

At that time, Taiping was not only extravagant in life, but also difficult to fill in the desire for power. After Taiping discovered that Li Longji was not easy to control, he went so far as to openly convene a meeting of the prime minister's team in the first month of Jing yun's second year (711) and put forward the idea of replacing the crown prince, which was collectively opposed by Yao Chong, Liu Youqiu, Guo Yuanzhen, Zhang Shuo, and other prime ministers. In order to maintain political stability, Yao Chongsong suggested that Emperor Ruizong send Taiping to Luoyang for resettlement. Unexpectedly, the news leaked, and Taiping went to Ruizong's office to cry and make a big fuss. Under the pressure of Taiping, Emperor Ruizong expelled Yao Chongsong Jing from the capital, and the rectification of the government that had just been planned was forced to stop.

Ruizong was sober-minded, intelligent and wise, and after he took the throne, he reused Yao Song and wanted to do something, but in his early years, he first became emperor, then demoted the emperor, then became the king, and ascended the throne for the second time, which cultivated his obscure and indisputable character. Therefore, he deliberately evaded in the face of setbacks, so he ignored Taiping's strong opposition and passed the throne to the crown prince on July 25, 712, the third year of Jingyun(712). On the third day of the first month of August, Li Longji took the throne, which was for Xuanzong and changed the yuan to The First Heaven.

Although Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, the chancellor's team was controlled by Taiping, forming a situation in which five of the seven prime ministers were from the Taiping Gate. The contradictions between the two sides became increasingly fierce, and Taiping planned to launch a coup d'état to get rid of Xuanzong on the fourth day of July in the second year of The First Heaven (713). Emperor Xuanzong, who had learned the news in advance, took the lead in smashing the Taiping Clique on the third night of the first three nights of July. Taiping ran to the Zhongnanshan Monastery, went down the mountain three days later, and gave death to his home. The Taiping family property was copied, "the treasures were accumulated in the mountains, the treasures were stored in the imperial palace, the sheep and horses were herded, and the pastoral interest was collected for several years." The Taiping Zhongnan Manor in Han Yu's poem "You Taiping Princess Villa" was given by Emperor Xuanzong to the four kings of Ning, Shen, Qi, and Xue.

After Emperor Zhongzong's repeated tossing and turning around the chaos of Emperor Ruizong, the big ship of the Tang Dynasty initially clarified the question of which direction to continue to move forward. But the clarity of direction does not mean an immediate solution to the real problem.

From the time of Wu Zetian to the time of Emperor Ruizong, the Tang Dynasty waged an all-out war in almost all directions, the Khitan in the northeast was rising, the Northern Turks began to revive, the power of the Southwest Tubo state was further strengthened, and there were signs of a joint attack on the Tang Dynasty with the Great Eclipse, which was expanding from West Asia to Central Asia. The Tang military system is gradually disintegrating, and it is necessary to reshape the military system to improve combat effectiveness to cope with border troubles; the economic center of gravity is increasingly shifting southward, and it is urgent to reconstruct the water transport system to transfer money and grain from the south to support the national defense of the north.

All this was left only to Wu Zetian's grandson, Emperor Zhongzong's nephew, and Emperor Ruizong's son, Li Longji of Tang Xuanzong.

(The author is a Ph.D. in History, Chinese Min University)

Wu Peng Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily