Li Shimin Tang Taizong (599-649) was an enlightened emperor, one of the few statesmen, military experts, and calligraphers among emperors. Chengji of Longxi (present-day Qin'an, Gansu). The second son of Li Yuan, emperor Gaozu of Tang, reigned from 627 to 649 AD. Before li Shimin was eighteen years old, when he stayed in Taiyuan with his father, he lived in the folk, knew the sufferings of some people, witnessed the wave of peasant uprisings at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the collapse and fall of the Sui Dynasty, and was affected by political ideology to a certain extent. He was a man of wisdom and courage and had great ambitions, so when he was a teenager, he assiduously studied literature and martial arts, knew how to accumulate wealth and raise soldiers, married sages, recruited Haojie, persuaded his father to raise an army, and took Chang'an in the west.
At the age of eighteen, he led an army to defeat Song Jingang, Xue Rendao, Liu Wuzhou, Wang Shichong and other local separatist forces, Dou Jiande, Liu Heikuo and other rebellious peasant armies, and established the famous Tang Dynasty in history within two years. Because Li Shimin made great contributions in the war of unification and nation-building, he was named the King of Qin by his father, and he was entrusted with Shangshu Ling, who intended to "build it on behalf of the people of the world", so the court fell. In the ninth year of WuDe, in order to crush the usurpation premeditation of his brother Li Jiancheng and his brother Li Yuanji, Li Shimin launched the "Xuanwumen Revolution" and was made crown prince, succeeding to the throne and changing his name to "Zhenguan". Li Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor Taishang.
The important contents of the "rule of Zhenguan" are: Adopt a policy of peace and affinity in diplomacy, open up territory, accumulate grain in the fields, strengthen troops and horses, consolidate border defenses, extend the territory to the west, extend the sea in the east, reach Linyi in the south, and reach the desert in the north; strengthen the centralization of power politically, enrich the "three provinces and six ministries" pioneered by the Sui Dynasty, select materials for examination, appoint meritocrats, inspect officials, select honest officials, reform harsh laws, implement measures to accept advice, and make it clear that people must be selfless in their own way. Economically, it adopts the system of equalizing land and renting, rewarding reclamation, building water conservancy, developing agricultural handicrafts, saving luxury and saving money, lightly blessing and thin endowment, severely punishing corrupt officials and corrupt officials, culturally collecting and sorting out the world's map books, setting up history museums, supervising the revision of the history of the Six Dynasties, flourishing culture and education, and so on.
Therefore, although the Zhenguan era was only twenty-three years old, the Wenzhi martial arts had reached an unprecedented grandeur. Li Shimin was very knowledgeable about politics, and once said to his ministers that "if people want to be self-evident, they must be mirrored", so he dared to give direct advice to Wei Wei and praised him, and when Wei Wei died, he wept bitterly, saying: "Using copper as a mirror can be a crown, using ancient times as a mirror can know the rise and fall, and using people as a mirror can see gains and losses", and now I am "a mirror of death". He summed up the five successful experiences and said: First, since the ancient emperors were jealous of people of great talent, but I regarded it as their own talent; second, a person cannot do everything, I use the strengths of people, avoid the shortcomings of people, and third, in the past, people loved the virtuous in their arms, and the disgusting low-ability people were pushed into the ditch, I respected the virtuous, and I could also forgive the untalented.
In the past, the lord of the people often hated people with upright hearts, open killing and assassination throughout the ages, I praised integrity after I took the throne, and never blamed a single person, five, since ancient times, all the Chinese are noble, despicable Yidi, I do not take prejudice, Han people are not Han people are treated equally, so border tribes come to support themselves. Li Shimin particularly observed the lesson that "arrogant sons must be defeated" and ordered his ministers to write thirteen articles of "Di Fan" and teach the princes and kings. He said to the ninth son, Li Zhi (Emperor Gaozong of Tang), "I have done too much in my life, so I can maintain a great cause, and you enjoy my wealth without my merits, and only by studying hard can you get peace, and if you are lazy and luxurious, you can't even save your life." However, in his later years, he rarely listened to different opinions, gradually became luxurious, and violated other countries, especially advocating monasticism and superstitious elixirs, and accidentally died by taking the "Golden Stone Secret Agent".
Li Shimin loved calligraphy as a child, and after taking the throne, he vigorously advocated calligraphy, appointed Yu Shinan and Ouyang Qing as teachers, and held a HongwenGuan to teach calligraphy. Han Mo, who was good at Wang Xizhi, personally wrote the "Biography of Wang Xizhi", saying: "Examine the ancient and modern in detail, study the exquisite and complex, and be perfect, but Wang Yi is rare!" And with heavy money to buy the true deeds of the two kings stored in the world, keen to learn, "look at the whole", and open up the atmosphere of the king in the book world. Legend has it that he once sent Yushi Xiaoyi to the Zhiyong disciples to discern talents, designed and earned the authentic manuscript of the Orchid Pavilion Preface, regarded it as a treasure, and ordered Chu Suiliang, Feng Chengsu and others to copy several paintings, give them to the princes and kings, and bury the true works with Zhaoling. Li Shimin also had a lot of research on calligraphy, and wrote "Pen Technique", "Pen Meaning", "Finger Meaning", "On Books" and so on. Having taken the throne, he purchased the famous book under the guan to fill the imperial palace, and Rui Jing was written. Why did Emperor Taizong of Tang oppose the construction of a palace?
According to historical records, on the one hand, he experienced the chaotic era at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and witnessed the Sui Emperor's great construction of civil engineering, the wanton expropriation, the superposition of taxes, the aggravation of the people's burdens, the voice of complaints, aroused the opposition of the masses of the people, and rose up one after another to resist the court. Deeply feeling that the strength of the masses of the people cannot be underestimated, I have issued the feeling that "water can carry boats, and it can also overturn boats"! Another reason was the advice and restraint of the ministers. After three years of Zhenguan, Li Shimin planned to restore the Sui Palace for ornamentation. He gave up because of Shang Shu Dai's objections; the following year, when he revived the matter, Zhang Xuansu criticized him: At the beginning of His Majesty's first Pingdong Capital, the Guangdian Hall should be demolished by order, and all the people admired it. Is it not evil at first, and then attack its beauty?
Because all the people in the Tang Dynasty learned the lesson of the Sui Dynasty's extravagant and extravagant subjugation of the country, they thought of danger in times of peace and guarded against the slightest obstacle, and made great efforts to govern, and only then did the prosperity of Zhenguan emerge. Reading "Zhenguan Politicians", I was full of appreciation for Li Shimin's opinion of "cutting the stock to bite the abdomen, and the stomach is full and dead"! Li Shimin, who spoke of this more than a thousand years ago, meant to educate his subordinates to think of danger in times of peace, to revere frugality and abstain from luxury, not to delay taste, to play with pleasure, and to harm the people to serve them. Li Shimin was the founding monarch of the Tang Dynasty, he was open-minded and generous, made good use of talents, and was well documented in the annals of history. But his diligent and frugal style of life is little known. According to the precedents of the past, the founding kings spent half their lives on horseback, and after winning the world, they always had to build their own deep palace residences, Yuyu Qionglou, and enjoy glory and wealth, in order to show that they were noble as the son of heaven and rich in style from all over the world.
However, Li Shimin was able to restrain this desire of his own and put the interests of the common people first. In the fourth year of Wude, Li Shimin defeated Wang Shichong at the Battle of Luoyang, and on the day he entered the city, he saw the luxurious and magnificent palace of the Sui Room, and he hated the Sui Emperor for doing his best to get away with his extravagant style. He ordered the palaces to be demolished and the materials to be given to the poor to build houses. After Li Shimin became emperor in Chang'an, he refused to build his own palace on a large scale. In the first year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin originally planned to build a small palace and prepared building materials. But suddenly remembering the lesson of Qin Jian'a Fang, he canceled the idea of building a palace. The summer in Chang'an was relatively hot, the old palace was short and damp, and Li Shimin was sick again. The ministers asked to build a cabinet to live with him, but he never agreed and remained in the old palace.