Let's start with two questions: 1, how much do you think Tang Taizong can rank among China's more than 500 emperors?
Is it the top three? Top five? Or the top ten?
2, How many places do you think Li Chen can rank among the more than 500 emperors in China?
What, Li Chen who does not know? Then you may wish to read this article and answer again.
The history of the Tang Dynasty is bounded by the Anshi Rebellion, which can be roughly divided into two stages, the early Tang Dynasty had Tang Taizong, Wu Zetian, Tang Xuanzong laid the foundation, the national strength was strong, the ten thousand states came to the dynasty, the later period was more lackluster than the previous period, much fainter, it seems that even a few decent emperors can not be found.
But even so, there is still an emperor, he reigned for thirteen years, the country is generally relatively peaceful, known as the "rule of the great middle", the reputation of later generations is also quite good, known as "Little Taizong", which is the sixteenth emperor of the Tang Dynasty - Tang Xuanzong Li Chen.
Tang Xuanzong Li Chen' name of "Little Taizong" was aimed at Li Shimin, the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
How strong is Li Shimin? At the age of eighteen, he raised an army against the Sui to attack Chang'an, and then commanded his troops to eliminate Xue Renguo, Liu Wuzhou, Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, and Liu Heimin, and entered the position of general of Tiance, laying a foundation for half of the Tang Dynasty. After the change of Xuanwumen, he ascended the throne as emperor, destroyed the Turks, Tuguhun and Xue Yantuo, took over the four towns of Anxi, severely damaged Goguryeo, and pro-Tubo, Siyi Binfu, known as the "Heavenly Khan", recuperated internally, from the flow of advice, attached importance to talents, created the "rule of Zhenguan", laid the foundation for the Tang Dynasty for nearly three hundred years, and was rated as "a thousand years can be called, only one person", which is really an emperor for thousands of years!
If you rank more than five hundred emperors in Chinese history, I personally think that Li Shimin is at least one of the top five.
Whether Li Chen's claim to be "Little Taizong" is not worthy of the name or is it worthy of the name, what ability does he have, and is he worthy of this title?
Speaking of which, Li Shimin and Li Chen originally had nothing to do with the throne, Li Shimin was the second son of Gaozu Li Yuan, and the crown prince's throne was originally built by the eldest brother Li Jiancheng, who launched the Xuanwumen Rebellion to seize the throne.
Li Chen's last emperor was Li Yan of Tang Wuzong, a very accomplished emperor, but unfortunately he died after only 6 years on the throne.
Li Chen was the younger brother of Li Yan's biological father, Tang Muzong, that is, Li Yan's uncle, and originally had no connection with the throne.
Li Yansheng had five sons, namely Li Jun the Prince of Qi, Li Da the Prince of Yi, Li Qi the Prince of Yan, Li Yi the Prince of De, and Li Feng the Prince of Chang, and under normal circumstances, the throne should be inherited by one of the five.
But Li Chen became emperor. There were two main reasons, one was the eunuch's intervention, and the other was Li Chen's foolishness.
Tang Dynasty eunuchs changed emperors is not a new thing, Muzong, Wenzong, Wuzong, Xuanzong, Yizong, Emperor Xianzong, Zhaozong, the seven emperors before and after were all eunuchs, Xuanzong is only one of them, Li Chen's foolishness also made the eunuchs think that it was easy to control, so he supported Li Chen as emperor.
When Li Chen succeeded to the throne in 846, the Tang Dynasty had been established for 228 years, and 91 years had passed since the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, although there was no longer the atmosphere of restoring the Zhenguan Kaiyuan, but after Emperor Wuzong and Li Deyu rectified it, the 100,000-strong army of the Khan of Wuswujie was destroyed, the threat of nomadic people in the north was lifted, the town of Zhaoyi was restored to the prestige of the imperial court, and the huichang abolition of the Buddha was promoted to increase the revenue of the national treasury, and the redundant officials were abolished to improve administrative efficiency.
However, feudal towns, eunuchs, and party strife were not eradicated.
Li Chen reigned for thirteen years and mainly did four major things.
First, put an end to the cattle-lee party struggle
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, there were three problems, namely feudal towns, eunuchs, and party disputes. The reason why the Tang Dynasty has not been able to restore the glory of the tang dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion is because these three major problems have not been solved, some feudal towns have challenged the central government and threatened the rule of the Tang dynasty, and eunuchs have threatened the imperial power and the government, and the most important thing is that there are contradictions among the officials, the party is fighting with each other, and the most prominent event is the "Niu Li Party Dispute" that has lasted for more than forty years.
The Li Party headed by Li Deyu and the Niu Party, headed by cattle monks and children, have wantonly squeezed out the turmoil in the court and aggravated social contradictions around such issues as personal grievances, feudal towns, and administrative affairs, thus aggravating social contradictions.
The first thing Li Chen did when he succeeded to the throne was to depose Li Deyu, the head of the Li Party, purge the Li Party's forces, and promote Bai Minzhong of the Niu Dang as prime minister. Doing so seems to promote the Niu Party to suppress the Li Party, which will lead to the Niu Party sitting on the throne, but it did not take long for Li Deyu and the Niu monks and children to die one after another, and the power of the two parties gradually declined, and Li Chen appointed Wei Mo and others who did not belong to the two parties as balanced forces, and finally ended the Niu and Li Party disputes.
Second, recover the land of Hexi and consolidate the frontier
Zhang Yichao regained the land of Hexi and was given the title of Envoy to the Rebel Army
The land of Hexi was of great significance to the Tang Dynasty, the Area around Hexi was the western gate of the Tang Dynasty, and it was connected to the passage of the Silk Road, the Tang Dynasty set up Longyou and Hexi Jiedu to make heavy troops guard, the Border Troops of the Anshi Rebellion were transferred to quell the chaos, tubo took advantage of the void to occupy the Hexi region, seriously threatening the security of the Tang Dynasty capital, and the imperial court had to gather hundreds of thousands of Autumn Defense Troops every year to defend Chang'an.
The recovery of Hexi, just like the Northern Song Dynasty's recovery of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, was the heart of every generation of Tang emperors.
In 848, Zhang Yichao, a native of Shazhou, took advantage of the Tubo decline and rebellion to recover part of the land of Hexi that originally belonged to the Tang Dynasty, and in 849 he presented the Three Prefectures and Seven Guans, after which Zhang Yichao successively recovered the eleven prefectures of Liang, Gua, Yi, Xi, Gan, Su, Lan, Yan, He, Min, and Kuo to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty restored the lost land in Hexi and expanded the land for 4,000 miles, alleviating the military pressure on the western border, and the sound was greatly shaken.
In addition, in the north, in 847, the Lulong Festival caused Zhang Zhongwu to break through the mountains in the north and open up thousands of miles, and the large-scale military threat of the northern nomads ceased to exist and returned to stability; in the west, in 851, Li Fu was sent as the envoy of the Xia Sui Festival to appease the party, and the west was restored to stability; in the south, in 858, Wang Shi was sent to protect the de'an people of Annam, so that the land of Lingnan was stabilized.
During Li Chen's reign, there was no large-scale external invasion of the Tang Dynasty.
Third, suppress the power of eunuchs
The scourge of eunuchs in the Tang Dynasty was the worst in all dynasties
The eunuch problem was also one of the three major problems in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and even Li Chen himself was a eunuch.
However, Li Chen still knew that taking history as a lesson, Li Fuguo and Yu Chao'en were chaotic government, and in the "Change of Ganlu", the eunuchs wantonly killed hundreds of officials, and even Tang Wenzong himself was unable to protect himself, only in the past ten years, moreover, his father Tang Xianzong was killed by eunuchs, so li Chen did not have a good feeling for eunuchs, and he always suppressed eunuchs, and in the end Li Chen did not have eunuchs with heavy powers, nor did he have the disaster of eunuchs.
Fourth, there is no war on the inside, and the hukou has grown
During Li Chen's reign of thirteen years, there was no large-scale war externally, and there was no large-scale war carried out internally by emperors such as Tang Dezong, Xianzong, Wenzong, and Wuzong, so the people were able to recuperate and their hukou grew.
The growth of the hukou directly provides the state with fiscal revenue and military resources, which is very important.
When the Tang Dynasty had the most household registrations (effectively controlled by the government), it was 9.6 million households in the fourteenth year of Tianbao, about 50 million people, and the population dropped sharply after the Anshi Rebellion, and at the lowest time, tang Suzong Qianyuan had only 1.93 million households and about 10 million people in the third year (760), while during the great and middle years of Li Chen's reign, the hukou was at least not less than 5 million households in the Huichang period, about 25 million people, which belonged to the population peak after the Anshi Rebellion.
The Zizhi Tongjian commented on Li Chen as "therefore the government of the Great Middle School, the death of the Tang Dynasty, the people thinking of Yongzhi, called the Little Taizong." ”
Good things are said, now bad words are said.
Although Li Chen is located in the last days, but the overall environment is quite good, there was a favorable situation brought about by the "Huichang Zhongxing", there was no invasion outside, no turmoil inside, such a situation, as long as the emperor does not toss and turn, not too arrogant and extravagant, enough to support a generally stable situation.
The first was that Li Chen vigorously opposed many of Tang Wuzong's good governments. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, there were many monks and nuns, not only occupied a large area of land, a few people only supported a monk, which was very unfavorable to the state finances, Wuzong huichang abolished Buddhism, distributed tens of millions of acres of land to peasants, liberated more than 500,000 people, both released labor force and increased state taxes, which can be regarded as a great good governance, Li Chen directly stopped taking the throne, and also rebuilt temples on a large scale, laboring and hurting the people.
Emperor Wuzong abolished redundant officials to improve administrative efficiency, and Li Chen took the throne, directly adding 383 more people.
Leap March, edict: "The temple that should be abolished in the fifth year of Huichang, there are monks who can camp, listen to themselves, and there is no prohibition of the division." "It is the government of the emperor and the minister who opposes Huichang, so the evils of monks and nuns are restored to their old ways."
The number of officials in the four years of Huichang was reduced by 383 to 383. —— "Zizhi Tongjian"
Li Deyu, a minister of meritorious service, appointed most of the prime ministers as mediocre people, such as Bai Minzhong, such as Ling Hulin, and Ling Huxian as prime minister for ten years, summed up that "although I have held political authority for ten years, every time I play correctly, even if it is a severe winter and a moon, I still sweat", why? Because Li Chen did not like others to have opinions, he refused to delegate power.
At that time, Zhou Qi was promoted to the position of prime minister and asked Wei Ao about the way to be an official, and Wei Ao only said, "May the public have no power is enough", the prime minister has no power, and can only be a mediocre person, and it is impossible to make great achievements in the government of the dynasty.
The recovery of the land of Hexi was only the decline of Tubo, and Zhang Yichao's initiative to return to the country was not caused by Li Chen's operation, and it was a leak.
He also repeated the old problem of the Li family - bumping medicine, and died at the age of 36 before he was 50 years old, which was considered to be his own death.
In addition, when Li Chen died, the eunuch forces immediately rebounded and replaced Li Yi, who was easy to control, as the prince, and the eunuch forces began to grow again, which he never expected.
Finally, in the last year of Li Chen's reign, the corruption and exploitation of the official field intensified, the peasant revolt and the turmoil in the town of Fanzhen continued, there was already a faint sign of great chaos, in 859 of the year of Li Chen's death, the peasant Qiu Fu revolted in eastern Zhejiang, which opened the prelude to the peasant revolt at the end of the Tang Dynasty, 16 years later, the Wang Xianzhi Uprising, and the Huangchao Uprising broke out 3 years later, completely pushing the Tang Dynasty into the abyss of destruction, 48 years after Li Chen's death, the Tang Dynasty officially perished.
Regarding Li Chen's appraisal, the old and new Tang Books have mixed praises and criticisms, and the Old Book of Tang holds that "at that time, there was a style of chastity in the government of the Great Middle School" and "When the Great Middle School was in the middle, the four seas were at peace, the hundreds of jobs were repaired, there was no government at home and abroad, there were surpluses in the government treasury, the valley of the year was repeatedly ascended, and there was no disturbance in the territory of the territory", and the evaluation could be described as very high.
The New Book of Tang commented that "Emperor Xuanzong was good at hearing and judging, and took observation as his wisdom, and had no intention of restoring benevolence." Whoops, since then, Tang wanyi! ", the evaluation can be described as very low.
Do you think Tang Xuanzong Li Chen's "Little Taizong" is worthy of the name or not?
Second question, how much do you think Li Chen can rank among the more than 500 emperors?