"Reading Delights" Photo Recommendation: Kunming City Flower - Yunnan Camellia
Text/Zhang Yindi
【About the Author】Zhang Yindi is a member of the Yellow River Literature Society and a middle school Chinese teacher. He loves to write and likes to read novels on rainy days. In his spare time, he did not forget to write about his feelings, and published articles in Shaanxi Forestry, Teacher's Daily, Yellow River Literature, Weinan Education, and Oriental Education.
【This article is published with the authorization of the author】
A few days after the holiday, my son came back to talk to me and found that he was quite interested in the affairs of the Tang Dynasty, so he took him to Qiaoling for a walk.
Qiaoling, the first of the Eighteen Tombs in China, is buried by Emperor Li Danyi, the fourth son of Wu Zetian, located in Fengshan, 15 kilometers west of Pucheng County, and has the saying "Qiaoling Stone Carved Jia Tianxia".
The pillar at the front of the cemetery is the Huabiao. After reading the stone carvings, while admiring the magnificence and realism of the stone carvings, I remembered the tomb owner, Tang Ruizong, and my young and vigorous son said: "Li Dan is a coward." I smiled indifferently after listening to it, how could he understand that Li Dan's abandonment was preservation, and that the thick retreat was exactly where Li Dan was superior to his brother.
In fact, in the long river of killing for rights, Li Dan's inaction kept his children away from the scourge of killing, and also achieved the grand event of the third son, Li Longji.
So, what is going on with Li Dan's three concessions to the world?
Before the death of Wu Zetian's husband Gaozong, Wu Zetian had been in charge of political affairs for many years. After Emperor Gaozong's death, Wu Zetian was under pressure and did not claim the title of emperor himself, and made his youngest son emperor.
Li Dan was nominally the emperor, but the power was still in wu Zetian's hands, Li Dan was just a decoration, the clever son knew what his mother wanted, and then there was the emperor in name, or let him feel that the fate of his brothers was so close to him. He echoed some of the ministers who supported Wu Zetian and ceded the throne to his mother on the grounds of his inability to govern the world.
This time the concession situation is forced, and it does not matter whether it is right or wrong.
After Wu Zetian ascended the throne, he made Li Dan the heir of the emperor, an embarrassing title, neither the crown prince, the successor of the emperor, nor the prince who had no connection with the emperor. Just an unknown imperial heir.
Don't think that giving up the throne to his mother will be safe, Li Dan asked his mother to give him the surname of Wu. As a prince, it is a humiliating reality that Li Dan can only accept and cannot escape.
Before Wu Zetian left the throne, he had been troubled by a problem, he changed the world to the Zhou Dynasty, the throne was already a martial family, if the throne was passed to his son, his vigorous change of dynasty seemed to have no meaning. Therefore, she had the intention to pass it on to her nephew Wu Chengsi.
But the descendants of the martial family were once exiled to Lingnan, in the past they were all characters who could not be mixed, until their aunt called the empress dowager, one by one, they were crowned kings, their images were dirty, they had not been influenced by the etiquette of the imperial family, in the current words: there was neither image, nor temperament, nor knowledge, at most they were uncultured upstarts. Upstarts generally have a fanatical yearning for power, so Wu Chengsi tried every means to frame Li Dan and used Wu Zetian's hand to kill two of Li Dan's virtuous princesses, of which Dou Defei was Li Longji's biological mother.
It was the second day of the Chinese New Year of the year, and the two daughters-in-law went to pay homage to their mother-in-law Wu Zetian, and after coming out of Wu Zetian's palace, there was no more news, and there was no one alive, no corpse alive. In fact, the two concubines had already felt that their birthdays were not much a few days before they saw Wu Zetian, and they had already made a life and death farewell instruction with their own children.
How deep the bitterness in Li Dan's heart is, we can imagine. They lost two virtuous concubines at the same time, the children lost their mothers, and some children were just over a year old and could no longer see their mothers. But what can be done? As an imperial heir, as a prince, he could not protect his family.
When Wu Zetian saw Li Dan the next day, Li Dan, as usual, neither asked his mother for his concubine nor did he have any questions, but told his mother some ways to maintain health and his own research experience in calligraphy and writing. Wu Zetian felt that his son was unfathomable. She was a little afraid of this royal heir.
Wu Chengsi's persecution of Li Dan, Wu Zetian was aware, she was already a little hesitant. The key to Wu Zetian's failure to make Wu a prince was Di Renjie. Once, while chatting with Wu Zetian, Di Renjie seemed to have inadvertently explored Wu Zetian.
"After thousands of generations of Your Majesty, who can you consider passing the throne to?"
Wu Zetian in turn pushed the arrow to Di Renjie: "Looking at Aiqing, who is more suitable?" ”
"A nephew can only be a son in the end, and there is no nephew who puts his aunt's spiritual seat on the temple after he becomes emperor."
Di Renjie's meaning was very clear, although the imperial industry was laid down by your Emperor Wu, he did not even have the right to enjoy the sacrifice after death.
Wu Zetian, a strong woman, although she is not willing to still be located with Li Tang, but the sadness of women in the patriarchal society makes her think deeply and begin to look at her children, Li Dan, the king of Xiang, is persecuted by the martial family, and the martial family is inseparable, after Li Dan succeeds to the throne, the mother's family may have no foothold. The balance in his heart finally tilted towards Li Xian, who was exiled to Luzhou, Li Dan's brother.
So Li Xian succeeded to the throne. Li Xian, feeling that he had robbed his brother of the throne and wanted to make Li Dan the "Imperial Brother", was obstructed by Li Xian's Empress Wei in every way, and Li Dan was afraid of being killed again and resolutely resigned.
This is the second concession.
Li Dan's brother Zhongzong was cowardly and incompetent, and extremely faint. Only care about their own enjoyment and beauty, chaos in the middle of the country. Empress Wei and her daughter Princess Anle co-opted the courtiers and made them nepotistic. Wanting to replace Emperor Zhongzong and follow in the footsteps of his mother-in-law Wu Zetian, he and Anle poisoned Emperor Zhongzong to death. Li Dan's third son, Li Longji, revolted and killed Wei Hou and An Le. The fate of the Tang Dynasty returned to the Li family again, once again pushing Li Dan to the throne, Li Dan did not push this time, he also wanted the country to be stable and clear after several years of chaos.
What the kind Li Dan did not expect was that his sister Princess Taiping used her status as a princess to replace her brother, and the meaning of replacement was not only to replace, but the person who was replaced meant that the right to live of the whole family was replaced at the same time, what a cruel reality. Li Dan's third son was definitely not a mediocre person, and sent his aunt to the Western Heaven the day before Princess Taiping's action.
Li Dan saw that his only sister had been destroyed by his son, and the terror struck again, and he gave way to his son Li Longji.
This is the third concession.
Li Dan was not willing, he was still young, still had the ability and energy to deal with the country's dynastic affairs, and he still had some nostalgia for the throne. But he did not want to see bloodshed on his own body and between his sons for the sake of power again.
He put up with it again.
In the fifth year of his son's succession, Li Dan died at the age of 55.
Li Dan's life has been ups and downs several times, several lives and deaths, seemingly weak, he also has the ability and courage to govern the country, but sadly he has a mother who is an emperor. The mother is strong, and under her aura, the son has difficulty shining. Even when eating with his mother, he only dared to eat the food that his mother had eaten, lest he be poisoned by his mother.
But it was Li Dan's caution and forbearance that saved several of his children in the dispute over power.
Concessions are not just cowardice, sometimes a tactic.
In the various factional struggles, he chose to retreat. Living on his own, he was proficient in music, calligraphy, writing, etc., and could be called an expert in all respects. At the same time, teach your children to know how to read more books, improve themselves more, and know how to be kind and kind when their feathers are not yet abundant.
In the struggle for the throne in successive dynasties, it is not uncommon for fathers and sons, brothers and sisters to tear each other apart, only between Li Dan's several princes, there is a deep feeling, and there is no killing poke. This is rare in history.
We left the bridge, and the car advanced like an arrow, and everything on both sides was like a cloud of smoke. The son asked, "Is Li Dan smart or timid?" I smiled and seemed to understand More deeply Li Dan's inaction, retreating, life is like a gap, we should not be entangled in too much, love, money, career, family affection, friendship... Keeping the original intention and not violating the original intention is probably the biggest gain of the trip to Qiaoling.
(Overlooking the Bridge Mausoleum)
"Write Hu" WeChat: hongyupt
Submission Email: [email protected]
"Writers Club" WeChat stzx123456789
Submission Email: [email protected]
Consultants: Zhu Ying, Zou Kaiqi
Editor-in-chief: Hong You, Yao Xiaohong
Editors: Zou Zhou, Yu Wei