Sasha today in its history.
Author: Sasha
This article is Sasha's original and will not be reprinted by any media
Was Li Zhi a cowardly monarch manipulated by Wu Zetian? July 15, 649: Emperor Gaozong of Tang ascended the throne as emperor.
Many people believe that Emperor Gaozong of Tang was mentally handicapped and completely relied on Wu Zetian to support the glory of the Tang Dynasty.
The real history is not like this, it is all a fabrication of the TV series.
Li Zhi was a very accomplished emperor, and he was also quite prominent among the emperors of successive dynasties.
Although Li Zhi was not a super emperor of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, he was also the top emperor among the 5,000 emperors.
As the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Zhi also faced many difficult problems, but he performed well.
In terms of internal affairs, during the period of His father Emperor Taizong, he still inherited some cruel policies of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which were very harmful to the people.
During the Li Shimin period, due to the decline of the state, the imperial court needed wealth and unpaid labor, and these policies were not abolished, and the people were quite dissatisfied.
Not long after Li Zhi ascended the throne, in the fourth year of Yonghui (653), a peasant uprising led by Chen Shuozhen broke out in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Li Zhi believes that Datang's national strength has developed greatly, and it is necessary to minimize the dissatisfaction of the people.
Therefore, Li Zhi carried out drastic reforms, completely abolished the people's hard labor and labor, and returned the land forcibly expropriated by the state to the peasants.
This move has greatly stabilized the situation in the country. Throughout the period of Li Zhi's reign, there was no obvious civil strife within the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, Li Zhi believes that the stability of the country requires a strict legal system to ensure that the people do things within the framework of the system.
As soon as he ascended to the throne, he compiled the "Tang Laws Neglect Discussion". The Tang Laws and Regulations are the most complete and oldest surviving typical feudal codes in China. Successive dynasties have spoken highly of Li Zhi's "Tang Law Neglect". The Tang Laws not only influenced the dynasties of China after that, but also had a great influence on neighboring countries.
Through the Tang Laws And Regulations, Datang established a nationwide legal order. After the people became aware of the law, they began to consciously abide by the law, resulting in a sharp drop in the crime rate. Shi Zai, once, Tang Lin, the secretary of the Dali Temple, reported to Li Zhi that there were only more than fifty prisoners in prison, and only two of them needed to be sentenced to death.
If the internal affairs are so clever, what about the outside world?
Li Zhi is also very powerful.
Beginning in the Sui Dynasty, China fought a long and bloody war with the goguryeo kingdom in northeast China.
During the Sui Dynasty, the tang dynasty, the tang dynasty, and the tang taizong era, China paid a huge price and did not completely crush Goguryeo.
In the Lizhi era, the Tang Dynasty cleverly used goguryeo's infighting to completely eliminate it.
You know, Goguryeo is different from the traditional enemy. This is an agrarian civilization country, not far from China, and once developed, it is easy to form a powerful enemy.
Therefore, the destruction of Goguryeo has great significance.
While destroying Goguryeo, Datang also conveniently eliminated Baekje and annihilated the powerful Japanese fleet that aided Baekje.
As a result, Datang became the hegemon of east Asian farming civilization without any objection.
Here, the Tang Dynasty completely destroyed the powerful enemy Western Turks, and the power directly entered the western region.
The territory of the Tang Dynasty, with The reign of Emperor Gaozong and Li as the largest, stretched for thirty-two years from the Korean Peninsula in the east, the Aral Sea in the west, Lake Baikal in the north, and Hengshan in Vietnam in the south.
The emperor does not need to have superb military ability, or internal affairs ability, but he must be able to employ people.
Li Zhi was particularly outstanding in this regard, promoting many famous ministers, such as: Xin Maojiang, Lu Chengqing, Xu Yuanshi, Du Zhenglun, Xue Yuanchao, Wei Siqian, Dai Zhide, Zhang Wenwan, Wei Yuanzhong and others.
He was a diligent emperor who changed the three days of Li Shimin's period to one day. The emperor's ascension to the throne is not an easy task, and many major government affairs need to be handled, and the slightest mistake will have disastrous consequences. Li Zhi is busy with the government all day long, which may be the reason why he is only 33 years old and his vertigo is getting worse and worse.
It can be said that Li Zhi laid a very good foundation for Wu Zetian and even Li Longji.
As the emperor of the succession, Li Zhi did a good job.
Many people believe that Li Zhi is incompetent, resulting in being manipulated by Wu Zetian.
The reason why Li Zhi gave up some of his power to Wu Zetian was mainly because his condition was really serious, and his eyes often couldn't see things, and he couldn't see the folds at all.
During the reign of Wu Zetian, Li Zhi always maintained the final decision-making power.
It was only when Li's illness deteriorated to the point of almost blindness that he was forced to hand over to Wu Zetian to take full control. Even so, Li Zhi was by no means a puppet monarch of the late Tang Dynasty.
In the last year of his reign, Li Zhi was still able to appoint and dismiss the chancellor, and he could also intervene to suppress Empress Wu's cronies, Li Yifu, Xu Jingzong, and others.
It is written in the data: In the second year of the first century, Tang Gaozong's illness worsened, and he hoped to temporarily retreat behind the scenes and let Wu Zetian take charge of state affairs. Hao Chujun objected: "The Tang Dynasty was handed down from Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Taizong, so how can Your Majesty completely hand over to Wu Hou to manage it?" In this regard, Li Yiyan, a squire of Zhongshu, also agreed. Seeing the situation, Tang Gaozong no longer insisted. After that, Hao and Li became prime ministers.
During Li Yiyan's tenure as chancellor, Li Zhi scolded him and forced him to retire.
You know, at that time, it was only a few months before Li Was cured of his illness.
Before Li Zhi died, he was very dissatisfied with his cowardly and mediocre son Li Xian, and even wanted to pass the throne to his grandson. At a time when officials said there was no precedent, Mr. Li remained steadfast in his opinion, and officials could only agree.
In the end, Li Zhi's physical condition took a sharp turn for the worse, and he was unable to carry out the political layout, so he gave up hastily.
During the Reign of Li, although Wu Zetian's maternal family had higher official positions, there was not much real power.
After Li Zhi's death, Wu Zetian, who held great power, deliberately supported the Wu family to ascend to the throne, which led to the situation that the Wu family only covered the sky with one hand.
The reason why Li Zhi finally gradually handed over power to Wu Zetian was really forced.
The son Li Xian is incompetent, and the grandson is young, which is incomparable with his old wife Wu Zetian.
Datang is relatively stable, and internal and external enemies still exist. In the later period of Li Xian's reign, there was an economic crisis in the Tang Dynasty, and the imperial court spent a lot of energy to get through the dangers. Although the external enemy was beaten to pieces, the strong enemy Tubo and so on were rising rapidly, the enemies in the western region were strong, and the Hu people in the desert could not be completely destroyed.
In this case, the hasty handing over of the throne to Li Xian, who has low military and political ability, is a disaster for the country. Obviously, it was necessary for Wu Zetian to come to oversee the country.
From Li Zhi's point of view, Wu Zetian was Li Xian's mother, and it had not been heard since ancient times that his mother would usurp her son's throne.
Even if Wu Zetian can tilt his power for a while, he will eventually return the power to his son.
However, Li Zhixiao looked at his wife and never dreamed that Wu Zetian would call himself emperor.
It is actually more difficult to understand one's pillow than to understand the whole country.
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