In ancient times, the inheritance of imperial power was based on the system of primogeniture, and generally speaking, only the eldest son born to the empress could be made a prince, that is, the future successor of the dynasty. But to be a prince is not necessarily to become an emperor, and examples of those who have changed from princes to prisoners in history abound. This is because there is only one throne, but there are many people who want to be emperors, and the brothers of the prince are also eyeing the throne.
In the ancient imperial family, concubines and concubines other than the eldest son wanted to become emperors, and usually there was only one way to take the concubine. The situation of taking the concubine is divided into two kinds, one is that he is good enough to be loved by the old emperor and actively chooses to be the heir of the emperor. The other is to use violent means to force the prince to hand over the position of prince, or to directly force the old emperor to sit on his own.
The most famous controversy in history was the "Xuanwumen Revolution" in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, when Tang Taizong Li Shimin took the throne by violent means.
As we all know, almost all the worlds of the Tang Dynasty were fought by Li Shimin, and he may also be the most outstanding military talent among the ancient emperors. Before launching the "Xuanwumen Rebellion", he had already calculated every step, sent Wei Chigong in advance to put Tang Gaozu Li Yuan under house arrest in the name of protection, and then led his troops to raid Xuanwumen, eliminating the crown prince Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, the prince of Qi, with lightning speed.
At this point, Li Shimin's battle for the concubine was already successful, but he ordered all ten of his nephews to be killed, and in this cruel way, he ended the battle for the concubine. Moreover, after he ascended the throne, he also tried his best to dilute the influence of the crown prince Li Jiancheng, not only making him gradually disappear in the eyes of the world, but even the records of him in the history books are unknown.
Many of the impressions of Li Jiancheng now may come from the Sui and Tang series of novels. Li Jiancheng in these novels is portrayed as a cruel and incompetent person, and his personality is also very despicable and shameless, which is in great contrast with Li Shimin, who is a hero and a man of great affection and righteousness. So, is the historical Li Jiancheng really so unbearable? If he was really so unbearable, why did Li Yuan have to make him crown prince, or even offend Li Shimin? With the discovery of many Historical Materials of the Tang Dynasty, Li Jiancheng's image has also undergone great changes.
According to a series of historical materials found so far, Li Jiancheng is actually not so faint and incompetent, and he can be made crown prince by Li Yuanji, not only because he is the eldest son of concubine, but also because he himself does have outstanding talents.
The fact that Li Jiancheng is inferior to Li Shimin is mainly reflected in the military aspect, but this does not mean that Li Jiancheng is inferior to Li Shimin. After the Jinyang rebellion, Li Jiancheng also made many military achievements, such as leading an army to attack the West River, capturing Huoyi, occupying Tongguan, and conquering Chang'an. Later, after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, he repeatedly defended against Turkic invasions, beheaded Liu Heimin, and pacified the Shandong region. In the military operations of the early Tang Dynasty, Li Jiancheng's performance was still very eye-catching.
However, because Li Jiancheng was the crown prince, he needed to always follow Li Yuan's side and also needed to supervise the country, so that his military achievements lagged far behind Li Shimin. And Li Shimin was able to achieve such military achievements without Li Yuan's support, because Li Yuan gave all the generals who came to the Tang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty, such as Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, and so on. The consequence of this is that the power of the Qin Royal Palace has overshadowed the Prince's Mansion, and as long as there is a slight brain, I am afraid that they will covet the position of the Prince.
Before the "Xuanwumen Revolution", Li Shimin had actually launched a wave of offensives to seize the concubine, but in the end he was given a mud by Li Yuan.
In June of the seventh year of Wu De, the Qin dynasty led by Li Shimin created the Yang Wengan Incident, falsely accusing the crown prince of colluding with the frontier generals to rebel. If this kind of thing were placed in other dynasties, even after Li Shimin himself became emperor, the final outcome would either be that the crown prince was suspected of rebellion and deposed, or that the king of Qin was suspected of false accusations and beheaded. However, Li Yuan took the form of a gentle mud, beating both sides fifty big boards, which invisibly enhanced Li Shimin's ambitions and was very unfavorable to the crown prince Li Jiancheng. If Li Shimin had been severely punished at that time, he would not have dared to launch the Xuanwumen Revolution later.
In history, because there are too many examples of cannibalism between imperial brothers, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng are just one of them, but Li Shimin is really not bad in this matter. Not to mention killing the crown prince Li Jiancheng, he also killed all five sons of the family. After becoming emperor, he also tried to dilute Li Jiancheng, and did not mention the matter of Li Jiancheng, and even Li Jiancheng's epitaph was only fifty-five words. The tomb of Li Jiancheng unearthed in Xi'an, the epitaph inscription in the tomb room is only engraved with 55 characters, only to know that Li Shimin's personality is indeed not bad.
Tomb of the Late Hidden King of the Tang Dynasty Wang Zhencheng Wude 9 june 4Th, Xue Yu JingShi Yue Zhen Guan 2nd year of age Peng Zi Zheng Yue Zi Zheng Yue Yue Zi Zheng Yue Yu Yu Xin You, buried in Gaoyangyuan, Chang'an County, Yongzhou.
This is the epitaph of Li Jiancheng, the first prince of the Tang Dynasty, which is engraved with only a few numbers, explaining the time of Li Jiancheng's death and burial, and not mentioning Li Jiancheng's life deeds. Most ancient epitaphs will record the life of the tomb owner in detail, and Li Jiancheng's epitaph is obviously unreasonable, the only reason is that this epitaph is from Li Shimin's hand, which is his authorized epitaph, the purpose is to dilute the existence of Li Jiancheng.
The famous scholar Zhang Taiyan once said in the "Biography of Prince Yin of Tang": "Emperor Taizong was established, fearing his name after his death, and began to supervise the revision of the history of the country as a prime minister, so the "Records of the Two Dynasties" has no letters.
The reason why Zhang Taiyan said this is because in the records of the old and new Tang Books, Li Yuan's credit for establishing the Tang Dynasty was attributed to Li Shimin, and li Jiancheng's role in it was not mentioned at all, but instead Li Jiancheng's behavior of harming Li Shimin was listed in detail. All this stems from the fact that after Li Shimin became emperor, he ordered people to tamper with the emperor's living notes, leaving behind deleted and altered historical materials for future generations, so this irrational record will appear in the new and old Tang Books. The discovery of Li Jiancheng's epitaph can be said to confirm Li Shimin's personality.