【Chairman Mao's Comments on Zhao Guangyi of The Emperors of Past Dynasties】
In Chinese history, emperors generally passed the throne to the prince, not too many to their brothers, the most famous of which is the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin passed the throne to his brother, that is, Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi.
Zhao Guangyi, who was actually called Zhao Kuangyi, changed his name to Zhao Guangyi in order to avoid Zhao Kuangyin, and ascended the throne at the age of 37 and reigned for 21 years.
In many canonical histories, the evaluation of Zhao Guangyi is still good, for example, he completed the national unification that Zhao Kuangyin has not yet completed, attaches importance to agricultural development, attaches importance to the examination of the imperial examination, attaches importance to the reading of literati, and so on, but this person's shortcomings are also very obvious, and his ability and quality are much worse than that of his brother Zhao Kuangyin.
Chairman Mao was familiar with the "Twenty-Four Histories" and had a very classic evaluation of many emperors, so how did he evaluate Zhao Guangyi?
In the "Song Shi Taizong Benji", there are many praises for Zhao Guangyi of Song Taizong, which reads: "The merit of the emperor, Bing Huan Shi Mu, is known as the Sage." If the collapse of The Ancestor of the Husband does not exceed the year and changes the Yuan, the Duke of Fuling County is degraded, the King of Wugong commits suicide, and the Song Dynasty is not lost, then the future generations cannot be without discussion. ”
The meaning of this sentence is that Zhao Guangyi was a virtuous emperor, but during his reign, some things were not done satisfactorily, so it caused some negative comments from later generations.
After seeing this passage, Chairman Mao drew two lines heavily underneath and annotated eight words on it: "Unscrupulous means, anxious to take the stage." ”
Judging from the historical record, a big stain on Zhao Guangyi is his eagerness to become an emperor, which is the famous "candle shadow axe sound".
In the history of the wild, it is said that Zhao Guangyi killed his brother Zhao Kuangyin in order to seize the throne. In the "Xiangshan Wild Record", it is written that it is looming, neither acknowledging nor denying, while books such as "Popular Interpretation of Song History" and "Eighteen Dynasties of Song Palace" depict the plot of Zhao Guangyi's brother in great detail.
Of course, there are also strong advocates that Zhao Guangyi did not kill his brother, for example, in the "Continued Zizhi Tongjian", he used a lot of ink to prove that Zhao Guangyi did not kill his brother.
Of course, the "History of Song" records a "golden alliance", which means that before her mother Empress Du died, she asked Zhao Kuangyin, how do you get the world? Zhao Kuangyin said that he was grateful for the empress dowager's kindness. The empress dowager said that you were wrong, the world was stable, and that you must be cautious in passing on the throne, and confessed: "If it were not for The young son of Zhou Shizong who passed on the throne and made the Lord less suspicious, how could you gain the world?" You should learn the lesson that he will first pass on the light and righteousness to the throne, and then the light and righteousness will pass on the light and beauty, and the light and beauty will be transmitted to Dezhao, so that the state will have a long monarch, which is the blessing of the society. ”
After Chairman Mao read this passage, he questioned it and said to the staff: "The history of the Song Dynasty looks quite interesting, but some of the contents in it are not objective. In this, it is estimated that there must be elements of Zhao Guangyi beautifying himself and writing his ascension to the throne a little more noblely, but history still has to be written in a realistic way. ”
It can be seen that in Chairman Mao's view, these historical records are still somewhat inconsistent, and there is also some contempt for Zhao Guangyi's ascension to the throne.
Later, Zhao Guangyi's series of practices really met Chairman Mao's evaluation, because he was afraid that others would say that he had usurped the throne and ascended the throne, and he was also afraid that in the future, someone would jump out and support a new emperor, so he began to attack. First of all, the two sons of his brother Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Defang, one committed suicide, one died mysteriously, and his younger brother Zhao Tingmei also degraded again and again, and finally died of depression at the age of 38.
One by one, these people died unexpectedly, paving the way for Zhao Guangyi to pass the throne to his son in the future.
Even if it was his own son, Zhao Guangyi was worried that his son would threaten his position, for example, in the "Song Chronicle at the End of the Chronicle", there is a story: after Emperor Taizong of Song established the crown prince, on the way back to the palace, he saw that the people on the road were cheering and shouting "Young Heavenly Son". Emperor Taizong of Song was very unhappy to hear this, and said to the chancellor Kou Zhun, "The people's hearts belong to the prince, where do they want to put me?" ”
However, Kou Zhun enlightened him and said, "This society is blessed with blessings." Song Taizong turned his anger into joy.
What does this story mean? That is to say, Zhao Guangyi's heart and eyes are too small, and his psychology is too sensitive, and after he was appointed as the prince, he heard the people cheering, and even thought that the prince's prestige had surpassed his own, which was very unfavorable to himself.
Thanks to Kou Zhun's understanding, saying that the prince was so virtuous was a blessing for the country, which made Song Taizong discouraged.
When Chairman Mao read this story, he also looked down on Song Taizong and commented on the side: "Zhao Kuangyi's words of a villain. ”
The negative evaluation of Song Taizong in history, in addition to his fascination with the throne, has another aspect, that is, the military, which basically did not win any victories.
Zhao Guangyi, as the second emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, definitely wanted to complete the great cause of reunification, and to put it nicely, it was to complete Zhao Kuangyin's unsatisfactory cause, in fact, the main thing was to recover Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures.
Zhao Guangyi once led his troops to a decisive battle with the Liao state twice, once at the Battle of Gaoliang River and once at the Yongxi Northern Expedition, but unfortunately, both decisive battles ended in Zhao Guangyi's fiasco, and the Great Song dynasty also changed from attack to defense, and began a history of humiliation under the control of the Liao state.
Judging from the analysis of historical records, there were many reasons for these two major defeats, both strategic and tactical, as well as reasons such as poor grain and grass, lack of qualified personnel, and so on.
When Chairman Mao read the description of the Battle of Gaoliang River in the "Song Shi Taizong Benji", he commented next to it: "This man does not know the soldiers, and is not a Khitan enemy. ”
This means that Song Taizong did not know anything about marching and fighting, and before the bloody battle of the Gaoliang River, the officers and men had been fighting for several months and recovering the Northern Han Dynasty, at this time the whole army was highly tired, and there were problems in supply, and there was an urgent need to rest, but Zhao Guangyi had a hot head, and had to hit the iron while it was hot, which led to a fiasco.
Chairman Mao read that "the armies of the Emperor and the Khitan fought a great battle at the Gaoliang River and lost. When the sentence "Jia Wu, Ban Shi" was also commented: "After repeated defeats, the Khitan all used the method of luring the enemy to go deeper and gather and annihilate them, and the Song people finally lost their consciousness." ”
The meaning here is also very clear, that is to say, Zhao Guangyi, in addition to not using troops, is not good at summarizing, does not know how to summarize the tactical characteristics of the Liao soldiers, does not know how to master the routine of the Liao soldiers to fight, and repeatedly makes the same mistakes, and as a result, he is "lured by the Khitans to go deep and gather and annihilate them."
In the later Yongxi Northern Expedition, Zhao Guangyi did not learn the lesson of the defeat at the Battle of Gaoliang River, and the result was another major defeat. When Chairman Mao read the record of the Yongxi Northern Expedition in the "History of Song", he once again commented: "The Khitan made good use of luring the enemy into deep battle, allowing the enemy to occupy more places, and then waiting for the opportunity to destroy the enemy." ”
Chairman Mao really deserved to be a great military expert, and accurately saw why the Khitan was able to defeat the Great Song Dynasty, that is, to lure the enemy to go deep, wait for the opportunity to destroy the enemy, and gather and annihilate him. These tactical ideas were later applied by Chairman Mao to our army's operations and won one victory after another.
Therefore, Chairman Mao actually had a very low regard for Zhao Guangyi, who "did not know the soldiers."
In the "Song Shi Taizong Benji", Zhao Guangyi was praised: "The emperor shen plotted heroically, and he had the ambition to level the world. Chairman Mao was very disapproving, commenting next to this sentence: "But incompetent." ”
The Song Shi Taizong Benji also praises Zhao Guangyi: "The merits of the former emperor, Bing Huan Shi Mu, are known as the Sages." Chairman Mao again raised his pen and commented: "The defeat of Youzhou. ”
This means that Zhao Guangyi's two crusades against Youzhou have failed, and what "merit" is there to speak of?
In fact, not only did Chairman Mao look down on Zhao Guangyi, but the famous historian Mr. Qian Mu also commented that Zhao Guangyi was "weak in talent" and believed that he lacked ability and did many wrong things.
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