In the sixth month of the lunar calendar in 1162 AD, the imperial palace of Lin'an City, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. When emperor Gaozong of Song announced his abdication on the grounds of "tiredness", he ceded the throne to his adopted son, Zhao Kuangyin, a descendant of Zhao Kuangyin of Song. At this point, Song Gaozong completed the only great thing he did in his life - to "rehabilitate" Song Taizu. Judging from the order of succession to the throne of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Shuo's abdication and Zhao Xuan's ascension to the throne marked the formal return of the Song Dynasty throne from The Taizong lineage to the Taizu lineage, and Zhao Kuangyin's descendants, with the support of Zhao Shuo, became the supreme ruler of the Great Song Empire.
So, how did Zhao Shuo, who was a descendant of Emperor Taizong of Song, "rehabilitate" Song Taizu? All this must start from the "Alliance of The Golden Plateau" of Empress Dowager Du, Zhao Kuangyin's mother.
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According to the History of the Song Dynasty, Empress Dowager Du, the old wife of Song Taizu, confessed to her sons on key issues about the succession to the throne of the Great Song Empire before her death. Fearing that a certain minister would repeat Song Taizu's "Chen Qiao Mutiny", in order to avoid the Song Dynasty becoming the "Later Song" after five generations, Empress Du left a message to Zhao Kuangyin, hoping that Zhao Kuangyin would pass the throne to Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Guangyi would pass the throne to Zhao Tingmei, and Zhao Tingmei would pass the throne to Zhao Dezhao. In this way, "the country depends on the long king", and the rule of the Song Dynasty can be long-term and stable.
Whether Zhao Kuangyin fully obeyed his mother's last words, we do not know. However, from the series of events in which Zhao Kuangyin did not make a crown prince and promoted Zhao Guangyi to the only prince of the Song Dynasty, we can see that Zhao Kuangyin did once want to establish his brother as his heir. However, in the later period of Zhao Kuangyin's reign, Zhao Kuangyin intended to support his son Zhao Dezhao and get rid of Zhao Guangyi's influence by moving the capital to Luoyang. This seems to indicate that Zhao Kuangyin is not very satisfied with his brother. Until his death, Zhao Kuangyin was inconclusive about the successor.
On October 25, 976, Zhao Kuangyin died suddenly, and Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne. Six years later, Zhao Pu, with the support of Zhao Guangyi, made public the "Alliance of the Golden Plateau" and regained the position of prime minister. However, after ascending the throne, Zhao Guangyi seemed unwilling to abide by the alliance of the Jin Dynasty, and he hoped that his descendants would inherit the throne permanently. In order to retain imperial power, Zhao Guangyi launched a series of actions, his two nephews died one after another under the "operation" of his uncle, and his younger brother Zhao Tingmei was also driven crazy. After eliminating the royal family that posed a potential threat to the throne, Zhao Guangyi began to select a successor. In the end, Zhao Guangyi chose his third son Zhao Heng as his heir. The throne of the Song Dynasty was passed down along the lines of Zhao Guangyi.
Perhaps the heavens were quite dissatisfied with Zhao Kuangyin's sudden death and Zhao Guangyi's seizure of power, and the succession of Zhao Guangyi's descendants was quite tortuous. All 5 sons of Emperor Zhenzong of Song died prematurely, and he once wanted to make the son of Emperor Lizong the crown prince, until the palace lady surnamed Li gave birth to Zhao Heng's 6th son, later Emperor Renzong of Song, Zhao Zhenzong, and Song Zhenzong dispelled the idea of lizong's son as the prince. After Zhao Zhen ascended the throne, several of his sons also died prematurely, and he and his concubines could not "produce" new sons, and Zhao Zhen was forced to make Zhao Shu, the son of Zhao Yunrang the Prince of Pu, the crown prince, and the throne of the Song Dynasty passed from Zhao Heng, the third son of Emperor Taizong of Song, to Zhao Yuanfen, the fourth son of Emperor Taizong of Song.
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However, even though the descendants of Emperor Taizong of Song continued to "move the throne to a great extent", God still did not spare Zhao Guangyi's descendants. In order to "get justice" for Song Taizu, God seems to have given Zhao Guangyi's descendants two major "high-intensity punishments" - first, the Jing Kang Revolution, most of Zhao Guangyi's descendants were abducted by the Jin army. Second, the only son of the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Song's descendant, Emperor Gaozong of Song , died prematurely. Heaven is good, the Great Song Dynasty should give Song Taizu a fair account.
As a descendant of Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Zhuo naturally hoped that his throne could be passed down along his bloodline. But now, Zhao Zhuo has no descendants, and the throne of the Song Dynasty must continue, what should be done? The question of the heir to the throne became a piece of Zhao Shuo's heart disease.
Just when Zhao Zhuo was distressed by the question of the heir to the imperial throne, the people and the imperial court were spreading the word that "Jin Taizong is the 'reincarnation' of Song Taizu, and Jin Taizong's attack on the Northern Song Dynasty is to seek justice for Song Taizu." Zhao Shuo also had a very strange dream: in the dream, Song Taizu took Zhao Shuo through to the scene of the candlelight axe shadow. Subsequently, Zhao Kuangyin himself personally said to Zhao Shuo, "It has been a long time since your ancestor (Zhao Guangyi) used a ruse to occupy my throne. If the Song Dynasty wants to extend its national legacy, it will have to let my descendants inherit the throne. ”
Folk legends and dreams after going to bed at night made Zhao Shuo gradually firm in his heart the idea of establishing the descendants of Song Taizu as heirs. Coupled with the fact that high-ranking officials such as Prime Minister Fan Zongyin and Governor Zhang Shou advised Zhao To establish taizu's descendants as heirs, Zhao Shuo finally made a decision to select Zhao Kuangyin's descendants from the people as heirs to the throne. Zhao Zhuo also said such a meaningful sentence: "Taizu has determined the world with divine martial arts, and his descendants are not allowed to enjoy it. If you are not the Lawless Renzong, for the sake of the world, how can you comfort the spirit of heaven? ”
Of course, the choice of descendants of Song Taizu to inherit the throne also has two deep meanings that Zhao Shuo will not say to outsiders: First, Zhao Guangyi's descendants are not completely cut off in the Jing kang change, at least one of the descendants of Song Yingzong Zhao Shu is still inheriting the title of prince in Lin'an. However, if Zhao Guangyi's descendants continue to be selected as crown princes, this new prince will pose a threat to Zhao At any time. Even if Zhao Zhuo voluntarily abdicated, the new emperor would rely on the power of the clan to make his old age very unhappy. (Who made Zhao Zhuo kill Yue Fei?) The descendants of Song Taizu came from the folk and had no background in the palace. Even if he ascended the throne and became emperor, Zhao Shuo would be able to control the new emperor by abdicating the throne as Emperor Taishang.
Second, in order to consolidate his rule, Zhao Zhuo must unite more people and eliminate the gap between the descendants of Taizu and Emperor Taizong. Establishing Taizu's descendants as heirs happens to be the best way to eliminate the contradiction between Taizu's descendants and Taizong's descendants. Li Hui, a member of the Privy Council, said to Zhao Shuo, "Taizu was a duke in the world and passed the throne to Zhao Guangyi. His Majesty (Zhao Zhao) zhongxing the Song Dynasty should pass the throne back to the descendants of Taizu. Zhang Code, the Governor of the Government, said to Zhao Zhao, "Since ancient times, the throne can only be inherited by the father and the son, and Taizu passed the throne to his younger brother, which is a wise move beyond Yao Shun." Now, Heaven has given His Majesty a chance to pass the throne to the descendants of Taizu, which is also to make His Majesty a saint like Yao Shun. ”
On the issue of succession, Zhao Zhuo was finally not confused. However, on the issue of Yue Fei, why was Zhao Zhuo so confused? Of course, this is a digression.
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At this point, Zhao Shuo was "rehabilitated" for the descendants of Song Taizu, and Zhao Shuo decided to choose an heir to the throne from his nephews, the seventh grandson of Song Taizu.
In 1132, Zhao Zhuo sent Zhao Lingzu, who was in charge of clan affairs, to select an imperial crown prince among the people. At that time, there were more than 1,600 descendants of Song Taizu's Bozi generation. After layers of selection, the officials selected a fat man and a thin man and two children, and brought the two children to Zhao Shuo.
At first, Zhao Zhuo was more interested in the fat man, and he gave the thin man a little money to let him out of the palace. However, Zhao Zhuo seemed to feel that such an observation was a bit too arbitrary, and he let the two children stand and observe carefully. Suddenly, a cat ran up to the two children, and the fat man kicked the cat to death, while the thin man did not move. Zhao Zhuo believed that the fat man was very grumpy, even a cat could not stand it, how could he inherit the throne to govern the country? He left the thin man in the palace.
This thin man was the later Song Xiaozong Zhao Xuan, but he was not established as the crown prince after he entered the palace, because Zhao Zhuo found a descendant of Taizu from the people. At that time, Zhao Xuan was still often in conflict with Qin Ju, and coupled with the fact that Empress Wei, The mother of Emperor Gaozong of Song, preferred another Taizu descendant, Zhao Zhuo could not decide which prince to be the heir for a while.
After Empress Wei's death, Zhao Zhuo could choose a successor according to his wishes. He knew that most of the emperors preferred women and lost the country. Wanting to know who could inherit the unification, Zhao Zhuo decided to use the beauty plan to test the successor.
Zhao Gave Zhao Xuan and another Taizu descendant 10 beautiful women each, and asked them to bring them back. Another Taizu descendant and 10 beautiful women soon fell in love, but Zhao Yun followed the advice of his teacher Shi Hao and treated the 10 beautiful women with the attitude of a righteous gentleman. After a while, Zhao Zhuo recalled 20 beautiful women, and he found that the 10 beautiful women who got along with Zhao Xuan were "unscathed", while the 10 beauties who were with another Taizu offspring were pregnant. Zhao Zhuo finally made up his mind and made Zhao Xuan his successor. Zhao Yun was the third son of Song Taizu and a direct descendant of Zhao Defang, the "Eight Sages King".
In May 1162, Zhao Zhuo officially made Zhao Xuan crown prince. In June of the same year, perhaps feeling that he felt that he had killed Yue Fei and felt too guilty about Jiangshan, Zhao Zhuo consciously abdicated. Zhao Xuan succeeded to the throne as a descendant of Taizu and an adopted son of Zhao Zhao. After more than 180 years in power in zhao Guangyi, the throne of the Song Dynasty finally returned to the hands of the descendants of Song Taizu.
It turned out that Zhao Zhuo did not look at the wrong person. After Zhao Ascended the throne, he rehabilitated Yue Fei and organized the Northern Expedition to crack down on corrupt officials. Zhao Yun's efforts created the prosperity of the Southern Song Dynasty's reign of Qianchun and continued the life of the Southern Song Dynasty for more than 100 years.
Planner: Fish and Sheep History Producer: Fish Boy
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