There was an emperor in the Tang Dynasty who, after his father's death, inherited his father's throne according to law. However, only seventeen days later, during the ascension to the throne, his aunt suddenly helped him read an abdication edict and asked him to give him the throne to his fourth uncle. By the time this edict had been read, before he could object, he had already been pulled down from the throne by his aunt, and the civil and military officials had already turned their heads to pay homage to his uncle.
This tragic Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, named Li Chongmao, was the shortest-reigning emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and the only Tang Emperor who was not recognized by zhengshi. The reason why Li Chongmao's career as emperor was so short was actually not his own reason. If you want to pursue responsibility, I am afraid that this responsibility must be counted on the head of his father Li Xian.
In 695, Li Chongmao was born in Fangzhou, Hubei Province, which is today Fang County, Hubei Province. Li Chongmao's father, Li Xian, was the son of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and empress Wu Zetian. After Li Zhi's death, Li Xian once ascended the throne as emperor. However, because he wanted to fight for power with his mother Wu Zetian, he was deposed by Wu Zetian, and then he was renamed the King of Luling and exiled to Junzhou, Hubei. Later, because some people rebelled under the banner of Li Xian, Wu Zetian was afraid that these people would rob Li Xian, so he later transferred Li Xian's family to Fangzhou.
Li Chongmao's birth was actually an accident for his father, Li Xian. At that time, Li Xian was at the most frustrated time in his life, and a full eleven years had passed since he was deposed by Wu Zetian. During these eleven years, Li Xian's family has been living a life of surveillance and house arrest. Those who were responsible for guarding Li Xian probably felt that Li Xian would not have the opportunity to turn over in this life, so they had a particularly bad attitude towards the Li Xian's family, which was also one of the important reasons for the difficult life of the Li Xian's family at that time.
However, during his house arrest, Li Xian once visited a maid by his side, and later this maid became pregnant and finally gave birth to Li Chongmao. As for the name of this maid, there is no record in the history books, and Li Xian did not canonize her later. Such a birth, coupled with this special birth time, makes Li Chongmao's identity very special, somewhat similar to the feeling of an illegitimate child. Therefore, for this son, Li Xian also paid no attention to it at all.
Before Li Chongmao, Li Xian already had three sons. The eldest son, Li Chongrun, the second son, Li Chongfu, and the third son, Li Chongjun. Among them, the eldest son, Li Chongrun, was born to Li Xian and his empress Wei Shi, and was the eldest son of The True Emperor, who was deeply loved by Li Xian. As for the other two sons, Li Chongfu and Li Chongjun, they are both sons, and their birth mother is unknown, which is similar to Li Chongmao's identity. Although he was Li Xian's son, he was not too valued.
A deposed emperor, according to the theory, will never have a day to emerge in this life, and he is lucky to survive. And as the son of a deposed emperor, I am afraid that there will be no more days in his life. Interestingly, however, when Li Chongmao was four years old, his grandmother Wu Zetian suddenly changed her mind and recalled his father Li Xian to the capital again and made him crown prince.
Although he was re-seated as the crown prince, the life of Li Xian's family did not improve much, but became more dangerous. Because at that time, the cool officials in the dprk were rampant, and the people on the side of the martial family also coveted Li Xian's throne, and although Li Xian was the crown prince, his position was not stable, and his life and death were within a year of Wu Zetian.
In this regard, Li Xian has always been very careful. On the one hand, through the means of marriage, befriend the samurai family. On the other hand, he strictly restrains his behavior, for fear of giving his political enemies the handle to attack him. However, even if Li Xianwan was careful, he still failed to protect the safety of the family. Three years later, Li Xian's eldest son, Li Chongmao's eldest brother Li Chongrun, was exposed by Wu Zetian's favorite brother Zhang Yizhi because he was discussing Wu Zetian in private, and was finally ordered by Wu Zetian to be beaten to death.
Although Li Chongrun's death did not affect too many people, it had a very far-reaching impact. Because his mother, Wei Shi, as Li Xian's wife, only had such a son. Merriam-Webster has been under house arrest for years, long before it reaches the point of collapse. Now the son was beaten to death by his mother-in-law, which also made Merriam-Webster's temperament change greatly, laying the groundwork for many things later.
However, these things did not have such a great impact on Li Chongmao at that time. Because at that time, Li Chongmao's age was too young. Moreover, Li Chongmao has a special identity and is not very popular with Li Xian, so no one will find him trouble.
After another three years, as Wu Zetian became seriously ill, the chancellor Zhang Kamzhi launched a coup d'état and established Li Xian's ascension to the throne, becoming emperor again. After Li Xian ascended the throne, Li Chongmao also became a crown prince and was later crowned king of Wen.
From an unpopular wild child to a King of Wen, Li Chongmao's childhood was spent under such a big change. The year Li Chongmao was crowned King wen was only 11 years old.
At the same time that Li Chongmao was crowned king, his other two brothers were in a completely different situation. The second eldest, Li Chongfu, was hated by Wei Shi, who became empress again. Webster believes that Li Chongrun's death that year was related to him, because he and Zhang Yizhi made a small report, so Li Chongrun would be exposed. Therefore, at the request of Webster, Li Xian could only send Li Chongfu far away to Junzhou to do the assassination history. Junzhou was the place where Li Xian's family was exiled, and Li Chongfu was asked to go to this place to do the history of assassination, and Li Xian's meaning was naturally conceivable. After that, Li Chongfu was also under heavy surveillance in Junzhou and had no power at all.
Since the second eldest Li Chongfu was released, then the third elder Li Chongjun was naturally made crown prince. However, after Li Chongjun became the crown prince, Wei Hou was also extremely disgusted with him. Because in Wei Hou's view, the position of prince should have been his son Li Chongrun. It was only because Li Chongrun died that it fell on Li Chongjun's head. Therefore, Wei Hou and Li Chongjun went to the opposite side and suppressed Li Chongjun more. A year later, Li Chongjun suddenly launched a mutiny and wanted to kill Wei Shi, but the final mutiny failed and he was killed.
In this way, among Li Xian's four sons, only Li Chongfu, the second eldest, and Li Chongmao, the fourth oldest, were still alive.
In the years that followed, Webster grew more and more powerful in the court, and gradually began to be dissatisfied with the power of his empress, intending to become the second Wu Zetian. In June 710, Empress Wei quietly poisoned Li Xian for power.
After Li Xian's death, Empress Wei naturally could not ascend the throne herself as emperor. Even Wu Zetian at that time, after the death of her husband, successively established her two sons as emperors, held the power as the empress dowager, and waited until the time was ripe to force her son to take the throne to himself. Wei Hou also planned to learn from Wu Zetian of that year and repeat a similar process.
In this way, Li Chongmao became the only choice for Wei Hou. Because Li Xian only had two sons left at that time, one Li Chongfu was far away in Junzhou, and he did not listen to Wei Hou's words. Only Li Chongmao, who was only 16 years old at the time, was easier to control, and it was in the capital.
Therefore, after Li Xian's death, Li Chongmao was proclaimed emperor.
After becoming emperor, Li Chongmao's mind was estimated to have not yet turned. However, Li Chongmao was also well aware of his situation and knew that he was just a pawn in Wei Hou's hand. In this regard, Li Chongmao also wanted to resist, so he made his fourth uncle Li Dan a lieutenant and held the military power. Li Dan was the one who was proclaimed emperor again by Wu Zetian after Li Xian was deposed, and later gave the throne to Wu Zetian. However, Li Dan did not seem to want to meddle in these disputes, and even after becoming a lieutenant, he did not confront Wei Hou, but obediently surrendered his power.
If this continues, Li Chongmao, the emperor, is estimated to have died at the hands of Empress Wei in the end, or was forced to take the throne by Empress Wei. However, just a few days later, Li Dan's son Li Longji, together with Li Dan's sister Princess Taiping, suddenly launched a coup d'état, entered the palace and killed Wei Shi, and completely controlled the entire capital.
The whole process of development was really too rapid and seriously exceeded Li Chongmao's expectations. After Merriam-Webster was killed, all the officials of the Merriam-Webster Group were also cleaned up. However, just after the coup d'état, when Li Chongmao first officially ascended to the throne, Princess Anle, who had previously launched the coup, suddenly took out a copy of the Zen edict and read it openly.
After reading this edict, before Li Chongmao could react, Princess Taiping took the initiative to come forward and pulled Li Chongmao down hard. Then tell Li Chongmao: "Child, this position is not for you to sit in, quickly give it to your fourth uncle!" ”
In this way, Li Chongmao was pulled from the throne in a daze, and Li Dan was also pushed to the throne by his sister and his own son in a daze.
Li Chongmao, who had lost the throne, was renamed King Wen. Unexpectedly, however, just a few days later, Li Chongmao received another message: his second brother Li Chongfu, who was far away in Junzhou, thought that he was Li Xian's eldest son, so he should become emperor. After hearing about the incident in the capital, Li Chongfu actually directly raised an army. As expected, just a few days later, Li Chongfu was defeated and killed.
Li Chongfu's behavior was obviously a death sentence. But his act of death seriously affected Li Chongmao. Li Chongmao was originally an emperor before, and now that he is implicated by Li Chongfu's brother, he naturally does not benefit from it, and is soon relegated to Fangzhou to do the history of assassination. This place in Fangzhou happened to be the place where Li Xian had been exiled before.
Three years later, Li Chongmao died in office, an unknown death. At this time, it was already the reign of his cousin Li Longji, and at that time, Li Longji had already solved the Princess Taiping and completely grasped the power. Therefore, many people speculate that Li Chongmao's death should be li Longji's hand. However, historians have not found any evidence of this, nor can they prove this speculation.
Li Chongmao's life is really extremely sad. As a child, he lived as an unappreciated son; after becoming a prince, he was inexplicably pushed to the throne; after only seventeen days on the throne, he was pulled from the throne by his own aunt, and finally died inexplicably. From beginning to end, Li Chongmao actually did not do anything wrong, if he is wrong, he can only say that he was born in the wrong place.
Born in the imperial family, who can avoid power struggles?