Reading history can tell you the present. Today, the author continues to explain Sima Guang's masterpiece of historiography, "Zizhi Tongjian".
There is an old saying: "Tiger poison does not eat children". But in the royal family full of intrigue and deceit, this old saying does not seem to hold.
On March 13, 684, Li Zhi of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Li Xian, the second son of Tianhou Wu Zetian, died in despair and loneliness in his exile, Bazhou. Before committing suicide, Li Xian, dipped in sorrow and blood and tears, wrote a well-known fatal poem in history, called "Cucumber Terrace Words":
"Plant melon yellow under the stage, melon ripe seeds away." One pick makes the melon good, and then picks the melon thin. Three picks are still acceptable, and the picks are not hugging. ”
The simple translation is: there are melons planted under the Yellow Terrace, and when the melons are ripe, there are many melons growing on the melon vines. Picking one melon will make the other melons grow better. If you pick three, there may be melons, but if you pick all the melons, only the melons are left.
Although the poem is only 30 words, it succinctly indicts the mother Empress Wu Zetian's animal and animal journey- killing her parents one after another. He hoped to use the verse "Three picks are still self-reliant, and you can't take the end of the hug" to warn Wu Zetian not to kill his children again. So, is Li Xian's accusation against Wu Zetian an empty phrase?
Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang had four sons and two daughters, from the eldest to the youngest, Princess Anding, Li Hong, Li Xian, Li Xian, Li Xian, Li Dan, and Princess Taiping.
In 654, Princess Anding, the eldest daughter of Wu Zetian, was born. But soon, this poor baby girl became a stepping stone for Wu Zetian to climb the peak of power. According to the Zizhi Tongjian:
Zhaoyi gave birth to a daughter, and then he took care of it, and went, Zhaoyi sneaked under the table, served the emperor to the end, Yang for the joy of speech, expressed his vision, and died. And then I was shocked left and right, and I said, 'Later, it is appropriate to come.' Zhaoyi wept bitterly, and the emperor could not detect it, and said angrily: "After killing my daughter, I used to slander the concubine, and now I am evil? From the fact that Zhaoyi got into his confession, there was no way to explain himself, and the more the emperor believed in love, the more he had the intention of abolishing the aftermath. ”
The simple translation is that Wu Zetian, who was still Zhaoyi at that time, gave birth to Princess Anding. When Empress Wang heard about it, she personally came to Wu Zetian's palace, visited the new member of the royal family, and teased happily. However, after Empress Wang's death, Wu Zetian personally suffocated her daughter alive. When Emperor Gaozong of Tang came to visit his daughter, he found that her daughter was dead. Wu Zetian took the opportunity to cry, saying that Empress Wang had killed her daughter. After hearing this, Tang Gaozong did not distinguish between true and false, and was furious: "The empress dared to kill my daughter!" For this injustice, Empress Wang could not refute it, and Emperor Gaozong of Tang had the intention of deposing Wang Liwu from then on.
Using his daughter's life, Wu Zetian eventually defeated Empress Wang and thus sat in the position of empress. Because Wu Zetian was well versed in power and scheming and proficient in economic history, Wu Zetian became the best helper for Emperor Gaozong of Tang to govern the country. At that time, Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian had always been known as the "Two Saints".
In the first year of Xianqing (656), Wu Zetian's eldest son Li Hong was made crown prince. Judging from historical records, Li Hong was a rare prince of Renxiao. He was filial and benevolent, never failed, and won the praise of his father many times. In addition, Li Hong was also sympathetic to the people's feelings and suggested amending unreasonable laws, which was quite popular among the people.
At first, li hong's relationship with Wu Zetian was relatively harmonious. However, with the continuous maturity of Li Hong in politics and the continuous expansion of the power of the Eastern Palace, the power-hungry Wu Zetian gradually regarded him as a threat to his monopoly of power, and the relationship between mother and child deteriorated sharply, and contradictions arose.
In 671, Li Hong served as a supervisor in the capital Chang'an. During this time, Li Hong discovered that his two half-sisters, Princess Yiyang and Princess Xuancheng, were still imprisoned in the deep palace. This is because their mother is Wu Zetian's love enemy, Xiao Shufei.
For his sister's plight, the kind Li Hong really couldn't see it, so he dared to ask Tang Gaozong for instructions, hoping to release them and marry them. In the end, Emperor Gaozong of Tang agreed to Li Hong's request. In the eyes of others, Li Hong's behavior is a rare act of kindness, but in Wu Zetian's view, this is completely dismantling his own stage and punching himself in the face.
"A wave of uneven, a wave of rise", Li Hong, who has already reached the age of marriage, has reached the age of marriage. Emperor Gaozong of Tang made Li Hong the daughter of Yang Sijian, the young secretary of Siwei, as a crown princess. However, Wu Zetian's nephew, Helan Minzhi, had the audacity to rape yang, which directly led to the failure of Li Hong's marriage. As a result, Li Hong's relationship with Wu Zetianniang's family deteriorated sharply. If Li Hong became emperor, Wu Zetian's mother's family would probably not be safe. Therefore, Wu Zetian brazenly killed Li Hong.
In this regard, the Zizhi Tongjian records:
"After the heavens, the prince played please, counted the wills, and fell out of love with the queen of heaven... The Queen of Heaven was furious, and on the same day, she was given the title of Princess of Yiwei Quanyi and Wang Suigu. Hehai, the crown prince was in the Hebi Palace. At that time, people thought that the Queen of Heaven was also a dove. ”
Regarding Li Hong's death, Sima Guang did not say anything, but only said that the crown prince may have been poisoned by Wu Zetian. However, from 1995, the newly unearthed party "Yan zhuang epitaph" in Xi'an gave a dose of cardiotonic to the "theory of killing". It turned out that Yan Zhuang was Li Hong's crown prince. More sensitive is the time of Yan Zhuang's death, about five months later than Li Hong. Therefore, some scholars speculate that Yan Zhuang may have been implicated in Li Hong's death and eventually victimized by Wu Zetian.
After Li Hong's death, Wu Zetian's second son Li Xian was made crown prince. Li Xian was not only a prince, but also a famous scholar in history. He personally led a group of scribes to annotate the Book of Han and made significant contributions to China's historiography. During the period when the crown prince was supervising the country, Li Xian worked hard in government affairs and had some political achievements.
But compared with his brother Li Hong, Li Xian did have some small problems, he was quite good at music, female color, and the domestic slave Zhao Daosheng and other cunning nicknames, breaking the rules to reward them. But these minor transgressions did not allow Li Xian to be deposed because of this. The real reason for this is still the power struggle with his mother, Empress Wu Zetian.
It turned out that at that time, Emperor Gaozong of Tang was suffering from dizziness, dizziness every day, and could not govern political affairs, so all military and national affairs were entrusted to Wu Zetian to handle. Li Xian was made crown prince and had the right to oversee the country, so naturally he did not want to become a puppet of his mother. Therefore, around him, there was a powerful "abolition of force" forces. The more Li Xian actively participated in state affairs, the easier it was to deepen his contradictions with Wu Zetian.
Previously, the reason why the courtiers acquiesced to Wu Zetian's interference in state affairs was because Emperor Gaozong of Tang was not in good health. Now that the crown prince has been established, Wu Zetian should retreat into the background, which is the normal operation law of feudal politics. But for Wu Zetian, who has been using the "drug of power" for decades, depriving her of her power is tantamount to asking for her life.
In the case of the discord between mother and child, some rumors in the palace that are difficult to distinguish between true and false have begun to appear. In 680, it was rumored in the palace that Li Xian was not the biological son of Wu Zetian, but was born to his sister, Lady Han. When Li Xian heard about it, he felt very frightened.
From common sense, Lee Hyun certainly could not have been the son of a Korean lady. Although it is true that Tang Gaozong and the Korean lady secretly had an affair, they may also have illegitimate children. However, Wu Zetian still had two sons, Li Xian and Li Dan, and it was impossible for him to be generous enough to make the son of a love enemy crown prince.
The crime of rumor-mongering the prince's lineage is very big, and naturally no one dares to say it easily. Therefore, this rumor was deliberately created by someone, and the main messenger behind the curtain is most likely Li Xian's mother, Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian used this rumor as a public opinion preparation for the deposing of Li Xian. After all, she would never allow anyone to violate her power, not even her son.
In the same year, Wu Zetian sent people to search for hundreds of pairs of armor in the stables of Li Xian's Eastern Palace, and used this to accuse Li Xian of plotting rebellion. In this way, Li Xian was imprisoned in the palace for three years. In 683, Li Xian was demoted to Bazhou, and when he left, his wife and children were thinly clothed and shivering in the cold wind.
In the first year of civilization (684), Emperor Gaozong died and Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian succeeded to the throne, but after only a little more than a month, he was deposed by Empress Wu and replaced by Emperor Ruizong Li Dan, who controlled the government. Soon after, Wu Zetian searched Li Xian's residence in Bazhou and sent his close associate Qiu Shenji to spy on Li Xian. Qiu Shenji was a famous cool official, and Li Xian knew that his mother could not tolerate himself, so he had to commit suicide in despair. Before committing suicide, Li Xian wrote the poem "Cucumber Terrace" to warn her mother not to kill her parents again.
But did Wu Zetian stop there? In fact, during the reign of Wu Zetian, Li Xian and Li Dan were persecuted and lived a life of trembling and trembling, like walking on thin ice. Two of Li Xian's three sons were killed by Wu Zetian. The only surviving Li Shouli was also tortured by Wu Zetian.
There are no mothers and children under the imperial power. In the face of the temptation of the highest power, blood and kinship are not worth mentioning at all. In order to ascend to the peak of imperial power, Wu Zetian did too many animal things. In response to King Luo Bin's rebuke to him: "Emperor Sun of Yan Pecking, knowing that Han Zuo will be exhausted; Emperor Long Huang, the emperor of Xia Ting will decline." ”
As the saying goes: Reading history makes people wise, after reading the story of Wu Zetian, do you have any feelings? I suggest that you read more history and draw more wisdom from the wisdom of the ancients. In all the history books, the "Zizhi Tongjian" is almost a book that can comprehensively improve the quality of people in all aspects, and after reading it, it is equivalent to living for 1300 more years.
Therefore, through the "Zizhi Tongjian", we can learn the experiences and lessons of the successes or failures of our predecessors, as long as we learn well, whether it is for people or learning to work, we can be at ease. But for the general public, reading the text is still more difficult. Therefore, Tao Tao recommends a set of good books to everyone - "Vernacular Zizhi Tongjian".
This set of books was co-translated in the 1980s by Huang Jinfeng, professor of Chinese language and doctoral supervisor of National Taiwan University, and gathered 27 professors and scholars from many colleges and universities in Taiwan.
Because the scholars who compiled this book are all Guoxue masters, this set of books is by no means the Zizhi Tongjian that is shoddily made and carries private goods on the market now. Instead, it respects the original text, translates it word by word, and adds no more than one word, so as to get close to and restore the original meaning of the "Zizhi Tongjian". It is not explained by a "modern vision", and it is even more uneven. And it's the whole book.
As a history lover, it is very cost-effective to start this set, because this set of activities in the headlines, a set of ten books, the original price of 498, now the headline readers as long as 208, it can be said that it is very valuable.
For this book, as long as you can read it once, you can have a huge gain. Therefore, Tao Tao suggested that everyone quickly buy this set of books, read it several times, have a long insight, and learn to learn the strategy. You can click on the link below to purchase. The previous 12,000 copies were sold out, and now a new batch is added, and the quantity is not much, and it is almost out of stock:
Vernacular Zizhi Tongjian [a full set of 10 books] ¥208 to buy