In 688 AD, the Tang Dynasty hung the arch for four years. This year, Tang Ruizong Li Dan reigned, and Empress Dowager Wu Zetian ruled with full power.
In 690 AD, there was a significant rebellion in the Tang Dynasty. The royal clan headed by Li Zhen, the king of Yue, united to resist Wu Zetian's rule. This rebellion was seen as the Li family's last hope against Wu Zetian.
However, a month later, the kings of the Li family were suppressed one by one, and Li Zhen, the king of Yue, also committed suicide after the defeat. After this rebellion, the power of the Li family clan was completely wiped out. From then on, no force could stop Wu Zetian's path to power.
Only a year later, in the unanimous praise of the whole country, Wu Zetian successfully snatched his son's throne and became a generation of empresses, realizing her long-held dream.
In five years, the Li family clan has gone from being noble in the royal line to facing the crisis of rebellion, what happened? Perhaps we can explore the history of the Tang Dynasty from Li Zhen's life experience.
In 627 AD, Li Zhen was born in Chang'an, when his father Li Shimin had just ascended the throne, just a year before he was born, the famous Xuanwumen Incident occurred in the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin snatched the throne and stepped on his brother's corpse.
After the Xuanwumen Incident, Li Shimin not only personally got rid of his brother Li Jiancheng and younger brother Li Yuanji, but also executed all their sons in order to prevent future troubles.
This incident led to the loss of two branches within the Li Tang royal family. Thankfully, Li Yuan, the founder of the Tang Dynasty, had a strong fertility and had a total of twenty-two sons in his lifetime, so the absence of these two branches did not make much of a difference.
However, we still need to explain the situation a little bit.
Li Yuan and his original wife Dou have a deep relationship and have maintained monogamy for a long time. They gave birth to four sons, namely the eldest son Li Jiancheng, the second son Li Shimin, the third son Li Xuanba and the fourth son Li Yuanji.
Unfortunately, Li Xuanba died early, so only the eldest son, the second and fourth were left. In order to make up for Li Yuan's lack of heirs, the Dou family asked him to take a concubine. Soon after, Li Yuan and his concubine gave birth to five sons, Li Zhiyun.
However, a few years after Li Yuan began to rebel, Lao Wu was arrested and executed by the Sui Dynasty because he was not around. Therefore, after Li Yuan raised his army, only three sons remained.
Then, Li Yuan invaded Chang'an all the way and established the Tang Dynasty.
Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, realized the need for more sons to consolidate the throne after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, so he began to frequently take concubines and have children, from the sixth to the twenty-second, the sons born during this period were all from the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, although Li Yuan had many sons, only the first three sons were the most fierce in their fight for the throne. In the Xuanwumen Incident, only this brother was older, and the eldest of the other sons, the sixth child, was only ten years old, unable to compete with the eldest brother and the second brother.
Therefore, among the four veins of Li Yuan's sons-in-law, only Li Shimin survived. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he also gave the title of king to other younger brothers who were not a threat, but this also led to the fact that his son and Li Shimin's son may be similar in age, or even younger.
In this context, Li Zhen was born. When he was born, his father, Li Shimin, already had seven sons. In terms of giving birth to children, Li Shimin is not inferior to his father Li Yuan.
He had fourteen sons and twenty-one daughters during his lifetime. According to the ancient Chinese concept of "more sons and more blessings", Li Yuan and Li Shimin, the father and son, can be said to be very lucky.
A few years after Li Zhen was born, with the birth of Li Shimin's youngest son, Li Ming, Li Shimin had fourteen sons and seventeen younger brothers. In addition, since the Li family is a traditional Guanlong family, Li Shimin also has many cousins.
The Li Tang clan is prosperous, and there are many princes, princesses, and concubine families, and their strength cannot be underestimated. Although Li Zhen is a concubine, her mother is not the queen and cannot inherit the throne. The throne was inherited by Li Shimin's three sons-in-law, and Li Zhen, as the eighth eldest, was destined to fail to become a contender for the throne.
However, he is not only a prince, his mother is Wu Zetian's aunt and cousin, and has a unique family background. Although Li Zhen is idle, her family has close ties with the powerful.
Although Li Zhen's kinship is complicated, it is this identity that allowed him to survive the era when Wu Zetian was in power. Li Zhen had a very easy life when he was a teenager, and he was named various kings at a young age, and at the age of seventeen, he became the assassin of Xiangzhou.
Although the deceit in the court had no effect on Li Zhen, he still suffered from the calamity of the Li family. Due to Li Shimin's excessive discipline, the fifth child rebelled and was finally given death, and at the same time, the crown prince Li Chengqian, who wanted to rebel, was also involved.
Li Shimin had no choice but to abolish Li Chengqian, and deposed Li Tai, who was vying for the position of prince, and appointed Li Zhi as the crown prince instead. In this change, Li Shimin's three sons lost their status as princes.
However, this change had little impact on Li Zhen, because even if Li Chengqian was abolished, it would not be his turn to be the crown prince. Li Zhen is still living the life of an idle prince, while Li Shimin is getting older and older.
In 649 AD, Li Shimin died, and Li Zhi ascended the throne. However, after Li Zhi ascended the throne, another four years later, Li Zhen suffered the third catastrophe of the Li family clan at the age of 27, which was called the Fang Yiai Rebellion Case.
1.The political struggle behind the rebellion: After Li Zhi ascended the throne, the contradictions between the Li family's powerful clan and the Laochen Party headed by the eldest grandson Wuji gradually intensified.
In order to gain more power, the eldest grandson Wuji and others began to clear the Li family's real power clan, which eventually led to the occurrence of the rebellion of Fang Yiai. 2.Power struggles in the early years of Li Zhi's reign: Li Shimin left Li Zhi with a strong army of old ministers before his death, but Li Zhi found these old ministers too powerful and posed a threat to him when he ascended the throne.
In order to consolidate his power, Li Zhi began to fight with the eldest grandson Wuji and others, which eventually led to the occurrence of the rebellion of Fang Yiai. 3.Princess Gaoyang and Fang Yiai's rebellion: In 653 AD, Fang Yiai and Princess Gaoyang teamed up to plan a rebellion.
Although their conspiracy was eventually revealed, the case implicated a large number of powerful members of the Li family, which eventually led to the purge of the powerful faction within the Li family. 4.The impact of the Fang Yi Ai rebellion case on the Li family clan: After the Fang Yi Ai rebellion case was over, the real power faction within the Li family clan was cleaned up, and most of the remaining were idle princes who did not like to compete for power.
This marked the complete defeat of the real power faction of the Li family in the power struggle.
Li Zhi was happy to see the power of the clan and the old ministers weaken, so as to ensure the safety of the throne. He skillfully used the events after the abolition to suppress the old ministers and completely controlled the power of the imperial court.
However, a headache prevented him from handling government affairs, so he needed to find someone who could help him handle government affairs. Considering her previous experience, Wu Zetian became his only choice, which was also the beginning of her coming to power.
For the next twenty years, the other princes of the Li family lived relatively peacefully. This is because they are not keen on power struggles and do not pose a threat to Li Zhi, so there is no need for Li Zhi to deal with them.
However, as time passed, these clan princes gradually entered old age. Before Li Zhi's death, a large number of princes of the Li family had died of natural causes. And after the death of these clan princes, according to the rules of the Tang Dynasty, their descendants will be demoted when they inherit their titles.
In other words, if the father is the son of the emperor, then the father can be given the title of prince by virtue of his status as the prince or the younger brother of the emperor during his lifetime. But after the death of his father, the son inherits the throne, and he cannot inherit the title of prince, but can only be reduced by one rank and made a duke.
Of course, if the son made a significant contribution to the country before inheriting the title, it is also possible that he will not be demoted. But during the time when Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were in power, they had been guarding against these Li family clans, so the possibility of such a situation was almost non-existent.
Over time, the strength of the Li family clan gradually weakened. Wu Zetian's framing caused the Li family's vitality to be greatly damaged, and the population plummeted. Under normal circumstances, the emperor's descendants would increase the power of the clan, but Li Zhi's situation was different.
Among his eight sons, the fifth to the eighth were all Wu Zetian's children, while the first four sons died for various reasons. Although the third and fourth children are still alive, they have been suppressed by Wu Zetian for a long time and have no courage to resist.
Among Li Zhi's sons, almost none dared to compete with Wu Zetian, the only exception was Wu Zetian's own son Li Xian. However, after he challenged Wu Zetian's authority as the crown prince, he was immediately falsely accused of rebellion and was eventually deposed and imprisoned.
As time passed, the power of the Li family clan weakened day by day. As the queen, Wu Zetian has been in power for a long time, and the power of the court has gradually increased. At first, Li Zhi was unaware of the problem.
After all, the empress is more trustworthy, if she holds power, even if he dies, she will only become the empress dowager in power, and the emperor is her son, everything is under control.
However, if those clans were in power, the ownership of the throne would be unknown.
In the last years of Li Zhi's life, Wu Zetian falsely accused and deposed his son, which made Li Zhi worried. He realized that Wu Zetian's power was too great and needed someone to check and balance.
Therefore, Li Zhi relaxed some of the suppression in the last stage of his life, and began to promote some ministers of the Guanlong group and the Li family clan, let them enter the center of the court, and give them a certain amount of power, hoping to balance Wu Zetian.
However, these remedies are already too late. After decades of suppression, there has been a serious talent gap in Guanlong Group. Although the ministers promoted by Li Zhi to the center are all capable, they are all on the older side.
For example, Pei Xingjian, a famous Tang general who has fought in the Western Regions for decades, Liu Renliang, who defeated Japan on the Korean Peninsula, and Xue Yuanchao, an old minister who has assisted the prince for many years, are indeed too old.
Before and after Li Zhi's death, most of the remaining Li family clans, like the ministers, were unable to compete with Wu Zetian for power, and there were even fewer people who could use them. Among the remaining clans, Li Zhen and Li Shen are relatively powerful, but they can only barely use them under Li Zhi's suppression.
In 683 A.D., Li Zhi died of illness. When he was dying, he named the few remaining Li family clans as the crown prince and prince, the prince and the prince or the prince and the prince, among which Li Zhen was named the prince and the prince.
However, Li Zhi may not have realized that although these clans were in high positions, they had been away from the court for many years, and no one worked for them. And they have never experienced the cruelty of political struggle, and it is difficult to compete with Wu Zetian.
Even if Wu Zetian abides by Li Zhi's will and makes them officials, their positions are only in vain.
After the death of Li Zhi, Li Xian successfully ascended the throne as the crown prince, but just wanted to compete with Wu Zetian for power, Wu Zetian immediately launched a coup d'état, deposed Li Xian, and replaced the youngest Li Dan as the emperor, so that all the power of the Tang Dynasty fell into the hands of Wu Zetian.
After Li Xian was deposed, no one in the court dared to oppose Wu Zetian head-on, so she began to work hard to ascend to the throne, wantonly crowning the king of the Wu family and giving them more power.
At this time, everyone saw Wu Zetian's ultimate goal.
In the only remaining Li family clan, Li Zhen became the core figure of the rebellion against Wu Zetian. He has a certain degree of organizational ability and influence, and is an important figure in the Li family's clan.
However, when he began to connect with the Li family clan, he sadly found that there was not much strength left to rely on. In the Li family clan, there are very few people who have the ability to resist, and only Li Yuanjia, Li Yuanliang, Li Lingkui, Li Zhen and Li Shen are left.
Some readers may ask, apart from those princes, where did so many daughters of Li Yuan and Li Shisheng go? Can't they help? This is really not good, because ancient China was a male-dominated society.
If these daughters want to rebel, their concubines must first agree. But the question is, how can these colts have their own families, so how can they be involved in such a thing?
Even if Wu Zetian is overthrown, the throne will not fall on their heads, so why should they participate? As a result, most of the princesses did not participate in this rebellion, with the exception of Princess Changle, who was Li Yuan's nineteenth daughter.
Although Princess Tsunegaku was involved in the rebellion, she did so for a reason. Her daughter was once married to Wu Zetian's son Li Xian, but because she was disrespectful to Wu Zetian, she was locked up and starved to death.
Therefore, there is a woman-killing feud between Princess Changle and Wu Zetian, which makes it impossible for them to reconcile. Princess Changle and her concubine were the only families involved in the rebellion, and several princes and a princess were all the strength of the Li family clan at that time.
When Li Zhen started the tandem, Li Shen, as the old ten, did not agree to rebel because he understood that their strength was too weak and there could be no chance of victory. So, doesn't Li Zhen understand this truth?
Li Zhen knew in her heart that if she didn't resist at this moment, she would never have a chance to resist in the future. On September 16, 688, Li Zhen decided to launch his uprising.
However, ironically, except for Li Zhen himself, none of the princes of the Li family who had promised to revolt with him before took action. This was not their intention to betray, but because of Wu Zetian's years of suppression, they had become very afraid of her.
In their opinion, the current conditions are not yet ripe, and even if everyone revolts together, they may not be able to defeat Wu Zetian, so it is better to continue to wait for the opportunity. Years of comfortable life have completely lost their last courage.
If Li Yuan and Li Shimin knew underground and saw their sons and younger brothers so cowardly, their coffin boards would probably be angry. In the end, it was Li Zhen and his son Li Chong who really took action.
Li Zhen raised an army against the military, but in the end only recruited more than 7,000 ordinary people who had never fought a war, Wu Zetian sent 100,000 elites to easily defeat it, Li Zhen committed suicide in despair, and all the princes of the Li family were cleaned up by Wu Zetian.
The rebellion eventually became a joke.
The decline of the Li family clan is not all Wu Zetian's means, but more importantly, the internal strife within the Li family and the suppression of Li Zhi. Even if there is no rebellion against the family, the power of the Li family is still not to be underestimated.
However, Li Zhi cleared up the obstacles in order to the imperial power, and finally led to Li Zhen having no allies to rely on when he raised his army, which was undoubtedly the sorrow of the Li family.