In the ninth year of Wude of the Tang Dynasty (626 AD), Li Shimin, the king of Qin, launched the Xuanwumen Rebellion, not only killed his brother Li Jiancheng, the prince of Qi, the fourth brother Li Yuanji, the king of Qi and their sons, but also forced Li Yuan, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, to make him the crown prince, and soon Li Yuan was forced to abdicate. Li Shimin's temple name is Taizong, and only one era name is used during his reign.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he actively listened to the opinions of his ministers, ruled the world with literature, and expanded his territory, becoming a famous Ming monarch in Chinese history. He humbly accepted advice, practiced economy in the country, so that the people could recuperate, and finally made the society appear a situation of national peace and security, created the famous "Zhenguan rule" in Chinese history, and laid an important foundation for the later Kaiyuan Dynasty and the 130-year prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
In the face of his unprecedented cultural and martial arts, Li Shimin also regressed in the later period. First of all, the admonition is not as positive as the early Zhenguan, for example, in the tenth year of Zhenguan, Wei Zheng found that he was "gradually evil and outspoken"; Secondly, the wind of luxury is getting heavier, from the quiet of the early years to luxury, building palaces, and also planning to seal Mount Tai, etc., and self-defense "The people are arrogant if they have nothing to do, and labor is easy to make", Wei Zheng therefore admonished, "I am afraid that it is not the best words of the prosperous state, how can I be the long-term calculation of the people?" ”。Although Li Shimin made one mistake or another in his later years, in the end there was no crisis of defeat, and "the merit was too small, so the karma did not fall", and basically maintained the situation of "the rule of Zhenguan".
In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), Li Shimin, who reigned for twenty-three years, died of illness at the age of fifty-one and was buried in Tang Zhaoling.
Regarding the cause of Li Shimin's death, the historical books "New Tang Dynasty Book, Taizong Benji" and "Old Tang Book: Taizong Benji" do not specify the specific **, only record that Li Shimin fell ill in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, and died suddenly in April of this year, and the cause of death has always been secretive.
According to historical records, before Zhenguan 16, Li Shimin also went out hunting many times, which shows that he was still in good health at that time; However, in the six years from the seventeenth year of Zhenguan to the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin only went out to hunt once, and we can infer from this that Li Shimin's body began to decline sharply during this period.
There are two rumors about the cause of Li Shimin's death, one is dysentery, and the other is long-term use of Tianzhu elixir.
When he was young, Li Shimin also fought in the south and the north, and successively led his troops to pacify warlords such as Xue Rengao, Liu Wuzhou, Dou Jiande, and Wang Shichong, and made great achievements in the establishment and unification of the Tang Dynasty. The reason why Li Shimin's health deteriorated was because the crown prince Li Chengqian was deposed, and the Wei king Li Tai was killed by Qian, and two sons who had high hopes in a row made him feel disappointed and heartbroken, which hit him hard and made him age quickly.
In the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, the general Wang Xuance defeated the Nafu Empire of Emperor Zhongtianzhu and captured an Indian monk named Na Luo Supo. It is said that this person has a high level of magic, and is especially good at the art of immortality. Because Wang Xuance knew that Li Shimin expected immortality, he dedicated his mother-in-law to Li Shimin, who "said that he lived 200 years old and had the art of immortality".
Na Luo Er's mother-in-law told Li Shimin that she could prepare the elixir of immortality, which just met Li Shimin's needs, so Li Shimin respected him as a guest. According to the "Old Tang Book: The Biography of Hao Chujun", when Tang Gaozong wanted to take the long-term medicine refined by Hu monks, the courtiers advised: "In the last years of the former Zhenguan, the first emperor ordered the Brahmin monk Nara Resa to follow the old prescription of his own country, and combine the elixirs. "The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty and the Book of Xianzong" also contains: "Emperor Wen took the elixir of Hu monks, so he was unable to save the violent illness. ”
A year later, the elixir of immortality that Granny Na Luo Er had finally come out of, and Li Shimin took it on time and in accordance with Granny Na Luo's instructions. Li Shimin began to take pills in March, but died of a violent illness within two months.
The so-called elixir of life, whether it is made by Chinese Taoist warlocks or foreign "Hu people", is a trick to deceive people. When Li Shimin of the Wise Emperor was young, he did not believe in immortality, and he was even more disdainful of Taoism and other methods, but as he got older and his health deteriorated, he also followed in the footsteps of the Qin Emperor and Han Wu. If Li Shimin didn't eat the "Golden Stone Secret Elixir" refined by ancient Indian monks, he might have lived for a few more years. However, after taking it, his condition deteriorated sharply, and the famous doctor was helpless, so he ended his life early.