Tang Xuanzong survived 4 generations of emperors and pretended to be crazy for 36 years, was thrown into a dung pit, and was ashamed after ascending the throne
In the Middle Ages, there was an emperor who was extremely forbearant in history, who experienced the torment of the four emperors of the Tang Dynasty, and was even thrown into a filthy latrine and almost drowned. In order to endure humiliation and survive, he pretended to be stupid for 36 years, and finally succeeded in ascending the throne of the emperor. How did Li Chen, who was later called "Little Taizong", spend his years of patience and humiliation, and how did he become a highly respected Ming monarch after becoming the emperor?
Why did Tang Xuanzong choose to play stupid? What kind of humiliation did he suffer from growing up? After seizing the throne, how did he become a generation of Ming monarchs? Let's reveal the story behind Tang Xuanzong Li Chen's ascension to the throne today.
In Chinese history, there was an emperor who was known for his wisdom of taoguang and obscurity, and he was Li Chen, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Li Chen was born in the family of Li Chun of Tang Xianzong, is the 13th son, and is also the younger brother of Tang Muzong, and is an uncle to Jingzong, Wenzong and Wuzong. Despite his illustrious status, he was only a concubine, and this background doomed him to obscurity in the court.
Li Chen's mother, Zheng, in the case of a failed rebellion, made Li Qi's concubine from Zhenhai Jiedu become a maid by Empress Yi'an's side. Due to Zheng's humble origins, Li Chen did not receive much attention in the court. Despite being named the King of Light, his childhood life was lonely and lonely. Compared to other princes, he was always reticent when talking and laughing.
Li Chen's character was more fully reflected in his adulthood. Before ascending the throne, he spent a full 36 years by pretending to be crazy and stupid, and did not sit on the throne of the emperor until he was 37 years old. During this time, he barely showed the emperor's appearance, so that people's evaluation of him has always stayed on the impression of being sluggish and wooden.
After Tang Xianzong's death, he was succeeded by his third son, Li Heng, Tang Muzong. At that time, Li Chen was only 10 years old, but Tang Muzong was particularly fond of this taciturn younger brother. Under the care of his elder brother, Li Chen gradually revealed his thoughtful side, laying a solid foundation for his later rule.
Late one night, Li Chen closed his eyes and ushered in a fantastic dream, and he found that he had turned into a towering dragon body, soaring above the sky. The next morning, after waking up, he couldn't wait to share the dream with his mother, but Zheng showed a frightened look when he heard it, and eagerly told Li Chen not to tell others about the dream.
Despite Zheng's best efforts to keep it a secret, this dream somehow reached Tang Muzong's ears. Surprisingly, Tang Muzong did not get angry because of this, but praised: "This is an auspicious omen for our Li family!" Perhaps Tang Muzong never thought at the time that his praise would become a footnote to fate in the future.
During the reign of Tang Muzong, Li Chen once met with the Empress Dowager Yi'an, but was almost assassinated halfway. Fortunately, thanks to the heroic escort of the guards, Li Chen escaped unharmed. However, after this thrilling incident, Li Chen became more sluggish and silent, and the clan relatives at the time speculated that he might have been frightened by the assassination experience and became delirious.
After Tang Muzong's son Tang Wenzong Li Ang ascended the throne, he did not inherit his father's benevolent attitude, and he was even more merciless to his uncle Li Chen. In the face of Li Chen's insolence and sluggishness, he not only did not respect it, but became more and more humiliated, which made people sigh.
In the long history of history, there is a very wise and far-sighted emperor, who was crazy about selling stupid clothes in his childhood for 36 years, and suffered all kinds of humiliation from his nephew, and was even thrown into the toilet at one point, almost drowning.
After ascending the throne, the Emperor Wenzong did not show respect for his uncle. On the contrary, under the influence of Li Chen, he made Li Chen the object of ridicule and teasing in the family.
On one occasion, Munjong held a banquet at the residence of the royal family and invited the princes to attend. It was a family gathering, everyone knew each other, and the banquet was full of laughter.
However, Li Chen sat on the seat next to him, eating silently, and his eyes revealed a kind of dazedness. Wenzong began to make fun of this stupid uncle.
At the feast, he announced, "See who can make my Uncle Guangwang speak, and I will be rewarded!" However, although the princes present teased Li Chen, he still didn't say a word, and even his expression barely changed.
Li Chen didn't care about accepting the situation that his clothes were submissive and did not resist. When everyone present high-fived and laughed, Wenzong didn't care about the emperor's demeanor, and laughed backwards.
However, Yingwang Li Yan gradually stopped laughing, and he suddenly thought that Li Chen actually kept calm in this situation and was not affected by the outside world. He began to think, maybe Li Chen was not really stupid, which made Li Yan shudder. The position of the emperor gave him an intuition that Li Chen was definitely not a simple fool. This thought has always lingered in Li Yan's mind, and even after he ascended the throne as emperor, it still lingered.
Since ancient times, monarchs have often been suspicious. Tang Wuzong Li Yan felt more and more that the imperial uncle Li Chen beside him was hiding unfathomable secrets, which made Wuzong unable to get peace of mind.
Although Li Chen was Wu Zong's own uncle, Wu Zong could not get rid of him openly, and Li Chen had always maintained a taciturn character, making it difficult for Wu Zong to find a reason to frame him.
In order to get rid of this "dangerous" relative, Wu Zong began to try to create an accident in an attempt to make Li Chen "die unexpectedly". Since then, Li Chen has begun to encounter misfortunes for unknown reasons, or fall down while riding a horse, or "accidentally fall" on the steps in the palace, causing his face to be bruised and swollen every time.
However, each time Li Chen only suffered skin injuries and could not cause serious injuries in any case, which made Wu Zong even more convinced that Li Chen was just pretending to be innocent. So, Wu Zong made up his mind and decided to solve this imperial uncle problem once and for all.
Wuzong ordered the eunuch Qiu Gongwu to lead several chamberlains to kidnap and imprison Li Chen. A few days later, they threw Li Chen** into the palace toilet.
Qiu Gongwu was ambitious, and after learning that Li Chen was thrown into the latrine, he suggested to Wuzong: "Such a person should not die so easily, it is better to let the villain give him a knife, so as not to leave future troubles." Wu Zong felt that it made sense, so he agreed to the plan.
Qiu Gongwu quickly rushed to the latrine, rescued Li Chen, who was on the verge of drowning, and hid him in a dung cart and sent him out of the palace.
After escaping the catastrophe, Li Chen left Chang'an City and went all the way south, and finally fled to Anguo Temple in Haining, Zhejiang Province today. There he cut his hair and became a monk and started a new life.
In 846 AD, due to taking pills for a long time, Li Yan died of illness in Daming Palace. At that time, Emperor Wuzong was on the throne, and because his sons were too young to manage the government, he did not appoint a crown prince.
With the support of the eunuchs Qiu Gongwu, Ma Yuanzhen and others, Li Chen returned to the Chang'an Palace. These eunuchs resolutely decided to portray Li Chen as a puppet emperor in order to actually control the government.
In the long history, there is an impressive emperor, he was the only monarch in the late Tang Dynasty who took the diligent governance of the country as his own responsibility, and finally ascended to the throne of the Tang Dynasty through 36 years of pretending to be confused, becoming the 17th emperor of the late Tang Dynasty.
Just when Qiu Gongwu, Ma Yuanzhen and other eunuchs tried to control the government by manipulating Li Chen, they were shocked. In their opinion, Li Chen, who was once sluggish and godless, was rejuvenated overnight.
After Li Chen ascended the throne, he was no longer the dumb image, but was replaced by a monarch full of majesty and wisdom. His vision is no longer dull, but seems to be full of military strategic vision, revealing the imperial demeanor in his speech, and handling government affairs in an orderly manner, which is in stark contrast to before.
It wasn't until this moment that everyone suddenly realized that Li Chen had never become stupid, but had been disguising himself. Qiu Gongwu finally understood why Wuzong did everything he could to force Li Chen into a desperate situation.
After Tang Xuanzong Li Chen succeeded to the throne, he took the political country as his own responsibility. He set out to rectify the ranks of officials and strengthen his control over the eunuchs in the court, so that the late Tang Dynasty once again embarked on the road of Zhongxing.
Soon after ascending the throne, Li Chen began to reform the government. He first deposed Li Deyu, the prime minister appointed by Emperor Wu Li Yan, and removed him from the courtiers, and then reused the members of the "Niu Party" who had been fighting against the "Li Party" for a long time, ending the long-term "Niu Li Party dispute".
In addition, he reappointed the eunuchs who had supported him and tried to manipulate the government, and made Ma Yuanzhen a general, but did not grant him actual military power, which was just a false position.
In order to prevent the eunuchs from interfering with the government again, Li Chen ordered that the eunuchs and the ministers of the court and the central government should not interact with each other, and even expressed strong dissatisfaction with the fact that the then prime minister Ma Zhi only had a meal with Ma Yuanzhen, dismissed him from office and sent him back to his hometown.
Li Chen rectified the eunuchs in the palace with his tough means, cleaned up the ** of the previous dynasty, and quickly brought the past political chaos into his control, and in just a few months, he consolidated the stability of the court.
After internal affairs are in order, foreign affairs must also be handled prudently. Li Chen, known as the "Little Taizong", faced the eunuchs in power in the late Tang Dynasty, and through his governance, the late Tang Dynasty society once again presented the style of "Xiaozhenguan".
Li Chen was a very self-disciplined, aggressive, and studious monarch. After 36 years of hiding talent, he consolidated his control over the government in just a few months, showing great perseverance and ambition. He and his ancestor Li Shimin are in the same line, and they both have the great desire to build a peaceful and prosperous world.
During his reign, Li Chen made large-scale adjustments to the Tang Dynasty's tax system, delegating local tax power to local county ordinances and prohibiting collection on behalf of others. He personally supervised the process of tax collection and effectively curbed the behavior of ***. In addition, he vigorously cut redundant posts and reduced the amount of money, so that the tax revenue of the whole country was significantly increased.
Although the eunuchs were curbed in many ways, Li Chen still longed to completely end the dilemma of the government being interfered by the eunuchs. Although the power of the eunuchs weakened during the 13 years of his reign, the deep-rooted problems were not fully resolved.
In his later years, Li Chen became interested in pills and pursued immortality. However, the excessive consumption of pills caused the body to be overwhelmed, and eventually he died of illness in the court. Although under his rule, the country remained relatively stable and was praised as the "Xiaozhenguan" period, his death also marked the end of the Tang Dynasty.