If Kangxi and Tang Taizong sat together and chatted, talking about their sons must be an indispensable topic for them. These two emperors started their families relatively early, although Taizong lost to Kangxi in terms of lifespan, but in the matter of his sons' love to make trouble, Taizong was not inferior to Kangxi at all.
Kangxi has more than 30 sons, and in order to compete for the emperor, a famous historical event was born: "Nine sons seize the heir", but in any case, when Kangxi was alive, the sons were quite passable, and Kangxi could still suppress them, and he dared not dare to do the rebellion.
But Li Shimin's son is different, my father is above, I am still opposed, and it is real. Wasn't that what you did to my grandfather back then? Therefore, there is some truth in saying that if there is a father, there must be a son. As an elder, the shadow of the body cannot be crooked, otherwise it will be a disaster to the children and grandchildren.
Tang Taizong achieved a good situation of Zhenguan's rule, and the harem was also supplemented with a lot of beauties, but he was still depressed, because he had something in his heart that caused him a headache. What's the matter? It's a matter of establishing a reserve.
Tang Taizong had fourteen sons, look at the picture below, three of them died young: Li Kuan (second son), Li Huan (eleventh son) Li Jian (twelve sons), that is to say, Taizong Lichu was selected from eleven sons. But to put it bluntly, if you want to be the crown prince, the family background of the mother concubine is a hard indicator, and the sons born to women of no rank are basically not eligible to run.
Therefore, the son who is qualified to be the crown prince falls among the sons born to the eldest grandson queen, Da Yang Concubine and other concubines with a high-profile background. And the most powerful son is naturally from the eldest grandson of the empress, in fact, the eldest son Li Chengqian was also made the crown prince as early as 8 years old, and he is also loved by Taizong.
So what else is Taizong worried about? Didn't the princes all stand early? Standing is standing, but he is not satisfied, why is he not satisfied, because Li Chengqian has something special.
Li Chengqian may have had polio as a child, which caused him to walk with some limp. But at first, Li Shimin shouldn't have cared, and invited more than a dozen teachers to educate him, and the prince was also very powerful, and he began to help his father deal with government affairs at the age of 17, which made Li Shimin very happy for a while.
But this situation didn't last long, Li Chengqian directed and acted a big change, and at the age of 18, he repeatedly did some unbelievable things. For example: take a group of Turks into the palace, set up a tent in the courtyard, and then live in it every day wearing Turkic clothes. At first, Li Shimin didn't pay attention to his reaction, and it was okay for a child to let him play, and he would just give up when he got tired of playing.
But as the days went by, not only did I not give up, but I also got more and more inches. He simply started a "military exercise" in the palace, and the two sides fought each other, and they never stopped until they were "stabbed and bloodied", and sometimes even killed people.
Things have developed to this point, and Li Shimin, who has a keen sense of politics, looked at this posture, this is not right! This kid doesn't want to emulate the "Xuanwumen Change" of the year, and after he finishes driving Lao Tzu to **, he owns the world. But judging from the current situation, it is not so easy for the prince to turn the tables, so you can observe it again.
So, Li Shimin mobilized his ministers to persuade the prince and asked the prince to be more restrained. How do you know that the prince has a small belly and chicken intestines, every time a minister gives him advice, he treats him as a person, the key is that after these ministers put forward their opinions, they turn their heads and go to Li Shimin to receive the reward, which means that I helped you educate your son, you have to thank me. This made the prince even more unhappy, this is not clearly beating his little report, and it is also called "persuasion".
After coming and going, the prince not only did not appreciate it, but became more and more arrogant. In half a year, he built a new building with 70,000 yuan, bought a singer, sang and drank, rode horses, and lived a good life. The contradiction between him and the ministers who advised him became deeper and deeper, and even the auxiliary ministers around him could not tolerate it.
However, Li Chengqian's crown prince crisis is still intensifying, because Li Tai, the king of Wei, who was born to the same mother, cannot sit still. He saw an opportunity, so why didn't he take advantage of it? Maybe the crown prince will also run into his own bowl.
Empress Eldest Sun was originally a well-informed woman from a big family, and the son she gave birth to also inherited her excellent genes. The second son, Li Tai, is also quite talented and diligent in reading, and he also set up a literature museum and compiled the royal "Chronicles of the Territory", which is a geography book that includes the customs and customs of various parts of the Tang Dynasty, and its meaning is to symbolize the unification of the world. Li Shimin, who was his father, greatly appreciated this and included this book in the royal collection.
Li Chengqian was quite dissatisfied with this, saying that the establishment of the Literature Museum, according to the rules, shouldn't it be my prince who came forward? Why is it Li Tai's turn. But this rule has actually been broken by Li Shimin a long time ago, Li Shimin, who was still the king of Qin, had already set up the Hongwen Pavilion, and the Wenchen during the coup d'état of the "Xuanwumen Change" were all from the Hongwen Pavilion under his name.
Li Chengqian can't help but think about it, this Li Tai's motives are not pure. And the father seems to eat him very much, and the pocket money he gives him even exceeds himself, Li Tai also built a big mansion in Chang'an, and later Wei Wangchi and Wei Wangdi also became the check-in attractions of major poets, Li Bai and Du Fu have written poems for it.
Li Chengqian felt that he had fallen out of favor, he closed his door all day long, and raised male pets, Taizong was furious when he heard this, and killed the male pet. Since then, the father and son have completely turned against each other, and Li Chengqian's abolition is a certainty.
Who doesn't struggle twice when he is about to die, anyway, the net is already broken, and Li Chengqian is afraid that it will break some more. In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), he plotted to assassinate Li Tai, but failed, and tried to force the palace, and was defeated again, and finally was imprisoned, deposed as a commoner, exiled to Qianzhou, and died two years later.
So who is the new crown prince? Li Shimin naturally hoped that Li Tailai, who was a little more like himself, would be the crown prince, but some people disagreed.
Li Chengqian was deposed, and the happiest person was, of course, Li Tai, who thought that he belonged to the crown prince, but he didn't want to stand up against his mother-in-law, Empress Changsun.
Anyway, they are all their own children, who is not the one who is not established? How can there be a reason for the biological mother to run out and oppose it. Yongzheng has the best understanding of this scene, her biological mother Concubine De doesn't want the fourth child to be the emperor, she prefers the old fourteen, because the fourteenth has more feelings with her. So is the same reason for the eldest grandson queen?
No, Empress Changsun is a very self-disciplined and righteous woman, as a queen, everything she does is based on the Tang Dynasty. Li Tai is strong by nature, although he has the style of his father, but in the peaceful years, what the Tang Dynasty needs is a monarch who governs together with the monarch and the minister, not an overlord who is full of words.
Empress Changsun's point of view was agreed by Chu Suiliang and other ministers, and Chu Suiliang even bluntly said that if Li Tai was passed on, Li Zhi and Li Chengqian would definitely die, which means that the tragedy of the "Xuanwumen Change" would be repeated again. The suggestion of Empress Changsun and the ministers was to appoint Li Zhi, who was modest, the crown prince.
Tang Taizong was shaken, and his eldest son Li Chengqian once said that his younger brother Li Tai coveted the crown prince, not to mention that Li Tai did have a bad reputation. He had a bad relationship with the important ministers of the court, and the reason why the crown prince Li Chengqian's temperament changed drastically, in addition to the pressure from Taizong, Li Tai's secret bad was also one of the reasons.
And when Li Tai learned that his father intended to make Li Zhi the crown prince, he also ran to intimidate Li Zhi, Li Zhi was timid and quickly ran into the palace, and followed his father all day long, Taizong was strange, this child always followed behind his ass every day, what is going on? So he asked Li Zhi, Li Zhi said it in 1510, Taizong's heart was also a lot cold, and finally decided to make Li Zhi the crown prince.
In April of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, Li Zhi, the king of Jin, was made the crown prince. It is said that in addition to the sons born to Empress Changsun, Taizong also has sons born to concubines, so why is it the turn of Li Zhi, who has a mediocre performance?
There is an old Chinese saying that if you fight is not to fight, if you don't fight, you are fighting, and Li Zhi has achieved the "great dispute" by virtue of "not fighting". In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, in addition to the deposed prince Li Chengqian and a rebellion, Taizong also had a son who also rebelled, that is, the fifth son Li You, the king of Qi. This also shows that there were still many princes who coveted the crown prince at that time. Therefore, it is easy to decide the prince early, and it is not easy to postpone.
But for Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, how should we evaluate it? From Taizong's point of view, he still lived up to his father's expectations of him after all, the Tang Dynasty was not only lost in his hands, but also fell into chaos after Wu Zetian's death, if it weren't for Tang Xuanzong Li Longji to turn the tide, the direction of the Tang Dynasty is really hard to say.
For this point, Taizong did not think about it, in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), Taizong was dying on the sickbed, but he still couldn't let go of one thing in his heart, that is, can the heir of the Tang Empire sit firmly?
To this end, Taizong specially selected a group of important ministers, such as the eldest grandson Wuji, Chu Suiliang, Yu Zhiyu, Gao Jifu and Li Tao. These are all brothers who followed Taizong from birth to death, and the Tang Dynasty can be regarded as having their share of "dry shares" and is trustworthy. It can be seen that knowing the son is better than the father.
We talked about Taizong's four sons above, three of which are from Empress Changsun, and Li You is from Concubine Yin. In addition, the two sons of Concubine Da Yang, Li Ke and Li Su, were deposed as concubines due to rebellion in the fourth year of Yonghui (653), exiled to Bazhou, and died in the second year of Qianfeng (667).
The seventh son, Li Yun, the king of Jiang, indulged in lust and committed suicide in the first year of Tang Suzong. Li Zhen, the eighth son of Yue, committed suicide by taking poison after failing because he rose up against Wu Zetian. The tenth son, Li Shen, was degraded to Bazhou because of Li Zhen's rebellion against Wu Zetian, and died in exile in 689. The thirteenth son, Li Fu, a mediocre man, died in Liangzhou in the first year of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (670) at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve. The fourteenth son, Li Ming, was forced to death by Xie You, the governor of Qianzhou, in the first year of Yonglong (680), because of his involvement in the rebellion of Li Xian, the prince of Zhanghuai (the eldest son of Wu Zetian), in the first year of Yongchun (682), at the behest of Empress Wu.
The ancient emperors were really embarrassed, they couldn't do without a son, and it was troublesome to have more sons. It can be seen that the road to the world is nothing more than this, outside of the gold and jade, and it is ruined.