Speaking of Tang Dynasty , we have to mention the founding royal family, they are all familiar figures, especially those who created the famous Zhenguan rule in Chinese history, Li Shimin.
On the one hand, he is the emperor of the ages. In the 23 years since his ascension to the throne, through the unremitting efforts of Li Shimin's monarch and his subjects, the Tang Dynasty during this period had stable internal and outstanding martial arts and outstanding external martial arts, laying the foundation for the later prosperous Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, he launched the Xuanwu Gate Transformation , killing his brother's blood relatives to obtain the throne, which became a criticism from later generations.
When an important cultural relic was discovered in 2013 and the truth surfaced, it allowed people to examine the heart of this eternal emperor from a new perspective.
The epitaph of the prince with only fifty-five words
In March 2013, the Xi'an Cultural Relics Inspection Team confiscated a mysterious epitaph of only fifty-five words. After investigation, the epitaph was divided into two parts: the cover and the epitaph - the cover was in the shape of a roulette, which was made of a seal script " The inscription of the tombstone of the Tang Dynasty ".
is a square, with a side length of 52 cm and a height of 11 cm. The front is engraved with aspirations, with only a few dozen words. is engraved with "Wang Wei Jiancheng, died in the capital on June 4, 2nd year of Wude. Guangdong is buried in Gaoyangyuan, Chang'an County, Yongzhou, on the 13th day of the first month of Wu Zi in the second year of Zhenguan. "
According to historical materials and epitaphs, experts determined that this is the epitaph of Li Jiancheng that has been missing for eight years.
In 2005, the cemetery of Li Jiancheng, the prince of the Tang Dynasty, was discovered in the outskirts of Xi'an. Shortly after his tombstone was excavated, he was resold by criminals. Fortunately, although Li Jiancheng's epitaph was missing for eight years, it is still well preserved. It is now rated as a national first-class cultural relic and is preserved in Xi'an Museum .
In this way, this important cultural relic can be presented to people's eyes, silently telling that touching history.
Overall, the seal script of the epitaph is vigorous, simple in shape, and concise in knife skills, which obviously comes from the work of famous masters at that time. However, for Li Jiancheng, who was the founding royal family of the Tang Dynasty and once the crown prince, such an epitaph with only a few fifty-five words showed an extremely unusual "low-key and simplicity".
epitaph only briefly records Li Jiancheng's posthumous title, death, burial time and place. It does not record the life and achievements of the tomb owner like ordinary epitaphs. He does not mention his life and past in the whole article. This abnormality makes people have to think deeply about the reasons behind it.
The Xuanwu Gate Incident, the turning point in the history of the Tang Dynasty
Tombstone usually refers to stone carvings engraved with the life of the deceased in the tomb, and also refers to the text on the tombs. In our country, epitaphs can be traced back to the Qin and Han dynasties. In " Modern Chinese Dictionary ", the interpretation of the word "tomstone" is: "A stone carving is placed in the tomb with the life of the deceased. It also refers to the text on the tomb. Some have inscriptions ending with rhymes, also called epitaphs."
In ancient times, epitaphs were engraved into the life, achievements and judgment of the deceased, and then placed in the tomb. The ancients paid attention to establishing morality, establishing words, and acting. After their death, they had to be written into epitaphs in order to gain a reputation for death. This is an evaluation of the deceased's life.
The epitaph of Li Jiancheng's wife Zheng Guanyin, whose encyclopedia covers 3 lines of seal script and 4 characters; the encyclopedia is 71cm, 35 lines, 35 characters of line, 1185 characters in total. The content of the epitaph was recorded in more detail according to the above information. Compared with the two, it can be seen that the epitaph of Li Jiancheng, who only has a few dozen words, is truly "suspicious".
To explore this point, we must return to the "Xuanwu Gate Change" that changed the historical direction of the Tang Dynasty.
th year of Daye (617), in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, Li Shimin encouraged his father, Li Yuan, to raise an army against Sui . Li Yuan, led his army to swear an oath to fight in Jinyang, officially raised an army with his eldest son Jiancheng and his second son Shimin, and led his troops southward. In November of the lunar calendar, he invaded Chang'an and destroyed the Sui and Jiantang.
After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan did not make Li Shimin the crown prince as the previous agreement, but instead made the eldest son Li Jian the crown prince.First, it originated from the fact that the patriarchal system laid down during the Western Zhou Dynasty had a profound influence. The core lies in the system of inheritance of the eldest son who "has established a legitimate (suitable) for the elders but not for the virtuous".
Of course, there are not no counterexamples in history. From the timeline, the most recent one is Emperor Wen of Sui appointed the second son of Yang Guang as the crown prince. But perhaps because of this, Li Yuan experienced the various disasters of the Sui dynasty and was even more worried about this. In his opinion, Li Shimin and Yang Guang have certain commonalities, and both of them are "one of the Kun brothers, with their own unique achievements."
The second is that Li Jiancheng is not completely useless as the eldest son. Although there are many shortcomings compared to Li Shimin, he is definitely enough as the crown prince. After various considerations, Li Yuan chose to make his eldest son Li Jian the crown prince, and he was confident and able to balance the relationship between the two.
But later facts proved that the two of them were seeking benefits and had constant friction, laying the groundwork for the later "Xuanwu Gate Incident".
The Xuanwu Gate Incident, the "secret" on the epitaph
"History is written by the winner".
Only fifty-five words are used on the epitaph, which briefly summarizes Li Jiancheng's life. The most important word in the entire epitaph is the posthumous title "hidden" .
In "Old Book of Tang Dynasty: Biography of Li Jiancheng", there is a detailed record of Li Jiancheng's final posthumous title "yin" - After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he immediately designated Li Jiancheng's posthumous title as "yin", and it was not changed later.
However, in the epitaph, the word "hidden" that represents the posthumous title has obvious traces of modification.
Some experts refer to the records of the dispute over the posthumous title of Li Jiancheng in " Tanghuiyao ", and then combined with the remaining strokes after the modification of the epitaph, it is believed that the posthumous title of was "ling" before the posthumous title was changed, and then it was changed to the word "yin".
In the history books of the Tang Dynasty, there are many contradictions in the records about Li Jiancheng, and he is also derogatory about his evaluation. For example, in the old and new books of Tang, almost all the contributions of the uprising of the Tang Dynasty were attributed to Li Shimin. However, he avoided talking about Li Jiancheng's achievements in the past, but instead recorded many struggles that Li Jiancheng excluded and harmed Li Shimin.
is actually not difficult to understand. The writing of Li Jiancheng in historical books adheres to the principle of downplaying or even belittlement, which is to seize the throne for Li Shimin by violent means, find a rational reason, and minimize public criticism as much as possible.
This point, Zhang Taiyan, a master of Chinese studies, said in "Book of the Biography of Prince Yin of Tang", "When Emperor Taizong was established, he was afraid of his reputation, so he started to supervise the history of the country with the prime minister, so there was no credible remark in the "Records of the Two Dynasties".
After Li Jiancheng was defeated in the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin was not only anxious to achieve the goal of eliminating Li Jiancheng's influence within the royal family, but also worried about the world's evaluation of him.
can be seen. Under such circumstances, the historical records of Li Jiancheng have Li Shimin's "selfishness".
So why did Li Shimin change Li Jiancheng's posthumous title from "ling" to "yin" at the last moment?
According to the ancient posthumous law, "disorder but not damage is called Ling". "Ling" has a strong derogatory meaning as a posthumous title; "Doesn't hide and cannot achieve success are called Yin, "Doesn't govern the country are called Yin, and "Doesn't feel exhausted" is called Yin", "Dire" means mediocrity, but as a posthumous title does not contain too many derogatory meanings. The posthumous title of
is not only a strong proof of the content of history books, but also indirectly proves Li Shimin's complex psychology towards Li Jiancheng.
On the one hand, as the winner of the struggle for the throne, his grasp of political discourse made him inevitably put himself in the position of justice. Then Li Jiancheng naturally became the rebel side, and downplaying Li Jiancheng's image was also an inevitable choice. Therefore, after the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin removed the two from the genealogy, deprived them of the royal family status, and treated them as common people.
Until the second year of Zhenguan (628 AD), in order to show his compassion, he "posthumously became the king of Xi, and was posthumously named Yin, and changed his burial with etiquette."
On the other hand, the posthumous title, as Li Shimin's evaluation of his brother, also concerns the evaluation of later generations of his evaluation of him. The pertinent word "有" does not have the attitude of a high-ranking winner, but also full of regret for his brother. has gone from "王" to "有" without defaming again and again, and expresses his attitude and position just right.
In fact, after a thousand years, it is difficult to verify the evaluation of the posthumous title of "hidden". Whether it is due to political considerations or pity for flesh and blood relatives, perhaps both are there, but it is unknown which is more important.
Before setting this posthumous title, Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin must have experienced a complicated struggle in his heart, but the details are difficult to know again. is just through this epitaph with only fifty-five words. The only thing that can be confirmed is that Li Jiancheng's posthumous title has gone from "spirit" to "hidden". It seems that only one word has been changed, but it shows Li Shimin's benevolence and righteousness and reflects the cleverness of the emperor through the ages.
Reference:
Guangming.com: Li Jiancheng's epitaph: The Thousand Years Secret on the Stele
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