Speaking of Li Jiancheng , I believe everyone is familiar with it.
He is the first prince since the founding of the Tang Dynasty . Because he competed for the throne with his younger brother Li Shimin , he was shot and killed by him in " Xuanwu Gate Change ".
After Li Jiancheng died, he was buried in Chang'an , which is now Xi'an. Li Jiancheng's tomb has been looted, leaving only a 55-word tombstone.
Li Jiancheng was the prince during his lifetime, so why did the epitaph only have 55 words in the epitaph? Is this Li Shimin's instruction?
However, after experts studied it, they found Li Shimin’s true thoughts about his brother Li Jiancheng from the 55-word epitaph.
What mystery is hidden in Li Jiancheng’s epitaph? What kind of entanglement does the two brothers have?
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brothers join hands to compete for the world
, we will start from the end of Sui Dynasty .
Back then, Emperor Yang of Sui was cruel and unruly, and the people of the world lived in poverty. Li Yuan was the left-behind in Taiyuan at that time. He had great ambitions and wanted to establish a prosperous era. Therefore, he had the idea of replacing it.
So, Li Yuan began to search for the world's capable people and patriots for their own use. For a moment, his command had gathered talents from all over the world.
But in addition to these powerful generals under his command, Li Yuan also has four sons, each of whom is talented and has made great contributions to the creation of Datang .
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In order to achieve hegemony, Li Yuan formulated a careful plan, He sent his eldest son Li Jiancheng and his fourth son Li Yuanji to go south, recruit soldiers in the south, and accumulate strength .
, and Li Shimin stayed with Li Yuan, assisting him in preparing for the uprising in Taiyuan to strive for the world.
Among Li Yuan's four sons, Li Jian became the leader. In ancient China, the most important thing is to pay attention to the seniority of the elders and the inferiority of the elders, so Li Yuan valued his eldest son Li Jiancheng very much, and arranged many capable ministers and generals by his side, hoping to focus on cultivating him as his successor.
is influenced by some costume dramas, and we mostly have some bad impressions of Li Jiancheng. In fact, the real Li Jiancheng has a great talent and is fully qualified to be made the prince .
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Later, Li Yuan fought against the Sui army in Hexi , and finally won a complete victory and won a great victory in Hexi. In this battle, Li Jiancheng was the head coach of Tang Army .
, and Li Jian became the defeat of the Sui army. With the help of a group of strategists, conducted a very detailed study of all aspects of the Sui army and made detailed deployments for the Battle of Hexi. It can be said that the victory of this battle was the inevitable result.
After this great victory in Hexi, Li Yuan liked and admired his eldest son even more, which also laid a solid foundation for Li Jiancheng to become the prince in the future.
Finally, Li Yuan led his troops to capture Chang'an and proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an, and named the country "Tang". and Li Jiancheng naturally became the crown prince of the dynasty.
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blood stain Xuanwumen
After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the situation was still uncertain, and warlords of all sizes were divided across the country.
At this time, Li Jiancheng was granted the title of prince, so it is not appropriate to lead troops to fight . After all, unless it is absolutely necessary, there is no reason to let the crown prince go to the battlefield? Therefore, Li Yuan left Li Jiancheng in Chang'an and helped himself deal with the government.
However, if the prince cannot suppress the rebellion, there will always be someone to go. Therefore, the glorious and arduous task of finally fell on Li Shimin's head .
So, Li Shimin began to fight everywhere from then on, and successively put down warlords such as Xue Rengao , Liu Wuzhou .
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Li Shimin has been fighting on the battlefield all year round. Because he led the way and cared about his subordinates , he gradually gained an irreplaceable position and prestige in the army.
plus Li Shimin's politeness and genius . During the war, he also recruited a large number of capable people and strangers. At this point, Li Shimin had the strength to compete with his brother Li Jiancheng of .
However, Li Jiancheng, who is far away in Chang'an, has not yet realized that Li Shimin has begun to grow stronger and stronger now.
After Li Shimin led his troops to quell the rebellion of Wang Shichong, ministers in the court wrote letters to ask for credit for Li Shimin. At this time, Li Jiancheng gradually realized that his own brother, King of Qin, had become a "stumbling block" on his imperial road.
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Although has become the crown prince Li Jiancheng, only one step away from the throne , however, Li Shimin made outstanding achievements in his military affairs, and Li Jiancheng gradually worried that he would endanger his position.
So, Li Jiancheng decided to take the lead in taking action against Li Shimin first.
Then, Li Jiancheng began to "establish a character" for himself, trying to make a large number of courtiers turn to him. At the same time, he also wanted to isolate and exclude ministers who were close friends with Li Shimin, in an attempt to eliminate Li Shimin's wings in the court.
Although everything went very smoothly, , the great military achievements made by Li Shimin were that he could not shake. Due to his identity as the prince, Li Jiancheng could not go to the battlefield, so he really needed to make achievements in military merits.
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So, Li Jiancheng wrote to Li Yuan many times, asking him to allow him to lead his troops to in order to establish prestige in the army.
At the same time, He also weakened Li Shimin's power in the military through various means, and no generals close to Li Shimin would need . Finally, he let Li Yuanji take over and divide Li Shimin's military power.
Although Li Jiancheng has made frequent moves and has continuously weakened Li Shimin's strength, Li Jiancheng still believes that he is the biggest threat to his inheritance of the throne.
In fact, Wei Zheng had foresaw the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" and had also advised Li Jiancheng.
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"Your Highness the Crown Prince must be careful of the King of Qin. Now the King of Qin is unstoppable. Only by eliminating him can we eliminate future troubles"
However, Li Shimin is his younger brother after all, Besides, his father Li Yuan is still alive. If he kills Li Shimin, he will not be able to explain to his father.
So, what did Li Shimin think?
Li Shimin naturally did not want to fight against each other. After all, the two are brothers. If it were not forcibly, he would never want to face his brother with swords.
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But his men did not think so. They believed that the Second Highness fought south and north, and established a great contribution to the Tang Dynasty. In the end, he had to endure the exclusion and suppression of his brothers. What is the reason?
And, many people believe that the position of the prince should have been Li Shimin, Because Li Yuan personally promised Li Shimin that he would make him the prince as long as he had military merits, but now he doesn't keep his word.
So, facing his two sons who were facing each other, what was Li Yuan doing at this time?
As the founding king of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan cared more about the stability of the country.
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Therefore, he acquiesced to Li Jiancheng's suppression of Li Shimin , but he only focused on comforting Li Shimin.
Li Yuan's attitude, further intensified the conflict between the two sons on some levels, and at the same time, it also made this battle for the throne to become a situation of brothers and sisters.
At this time, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin also understood that The two brothers can no longer return to the past , and they must fight to the death.
In the end, Li Jiancheng decided to listen to Wei Zheng's suggestions and once again, he took the lead in getting rid of Li Shimin.
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But he didn't want to bear the infatuation of killing his younger brother , so he advised Li Yuan.
"Father! My second brother is very prestige now, it doesn't matter if he replaces me. I'm afraid that he wants more than just a prince!"
How could Li Yuan not know about this kind of thing? Now Li Shimin can't control . If he doesn't stop it, the consequences will be unimaginable.
But what they never expected was that Li Shimin had already known the attitude of his father and brother towards him at this time. After repeated weighing, he finally made up his mind and was ready to start with Li Jiancheng.
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In the end, in order to protect himself, Li Shimin launched the famous "Xuanwu Gate Incident" , and Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji were both buried here. Li Shimin also became Li Yuan's only son. Even if he was unwilling to do so, he had to make Li Shimin the crown prince.
After experiencing this, Li Yuan's health began to get worse day by day, and soon he passed the throne to Li Shimin . Since Li Shimin inherited the throne, Chinese history has officially entered the famous "Zhenguan Governance".
interferes with history
Li Shimin has experienced many years of war, and he witnessed the devastation of the land of China with his own eyes and the miserable lives of the people. Therefore, he made up his mind to work hard to govern the people so that they can live and work in peace and contentment.
In addition, Li Shimin also opened a website for ministers who once supported Li Jiancheng. For those ministers with talent in the world, he not only refused to blame him, but also valued it.
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After many years, "The Change of Xuanwu Gate" has gradually become history, but Li Shimin is still in pain , but thinking about it is also true, no one can kill his own brother.
Of course, besides suffering, he is still worried.
There is nothing that every king cares about is whether he has made great achievements for thousands of years or has he left a devil for thousands of years.
So, Li Shimin wanted to go to the historian to find out the news.
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I thought this trip would go smoothly, but what he never expected was that , as the king of a country, was rejected by the other party, , which made Li Shimin a little unhappy.
The historian had no choice but to explain to him that as a historian, he could only record according to real historical facts and could not miss the king's words and deeds, so that he could only use the reference of the kings in future generations.
Although the historian did not show any mercy to him, the emperor, , Li Shimin thought again that the other party was responsible and it was reasonable, so he had to give up.
But after Li Shimin returned, he still couldn't let go for a long time. He really wanted to know how the "change of Xuanwu Gate" was recorded in historical books, and he couldn't sleep at night.
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Finally, Li Shimin couldn't help it, so he found Fang Xuanling .
Fang Xuanling has been following Li Shimin since Jinyang, and has fought with Li Shimin for many years. Therefore, he thinks Fang Xuanling must be easy to talk to .
"As the king of a country, why can't I read the written by the historian?"
"History books record historical facts, not praise the king. Therefore, Your Majesty is very likely to be furious after reading the contents in it."
"I have always been different from others. I want to read this historical book mainly for self-reflection. You can show me the history books!"
"Your Majesty is a wise monarch in ancient and modern times, how can you make mistakes? What historians have recorded must be His Majesty's merits."
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It is obvious that Li Shimin did not take this set of , and he still ordered Fang Xuanling to show him the history books.Fang Xuanling was timid and did not dare to disobey the saint's will, so he had to instruct the historian to take all the historical books and present them to the saint to read.
Li Shimin, who got the history book, was very excited. How could he not know that his achievements were beyond his reach? His own merits are obvious to all. He wants to read historical books just for the only "Xuanwu Gate Incident" that will make people criticized?
However, the records of the historians disappointed Li Shimin very much.
It turns out that the historians knew that , the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" was the only stain on this emperor of the ages. They were worried that their lives would not be guaranteed, so they did not record it truthfully.
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The most important thing is that these historians did not change it well. The things recorded in are like deliberately emphasizing that he has never done these things . Isn’t this a place without silver?
So, he ordered historians to reprint the history books and asked them to record truthfully.
Since the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" has become a major stain on Li Shimin, how did he view Li Jiancheng?
The story behind Li Jiancheng's epitaph
After Li Jiancheng's death, Li Shimin asked him to bury him, and he was even worse than a court official, but if you think Li Shimin hates him, you are very wrong.
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Although Li Jiancheng's tomb has been looted by tomb robbers, fortunately the police recovered his epitaph, and we can also see a few of Li Shimin's attitude towards this brother.
When Li Jiancheng was the prince during his lifetime, his epitaph was only 55 words.
"The tombstone of King Xiyin of the Tang Dynasty, the king's tattoo was Jiancheng, and he died in the capital on June 4, the ninth year of Wude. Guangdong was the first month of Wuzi in the second year of Zhenguan, and on the thirteenth day of Jiyou, Xinyou, he was buried in Gaoyangyuan, Chang'an County, Yongzhou."
In Li Jiancheng's short epitaph, experts all focused their attention on the word "hidden" .
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The word "hidden" was the posthumous title after Li Jiancheng's death, but the focus is not on the meaning of this posthumous title, but on the posthumous title that has been modified.
After research, experts found that this posthumous title was likely to be a bad posthumous title - "spirit" .
So, why did Li Shimin modify the evil posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous
Later, experts also speculated about Li Shimin's move. and they guessed that when Li Shimin made a bad posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous for Li Jiancheng, it might be for some political purposes.
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After all, if Li Jiancheng had no problem, he would be even more criticized.
But, They are brothers after all, and they grew up together . Later, they followed their father to fight south and north, and they also lie drunk together on the battlefield, sharing weal and woe.
However, 's right changed their brotherhood, forcing them to fight against . Therefore, when the limelight passed, he changed the evil posthumous posthumous "Ling" to "Hidden".
Judging from the point of Li Shimin's posthumous title modification, He was also heartbroken by Li Jiancheng's tragic ending . If they had not competed together, I believe the four brothers would definitely be another ending.
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The real Li Jiancheng in history is not a mediocre person. He also has great talents and ambitions for governing the world. As the emperor of the ages, Li Shimin, although he is one of the few great kings in history, he is not without shortcomings.
Learning history and understanding history is not only to know the past, but also to find ordinary souls like you and me in the details through heavy history books.
