Kangxi handled it fairly well. Nine sons won the throne without a bloody coup and chose a better emperor. King Wuling of Zhao should be the most miserable monarch who died. His son starved to death in his own mausoleum.
This article mainly talks about why Li Chenggan, the son of Emperor Taizong, was the Crown Prince and why he rebelled on the transfer of troops.
Li Shimin was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Everyone knew the change of Xuanwu Gate when he was in power. Because of the difficulty of his position, he also attached great importance to the cultivation of the prince.
In the Tang Dynasty, the concept of official position was very serious. Emperor Taizong had a total of 14 princes, among whom three sons born to his eldest grandson, the eldest son Li Chenggan, the fourth son Lee Tae and the ninth son Li Zhi, were most valued by Emperor Taizong.
Emperor Taizong attached great importance to Li Chenggan in his early days. When he succeeded to the throne, he made Li Chenggan the Crown Prince.
In the early days of Prince Li Chenggan's reign, his life was fairly smooth. Thanks to the care of his eldest grandson, Li Chenggan, who is clever, is still favored by Emperor Taizong. According to historical records, he is "clever and won the favor of Emperor Taizong". When Li Chenggan was eight years old, Emperor Taizong appointed Xiao Yu, the newly resigned prime minister, as Prince of Shao Shi. Later, he studied under the famous minister Li Gang.
Emperor Taizong sought a teacher for Li Chenggan, probably influenced by the change of Xuanwu Gate. There has always been a saying that Li failed in the Xuanwumen rebellion because Li didn't listen to his advice. Li Gang was followed by Li Baiyao, a famous historian in the Tang Dynasty. These excellent teachers provided a good education for Prince Li Chenggan.
During this period, Emperor Taizong attached great importance to Li Chenggan. When Li Chenggan fell ill in the fifth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong asked Taoist priests to pray for Li Chenggan, and later allowed 3,000 monks to become monks. You know, Emperor Taizong was not a superstitious person. In the seventh year of Zhenguan, Li Chenggan fell ill again, and Emperor Taizong asked Tianzhu monks to pray for the prince. For the sake of Li Chenggan's health, Emperor Taizong did not hesitate to pray in this way.
During his inspection tour, Emperor Taizong always let Li Chenggan stay in Beijing to supervise the country, so he attached great importance to Li Chenggan.
This situation changed in the ten years of Zhenguan, when the eldest grandson died and Li Chenggan lost important asylum.
Although Emperor Taizong was very happy when Li Chenggan gave birth to his eldest grandson in the twelfth year of Zhenguan, he ordered all prisoners in the world to be reduced to the first class and officials above the fifth class to be promoted to the first class, but there were more and more negative news about Li Chenggan.
In the early stage, Li Chenggan was mainly playful and unrestrained, such as "riding a horse, shooting, swimming, singing and playing", "being happy and not thinking about Shu, sleeping together" and so on, and even imitated the Turkic lifestyle, "Buchen shouted and fought, stabbing and bleeding for entertainment". Especially in ancient times, the seemingly contradictory "private love for a happy boy" was intolerable to society at that time.
The teacher arranged by Emperor Taizong did not persuade them through guidance. Most of them are exhortations. Sweeping it is criticism, and no one can stand it. As a result, Li Chenggan was not only immune to this exhortation, but also forced Li Chenggan to kill the teacher.
After the death of his eldest grandson, Li Chenggan's actions led to Emperor Taizong's growing dissatisfaction with Li Chenggan.
Li Chenggan's behavior may be related to his slope toe. In ancient times, if he became an emperor, he would be disabled and do great harm.
Let's talk about the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Wanli is regarded as the laziest emperor in the history of China, because he did not go to court for more than 20 years during his reign. Many people who attacked the Ming Dynasty often used this as an excuse to think that Wanli was a womanizer. In fact, Wanli was also a diligent emperor in his early years. Opinions vary as to why he didn't go to court later. It was not until after the founding of the People's Republic of China that archaeologists opened the tomb of Emperor Wanli, only to find that the bones of the two legs of Emperor Wanli were not the same length, and the right leg was somewhat bent. It can be seen that the emperor Wanli should be inconvenient to walk.
At this time, Emperor Taizong was very fond of Wang Wei and Lee Tae, which gave Lee Tae the idea of seizing power. Li Chenggan was naturally hurt when he saw it, thinking that Emperor Taizong had plans to change the prince. Emperor Taizong's love for Lee Tae made the ministers at that time look a little tired, and even admonished Emperor Taizong by "surpassing the Crown Prince".
When all this was superimposed on a spoiled Li Chenggan, Li Chenggan failed to resist the pressure, and finally chose to abandon himself, be used by the later generation and finally embarked on the road of rebellion.
For Li Chenggan's rebellion, perhaps Emperor Taizong later felt that it was not all Li Chenggan's fault. Finally, Emperor Taizong killed all the people involved in the rebellion, but Li Chenggan was only banished to Shu Ren. Although he was disappointed, he still couldn't do it.
As the saying goes, Li Chenggan, as a prince, is still rebellious, which is closely related to Li Chenggan's educational failure. The prince education in the Tang Dynasty can be said to be the most failed in all previous dynasties. In this palace coup, Li Chenggan was not the first and definitely not the last.