Taizong of Song Dynasty

Zhao Guangyi

Zhao Guangyi, Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty (November 20, 939 to May 8, 1997), was the second emperor of the Song Dynasty (November 15, 976 to May 8, 1997). His real name was Zhao Kuangyi. Later, he changed his name to Zhao Guangyi because he avoided the taboo of his brother song Taizu. After he ascended the throne, he changed his name to Zhao Jiong.

In 976, song Taizu died and Zhao Guangyi succeeded. After he ascended the throne, he used political pressure to force Qian Chu, king of Wu and Yue, and Chen Hongjin, who was under separate control of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, to accept the land and surrender in 978. The following year, he personally invaded Taiyuan and destroyed the northern Han Dynasty, ending the separatist situation of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The two attacks on Liao and the attempt to recover the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun were both defeated, and then they took the defensive position against Liao. During his reign, he changed the national policy of valuing martial arts over culture since the end of Tang Dynasty.

Zhao Guangyi was in power for 21 years. In the third year of Dao (997), Zhao Guangyi died. He was named emperor Wenwu of Shengong Shengde, and the temple name was Taizong. He was buried in Yongxi mausoleum.

Life experience

Early experience

Zhao Guangyi is the third son born to song xuanzu Zhao Hongyin and Empress Dowager Du, the younger brother of song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin. In the fourth year of Tianfu in the later Jin Dynasty, Jiachen was born on October 7 (November 20, 939) in Chongde Beifang Husheng camp, Xunyi County, Kaifeng Prefecture.. At first, Zhao Guangyi's mother dreamt that the immortals were holding the sun to confer on her, so she was pregnant. Until the night of Zhao Guangyi's birth, the red light rose like fire, and the streets were full of strange fragrance.

Zhao Guangyi was smart but not a group when he was young. He was afraid to play with other children. In 960, Zhao Guangyi took part in the mutiny of chenqiaoyi and made his brother Zhao Kuangyin emperor.

After Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, he appointed Zhao Guangyi as Marquis Yu in front of the palace, led the defense envoy of muzhou, and soon led the Jiedushi of Taining army. After the expedition against Li Zhongjin, Zhao Guangyi was appointed as the capital of Inner Mongolia. He added Tongping Zhangshi, xingkaifeng Fu Yin and concurrently Zhongshu Ling. After entering Taiyuan, Zhao Guangyi was renamed as the left behind capital of the East. He was granted the title of king of Jin and ranked above the prime minister.

Ascend to the throne as Emperor

On the night of October 19, the ninth year of Kaibao (976), Zhao Kuangyin called Zhao Guangyi into the palace to drink, and stayed in the palace that night. On the morning of the 20th, Zhao Kuangyin suddenly died. On the 21st, Zhao Guangyi, king of Jin, ascended the throne for Taizong of Song Dynasty.

In the early days of government

After succeeding to the throne, Zhao Guangyi first changed his year title to "rejuvenating the country through peace" and expressed his desire to make new achievements. Zhao Tingmei, his younger brother, was appointed as Yin and Zhongshu Ling of Kaifeng Prefecture, king of Qi. Zhao Dezhao, his nephew, was appointed as Jiedushi and Junwang, and Zhao Defang was also appointed as Jiedushi. The children of song Taizu and Zhao Tingmei are called princes and daughters. The three daughters of song Taizu are princesses. Xue Juzheng, Shen Lun, Lu duoxun, Cao Bin and Chu Zhaofu, the former subordinates of song Taizu, all became officials, and their children and grandchildren got official positions. Zhao Guangyi pardoned those who were punished or wanted to be punished by song Taizu during his lifetime.

However, Zhao Guangyi focused on training and promoting his cronies. The members of his shogunate, such as Cheng Yu, Jia Yan, Chen Congxin and Zhang Ping, gradually took up important positions in the imperial court and gradually replaced the ministers of the song Taizu Dynasty. In addition, Zhao Guangyi deposed a group of veteran generals, such as Zhao Pu, Xiang Gong, Gao Huaide, Feng Jiye and Zhang Mei, and transferred them to the vicinity of the capital for easy control.

Zhao Guangyi expanded the number of candidates in the imperial examination. During his reign, the number of candidates in the first imperial examination was more than twice as large as that in the era of song Taizu. The imperial examination gave many talented people a chance to become officials.

fight north and south

After Zhao Guangyi stabilized the throne, he continued to unify the cause. In 978, under the political pressure of the Song Dynasty, Chen Hongjin, who was independent of Zhangquan in Fujian Province, and Wu Yue Qian, who was independent of Zhejiang Province, successively surrendered to the Song court.

In the first month of the fourth year of the Taiping rejuvenation of the country (979), Zhao Guangyi sent pan Mei and other generals to the north to besiege Taiyuan, the capital of the northern Han Dynasty. In February, Zhao Guangyi led his troops to fight personally. The song army repulsed Liao's reinforcements and destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty. Finally, the situation of nearly 90 years of feudalism since the Huangchao rebellion in the late Tang Dynasty was ended, and the whole country was formally unified again.

In May of the same year, regardless of the opposition of all the officials, Zhao Guangyi started the northern expedition from Taiyuan. At the beginning of the northern expedition, Yizhou and Zhuozhou in Hebei Province were recovered. Zhao Guangyi ordered to besiege Yanjing, and song army and Liao people launched a fierce battle on the Bank of Gaoliang river. Zhao Guangyi came to the battlefield in person, but was injured and hit the arrow. He took a donkey cart to leave in a hurry, and the Northern Expedition failed.

In 980, Hou Renbao, a doctor of Taichang in Yongzhou, played Zhao Guangyi, asking to take advantage of the civil strife in the Ding Dynasty of Jiaozhi (Vietnam) to fight southward, restore the old territory of Han and Tang Dynasties, and unify Jiaozhi (Vietnam). Therefore, Zhao Guangyi appointed Hou Renbao as the land and water transport envoy of Jiaozhou, sun Quanxing, Hao Shoujun, Chen qinzuo, and Cui Liang, the regiment training envoy of Lanling, as well as the general of zuojianmen, as the troops and horses, and Liu Cheng, the governor of ningzhou, Jia Shi, the Deputy envoy of the ordnance depot, and Wang Yao, the Minister of the gonggonggemen, as the troops and horses, waiting for an opportunity to attack the Ding Dynasty. However, in the sixth year of Taiping's rejuvenation of the country (981), in the battle of Baiteng River, the plan of unifying Jiaozhi (Vietnam) finally came to nothing, and Jiaozhi (Vietnam) was able to maintain its independent status.

In the third year of Yongxi reign (986), Zhao Guangyi sent five generals, pan Mei, Yang Ye, Tian Zhong, Cao Bin and Cui Yanjin, to divide the East, the middle and the West into three routes, with the East as the main route before the northern expedition. The west route and the Middle Route Army marched smoothly, while the main East Route Army was repeatedly defeated by the Liao army, and the grain route was cut off. At last, it failed to meet the west route and the Middle Route Army, and collapsed at qigouguan. The central and Western roads had to be withdrawn to the south. Yang Ye, the chief General of the west route, was captured by the Liao army for covering the withdrawal of the army and the people to the south. He fasted for three days and died in prison. After that, the Northern Song Dynasty failed many times in the battle of sanchuankou, haoshuichuan and dingchuanzhai, but because of its weariness of war, it made peace with song ting. Zhao Guangyi took Fu Qian, Wang Chao, Chai Yuxi, Zhao Rong, Zhang Xun, Yang Shouyi and MI Dechao as the commander-in-chief of the imperial guards. He was a mediocre and fearless man.

In February of the fourth year of Chunhua (993), the peasant uprising led by Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun broke out in Sichuan. Where the uprising army went, they transferred all the wealth except the daily necessities to the masses, which was echoed by the peasants in Shu. In the first month of the next year, the uprising army occupied Chengdu and established the great Shu regime. When Zhao Guangyi learned of this, he sent two armies to discuss it. Finally, the uprising army failed completely in 1996.

The problem of transmission

Zhao Guangyi's eldest son, Zhao YuanZuo, was smart and alert when he was young, and looked like Zhao Guangyi. Zhao YuanZuo has martial arts, good at riding and shooting. He once went to Taiyuan and Youji with Zhao Guangyi. Ben is the most suitable crown prince. Unexpectedly, Zhao YuanZuo was mad because of Zhao Tingmei's unjust death.

In the second year of Yongxi's reign (985), Zhao Guangyi called several sons to hold a banquet in the palace to drink and have fun. Because Zhao YuanZuo was not cured, he did not send someone to invite him. After the banquet, Zhao Yuanyou, king of Chen, visited Zhao YuanZuo. When Zhao YuanZuo learned about the banquet, he was so angry that he drank hard. In the middle of the night, he simply set fire to the palace. For a time, pavilions and pavilions, smoke rolling, fire sky. When Zhao Guangyi learned about it, he suspected that it might be Zhao YuanZuo, so he ordered someone to inquire and Zhao YuanZuo admitted it. Zhao YuanZuo was abolished as a commoner. Later, Zhao Yuanyou, the second king of Chen, became the Crown Prince appointed by Zhongyi, and Zhao Guangyi also had this intention.

In July of the third year of Yongxi reign (986), Zhao Yuanyou changed his name to Zhao Yuanfu and became the crown prince. In the same year, Yongxi was defeated in the northern expedition. Zhao Pu Shang's memorials to admonish Yongxi's northern expedition were highly praised by Zhao Guangyi. Later, Zhao Yuanfu also discussed the issue of cutting Liao, which was adopted by Zhao Guangyi.

In the first year of Duangong (988), Zhao Pu was the Prime Minister for the third time, and his authority flourished for a while. Zhao Yuanfu, the king of Chen, who tried his best to support and win over Zhao Pu, was also granted the title of King Xu in Jin Dynasty, consolidating his position as crown prince. After Zhao Pu dismissed his prime minister, Zhao Yuanfu had a close relationship with another prime minister, LV MENGZHENG. The establishment of the reserve is proceeding step by step. In November of the third year of Chunhua (992), Zhao Yuanfu returned to his office in the early days, felt unwell, and soon passed away. Zhao Guangyi was very sad. After five days' strike, he wrote a poem of missing his son.

Zhao YuanZuo was abolished, Zhao Yuanfu died suddenly, and there was a vacancy in the throne. So Feng Zheng and others asked for the early establishment of the crown prince, and Zhao Guangyi demoted Feng Zheng and others to Lingnan. Since then, no one has dared to talk about inheritance.

Later, Zhao Guangyi was disturbed by the arrow wound and knew that he would die soon. He asked Kou Zhun in private. With the support of Kou Zhun, Zhao Yuankan, the third son of Zhao Guangyi, was finally named Zhao Heng in the first year of Zhidao (995). Zhao Guangyi appointed the crown prince and granted amnesty to the whole world. When people in the capital saw the crown prince, they cheered, but Zhao Guangyi was not happy. After Kou Zhun's persuasion, his mood improved.

He died of serious illness

On March 29th, the third year of Zhidao (May 8, 997), Zhao Guangyi died in Wansui hall. He was 59 years old and had been in power for 22 years. Zhao Heng, the crown prince of the Song Dynasty, ascended the throne for emperor Zhenzong. The officials of the group worshipped the posthumous title of emperor Wenwu and Emperor Taizong. In October of the same year, he was buried in Yongxi mausoleum.

Political initiatives

Politics

After Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne, he continued to carry out the cause of unification, encouraged reclamation, developed agricultural production, expanded the scale of imperial examination, compiled large-scale books, set up examination and examination institutes, strengthened the inspection and selection of officials, further restricted the power of saving officials, and tried to change the situation of military officials in power and establish civil politics. These measures complied with the historical trend and made important contributions to the stability of the Song Dynasty.

military

There were frequent wars between Song Taizong Dynasty and Khitan regime of Liao state in the north and Dangxiang regime of xiazhou state in the northwest. In order to better control and control the generals, Taizong of Song Dynasty began to implement the policy of "commanding the generals from the middle", granting the generals strategies, offensive and defensive plans, or giving them array plans to command the front-line generals. However, due to various subjective and objective reasons,

Chinese PinYin : Song Tai Zong