Li Heng

Li Heng

Li Heng, suzong of Tang Dynasty (February 21, 711 - May 16, 762), was originally named Li Sisheng, also known as Li Jun, Li Yu and Li Shao. He was the third son of Li Longji, Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. His mother was Yang, Empress of Yuanxian. He was the seventh emperor of Tang Dynasty and the first emperor to ascend the throne outside the capital and then enter Chang'an. He was in power in the first year of zhibaoying (762) of deyuanzai (756).

Li Heng was first granted the title of king of Shaanxi. In 727, he was transferred to be a loyal king. Kaiyuan 26 years (738) was made Prince. An Shi rebellion, Xuanzong was appointed as the world army marshal, led Shuofang, Hedong, Pinglu Jiedushi, in charge of anti rebellion. Tang Xuanzong fled to the west, he was left by the people in maweipo, separated from Xuanzong, and went north to Lingwu. On July 12 of Zhide Yuanzai (756), Li Heng ascended the throne in Lingwu. He ordered Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi and other generals to fight against an Shi rebellion, and recovered Chang'an and Luoyang in June and October of the second year of Zhide (757).

In the first year of Baoying (762), Li Heng was critically ill. Empress Zhang wanted to abolish the Crown Prince Li Yu and establish the Li family of Yue king. Li Fuguo and Cheng Yuanzhen sent troops to protect the Crown Prince Li Yu and arrested empress Zhang and Li family. That night, Li Heng died at the age of 52. The temple was named suzong, the posthumous title of emperor xuanxiao, the great sage of civilization, and was buried in Jianling.

Life of the characters

Early experience

Li Heng was born in Yihai, the second year of Jingyun (711) of emperor Ruizong of Tang Dynasty, in the other hall of the East Palace of Chang'an in Kyoto. His original name was Li Sisheng. His mother, empress Yang of Yuanxian, was born in Hongnong (now in Shaanxi Province) and was a famous family in Guanlong area. Yang Shida, the great grandfather of the Yang family, was the prime minister in the Sui Dynasty. Wu Zetian's biological mother was Yang Shida's daughter. His father Yang Zhiqing took Zuyin as an official. In August of the year before Li Heng was born (710), a few days before his father Li Longji married the Yang family, Li Longji was named prince. Soon after, Yang became pregnant. However, because of the tense relationship between Li Longji and Princess Taiping, he worried that Princess Taiping would take advantage of the situation. Like Yang Yong, the prince of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, and Li Chengqian, the prince of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji abandoned the throne on the pretext that the prince was too late to be a woman. Because of this reason, Li Longji was anxious, so he asked his subordinates to secretly get some abortion drugs, intending to strangle Li Heng in his mother's womb. But after thinking about it, he failed to implement it. After Li Heng was born, he was not able to live with his mother Yang. Because Yang was only the concubine of the crown prince Ji, and the crown princess was Wang who later became the queen of Xuanzong. In the strictly hierarchical court, the status of the Crown Princess (the first wife) was much superior to that of other concubines. At this time, the Crown Princess Wang has not given birth, and Yang feels that his shift is under the crown princess, and he does not dare to enjoy the joy of being a mother alone. Wang took Li Heng to his side and took great care of him. He was very kind to him. Li Heng was made king of Shaanxi when he was two years old.

In the first month of the third year of Kaiyuan (715), Li Siqian, Li Heng's second brother, was named the crown prince. In the first month of the fourth year of Kaiyuan (716), five-year-old Li Heng was worshipped as the protector of the capital of Anxi, pacifying the Tibetan ambassadors of Hedong, Guannei and Longyou, and each had a deputy envoy. From then on, the Tang Dynasty began to set up the example of all kings' remote leadership. Xuanzong Li Longji specially selected masters to teach his studies for the princes. Li Heng was fortunate to be served by he Zhizhang, pan Su, LV Xiang, huangfubin and other famous scholars. His cultural knowledge and accomplishment improved rapidly.

In November of the 13th year of Kaiyuan (725), Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji went to Mount Tai for the ceremony of Fengchan. After his return, he built a huge house in the east of Anguo temple, known as the "ten kings' house". Xuanzong placed the grown-up prince in the ten kings' house. The kings lived in separate houses, and the eunuch served as the eunuch to supervise the daily activities of the kings. Li Heng was 15 years old when he lived in the ten kings' house as a loyal king. Li Heng lived in the ten kings' house for 13 years, until in June of the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), Prince Li Ying was abandoned and killed.

In the first month of the 15th year of Kaiyuan (727), Li Heng was granted the title of loyal king and changed his name

On

. In May of the same year, Lin Shuofang, Shan Yu, and Du Hu were appointed as ambassadors. In the 18th year of Kaiyuan (730), Xi, Qidan and other ethnic minorities invaded the northeast border of Tang Dynasty. Xuanzong took Li Heng as marshal of Hebei Dao, and Li Yi, king of Xin'an, as deputy marshal. He led Eight Generals, such as Li Chaoyin, the imperial historian, and Peixian, Jing Zhaoyin, to fight against the invasion of Qidan and other soldiers. In the 20th year of Kaiyuan (732), Li HengYao led the troops of the tribes such as dapoxi and Qidan. Because of this, Li Heng was granted the title of situ. In the 23rd year of Kaiyuan (735), it was renamed

Li Yu

.

Hard to save

In June of the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), Prince Li Ying was abandoned and killed. Xuanzong Li Longji called the Prime Minister Li Linfu to the palace to discuss the establishment of a crown prince. At that time, Emperor Li Mao's biological mother Wu huifei was most favored by Xuanzong, and Li Linfu strongly recommended Li Mao. However, in June, gengzi, Li Heng was made the crown prince. In the 28th year of Kaiyuan (740), he changed his name to Shao. Tianbao sanzai (744) was renamed Li Heng. From the moment he was put on the political stage, Li Heng was surrounded by obvious political threats. The threat first came from the Prime Minister Li Linfu. After the end of Kaiyuan, Li Linfu and later Yang Guozhong became the most threatening political forces to the prince. In the contest and struggle between Li Linfu and the crown prince, Xuanzong almost did not come forward to contain or stop the Prime Minister Li Linfu's repeated attacks on the Crown Prince Li Heng, which shows that he was also reluctant to see the full-fledged and expanding influence of the Crown Prince Li Heng. In the seven or eight years since the turn of Kaiyuan and Tianbao, Li Heng, as the crown prince, was the most stable period in his political life. During this period, all kinds of attacks from the Prime Minister Li Linfu's side were not serious enough to endanger his status as the crown prince, and the discussion and speculation on the issue of establishing the crown prince in the imperial court were temporarily reduced. Xuanzong was quite aware of the political capital of Li Heng, the third son of the emperor, who grew up in the ten kings' house, so he was not worried about him. Xuanzong didn't want to deprive Li Heng of his right of inheritance, just as he abandoned Sanzi one day.

Tianbao five years (746), for Prince Li Heng, it is really a year of many disasters. In the first month of this year, Huangfu, who was once a loyal friend of the king, came to Chang'an, the capital, from his residence to offer the spoils of the battle against Tubo to Xuanzong, and had contacts with Prince Heng. Huangfu Weiming made it clear to Xuanzong that Li Linfu should be removed from office, and praised Wei Jian's ability. With the intervention of Bian Jiang Huangfu, the secret contest between the two sides became an open secret. After learning the secret play of Huangfu Weiming, Li Linfu took advantage of the prime minister's favorable position and began to set up a counterattack and speed up the action. At this time, Yang Shenjin became a cadre of Li Linfu in dealing with the crown prince group.

On the night of the Lantern Festival on the 15th of the first month of Tianbao Wuzai (746), Li Heng went on a trip and met Wei Jian in the market. After that, Wei Jian made a night tour with Huangfu Weiming and went to Jinglong Taoist temple in Chongren square. As the two princesses and marshals of Bianzhen, they will meet at night and have private contacts with each other, which is bound to give the Prime Minister Li Linfu a chance to take advantage of. Li Linfu immediately asked Yang Shenjin, the Prime Minister of the imperial censor, to write a report and impeach Wei Jian on the ground that Wei Jian was a relative of the emperor and should not have "intimate relationship" with Bian Jiang. Li Linfu told Xuanzong that they had conspired to set up a prince together. Xuanzong got to play and did not hesitate to issue an edict for trial. When Li Linfu got the order, he ordered his subordinates to make a charge to implicate the prince. Although Xuanzong also suspected that Wei Jian and Huangfu had the intention of constructing a plot, he didn't want to easily involve the prince, so he charged Wei Jian with "doing nothing". This treatment is only limited to punish Wei Jian and Huangfu Weiming for their personal faults, and there is nothing against Prince Heng. The military power of Huangfu Weiming was transferred to Shuofang and Hedong. Wang Zhongsi had a close relationship with Prince Heng, which was well known in the court. As a result, Prince Heng was not in danger, and Li Linfu was helpless.

disturbances arose repeatedly

After Wei Jian was demoted, his younger brother will be Wei Lan, a young craftsman, and Wei Zhi Shangshu, a member of the army, plead for him. In order to achieve their goal, they also cited Prince Heng as a witness. Who knows, this led to the anger of Xuanzong. Seeing this, Prince Li Heng was very frightened. In order to escape the relationship between himself and Wei Jian brothers, he immediately went up to defend himself and asked Xuanzong to allow them to divorce on the ground of "discord of friendship" with Wei Fei, so as to show that "the law will not be abolished by relatives". Xuanzong intended to comfort Li Heng, and let him divorce Wei Shi, breaking up the relationship. Li Heng's prudence really made him through the political crisis, but Wei Fei, who had lived together for many years, had to cut her hair to become a nun. Li Linfu was deeply involved in the case of Wei Jian, and many people were forced to die. It didn't stop until Li Linfu died in 752.

At the end of the fifth year of Tianbao (746), Du Youlin, the father of Du Liangdi, Li Hengzhi, was involved in another political case. Liu Ji sued Du Youlin on the charge of "falsely claiming prophecy, constructing the eastern palace, and denouncing Chengyu". Because of the seriousness of the case, the Prime Minister Li Linfu was directly responsible for appointing personnel for trial. Liu Ji informs Du Youlin about his father-in-law because he doesn't agree with his wife's family and wants to frame his wife's family. However, Li Linfu holds on to the matter and involves Li Yong, Wang Zeng and other friends. In the end, Li Heng was also implicated. Xuanzong immediately ordered jingzhaofu to interrogate with officials of Yushitai. The case soon became clear. It turned out that Liu Ji was the one who played the trick. However, Li Linfu instigated his subordinates to instigate Liu Ji to make a false accusation. First, he expanded the case and then quoted Li Yong as a witness. As a result, the case was suddenly extended to local officials and Li Heng, the crown prince, was greatly abolished

Chinese PinYin : Li Heng