What kind of person was Li Shimin in history?

Li Shimin in history was an artificial saint.

First, the coup seized power.

The whole process of starting an army in Taiyuan, including the painstaking efforts in previous years, was handled by Li Yuan, who made outstanding contributions to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, and the main credit for the establishment of the Tang Dynasty should be attributed to him alone. However, in the official history such as Old Tang Shu, New Tang Shu and Zi Tong Zhi Jian, the facts have been distorted. The main contribution of Taiyuan Uprising was attributed to Li Shimin, and Li Yuan became a passive role, thus making Li Shimin a major figure in the anti-Sui and Kai Tang Dynasties. According to Li Shimin's intention, when Zhenguan Miqi wrote Records of Emperor Taizong and Records of Emperor Taizong, he tried his best to describe Li Shimin's contribution in the period of martial arts, tried his best to obliterate the achievements of the prince, and reduced the role of Tang Taizong's Li Yuan. He described the plot of Taiyuan's arise as the careful planning of Emperor Taizong, while Emperor Taizong was in a completely passive position. In this way, Li Shimin was the founder of Li Tang and Wang Ye, and the throne should have been his. After Tang Gaozu abdicated, he should have succeeded to the throne. Therefore, Li Shimin's accession to the throne is a matter of course. At Li Shimin's instigation, historians wrote Li Shimin's motivation of "Xuanwumen Change" as a righteous act of "protecting the country and benefiting the people", which seriously distorted the historical facts.

Second, the performance of the coach.

Looking back at the history of Zhenguan period, it is not difficult to find Li Shimin's strong performance traces. The talented emperor was so concerned about his image in the history books that he deliberately revised his every move. More than once, he tried to create a glorious image of his simple life and cherishing the people's strength by talking with his officials. During the twenty years of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong did accept too many admonitions, but acceptance is one thing and implementation is another, and most of them were not effectively implemented in the end. When he fully demonstrated his magnanimous demeanor in court, and when his tolerance for offending face was recorded by historians, he soon forgot the specific content of the advice. For Emperor Taizong, it is important to accept the proposal, not the content. As for the rule of Zhenguan, in addition to giving people enough "deification", there is only a perfect formalism.

Third, abuse of people's power

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin said many times that he would learn from the demise of the Sui Dynasty. Once upon a time, there were more and more hard labor, and there were "official corvees, and the road followed, and the brothers went to their brothers to return, beginning and ending." The distance is five or six thousand miles, spring, summer, autumn and winter, which is a bit endless. The tension of "just making documents and serving as before" Including children from remote areas. Bring your own food and come all the way to Beijing to serve. During Li Shimin's reign, a large number of palaces were built, such as Ganyang Palace, Luo Yang Palace, Yong 'an Palace, Feishan Palace, Xiangcheng Officer, Cui Instructor, Yuhua Palace, Jiucheng Palace and Beique Palace. That is to say, in terms of the relatively small and sloppy renovation of Xiangcheng Palace in Xishan, Ruzhou (Linru, Henan), the labor force has reached1900,000. It has created a tragic image of "one person serves, and the whole family is ruined". Therefore, some people accused Tang Taizong face to face, saying that when he flew to the Mountain Palace, he was "constantly poor in Shandong", "pregnant (Qinyang, Henan) and Luodong", and the disabled people were miserable. What's more, military service flourished during this period, and Emperor Taizong himself liked school hunting and recreation whether he was busy with farming or not. Therefore, he built bridges and roads, and at least 1 10,000 to 20,000 migrant workers were employed, which also seriously hindered farming. In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, Wei Zhi said in his remonstrance: "Your Majesty has been abusing the people's power all these years, and it is specious to say that' people are arrogant and easy to work'. What a fallacy this is! "From the early" water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it "to today's" people are tall and horses are easy to handle affairs ",which is true or false? Which is the performance and which is the truth? Behind the touching dialogue, Jiucheng Palace, Daming Palace, Feishan Palace and Xiangcheng Palace also broke ground at the same time. Because Jiucheng Palace was built in luxury, he ordered it to be destroyed. Xiangcheng Palace was also destroyed because it was not in his mind after it was built. The contrast between the two is easy to see, which belongs to the performance and which belongs to the true meaning.

Fourth, opening to the outside world and being strict at home.

"Four hundred death row inmates returned to prison", which happened in the sixth year of Zhenguan (632). Wang Fu thinks that Li Shimin dares to take risks because he is absolutely sure that the death row inmates will not come back on time, because the laws and regulations of Emperor Taizong are strict, the household registration system is particularly complete, and the border management is quite in place. It is almost impossible to escape. Death row prisoners have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and they have to risk their clan relatives being implicated. How could they not come back? Emperor Taizong Xuanzang (627-649)' s trip to Zhenguan had already appeared on the world stage as "Tiankhan", but for the sake of the basic concept of founding the country at that time, people were still "forbidden to go abroad". Due to the strict implementation of the basic national policy of internal closure in the Tang Dynasty, local residents' activities such as going out for business were strictly restricted, which could not but affect the normal foreign trade and cultural exchanges in the Tang Dynasty. Sometimes, the envoys of the Tang government also went out, but the purpose of their going out was nothing more than to show off national prestige, adjust the relationship between vassal States and obtain the high-end luxury goods needed by the royal family. Generally speaking, handicraft exchanges and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries are mainly completed by foreign businessmen. The internal closure of the Tang dynasty seriously affected the normal trade activities of the people, and at the same time further encouraged the expansion of the complacency of China, making the rulers of the Tang dynasty keen on the status of "Tiankhan" and maintaining the prestige of "Tiankhan", which was not conducive to fully absorbing the nutrition of foreign cultures. In fact, the so-called more enlightened foreign policy in the Tang Dynasty only lingered on the point of opening to foreigners, and it was impossible and impossible to take a key step to let domestic residents go abroad.

V. "Shi Sheng" fraud

The Book of the New Tang Dynasty describes the achievements of Zhenguan governance: "By four years (that is, Zhenguan four years), rice fights for four or five dollars, people are away for months, and cattle and horses are wild, and thousands of miles are not rich." In fact, the origin of the rule of Zhenguan has its ready-made version, which means that the "prosperous time" fraud has long existed. The so-called rule of Zhenguan is just a gourd painted by a group of emperors and historians. At that time, Gao Changguo's international friend Wen Qu Tai Zhenguan entered the DPRK in December of four years, which was Mitchell's most praised year. What Tai saw along the road was a "depressed city". He once publicly said to his own people: "When you enter the DPRK, you will see the north of Qin and Long, and the city will be depressed, which is not the ratio of Sui." It was only twenty years from the gradual social stability of Gao Zu Li Yuan in his later years to the arrival of the "prosperous age" with prosperous population and rich family around the eighth year of Zhenguan (634), and everything was only the result of natural adjustment. The rule of Zhenguan has nothing to do with Emperor Taizong. In this vast and suffering country, whenever there are only 3 million poor people, as long as the emperor sitting in Weiyang Palace or Taijitang is not crazy, no matter who he is, the "prosperous age" will not break his word.

See "Artificial" Saint "Li Shimin" for details.