What is the mystery of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's death?

After Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin came to power, they reorganized the army, adjusted the administrative organs and concentrated financial power, further consolidating and strengthening centralization. At the same time, he successively put down some separatist regimes in the south. Just when he was full of ambition, Zhao Kuangyin, who had been emperor for seventeen years, died suddenly on the evening of October 20th in the ninth year of Kaibao (976) at the age of fifty. Official accounts of his death, such as The History of the Song Dynasty, are very simple, and the reasons are not mentioned. Decades later, folk note novels began to talk about the death of Song Taizu. Because the note novel about this matter is extremely complicated, it soon becomes more and more mysterious.

Shan Ye in Hunan, written by Wen Ying, a monk in the Northern Song Dynasty, is the first book talked about by people. The book says:1On the evening of October 20th, it was just dark, and Ming Can and Song Taizu were full of love. After a while, the weather suddenly changed. There was smog everywhere, and snow and hail plummeted. Song Taizu ordered someone to open a side door and called his brother King Jin. Come, Mao let him into the bedroom, two people drink, eunuchs, ladies-in-waiting. I saw Zhao Guangyi standing at the table from time to time by candlelight, as if he were a bad drinker. After drinking, it was already midnight, and the snow in front of the temple had accumulated to several inches. Zhao Kuangyin picked up an axe and cut a knife in the snow. He turned to Zhao Guangyi and said, "Easy, easy." After that, Mao took off his clothes and went to bed. Soon, he snored as usual. Zhao Guangyi stayed in the palace that night. Near the even, the people around the palace couldn't hear anything at all, and Mao was dead. Zhao Guangyi was in front of the coffin the day he ascended the throne. When reading the testamentary edict, the minister paid tribute to Song Taizu's remains and saw that "jade is as bright as soup".

Many people think that this information is not groundless. Although it can't be said that every sentence is accurate, it is generally credible. Therefore, it is customary to call the process of Mao's death "the sound of candles and axes."

In addition, Sima Guang's Biography of Sushui also recorded some scenes of Song Taizu's death. Song Taizong was not said to be the murderer, but how Emperor Taizong usurped the throne: when Emperor Taizong died, the Queen Mother and the Song Dynasty let the chamberlain know that Wang Jilong had called his son Qin. Wang Jilong knew that Song Taizu had always wanted to pass the throne to the King of Jin, so he didn't go to Fang's house, but went directly to the King of Jin's house himself. Just arrived near Jin Wangfu, I saw Jia Dexuan, a medical officer, sitting at the door and asked him why he had come. "Last night, at the second watch, someone called me at the door, saying it was King Zhao of Jin. When I walked to the door, I didn't see anyone. I was afraid that King Jin was ill, so I came. " Wang Jilong felt strange and told him that Mao was dead. Open the door, and they will go to see the king of Jin together. The king of Jin was shocked and hesitant when he heard the news of his death. He dared not go forward and said, "Let me discuss it with my family." Ran into the back room and stayed there for a long time. Geelong urged him: "Too long, the throne will be taken away by others." So King Jin and I walked to the palace gate in the snow. When the three of them came to the bedroom, Queen Song heard that Jilong had come back and asked Fang De if she had come. Wang Keelung replied, "The King of Jin has arrived." After the Song Dynasty, when he saw the King of Jin, he was surprised and at a loss. He quickly changed his name to "housekeeper" and said, "Our mother and son's lives are entrusted to the housekeeper."

Li Dao's Long Compilation of Zi Zhi Tong Jian is an important work to study the history of Song Dynasty. Combining these books to record, let the eternal mystery of "the sound of candles and axes" spread more widely.

Many people in past dynasties thought that Song Taizu's sudden death was related to Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi, the protagonist of these stories. Song Taizu's death was the result of Song Taizong's murder. However, there are different opinions about how Song Taizong did it.

Some people think that Zhao Guangyi poisoned the wine. According to his memoirs, Song Taizong once put Li Yu to death with a medicine. According to Ashes, Meng Changjun and Qian Chu were also poisoned by Song Taizong. Poisonous wine is the usual practice of Taizong. Song Taizong has a very special relationship with medical officer Cheng Dexuan. It may be that Dexuan used his medical skills to help Song Taizong ascend the throne.

According to the "Ember Collection", some people think that Mao was killed for a while because he was found molesting Mrs. Hua Rui. The book said: On weekdays, I praised Mrs. Hua Ruifei's brilliance many times in front of Mao. A few months later, Meng Changjun, the owner of Shu, died. Mao wanted to see what Fei looked like, so he immediately called Fei into the palace. Because Fisher was very likable, Song Taizu was very happy with her and took her for ten years. That night, Mao was ill in bed. In the middle of the night, Emperor Taizong called him. When he saw that Emperor Taizong should not, he took the opportunity to flirt with Fisher. Mao woke up and saw it, so he cut it with a jade axe and the two men scuffled. When the queen and the prince came, Mao was already dying. Zhao Guangyi was very ashamed to cut his hair and went back to his mansion in a panic. The next morning, Song Taizu fell. Experts believe that the role of Emperor Taizong as a princess directly led to the occurrence of "the sound of candles and axes". It is well known that Song Taizong is lewd. He once robbed young girls, occupied Li Yu's concubines and robbed northern Han concubines.

Some scholars believe that the flirting of stamens is an accidental event, and the real reason why Emperor Taizong wanted to kill Taizu was the uneven distribution of power between them. Zhao Kuangyin only knew the minister of prevention, but he relaxed his guard against his younger brother, which made him more powerful than anyone in the royal family, and naturally aroused Zhao Guangyi's desire to reign as soon as possible. The two men hold different views on military affairs and capital relocation. Due to the intensification of contradictions, Zhao Guangyi finally decided to do nothing.

It is generally believed that Song Taizong killed Song Taizu, but there are different opinions that Song Taizu did not die of assassination, and his death had nothing to do with Emperor Taizong. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many people thought that the story of "the sound of an axe and the shadow of a candle" was not credible. An expert in Song history who died during War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression wrote that Mao did not die of assassination. Others think that it is practically impossible for Song Taizong to kill Song Taizu. The record of Shan Ye, Hunan Province is a note, which appeared decades later. At most, it can only be said that there were such rumors in the early Song Dynasty.

There is a Japanese scholar named Araki Koichi. He thinks that Zhao Kuangyin likes drinking very much. He may suffer from acute diseases such as hypertension and cerebral hemorrhage, and he died after being rescued. This view was opposed by some people. They thought that Song Taizu really liked drinking, but in fact, as early as the second year of Stegosaurus (96 1), he said to ministers, "If you are addicted to alcohol, how can you be a man?" ? I may be drunk because of the banquet, and I have no regrets after staying. "He has abstemious drinking, so he can't have died of drinking too much.

Another scholar found that Zhao Songzong had family diseases, mainly mental diseases caused by sudden death, premature death and manic depression, and these diseases would be inherited. There were five people in the first generation of Zhao family, only Emperor Taizong died of natural causes, and the rest died prematurely or suddenly. Mao's four sons of the second generation, half worried about death, half died young, and only one of his nine sons lived to the end of his life. There are 28 people in the first and second generations of Zhao, of whom 4 died. 1 person's age is unknown. The average age of the other 23 people is only 4 1 year, which is far less than the average age of 62 years in the upper class of the Song Dynasty. In Hunan Records and other books, the author did not suggest that Mao died in a mysterious way, so that future generations were suspicious. Moreover, the banquet was held in the palace at that time, and Emperor Taizong was called into the palace by Emperor Taizong, so he could not make preparations at all. I never leave people around the banquet, so Mao falls asleep, and there is a waitress watching me. It's incredible to say that Taizong murdered me. Zhao Kuangyin's death is a hereditary family disease, which is caused by the rupture of cerebral artery, commonly known as cerebral hemorrhage, and he died after bipolar disorder recovered. Many situations recorded in historical books before Zhao Kuangyin's death are typical symptoms of cerebral hemorrhage.

Zhao Taizu's sudden death is acceptable to many people, but there is still no conclusive evidence to convince everyone that he died of illness or was killed. However, judging from the fact that Taizong ascended the throne with peace of mind after that, instead of handing it over to Taizong's eldest son Dezhao, and after that, all the royal families who were eligible to inherit the throne were removed by an excuse, Taizong's death should be related to Taizong. The records in Shan Ye Annals of Hunan are hesitant, indicating that some people began to doubt as early as the Song Dynasty. Since Cheng's Final Examination of the Song Dynasty in Ming Dynasty, especially since the 20th century, there have been endless articles about this matter, and it seems that the matter is purely usurped. As for some details of the case, because of the age, the physical evidence of the witness has long since vanished, and it is impossible to make a definite judgment, which can still be called the eternal mystery.