Chapter 5 Wu Yuanzuo went crazy

Continue to talk about the topic of Song Taizong's succession to the throne.Song Taizong adopted a series of measures, and finally cleared away all the obstacles in the succession.However, the process of his succession was not smooth sailing, but full of twists and turns and frequent changes. In the eighth year of Taiping Xingguo (983), Song Taizong changed his sons from the "De" character generation to the "Yuan" character generation, and the names were also changed. For example, Zhao Dechong was renamed Zhao Yuanzuo, Zhao Deming was renamed Zhao Yuanyou; The son and Zhao Tingmei's son are still in the German generation.Among them, there is naturally a deeper meaning.

Song Taizong's eldest son, Zhao Yuanzuo (formerly known as Zhao Dechong), was smart and alert since he was a child. He looked exactly like Song Taizong.Zhao Yuanzuo has martial arts skills, is good at riding and shooting, and once followed Song Taizong to the Northern Han Dynasty and Youji.When Song Taizong persecuted Zhao Tingmei wantonly, Zhao Yuanzuo was very dissatisfied with his father's actions, and tried his best to rescue his uncle Zhao Tingmei, please forgive him, but failed.Later, Zhao Tingmei became ill from anxiety and died in Fangzhou.After Zhao Yuanzuo heard the news, he was greatly stimulated, and even became sick with grief and anger because of this, and became madly ill.As long as one of his subordinates made a small mistake, he could not help but slash it with a knife, which made everyone in Chu Palace terrified.Song Taizong was very heartbroken by this, and sent an imperial doctor to treat the eldest son, and even pardoned the world for Zhao Yuanzuo.

On the Double Ninth Festival in the second year of Yongxi's reign (985), Song Taizong summoned several sons to feast and shoot in the palace garden. Because he was worried that Zhao Yuanzuo would not recover from his illness, he did not send anyone to invite him.After the banquet, Chen Wang Zhao Yuanyou went to visit his elder brother Zhao Yuanzuo.Zhao Yuanzuo learned that there was a grand banquet held in the palace, and the prince attended it, but he was not invited. He was very unhappy, and said, "I am the only one who did not attend the banquet that you serve the Holy One. This is to abandon me!" The more angry he was, the more he began to drink vigorously.In the middle of the night, he simply set fire to his palace.For a time, smoke billowed from the halls and pavilions, and the flames shot into the sky.

After Song Taizong learned about it later, he guessed that Zhao Yuanzuo himself might have done it, so he ordered someone to investigate.Zhao Yuanzuo dared to do it, and admitted it openly.Song Taizong suddenly became furious and wanted to sever the relationship between father and son.Everyone failed to rescue him, so Zhao Yuanzuo was deposed as a commoner and placed in Junzhou.Prime Minister Song Qi led a group of officials to write three letters to Song Taizong, requesting Zhao Yuanzuo to stay in the capital.Song Taizong finally couldn't let go of his father-son relationship, and agreed to the request of the officials.At this time, Zhao Yuanzuo was already on his way to Junzhou. When he reached Huangshan, he was recalled by the envoy, and then he lived in Nangong.However, Song Taizong was obviously disappointed with the eldest son, and the relationship between father and son became colder from then on.

At that time, Song Taizong thought that Zhao Yuanzuo was suffering from madness, so he asked famous doctors to treat him in many ways.In fact, according to Zhao Yuanzuo's personality, it is unlikely that he will suffer from insanity. He should be deliberately pretending to be crazy, in order to vent Song Taizong's dissatisfaction and express his rejection of the throne.A man of temperament, unfortunately born in the emperor's family, witnessed the fratricide, but was powerless to stop it, what else could he do except pretend to be crazy!Of course, Zhao Yuanzuo's goal was indeed achieved. After that, he stayed away from the vortex of power and lived a life of escape from the world.And since then, there has been no record of his madness, which further proves that his "madness" was intentional.However, he was the eldest son of Song Taizong after all, and interest groups did not let him go.Later, when Song Zhenzong came to the throne, Zhao Yuanzuo was also inexplicably involved in a political turmoil.But just because Zhao Yuanzuo had no interest in the throne and politics before, he was not implicated and died well. This is his great fortune among misfortunes.The origin of this paragraph will be described in detail later.

And there is another key figure in this turmoil of Zhao Yuanzuo burning the palace, that is, Chen Wang Zhao Yuanyou.Why did Zhao Yuanyou run to Chu Palace after the banquet?What did he say to his brother Zhao Yuanzuo?Although the content is unknown, I think this conversation should be the cause that directly stimulated Zhao Yuanzuo to set fire.Later, Song Taizong didn't suspect that others set the fire, but in a blink of an eye he suspected his own son Zhao Yuanzuo, most likely because of Zhao Yuanyou's side-talking reminder. Why do you suspect Chen Wang and Zhao Yuanyou have ulterior motives?Because Zhao Yuanzuo was most likely to be established as the prince before, and shortly after Zhao Yuanzuo's downfall, Zhao Yuanyou changed his name to Zhao Yuanxi, and served as Kaifeng Yin and servant, becoming the quasi-crown prince, and immediately had a great reputation.Song Taizong also appointed Zhang Yunhua, a doctor in the household department, as the magistrate of Kaifeng Mansion, and Chen Zai, the censor in the palace, as the judge, and asked them to say: "You two are officials in the middle of the court, and I specially ask you to help my son well. "The tone is quite obvious, Zhao Yuanxi is the future emperor.But conversely, if Zhao Yuanzuo does not fall, how can the throne be Zhao Yuanxi's turn?It can be seen from this that Zhao Yuanxi has a strong motive to get rid of Zhao Yuanzuo.

Zhao Yuanxi himself is quite capable in politics. As soon as he gained power, he set out to win over important officials in the court.After repeated comparisons and balances, Zhao Yuanxi was chosen by Zhao Pu, who had been dismissed for the second time.At this time, Zhao Pu had eradicated Zhao Tingmei for Song Taizong, and once again lost power.Why choose Zhao Pu who has lost power?The most important reason is that everyone in the world knows that Zhao Pu is the culprit who framed Zhao Tingmei, and therefore Zhao Yuanzuo's mortal enemy.Therefore, Zhao Yuanxi tried his best to lobby Song Taizong. It happened that Song Taizong wanted to appoint Lv Mengzheng as prime minister. Lv Mengzheng lacked prestige and needed a famous minister to assist him.Therefore, Song Taizong reappointed Zhao Pu as prime minister, which was the third time Zhao Pu became prime minister.After Zhao Pu became prime minister, he immediately understood and assisted Zhao Yuanxi to fight against Zhao Yuanzuo's cronies and old party.From this point of view, Zhao Yuanzuo's so-called madness is simply false, and Zhao Yuanzuo's burning of the palace directly led to his being abolished, which was obviously planned by Zhao Yuanxi.

Zhao Pu was dismissed shortly after, but Zhao Yuanxi had achieved his goal, and his elder brother Zhao Yuanzuo's power was hit hard.Since then, he has a very close relationship with the then prime minister Lu Mengzheng, and the purpose is obviously Sima Zhao's heart.However, at the end of Song Taizong's reign, it seemed that he could not get rid of the terrifying shadow of "the sound of the ax and the shadow of the candle". After Zhao Yuanzuo "went mad", the unfortunate fate befell Zhao Yuanxi again.In November of the third year of Chunhua (992), Zhao Yuanxi returned to the mansion after the morning court. He suddenly felt unwell, weak all over, and had abdominal pain like twisting.He was only twenty-seven years old when he died, and the cause of death was extremely strange.

Song Taizong sent a white-haired man to a black-haired man, which was naturally very sad, so he stopped the court for five days, gave Zhao Yuanxi the identity of the crown prince, and wrote "Poems of Thinking of the Dead Son". Regarding the mystery of Zhao Yuanxi's violent death, there are many discussions in the ruling and opposition parties.There is a legend that Zhao Yuanxi's sudden death was caused by his concubine Zhang's poisoning.Zhao Yuanxi didn't like his wife Li, but loved his concubine Zhang.The Zhang family relied on favor and arrogance, and severely punished slaves and maidservants for the slightest dissatisfaction. Some of the deceased even went beyond the system and buried their parents generously.Mrs. Li couldn't understand Mrs. Zhang's behavior, and often scolded her.Because of this, Mrs. Zhang held a grudge and planned to poison Mrs. Li, but accidentally poisoned Zhao Yuanxi to death.

Song Taizong was furious when he heard about it, and immediately sent someone to investigate the matter.Knowing that she could not escape the crime, Zhang committed suicide by hanging herself. The luxurious tomb she carefully built for her parents was also destroyed by Song Taizong.Song Taizong even hated his dead son Zhao Yuanxi. All the relatives in Zhao Yuanxi's mansion were punished, and he issued an edict to stop Zhao Yuanxi's crown prince gift ceremony and lower the standard of his funeral. Zhao Yuanxi was originally very popular with Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty. He also had great ambitions and made good friends with the prime minister. Many ministers in the court suggested that he be crowned prince.It was a time when the spring breeze was proud, but he died inexplicably, and was disgusted by his father Song Taizong after his death. It is really sad and lamentable.

Zhao Yuanzuo was abolished, Zhao Yuanxi died violently, and the reserve position was suddenly vacant. The minister Feng Zheng (a Jinshi in the second year of Taiping Xingguo) and others went up to ask for the crown prince to be established as soon as possible.At this time, Song Taizong was worried about Zhao Yuanzuo and Zhao Yuanxi. Feng Zheng and others touched his most painful place, and immediately became furious and demoted Feng Zheng and others to Lingnan.Since then, no one in the court dared to discuss the issue of succession. However, at this time, the problem of establishing the crown prince was imminent. Song Taizong's arrow wounds occurred from time to time, which was very painful. Even he himself knew that the end was approaching.Because Feng Zheng and others had just been reprimanded for the issue of establishing a prince, and it was inconvenient to discuss publicly, Song Taizong asked Kou Zhun's opinion in private.Kou Zhun's wife is the sister of Song Taizu's Empress Song, who can also be regarded as a relative of the emperor.Kou Zhun was well aware of the ancestral family law that foreign ministers could not interfere in internal affairs, so it was inconvenient to answer directly, so he said: "Your Majesty chooses a monarch for the world, and you cannot discuss it with women, eunuchs, and close ministers. I only hope that your Majesty chooses what the world looks up to. People." Song Taizong hesitated for a long time, and proposed to Lixiang Wang Zhao Yuankan (Zhao Yuanzuo's mother and brother, mother Li Concubine).Kou Zhun replied euphemistically, "There is no better way to know a son than a father." It means that Song Taizong knows his son best, and there must be no wrong choice.It finally prompted Song Taizong to make up his mind.So Xiang Wang Zhao Yuankan was established as the prince and changed his name to Zhao Heng, who later became Song Zhenzong. After Song Taizong canonized the crown prince, he pardoned the world.The people in the capital cheered when they saw the prince Zhao Heng: "What a young emperor." Song Taizong was very unhappy when he learned about it, and immediately called Kou Zhun and said: "All the hearts of the world have naturalized the prince at once, then put me away. What position is he in!" He had just appointed the crown prince, and the crown prince was so popular that even if there was a relationship between father and son, suspicion and estrangement arose.Fortunately, Kou Zhun said: "It is His Majesty's wise decision and the people of the country's great blessing that the crown prince is expected to receive." Song Taizong calmed down after hearing this, and invited Kou Zhun to drink, let alone get drunk.See "History of the Song Dynasty Volume 281 Biography of Kou Zhun". If it weren't for Kou Zhun's ingenious response to eliminate Song Taizong's inexplicable suspicion, the consequences would be unimaginable.This also indirectly proves that Song Taizong's position was incorrect from another aspect.Similar to Song Taizong's situation, there is Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, who has been guarded against his eldest son Zhu Gaochi who has been established as the prince, even to the point of nervousness.The reason is simple, Ming Chengzu, like Song Taizong, was not in the right position.None of them wanted to see their successors emulate their power-grabbing practices, not even their own sons. It is said that the most frequently mentioned historical figure in Song Taizong's life was Tang Taizong.Tang Taizong killed his brothers and won the throne, and Song Taizong also murdered his brothers to win the country. Their behaviors are very similar.This is probably the so-called sympathy. In March of the third year of Zhidao (997), Song Taizong died amidst regrets of unfulfilled ambitions and many unbearable memories.So far, all the people directly related to the Alliance of the Golden Chamber and Ax Sound and Candle Shadow have passed away. The article "The Sound of the Ax and the Shadow of the Candle" is about to end here, and here are a few more words. The death of Song Taizong did not calm down the turmoil of the sound of the ax and the shadow of the candle, but instead attracted many speculations.Song Taizu died violently in the shadow of the sound of axes and candles. Within five or six years, his two sons died for no apparent reason, which caused waves in the world.Many mysterious stories about the violent death of Song Taizu have also been widely circulated through various channels, but most of them are not good for Song Taizong. Almost all believe that Song Taizong killed his brother and seized the throne. Taizong chopped Song Taizu with an ax and said.At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, half of the rivers and mountains were occupied by the Jin people, and the Hui and Qin emperors were captured, which became a great shame since the founding of the Song Dynasty.At that time, it was widely circulated that Song Taizu borrowed the hand of Jin Taizong Wanyan Sheng (the female real name Wu Qimai, Wanyan Aguda's same mother and younger brother) to avenge the revenge of the day.It can be seen from this that the saying that Song Taizong was not in the right position was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people at that time.If there were spirits underground, Song Taizong would definitely die with peace in his eyes. The most surprising thing is that Song Taizong's descendants also seem to believe that their ancestors killed their brothers and usurped the throne.The youngest son of Zhao Gou, the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Song Gaozong, died early, and has been childless since then, so the selection of the crown prince has become a prominent issue.There was a lot of discussion about this among the ruling and opposition parties, and a strong opinion was: Song Taizu was the creator of the Song Dynasty, and he should choose to inherit the throne from among his descendants.At this time, by the generation of Song Gaozong Zhao Gou, the blood relationship had been quite alienated from the descendants of Song Taizu.Therefore, Song Gaozong began to think that this idea of ​​making the descendants of the Taizu the prince was whimsical, and often severely derogated it.However, one day suddenly, Song Gaozong changed his mind.It is said that this is because he had a strange dream. The founding monarch Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin took him to reverse the time and return to the "Long Live Hall" of that day, and saw the real scene of "the sound of the ax and the shadow of the candle".Song Taizu also solemnly said to Song Gaozong: "Only if you pass on the throne to my descendants, the Song Dynasty may have a slight turn for the better." There is also a rumor that an envoy who once went to the Kingdom of Jin said after returning: The lord (Jin Taizong) looks exactly like Taizu, and it is said that Taizu will come back to take the throne." So Song Gaozong said: "The emperor Taizu is selfless, but he has a son, but he passes the throne to his younger brother, and the descendants decline. The descendants of Taizu." Finally, it was decided to choose the heir to the throne from among the descendants of Song Taizu. Dreams and rumors may be false, but it is a true fact that Song Gaozong passed the throne to Song Taizu's descendants.Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, took great pains to find the seventh grandson of Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty, Zhao Min (a direct descendant of Zhao Defang, the youngest son of Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty), adopted him as his adopted son, and later abdicated as the Supreme Emperor, and passed on the throne to Zhao Min, who became Song Xiaozong .