Chapter 29 Section Three
Tang Taizong was a wise emperor who paid great attention to family education, so many of his descendants were promising. For example, Tang Xuanzong followed Taizong's "Zhenguan Rule" and created the "Kaiyuan Rule".However, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty did not keep the legacy of his ancestors in mind, and he was lax in the middle of the process, and he let the education of later generations go his own way, so that after the "Anshi Rebellion", the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty started by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty gradually declined.
There were many reasons for the rapid decline in the late Tang Dynasty. Among them, the royal family's mistakes in education and the cultivation of some unworthy descendants were also a direct factor.
For example, Li Heng, the eldest son of Tang Xuanzong, who later became Tang Suzong, liked to "teach" playing chess.During the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Xuanzong fled to Sichuan, and Prince Li Heng took advantage of the rebellion to ascend the throne and became emperor.When his family and country were in danger, the Emperor Suzong ignored political affairs and played chess indoors with his concubine Zhang Liangdi all day long.Chess pieces at that time were made of gold and gilt copper, and they jingled when they fell on the metal chessboard.If it is normal days, it is understandable to have some entertainment, but at this time it is full of chaos.Li Mi (bibi), the prime minister who followed Suzong, advised him, saying that it had been raining for days, and the soldiers were starving and crowded in the humble houses, and their complaints were boiling. If the emperor behaved like this, it would cause a mutiny and reappear.However, Su Zong did not listen to the persuasion, and his interest in playing chess has not diminished. He just put aside the gold and bronze chess pieces, and asked people to carve wooden chess pieces out of cork "dry tree chicken" to avoid the sound of the chess pieces.Although he invented wooden chess ingeniously, the ministers who followed him were very dissatisfied with his behavior, and almost followed Xuanzong's footsteps.
For another example, the royal tutors in the late Tang Dynasty took playing basketball as a content, but they cultivated several fan emperors.Tang Muzong was very obsessed with playing ball. "Book of Tang" said that he "did not see his officials for three days because of violent hitting the ball".Like a father, like a son, Li Zhan, Mu Zong's son, followed his father's example of playing ball and hunting day and night.Not only that, but also fatuous and immoral, oppressing the people, and causing great public anger.Later, one day he was drunk by the golfer who was playing with him, and was killed in the locker room in a daze.
In the Tang Dynasty, the royal tutors in the middle and late period gradually declined. Except for Tang Wenzong Li Ang who loved reading, there was no one who was willing to work hard on learning.However, this does not mean that the royal family education stopped, but that the relatives and eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty led the royal family education astray.They don't let the royal descendants learn serious things, they just teach them how to play ball, hunting, chess, cockfighting and lackeys;The purpose of foreign relatives and eunuchs doing this is to create fatuous and incompetent "son emperors" through this kind of misinformation, so that they can steal the power of the court and run rampant.In the late Tang Dynasty, foreign relatives and eunuchs controlled the government, and there were many internal strife. The emperor was in name only. Like Wen Zong Li Ang, because he failed to kill the eunuch group that controlled the government, he ended up living a life called the emperor but a prisoner.
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