Li Mao was originally Yang Yuhuan’s husband, but his wife was later taken away by his biological father Li Longji. His life was quite miserable. Below, the history encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s continue reading.
Li Mao’s birth year is unknown, but it can be confirmed that when Li Mao was born, his father Li Longji had already been emperor for several years. Moreover, before Li Mao, Li Longji had already had seventeen sons. It has to be said that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, had a strong reproductive ability.
In theory, Li Longji, who already has seventeen sons, may not necessarily attach as much importance to his 18th son. But in reality, after Li Mao was born, he almost became one of Li Longji’s most beloved sons!
Because his birth mother was Empress Wu Hui, who was the most favored concubine by Li Longji at that time.
Here we need to explain briefly that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, once married a legitimate wife, Wang Shi, when he was a prince. Later, Li Longji helped his father Li Dan ascend to power through a coup, and then Li Dan passed the throne to Li Longji, making him emperor. This legitimate wife, Wang Shi, also became Queen Wang. However, despite marrying Li Longji for many years, this empress dowager has never given birth to a child. Because he had no children, Li Longji naturally had to spoil other concubines. Among these concubines, Empress Wu Hui was particularly favored.
However, after Li Mao was born, although Li Longji was happy, he also entrusted Li Mao to his brother Li Xian for upbringing. This is mainly because before Li Mao, Li Longji and Wu Huifei had two sons, but both of them died early. The ancients were quite superstitious, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang believed that perhaps Empress Wu Huifei was not suitable for raising young children. So since Li Mao was born, Li Longji sent him to his most respected elder brother’s mansion and asked him to take care of him.
As Li Mao grew older, Li Longji also grew to like this son more and more. On the one hand, it was due to her love for Empress Wu Hui, and on the other hand, it was also because Li Mao was indeed intelligent and clever. Moreover, as Li Mao gradually grew up, something happened in the palace that made his identity even more special.
In the twelfth year of the Kaiyuan era, Queen Wang, who had never given birth, began to think of unconventional ways because she was too eager to have children. At that time, Empress Wang’s brother brought in a monk to help her with the ritual. Afterwards, he wrote down the name of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and some mystical things on a piece of lightning struck wood.
This matter is not a big deal to talk about. It was originally meant to pray for blessings, bring a talisman to bring joy, and hope to have children. But the problem is that Li Longji had long disliked Queen Wang and wanted to depose her. So after this matter was exposed, someone immediately said that it was Queen Wang cursing Li Longji with witchcraft, and now the problem is big.
So in the end, Queen Wang was deposed.
After Queen Wang was deposed, Empress Wu Hui became the most powerful concubine in the imperial harem. Although Emperor Xuanzong of Tang never succeeded due to his unwillingness to be constrained by others. But for a long time afterwards, Empress Wu Huifei, as a noble consort, was actually equivalent to the empress of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.
His mother became a noble concubine, which was naturally a good thing for Li Mao. Although Empress Wu Huifei has not yet become empress, Li Mao cannot be considered a legitimate son. But this identity is always more special than other princes.
In the next decade, Li Mao’s status began to rise. In the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan, Li Mao was granted the title of Shouwang and returned to live in the palace at the same time. In the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, he was appointed as the Governor of Yizhou and the Ambassador of Jiannan Jiedu. In the 23rd year of the Kaiyuan reign, he was appointed as the third official of the Kaifu Yitong department.
In the 23rd year of the Kaiyuan era, following the instructions of Empress Wu Huifei, Li Mao married Yang Yuhuan.
Speaking of the acquaintance between Li Mao and Yang Yuhuan, it is quite romantic. In the 22nd year of the Kaiyuan era, Princess Xianyi, the daughter of Concubine Wu Huifei, who is Li Mao’s sisters, married Yang Hui, a young talent of the Hongnong Yang family. In order to marry the princess, the Yang family naturally had to hold a lively wedding. As relatives of Princess Xianyi, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Empress Wu Huifei, and Prince Li Mao naturally attended the ceremony.
At this wedding, Empress Wu Huifei discovered that among the bridesmaids sent by the Yang family, there was a very cute little girl, and that girl was Yang Yuhuan. At the same wedding, Li Mao also noticed Yang Yuhuan and left a deep impression on her.
After this wedding, Empress Wu Huifei had a particularly good impression of Yang Yuhuan, so she asked Emperor Xuanzong of Tang to propose marriage to Li Mao. The Yang family said that after Li Mao took a liking to Yang Yuhuan, he was naturally overjoyed and quickly agreed. So, just one year after Princess Xianyi married into the Yang family, Li Mao officially married Yang Yuhuan and made her his legitimate wife.
This year, Yang Yuhuan was only 16 years old.
After Li Mao and Yang Yuhuan got married, they spent a period of considerable affection. However, shortly after their marriage, Li Mao once again ushered in a major turning point in her life.
As Li Mao gradually grew up, Empress Wu Huifei not only started to worry about her son’s marriage, but also began to think about helping her son fight for the position of crown prince. However, at that time, the Crown Prince already had a candidate, which was Li Ying, the second son of Li Longji. Li Ying’s birth mother, Zhao Shi, married Li Longji when he was still a prince and was very favored. So after becoming emperor, Li Longji appointed Li Ying, the son of the Zhao family, as the crown prince because the empress had no children. At that time, Empress Wu Huifei had not yet entered the palace, so naturally there was no room for her to make any achievements.
However, at this point, in order to fight for her son’s position as crown prince, Empress Wu Huifei began to harbor great hatred towards Crown Prince Li Ying. Not only was Li Ying hated by Empress Wu Hui, but even Prince E Li Yao and Prince Guang Li Ju were also envied by Empress Wu Hui. Because these two princes are equally outstanding. Even if Li Ying is deposed, according to the ancient orderly inheritance system of seniority, it should still be their turn, not Li Mao who ranked 18th.
So, only by eliminating all three of them at the same time can Li Mao have a chance.
In order to fight for the position of crown prince, Empress Wu Huifei began to form an alliance with Prime Minister Li Linfu and set traps. One day, Empress Wu Huifei falsely claimed that there were thieves in the palace and asked someone to invite these three princes to lead troops into the palace. As a result, when the three princes led troops into the palace, Empress Wu Hui pretended that nothing had happened and bit back, saying that the three princes wanted to rebel. Upon hearing Wu Huifei’s words and then Li Linfu, as the prime minister, speaking on behalf of the courtiers, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was finally furious. Not only did he depose the two princes and remove Li Ying’s position as crown prince, but he also ordered the three of them to commit suicide.
In one day, Empress Wu Huifei set up a plot to kill three princes.
The three princes have all been purged, and Empress Wu Huifei holds immense power in the palace, with the assistance of Prime Minister Li Linfu in the court. At this point, Li Mao seemed to be only one step away from the position of crown prince. However, at this critical moment, Li Mao’s birth mother Wu Huifei suddenly passed away.
There are many speculations in later generations about the cause of Empress Wu Huifei’s death. Some people say that Empress Wu Hui fell ill due to a sudden illness, while others say that after killing the three kings, she developed a psychological shadow and died of depression. Anyway, at this critical moment, Empress Wu Huifei has indeed passed away.
The death of Empress Wu Huifei was undoubtedly a significant blow to Li Mao.
After the death of Empress Wu Huifei, Prime Minister Li Linfu still firmly supported Li Mao as the Crown Prince. But in the end, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang made an unexpected decision: to abandon Li Mao and appoint the third son of the emperor, Li Di, as the crown prince. Later, Li Di changed his name to Li Heng, who later became Emperor Su of Tang.
The death of his mother and the loss of the crown prince’s position have dealt two blows, which is obviously not easy for Li Mao. However, Li Mao never expected that shortly after this, another nightmare would strike him.
Two years after the death of Empress Wu Huifei, Li Longji was melancholy in the palace. Although there were many women in the palace, none of them could please him. At this moment, Li Longji heard that Yang Yuhuan, the consort of Prince Shou Li Mao, was particularly beautiful, so he summoned her into the palace. After meeting Yang Yuhuan, Li Longji immediately fell in love with her. Afterwards, Li Longji first made Yang Yuhuan become a monk, and then had Li Mao marry another woman from the Jingzhao Wei family as his legitimate wife. Afterwards, Li Longji forcibly incorporated Yang Yuhuan into the palace and became his own noble consort!
The whole process is really unbelievable.
As a biological father, Li Longji robbed his own son’s wife.
No one knows what Li Longji was thinking at that time.
However, if we link it to the incident of killing three kings in one day two years ago, this matter becomes somewhat subtle. Later generations speculate that Li Longji’s actions at that time were likely driven by a desire for revenge against Empress Wu Huifei and her son. Li Longji is highly likely to have known afterwards that it was Empress Wu Huifei who set up a scheme to lure him to kill three princes, so he harbored great hatred towards Empress Wu Huifei. However, because the order to kill the son was given by Li Longji himself, and Li Longji cannot directly say that he was wrong, he cannot directly punish Empress Wu Huifei.
If that’s the case, many things make sense.
Perhaps the death of Empress Wu Huifei was the result of Li Longji’s secret operation. Perhaps the reason why Li Longji did not appoint Li Mao as the crown prince at that time was because he learned the truth about this matter. Perhaps the reason why Li Longji forcibly took Li Mao’s wife was due to this retaliatory mentality.
However, all of this is just speculation from later generations, and we cannot find any historical records to prove it.
Anyway, it is a fact that Li Longji stole his own son’s wife. And Li Mao, who was robbed of his wife by his father, was obviously quite angry. However, Li Mao couldn’t resist and could only break his teeth and swallow it in his stomach.
In the following sixteen years, there was basically no record of Li Mao in historical books, as if Li Mao had completely become an idle prince. It was not until the An Lushan Rebellion broke out in 755 AD that Li Mao reappeared. After the outbreak of the An Lushan Rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled to Shu, during which a mutiny occurred at Mawei Post. During the Ma Weiyi Mutiny, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang executed Yang Yuhuan in order to appease the imperial guards. Then let Crown Prince Li Heng lead his army to resist the rebels, while letting Li Mao appease the forbidden army.
But afterwards, there was no record of Li Mao. Until the year 775 AD, Li Mao passed away. At this time, it was already the reign of Emperor Tang, the son of Li Heng. After Li Mao’s death, Emperor Tang posthumously appointed him as Grand Tutor.
Throughout Li Mao’s life, due to his mother’s favor, he was once only half a step away from the position of crown prince. However, afterwards, Li Mao experienced the pain of losing his mother, the regret of missing the crown prince’s throne, and the revenge of taking his wife. Unfortunately, for the person who robbed his wife, Li Mao dared not speak out in anger and could only honestly be his idle prince.
This kind of life, apart from the two words’ hold back ‘, seems to have no other words that are more suitable for him.
