After Li Dan became the emperor for the second time, Li Longji was appointed as the crown prince by Li Dan for his merits, and eventually ascended to the throne as a legitimate emperor under Li Dan’s abdication. Many people know about this history and also know that Li Longji was Li Dan’s third son, but few people know that in fact, before Li Longji became the crown prince, his identity was the son of his uncle Li Hong.
From a patriarchal perspective, Li Longji was no longer the son of Li Dan before becoming the crown prince. Why was he still able to be crowned as the crown prince by Li Dan? From a patriarchal perspective, who did he inherit the throne from?
Li Longji was adopted by his uncle Li Hong
In the Tang Dynasty, the establishment of a crown prince was generally strictly based on the system of eldest son succession. For example, Li Zhi’s first crown prince was his eldest son Li Hong (posthumously honored as Emperor Xiaojing), who was the eldest son of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian. In addition to Li Hong, the two also had three sons: Li Xian, Li Xian, and Li Dan.
Li Hong, as the eldest son, became the crown prince at an early age, and Li Zhi had high hopes for him. He specifically sought out a master to educate and train Li Hong. Li Hong himself was also very talented, with outstanding literary, military, and strategic abilities, as well as being very benevolent and intelligent. After seeing the daughter of Xiao Shufei who had been imprisoned by Wu Zetian for many years, Li Hong insisted that Wu Zetian release the two for marriage. Under Li Hong’s insistence, Wu Zetian betrothed the two to two guards, fulfilling Li Hong’s wish.
It can be said that Li Hong’s qualities in all aspects fully meet the standards of a successor. After feeling unwell, Li Zhi planned to pass the throne to Li Hong early on and personally began training and nurturing him to adapt to the feeling of being an emperor. Li Zhi took Li Hong to Luoyang, but unfortunately, Li Hong suddenly fell ill and passed away, leaving an unsolved mystery for future generations.
It is difficult to draw any valid conclusion about the cause of Li Hong’s death from a single incident. However, considering the later situation where Li Xian was framed by Wu Zetian and demoted to a commoner before being forced to die, many people believe that Li Hong’s death was closely related to Wu Zetian.
After all, at that time, Wu Zetian was seizing power, and judging from the political situation when Li Xian was later falsely accused and forced to die, at the time of Li Hong’s death, Wu Zetian had not fully grasped the real power, so she could only eliminate him without realizing it. After Li Zhi appointed Li Xian as the crown prince, Wu Zetian had time to conspire for the seizure of power again.
After Li Xian was deposed as a commoner, Li Zhi appointed Li Xian as the crown prince. Later, Li Zhi passed away and Li Xian successfully ascended to the throne as emperor. Unfortunately, at this time, the real power was completely in the hands of Wu Zetian. Li Xian struggled for a moment before being deposed by Wu Zetian and replaced by his younger brother Li Dan.
Li Dan was the youngest son of Wu Zetian and Li Zhi. He witnessed the tragedy of his three brothers from a young age and knew that he was no match for Wu Zetian. He could only obediently become a puppet emperor. In the second year of Li Dan’s reign as emperor, the third son, Li Longji, was born. Because Li Dan was still the emperor at that time, Li Longji was conferred the title of King of Chu as soon as he was born.
As mentioned earlier, although Li Dan was considered an emperor, he did not actually have any real power. At that time, all the real power was in the hands of Wu Zetian. Perhaps Wu Zetian was forced to adopt Li Longji to the deceased Li Hong at the age of only 4, in order to deceive people or show off and win their hearts.
At the time of Li Hong’s death, he was only 23 years old and had no children. Wu Zetian adopted Li Xian’s third son to Li Hong, which meant continuing Li Hong’s lineage. This move greatly demonstrated Wu Zetian’s benevolence and righteousness. Even if Li Dan did not want it in her heart, she could only obediently obey and turn her son Li Longji from the clan system into her nephew Li Longji.
During the Tang Dynasty, there were already many emperors who adopted their sons to their childless brothers. In addition, Li Dan was a puppet emperor without real power, and everything could only be arranged by Wu Zetian. Perhaps due to the influence of these events, Li Dan completely understood that his role as a puppet emperor was meaningless. In the second year after Li Longji was adopted to Li Hong, he abdicated the throne to Wu Zetian, allowing her to become a female emperor openly and honestly.
Li Longji keeps approaching the throne
From the moment Li Longji was adopted by Li Hong, it was decided that Li Longji had no hope of becoming emperor under normal circumstances, because regardless of whether Wu Zetian passed the throne to Li Xian or Li Dan in the future, it had nothing to do with Li Longji. According to the inheritance system, they could only pass the throne to their sons according to the clan system, not to their nephews.
When Li Longji was young, he was a very outstanding person. He understood that he had no chance to inherit the throne, so he secretly managed his own power. Even if he couldn’t become an emperor in the future, it would be good to be a powerful and influential member of the imperial family.
Li Longji relied on his own management and had a good relationship with the imperial guards in the palace. Everyone supported Li Longji very much, which laid the foundation for the later Tang Long coup and other power grabbing events. If Li Longji were just an ordinary royal relative, there would definitely be no sequel.
In 705 AD, Prime Minister Zhang Jianzhi and others joined forces with Li Xian, Princess Taiping, and Shangguan Wan’er to launch the Shenlong Coup, which overthrew Wu Zetian, who was already over 80 years old, and passed the throne to Li Xian. After Li Xian ascended the throne, he felt guilty for his elderly wife Wei and daughter Anle, who had been suffering with him in a foreign land, and handed over many powers to them. As a result, his overly favored wife and daughter gradually lost control.
The two of them disrupted the order of the palace, illegally bought and sold official titles, causing chaos in the court. To make matters worse, they idolized Wu Zetian and wanted to become the female emperor and empress dowager. In order to achieve their goal, they did not hesitate to kill Li Xian and falsely proclaimed Li Chongmao, the youngest son of Li Xian, as the crown prince. This move caused serious dissatisfaction among Princess Taiping and Li Longji.
During Li Xian’s reign as emperor, Li Longji was falsely accused by Empress Wei and Princess Anle, and almost died in the underworld. Now, when new and old grudges are counted together, Li Longji joined forces with Princess Taiping, one controlling the military power of the Forbidden Army and the other controlling the ministers of the court, to launch the Tang Long coup and take down Empress Wei, Princess Anle, Shangguan Wan’er and others in one fell swoop.
After the Tang Long coup, Li Longji and Princess Taiping, among others, supported Li Dan as emperor for the common interests of everyone. Li Dan was unconsciously pushed to the throne for the second time. This person, who had never wanted to become emperor, soon faced a difficult decision after becoming emperor for the second time, which was to establish a crown prince.
Who will Li Longji inherit the throne from
The difficult decision faced by Li Dan at that time was that, according to the patriarchal system, Li Longji had already been adopted by Li Hong and was no longer his own son, so he could not pass on the throne to him. Instead, he should pass on the throne to his eldest son Li Chengqi. However, Li Longji played a huge role in the Tang Long coup, and Li Dan was also aware of his strength. If he passed on the throne to Li Chengqi, it would be embarrassing if Li Longji launched a coup similar to the Xuanwu Gate Incident in the future, killing his brother Li Chengqi and forcing him to abdicate.
Instead of risking being ousted from the throne in the future to make Li Chengqi the crown prince, it is better to make Li Longji the crown prince now. While Li Dan was hesitating, Li Chengqi felt the danger and took the initiative to find Li Dan, requesting that Li Dan make Li Longji, who had made great contributions, the crown prince. Faced with Li Chengqi’s resignation, Li Dan finally made up his mind to make Li Longji the crown prince.
According to the patriarchal system at that time, Li Dan could not directly appoint Li Longji as the crown prince because Li Longji was the son of Li Hong. To appoint Li Longji as the crown prince, it was necessary to first abolish the previous adoption and allow him to return to the status of Li Dan’s son before passing on the throne to him.
Li Dan indeed followed this procedure, first restoring Li Longji’s identity as his own son, and then appointing him as the crown prince. In fact, according to the ancient patriarchal system, even if Li Longji was not Li Dan’s son and wanted to inherit the throne, he had to recognize Li Dan as his father before he could inherit the throne. Just like Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, because he was a minor sect to inherit the throne, in order to turn his minor sect into a major one and make his inheritance more legal, he directly engaged in a major ritual dispute for decades before completing this matter.
After understanding the process of Li Dan appointing Li Longji as the crown prince, it is not difficult for us to understand one issue. Before Li Longji accepted the succession, his status in the patriarchal system was that of Li Hong’s son. However, after Li Dan passed the throne to him, Li Longji’s status was restored to that of Li Dan’s son. In other words, the throne he inherited must have been passed down to him by Li Dan, otherwise it would not comply with the patriarchal system.
It was precisely because Li Longji’s identity was relatively awkward at that time that Princess Taiping repeatedly made a big fuss on the grounds that Li Longji’s identity did not conform to the inheritance system, hoping that Li Dan would abolish Li Longji’s position as crown prince. Fortunately, Li Dan understood Princess Taiping’s meaning and was tired of the life of being an emperor. He decided to abdicate in advance for Li Longji, allowing him to become emperor smoothly. Later, Princess Taiping was directly eliminated.
Conclusion
Although Li Longji was once adopted by the “Filial Piety Emperor” Li Hong, who passed away at a young age due to Wu Zetian’s reasons, he later successfully helped Li Dan regain the throne through his own efforts and strength. After becoming the emperor, Li Dan took into account various factors and allowed Li Longji to restore his son’s identity, and passed on the throne to him. Whether from the perspective of blood relationship or kinship, the throne inherited by Li Longji was actually Li Dan’s throne, not the “Filial Piety Emperor” throne!
