As the first husband of Yang Guifei and also the son of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, Li Mao’s life can be described as full of legendary and tragic colors. If he had not been able to persevere in various tragedies, Li Mao’s ending would have been even more tragic. Fortunately, he persisted and left a different story for future generations.
When it comes to the ending of Li Mao, perhaps as a prince, it is not very perfect, but as someone who was once robbed of his wife by his father, Li Mao’s ending is still relatively good, because he at least witnessed Li Longji’s desolate old age with his own eyes and was comforted.
Li Mao, who was not with his parents since childhood
Li Mao was born to Li Longji and his beloved concubine Wu Huifei. Wu Huifei was a descendant of Wu Zetian and also Li Longji’s cousin. Due to her beautiful appearance and ability to seduce men, she was deeply loved by Li Longji and became the most favored woman in the palace at that time. Li Longji was eager to give all the good things to Wu Huifei.
To some extent, Empress Wu Huifei also inherited Wu Zetian’s ambition. Although she could not learn from Wu Zetian’s plan to seize power, she still hoped to support her son to become the crown prince and even the future emperor, so that she could take herself to the next level. Unfortunately, Empress Wu Huifei had much less luck compared to Empress Wu Zetian. The main reason why Empress Wu Zetian was able to step up to the peak of power was because she gave birth to four sons and relied on their constant assistance to ultimately reach the pinnacle of power. Throughout the entire process, Empress Wu Zetian also had two innocent sons sacrificed themselves. It is needless to say whether all of this has anything to do with Empress Wu Zetian.
Empress Wu Huifei also wanted to be like Empress Wu Zetian, but her children always died young. Before Li Mao, Empress Wu Huifei had already given birth to two sons and one daughter, but they all died before the age of two, shattering Empress Wu Huifei’s dream in the cradle. When she gave birth to Li Mao later, Empress Wu Huifei and Li Longji were worried that Li Mao would also die young, so they sent her to Li Longji’s brother, Prince Ning Li Xian’s family to raise her. This allowed Li Mao to survive smoothly and grow up.
Li Mao lived in the Prince Ning’s Mansion for more than ten years and never stayed with Li Longji and Empress Wu Hui since childhood. Therefore, Li Longji’s feelings for Li Mao were not deep, and even his impression of Li Mao was not deep, which laid the foundation for what happened later. Living in an emotionally distant imperial home, coupled with the shallow relationship between Li Mao and Li Longji, Li Longji naturally did not attach as much importance to Li Mao.
Fortunately, at this stage, Li Mao had the full support of her mother Wu Huifei. Wu Huifei had been paving the way for Li Mao to become the crown prince, but unfortunately, Li Longji had already appointed Li Ying as the crown prince at that time. If Wu Huifei wanted to support Li Mao to become the crown prince, she had to eliminate Li Ying first. In order to achieve this goal, Wu Huifei went to great lengths.
Empress Wu Huifei often said things like Li Ying wanted to rebel around Li Longji. At the beginning, Li Longji didn’t believe it, but as Empress Wu Huifei spoke more times, Li Longji inevitably had some doubts. Especially later, Empress Wu Huifei followed Li Linfu’s advice and deceived Li Ying into saying that there were assassins in her palace, asking her to lead troops to deal with them. Li Ying didn’t even think about it and went fully armed, but ended up falling for Empress Wu Huifei’s trick.
Empress Wu Huifei asked Li Ying to lead troops to capture the assassin, while also having someone tell Li Longji that Li Ying wanted to rebel. However, when Li Longji sent someone to investigate, they happened to see Li Ying fully armed. Now, Li Ying could hardly be washed away even if she jumped into the Yellow River. In this way, Li Ying was forced to death by Li Longji on charges of rebellion, along with Li Ju and Li Yao.
Within a day, Li Longji forced his three sons to death, which must have been very frightening for Li Mao. When he saw the fate of his brothers, he would also ponder his own fate. However, historical books rarely care about Li Mao’s thoughts at that time. People only know that no matter what Li Mao thinks, Empress Wu Huifei will not listen. She only wants to help Li Mao seize the throne.
The tragic fate of Empress Wu Huifei after her death
The psychological resilience of Empress Wu Huifei cannot be compared to that of Empress Wu Zetian. Back then, Empress Wu was able to seize power with the help of her own daughter and even her own son, but she remained calm. However, after using Li Longji’s hand to force the death of the three brothers Li Ying, Empress Wu Huifei was constantly fearful, always thinking that Li Ying and the others would come back to retaliate against her. In this fear, Empress Wu Huifei was finally scared to death in her sleep, ending her short life.
After the death of Empress Wu Huifei, there was even less hope for Li Mao’s position as crown prince. Even though Li Linfu continuously supported Li Mao, he still did not receive recognition from Li Longji. In the end, Li Longji chose Li Heng as crown prince, which completely cut off the possibility of Li Mao becoming crown prince. However, it also brought many risks to Li Heng as crown prince. Later, Li Linfu never gave up targeting Li Heng, and Li Heng could be said to be living in fear. The crown prince was very unhappy.
If he couldn’t become the crown prince, it would be fine. Perhaps in Li Mao’s heart, he didn’t care about the position of crown prince, but what happened next made Li Mao very sad. With the help of Empress Wu Huifei, Li Mao married the beautiful Yang Yuhuan and lived a happy life together. Who would have thought that one day, Li Longji would notice Yang Yuhuan and end Li Mao’s happy life.
After the death of Empress Wu Huifei, Li Longji was listless all day long. Gao Lishi searched for a beautiful woman among the people, namely Mei Fei. At the beginning, this beauty was deeply loved by Li Longji, but gradually aged and lost his favor. At this critical moment, Li Longji fell into sadness again. Gao Lishi saw Li Longji’s inner thoughts and recommended Yang Yuhuan, the beloved wife of Li Mao’s family.
Li Longji, who was originally Li Mao’s father, should not have been curious about Yang Yuhuan because she was Li Mao’s wife and his daughter-in-law. However, the Tang Dynasty was more open-minded, and Li Longji was already a bit confused at that time. Therefore, he actually became interested in Yang Yuhuan and asked Gao Lishi to invite Yang Yuhuan to Li Mao’s house to soak in hot springs in Lishan.
The moment Li Mao saw Gao Lishi, he understood that something was wrong, but he knew Li Longji’s character. If he didn’t give up Yang Yuhuan voluntarily, his life might be in danger. Li Mao could only watch helplessly as Yang Yuhuan followed Gao Lishi to Lishan to accompany Li Longji to soak in hot springs after dressing up.
After soaking in a hot spring, Li Longji fell deeply in love with Yang Yuhuan. In the name of his mother’s prayer, he took Yang Yuhuan away from Li Mao and repeated the story of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian. Yang Yuhuan had not stayed at the Taoist temple for a few days before becoming Li Longji’s noble consort. Even if Li Mao was extremely dissatisfied in his heart, what could he do?
Li Longji must have also felt that he did not handle things properly, so he specially found a woman from the Wei family for Li Mao and gave her a marriage to stabilize his emotions. Li Mao accepted this marriage proposal very tactfully, and after getting married, he did not pay attention to political affairs and began to have children with the Wei family, giving birth to many children. It can be said that the family was full of descendants and happy.
Li Mao witnessed Li Longji’s desolate old age with his own eyes
If the story ends here, it seems that Li Mao is too miserable. Fortunately, the heavens never spare anyone, and there must be a causal relationship in life. The causes planted by Li Longji in his youth will inevitably bear fruit in his later years. After Li Longji showered Yang Yuhuan with “three thousand favors in one, and the king did not court early from then on,” the political situation of the Tang Dynasty underwent significant changes.
In order to ensure the stability of his imperial power, Li Longji heavily relied on the Hu man An Lushan, and even made An Lushan recognize Yang Yuhuan as his godmother. The two played in Yang Yuhuan’s palace until late at night, but Li Longji ignored them, which amazed future generations. Under the continuous support of Li Longji, An Lushan’s ambitions grew increasingly ambitious, ultimately leading to the An Lushan Rebellion and the decline of the Tang Dynasty.
During the early stages of the An Lushan Rebellion, Tang Xuanzong made several mistakes, which led to An Lushan almost reaching Chang’an. When Li Longji saw that the situation was not right, he fled overnight with Yang Yuhuan and others. After Prince Li Heng saw this, he followed closely behind Li Longji with a group of people and horses, and a mutiny occurred on the horse slope. Yang Yuhuan was executed by Li Longji, and from then on, there was no more Yang Yuhuan in the world.
In the Ma Wei Po Incident, Li Mao appeared again. He comforted the soldiers, while Li Heng led his own soldiers to the direction of Lingwu. When Li Heng was about to ascend the throne and write a letter to Li Longji, Li Mao personally sent a reply from Li Longji. Shortly after the letter was delivered, Li Heng officially ascended to the throne and became emperor.
Although Li Longji held the imperial jade seal, he was still powerless. After all, the tide had passed and Li Longji could only adapt to the changes of the times. After Li Longji met Li Heng, Li Heng began to restrict Li Longji’s life everywhere after receiving the jade seal. Even Li Heng did not allow his former subordinates to chat with Li Longji.
In his later years, Li Longji lived alone in a desolate palace, only able to recall what he had done back then. Perhaps at this stage, he would regret the past, but what was the use of all of this? No matter how much he regrets, he cannot make up for the mistakes he has made in the past.
Conclusion
Li Mao lived until 775 before passing away. He witnessed Li Longji’s desolate old age with his own eyes. At that time, Li Longji was in stark contrast to Li Mao, who had a family full of descendants. It is believed that at this time, Li Mao’s heart was also comforted. In life, who can escape the grasp of fate?
