Tang Ruizong Li Dan ascended to the throne as emperor twice. The first time was after Empress Wu Zetian deposed Emperor Li Xian, and he was elevated to the throne. However, he was only a puppet at that time, and not long after, Empress Wu Zetian took over.
After Li Xian’s death, his wife Wei Hou attempted to ascend to the throne like Wu Zetian. At this critical moment, Li Dan’s son Li Longji launched a coup and killed Wei Hou. However, Li Longji did not become emperor, but instead helped his father ascend to the throne again.
It can be said that Li Dan was able to become emperor twice, once with the help of his mother Wu Zetian and once with the assistance of his son Li Longji.
To put it simply, both of these were just transitional actions, and he didn’t have much ability either. He was a foolish emperor.
Li Dan was the fourth son of Empress Wu Zetian, and originally he had no hope. However, Wu Zetian was a person with great ambition. She successively eliminated her eldest son Li Hong and second son Li Xian. Strictly speaking, these two were very capable sages, but unfortunately did not have the fate to become emperors.
After Li Xian’s death, his third son Li Xian became the crown prince. He honestly became the emperor after Li Zhi. However, Li Xian is incompetent and lacks any power in his hands. Unfortunately, Li Xian hoped to reuse the family of Empress Wei and establish his own team, which made him a thorn in Wu Zetian’s side. Soon after, Li Xian was dismissed and demoted from Chang’an.
But a country cannot be without a ruler for a day. Wu Zetian was not yet prepared to become emperor, so she helped her youngest son Li Dan to the throne.
But Li Dan is not as good as Li Xian. He is under house arrest in the palace, unable to hear about political affairs, and even has no autonomy to leave the palace.
Not long after, Wu Zetian became emperor and Li Dan returned to his position as crown prince.
However, as he was still the successor, he was subjected to crazy suppression by the Wu family and his life was not easy. In her later years, Wu Zetian began to worry about her successor, but she ultimately decided to restore the Li Tang artifact and brought Li Xian back.
And Li Dan also requested to relinquish the position of crown prince to Li Xian. So Li Xian became the crown prince. Later, with the help of Zhang Jianzhi and others, a divine dragon coup was launched, forcing Wu Zetian to abdicate in favor of Li Xian.
However, Li Xian was born with the fate of a puppet. His wife Wei Hou holds great power and advances step by step towards Wu Zetian’s footsteps.
In the end, Li Xian was also poisoned by Empress Wei and others. Seeing that Empress Wei’s great event had been accomplished, Li Dan’s son Li Longji couldn’t sit still. He joined forces with Princess Taiping to launch a coup and suddenly broke into the palace to execute Empress Wei’s party.
After Wei Hou’s death, Li Longji did not become emperor, but instead helped his honest father to the throne. In this way, Li Dan had no ability at all, but he became emperor twice.
