Rather than saying that Li Longji’s first act as emperor was to kill his aunt Princess Taiping, it is more accurate to say that he truly exercised the real power of the emperor. Because before the death of Princess Taiping, her father passed the throne to Li Longji, but under the persuasion of her sister Princess Taiping, Li Dan still retained a considerable amount of power in her hands. What are the grievances and entanglements between Li Longji and Princess Taiping? Below, the History Encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed article introduction.
In her later years, Empress Wu Zetian favored the two brothers of the Zhang family. The court officials and the Li Tang royal family feared that the imperial power would once again fall, and launched the Shenlong coup, killing the Zhang brothers and forcing Empress Wu Zetian to abdicate to Li Xian. Li Xian was cowardly and stayed on the throne of the emperor for only over twenty days before being poisoned to death by Empress Wei and her daughter Princess Anle. The Li Tang royal family was afraid of the appearance of another Wu Zetian like figure, and launched the Tang Long coup, killing the Wei Hou party in one fell swoop and pushing the prime minister Li Dan to the throne, known as Tang Ruizong in history.
In the Shenlong Coup and the Tang Long Rebellion, there was an undeniable force, which was Princess Taiping. Princess Taiping has been by the side of Empress Wu for many years, deeply understanding the true teachings of Empress Wu. She has a keen sense of smell and is bold and decisive in handling affairs. Half of the officials in the court have left Taiping Prefecture.
In the Tang Long coup, there was another young talent that cannot be ignored, and he was Li Longji, the third son of Li Dan.
Li Dan is able to ascend the throne again after a 26 year hiatus
Thanks to the strong assistance of Princess Taiping and Li Longji. On the first day of Li Dan’s accession to the throne, he had to face both overt and covert struggles between Li Longji and Princess Taiping, until they completely broke up.
The confrontation between the two first emerged in the power struggle of the imperial court, with the focus on the appointment and removal of prime ministers.
Xiao Zhizhong and Cui Shi were members of the Later Party. After the downfall of the Wei family, they quickly sought refuge under the tutelage of Princess Taiping. And Princess Taiping doesn’t care who they followed before, as long as they can be loyal to themselves in the future. She accepted them and pressured Li Dan to appoint Xiao Zhizhong as the magistrate of the Imperial Secretariat and Cui Shi as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Personnel and concurrently as the prime minister.
Li Longji was not idle either. He proposed to Li Dan to appoint Yao Chong and Song Jing as prime ministers, and forced Xiao Zhizhong and Cui Shi to be demoted a few days later.
In the first round, Li Longji won completely, which made Princess Taiping see that her nephew’s abilities far exceeded her imagination and must be taken seriously.
Next, Princess Taiping found the soft threat of Li Longji as the crown prince, who was not the eldest son. So she ordered people to spread widely in the court that Li Longji was not the eldest son and was not qualified to be the crown prince. At the same time, spies were planted around Li Longji to investigate his private life issues, hoping to find a breakthrough and bring down Li Longji in one fell swoop.
However, Li Chengqi, the brother of Li Longji, took the initiative to give up, and coupled with Li Longji’s extreme caution in his private life, Princess Taiping ultimately did not catch any evidence.
Seeing that her nephew had no flaws, Princess Taiping was extremely angry and decided to block the prime ministers on the way to the court, asking them to jointly submit a letter demanding the abolition of Li Longji. No one dares to make a statement on such a significant matter. At this moment, Song Jing stood up and said, ‘The Eastern Palace has made great contributions to the world. Did Princess Nai suddenly have this thought?’? Princess Taiping left angrily after listening.
Song Jing knew that offending Princess Taiping would inevitably lead to harm, so he decided to do it to the end. He advised Li Dan to release Prince Song Li Chengqi and Prince You Li Shouli as governors. Abolish the military power of Prince Qi Li Longdi and his fifth son Prince Xue Li Longye. Princess Taiping was relocated from the capital to the eastern capital of Luoyang.
Li Dannian was reluctant to let go of her sister at first, considering the importance of family ties. But one thing that followed made Li Dan angry. Because a palace sorcerer told Li Dan that ‘there will be urgent troops entering the palace within five days’, indicating that the Crown Prince is plotting rebellion. After verification, this statement came from the mouth of Princess Taiping.
She was relocated to Puzhou, but Princess Taiping was unwilling to accept failure and wanted to turn the tide.
Before leaving, she ordered her confidant to report to Li Dan that since Yao Chong and Song Jing became prime ministers, they had vigorously removed the officials who had been indirectly appointed by Emperor Zhongzong, which had two drawbacks: firstly, it showed the fault of the late emperor, and secondly, it caused discord among the royal family of Li Tang. Moreover, she used her words as a pretext to meet Li Dan in person, causing him to nod repeatedly.
Seeing Yao Chong and Song Jing uncertain. Li Longji decided to take a step back and wrote a letter to Li Dan, accusing Yao Chong and Song Jing of acting recklessly and attempting to sow discord between their aunt and nephew, hoping to be sentenced to death. In order to maintain balance, Li Dan appointed Yao Chong and Song Jing as local governors.
After Yao Chong and Song Jing resigned, the appointed officials Wei Anshi and Li Xiangzhi, who were talented in governing Bo Yuan, caused corruption in the court. Feeling remorseful and guilty, they had the intention to retire, so they passed the throne to Li Longji and withdrew from the background. However, the appointment and removal of officials above the fifth rank and military affairs must be decided by themselves.
After participating in politics, Li Longji requested Li Dan to have his aunt, Princess Taiping, return to court in order to fully empower his father as soon as possible.
After Princess Taiping returned to court, she immediately reorganized the prime minister team, forming a seven person prime minister combination. She replaced five of her confidants in one fell swoop, with only Liu Youqiu belonging to the Li Longji group.
In order to reverse this unfavorable situation, Liu Youqiu secretly allied with Li Long’s close confidant, Zhang Wei, a commander of the Right Feather Forest Army, and decided to launch another coup to eradicate the Taiping Party in one fell swoop. However, the situation was exposed and Liu Youqiu and others were released to Lingnan.
At this point, Princess Taiping decided to use force to eliminate Li Longji. People around Li Longji were gradually demoted, and he seemed to have become a lone wolf.
But a small figure appeared, named Wang Ju, who was then the Assistant Minister of the Imperial Secretariat and an invisible strategist by Li Longji’s side. He integrated the intelligence from various sources and learned that Princess Taiping had bribed the generals of the Yulin Army, and immediately took action against Li Longji. So he sent letters to Cui Meiri, who was far away in Jingzhou, and Zhang Shuo, the Minister of Eastern Capital, to persuade Li Longji to take action first.
Li Longji and General Longwu, Wang Maozhong, ambushed at the Qianhua Gate and urgently summoned the generals of the left and right Feather Forest Army to the palace for discussion. They then killed two generals at the Qianhua Gate.
After taking control of the Yulin Army, Li Longji personally went into battle, hunted down the Taiping Princess and forced the Grand Emperor Li Dan to completely relinquish power.
Thus, from the hanging of the curtain by Empress Wu Zetian in 664 AD to the downfall of Princess Taiping in 713 AD, the Li Tang Dynasty, which had been in the hands of women for nearly half a century, finally returned to the hands of men.
