I don’t know yet: For readers of Li Longji and Princess Taiping, the following history encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s continue reading~
When a person encounters a venomous snake, they must either flee quickly or take it down. For Li Longji, his aunt Princess Taiping was the venomous snake he encountered.
The origin of the contradiction between aunt and nephew
Ordinary family nieces and nephews can be very close, but in the imperial family, nieces and nephews are different. They are in a vortex of power, and family affection can become distorted. Princess Taiping is a very proud person. When Li Longji was young, she didn’t take him seriously. When Li Longji grew up and became wise and powerful, she began to fear him. The reason is that this nephew is too smart and capable, and she wants to replace him with a weaker nephew as the crown prince, which would be more advantageous for herself.
In order to achieve her own goals, Princess Taiping often encouraged her ministers and said to the emperor, “The Crown Prince cannot be enthroned unless he is a high-ranking official,” putting pressure on both the emperor and the Crown Prince. In addition, ears and eyes were also placed around the Crown Prince to monitor his every move. All of this was witnessed and hated by Li Longji, but he couldn’t control it because this aunt held immense power in the court, and more than half of the courtiers were her people. I can only be cautious and swallow my pride.
A self defeating political persecution
No matter what Princess Taiping and her courtiers said, the emperor remained unmoved. Princess Taiping gave up on the issue of seniority and turned to falsely accusing the Crown Prince of plotting rebellion. A tiger cannot withstand a pack of wolves. Princess Taiping’s behavior is unbearable for anyone after a long time. At this moment, Yao Chong and Song Jing stepped forward to speak up for Li Longji and demanded that the emperor demote Princess Taiping. The emperor has only one sister and cannot bear to do that. After the incident was leaked, it provoked retaliation from Princess Taiping, and Li Longji had to request the dismissal of Yao Chong and Song Jing to appease Princess Taiping and quell the situation.
Li Longji’s survival strategy of cutting off his arm did not bring about the restraint of Princess Taiping. On the contrary, she believed that this nephew was weak and easy to bully, so she became even more reckless. In the first year of the Xiantian era, July 712 AD, a comet left the west, passed through Xuanyuan, entered Taiwei, and finally reached Dajiao. Comets, also known as broom stars in folk culture, are bound to be accompanied by unfortunate events. Princess Taiping seized the opportunity and used the Confucian theory of divination and astrology to deliver the final blow to the Crown Prince.
Princess Taiping crazily created public opinion, saying that it was the appearance of a comet, a sign of replacing the old with the new, and that the Crown Prince wanted to replace the Emperor as the emperor, with the target still being the Crown Prince’s rebellion. What he didn’t expect was that this campaign actually succeeded the Crown Prince. The emperor believed that since this was the will of heaven, he decided to advance the throne to the crown prince, bringing about a peaceful transfer of power. He was happy to be a great emperor, which left Princess Taiping and her followers dumbfounded.
The final struggle to assassinate Emperor Xuanzong of Tang
Although Li Longji became emperor, his primary task was to stabilize the court situation, and he did not expect to retaliate against his aunt. You should know that among the seven prime ministers of the court, five were disciples of Princess Taiping, and with the support of the Crown Prince, Li Longji was still very patient with his aunt at this time, as long as you stopped causing trouble.
However, Princess Taiping couldn’t stop at all. Eliminating Li Longji had become her obsession, and he secretly colluded with officials to depose the new emperor Li Longji. In order to be more secure, he colluded with the palace maids and waited for an opportunity to poison Li Longji, killing him. After the defeat, Princess Taiping fled to the mountain temple and surrendered three days later. She was executed at home, and this feud between her aunt and nephew finally came to an end.
In summary, Li Longji is just such an aunt, and he does have hatred towards her in his heart. But if Princess Taiping could restrain herself in a timely manner and live a peaceful old age, it would not be a problem. However, there was no such thing as’ if ‘, and Princess Taiping’s actions were indeed too extreme, which made Li Longji unable to bear it anymore, so he killed her.
