Do you know about Tang Dezong Li Shi? It’s okay if you don’t know, the history encyclopedia editor will tell you.
Emperor Taizong of Tang loved to wear jade belts. He had a portrait of him wearing a yellow robe, wearing soap boots, and holding a jade belt in his hand. He looked like a jade tree facing the wind, which was the standard working photo of emperors at that time. Probably due to genetics, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty loved to wear jade belts and create a jade tree like appearance, especially Emperor Dezong.
Emperor Dezong was not a good emperor, and he was even quite confused. It was he and his father Daizong and grandfather Suzong who caused a hundred year period of regional separatism that lasted until the Five Dynasties. However, confusion cannot hinder him from learning from the role model – he does not learn from the wisdom of Emperor Taizong, but only his appearance. He wears a yellow robe every day, wears soap boots, ties a jade belt, and his five strands of long hair sway in the wind. This type of jade belt is not like people’s belts nowadays, which only require drilling a few holes. The emperor’s jade belt is made of leather with inlaid jade pieces, and the rarer the leather and the more precious the jade pieces, the higher the quality of the jade belt naturally.
Once, Emperor Dezong obtained a crocodile skin leather belt and asked the jade worker to use it to make a jade belt. He also took out a box on the spot and found some high-quality fluorescent jade pieces for him to inlay at that time. Emperor Dezong proudly thought to himself: I am not as powerful as my ancestors in governance, and my jade belt must far surpass that of his elders.
This jade craftsman has outstanding craftsmanship, meticulous and careful, meticulously carved and crafted, making a jade belt exquisitely exquisite. However, while inlaying the jade piece, he accidentally damaged a piece of jade. The jade worker was dumbfounded and slumped there, sweating profusely and having no idea. Fortunately, his wife has a keen and delicate heart. With a frown, she came up with a solution: My dear, the jade piece given by the emperor is broken. Let’s use our own jade instead! Those who make jade ribbons naturally do not lack jade pieces. Helpless, the jade worker had no choice but to take a piece of jade he had collected, carve it, and set it on a jade belt, ready to get away with it.
A few days later, the jade belt was made and sent up. Upon seeing it, Dezong was overjoyed with a brilliant golden light. However, Emperor Dezong was careless in other aspects and was meticulous in this matter. He looked carefully and found that the situation was not right – the jade he gave to the jade craftsman was of good quality and belonged to the top grade Hotan Jade, but now a piece of jade on the jade belt was of dim color and poor appearance. Dezong suddenly pulled down his chubby papaya face. Have you ever seen someone who is so greedy and reckless? They want to get rich and go crazy, yet they dare to exchange my jade?!
He didn’t do any official business anymore, nor did he look at the jade belt. He slammed the table and called the Chang’an Yin. Chang’an Yin ran up and down, only to see Emperor Dezong’s upturned beard shaking and staring at a pair of big cock eyes. He ordered Chang’an Yin: Go and chop off that jade worker! That guy turned the tide and embezzled a piece of my jade!
Chang’an Yin felt that this was a public revenge, staying there, executing orders, not not executing orders – besides, he is not a law enforcement person either. Emperor Dezong’s face became even longer when he saw that he had not moved: You must sentence him to death, otherwise, you will have to atone! The Chang’an Yin immediately ordered the guards to grab the jade worker, pull him out, and behead him with a knife.
However, before the guards had set off, Prime Minister Liu Hun stepped forward and said that the emperor could not kill the jade worker: “At that time, if you found that the jade had been replaced and were furious, and did not hand over the jade worker to a subordinate official, and ordered to be killed on the spot without anyone being able to stop you, then I had nothing to say. Now, if you issue an order for the competent department to handle it, then you must be punished according to the criminal law and cannot act recklessly
Emperor Dezong opened his mouth, knowing that he couldn’t hold his ground and couldn’t defend himself, so he rolled his eyes and reluctantly agreed.
As a result, Yugong handed it over to law enforcement officials, and after interrogation, the truth was revealed. He only received a beating and limped back home. He applied some healing medicine and lay down for a few days, feeling very grateful to Prime Minister Liu.
This incident taught Emperor Dezong a lesson: he remembered the advice of Prime Minister Liu, and in the future, when he encountered someone he hated again, without explanation, he issued a decree to cut through the chaos and kill them directly, and never handed them over to the judicial department for handling again. At that time, Prime Minister Liu Hun spoke for the jade workers without any ulterior motives, but he never expected that his kind words would lead to Emperor Dezong’s later heinous act of killing innocent people.
