Why was Li Chongmao’s reign as emperor so short What kind of experience did he have

Li Chongmao was the fourth son of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian. Although he was an emperor of the Tang Dynasty, his reign was very short and he was not recognized by official history. Below, the editor of the History Encyclopedia will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s continue reading.
There was once an emperor in the Tang Dynasty who, after his father’s death, lawfully inherited his father’s throne. However, just seventeen days later, during the court session, his aunt suddenly read out a abdication edict for him, asking him to abdicate in favor of his fourth uncle. After reading this edict, before he had a chance to oppose it, his aunt had already taken down the throne, and civil and military officials had already turned to pay their respects to his uncle.
This sorrowful Tang Dynasty emperor, named Li Chongmao, was the shortest reigning emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the only Tang Dynasty emperor not recognized by official history. The reason why Li Chongmao’s reign as emperor was so short is not actually due to his own reasons. If responsibility is to be pursued, it may have to be attributed to his father Li Xian.
In 695 AD, Li Chongmao was born in Fangzhou, Hubei Province, which is now known as Fangxian County in Hubei Province. Li Chongmao’s father, Li Xian, was the son of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and Empress Wu Zetian. After Li Zhi’s death, Li Xian briefly ascended to the throne as emperor. But later, because she wanted to fight with his mother Empress Wu Zetian for power, she was abolished by Empress Wu. Later, she was renamed King Luling and exiled to Junzhou, Hubei. Later, because someone rebelled under the banner of Li Xian, Wu Zetian was afraid that these people would rob Li Xian, so she later transferred Li Xian’s family to Fangzhou.
The birth of Li Chongmao was actually an accident for his father Li Xian. At that time, Li Xian was in the most disappointing period of his life, and it had been exactly eleven years since he was deposed from the throne by Empress Wu Zetian. During these eleven years, Li Xian’s family lived under surveillance and house arrest. The people responsible for guarding Li Xian probably thought that Li Xian would never have a chance to turn over in his life, so their attitude towards the Li Xian family was particularly bad, which was also one of the important reasons for the difficult life of the Li Xian family at that time.
But during his house arrest, Li Xian had a chance encounter with a maid beside him, who later became pregnant and gave birth to Li Chongmao. As for the name of this maid, there is no record in historical books, and Li Xian did not posthumously confer her title. Such a background, coupled with this special birth time, makes Li Chongmao’s identity very special, somewhat resembling that of an illegitimate child. So for this son, Li Xian also completely disregards him.
Before Li Chongmao, Li Xian already had three sons. The eldest son is Li Chongrun, the second son is Li Chongfu, and the third son is Li Chongjun. Among them, the eldest son Li Chongrun was born to Li Xian and his queen Wei Shi, and was the legitimate eldest son, deeply loved by Li Xian. As for the other two sons, Li Chongfu and Li Chongjun, they are both illegitimate sons, and their birth mothers are unknown, similar in status to Li Chongmao. Although he is the son of Li Xian, he is not highly valued.
A deposed emperor, in theory, would never have a chance to make a name for himself again in his lifetime, and surviving would be considered lucky. As the son of an deposed emperor, he may never have a chance to shine again in his life. However, interestingly, when Li Chongmao was four years old, his grandmother Wu Zetian suddenly changed her mind and recalled his father Li Xian to the capital again, and appointed him as the crown prince.
Although he regained the position of crown prince, the life of Li Xian’s family did not improve much as a result, but rather became more dangerous. Because at that time, cruel officials were rampant in the court, and people from the Wu family also coveted the throne of Li Xian. Although Li Xian was the crown prince, his position was not stable, and his life and death were within a year of Wu Zetian.
Li Xian has always been very careful about this. On the one hand, by means of marriage alliances, they established good relations with the Wu family. On the other hand, strictly restrain one’s own behavior, afraid of giving political enemies a handle to attack him. However, even though Li Xianwan was extremely careful, he still couldn’t protect the safety of his family. Three years later, Li Xian’s eldest son, Li Chongrun, who was also the elder brother of Li Chongmao, was exposed by Zhang Yizhi, a favored minister of Wu Zetian, for discussing Wu Zetian privately. In the end, he was ordered by Wu Zetian to be beaten to death.
Li Chongrun’s death, although not affecting too many people, had a profound impact. Because his mother, Wei Shi, as Li Xian’s legitimate wife, only has one son. Wei Shi has been under house arrest for many years and has reached a point where he is about to collapse. Now that her son was beaten to death by her mother-in-law, it has also caused a significant change in Wei’s temperament, laying the groundwork for many things that will happen later.
However, these events did not have a significant impact on Li Chongmao at that time. Because at that time, Li Chongmao was too young. Moreover, Li Chongmao has a special identity and is not well liked by Li Xian, so no one will cause trouble for him.
Three years later, as Wu Zetian fell seriously ill, Prime Minister Zhang Jianzhi launched a coup and enthroned Li Xian, once again becoming emperor. After Li Xian ascended to the throne, Li Chongmao also became a prince and was later crowned as King Wen.
From an unpopular wild child, Li Chongmao transformed into King Wen, and his childhood was spent under such a great transformation. In the year when Li Chongmao was crowned as King Wen, he was only 11 years old.
At the same time as Li Chongmao was granted the title of king, his other two brothers were in a completely different situation. Li Zhongfu, the second son, was envied by Wei Shi, who had become the queen again. Wei Shi believes that Li Chongrun’s death was related to him because he had a small report with Zhang Yizhi, which was why Li Chongrun was exposed. So at the request of Wei Shi, Li Xian could only send Li Zhongfu far away to Junzhou as the governor. Junzhou was the place where Li Xian and his family were exiled back then. It is natural to imagine Li Xian’s intention to send Li Chongfu to this place as the governor. Afterwards, Li Zhongfu was also under heavy surveillance in Junzhou and had no power at all.
Since the second son Li Chongfu was released, the third son Li Chongjun was naturally appointed as the crown prince. However, after Li Zhongjun became the crown prince, Empress Wei also harbored great disgust towards him. Because in Empress Wei’s view, the position of crown prince should have belonged to her own son Li Chongrun. It was only because Li Chongrun died that it fell on Li Chongjun’s head. So, Wei Hou and Li Zhongjun went against each other and put more pressure on Li Zhongjun. And Li Zhongjun was also a person with backbone. One year later, Li Zhongjun suddenly launched a mutiny, intending to kill Wei Shi, but in the end, the mutiny failed and he was also killed.
In this way, among Li Xian’s four sons, only the second son Li Zhongfu and the fourth son Li Chongmao, who were released, are still alive.
In the following years, Wei Shi gained increasing power in the court and gradually began to be dissatisfied with the power of her empress, planning to become the second Empress Wu Zetian. In June 710 AD, Empress Wei secretly poisoned Li Xian in order to gain power.
After Li Xian’s death, Empress Wei was naturally unable to ascend to the throne and become emperor on her own. Even Empress Wu Zetian established her two sons as emperors after her husband’s death, and held power as the empress dowager. When the time was ripe, she forced her sons to abdicate in her favor. Wei Hou also plans to learn from Wu Zetian and perform a similar process again.
In this way, Li Chongmao became Wei Hou’s only choice. Because Li Xian only had two sons left at that time, one Li Zhongfu was far away in Junzhou and did not listen to Wei Hou’s words. Only Li Chongmao, who was only 16 years old at the time, was relatively easy to control and was located in the capital city.
So, after Li Xian’s death, Li Chongmao was enthroned as emperor.
After becoming emperor, Li Chongmao probably hasn’t even turned his mind around yet. However, Li Chongmao was also well aware of his situation and knew that he was just a pawn in the hands of Empress Wei. In response to this, Li Chongmao also wanted to resist, so he made his fourth uncle Li Dan the Grand Commandant and took control of military power. Li Dan is the person who was enthroned as emperor by Wu Zetian after Li Xian was deposed, and later abdicated to Wu Zetian. However, Li Dan seemed unwilling to intervene in these disputes. Even after becoming the Grand Commandant, he did not contend with Empress Wei and instead obediently surrendered his power.
If it continues like this, Emperor Li Chongmao is likely to die at the hands of Empress Wei or be forced to abdicate by her. However, just a few days later, Li Dan’s son Li Longji, together with Li Dan’s sister Princess Taiping, suddenly launched a coup and entered the palace to execute Wei Shi, completely taking control of the entire capital city.
The entire process of the situation’s development was too rapid, seriously exceeding Li Chongmao’s expectations. After Webster was killed, all officials of the Webster Group were also cleaned up. However, just after the coup, when Li Chongmao officially went to court for the first time, Princess Anle, who had previously launched the coup, suddenly took out a abdication edict and read it publicly.
After reading this edict, before Li Chongmao could react, Princess Taiping took the initiative to step forward and forcibly pulled Li Chongmao down. Then he told Li Chongmao, “Child, this seat is not for you to sit in. Give it to your fourth uncle quickly
In this way, Li Chongmao was inexplicably removed from the throne, while Li Dan was also pushed to the throne by his own sister and son with a bewildered expression.
Li Chongmao, who lost the throne, was reappointed as King Wen. However, unexpectedly, just a few days later, Li Chongmao received another message: his second brother Li Chongfu, who was far away in Junzhou, believed himself to be Li Xian’s eldest son alive, so he should become the emperor himself. After hearing about the situation in the capital, Li Zhongfu unexpectedly rose up directly. As expected, just a few days later, Li Zhongfu was defeated and killed.
Li Zhongfu’s behavior is clearly a suicidal act. But his suicidal behavior seriously affected Li Chongmao. Li Chongmao was already an emperor before, but now he is implicated by his brother Li Chongfu, so naturally he will not benefit and will soon be demoted to Fangzhou to become a governor. Fangzhou happens to be the place where Li Xian was exiled before.
Three years later, Li Chongmao passed away while in office, and his death was unknown. At this time, it was already the reign of his cousin Li Longji, and at that time, Li Longji had already dealt with Princess Taiping and completely grasped the power. So many people speculate that Li Zhongmao’s death was probably the hands of Li Longji. However, historians have not found much evidence to support this speculation.
Li Chongmao’s life was truly extremely tragic. Childhood is living as an undervalued illegitimate child; After finally becoming a prince, he was inexplicably pushed to the throne; After only seventeen days of reign, he was pulled down from the throne by his own aunt and ultimately died in an unknown manner. From beginning to end, Li Chongmao did not actually do anything wrong. If he is wrong, it can only be said that he was born in the wrong place.
Born into an imperial family, who can avoid power disputes?