How did Tang Suzong Li Heng, who experienced two political upheavals, create his own great cause

For those who are very interested in Tang Suzong and Li Heng, the History Encyclopedia editor brings detailed articles for your reference.
The country is broken by mountains and rivers, and the city is deep in spring with lush vegetation. “This poem is the opening line of the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu’s” Spring Gaze “, describing the chaotic political situation of the Tang Dynasty at that time. The meaning is that the capital has already fallen and the cities are dilapidated. Although the mountains and rivers still exist, there are scattered grasses and barren forests, creating a kind of unmanaged wilderness forest for people. This inevitably reminds people of the bleak scene of continuous coups launched in the late Tang Dynasty, leading to national instability and unrest among the people. However, in this tragic situation, an emperor was quietly born in Kyoto, and this Tang emperor was Li Heng. This emperor was both lucky and unfortunate.
The book “On the Twenty One Emperors of the Tang Dynasty” records: “Emperor Suzong had many twists and turns in his life: on the day of his birth, he was in danger.” Before Li Heng, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was born, his father Li Longji wanted to strangle him in his mother’s womb. At that time, as the Crown Prince, Li Longji had a very bad relationship with Princess Taiping. Li Longji was worried that Princess Taiping would use the Crown Prince’s obsession with beauty as an excuse to petition the Emperor and depose him. Due to this reason, Li Longji asked his subordinates to find some abortion pills to give to Li Heng’s birth mother Yang, but after some consideration, it was not implemented. Li Heng was able to escape and was fortunate enough to be born in the East Palace of Chang’an. After Li Heng was born, he did not receive the love and care of his mother because his birth mother Yang was only a concubine, and the Crown Princess Yang took Li Heng to her side to raise him because she did not give birth to a son. The Old Book of Tang records: “At the age of two, he was conferred the title of King of Shaanxi, and at the age of five, he was appointed as the Protector of Anxi and the Ambassador of the Four Barbarians in Hexi
At the age of only 2, Emperor Li Heng was appointed as the King of Shaanxi, and at the age of 5, he was appointed as the Grand Protector. This honor was unique for Li Heng, but this advantage gradually lost its effectiveness after he became the Crown Prince.
Old Book of Tang: In the 25th year, Crown Prince Ying offended. In June of the 26th year, he was crowned as the Crown Prince. At this point, Li Heng was pushed up to the position of crown prince, and it was precisely because of this that Li Heng’s bumpy road began. When the prime ministers Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong became one of the biggest political threats on Li Heng’s path to the throne, his father Tang Xuanzong ignored this struggle. This can illustrate that if the previous Crown Prince Li Ying had not been deposed, Li Heng would not have had the opportunity to become a crown prince, and Tang Xuanzong also did not want to see his son Li Heng’s power gradually expand, threatening his own position. The most famous act of killing fathers and seizing power during the Tang Dynasty was Li Chengqian’s killing of Li Shimin, but Li Chengqian failed. Tang Xuanzong was also afraid of a repeat of history, and the Crown Prince rebelled and died under Li Heng’s command, so he allowed it to go unchecked.
The “Zizhi Tongjian” records: “Li Linfu, due to his words of friendship with Li Shizhi and others, was eventually enfeoffed.” In the fifth year of the Tianbao reign, Li Linfu secretly advised Emperor Xuanzong of Tang that Wei Jian and Li Shizhi had colluded with the intention of rebellion. Upon learning of this, Emperor Xuanzong immediately sent Li Linfu to investigate the matter thoroughly. Since Crown Prince Li Heng is Wei Jian’s brother-in-law, Li Linfu wanted to implicate the Crown Prince. Fortunately, Emperor Xuanzong only belittled the positions of Wei Jian and Li Shizhi, and Crown Prince Li Heng was not implicated, which made Li Linfu very unhappy.
The Zizhi Tongjian records: “Praise the virtuous Grand Master Du Youlin, whose daughter is the Crown Prince Liangdi, and Liangdi’s sister is the wife of the Left Guard Cao Liuji. Her character was wild and sparse, and she had a good reputation and enjoyed making friends with the wealthy. The Prefect of Zichuan, Pei Dunfu, recommended her to the Prefect of Beihai, Li Yong, who established a relationship with her. She reached the capital and became friends with the renowned scholar Wang Zeng, who was also a writer at the time
After Wei Jian was demoted, he actually let his younger brother voice his grievances against him. In order to restore his brother’s position as soon as possible, his younger brother asked Crown Prince Li Heng to provide evidence, which caused dissatisfaction among Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. Li Heng, in order to sever ties with the Wei family, requested a divorce on the grounds of a strained emotional relationship with Wei Fei. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang agreed to this matter, and Li Heng proudly escaped unscathed. But immediately afterwards, Li Heng was implicated in a political case. Li Heng’s father-in-law Du Youlin was sued by Liu Ji for “falsely claiming divination, constructing the Eastern Palace, and condemning the use of public opinion”. Due to the significance of the matter, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once appointed Li Linfu to investigate the matter,
Li Linfu once seized this opportunity to involve Crown Prince Li Heng and wanted Emperor Xuanzong to depose him. Unfortunately, everything did not go as Li Linfu had hoped. After the matter was investigated, it turned out that Liu Ji had falsely accused him, and both Liu Ji and Du Youlin were killed in heavy fighting. Li Heng, who had experienced two major cases and a marital upheaval, suffered a great blow in his heart, but his position as crown prince was still preserved.
The New Book of Tang states: “For fifteen years, Emperor Xuanzong avoided bandits and arrived at Mawei. His father and elders covered the way and asked the Crown Prince to stay behind to fight against them.” At this time, An Lushan joined forces with Yang Guozhong to launch a coup and rebel against the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled Chang’an with his ministers and concubines to avoid this coup, leaving Crown Prince Li Heng to block the bandits. Li Heng, with the help of General Chen Xuanli and his elite troops, the Flying Dragon Forbidden Army, went to block Yang Guozhong. At this moment, Li Heng wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to launch a rebellion against Tang Xuanzong, and thus a conspiracy began. After Yang Guozhong was killed by the troops of the Forbidden Army, Li Heng completed the first step of the mutiny. The second step was to force Yang Guifei to death. Unfortunately, General Chen Xuanli, after killing Yang Guifei, actually showed his sincerity to Emperor Xuanzong with his head. Helpless, Li Heng launched the Ma Wei Rebellion and headed all the way towards Lingwu. In the 15th year of the Tianbao era, accompanied by Du Hongjian and others, Li Heng officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor on the city tower of Lingwu, changing the country’s name to Zhide. As a result, Emperor Xuanzong was promoted to the position of the Supreme Emperor.
At this point, Li Heng officially took over the position of his father, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and ultimately ascended to the throne and accomplished his great cause for this emperor born in troubled times. But looking back at Li Heng’s life, he was already in a dangerous situation from birth. After being crowned as the crown prince, he was constantly targeted and restricted by the prime minister Li Linfu, putting him in a passive state. For the Ma Wei Rebellion, Li Heng also seized a good opportunity during the great turmoil of the An Lushan Rebellion, and was able to declare himself emperor. If he had not seized this opportunity, no one could have predicted what would happen next.