Today, the History Encyclopedia editor has prepared for you: Tang Dynasty Li Dan. Interested friends, come and take a look! Why did Li Dan, as an emperor, give up the world three times? Why is Li Dan called the Six Emperors Pill? How did this nickname come about?
Why is he called ‘Six Emperors Pill’? Because Li Dan and his family can form a group to become emperors! Li Dan’s grandfather Li Shimin is the emperor, his father Li Zhi is the emperor, his mother Wu Zetian is the emperor, his brother Li Xian is the emperor, his nephew Li Chongmao is the emperor, and his son Li Longji is the emperor!
What’s even more interesting is that Li Dan served as emperor twice in his life, but neither of these coronations were won by himself. The first time was his mother Wu Zetian, who sent the throne to him. The second time was when his son Li Longji gave him the throne again.
Throughout thousands of years of ancient Chinese history, there is probably only one emperor with such bizarre experiences, Li Dan.
Li Dan was born in Chang’an in 662 AD. When Li Dan was born, the Tang Dynasty was in an unprecedentedly powerful period. His father Li Zhi, who had been in power for more than ten years, governed the Tang Dynasty in an orderly manner. But at the same time, due to Li Zhi’s severe headache, he chose to let his queen, Wu Zetian, the mother of Li Dan, help him manage the court affairs together. The couple jointly handle court affairs, which is later known as the ‘Two Saints in Court’.
Before Li Dan was born, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian already had three sons. The eldest son is Li Hong, the second son is Li Xian, the third son is Li Xian, and Li Dan is the fourth son. As the eldest son, Li Hong had already been appointed as the crown prince several years ago.
With three older brothers ahead, theoretically speaking, Li Dan would never have the opportunity to become an emperor. So from the day Li Dan was sensible, he never thought he could become an emperor in the future, he just wanted to be an idle prince and do nothing. The education that Li Dan received in his youth was also based on the standards of an idle prince, which deprived him of the so-called imperial talent, but allowed him to make significant achievements in calligraphy, literature, and other fields.
However, surprisingly, at the age of 14, Li Dan’s elder brother Li Hong suddenly passed away due to illness. Li Hong has always been an outstanding heir, deeply loved by Li Zhi and Wu Zetian. After Li Hong’s death, Li Zhi even made an exception and posthumously honored Li Hong as emperor, which was the only precedent in Tang Dynasty history where a father posthumously honored his son as emperor.
After Li Hong’s death, according to the traditional patrilineal inheritance system, it was the turn of the legitimate second son Li Xian to become the crown prince. After becoming the crown prince, Li Xian also showed great wisdom and gained the love of the ministers. However, later on, due to various reasons, Li Xian had conflicts with Empress Wu Zetian, and the mother and son became enemies. Finally, Wu Zetian sent someone to search for hundreds of armors in Li Xian’s Crown Prince’s Mansion and reported Li Xian for plotting rebellion. In ancient times, hiding armor was a heinous crime of rebellion, and even the crown prince could not be exempted from it. So in the end, Li Zhi had no choice but to depose Li Xian’s position as crown prince and appoint the third son, Li Xian, as the new crown prince.
After becoming the crown prince, Li Xian learned from his older brother’s lesson and began to honestly serve as his crown prince, never competing for power with Wu Zetian again. At the same time, as the emperor, Li Zhi’s physical condition began to deteriorate. In 683 AD, Li Zhi passed away due to illness, and Li Xian finally ascended to the throne as emperor smoothly.
However, although Li Xian became emperor, the political power at that time was still in the hands of Empress Wu Zetian. Although Li Xian had been a gentle crown prince for a long time before, now that he has become emperor, he also plans to seize the imperial power. In order to compete with Empress Wu Zetian for power, Li Xian decided to use his own clan from Empress Wei’s side to form a powerful kinship group to counterbalance Wu Zetian. However, just after Li Xian showed this attitude, Wu Zetian immediately took action and deposed Li Xian’s position as crown prince, renaming him as the Prince of Luling and driving him out of the capital.
In this way, after the third son Li Xian was deposed, Li Dan, who was the fourth son, was elevated to the throne by Wu Zetian and became the new emperor.
However, Li Dan’s throne is almost like falling from the sky. Li Dan originally planned to be a leisurely prince and has been living a leisurely life since childhood. Suddenly making him emperor, Li Dan naturally didn’t know how to exercise his imperial power. In addition, at that time, Wu Zetian controlled the court affairs and there was no need for Li Dan to interfere with the court affairs. So after Li Dan ascended to the throne, he immediately became a puppet emperor.
Although he was an emperor, Li Dan’s life was very miserable, even worse than when he was a leisurely prince before.
Because she was a puppet emperor, Wu Zetian feared that Li Dan had ulterior motives, so she completely imprisoned Li Dan in the palace and did not allow his family to have any contact with outsiders, completely losing their freedom. In the following years, almost all members of the Li family who supported Li Dan and opposed Wu Zetian were slaughtered by Wu Zetian.
Until 690 AD, the Tang Dynasty had been completely controlled by Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian finally couldn’t hold back and began hinting at Li Dan’s abdication. Li Dan had already been delighted and quickly gave the throne to his mother Wu Zetian. Thus, Wu Zetian seized the throne from her own son and became the only female emperor in Chinese history.
After Wu Zetian ascended the throne, she conferred the title of Crown Prince on Li Dan. Although no longer an emperor, Li Dan’s situation was actually more dangerous than when he was an emperor. Because several nephews of Empress Wu Zetian were watching closely, attempting to seize the position of Crown Prince from Li Dan. Wu Zetian also strictly guarded against Li Dan, fearing that Li Dan would find an opportunity to restore power. Living in such an environment, Li Dan’s life has become even more difficult. Not only is there no freedom, but even the lives of a family are difficult to preserve.
In 693 AD, Li Dan offended a maid beside Wu Zetian. The maid subsequently reported to Wu Zetian that Li Dan’s Crown Princess Liu and her consort Dou had cursed Wu Zetian through witchcraft. Just a few days later, coinciding with the Chinese New Year, Liu and Dou went to pay their respects to Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian directly ordered someone to kill both of them, and their bodies were nowhere to be found.
Liu was the Crown Princess of Li Dan and had previously served as Empress, while Dou was the biological mother of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, and also Li Dan’s favored concubine at that time. These two individuals clearly have extraordinary identities. However, after the deaths of these two people, Li Dan, as her husband, had to pretend not to know anything and still put on a smiling face to face everyone the next day. At that time, Li Dan’s situation was naturally imaginable.
Li Dan spent a full eight years living in fear and anxiety as the crown prince. It was not until eight years later, as Wu Zetian grew older, that she began to seriously consider the issue of succession. Under the persuasion of ministers such as Di Renjie, Wu Zetian finally decided to pass on the throne to her own son instead of the nephews of the Wu family. However, in the end, Wu Zetian did not choose Li Dan, but instead chose Li Xian, the third son who had been exiled for many years, as her successor.
In 698 AD, Wu Zetian brought Li Xian back to the capital from outside. After learning about it, Li Dan directly declared illness and refused to leave, firmly giving up the position of crown prince to his brother Li Dan. In this way, under the concession of Li Dan’s wisdom, in September of the same year, the third son Li Xian became the crown prince again, and Li Dan was renamed as the prime minister.
Although Li Dan changed from a crown prince to a prince, his life improved a lot. Because from then on, the target of the Wu family’s attack was no longer him, but Li Xian, the brother of the Crown Prince. Moreover, Wu Zetian no longer guarded against him and allowed him to officially become an official with certain power.
In 701 AD, the Turks invaded, and Li Dan, as the nominal commander of the Tang army, went to resist. Although only a nominal commander, Li Dan at this time had at least gained military power and a certain degree of self-protection ability. After the war ended, Li Dan was appointed as the Grand General of the Left and Right Feather Guards.
In the following years, although Li Dan still lived a leisurely life as a prince, he gained some military power and no one dared to bully him anymore. Compared to the humiliating years of being emperor and crown prince before, life today is much better.
Li Dan lived like this for four years. Four years later, as Wu Zetian gradually fell ill, Prime Minister Zhang Jianzhi launched a coup and enthroned Li Xian. After Li Xian ascended to the throne, he not only had no sense of caution towards his younger brother Li Dan, but also placed great trust in him, allowing him to take charge of the military power in the capital and participate in court politics as prime minister. However, Li Dan knew that his brother’s trust in him was only because the power of the Wu family was still strong at that time, and his brother needed his help to balance the Wu family. So soon after, Li Dan gave up all his power again and continued to be his idle prince.
In the following five years, Li Dan continued to live a leisurely life, and no one from any faction in the court came to trouble him. Because at that time, Li Dan had no power in his hands and no value that they coveted. However, five years later, in the year 710 AD, the situation changed again.
That year, Li Dan’s brother Li Xian suddenly died suddenly. After Li Xian’s death, Empress Wei appointed Li Xian’s son Li Chongmao as emperor and completely controlled the court, attempting to repeat the old story of Empress Wu Zetian. First, become a powerful empress dowager, and then seize the throne of Li Chongmao, becoming the second female emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Dan was originally unwilling to participate in this political turmoil. However, his identity was too special and he was eventually caught up in it. After Li Xian’s death, Li Dan was appointed as the Grand Commandant by the newly appointed Emperor Li Chongmao. In this way, Li Dan, who held military power, became a thorn in Wei Shi’s side.
If it continues to develop like this, Li Dan may be eliminated by Wei Shi in the future. But fortunately, Li Dan gave birth to a good son, Li Longji. Seeing the current situation, Li Longji actively contacted some of the forces he had befriended within the capital and received support from his aunt, Princess Taiping. Finally, Li Longji led his troops into the palace late at night and suddenly launched a coup, killing the Wei family and completely taking control of the capital.
Afterwards, the power of the capital basically fell into the hands of Li Longji and Princess Taiping. As the emperor, Li Chongmao saw this situation and had no choice but to abdicate the throne to his uncle Li Dan. So, Li Dan became emperor for the second time in a daze.
Although he became the emperor, Li Dan still had limited power at this time, with political power in the hands of his son Li Longji and his sister Princess Taiping. Li Longji was not the eldest son of Li Dan. Li Dan’s eldest son was named Li Chengqi and was still alive at this time. If according to the traditional patrilineal inheritance system, Li Chengqi should become the crown prince. However, Li Chengqi was also sensible and knew that there was no benefit to being the crown prince. He straightforwardly stated that he would not become the crown prince and would give the position of crown prince to his younger brother Li Longji.
After becoming the crown prince, Li Longji began to expand his influence in the court. But in this way, Li Longji inevitably had a power conflict with his aunt, Princess Taiping. At this point, Princess Taiping was already extremely powerful, but she was still not satisfied and planned to go further. In this way, Li Longji became her enemy. These two nephews, who had previously joined forces to kill Wei Shi, finally became enemies.
Li Dan saw all of this in his eyes. After decades of struggle in court and getting used to the internal fighting within the Li family, Li Dan couldn’t bear to see another round of infighting within the Li family. So, Li Dan did a lot of things, hoping to avoid the result he least wanted to see. Li Dan first helped Li Longji cut off his opponents, and all of his other sons surrendered openly and secretly, cutting off their military power. At the same time, we also plan to release Princess Taiping to resolve the conflict. However, in the end, Princess Taiping relied on her strong influence within the capital to stay. Not only that, Princess Taiping continued to launch attacks on Li Longji in the court, attempting to depose him as the crown prince.
Seeing this, Li Dan had no other choice. In the end, Li Dan could only come up with a non solution, which was to abdicate directly and give the throne to his son Li Longji. I hope that after Li Longji ascends to the throne, Princess Taiping can give up seizing power, and Li Longji can also show mercy to his aunt Princess Taiping. So, in 712 AD, Li Dan abdicated again and gave his throne to his son Li Longji.
However, what Li Dan never expected was that after his abdication, both Princess Taiping and Li Longji still had no intention of giving up. Princess Taiping held great power in the court, with five of the seven prime ministers at that time coming from her family. Princess Taiping even openly proposed to depose the emperor, but was ultimately opposed by many civil servants, which was not successful. After the failure to depose the emperor, Princess Taiping secretly began to gather her own power, intending to seize the highest power through a coup.
Li Longji was not foolish either. After seeing his aunt Princess Taiping act like this, the last trace of family affection in his heart was completely extinguished. In July of 713 AD, Li Longji took the lead in clearing out the followers of Princess Taiping in the capital city and ultimately executed her.
Li Dan, who witnessed all of this with his own eyes, although he had the intention to stop it, at this moment he was already a powerless emperor who could not stop his son. He could only watch helplessly as his sister was executed. Afterwards, Li Dan became completely disheartened and gave up all power, peacefully becoming an indifferent emperor.
Three years later, Li Dan passed away due to illness at the age of 55.
Li Dan spent most of his life in an environment of political struggles and deceit. Moreover, due to Li Dan’s unique identity, even if he had the intention to avoid it, he could not escape these disputes at all. In her decades long life, Li Dan met her father, mother, brother, sister, son, and others who fought against her relatives for the sake of so-called power. And Li Dan himself, from beginning to end, only wanted to be an idle prince. He didn’t want to compete for any supreme power, so he chose to give up his throne during the most intense struggle between his sister and son, hoping to settle their disputes.
But the fact proves that Li Dan’s idea is still too simple. His concession, in fact, cannot change anything.
Li Dan served as emperor twice, both times when others forcibly gave him the throne, but Li Dan himself did not actually strive for it. People who aspire to become emperors often struggle tirelessly but fail to succeed; But someone like Li Dan, who only seeks to be a leisurely prince, happened to bring the throne to him. It has to be said that history can be really interesting at times.
From beginning to end, Li Dan was just a pitiful person who was carried forward by the times. But because his identity is too special, he cannot stay away from these disputes. Li Dan’s life also clearly taught future generations what it means to be truly ‘in the world of rivers and lakes, one cannot control oneself’.
