From: jamesou@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: The romantic Tang dynasty (was Re: big lie)
Date: 16 Dec 1992 08:35:16 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: liverbug.hsc.usc.edu

In <92Dec15.143109est.56@orasis.vis.toronto.edu>, liuyh@vis.toronto.edu
(Yuanhui Liu) writes:

>In article <1ggkj6INN8us@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu> jamesou@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou) writes:
>>(About Li Shi-min).....    Later on, his grandson Rui4 Zong1 with the
>			     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>help of Li3 Long2 Ji1 again initiated a coup to take the emperor
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>position. LSM's father, however, retired voluntarily.
>					  ^^^^^^^^^^^
>well, anybody smart would retire "voluntarily" in his situation.

There was no hard feeling between Li3 Yuan1 and Li3 Shi4 Min2
after the retirement of Li3 Yuan1. In fact, Li Yuan had been
talking about retirement before the incident of Xuan2 Wu3 Men2
took place. Li3 Yuan1 actually enjoyed the retirement. This is
similar to the retirement of Rui4 Zong1 who said that he could
not care less being an emperor. Rui4 Zong1 did not want to be an
emperor again.

>So, out of the 4 sons of Wu3 Ze2 Tian1 and Gao1 zong1 Li3 Zhi4,
>the first two had been crown princes but was ousted and basically
>died in their mother's hand,

Yes, in a plot to take over the empress position, Wu3 also killed
her own new born daughter and blamed the empress as the murderer.
What a mother! :-)

>it was Yin Zong, Rui Zong, and then
>Wu3 Ze2 Tian named herself Empress rename the empire to "Zhou",
>Yin Zong restored as crown prince thanks to Di2 Ren2 Jie2's advice
>to the Empress,

Yes, Zhong1 Zong (not *Yin* Zong) restored the Tang dynasty. Wu3
was once considering naming her nephew as the successor of the
throne, but the advice from Di2 changer her mind. Di2 said, "Is
your son or your nephew more closely related to you?"

> Rui Zong abdicted to Xuan Zong
>but was persuaded by his sister to retain some final say in state matters,
>and Li3 Long2 Ji1 had to do a semi-coup(can't be a total coup since
>he's already the Emperor ;->) two years later against his powerful
>aunt(Wu's daughter) and her allies, to gain full authority as Emperor

Yes, the aunt was "Tai4 Ping2 Gong1 Zhu3". She was quite a lady. :-)

>early & mid Tang court affair was a living soap-opera, it got
>everything, beautiful & ambitious women, scandleous affairs,
>lovers, love & hates, power plays, coups, someone should make a
>TV series and call it "Dynasty".  ;->

That is correct. Wu3, as the woman emperor, had intimate
relationship with several guys (Mian4[face] Shou3[head]). Wu3
dressed very well and looked pretty even when she was old. It is
amazing that at the time when Zhang1 Chang1 Zong1 and Zhang Yi4
Zhi1 brothers were called into the palace to "serve" Wu3, Wu3
was already over seventy years old. This is called "Ren2 Lao3
Zhi4 Bu4 Lao3" (although one is old, one still has a young heart). :-) :-)

Today, we often call adult entertainment "Chun1 Gong1" (Spring
palace). This phrase also came from Wu3 Ze2 Tian1. When Xu2 Jing4
Ye4 rebelled, Luo4 Bin1 Wang2 wrote an article to denounce Wu3.
In that article (Tao3 Wu3 Hou4 Xi2), Luo4 said that Wu3, as one
of the concubines of the emperor, fooled around with the then
prince Li3 Zhi4. The idiom used was "Hui4[dirty] Luan4[mess]
Chun1 Gong1" (messed up the Spring Palace). In Tang dynasty, the
palace where the prince (Tai4 Zi3) lived was called Spring
Palace.

Oh, Tang, what a romantic dynasty. :-) :-)


P.S. The general who led the Tang troops to fight Arabs (Da4
Shi2) was Gao1 Xian1 Zhi1. This event was discussed in a separate
article of yours.