Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
From: liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu)
Subject: Re: big lie
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Distribution: na  
Date: 15 Dec 92 19:31:25 GMT

In article <1ggkj6INN8us@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu> jamesou@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou) writes:
>
>In <1992Dec11.4298.40125@dosgate>, "micky wong" <micky.wong@canrem.com>
>writes:
>
[......] 
>
>>(The story of Li3 Shi4 Ming2 may exemplify the paradoxical nature of
>>human endeavour: He had to kill his own brothers and forced his own
>>father into early retirement, in order to gain power, yet he proofed to
>>be the most sensible ruler of China.)
>
>That is right. LSM killed his brothers Jian4 Cheng2 and Yuan2
>Ji2. He did not want to do that, though. It was because he was
>"Jian4 Zai4 Xuan2 Shang4, Bu4 De2 Bu4 Fa1" (the arrow in on the
>string of the bow, it had to shoot). LSM was passive in this
>incident (Xuan2 Wu3 Men2 Zhi1 Bian4). His people such as Yu4 Chi2
>Gong1 and Chang2 Sun1 Wu2 Ji4 told him that if he did not act
>fast, he as well as people loyal to him would be killed by his
>brothers. IMO, LSM was the best emperor China ever had. He,
>however, created a bad example for his successors. His sons
>fought with each other to succeed the throne. Finally, LSM had to
>give the throne to his younger son Li3 Zhi4, a kind person who
>was not involved in the political fight, to protect the lives of
>the rival sons of his. 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.  
>

it's actually more complicated then that, Rui4 Zong1 was the 4th
son of Gao1 Zong1 and Wu3 Ze2 Tian1, he had been emperor once before,
at the time his elder brother Yin1 Zong regained the throne
from his mother when some ministers & generals started a coup
to restore Dynasty of Tang, but Yin1 Zong1's wife was a Wu Ze Tian
want to be, she poisoned his husband and pushed a young son 
on to the throne as a puppet, Li Long Ji(Xuan Zong) was the 3rd
son Rui zong, gathered a bunch of guards killed Wei3 Hou4(the Empress)
and her lovers, and put his father on the throne, Rui4 Zong1
was not at all involved in the planning of the coup.  in return,
Rui Zong named Long Ji as the crown prince when his eldest son
yielded the position, later Rui Zong retired to let Li Long Ji
became Emperor.  

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, the 3rd & 4th son both had
been Emperor TWICE(!) each.  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, A palace coup, Yin Zong again, rename the Empire 
"Tang", (Wu died of natural illnesss and still buried as mother of Emperor
even know that she "screwed"(literally) Tang Dynasty up-side-down  :->  ), 
a failed-coup during his reign against his wife's allies, and he got 
poisoned by his own wife & her lovers), and then another palace 
counter-coup to restore Rui Zong, and 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 
and "let" his father into complete retirement.  


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".  ;->  
>
>****Confucius said, "Wei2 Guan3 Zhong4, Wu2 Qi2 Pi1 Fa3 Zuo3 Ren4 Yi2."
>(Without GZ, we would have been wearing the clothings of foreigners
>[i.e., being conquered by foreigners].)
>


Newsgroups: soc.culture.china