The Crisis of Zhenguan Rule: Did Li Shimin's arrogance and extravagance lead to turmoil and repent before he died?

Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, is a well-known monarch. His "Zhenguan Rule" has been praised by later generations. But as the saying goes, no one is perfect, and Li Shimin also made many mistakes, especially in the later period of his rule, which even triggered some crises. The rule of Zhenguan was almost destroyed by Li Shimin himself. It was not until he died that he repented and warned his son not to repeat his mistakes. So what did Li Shimin do?

In the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Wei Zhi wrote a very famous chapter and presented it to the emperor. One of them said, "Those who have a good beginning are numerous, and those who can stop it will cover up the widow." Emperors in history were able to do a lot at first, but few of them persisted in the end. In fact, Li Shimin was the same, and he didn't finish well during his reign. By the end of his reign, Li Shimin was like Yang Guang's "possession", and he became arrogant, extravagant, militaristic and suspicious.

During the reign of Emperor Yangdi, the national strength of the Sui Dynasty was strong and the treasury was full, while the national strength was weak after the war in the early years of the Tang Dynasty. However, in the later period of Li Shimin's rule, he began to crave pleasure and build great buildings. Li Shimin ordered the rebuilding of Luoyang Palace in the eighth year of Zhenguan, and in the eleventh year of Zhenguan, he wrote a letter to build Feishan Palace, which did not even work with Wei Zhi's exhortation. After that, Li Shimin began to build his own mausoleum, which took 12 years.

In the twenty-first year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin suffered from wind disease, and because Chang 'an was too hot in summer, he built Cuiwei Palace in Zhongnanshan for his summer vacation. After the completion of the construction, Li Shimin was very dissatisfied and built the Yuhua Palace. Li Shimin built a large-scale project, and the people were miserable, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the ministers of the DPRK. They wrote to the emperor, but Li Shimin ignored it. Instead, he said, "People are arrogant and relaxed when they have nothing to do, and labor is easy to make."

In order to escape the heavy corvee, many ordinary people fled one after another, and even cut off their hands and feet. So far, the frivolous and thin tax in the early years of Zhenguan no longer exists. Many farmers couldn't bear it, and they raised flags to revolt. For example, during the twelfth and thirteenth years of Zhenguan, peasant uprisings occurred in Wuzhou, Bazhou, Bazhou, Junzhou, Mingzhou, Bizhou, Yangzhou and Jizhou. Even the palace guards were dissatisfied with the emperor, and there was an incident of "shooting at the palace at night".

Li Shimin made great efforts to build houses at home, patrolling and hunting for many times, and used troops to Koguryo abroad, and embarked on a road almost the same as that of Yang Guang. In the process of conquering Koguryo, Li Shimin assigned the task of repairing ships to Jiannan Road. As a result, the local people "sold their fields and houses, and their children could not provide for them", which led to peasant riots in Yazhou, Qiongzhou and Meizhou. Finally, the battle of Koguryo was conquered, and the Tang Dynasty ended in failure.

During Li Shimin's reign, he also killed many ministers, including the founding hero and the current prime minister. Li Shimin no longer trusted the DPRK ministers. Objectively speaking, Li Shimin did a good job in the early stage, but in the later stage, he was simply Emperor Yangdi. With the deterioration of health, Li Shimin seems to realize his mistake gradually. As the saying goes, when a man is dying, his words are good. Before he died, Li Shimin called Prince Li Zhi to him and said something:

"I have been bad since I came to the throne. Splendid pearls and jade, endless in the past, palace pavilions, repeated works, dogs, horses and eagles, far away, traveling around the world, for the trouble. This is my deep place. " He hoped that Prince Li Zhi could "do not think it is right and punish it". Li Shimin was able to realize his mistakes, which was much better than Emperor Yangdi.