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Li Shimin returned to Chang'an in a grand victory procession and, to reward Li Shimin, Emperor Gaozu awarded both him and Li Yuanji three mints so that they could mint money of their own. He also bestowed on Li Shimin the special title of "Grand General of Heavenly Strategies" (天策上將; tiāncè shàngjiàng). Meanwhile, Li Shimin's staff ...
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- Taizong the emperor
Taizong (born 598, China—died 649, China) temple name (miaohao) of the second emperor (reigned 626–649) of the Tang dynasty (618–907) of China.
Li Shimin was the second son of the dynastic founder, the Gaozu emperor. Traditional historians have portrayed him as the driving force behind his father’s uprising against the doomed Sui dynasty in 617, but powerful evidence shows that his was a minor role. In the initial campaign to take the Sui capital, he and his elder brother, Li Jiancheng, were both Tang commanders. Li Shimin distinguished himself as a general and strategist and was largely responsible for the conquest of the eastern capital of Luoyang and the eastern plain. In 621 the emperor delegated to him control of both military and civil administration in the east, with his headquarters at Luoyang. There he built up his own regional administration and an entourage of talented officials.
With this coup began the reign of the Taizong emperor. His image would be revered for more than a millennium, not only by Chinese monarchs but by Japanese and Korean statesmen and by the rulers of China’s neighbouring peoples to the north. It is not easy to separate the real Taizong from the myths that he himself encouraged and that his own historians incorporated into the dynastic record. They were presented in a vivid and idealized account of his court, the Zhenguan zhengyao, written in 708–710, as a utopian model of ideal government. It gives a picture of a powerful and decisive emperor governing with the aid of a group of talented and well-chosen chief ministers. It shows him as responsive to their outspoken exhortations and remonstrance and as empathetic toward the feelings of his people.
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At first, the Taizong emperor’s style of government closely approached his ideal picture. He was still a very young man, a usurper who needed to heal the rifts between his own supporters at court and those who had supported his brothers. His Confucian moralist mentors were Wei Zheng, who had served a rival rebel regime and had later been an adviser to Li Jiancheng, and who took on the role as Taizong’s public conscience, and Xiao Yu, a descendant of an ancient Southern ruling family. The practical architects of his policies were Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling, who had served him since 618, and his much younger brother-in-law, Changsun Wuji, whose sister was Taizong’s empress and who was Taizong’s closest friend and adviser. All these men enjoyed very long tenure and gave much of the special character to Taizong’s reign.
Whatever Taizong’s style, most of the dynasty’s basic policies and institutions had been put in place by his father, the Gaozu emperor. The structure of government and the detailed law code, which were to provide models for all of East Asia, were already completed. Taizong’s task was to get these institutions working effectively.
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- Emily Mark
- Li-Shimin Becomes Qin Wang. Taizong's birth name was Li-Shimin and he was born in 598 CE in modern-day Shaanxi Province, the second son of Li-Yuan. Li-Yuan was the Duke of Tang and a general in the army of the Sui Dynasty which had become more and more corrupt.
- Qin Wang Becomes Taizong. Qin Wang heard his brothers were going to stage a coup to remove Gaozu and take the throne. They would then be able to easily murder him and Li-Jiancheng would become emperor with the brothers elevated to high court positions.
- Taizong's Reign. One of the first things Taizong did was to create the History Commission to chronicle the Sui Dynasty's rise and fall and how he, Taizong, had founded the Tang Dynasty.
- Taizong & Wu Zhao. In c. 638 CE Taizong selected a beautiful fourteen-year old girl, Wu Zhao, as one of his concubines. The term 'concubine' is often associated with sex but actually concubines at the imperial court performed many services for the emperor such as singing, dancing, cleaning, and doing laundry.
Dec 18, 2023 · As a founding father of the Tang Dynasty he ruled the country in an open minded and humane manner. He was ambitious, intelligent, adroit and diligent. He would become Emperor Taizong, co-founder with his father of the Tang Dynasty, ruling from 629 to 649.
Emperor Taizong of Tang (599-649) was the second emperor of Tang, and often considered to be one of the most successful emperors in Chinese history. He was born Li Shimin, son of Emperor Gaozu, the founder of the Tang dynasty. He took the name Taizong in 626 when he became emperor.
Emperor Taizong of Tang (Chinese: 唐太宗; pinyin: táng tàizōng, January 23, 599 – July 10, 649), personal name Lǐ Shìmín (Chinese: 李世民), was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649.
Li Shimin, or Taizong, has been regarded as one of the greatest monarchs in Chinese history, though he obtained the throne by murdering his brother and forcing his father, also named Taizong, to resign.
