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Second emperor of the Tang Dynasty
- Taizong (birth name, Li-Shimin, l. 598-649 CE, r. 626-649 CE) was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty and is considered one of the greatest rulers in Chinese history for his reforms of the government and the laws, his religious tolerance, and the prosperity China enjoyed under his reign.
www.worldhistory.org/Emperor_Taizong_of_Tang/
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By 626, Li Shimin was fearful that he would be killed by Li Jiancheng, and his staff members Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and Zhangsun Wuji were repeatedly encouraging Li Shimin to attack Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji first—while Wei Zheng was encouraging Li Jiancheng to attack Li Shimin first.
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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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In 616, when Li Yuan was put in charge of the important city of Taiyuan (太原, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), he took Li Shimin there with him, leaving at least three other sons, Li Jiancheng, Li Yuanji, and Li Zhiyun (李智雲, by Li Yuan's concubine Lady Wan), at his ancestral home in Hedong (河東, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi).
Mar 9, 2016 · Taizong (birth name, Li-Shimin, l. 598-649 CE, r. 626-649 CE) was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty and is considered one of the greatest rulers in Chinese history for his reforms of the government and the laws, his religious tolerance, and the prosperity China enjoyed under his reign.
- Emily Mark
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.
Taizong of Tang, also known as Li Shimin, was one of the most prominent emperors of the Tang Dynasty, ruling from 626 to 649 AD. He was known for his military prowess, political acumen, and cultural achievements and is widely regarded as one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history.
Taizong, or T’ai-tsung orig. Li Shimin, (born 598, China—died 649, China), Second emperor of China’s Tang dynasty. In his father’s campaign against the Sui dynasty, Li Shimin was responsible for the conquest of Luoyang, the eastern capital.
