Chapter 23 Does His Majesty Want to Travel incognito?



Li Shimin's last sentence is the key point. To put it bluntly, his previous posthumous conferment of titles on Li Chengqian and restoration of Li Xiang's title of Prince of Tianshui were all just paving the way for this final sentence.

Li Jue could not forever bear the false name "Li Zhong"; sooner or later he would have to acknowledge his ancestors and return to the imperial genealogy of the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, Li Shimin felt it necessary to prepare Li Jue in advance, lest this grandson come back to life in the future and cause discussion among the court officials.

As for why he came back to life, we need to think about it some more and come up with a plausible reason.

I can't very well tell my civil and military officials that my grandson couldn't stand the hardship of Qianzhou, so he set fire to his house and then pretended to be dead and secretly ran back to Chang'an, can I?

After Li Shimin finished speaking, the civil and military officials in the Liangyi Hall immediately became furious.

"Your Majesty, you dote on your eldest grandson, so posthumously granting him a title is no problem, but this Prince Yong..."

The people were not against the title of "King" itself, but rather against the title of "King Yong".

What is the Prince of Yong?

During the Sui Dynasty, Yongzhou was called Jingzhao Prefecture, which governed 23 counties: Wannian, Chang'an, Lantian, Weinan, Zhaoying, Sanyuan, Fuping, Liyang, Xianyang, Gaoling, Jingyang, Liquan, Yunyang, Xingping, Hu, Wugong, Haozhi, Zhouzhi, Fengxian, Fengtian, Huayuan, Meiyuan, and Tongguan.

To put it bluntly, Chang'an was just a county under Yongzhou!

Now that Your Majesty has posthumously conferred the title of Prince Yong upon Li Jue, what will the future emperor think?

"Your Majesty, I also feel that posthumously conferring the title of Prince Yong is inappropriate!"

"During the Wude era, Emperor Gaozu posthumously conferred the title of Prince Yong upon Li Hui, the fifth son of Emperor Taizu Jing. Now Your Majesty is posthumously conferring the title of Prince Yong upon your grandson, which may conflict with the previous title of Prince Yong..."

Li Shimin answered without hesitation.

"Easy!"

"I may change Li Hui's title to Prince of Fuping!"

Upon hearing this, everyone thought to themselves, "Wow!"

Your Majesty's move was ruthless! In one fell swoop, you demoted Fifth Uncle's Prince of Yong to a minor prince of a county under Yongzhou!

Although Li Shimin's posthumous conferment of the title of Prince Yong on Li Jue was somewhat of a challenge to the psychological defenses of Tang Dynasty officials, fortunately, Li Jue had long since died, and they had no need to fight over a dead man.

Therefore, when they saw that Li Shimin insisted on posthumously conferring titles, their opposition was only symbolic, and when their opposition proved ineffective, they stopped opposing.

Just as Li Shimin was about to leave the court, Changsun Wuji jumped out.

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is not young anymore. I think he doesn't need to stay in the Eastern Palace to study all the time. He could try to participate in court affairs..."

What does Your Majesty think?

Li Shimin had no objection to the proposal. Back then, Li Chengqian was only twelve years old when he participated in court affairs, and Li Zhi was already sixteen. It wouldn't be a big deal if he attended court and listened to government affairs.

"Granted!"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

After the morning court session ended, just as Changsun Wuji was about to leave, Li Shimin pulled him to the Ganlu Hall.

"Auxiliary machine, don't leave, come chat with me!"

"promise!"

When Changsun Wuji followed Li Shimin back to Ganlu Palace, all the ministers looked on with envy.

There's nothing we can do; what can we do when someone has such a wonderful younger sister?

As soon as the two returned to Ganlu Palace, Li Shimin took out a copy of the Analects and asked them all sorts of questions.

"Fuji, you must be very familiar with the Analects, right?"

"I know a little!"

Zengzi said: "By being mindful of the end of life and remembering our ancestors, the people's virtue will return to its original purity."

How do you interpret this sentence?

"Your Majesty, the original meaning of this saying is that a ruler should treat the funeral of his parents with care and respectfully worship his ancestors. If a ruler can do this, he can make the people's hearts return to simplicity and honesty!"

"Oh oh oh..."

"Is this the purpose of the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Ancestral Temple?"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"The imperial sacrifices to the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Ancestral Temple were based on this point."

"An ancient saying goes, 'The most important matters of state are sacrifice and war.'"

"Sacrifices and wars have always been the most important matters of the dynasty. The imperial mausoleum that Your Majesty is now building at Jiuzong Mountain is not only for Your Majesty to use after His Majesty's death, but also for future emperors to use to pay homage, commemorate the achievements of their ancestors, and let future generations of people know Your Majesty's achievements and benevolence!"

"Oh oh oh..."

Ziqin asked Zigong, “When the Master arrives in a state, he always learns about its government. Does he seek this information, or is it given to him?” Zigong replied, “The Master obtains this information through his gentleness, kindness, respectfulness, frugality, and humility. Is the way the Master seeks this information different from how others seek it?”

"And what about this sentence?"

"Your Majesty, does this mean that Confucius could tell whether a place was well-governed or not whenever he went there? Did he find out this himself, or did someone tell him to him?"

Zigong replied, “The Master is gentle in his dealings with others, of pure character, humble and polite, diligent and frugal, and considers humility as a virtue. With so many fine qualities, it is natural that many people are willing to be close to him. And with more people close to him, he naturally knows more.”

"The Master may have asked others, but even when he did ask, it was in a different way than others, making it more pleasant for them to tell him."

Li Shimin was increasingly surprised as he listened. He realized that such a short passage from the Analects could reveal so many profound truths!

Just as Li Shimin was about to continue his discussion with Changsun Wuji, Changsun Wuji suddenly made a suggestion.

"Your Majesty, why not let His Highness the Crown Prince come and listen as well?"

"he?"

Li Shimin didn't want to reveal his semi-literate status to his son, so he immediately wanted to reject the suggestion. However, what Changsun Wuji said next made him change his mind.

"Your Majesty can also take this opportunity to test whether the Crown Prince's learning has improved!"

"That's a good suggestion!"

"I will ask Li Zhi first, and after Li Zhi explains, you can help him fill in any gaps!"

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!

Continue read on readnovelmtl.com


Recommendation



Comments

Please login to comment

Support Us

Donate to disable ads.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com
Chapter List