What does the academic community think of Zhao Kuangyin s death?

According to the reasoning of later generations, it should be Zhao Guangyi usurping the throne, although it is said that Zhao Guangyi later made a gold shortage, which said that Zhao Kuangyin's old mother had instructed the emperor to be a brother and a brother, but in the end Zhao Guangyi killed Zhao Tingmei and Zhao Kuangyin's sons Zhao Defang and Zhao Dezhao, whose intentions were sinister, and it was clear that he wanted to keep the throne in his own house. The history of Liao records that "Zhao Jiong is self-reliant" (Zhao Jiong is Zhao Guangyi's later name), Zhao Guangyi can cover up the history of his country, but the discerning people of Liao recorded this event!

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin launched the Chenqiao Mutiny in 960 AD, the yellow robe was added, he was the emperor for 17 years, and he returned to the West in 976 AD, there is no clear record of his death in the official history, and the relevant records in the "Song History, Taizu Benji" are only two simple sentences: "The emperor collapsed in the Long Live Palace, fifty years old." "Appointed by the Empress Dowager Du and passed on the throne to Taizong.

Therefore, his death has always been a mystery, leaving another unsolved case for history.

Sima Guang's "Xiangshan Yelu" records that in October of the ninth year of Kaibao, the weather was extremely cold that day, and Zhao Kuangyin, the king of Song, urgently called his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, the king of Jin, to enter the palace. After three rounds of drinking, it was already late at night, and he saw that Zhao Guangyi, the king of Jin, was always hiding behind, extremely scared, and he was a little proud. Seeing that the snow in front of the hall was a few inches thick, he pierced the snow with a jade axe, and said to his brother from time to time:

It's so easy, it's so easy. That night, Zhao Guangyi didn't leave and stayed in the Forbidden Palace. At dawn the next day, news came out of the Forbidden Palace that Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin had died.

According to the edict, Zhao Guangyi became the emperor in front of the coffin.

The official record is very sloppy: "On the eve of the ugly night, the emperor collapsed in the Hall of Long Live at the age of fifty." Buried at the west steps of the hall ......"As for the cause of death, I didn't mention it at all. There are various speculations now: some say that he died of excessive drinking, while others say that he died of illness due to an attack of sores under his abdomen ......

Because Zhao Kuangyin trusted Zhao Guangyi too much, and Zhao Guangyi had been plotting for a long time and had made all the preparations, Zhao Kuangyin died violently.

After Zhao Guangyi became the emperor, in less than a year, all Zhao Kuangyin had the right to inherit the adult descendants, all of whom died unnaturally, and Zhao Kuangyin's queen, Queen Wang, was treated by Zhao Guangyi's non-former queen courtesy, and her life was bleak early, let alone given any care.

Background of the times. At that time, Zhao Yu Kuangyin was just 50 years old, he was still in the prime of life, and his health was not bad in all aspects, so Zhao Kuangyin felt that he had enough time to deal with this matter. After all, Zhao Guangyi was his brother, and he couldn't bear to use cruel means to deal with him, so he was ready to take his time with gentle means.

At that time, Zhao Kuangyin had already adjusted Zhao Kuangyin's position as the Yin of Kaifeng Mansion and was ready to let someone else take over. If Zhao Guangyi didn't act, his power would slowly fade away, and finally let Zhao Kuangyin's son successfully ascend to the throne.

Zhao Kuangyin died violently.

On the night of October 19 in the ninth year of Kaibao (976), Zhao Kuangyin summoned his brother Zhao Guangyi to drink and stay in the palace together; Early the next morning, Zhao Kuangyin died violently at the age of 50. He is called Emperor Yingwu Shengwen Shende, and the temple is called Taizu.

On April 25, the second year of Taiping Xingguo (977), he was buried in Yongchang Mausoleum (now Gongyi, Zhengzhou, Henan). In the first year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1008), plus the respect for Qiyun to establish the extremely heroic martial arts and wisdom of the gods and virtues to the Ming Emperor Xiao.

Regarding Zhao Kuangyin's death, the saying that "Xiangshan Yelu" has "the sound of candle shadow axe" is popular in the world, and it is believed that Zhao Kuangyin is Zhao Guangyi, who intends to usurp the throne**.

In order to justify his accession to the throne, Zhao Guangyi put forward the unprecedented "Golden Kui Alliance", saying that Zhao Kuangyin promised his mother Empress Dowager Du before his death that he would pass on the throne to Guangyi in the future.

General comments

Zhao Kuangyin's greatest contribution and achievement in his life was to restore the unity of the Chinese region and put an end to the nearly 70-year-long situation of separatism and chaos between feudal towns and towns since the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty. The people who have suffered so much from the war finally have a peaceful and tranquil production and living environment, which has created good conditions for social progress, economic development, and cultural prosperity.

Zhao Kuangyin, as the terminator of the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the pioneer of the Song Dynasty, is an important figure in Chinese history.

He has a perfect personality charm: upright-hearted, jealous and hateful, generous, modest, tireless in learning, diligent in government and love for the people, strict in self-discipline, not close to lust and infiltration, advocating frugality, leading by example, etc., not only has a great exemplary effect on changing the extravagant atmosphere of the past five generations, but also is deeply talked about by later historians.

Because they don't want to be killed, if the true cause of Zhao Kuangyin's death is unfavorable to Zhao Guangyi, and the Song court has no face, they will not end well.

Because Zhao Kuangyin's death still has a lot of strange things, and it has something to do with the new emperor, so they dare not write it.

Mainly because his death was not glorious, and the cause of his death was also difficult for many people to say, so the historians of the Song Dynasty didn't want to talk about it.

That's because there is really no way to say the cause of death, in fact, it is also because it will make many people feel incredible, like this situation.