If you want to label Yang Guifei and Tang Xuanzong, it would be love, politics, ethics and morality.
The fusion of these things is like a mess, and it is still difficult to sort it out. The ancients often said, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." This sentence is not unreasonable.
Based on the story of Concubine Yang and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, it has been extended to legendary scripts and dramas such as "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", "Palace of Eternal Life", "Tang Minghuang's Autumn Leaves and Wutong Rain", etc.
As a generation of emperors, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once created a glorious Kaiyuan era politically, which was a rare prosperous era for Chinese feudal rule. However, in the later period of his rule, due to indulgence in enjoyment, politics was neglected and ended. As for the "Anshi Rebellion", half of the beautiful mountains and rivers of the Tang Dynasty were lost.
The union between Yang Guifei and Tang Xuanzong is at a turning point from prosperity to decline, so the story between them has been subjected to various romances and processing, plus the relationship between them The story does meet the conditions of "gossip", so there is a love legend that everyone can chat about after dinner.
What is the most criticized thing about Li Yang’s love? That must be the unfaithful love between them.
If you look at it from an ethical perspective, it is simply unbearable to look at. Even if you love it, you cannot ignore family affection. From a historical perspective, Li Yang's love has nothing to do with purity.
However, such a story of ethical dislocation has led to different versions of literary works, thus ignoring the lack of ethics and morality between them.
Why do people abandon these? The emperor is a high-ranking and mysterious existence. In addition, Concubine Yang is indeed beautiful. Just like now, don't everyone keep gossiping about the past of the First Lady of the United States? Therefore, everyone is curious about the story of the emperor's house, so the historical image created by literati may be closer to the public's aesthetics.
Before Li Yang's love story took shape, there were actually love legends about emperors and concubines, such as Emperor Shun and "Emperor Nv Ying", Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Mrs. Li in "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing", etc. .
Of course, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was even more special, because he was a wise emperor at the beginning and created the prosperity of the "Kaiyuan Age", but in the later period, his ignorance led to the "Anshi Rebellion", precisely because this emperor was not without merit. , so in the early creation of the novel, Yang Guifei was still labeled as "beauties are a disaster".
This is not the end, because of their unethical love, Yang Guifei’s love affair with the country became a "disaster to the country and the people" criticized by later generations. In feudal society, male power was in power, even if she was just "It is a crime to have a jade" is also considered to be a representative of "disaster".
When men sit in power and give orders, what role does a woman have in determining success or failure?
From a moral and ethical perspective, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty should be held responsible for this unethical love. However, the strange thing is that in addition to accusing the Yang brothers and sisters of being arrogant and extravagant, it was also the person who accused Yang Guifei of "bringing disaster to the country and the people" , and then the writing changed and praised Li Yang's love, but few criticized this story based on ethics.
A relationship entangled with morals and ethics has become the talk of later generations, and it also casts a veil of shyness on this story.
Li Yang’s love was written down by later generations, but was it really that pure? Of course not. First of all, what comes out of the collision of ethics and morality is an unspeakable life.
I don’t know what the longevity king Li Hao will call Concubine Yang when he sees them, and how he will handle himself when he sees their love in court. Although Li Hao died at a healthy age, his life was not sad.
When Yang Yuhuan first got married, she was very affectionate with the longevity king Li Hao, but in a blink of an eye, she sent her beloved woman to her father's arms. Who would believe it if she said she was not sad?
It's not that he doesn't hate it, it's just that he can't fight against the superior imperial power. He can only endure the absurd fact that his wife has become a mother.
Li Yang's love begins with absurdity and must end in tragedy. I wonder what Li Mao felt when he saw his former lover die in the loess ridge and turned into a pile of bones in Maweipo?
Yang Yuhuan became a noble concubine. This was more like a plunder of imperial power and the possession of beautiful things. She could not resist the power imposed on her. Who knows what she was thinking in her heart? Who knows if she might be in some pain too?
Playing a "game" with power is a kind of destruction. Yang Guifei may not know that she is embarking on a road of self-destruction.
What really put Yang Guifei on the road to death was politics. Royal political struggles have always been bloody.
Starting from Tang Taizong Li Shimin, he stepped on the corpse of his brother to reach the pinnacle of power; Wu Zetian even used tyrannical means to ascend the throne of the emperor and became the queen; including Tang Xuanzong himself, in During the "Tang Long Coup", he also climbed onto the dragon throne with the blood of his own relatives.
So once it is involved in politics, there is only one way to go, and that is destruction.
Concubine Yang was favored, and the entire Yang family followed the chickens and dogs to heaven. But how could this kind of favor last long? Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty will also grow old, and new people will rise. How can one remain stable in the world relying on the favor of an emperor who has faded away?
Bai Juyi wrote in "Song of Everlasting Sorrow": The golden house is made up to serve the night, and the jade house is drunk and spring is over. Sisters and brothers are all from the earth, poor and glorious. Therefore, the hearts of parents all over the world are determined not to be reborn as a boy but to be reborn as a girl.
Even the literary works point out the wealth and splendor of the Yang family. In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Qin Keqing persuaded Wang Xifeng to say this, "As the saying goes, 'When the moon is full, it will lose, and when the water is full, it will overflow.' It is also said, 'If you climb high, you will fall heavy.'"
This sentence is here The description of the Yang family is not bad at all. There is no way to continue to be prosperous and wealthy. If it is related to politics, it will only perish in the end.
What really killed Yang Guifei was the Anshi Rebellion. In 755 AD, An Lushan falsely claimed that "there was a secret decree to order Lushan's troops to go to court to attack Yang Guozhong", and raised troops in Fan Yang, and captured Dongdu in December of the same year. Luoyang.
According to the "Old Tang Book: Biography of the Concubines": After the Hebei pirates started, Xuanzong appointed the crown prince as the marshal of the world's soldiers and horses, supervising the military and state affairs. The loyal people of the country were greatly frightened, the poplars gathered together to weep, and the noble concubines expressed their love for the emperor, so the emperor could not practice inner meditation.
The Yang brothers and sisters had offended Prince Li Heng without knowing it. Originally, Tang Xuanzong wanted Prince Li Heng to conquer Anlu Mountain, but Yang Guozhong was afraid and persuaded Xuanzong to flee west. At this time, Concubine Yang also cried and supported Yang Guozhong's opinions.
The arrogance of the Yang family has long foreshadowed future tragedies, not to mention such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Prince Li Heng bribed Chen Xuanli, launched a mutiny in Maweipo, and killed Yang Guozhong. , even if this matter has nothing to do with Concubine Yang, she cannot escape the bad luck of death because "no eggs are left intact under the overturning of the nest".
Politics and love, ethics and morality, these inherently contradictory combinations, cannot be as satisfactory as one wishes. It is a truth that has existed since ancient times.