This story uses many real historical figures’ names, character relationships, and related background plots. While literary works are products of imagination based on historical foundations and should not be confused with actual historical figures, I would like to introduce some historical records about these related figures to enhance the completeness of this creative work.
Li Yuan’s fourteenth son Li Yuanji has separate biographies in both Old and New Tang History books, with similar content. He was initially granted the title “Prince of Shu” in the sixth year of Wude, changed to “Prince of Wu” in the eighth year, and maintained this title until the story’s setting in the ninth year of Zhenguan.
In the tenth year of Zhenguan, his title was changed to “Prince of Huo.” According to historical records, Wei Zheng highly valued Li Yuanji very early on, praising his “classical learning and literary refinement” to Emperor Li Shimin, which led to Li Shimin arranging his younger brother’s marriage to Wei Zheng’s daughter.
In his youth, while in the palace, Li Yuanji “went hunting with Taizong, and when encountering wild beasts, was commanded to shoot them, never missing a shot.” His second brother patted his shoulder and said, “Your martial skills are exceptional, though it’s a pity there’s no use for them now. When the empire was not yet unified, I campaigned in all directions. How wonderful it would have been to have you charging into battle alongside me.” (Take this with a grain of salt.) After Tang Gaozu’s death, Li Yuanji reportedly displayed extreme grief and filial piety, “damaging his health beyond propriety, thereafter always wearing cloth garments to show lifelong mourning. Every Memorial Day, he would fast for several days.”
In the tenth year of Zhenguan, Li Yuan’s younger sons received new appointments and were sent to serve as governors in various regions. Li Yuanji first served as “Governor of Jiang Prefecture (around present-day Jiang County, Houma, and Wenxi in Shanxi Province, neighboring Chai Shao’s ancestral Linfen Commandery),” then as “Governor of Xu Prefecture (present-day Xuzhou area in Jiangsu Province).” In his posts, he maintained a low profile, mostly staying indoors reading books and delegating work to his principality’s officials (Chief Administrator and Military Advisor), “maintaining careful self-discipline, avoiding conflicts with others, and never acting rashly.” In Xuzhou, he had a commoner friend named Liu Xuanping. When someone asked Liu about “Prince Huo’s merits,” Liu replied, “He has none.” When asked why, Liu explained, “People’s shortcomings reveal their special strengths. Prince Huo is so perfect and flawless that I cannot point out any particular merit.”
In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, after Li Shimin’s death, the new emperor Li Zhi ascended the throne and bestowed additional favors on his uncles and brothers. Li Yuanji benefited from an increase in his fief to a thousand households (a rise in income) and was appointed “Governor of Ding Prefecture.” This location in present-day central Hebei Province was just a few hundred li south of present-day Beijing, and during the Tang Dynasty, it was practically the front line for defending against the Turks and other northern nomadic armies. During Emperor Gaozong’s reign, Li Yuanji won victories defending the city of Ding Prefecture and achieved notable success in civil administration. Gaozong Li Zhi (presumably when his health was still good) showed considerable respect for his fourteenth uncle. It was said that when Li Yuanji “entered court, he frequently submitted memorials discussing current politics’ strengths and weaknesses, offering many beneficial suggestions, and Gaozong greatly respected him. While serving in his regional post, the court would often secretly consult him on major matters.” Overall, Li Yuanji maintained a low profile during the Zhenguan era but became much more active during Gaozong’s reign. After Li Zhi’s death, Li Yuanji was deeply involved in the construction of the Qian Mausoleum.
However, after Gaozong’s death, when Wu Zetian took power, disaster soon befell the Li family’s imperial clan. In the fourth year of Chuigong, Li Yuanji, who by then held the prestigious title of “Minister of Education,” was allegedly involved in a rebellion plot with Prince Li Zhen of Yue. After the plot was exposed, he was exiled to Qian Prefecture (present-day Guizhou area) and suffered great humiliation, being transported in an open cage cart exposed to the elements, with uninformed crowds gathering to watch the spectacle wherever he went. He never reached Guizhou, dying en route at Chencang (present-day Baoji area in Shaanxi). The exact cause of death remains unknown.
Li Yuanji had seven sons, with his eldest son Li Xu being the most talented. Li Xu was titled “Prince of Jiangdu” and served as Governor of Jin Prefecture. He was also executed during Wu Zetian’s reign. After Emperor Zhongzong’s restoration, both he and his father Yuanji were posthumously restored to their titles. Li Xu’s grandson Li Hui (Li Yuanji’s great-grandson) was restored as “Hereditary Prince of Huo,” a rank one level below prince and above commandery prince, specifically designated for sons inheriting princely titles. Li Hui served as “Left Thousand Horses External General” during Emperor Xuanzong’s Kaiyuan period.
Another of Li Yuanji’s sons, Li Chun, was titled “Prince of Anding,” while the remaining five sons were granted titles of either national or commandery duke. Overall, before Wu Zetian took power, the family enjoyed very favorable treatment.
The above information comes from surviving documents in the “Old Tang History Biography Fourteen” and “New Tang History Biography Four.” In recent years, archaeologists have discovered several tomb epitaphs related to Li Yuanji’s family, which I learned about only after conceiving and beginning to write this story (thanks to Jiang Feiyu, Zhai Song Miao, and other friends for providing this information). There are some interesting coincidences worth mentioning.
First, there is the “Tang Jiangdu Prince Consort Lady Pei’s Tomb Epitaph,” included in “Newly Unearthed Tomb Epitaphs from Qin, Jin, and Yu” published in [year], edited by Zhao Junping and Zhao Wencheng. This Lady Pei, Princess Consort of Jiangdu, was the principal wife of Li Yuanji’s eldest son Li Xu. Her grandfather was Pei Ji, her father was Pei Lüshi, and her mother was Emperor Gaozu’s daughter Princess Linhai, who was the inspiration for the “Seventeenth Princess” in my main story. Note that Li Yuanji and the Seventeenth Princess being born of the same mother is purely fictional with no historical basis, but this tomb epitaph reveals that Li Yuanji’s eldest son did indeed marry Princess Linhai’s daughter Lady Pei as his principal wife.
Of course, Li Yuanji and Princess Linhai were at least half-siblings (sharing the same father), making their children cousins, and there was a long-standing tradition of cousin marriages in ancient times, so this coincidence isn’t too surprising. Lady Pei was born around the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, presumably quite a bit younger than Li Xu, and their marriage likely took place during Gaozong’s reign. During Wu Zetian’s period, as both a member of the Li family’s imperial clan and a princess’s daughter, she could not escape misfortune. The epitaph states “the consort was confined in the palace,” imprisoned in the Yeting Palace, which housed criminals’ family members and palace maids. Lady Pei was fortunate in both constitution and luck, enduring until Emperor Zhongzong’s restoration when she was released and restored to her position. She ultimately died at the age of seventy-six in the twelfth year of Emperor Xuanzong’s Kaiyuan period.
There is also an “Epitaph of the Late Tang Dynasty Ankang Prefecture Governor Lord Li” which reveals more historical facts about Li Yuanji’s family. The deceased, named Li Gang, was Li Yuanji’s fifth son, earlier titled Duke of Nanyang. His epitaph begins with “Taizong’s beloved youngest brother, the Minister of Education and Prince of Huo, Yuanji…”
Li Gang was born during the Zhenguan period and met Taizong as a child, receiving an Eastern Palace position of “Commander of Virtue.” His mother, Princess Consort Lady Wei (at least his legal mother, likely his birth mother as well), died before Emperor Gaozong, making her perhaps the most fortunate of the family. During Gaozong’s reign, Li Gang served as Vice Governor in three prefectures. His principal wife was Wei Zheng’s granddaughter, the second daughter of Wei Zheng’s second son Wei Shuyu, meaning he too married his cousin.
During Wu Zetian’s purge of the Li family imperial clan, Li Gang was exiled to Wu Prefecture (in present-day Guangxi), then a remote and barbarous region. His epitaph delicately states that he escaped there to pursue religious cultivation, “leaving his bones in a foreign land,” with even the year of his death unknown. After the Li family’s restoration, Li Gang was posthumously appointed Governor of Jin Prefecture. His son Li Zhiti, who was still alive, somehow managed to find his father’s… remains or ashes in the south, first temporarily burying them in Linru Commandery, then later reburying them at the Shaoling grounds near the capital during Emperor Xuanzong’s Tianbao period.
Li Gang’s wife Lady Wei may have suffered an even worse fate. After her husband’s family’s downfall, she too was “confined in the palace” and became a nun, “hoping to pierce her body with a hundred lamps and burn incense on her head.” She didn’t have her sister-in-law’s luck in surviving, and her time of death is unknown. She was “buried in the palace servants’ cemetery,” and the grave location was later lost. When Li Zhiti wanted to arrange a joint burial for his parents during the Tianbao period, he could only perform a soul-summoning ceremony with a piece of clothing.
Now regarding the Wei family:
Wei Zheng himself needs little introduction as the exemplary remonstrating minister of all time. Although Emperor Li Shimin did lose his temper with him after his death, the later stories of “destroying his tomb and stele” were fabricated (the stele was only temporarily toppled and quickly restored). Wei Zheng’s sons continued to serve as officials: his eldest son Shuyu inherited the title Duke of Zheng and served as Junior Chief of the Imperial Banquets; Wei Shulin rose to Vice Minister of Rites but “was killed by cruel officials during Wu Zetian’s time.” Wei Shuyu served as Governor of Yu Prefecture and was a renowned calligrapher, famous alongside his nephew Xue Ji, one of the Four Great Calligraphers of the Early Tang. Wei Zheng’s fifth-generation descendant Wei Mo even served as Chancellor during Emperor Xuanzong’s reign.
Wei Zheng’s eldest son Shuyu was once nearly betrothed to Princess Hengshan, Empress Changsung’s youngest daughter, but this engagement was broken off during one of Li Shimin’s angry periods. If we must reconcile the story’s plot point about his parents paying thirty thousand bolts of silk to arrange his marriage to the youngest daughter of the Cui family with historical records, we could suppose that the Cui daughter died young from illness, as infant mortality rates were indeed quite high then… Thus the Wei family lost both money and opportunity, and Wei Zheng continued hoping to find a high-born wife from the five noble clans for his eldest son, but couldn’t arrange another match before his death.
Empress Changsung died in the fifth month of the tenth year of Zhenguan. Her husband Li Shimin was devastated and never took another principal wife as empress for the rest of his life. In fact, for thirteen years after his wife’s death, there were barely any children born in his imperial harem—the only exception being his youngest son Li Ming, whose birth date is uncertain and whose birth mother was Li Yuanji’s principal wife Lady Yang. The next oldest son, Prince Zhao Li Fu, whose tomb epitaph has been discovered, was born in the eighth year of Zhenguan when Empress Changsung was still alive. As for Li Shimin’s daughters, according to the “Biographies of Princesses” in the New Tang History, the Twenty-first Princess was Empress Changsung’s youngest daughter. No newly discovered tomb epitaphs have contradicted these records, leaving the matter open for future research.
After his mother’s death, Li Chengqian’s relationship with his father and fourth brother continued to deteriorate, culminating in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan with what seemed like a child’s game of “killing father and forcing the palace in rebellion.” Although it posed no substantial threat to the emperor, the plot had already been set in motion and couldn’t be ignored. He also dragged his fourth brother Li Tai into it, resulting in both brothers being demoted, leaving their only remaining full brother Li Zhi as the ultimate beneficiary. Their father Li Shimin was severely affected by this incident, and his health declined steadily afterward.
Li Chengqian’s principal wife, Crown Princess Lady Su, left few traces in historical records. The “Imperial Celebrations and Rewards” section of the Cefu Yuangui records: “In the first month of the ninth year (of Zhenguan), on the day Jiashen, Crown Prince Chengqian married Lady Su as his consort, held a banquet for officials, and distributed silk according to rank.” The Complete Tang Writings contains an “Imperial Edict Appointing Su Dan’s Daughter as Crown Prince’s Consort,” revealing that the Crown Princess was the “eldest daughter of Document Officer Su Dan.” Volume Five of “Wei Zheng’s Remonstrance Records” includes an account of “The Imperial Grandson’s Birth Banquet,” describing how “after the Eastern Palace produced an heir, Taizong visited the Eastern Palace and held a joyous feast,” with officials’ memorials mentioning “the Eastern Palace’s first legitimate birth.” The “Praising the Worthy” section of Cefu Yuangui dates this event to the third month of the twelfth year of Zhenguan, suggesting that Lady Su had borne Li Chengqian a legitimate son.
However, their marital relationship was likely less than harmonious. Records show that Li Chengqian was in love with Chenxin, a young musician from the Imperial Music Bureau, and “shared his bed.” After Li Shimin angrily executed Chenxin, Li Chengqian was deeply grieved, “building a shrine in his palace, erecting his (Chenxin’s) statue, making daily offerings with tears, and secretly constructing a tomb in the gardens, complete with an official stele.” This further strained the father-son relationship.
Li Chengqian had at least three sons: Li Xiang, Li Yi, and Li Jue. Among them, Li Xiang’s son Li Zhizhi became Chancellor during Emperor Xuanzong’s reign and arranged for his grandfather Li Chengqian’s remains to be moved from exile to Emperor Taizong’s Zhao Mausoleum. By then, Li Chengqian’s wife Lady Su’s tomb and remains could not be found, so they could only perform a “soul-summoning joint burial.” The “Epitaph of the Late Tang Hengshan Compassionate Prince” describing these events has been unearthed at the Zhao Mausoleum.
Princess Pingyang, her husband Chai Shao, and their two sons Chai Zhewei and Chai Lingwu were all historical figures. Chai Shao died in the twelfth year of Zhenguan, was posthumously appointed Governor-General of Jing Prefecture, given the posthumous title of Xiang, and was customarily referred to as “Duke Xiang of Qiao” by Tang people.
His eldest son Chai Zhewei inherited the title Duke of Qiao. The Tang histories only mention that he served as General of the Right Garrison, was implicated in his brother Chai Lingwu and sister-in-law’s rebellion case, was briefly exiled to Lingnan, then reinstated as “Governor-General of Jiao Prefecture (headquartered in present-day Vietnam)” where he died in office. However, recent years have revealed more materials about Chai Zhewei. A “Linghu Family Tomb Epitaph from Nanping Village, Tianshan County” discovered in the southern suburbs of Turpan, Xinjiang, records that in the ninth month of the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, Chai Zhewei held the title: “Commissioner of Military Affairs for Xi, Yi, and Ting Prefectures, Protector General of Anxi, Governor of Xi Prefecture, Upper Pillar of State, Duke of Qiao.” Current research suggests he was the third Protector General of Anxi in Tang history, overseeing an area spanning from present-day Xinjiang to Central Asia.
In Korea, the discovery of the “General Chai’s Temple Pavilion Stele” reveals that during Emperor Gaozong’s Longshuo period, Chai Zhewei participated in Tang military campaigns to conquer the Korean Peninsula as “Commissioner of Hanzi Road.” This shows that during Emperor Gaozong’s era, Chai Zhewei campaigned successfully in both East and west as a competent general who, though not extremely famous, lived up to his parents’ illustrious achievements.
In contrast, his younger brother Chai Lingwu was less distinguished. Chai Lingwu married Li Shimin’s seventh daughter Princess Baling (posthumously honored as Princess Bijing), served as Vice Minister of the Imperial Stables and Governor of Wei Prefecture, and was titled Duke of Xiangyang. In the fourth year of Yonghui, the couple became involved in a rebellion plot with Princess Gaoyang and Fang Yi’ai, resulting in both being sentenced to death.
The Tuyuhun War ended in the ninth year of Zhenguan, marking Duke of Dai (later Duke of Wei) Li Jing’s final battle. The Tang court supported the mixed-blood son of the old Khan Fuyun and Princess Sui Heqin, Murong Shun, as the new Tuyuhun Khan, but Murong Shun was too sinicized and his tribesmen rejected him, killing him after the Tang army withdrew. The Tang court continued to support Murong Shun’s son Murong Nuohebo as the next Khan and betrothed an imperial clan woman as “Princess Honghua” in a marriage alliance. However, Tibet’s power was rising under its famous leader Songtsen Gampo, who used various means to occupy the rich pastures of the Tuyuhun territory, driving out Nuohebo and Princess Honghua. The couple fled hastily back to Chang’an, spending the rest of their lives in the Tang capital.
Li Shimin’s fifth sister, Princess Guiyang (later renamed Princess Changguang), did not fare well in her later years. First, her son from her previous marriage, Zhao Jie, was implicated in the Crown Prince’s deposal case in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, which also affected her second husband Yang Shidao. Then in the twenty-first year of Zhenguan, Yang Shidao died, and the fifth princess passed away around the same time. Her children from her previous marriage with the surname Zhao and her son Yang Yuzhi from Yang Shidao fought over the inheritance to Emperor Li Shimin’s court, embarrassing their uncle the emperor, who sent Changsun Wuji to settle their family division.
That wasn’t the end of it. Yang Yuzhi, this delinquent youth, committed adultery with his aunt Princess Yongjia (Emperor Gaozu’s daughter) while observing mourning for his mother. He was caught in the act by his aunt’s husband Dou Fengjie, who cut off his ears and nose and beat him to death. The scandal was so great that Li Shimin could only order his sister Princess Yongjia to divorce her husband Dou Fengjie and became distant from this sister. During Gaozong’s reign, Princess Yongjia was renamed Grand Princess Fangling and remarried Helan Sengqie. After her death, she was buried near Emperor Gaozu’s Xian Mausoleum, with a verifiable tomb epitaph.
Finally, let us discuss the great nemesis of these Li family princes and princesses—the female emperor Wu Zetian.
Her mother was surnamed Yang, the same person mentioned in the story’s final section: the niece of Sui’s Prince of Guan Yang Xiong, and the cousin of Tang’s Duke of Guan Yang Gongren and Fifth Imperial Son-in-law, Imperial Secretary Yang Shidao. According to her daughter Wu Zetian’s officially approved historical records, Lady Yang was over forty when she married Wu Zetian’s father Wu Shihou as his second wife, with no records of her life before forty.
After marrying the low-born merchant from Bingzhou (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi) turned Tang nouveau riche Wu Shihou, Lady Yang bore only three daughters, with Wu Zetian generally considered the second. Wu Shihou’s two sons from his first marriage did not get along with their stepmother Lady Yang. Wu Shihou died in the ninth year of Zhenguan while serving as Governor-General in Jing Prefecture, Hubei. After his death, family disputes arose, and Lady Yang returned to Chang’an with her daughters. Wu Zetian was twelve years old at the time.
Two years later, around the eleventh year of Zhenguan, the fourteen-year-old second Wu daughter was selected to enter the palace for her “talent and beauty” and “graceful bearing.” She was given the rank of Cairen but received no further promotions throughout the Zhenguan period, remaining without favor or children, and was sent to Ganye Temple as a nun after Taizong’s death.
However, by then, she had already caught the attention and affection of the new emperor Li Zhi, who was four years her junior…