tanithryudo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tanithryudo) wrote2023-12-10 09:58 am
tanithryudo) wrote2023-12-10 09:58 am
Tiresome Taizong Tropes
Reading a lot of historical stories can be painful. Because with other fiction you can just chalk things up to the author's POV doesn't agree with you and forget about it. But with history there often is stuff you see which is objectively *wrong*, but the wrongness get percolated through pop culture, and it just makes me lose faith in humanity. Ugh.
Anyway, this isn't gonna be a full list of all the fake-history/洗脑包 related to 唐太宗 on the internet/pop consciousness these days, because I am not that much into masochism. But just some stuff I come across way too often in the historical fics I've read recently...
1. OOC characters vomiting blood when they hear about the misdeeds of their descendants
This is actually not just about 唐太宗 but a lot of other rulers that show up in 历史直播 stories. I've seen 朱元璋 spit blood/faint when told about 朱祁镇. I've seen it with 赵匡胤 when told about the 3x 昏君 shitshow at the transition from 北宋 to 南宋 (despite the fact that none of these 3 emperors are even descended from him). And of course 李世民 calling for the court doctor/emergency pills when told about 安史之乱 or the end of Tang. The Han emperors get to escape this fate due to their 刻薄寡恩 rep. 秦始皇 also gets to escape this fate most of the time due to very obvious bias.
Just... it's so SOD breaking to me. Does no one remember that these guys are all military commanders that have waded through the blood and chaos to establish their respective dynasties? The memories of the clusterf*ck that was late-Sui, 五代十国, late-Yuan should be still fresh for them. The lessons of the 2-generation fall of Qin and Sui are known historical record. So why are they so shocked by the decline and fall of their dynasties some vague time in the future?
As well, emotional shock comes from emotional attachment. But why do we expect these politicians to be emotionally invested in nth gen descendants? 朱元璋 and 李世民 both have records of executing sons when given a reason for it, why would they be invested in later descendants they never met? I'll buy 李世民 shedding a few tears over the fate of Tang citizens, but he wouldn't have the military achievements under his belt if he was prone to throwing vapors when confronted by the horrors of war either!
As for 赵匡胤, lol, none of the other 北宋 emperors are even descended from him! I'll buy him turning this info into a political rational for getting rid of his brother than him spitting blood.
2. Imma gonna declare war on X now!
Another trope that's not just restricted to one emperor. Basically some of these 历史直播 will go into various events of recent history, such as the invasion of Japan during WWII or the Korean War. Maybe show some video clips of those wars and mention various atrocities. And then a bunch of emperors will suddenly go: "Find this place on the map! Imma gonna put it on the list to conquer now to get revenge for our future descendants!"
Em...just, this is so obviously the authors wishful fantasy that it often makes me curl in second-hand embarrassment to read sometimes.
Same as the above point, I really don't see any reason for these emperors which predate the notion of nationalism and also most of whom don't even see commoners as people, to be able to emphasize with near-modern chinese soldiers born thousands of years later. Those rulers who have personal battlefield records aren't likely to be phased by the brutality of war either. The likes of 李世民 & 朱元璋 are likely to be more interested in the glimpses of near-modern weaponry and trying to gleam modern tactics.
As for the conflict with Japan/Korea...em. Most of the emperors that get screentime in these stories are all capable politicians, and at least decent long term strategists (compared to the author of the story, at the very least). I can see them calling for aides to pull info/historical info/diplomatic records of these places for later re-evaluation of their threat and diplomatic stance. But nobody is going to be declaring war on a whim (and having to be "talked down" by their court advisors).
To say nothing of the European nations which are distant not only by time but also by distance, and the USA not even being established til late-Qing. *Maybe* the Ming dynasty might be interested, and Yuan dynasty might think a little more about expanding westward. But any time before that? Why would they care?
3. 李世民 feeling insecure about how the future regards his 玄武门之变
Finally, getting into the 唐太宗 specific tropes. This one I see in like 99% of 历史直播 stories.
At first it feels like this characterization may be the fault of the reimagining of the Tang emperor in Journey to the West. But after reading more, it doesn't seem like most people even draw the link between JtW and 唐太宗 all that much.
Rather, it feels more like, when the author look at his record through the lens of modern sensibilities, this is the only significant "black mark" that he has (without getting into fake history), and so it gets disproportionally emphasized in his characterization. But ultimately, this is the modern author/audience projecting their values onto a historical character.
Actual said historical figure 李世民 is on record for hosting parties at 玄武门, to rub it into the faces of his deceased brothers how much they suck, and how much he is awesome at building the empire. So yeah, it's really hard to see him losing any sleep over this. (And honestly, as another critic I've seen somewhere had put it, the first couple of years during 贞观 was full of natural disasters. 唐太宗 and his court were running themselves ragged putting out brushfires everywhere. Where would they even have the time to wax philosophical about 玄武门?)
And I'll also just link this here on the words of his near contemporaries and later dynasties on the same topic. It's quite clear that scholars of the time didn't regard this as much of a black mark at all.
4. 玄武门之变 being blamed for setting the precedent for almost every succession during Tang to involve conflict and bloodshed
This is basically being famous gets you blamed for everything because you outshine the precedents that exist before you.
Like, no one notices that neither of the Sui emperors ascended the throne cleanly or bloodlessly?
No one remembers there's this whole mess of 魏晋南北朝 full of succession crisis and bloodshed before that?
Like, where would Tang even get the role model for peaceful "correct" succession? From Three Kingdoms? Han? Eh, do we really want to pull out the full list of Han succession and see how many of those were "normal"?
5. 玄武门之变 being karmically blamed for mid/late-Tang's "国都六陷，天子九逃"
I see this come up less often (because it's very obviously unreasonable) but still too many to be reasonable. I've also seen implicit blaming this on 李世民 genes (which is even more unreasonable than the actual inherited illnesses that run through the Li line). The author's don't say this outright, but they often smack you with the implication through the dialogues of various other characters.
I'll say this now. If this is an inherited trait from anyone, it's from 李渊. He's the one who considered "moving" the capital in the face of incoming attacks. And you know what? Former crown prince 李建成 was fulling in support of burning 长安 down and running away!
Let's not forget how 李渊's fourth son 李元吉 abandoned their home base in 太原 to attacks. And then 李渊 forgave him! And planned to leave 太原 abandoned and not take it back!
If anything, 李世民 is the mutation in this bloodline! He's the one to insist on standing the ground defending 长安 and to take back 太原!
(And I will add here, it's quite obvious to me that 李隆基's stupidity in his later years maps very well with the bad decisions 李渊 made. Inheritance for ya right there.）
6. 唐太宗 altered historical records to suit his PR.
This doesn't come up often in these stories (I guess because it's not a very believable allegation to people who have done some level of historical research and have some modicum of logic), but when it does come up, it tends to reek of extra stupidity.
Backing up a little, this allegation is a common one raised against 唐太宗 in recent pop history. From what I understand there is now a...movement(?) or not sure what to call it but some "historians" now advocate 虚构史学. Which is essentially something like... history is written by the victors and thus all history since Tang is a massive conspiracy. And thus most of chinese imperial history are lies/doesn't exist. Or something.
Yeah. This logic. It burns.
The specific allegation against 唐太宗 is based on:
a. He's on record asking to look at current historical records. Which was against policy and so he was rebuffed. But in some modern eyes, this "proves" he is guilty of wrong-doing and trying to hide something, because why else would he ask?
b. After the release of non-sealed versions of recent historical records, he's on record stating that the description of 玄武门之变 is too vague, and he wants it clearly stated that he killed 李建成, and had the male descendants of his two brothers executed. Of course, in some modern eyes, this "proves" he is actually implying to the officials that they need to dress up the rest of history to make him look better. Yes. This is logic. *eyeroll*
c. There are inconsistencies between some of the (remaining, since lots of history records were lost during 安史之乱 and late-Tang chaos) contemporary historical records written for 李渊 and for 唐太宗. Each mentions stuff the other doesn't, but in some modern eyes, obviously only the ones written for 唐太宗 are maliciously incorrect. Then later on, when 《旧唐书》was written during 后晋 and 《新唐书》written during Song, they primarily went with the "pro-唐太宗" version. Because all history since Tang is a massive lie and conspiracy (commanded by the ghost of 李世民 upon historians centuries after his death and not even part of his dynasty all to cater to his divine PR campaign. [/sarcasm]).
What is even more sad is that in the few stories where this accusation is brought up as if it is fact, it's treated as this whole great shameful sin or something, for emperors of other time periods to gasp in shock at and denounce.
Just... really? Are these other emperors feudal politicians or are they just sockepuppets for the modern ignorant masses? Do we really want to get into the whole mess that is Ming history, or the infamous censorship of Qing just in general? Or the Song written histories which were meant to be a commentary on contemporary issues than an objective history text?
Or, for that matter, why would Qin and Han even care? They didn't even have the concept of history as a subject of any official importance to the government! 《史记》and 《汉书》 were not works officially sponsored by the government! They were essentially private works by history enthusiasts.
Historical texts as a government sponsored project started with 北魏 (eg.《三国志》) and the first major dynasty where it was implemented was during Tang, specifically 贞观, where they wrote up the histories of the previous dynasties (魏晋南北朝), for the goal of summarizing the failures of previous dynasties as a teaching tool for future government policies. In other words, these official history texts were never meant to be some sacred objective record (as it seems some modern people seem to want history as a subject to be). They naturally would include subjective analysis as applied to contemporary politics.
Therefore, the other emperors through history after Tang should just roll their eyes at this allegation. While the emperors before Tang would probably be awkwardly silent in polite confusion. The folks in charge of writing the histories during Tang would probably be equally confused: because your point is?
7. 唐太宗 seized the wives of his brothers (the two killed at 玄武门) as concubines.
Em, first of all, the allegation of him seizing his elder brother's wife is pure fiction based on a TV drama and has zero basis in any historical text. But unfortunately this rumor has still spread to become pop-fact. -_-
As for his younger brother, this is based on the conjectures made in the Song 《新唐书》 which is not mentioned in the earlier 《旧唐书》, and solely based on the fact that 李元吉 had a wife surnamed Yang (巢王妃). Then 李世民 has 4 concubines on record surnamed Yang, 3 of whom have clear backgrounds that conflict with 李元吉 wife, so the remaining 杨氏 must be 巢王妃. Yes, this is logic that starts with the conclusion and then works backwards to "prove" it.
It's not helped that TV dramas love to conflate one of his other concubines, the Sui princess 杨妃, with 巢王妃 on top of it. Because, well, dog blood drama sells.
And also, to point out, the 杨妃 who may or may not be 巢王妃 only shows up as having a child with 李世民 somewhere around 贞观 year 18-ish. Which is almost two decades after 巢王妃 had become a widow and essentially imprisoned since along with the rest of 李建成 & 李元吉's women then as political captives. At that time, 李世民's beloved empress had passed for nearly a decade as well. So even if this 杨妃 really is 巢王妃, two past-middle-aged "widow/ers" having a roll in the hay really isn't a big moral blemish, or even romantic to think about.
8. 唐太宗 is a bad father who bears most of the fault for his first crown prince 李乾承 going nuts and trying to rebel.
I'm fairly surprised that 李乾承 even has fans, mostly because I am not aware of any TV drama that could've promoted this the way that 李建成 got most of his fans.
The allegation here is that 李乾承 would've been a perfect successor if 李世民 had cared more for after his fragile ego after the death of his mother and getting a lame foot. And that 李世民 unreasonably favored the younger son 李泰 and caused people to think he wanted to switch the position of crown prince, resulting in 李乾承 "acting out" in "teenage rebellion" (yes, a 17-18 year old's teenage rebellion involving in ignoring his court duties for his boyfriend and publicly announcing his endorsement/admiration of Tang's enemies the 突厥). And then it's further 李世民's fault for compounding the problem by assigning him more tutors, who blasted him with verbal abuse disguised as criticism; this being the straw that broke the camel's back and caused him to really go crazy and try to assassinate his teachers/brother and plot rebellion.
Essentially, in these people's eyes, 李世民 is required to have a PhD in child psychology in order to be a good father. And the twenty-something "child" 李乾承 is obviously a pure victim/angel because it's always the parent's fault (or the teacher's fault, or society's fault) when a "child" does wrong.
In other words this allegation is completed couched in modern perspective (similar to many allegations raised against 唐太宗's love life/后宫), and completely ignores the fact that in feudal chinese society, it's not the role of the father to raise the kid at all, especially among nobility. Sometimes, that's even true of modern families (considering my own dad). That's what moms and tutors are for. At most, fathers are there to check on homework/study, and maybe give critiques or corrections.
And expecting men to talk emotions? What is this fantasy?
As for 李乾承, IMO he was as spoiled as his other siblings (the ones with the same mom and thus viable heirs for the throne). But he had a fragile ego which couldn't handle the set backs of his infirmity and 李泰 getting more of dad's favor. Instead of handling the pressure, he cracked. And because he cracked, he's no longer fit to be heir to the throne. Any other decision by 李世民 would have been an irresponsible one to his job as an emperor, and to his citizens.
If we really want to compare, look at 朱高炽, who was on record as being excessively obese, also had a foot infirmity, was unfavored by emperor 朱棣, and often challenged by his more martial brother 朱高煦. But 朱高炽 did not let all this get to him, and maintained a decent mental state, didn't make any mistakes that would get himself removed from office, and successfully ascended the throne.
Let's also compare to all the 昏君 in history who encountered major setbacks and then immediately seemed to have lost all their IQ. Look at 唐玄宗+安史之乱. Look at many of the Song emperors.
The office of crown prince should not be a position that involves pity votes. This person should not be one who gets there by being sympathetic. That way lies the path of calamity for the people under his rule. I can't understand why so many people who are obviously normal citizens in real life would choose to overly sympathize with nobility (same goes for 李建成 and so forth) that have lost political conflicts.
Looping back for one final word on this. Which emperor in chinese imperial history actually personally raised up/taught their heir? Oh wait, that's 唐太宗 with his second crown prince 李治. So obviously if he put his effort in it (and I guess also learning from past mistakes), 李世民 *can* be a good father/teacher... even if it's obviously going impact on his time and focus on being a good ruler. Or maybe 李治 has better innate ability than his brother, just was overlooked due to being overshadowed by his more famous father and wife?
9. 唐太宗 is to blame for 武则天 essentially usurping Tang.
There's a person missing here. I will repeat from above. 李治 is just always being overlooked due to being overshadowed by his more famous father and wife.
10. 唐太宗 is to blame for giving away knowledge and technology to Tibet (which would become Tang's rival for the entire span of the dynasty) and Japan (who currently claims to be the "true" successor to Tang).
Em, not much to say here, except that he's getting blamed for things that didn't actually happen during his reign.
Japanese diplomats came to Sui several times, came to Tang during his son's and other subsequent reigns. They came to 贞观 all of once, early on when the government was still busy putting out brushfires.
As for Tibet, during 贞观 the only things on record as being sent over with 文成公主 were 诗书礼乐. No technologies. Just cultural contamination (*cough*). Workers and technologies were given to Tibet by 唐高宗.
And, even aside this, blaming Tang for China falling behind the world technologically since the Qing dynasty is just stupid. Japan was able to step on China in WWII because they learned from the West instead of sticking their heads in the sand like Qing. Tang had nothing to do with it.
There's probably more but these are all the ones to come to mind for now. Feels nice to get it all off my chest.
BTW, googling 网庙十哲 will finally yield some normal people. Though I am surprised/not surprised to see 秦始皇 also in some versions of this list.
Anyway, this isn't gonna be a full list of all the fake-history/洗脑包 related to 唐太宗 on the internet/pop consciousness these days, because I am not that much into masochism. But just some stuff I come across way too often in the historical fics I've read recently...
1. OOC characters vomiting blood when they hear about the misdeeds of their descendants
This is actually not just about 唐太宗 but a lot of other rulers that show up in 历史直播 stories. I've seen 朱元璋 spit blood/faint when told about 朱祁镇. I've seen it with 赵匡胤 when told about the 3x 昏君 shitshow at the transition from 北宋 to 南宋 (despite the fact that none of these 3 emperors are even descended from him). And of course 李世民 calling for the court doctor/emergency pills when told about 安史之乱 or the end of Tang. The Han emperors get to escape this fate due to their 刻薄寡恩 rep. 秦始皇 also gets to escape this fate most of the time due to very obvious bias.
Just... it's so SOD breaking to me. Does no one remember that these guys are all military commanders that have waded through the blood and chaos to establish their respective dynasties? The memories of the clusterf*ck that was late-Sui, 五代十国, late-Yuan should be still fresh for them. The lessons of the 2-generation fall of Qin and Sui are known historical record. So why are they so shocked by the decline and fall of their dynasties some vague time in the future?
As well, emotional shock comes from emotional attachment. But why do we expect these politicians to be emotionally invested in nth gen descendants? 朱元璋 and 李世民 both have records of executing sons when given a reason for it, why would they be invested in later descendants they never met? I'll buy 李世民 shedding a few tears over the fate of Tang citizens, but he wouldn't have the military achievements under his belt if he was prone to throwing vapors when confronted by the horrors of war either!
As for 赵匡胤, lol, none of the other 北宋 emperors are even descended from him! I'll buy him turning this info into a political rational for getting rid of his brother than him spitting blood.
2. Imma gonna declare war on X now!
Another trope that's not just restricted to one emperor. Basically some of these 历史直播 will go into various events of recent history, such as the invasion of Japan during WWII or the Korean War. Maybe show some video clips of those wars and mention various atrocities. And then a bunch of emperors will suddenly go: "Find this place on the map! Imma gonna put it on the list to conquer now to get revenge for our future descendants!"
Em...just, this is so obviously the authors wishful fantasy that it often makes me curl in second-hand embarrassment to read sometimes.
Same as the above point, I really don't see any reason for these emperors which predate the notion of nationalism and also most of whom don't even see commoners as people, to be able to emphasize with near-modern chinese soldiers born thousands of years later. Those rulers who have personal battlefield records aren't likely to be phased by the brutality of war either. The likes of 李世民 & 朱元璋 are likely to be more interested in the glimpses of near-modern weaponry and trying to gleam modern tactics.
As for the conflict with Japan/Korea...em. Most of the emperors that get screentime in these stories are all capable politicians, and at least decent long term strategists (compared to the author of the story, at the very least). I can see them calling for aides to pull info/historical info/diplomatic records of these places for later re-evaluation of their threat and diplomatic stance. But nobody is going to be declaring war on a whim (and having to be "talked down" by their court advisors).
To say nothing of the European nations which are distant not only by time but also by distance, and the USA not even being established til late-Qing. *Maybe* the Ming dynasty might be interested, and Yuan dynasty might think a little more about expanding westward. But any time before that? Why would they care?
3. 李世民 feeling insecure about how the future regards his 玄武门之变
Finally, getting into the 唐太宗 specific tropes. This one I see in like 99% of 历史直播 stories.
At first it feels like this characterization may be the fault of the reimagining of the Tang emperor in Journey to the West. But after reading more, it doesn't seem like most people even draw the link between JtW and 唐太宗 all that much.
Rather, it feels more like, when the author look at his record through the lens of modern sensibilities, this is the only significant "black mark" that he has (without getting into fake history), and so it gets disproportionally emphasized in his characterization. But ultimately, this is the modern author/audience projecting their values onto a historical character.
Actual said historical figure 李世民 is on record for hosting parties at 玄武门, to rub it into the faces of his deceased brothers how much they suck, and how much he is awesome at building the empire. So yeah, it's really hard to see him losing any sleep over this. (And honestly, as another critic I've seen somewhere had put it, the first couple of years during 贞观 was full of natural disasters. 唐太宗 and his court were running themselves ragged putting out brushfires everywhere. Where would they even have the time to wax philosophical about 玄武门?)
And I'll also just link this here on the words of his near contemporaries and later dynasties on the same topic. It's quite clear that scholars of the time didn't regard this as much of a black mark at all.
4. 玄武门之变 being blamed for setting the precedent for almost every succession during Tang to involve conflict and bloodshed
This is basically being famous gets you blamed for everything because you outshine the precedents that exist before you.
Like, no one notices that neither of the Sui emperors ascended the throne cleanly or bloodlessly?
No one remembers there's this whole mess of 魏晋南北朝 full of succession crisis and bloodshed before that?
Like, where would Tang even get the role model for peaceful "correct" succession? From Three Kingdoms? Han? Eh, do we really want to pull out the full list of Han succession and see how many of those were "normal"?
5. 玄武门之变 being karmically blamed for mid/late-Tang's "国都六陷，天子九逃"
I see this come up less often (because it's very obviously unreasonable) but still too many to be reasonable. I've also seen implicit blaming this on 李世民 genes (which is even more unreasonable than the actual inherited illnesses that run through the Li line). The author's don't say this outright, but they often smack you with the implication through the dialogues of various other characters.
I'll say this now. If this is an inherited trait from anyone, it's from 李渊. He's the one who considered "moving" the capital in the face of incoming attacks. And you know what? Former crown prince 李建成 was fulling in support of burning 长安 down and running away!
Let's not forget how 李渊's fourth son 李元吉 abandoned their home base in 太原 to attacks. And then 李渊 forgave him! And planned to leave 太原 abandoned and not take it back!
If anything, 李世民 is the mutation in this bloodline! He's the one to insist on standing the ground defending 长安 and to take back 太原!
(And I will add here, it's quite obvious to me that 李隆基's stupidity in his later years maps very well with the bad decisions 李渊 made. Inheritance for ya right there.）
6. 唐太宗 altered historical records to suit his PR.
This doesn't come up often in these stories (I guess because it's not a very believable allegation to people who have done some level of historical research and have some modicum of logic), but when it does come up, it tends to reek of extra stupidity.
Backing up a little, this allegation is a common one raised against 唐太宗 in recent pop history. From what I understand there is now a...movement(?) or not sure what to call it but some "historians" now advocate 虚构史学. Which is essentially something like... history is written by the victors and thus all history since Tang is a massive conspiracy. And thus most of chinese imperial history are lies/doesn't exist. Or something.
Yeah. This logic. It burns.
The specific allegation against 唐太宗 is based on:
a. He's on record asking to look at current historical records. Which was against policy and so he was rebuffed. But in some modern eyes, this "proves" he is guilty of wrong-doing and trying to hide something, because why else would he ask?
b. After the release of non-sealed versions of recent historical records, he's on record stating that the description of 玄武门之变 is too vague, and he wants it clearly stated that he killed 李建成, and had the male descendants of his two brothers executed. Of course, in some modern eyes, this "proves" he is actually implying to the officials that they need to dress up the rest of history to make him look better. Yes. This is logic. *eyeroll*
c. There are inconsistencies between some of the (remaining, since lots of history records were lost during 安史之乱 and late-Tang chaos) contemporary historical records written for 李渊 and for 唐太宗. Each mentions stuff the other doesn't, but in some modern eyes, obviously only the ones written for 唐太宗 are maliciously incorrect. Then later on, when 《旧唐书》was written during 后晋 and 《新唐书》written during Song, they primarily went with the "pro-唐太宗" version. Because all history since Tang is a massive lie and conspiracy (commanded by the ghost of 李世民 upon historians centuries after his death and not even part of his dynasty all to cater to his divine PR campaign. [/sarcasm]).
What is even more sad is that in the few stories where this accusation is brought up as if it is fact, it's treated as this whole great shameful sin or something, for emperors of other time periods to gasp in shock at and denounce.
Just... really? Are these other emperors feudal politicians or are they just sockepuppets for the modern ignorant masses? Do we really want to get into the whole mess that is Ming history, or the infamous censorship of Qing just in general? Or the Song written histories which were meant to be a commentary on contemporary issues than an objective history text?
Or, for that matter, why would Qin and Han even care? They didn't even have the concept of history as a subject of any official importance to the government! 《史记》and 《汉书》 were not works officially sponsored by the government! They were essentially private works by history enthusiasts.
Historical texts as a government sponsored project started with 北魏 (eg.《三国志》) and the first major dynasty where it was implemented was during Tang, specifically 贞观, where they wrote up the histories of the previous dynasties (魏晋南北朝), for the goal of summarizing the failures of previous dynasties as a teaching tool for future government policies. In other words, these official history texts were never meant to be some sacred objective record (as it seems some modern people seem to want history as a subject to be). They naturally would include subjective analysis as applied to contemporary politics.
Therefore, the other emperors through history after Tang should just roll their eyes at this allegation. While the emperors before Tang would probably be awkwardly silent in polite confusion. The folks in charge of writing the histories during Tang would probably be equally confused: because your point is?
7. 唐太宗 seized the wives of his brothers (the two killed at 玄武门) as concubines.
Em, first of all, the allegation of him seizing his elder brother's wife is pure fiction based on a TV drama and has zero basis in any historical text. But unfortunately this rumor has still spread to become pop-fact. -_-
As for his younger brother, this is based on the conjectures made in the Song 《新唐书》 which is not mentioned in the earlier 《旧唐书》, and solely based on the fact that 李元吉 had a wife surnamed Yang (巢王妃). Then 李世民 has 4 concubines on record surnamed Yang, 3 of whom have clear backgrounds that conflict with 李元吉 wife, so the remaining 杨氏 must be 巢王妃. Yes, this is logic that starts with the conclusion and then works backwards to "prove" it.
It's not helped that TV dramas love to conflate one of his other concubines, the Sui princess 杨妃, with 巢王妃 on top of it. Because, well, dog blood drama sells.
And also, to point out, the 杨妃 who may or may not be 巢王妃 only shows up as having a child with 李世民 somewhere around 贞观 year 18-ish. Which is almost two decades after 巢王妃 had become a widow and essentially imprisoned since along with the rest of 李建成 & 李元吉's women then as political captives. At that time, 李世民's beloved empress had passed for nearly a decade as well. So even if this 杨妃 really is 巢王妃, two past-middle-aged "widow/ers" having a roll in the hay really isn't a big moral blemish, or even romantic to think about.
8. 唐太宗 is a bad father who bears most of the fault for his first crown prince 李乾承 going nuts and trying to rebel.
I'm fairly surprised that 李乾承 even has fans, mostly because I am not aware of any TV drama that could've promoted this the way that 李建成 got most of his fans.
The allegation here is that 李乾承 would've been a perfect successor if 李世民 had cared more for after his fragile ego after the death of his mother and getting a lame foot. And that 李世民 unreasonably favored the younger son 李泰 and caused people to think he wanted to switch the position of crown prince, resulting in 李乾承 "acting out" in "teenage rebellion" (yes, a 17-18 year old's teenage rebellion involving in ignoring his court duties for his boyfriend and publicly announcing his endorsement/admiration of Tang's enemies the 突厥). And then it's further 李世民's fault for compounding the problem by assigning him more tutors, who blasted him with verbal abuse disguised as criticism; this being the straw that broke the camel's back and caused him to really go crazy and try to assassinate his teachers/brother and plot rebellion.
Essentially, in these people's eyes, 李世民 is required to have a PhD in child psychology in order to be a good father. And the twenty-something "child" 李乾承 is obviously a pure victim/angel because it's always the parent's fault (or the teacher's fault, or society's fault) when a "child" does wrong.
In other words this allegation is completed couched in modern perspective (similar to many allegations raised against 唐太宗's love life/后宫), and completely ignores the fact that in feudal chinese society, it's not the role of the father to raise the kid at all, especially among nobility. Sometimes, that's even true of modern families (considering my own dad). That's what moms and tutors are for. At most, fathers are there to check on homework/study, and maybe give critiques or corrections.
And expecting men to talk emotions? What is this fantasy?
As for 李乾承, IMO he was as spoiled as his other siblings (the ones with the same mom and thus viable heirs for the throne). But he had a fragile ego which couldn't handle the set backs of his infirmity and 李泰 getting more of dad's favor. Instead of handling the pressure, he cracked. And because he cracked, he's no longer fit to be heir to the throne. Any other decision by 李世民 would have been an irresponsible one to his job as an emperor, and to his citizens.
If we really want to compare, look at 朱高炽, who was on record as being excessively obese, also had a foot infirmity, was unfavored by emperor 朱棣, and often challenged by his more martial brother 朱高煦. But 朱高炽 did not let all this get to him, and maintained a decent mental state, didn't make any mistakes that would get himself removed from office, and successfully ascended the throne.
Let's also compare to all the 昏君 in history who encountered major setbacks and then immediately seemed to have lost all their IQ. Look at 唐玄宗+安史之乱. Look at many of the Song emperors.
The office of crown prince should not be a position that involves pity votes. This person should not be one who gets there by being sympathetic. That way lies the path of calamity for the people under his rule. I can't understand why so many people who are obviously normal citizens in real life would choose to overly sympathize with nobility (same goes for 李建成 and so forth) that have lost political conflicts.
Looping back for one final word on this. Which emperor in chinese imperial history actually personally raised up/taught their heir? Oh wait, that's 唐太宗 with his second crown prince 李治. So obviously if he put his effort in it (and I guess also learning from past mistakes), 李世民 *can* be a good father/teacher... even if it's obviously going impact on his time and focus on being a good ruler. Or maybe 李治 has better innate ability than his brother, just was overlooked due to being overshadowed by his more famous father and wife?
9. 唐太宗 is to blame for 武则天 essentially usurping Tang.
There's a person missing here. I will repeat from above. 李治 is just always being overlooked due to being overshadowed by his more famous father and wife.
10. 唐太宗 is to blame for giving away knowledge and technology to Tibet (which would become Tang's rival for the entire span of the dynasty) and Japan (who currently claims to be the "true" successor to Tang).
Em, not much to say here, except that he's getting blamed for things that didn't actually happen during his reign.
Japanese diplomats came to Sui several times, came to Tang during his son's and other subsequent reigns. They came to 贞观 all of once, early on when the government was still busy putting out brushfires.
As for Tibet, during 贞观 the only things on record as being sent over with 文成公主 were 诗书礼乐. No technologies. Just cultural contamination (*cough*). Workers and technologies were given to Tibet by 唐高宗.
And, even aside this, blaming Tang for China falling behind the world technologically since the Qing dynasty is just stupid. Japan was able to step on China in WWII because they learned from the West instead of sticking their heads in the sand like Qing. Tang had nothing to do with it.
There's probably more but these are all the ones to come to mind for now. Feels nice to get it all off my chest.
BTW, googling 网庙十哲 will finally yield some normal people. Though I am surprised/not surprised to see 秦始皇 also in some versions of this list.