Background

Li Hong's mother Consort Wu had been a concubine of Emperor Taizong. After Emperor Taizong's death in 649, she, like all of his surviving concubines who did not bear children, was sent to Ganye Temple (感業寺) to be a Buddhist nun. However, in 650 or 651, when Emperor Taizong's son and successor Emperor Gaozong visited Ganye Temple to offer incense, he saw her and remembered how he had been impressed by her beauty, and both of them wept. Emperor Gaozong's wife Empress Wang, who was sonless and had felt threatened by his favorite concubine Consort Xiao, who had given birth to a son (Li Sujie), found out about the situation, and decided to welcome Consort Wu back to the palace to be a concubine of Emperor Gaozong to divert his favors from Consort Xiao. Consort Wu soon became his favorite (so much so that Empress Wang and Consort Xiao, threatened by her, soon became allies against her), and she gave birth to Li Hong in 652. Li Hong was Emperor Gaozong's fifth son and her first son. In 653, he was made the Prince of Dai.

In 655, Consort Wu falsely accused Empress Wang and her mother Lady Liu of using witchcraft and of murdering her daughter. Emperor Gaozong deposed both Empress Wang and Consort Xiao and replaced Empress Wang with Consort Wu. Empress Wang and Consort Xiao were soon executed on Empress Wu's orders. Prior to this, in 652, Emperor Gaozong's oldest son (by his lowly-born concubine Consort Liu), Li Zhong, had been made the crown prince already, but Empress Wu had her ally, the official Xu Jingzong submit a petition arguing that now that the empress had her own sons, Li Zhong should step aside. Emperor Gaozong agreed, and in spring 656, Emperor Gaozong demoted Li Zhong to the title of Prince of Liang and made Li Hong the crown prince instead.

As crown prince

As Li Hong grew in age, he developed a reputation for studiousness and kindness. He had, at one point, studied the Zuo Zhuan under the official Guo Yu (郭瑜), and when they reached the records dealing with how King Mu of Chu had killed his father King Cheng, Li Hong became distressed even reading about the incident, and after Guo pointed out that studying history was important so that history would not be repeated, he was still distressed, and so Guo advised him to study the Classic of Rites instead.

In 661, formally by his orders, Xu Jingzong, Xu Yushi, Shangguan Yi, and Yang Sijian (楊思儉) compiled a collection of particularly beautiful writing into a 500-volume work entitled the Yaoshan Yucai (瑤山玉彩, literally "the Colors of Jade from Mount Yao") and presented it to Emperor Gaozong. Li Hong, as well as those officials, were rewarded with silk.

Around the new year 669, after Tang forces commanded by Li Ji had conquered Goguryeo in 668, Li Hong, noting the harshness of Emperor Gaozong's prior edict that conscripted soldiers who deserted would be beheaded and their wives and children forced into servitude, submitted a petition, in which he pointed out that at times the alleged deserters were in fact innocent—that they could have been ill, captured by Goguryeo forces without anyone realizing it, drowned while sailing on the way to the Goguryeo front, or been stuck behind Goguryeo lines. He requested that the penalty as to the alleged deserters' families be removed, and Emperor Gaozong agreed.

In 671, perhaps due to Empress Wu's distaste for the capital Chang'an (due to her recurring dreams of Empress Wang and Consort Xiao taking vengeance on her), Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu left Chang'an and took up residence at the eastern capital Luoyang, rarely returning to Chang'an from that point on. Li Hong was left in charge at Chang'an, although it was said that he was often ill, and the decisions were largely made by his staff members Dai Zhide, Zhang Wenguan, and Xiao Dezhao (蕭德昭). However, several acts of kindness were attributed to Li Hong. Most notably, during a major famine in Guanzhong (the capital region), Li Hong, realizing that even his own guards were eating acorns and tree barks, distributed rice from the imperial storage, and distributing public lands at Tong Prefecture (同州, roughly modern Weinan, Shaanxi) to the poor.

Death and aftermaths

One of Li Hong's kind acts, however, caused a deterioration of his relationship with his mother Empress Wu. Consort Xiao's daughters Princess Yiyang and Gao'an had, because of their mother, been put under house arrest inside the palace, so much so that they were not yet married even though they were over 39 years in age. Once, when Li Hong met them by chance, he took pity on them, and requested the Emperor Gaozong allow them to marry, and Emperor Gaozong agreed. In anger, Empress Wu immediately married them to two palace guards named Quan Yi (權毅) and Wang Xu (王勗), and she became displeased at Li Hong. Empress Wu acted like a ruthless ruler during her husband's reign, having those who opposed her assassinated or executed at will. Empress Wu became so powerful that Li Hong and next, his brother Li Xian, began to be concerned. The relationship between mother and son further deteriorated over Li Hong's repeated suggestions to Empress Wu that she not be so controlling of the governmental affairs and asked her to hand over control of the government to him.

At a later point, by order of Empress Wu Li Hong was no longer in command at Chang'an, and he went to Luoyang to join his parents. There, he married his wife Crown Princess Pei, the daughter of the general Pei Judao.

In 675, Li Hong, while visiting Hebi Palace (合璧宮), near Luoyang, with his parents, died suddenly. Most traditional historians believed that Empress Wu poisoned him to death. Emperor Gaozong was greatly saddened by his son's death, and he, in an unprecedented move, posthumously honored Li Hong the title of Emperor Xiaojing, and ordered that he be buried with honors due an emperor. (However, when an imperial tomb was to be built for Li Hong, it was said that the conscripted laborers were so displeased at the labor that they simply threw the construction material they had and deserted.)

Li Hong was sonless. For a while, his nephew Li Longji (the later Emperor Xuanzong), the son of his brother Li Dan (the later Emperor Ruizong), was posthumously adopted into his line. During the reign of his brother Emperor Zhongzong, he was worshipped at the imperial temple (with the temple name of Yizong), and his wife Crown Princess Pei was posthumously honored Empress Ai and worshipped there as well. However, after Emperor Zhongzong's death and succession by Emperor Ruizong, the chancellors Yao Yuanzhi and Song Jing pointed out that it was inappropriate for Li Hong, who did not actually take the throne, to be worshipped with emperors, and so he was given a separate temple at Luoyang and no longer referred to by the temple name of Yizong.

Ancestry

Notes and references

• Old Book of Tang, vol. 86.http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/tan10.htm

• New Book of Tang, vol. 81.http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan13.htm

• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 200, 201, 202

生平

李弘曾經向率更令郭瑜學習春秋左氏傳，當讀到楚世子商臣弒君故事，不禁掩書嘆曰：「聖人垂訓，何書此邪？」郭瑜回答他：「孔子作《春秋》，善惡必書，褒善以勸，貶惡以誡，故商臣之罪雖千載猶不得滅。」李弘說：「然所不忍聞，願讀它書。」郭瑜向他拜曰：「『里名勝母，曾子不入。』殿下睿孝天資，黜凶悖之跡，不存視聽。臣聞安上治民，莫善于禮，故孔子稱『不學禮，無以立』。請改受《禮》。」李弘接受這個提議。

顯慶四年，加元服，又命令許敬宗、許圉師、上官儀、楊思儉等人收集古今文集，選錄出五百篇，編集成《瑤山玉彩》，總章元年（668年），請求追贈顏回為太子少師、曾參為太子少保，高宗同意。

當時在征遼的士兵，如果有逃亡或期限內沒報到的，不但找到後要斬首，家人也要充官。李弘進諫：「士遇病不及期，或被略若溺、壓死，而軍法不因戰亡，則同隊悉坐，法家曰亡命，而家屬與真亡者同沒。《傳》曰：『與殺不辜，寧失不經。』臣請條別其科，無使淪胥。」高宗也同意了這個請求。

咸亨二年（671年），高宗巡幸東都，太子李弘監國。當時遇上大旱，關中鬧起饑荒，於是李弘巡視士兵的糧食，發現有吃榆皮、蓬實的，就私下命家令寺給他們米糧。李弘身體不好，而輔佐他的人是戴至德、張文瓘、蕭德昭等人，因此有些小事都是取決於他們。

當時李弘有兩個異母姊姊，即義陽公主與宣城公主，因母親蕭淑妃以前得罪武則天的關係，她們一直被幽禁在掖庭，年過二十都未出嫁。李弘發現此事後，感到震驚又同情，便請求讓兩位姊姊能夠結婚。這件事觸怒了武后，武后便將義陽公主嫁翊軍權毅、宣城公主嫁潁州刺史王勖。李弘從此失寵。李弘又上書希望將沙苑之地分借給貧窮之人，高宗准許。後來李弘也被召到東都去。咸亨四年（673年）二月壬午，納裴居道之女裴氏為妃，到了冬十月乙未，又以「皇太子弘納妃畢，曲赦岐州，大酺三日」。有人表示要用白雁來進行婚禮，竟然剛好就在苑子裡捕獲了，這讓高宗很高興；而裴妃也是個相當有婦德的賢淑女子，裴氏美貌端莊，很討李弘的歡心，高宗因此常和侍臣說：「弘仁孝，賓禮大臣，未嘗有過。」

逝世

上元二年（675年），李弘與高宗、武后同赴合璧宮時暴卒。

不少史學家多認為是武后毒殺他，《資治通鑑》亦有當中有部分記載。

謚號、廟號

• 孝敬皇帝：上元二年去世後得謚。

• 義宗：唐中宗復位後，將他祔於太廟，號為義宗，並追封裴妃為哀皇后。景雲元年（710年），姚崇與宋璟進言表示義宗並不曾即位，不應該與先帝們同列太廟，於是唐睿宗將李弘移到東都祭拜。開元六年（718年），有人表示不該再稱他為義宗，於是從此只用孝敬稱之。

家庭

夫人

• 裴氏：太子妃，裴居道之女，有婦德，無子，去世後謚為「哀皇后」

兒子

• 李隆基：嗣子，唐睿宗李旦之第三子，唐睿宗永昌（689年）初，武則天便命令楚王李隆基為孝敬皇帝嗣子，但李隆基後來作為睿宗皇子參政乃至被立為皇太子、登基為帝，其孝敬皇帝嗣子的身份實際被淡化。