On the question of the Tang Dynasty, there is a question that is always unavoidable, just like facing a philosophical question, whether matter determines consciousness or consciousness determines matter, and the question of what is the primacy of the two is a question that philosophers can never avoid, and the question of who the founder of the Tang Dynasty is is also a question that any historian who studies the Tang Dynasty cannot avoid.

It's a very simple question, but it's also a very complex one. The simplicity lies in the fact that everyone knows that the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty was Li Yuan, so according to the logic of history, the first emperor is of course the pioneer. But Li Shimin complicates this problem. At that time, people knew that Li Yuan was the first emperor of their Tang Dynasty, but in the historical materials after Li Shimin, we were always induced to accept another fact - the Tang Dynasty was founded by Li Shimin, and Li Yuan was just a lying winner, stained with the light of his son, and luckily became the founder of a dynasty, that's all.

This kind of speech has influenced many people, and to this day, there are still many people who believe that the Tang Dynasty was founded by Li Shimin, and that Li Yuan was not the founding emperor, but only the father of the founding emperor. This is also a saying in later generations - the son gave birth to Lao Tzu. Of course, this statement was originally used to talk about Cao Cao, everyone knows that Cao Cao did not claim the title of emperor when he was alive, and after his death, his son Cao Pi abolished the Han Emperor Jianwei, and posthumously named Cao Cao as the emperor, there is such a saying. So is this really the case? Not necessarily.

Even though Li Shimin worked very hard to wash away Li Yuan's traces and remove Li Yuan's influence, and through his unremitting efforts, this goal seemed to have succeeded. At least in the official records at the time, Li Shimin in each volume was wise and martial, and Li Yuan in every volume was cowardly and incompetent. Even the matter of the Taiyuan army, historians can turn it into Li Shimin's merits, so as to sing praises to Li Shimin. To tell the truth, Lao Tzu was calculated by his son like this, Li Yuan really can't say it, but fortunately, Li Yuan is dead, and Li Yuan doesn't know what to do.

In fact, it is understandable that Li Yuan was recorded in the history books like this, after all, before him was the famous tyrant Yang Guang in history, and after him was the famous benevolent monarch Li Shimin in history.

Fortunately, history will always leave a way for people to live, in the period when Li Yuan started from Taiyuan, Wen Daya, who was Li Yuan's secretary at the time, recorded a total of 357 days of history from Li Yuan's army to the occupation of Chang'an and the official proclamation of the emperor, and compiled a history book called "Tang Dynasty Entrepreneurship and Living Note". Although there is no lack of flattery, at least it truly records the before and after of Taiyuan's army, and also gives us a relatively real understanding of the emperor Li Yuan, who single-handedly created the Tang Dynasty and created the rule of martial virtue.

From this book, we can see that Li Yuan is very strong, really strong, and it is not too much to say that he single-handedly created the Tang Dynasty and destroyed the Sui Dynasty with his own hands. We can understand it this way, Li Yuan took the overall situation into account and formulated a series of principles and policies, while Li Shimin, under the guidance of the major policies, led his subordinates to rely on his outstanding military talents to achieve victory after victory one after another in accordance with the established line, and finally created that great dynasty. Among them, we cannot deny Li Shimin's cultural and martial arts, and we cannot deny Li Shimin's achievements in pacifying the world in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties. But we can't deny the person who single-handedly made the plan, the real protagonist who single-handedly created the famous Tang Dynasty - Li Yuan. Even if Li Shimin is a king who is difficult to find in later generations, but at that time he was just a young man in fresh clothes and angry horses, and the roles of the protagonists and supporting roles need to be distinguished, and we can't deny the real protagonist because of the outstanding performance of the supporting roles.

The Tang Dynasty is Li Shimin's, but also Li Yuan's, to be precise, it was created by Li Yuan, no matter how the history books of later generations are smeared and ignored, we must remember a tone, the Tang Dynasty was founded by Li Yuan, and it can only be created by Li Yuan.

Li Yuan founded the Tang Dynasty