How did Emperor Taizong and Li Shimin get Tubo Songzan Gambu to marry Princess Wencheng?

The Tang Dynasty is the heyday in China's history, connecting the past with the future, and a hundred flowers blossom and shine brilliantly. Her civility, courtesy, cultural prosperity and reputation spread far and wide, which was in sharp contrast with the corruption, chaos and division in the western world at that time, and made her far ahead in the history of human civilization development. Later generations also remembered the name of Li Shimin, the founder of meteorology in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

While Emperor Taizong was building a splendid empire, the Tibetan people in Southwest China, led by the wise, practical, honest and capable King Songtsan Gampo, put down civil strife, completed the annexation of small countries on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and established a unified country. Songzan Gambu, who devoted himself to domestic development, naturally admired the prosperous Tang Dynasty, so in the eighth year of Zhenguan (AD 634), he sent envoys to Chang 'an to say hello. When it was heard that both Turks and Tuguhun were courting Emperor Taizong, hoping to marry the princess of the Tang Dynasty, Songzan Gambu immediately sent messengers to "propose marriage" with gifts. However, Emperor Taizong disagreed. Emperor Taizong's refusal made Songzan Gambu choose to "force marriage" by force. In 638 AD, Songzan Gambu led a Tubo army to attack Songzhou in the Tang Dynasty, but was quickly defeated by Tang Jun. Songzan Gambu was frightened to disgrace, led an army to Tangut, Blanchard and Qinghai, and sent envoys to apologize.

Songzan Gambu, who wants to be the son-in-law of Datang, has not given up. In 640 AD, he sent a "serious" and talented Daxiang Lu Dongzan to propose to Chang 'an again with a generous gift. At this time, envoys of Tianzhu, Dashi and ZhongGesar proposed marriage in Chang 'an. Embarrassed, Emperor Taizong decided to judge the talents of the kings behind him by examining the wisdom of the marriage envoys. So there is a famous story of "Six Trial Marriages" (also known as "Six Difficult Marriages") in history. Today, the Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet are still well preserved with murals depicting this story.

The first problem is that brocade is wearing the pearl of nine songs.

Emperor Taizong's first problem was that silk satin wore a zigzag bead, that is, a soft silk satin passed through the zigzag bead eye of the pearl (Han Yu). After the game started, other wedding envoys also started to act, but they racked their brains and couldn't get through. Only Liu Dongzan sat under the big tree and thought about it. By chance, he saw a big crawling ant and got inspiration from it.

Lu Dongzan found a silk thread, tied one end of the silk thread to the ant's waist and sewed the other end on the satin. Later, he put honey at one end of the zigzag hole and ants at the other end. The ant smelled the fragrance of honey, so he climbed out slowly from the other side along the curved hole with silk thread, and the satin also passed through the serrated pearl with silk thread.

The second problem is to let the marriage envoys of various countries identify the mother-child relationship between one hundred mares and one hundred foals.

Emperor Taizong's second question was to let the marriage envoys of various countries identify the mother-child relationship between one hundred mares and one hundred foals. Other ways to distinguish marriage messengers are based on coat color, collocation of young and old, or height comparison, but in the end they all make jokes. When it was Lu Dongzan's turn, he switched mares and foals in the stable under the guidance of the groom, and only fed the foals during the day, without water. The next day, the foal was put back into the herd, and the thirsty foal quickly found her mother to nurse, so the relationship between mother and child was naturally easy to distinguish.

The third question: it is stipulated that 100 suitors should drink 100 jar of wine, eat 100 sheep and knead the sheepskin a day.

Looking at Lu Dongzan, Emperor Taizong came up with the third question: it is stipulated that 100 suitors should drink 100 jars of wine, eat 100 sheep and knead the sheepskin a day. After the game started, other messengers and followers slaughtered cook the meat the sheep, and then ate meat and drank wine. People are drunk before such meat is finished, let alone rubbing sheepskin. The clever Lu Dongzan did the opposite, letting his followers chew meat and drink while rubbing sheepskin. Eating, drinking and digesting, in less than a day, the envoys of Tubo finished drinking wine, eating meat and rubbing skin.

In the fourth test, Emperor Taizong gave his envoy 100 a piece of wood with the same thickness, so that they could tell which was the root and which was the tip.

In the fourth test, Emperor Taizong gave his envoy 100 a piece of wood with the same thickness, so that they could tell which was the root and which was the tip. All the other envoys handed in blank paper, only Lu Dongzan transported all the wood to the river and threw it into the water. The root of the wood is slightly heavier and submerged in water, while the top of the tree is relatively light and floats on the water. The roots of wood are obvious.

The fifth question is a surprise test. In order not to get lost,

One night, gongs and drums were beating in the palace, and the emperor called messengers from all walks of life to the palace to discuss things. The shrewd Lu Dongzan guessed that this might also be a surprise test. In order not to get lost, he painted it on key sections? D mark. ? The word D comes from ancient Indian Sanskrit, which means "auspicious symbol of chest". Sure enough, as expected by Lu Dongzan, when he arrived at the palace, Emperor Taizong asked the envoys to go back at once to see who could go back to his residence without going the wrong way. Only Liu Dongzan went back with a mark in advance.

The last attempt was to identify the princess.

The last attempt of Emperor Taizong was to recognize the princess. On this day, Emperor Taizong and other ministers personally came to the front of the temple to take the exam. There are 300 well-dressed and beautiful ladies-in-waiting, divided into two teams, and the envoys need to recognize Princess Wencheng from them. Facing the ladies-in-waiting, the envoys were caught off guard. I don't know who Princess Wencheng is. Only Lu Dongzan confidently pointed out that the sixth on the left is the princess. It turned out that he had learned the princess's appearance and physical characteristics from the wet nurse who had served her: elegant posture, fair complexion, bright eyes, firm and gentle personality, dice-shaped markings on his right cheek, lotus-shaped markings on his left cheek, Huang Dan rings on his forehead, white and delicate teeth, fresh violet fragrance and, more importantly, a mole on his neck.

Lu Dongzan's outstanding performance convinced Emperor Taizong that his King Songzan Gampo was not an idle man, so he agreed to marry Princess Wencheng to Tubo. According to Tibetan folk songs, Princess Wencheng brought 3,800 kinds of grain, 5,500 kinds of livestock and 5,500 craftsmen into Tibet. Scientific knowledge of farm tools manufacturing, textile, construction, paper making, pottery making, grinding and other production technologies, as well as calendar calculation and medicine, were spread to Tubo one after another, which changed the local people's food, clothing, housing and transportation. Princess Wencheng's achievements are still remembered in the hearts of Tibetans. Emperor Taizong, on the other hand, appreciated Lu Dongzan's talent and knowledge very much, named him "General Right-back" and left him in Chang 'an. Lu Dongzan declined politely and returned to Tubo, where he went down in history as a famous politician, strategist and diplomat.