How stupid is the emperor? Well, he tends to punish the whole clan for the fault of one member. The beginning's story is a result of Emperor Taiwu's stupidity that resulted in the Liang Kingdom's collapse. Also, like how many times does he fall for Weiyoung or Xiner getting framed and her being innocent? He would rather keep his own reputation than his character. He could've made himself better by cutting ties with the Chiyun and apologizing. Instead, he thinks too much what people will think of him than what's good for his kingdom. That mistake led to the death of his favorite son who would have been the crown prince. Later, he just makes the same mistake with his descendants causing them to kill each other.
Should I mention his mentality of marriage alliances? You could think of him sending off Weiyoung to marry off Liu Song and ignored his grandson's advice that it could be a trap. Then he tries to agree with Rouran where he thinks marriage alliances always equals peace even after the previous incident. TBH I kinda wish the Rouran Princess Anle beat him up. At this point, I just wish that I would have gone into my TV set to kill the stupid old man. Though, I heard he'd die at the hands of personal eunuch but I'd probably have him tortured to death instead. I'm getting sadistic now, aren't I?
Just think the guy in this story is the personification of, "Insanity is trying the same thing all over again while expecting different results."
Tuoba Tao was one of the greatest military geniuses to have ever lived, reunifying the north and setting the stage for China's eventual reunification with Sui and Tang. I think this drama covers the period towards the end of his reign where he was plagued by court intrigues and not really reflective of his rule overall, which was quite successful.
ReplyDeleteThe drama takes quite a bit of liberties with the setup. The fall of Northern Liang was not a conspiracy orchestrated by some rogue Wei generals. It was because the king of Hexi, who was married to Taiwu's sister, refused to turn over the his wife's brother that he was having an affair with, who was implicated in a poisoning assassination attempt on said sister. Bei Liang was crushed in a matter of months.
On the matter of marriage alliances, Taiwu was noted for these and was more tolerant in matters of diplomacy than most. And thus the situation with his sister being poisoned in Bei Liang. But the outlandish scenario of offering a marriage alliance to the Rouran after the events in Bei Liang never happened. There was an exchange of brides as a part of a peace agreement in 431, but the Rouran betrayed that treaty in 436 and from then on Taiwu didn't try again.