金匮之盟 / Golden Cabinet Pledge

Golden Cabinet Pledge / 金匮之盟 is the succession claim discussed in 170.宋太祖之死：烛影斧声，阴谋论中的人性谜团（下）. In the story, [[DuTaihou|杜太后]] supposedly had [[ZhaoKuangyin|赵匡胤 / 宋太祖]] promise to pass the throne to his brother, with [[ZhaoPu|赵普]] recording the pledge and storing it in a golden cabinet.

The episode treats the pledge as politically powerful but historically suspect. Its original text is not preserved, and the source distinguishes a simple one-transfer version, where Taizu passes to [[ZhaoGuangyi|赵光义 / 宋太宗]], from a three-transfer version, where Taizong should later pass to [[ZhaoTingmei|赵廷美]] and then back to [[ZhaoDezhao|赵德昭]]’s line.

The pledge becomes decisive because it can justify Taizong’s accession while also creating new threats. If brother-to-brother succession is legitimate, then Tingmei becomes the next obvious claimant; the episode reads Zhao Pu’s return to power and the later Tingmei case as ways of narrowing that danger.

Connections

• [[DuTaihou|杜太后]] - authority figure attached to the pledge.
• [[ZhaoKuangyin|赵匡胤 / 宋太祖]], [[ZhaoGuangyi|赵光义 / 宋太宗]], [[ZhaoTingmei|赵廷美]], and [[ZhaoDezhao|赵德昭]] - succession chain affected by competing versions.
• [[ZhaoPu|赵普]] - recorder and later political user of the claim.
• [[SongSuccessionLegitimacyCrisis|宋初继承合法性危机]] and Official History Legitimacy Repair - broader interpretive frames.