Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian

Wu Tuo

(624-16 December 705), i.e

Wu Zetian

He was born in Wenshui, Bingzhou (now Wenshui County, Shanxi Province). From Tang Dynasty to Wu Zhou Dynasty, he was a statesman and the founding monarch of Wu Zhou (690-705). She was also the only orthodox female emperor in Chinese history, one of the oldest (67 years old) and longest lived emperors (82 years old).

Wu Zetian was the second daughter of the Jingzhou governor. At the age of 14, he entered the harem and was a talented person of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. He was granted the title of "Wumei". Zhaoyi was granted by Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty and became Queen in 655. In the first year of the Shang Yuan Dynasty (674), it was added with the name of "Tian Hou" and called "Er Sheng" together with Emperor Gaozong. After the death of Emperor Gaozong, as emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong of Tang Dynasty, the Empress Dowager was called the imperial system.

In 690, the first year of Tianshu reign, Wu Zetian became emperor, changed the name of the state to Zhou, established Luoyang as the capital, and established Wu Zhou. Before and after he was in office, he had many powers and strategies, knew people well and appointed them well, paid attention to the selection of talents, and created the system of imperial examination, military examination and official examination. They also rewarded agriculture and mulberry, and reformed the administration of officials. At the same time, the imperial clan of Tang Dynasty was killed wantonly, and the "cruel official politics" arose. The military recovery of the four towns in Anxi led to the surrender of post Turks. In his later years, he gradually became extravagant and arbitrary, resulting in maladministration.

In the first year of the Dragon (705), when Wu Zetian was ill, the prime minister Zhang Cambodian launched the "dragon revolution", supported the restoration of Tang Zhongzong and forced him to abdicate. After the restoration of the Tang Dynasty, Zhongzong was honored with the title of "Zetian Dasheng emperor". In November of the same year, Wu Zetian died in Shangyang Palace at the age of 82. In accordance with his will, Zhongzong changed his name to "empress Zetian", and was buried in the Qianling Mausoleum as empress. After that, Lei Shi was named "Empress of Tianshun".

Wu Zetian was very intelligent, and she was also involved in literature and history. There are "Chui Gong Ji" and "Jin Lun Ji", which have been lost. There are many poems in Quan Tang Shi.

(source of picture in overview)

Life of the characters

Family background

Wu Zetian (later known as Wu Yu) is the second daughter of the warrior Yu, the founder of the Tang Dynasty. Her mother is Yang (born in the Sui Dynasty Royal family, and her father is Yang Da, the younger brother of Yang Xiong, the king of Guande in the Sui Dynasty and the Duke of Suining). Her ancestral home is Wenshui County, Bingzhou (now Wenshui County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province). In 624, Wu Zetian was born in Lizhou (now Guangyuan, Sichuan), Chang'an (now Xi'an, Shaanxi), and Luoyang. There are two brothers, Wu Yuanqing and Wu yuanshuang, and two sisters with the same mother. One is South Korean wife Wu Shun (Wu Shun is called her elder sister in historical books and her younger sister in Wu Shun's epitaph), and the other is Mrs. Guo.

Samurai Yu is engaged in timber business and has a rich family. At the end of the great cause of emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, when Li Yuan (emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty) was in Hedong, he kept him in the Wu family many times, so he got to know him. After Li Yuan fought against the Sui Dynasty in Taiyuan, the Wu family once supported money, grain and clothing. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, samurai Yu, as a "meritorious official of the Yuan Dynasty", became the Minister of the Ministry of industry and the governor of Jingzhou. According to the general history of China, "according to the rank of samurai Yu, he should belong to the newly promoted senior gentry. Therefore, Wu Zetian no longer came from the family of commoner landlords and bureaucrats, but from the family of free commoner landlords and bureaucrats.

After Samurai Yu died in 635, Wu Zetian was only 12 years old. Her cousins, Wu Weiliang, Wu huaiyun and Wu yuanshuang, fell into the well and were rude to her mother, Yang. Soon after, Wu Zetian moved back to Chang'an with her mother from Jingzhou.

New to the palace

In November of the 11th year of Zhenguan (637), Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty was lucky to visit Luoyang palace. When he heard that 14-year-old Wu Zetian was "rongzhimei", he called her into the palace and granted her the title of "Wumei". Before entering the palace, Empress Wu said goodbye to her widowed mother, Yang Shi: "is it not a blessing to serve the sage son of heaven? Why do you want to cry and be a child? "

There is no detailed description of Wu Zetian's life in the Palace during the reign of Li Shimin. Only in her later years, Wu Zetian recalled that she had trained horses for Li Shimin. Li Shimin has a horse named shiziyu. It is fat and willful. No one can tame it. At that time, Wu Zetian served Li Shimin and said, "I can subdue him, but I need three things: one is an iron whip, the other is an iron stick, and the third is a dagger. Beat it with an iron whip. If you don't agree, hit it on the head with an iron stick. If you don't agree, cut its throat with a dagger. "After hearing this, Li Shimin praised Wu Zetian's ambition. However, Wu Zetian did not get the favor of Li Shimin. She has been a talented person for 12 years, and her status has never been improved. But when Li Shimin was seriously ill, Wu Zetian and Prince Li Zhi began to establish a relationship.

In the 23rd year of Zhenguan (649), Li Shimin died. Wu Zetian went to Chang'an ganye temple as a nun with some of her childless concubines according to the law. However, she had no connection with Li Zhi, the new emperor of Gaozong.

Entering the palace again

In May of the first year of Yonghui (650), Li Zhi met Wu Zetian when he went to the ganye temple to pay homage to the anniversary of Li Shimin's death. Two people recognize each other, and tell each other after leaving the missing feeling. The queen, who was out of favor because she had no son, took the initiative to ask Li Zhi to bring Wu Zetian into the palace in an attempt to attack her rival Xiao Shufei. Li Zhi had this idea and agreed immediately.

In May of the second year of Yonghui (651), when Li Zhi's period of filial piety was over, Wu Zetian entered the palace again. Before entering the palace, Wu Zetian was pregnant. After entering the palace, she gave birth to her son Li Hong. After Wu Zetian returned to the palace, she quickly defeated Xiao Shufei and won Li Zhi's favor. In May of the following year (652), Wu Zetian was worshipped as the second grade Zhaoyi. At that time, the queen and Xiao Shufei often competed with each other for favors and slandered each other, but Li Zhi didn't listen to them.

According to the records in the new book of Tang Dynasty and Zizhitongjian, Wu Zetian gave birth to her eldest daughter Princess andingsi in 654. One month after the birth of the princess, the emperor later visited, loved and teased her. After leaving, Wu Zetian strangled the princess while no one was there, and covered her with a quilt. Just when Li Zhi arrived, Wu Zetian pretended to laugh and opened the quilt to look after the children together. She found her daughter dead and cried. She also surprised her attendants, who said, "the queen has just come." Li Zhi was furious and said, "the queen killed my daughter!" Wu Zetian then cried and reproached queen Wang for her sins, which queen Wang could not explain clearly. Since then, Li Zhi had a plan to "abolish Wang Liwu" (but this matter is controversial. The old Tang Shu and Tang Huiyao, which were written in the Five Dynasties, only recorded the princess's violent death, but did not specify the cause of her death). After a long time, Li Zhi wanted to make Wu Zetian Jin a concubine of Yipin Chen. Because of the opposition of Han Yuan and Lai Ji, the prime minister, Li Zhi could not succeed.

Abolish Wang Liwu

At that time, the senior ministers headed by Chang sun Wuji and Chu suiliang were powerful, and Li Zhi's power was greatly limited. Many ministers headed by Chang sun Wuji opposed the abolition of Wang Liwu by Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, which made Wu Zetian's road full of hardships. It is generally believed that Li Zhi tried to revive the imperial power by "Abolishing Wang Liwu" and attack the influence of senior ministers. Therefore, Wu Zetian began to become Li Zhi's political "comrade in arms".

In the sixth year of Yonghui (655), Li Yifu, a scholar of Zhongshu, first supported the abolition of Wang Liwu, which was highly praised by Li Zhi and Wu Zetian. Xu Jingzong, Cui Yixuan, Yuan Gongyu and other ministers acted according to the circumstances, and they all turned to support the establishment of Wu Zetian. Li Zhi saw that many people supported it, so he wanted to abolish it. And the elder Li Ji said, "why should we ask outsiders about your Majesty's family affairs", which reversed the disadvantageous situation of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian on the issue of abolishing the queen. On October 13, Li Zhi finally issued an imperial edict: on the charge of "conspiracy to poison", he dismissed the queen and Xiao Shufei as common people and imprisoned them in other courts; their parents and brothers were also removed from office and exiled to Lingnan. Seven days later, Li Zhi issued an imperial edict again to make Wu Zetian queen; at the same time, he demoted Chu suiliang, the most powerful prime minister. On the first day of November, a ceremony was held to make Wu Zetian queen.

In April of the fourth year of Xianqing (659), Wu Zetian and Li Zhi reached a consensus: Chang sun Wuji, Yu Zhining, Han Yuan and Lai Ji were demoted from the capital. So far, Li Zhi basically realized the centralization of monarchy. The incident of "Abolishing Wang Liwu" has dealt a heavy blow to the Guanlong group. Since the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, the situation of imperial power's decline has been changed, which has a great impact on Chinese history.

Two saints facing the court

In October of the fifth year of Xianqing (660), Li Zhifeng was ill, dizzy and unable to deal with state affairs, so she asked Wu Zetian to deal with the government affairs. However, the contradiction between the two gradually appeared.

In the first month of the first year of longshuo (661), Wu Zetian asked the women in the world to be forbidden to play Haiyou opera, which was adopted by Li Zhi. In April, Li Zhi wanted to go to Koguryo in person. He gave up after being advised by Wu Zetian and other officials.

At first, Wu Zetian was able to "bend down to endure humiliation and offer obedience". Therefore, Li Zhili rejected public opinions and insisted on setting her as the queen. After Empress Wu Zetian's success, Li Zhi was very angry that she was "dedicated to the power and happiness, and the desire to do something. In the first year of Linde (664), the prime minister shangguanyi asked for the abolition of the empress. Li Zhi thought so, and ordered shangguanyi to draft an imperial edict. The left and right attendants rushed to tell Wu Zetian in time, and Wu Zetian immediately went to Li Zhi and complained to herself, which made her "feel ashamed and can't bear to wait as before.". Li Zhi was also worried about Wu Zetian's anger, so he tricked her into saying, "I didn't have this heart at the beginning. I was taught by shangguanyi." From then on, whenever Li was in charge of politics, Wu Zetian would "hang the curtain behind him, and hear about all kinds of politics. The power of the world is determined by its mouth.

Because of the prosperity of Li Zhi's national power, Wu Zetian actively advised him to establish Mount Tai. At the time of Fengchan, it should have been first offered by the emperor and then by Gongqing. However, Wu Zetian believed that Fengchan was an instrument of offering sacrifices to the earth, which was shared by the Empress Dowager and showed the virtue of the later earth. So she's going to be her own

Chinese PinYin : Wu Ze Tian