Wu Zetian was in a fierce political struggle all her life. During her reign, she was able to pay attention to selecting talents and agricultural production, and once did something beneficial to historical development; However, she posed as a cruel official, formed a small group for personal interests and did many things that were not conducive to the people.
Wu Jia's daughter entered the palace.
Wu Zetian's father, military commander Hu *, turned out to be a famous timber merchant in Shanxi. Because he helped Tang Gaozu Tang Gaozu get the world meritorious service, he once worked as a minister of the Ministry of Industry and a secretariat of Jingzhou. At the age of 47, his wife Yang gave birth to her second daughter, later Wu Zetian. Twelve years later, the samurai Hu * fell ill and died. At this time, Wu Zetian was as beautiful as flowers and jade. As a result, the news that "the Wu family has beautiful women" spread like wildfire and finally reached the ears of Emperor Taizong.
One day, Emperor Taizong issued an imperial edict, and the eunuch Feima came to the Wu family to read the imperial edict in public: Wu Zetian was named a gifted scholar (one of the concubines in the palace, with the lowest rank) and ordered her to enter the palace immediately.
Yang was surprised and panicked when he heard the imperial edict. He believes that there are many wives and concubines of the emperor, except for wives and queens, there are also grades such as concubines, coffins, Jieyu and beauty, and talents are the lowest. If they don't win the favor of the emperor, they will stay in the inner court of the deep palace for life. Thought of here, she couldn't help hugging her daughter and crying:
"Son, I can't believe that soon after your father's death, there was unexpected trouble at home. If you enter the palace, I'm afraid our mother and daughter will never meet again! "
Fourteen-year-old Wu Zetian was very calm, but smiled and encouraged her mother to say:
"Mom don't have to be too sad. According to my daughter, this is not necessarily a bad thing. "
"What? What do you mean? " Yang listened and asked tearfully.
"Daughter this time into the palace, as long as everything was se, careful everywhere, can win the favor of the emperor. At that time, my daughter will not only enjoy the splendor, but also win glory for her family and her mother! " Wu Zetian answered word for word, looking very confident.
Yang realized that her daughter took entering the palace as a step into her body. I think my daughter has been clever and exquisite since she was a child, and maybe she will really get the favor of the emperor. Yang stopped crying. Two days later, Wu Zetian bid farewell to her mother and entered the palace happily.
When Emperor Taizong summoned her, he found that the Wu girl was not only beautiful, but also polite and graceful. Asking her a few words is also a euphemism, and the answer is like a stream. Emperor Taizong was very happy and immediately named her "Wu Mei".
Emperor Taizong was twenty-six years older than Wu Mei, but he soon fell in love with this clever and capable little girl.
Prince Wu Meihe
In 643 AD, Emperor Taizong was old and ill, and made his eldest son Li Zhi the prince and the heir to the throne. At that time, Wu Mei was a girl who was almost twenty years old. After entering the palace, she learned a lot about literature and history. Emperor Taizong loved her very much, and even during her illness, he asked her to accompany her day and night.
Prince Li Zhi has long heard of Wu Mei's reputation, and often visits his father as an excuse to get close to Wu Mei. Wu Mei clearly knows the prince's mind, but on the surface she pretends to be serious.
On one occasion, Li Zhi secretly winked at Wu Mei when he greeted his illness at the bedside of Emperor Taizong's father. Wu Mei still pretended to be serious and ignored it. Li Zhi left, she deliberately said to close-fitting maid-in-waiting:
"The prince is really a filial piety. No matter how busy the country is, he will never forget to visit his father every day. It's a good eye for the emperor to pass on the throne to him. "
Who knows close-fitting maid-in-waiting heard, unexpectedly "sloped" a smile to say:
"Luckily the empress is still a clever guy, don't you know the mind of the prince? Every time I enter the palace, visiting the sick is false, and being close to the empress is true. "
Hearing this, Wu Mei stopped drinking at once, but her heart was filled with joy. She thought, the old emperor seems to be dying, and the world will soon be the prince's. If you can get along well with the prince, you will have a chance to climb up in the future; If you offend him, you will never get ahead in the future. Make up your mind, Wu Mei will no longer pretend to be serious in front of Li Zhi, but will secretly flirt with him, and they will get better soon.
In 649 AD, Emperor Taizong died of illness, and Li Zhi proclaimed himself emperor, that is, Tang Gaozong. According to the rules at that time, after the death of the emperor, his ordinary concubines could not stay in the palace. Wu Mei was sent to Ganye Temple as a nun according to the palace rules because she had never given birth to a child.
Queen Wang's wishful thinking
After Tang Gaozong ascended the throne, he didn't like his queen, but he loved Xiao Shufei. Queen Wang is very upset about this. Once, after two days' absence, the Queen Wang called the eunuch who was waiting for him and wanted to know his whereabouts. The eunuch prevaricated and refused to tell the truth. The queen deliberately zheng big eyes, harsh voice asked:
"Why, when a eunuch, don't even care about the queen! If you don't tell the truth today, you won't get out alive! "
"I really don't know!"
"Nonsense! Come! "
"Empress calm down and let the villain speak."
"Come on, there is half a lie, watch your head!"
"Yes!" The chamberlain replied and said in detail, "The emperor is depressed these days. After he reached an agreement with the ministers, he always went to Ganye Temple to be with Wu Meiniang's mother, and then returned to the palace to sleep after midnight. "
Queen Wang was overjoyed after hearing this. Surprisingly, Tang Gaozong hooked up with the first emperor's concubine regardless of ethics; Happily, she suddenly came up with a way to deal with Xiao Shufei. So, she took the initiative to suggest to Tang Gaozong that Wu Mei be brought back to the palace publicly. Tang Gaozong listened to, natural joy be elated. He not only personally connected Wu Mei, who is four years older than himself, to the palace, but also named her "Zhaoyi".
In order to win the emperor's favor for Xiao Shufei, the Queen Wang took Wu back to the palace to vent her sulk. Who knows, she's in trouble herself.
Wu plays politics.
When she just returned to the palace, she was really obedient to the emperor and queen, and soon won the favor of the two masters. With Wu, I was left out in the cold. Queen Wang was very happy when she saw the success of revenge at first, but on second thought, she didn't win the favor of the emperor, and she was jealous of Wu again. She tried to alienate Wu. The result was not successful, but was discovered by the scheming Wu. Therefore, I decided to play politics and get rid of Wu Huanghou.
First of all, she is very concerned about the ladies-in-waiting and eunuchs around her, and she has to give some of what she gets. In this way, if the Queen Wang and Xiao Shufei have any activities, someone will report to her in time, and she will also go to the emperor to complain. Gradually, Tang Gaozong became less and less fond of Queen Wang and Xiao Shufei.
Later, Wu gave birth to a girl and loved her very much. One day, when Wu was not at home, Queen Wang came to see the girl and left. When Wu came back, she knew that Queen Wang had been here, so she had a plan. She malicious and cruel, strangled her daughter, and then shouted in front of Tang Gaozong who arrived at the scene:
"My daughter was alive just now. She died as soon as I turned around. Someone must have killed her secretly. Please ask the emperor to decide and find out the murderer! "
The emperor angrily asked the ladies-in-waiting to drink:
"Wu Zetian is gone, who is coming?"
"Long live the opening ceremony, the empress came alone." The ladies-in-waiting answered in unison.
"Who else has been here?"
"Not anymore."
"Don't the queen will ..."
"ah! It must be the poison of the queen! " Wu took the opportunity to burst into tears. "She was jealous when she saw that I had a baby. Today, she finally did an unnatural thing. Ask the emperor to distinguish between right and wrong. "
Although Emperor Gaozong flew into a rage, it was difficult to dispose of the queen because he could not produce conclusive evidence, but he had the idea of abolishing the queen. After this happened, I finally made up my mind to abolish Wu Huanghou and become a queen.
Wu Zetian listens to politics
Tang Gaozong was in poor health, but later he was dizzy and couldn't see clearly. He often handed over major events in North Korea to Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian took the opportunity to reuse Xu, Li Yifu and others who had supported her, promoted them to important posts, and then instigated them to fabricate charges and killed veteran ministers such as Chu Suiliang and Sun Chang Wuji who turned against her. As a result, more and more DPRK ministers stood by her side, and the regime actually fell into her hands.
Slowly, Tang Gaozong also realized that Wu Hou's influence was too great to be good for him. He secretly called Prime Minister Shangguan Yi to the palace to discuss the abolition of Wu Zetian. Queen Wu Ke is not Queen of the Year. She has many cronies, and the news soon reached her ears. Wu Zetian first came to question Tang Gaozong. Tang Gaozong panicked and put the blame on Prime Minister Shangguan Yi. Poor Shangguan Yi was killed, which implicated many people. After that, even the emperor can't manage Wu Zetian's affairs. Every time Tang Gaozong went to the court, the Queen sat behind the scenes and listened to all the important opinions.
Speaking of Wu Hou in power, although she is cruel, she does have a way to do some good things.
One year, Wu Zetian made more than a dozen suggestions to Tang Gaozong to govern the world. She said:
"Now there are too many large-scale construction projects around the country, which consumes a lot of people's resources. We should do these things less, so that the people can sometimes plant good land, raise silkworms, get more grain and weave more, and the country will be rich and strong. "
"ok!" Tang Gaozong agreed.
"Also, now whether butler or private workshops, do those extravagant things, what's the big use? It should be ordered not to do it again. "
Tang Gaozong listened, nodded and said:
"I see you often wear old skirts, just to make everyone advocate thrift?"
"yes."
"This is very good."
"Also, I advocate telling the people about morality and not using a knife and gun at every turn. This can't convince people."
"Well, just do as the Queen says."
Later, several items put forward by Wu Zetian were implemented. Farmers are encouraged to cultivate land everywhere, and the army also grows grain to cultivate land. Many water conservancy projects have also been built. Agricultural production has been stable for decades.
The queen ascended the throne.
In 683, Tang Gaozong died of illness. Who will be the emperor? This can only be counted if Wu Zetian says so. It turned out that the prince was the queen's own son Li Hong, who was poisoned by poisoned wine because he was at odds with the queen. Li Xian, the second son, later became a prince, but refused to listen to her. Wu Hou abolished him and later killed him. So, after Tang Gaozong's death, his third son, Li Xian, was in office, and he was Tang Zhongzong. Wu Zetian became the Empress Dowager. But Tang Zhongzong had just been in office for two months, and he was taken down because he annoyed his mother. The fourth son, Li Dan, went on to become emperor, and he was Tang Ruizong. In fact, anyone who becomes an emperor has to listen to the queen mother. The emperor is not in her eyes at all.
Although Wu Zetian was in power, she was not satisfied. She wants to be a female emperor, a veritable supreme ruler. So, she chased her ancestors one by one and built temples to create conditions for her to be an emperor. She demoted any minister who dared to oppose it.
Xu Jingye, the demoted minister, was very dissatisfied with Wu Zetian's behavior, so he launched an armed rebellion, assembled hundreds of troops, attacked the imperial court, and demanded that Wu Zetian return the power to the emperor. A famous poet named Wang Luobin also took part in the rebellion, and wrote an article that severely reprimanded Wu Zetian and called on the court civil servants to rise up against her.
Empress Wu read this article scolding her, and was not angry. She also smiled and said:
"This article is well written, but there are many things that are not true. It's a pity that the person who wrote the article, why didn't the Prime Minister let him go in vain and didn't reuse him? "
She took her time and calmly deployed her troops, and it took only forty days to suppress the rebellion. Several rebellions in other places have also been cleaned up by her. Wu Zetian was able to effectively control the army, indicating that her regime was consolidated at that time and the people were opposed to unrest.
After Wu Zetian suppressed those who opposed her, she confidently and boldly decided to be emperor. In 690 AD, she was renamed Zhou, claiming to be the Holy Spirit Emperor, and became a rare feudal female emperor in the history of China. At that time, she was 66 years old. Later, she was honored as Emperor Zetian.
Whistling wind
When Wu Zetian became emperor, knowing that those nobles would not support themselves from the heart, she thought of many ways to deal with these people. One way is to encourage informers. Anyone who is dissatisfied with her will be punished if she finds out. She ordered that any informer should be equipped with horses and controlled by the government. If the informer is true, he can be an official. If it is not true, it will not be investigated. Even ordinary farmers and firewood collectors can report others directly to the emperor. Now, more and more people come to the capital.
Although Wu Zetian got a lot of information by this skill, she also exploited loopholes for some bad guys. Some people who were promoted to official positions by informers used torture against those accused. Speaking of those criminal laws, it is simply unsightly. Sometimes the prisoner's hands and feet are tied to a crossbar, which is called "phoenix drying its wings"; Sometimes, prisoners are asked to kneel on the ground with flail in their hands, and then put bricks on the flail, which is called "offering fruit to immortals" ... These tortures have killed many innocent people.
There is an idiom "please go to the urn", which refers to the time of Wu Zetian. A cruel official named Zhou Xing killed many people. Later, someone accused him of rebellion, and Wu Zetian asked another cruel official to come and interrogate him. The cruel official questioned the cruel official. What was the result?
Lai Junchen found Zhou Xing and asked him:
"Do you have any good ideas if the prisoner doesn't confess?"
Zhou Xing said:
"It's easy. My solution is to prepare a big urn, heat it with charcoal outside and put the prisoner in the urn. Who dares not to confess? "
"Good, great!" Lai Junchen praised it and immediately let people carry a big urn. He said to Zhou Xing, "Now someone is accusing you of rebellion. I ask you to interrogate you. Please enter the urn! "
Hearing this, Zhou Xing shook the rope in fear and hurriedly said:
"I recruit, I recruit!"
Wu Zetian reused people like Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen to make ministers tremble all day. I dare not talk much when I meet you, for fear of being told by others.
An open-minded queen
Wu Zetian resolutely suppressed those who were against herself, and she could also reuse talented people. The imperial examination system in China feudal society developed greatly during the period of Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian selected talents through various examinations. She also personally inspected students and selected talents. No matter who was born, as long as you have the ability, you can be reused. In this way, under her, there are a large number of capable civil servants and military commanders. Wu Zetian trusted them very much. No matter what their attitude is, as long as what they say is right, she can listen.
There was a famous minister named Di Renjie, and Wu Zetian made him Prime Minister. Once, Wu Zetian wanted to build a giant Buddha. What if the money is not enough? She is going to ask monks and nuns all over the country to donate a copper coin every day. Di Renjie know, advised the queen to say:
"Now some Buddhist temples are more luxurious than palaces. Monks and nuns often blackmail the people, which is worse than the government. Many people don't have enough to eat after working for a year, so they simply quit their jobs and become nuns until someone has enough to eat. In this way, fewer and fewer people work, and more and more monks and nuns live for free. What is good for the country? You have always advocated loving the people and making Buddha, so you shouldn't do it. "
Wu Zetian was very moved and said:
"You're right, how can I not listen? Don't make Buddha! "
In March of one year, the weather became warmer. But a few days later, there was another heavy snow. An official thought it was an auspicious year of snow, and led hundreds of officials to celebrate with Wu Zetian, who was also very happy. But one of the officials, Wang Qiuli, not only didn't attend the celebration, but also sneered. Wu Zetian is very strange and asks:
"What's the matter with you?"
"Your Majesty," said Wang Qiuli, "it's already spring, and everything is sprouting and growing. Suddenly it began to snow, and the weather became cold. This is a disaster. Where is the auspicious symbol? Your majesty must not listen to those flattering words. "
Wu Zetian listened, wanted to think, nodded and said:
"Or you're right. It snowed at a bad time. You shouldn't celebrate, but you should feel uneasy! "
There are many such things. Wu Zetian can listen to advice, which is an important reason why she is supported by ministers. In the feudal society where men are superior to women, it is not easy for a queen to be in power for decades. During the period of Wu Zetian, the political situation was stable, the population increased and the production developed greatly.
Be forced to give in
In 704 AD, Wu Zetian was seriously ill. At that time, power was in the hands of her minions Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong. They waited around the queen day and night, and no one was allowed to see them, not even the prince.
Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were anathema to the DPRK ministers, who wanted to take advantage of Wu Zetian's serious illness to launch a coup, get rid of "Zhang Er" and restore the Tang Dynasty.
On that day, minister Zhang Jianzhi came to the gate of the longevity hall where Wu Zetian lived, holding the prince with a warrior. "Zhang Er" listened to the noise outside and quickly came out to see it. Seeing so many people, he knew something was wrong and was about to run away. When Zhang Jianzhi waved his hand, the samurai came forward to kill him and broke into the hall of eternal life.
Wu Zetian saw so many civilian military commanders who killed people without batting an eye and asked in surprise:
"What are you going to do?"
Ministers said noisily:
"Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong did too many bad things, and we killed them!"
"Your majesty is old and sick, make way for the prince!"
"Yes, now people are turning their attention to the Tang Dynasty. Don't be stubborn! "
Wu Zetian was so angry that she could not say a word. Finally, she had to promise to pass the throne to Prince Li Xian. Li Xian acceded to the throne and restored the title of the Tang Dynasty. This is Tang Zhongzong. Although Tang Zhongzong still has great respect for Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian is even terminally ill and her health is getting worse every day.
Soon, the queen who had been in power for decades died alone. She lived to the age of eighty-two.