A friend asked me, why is there only one female emperor in Chinese history who has been accepted by successive dynasties and later generations to change the imperial title and regard it as orthodox, how is this phenomenon caused? In fact, we take China as the center, and throughout the history of the world, the number of queens and empresses is not in the minority.
Like in europe in the west, these countries in Europe have a large number of female supreme leaders in the Middle Ages, modern times, and modern times. Countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain, Portugal and other countries in Europe have a large number of queens in power. Especially in Britain, there are many queens, and we are familiar with Victoria, Mary I, Elizabeth and so on. And in order to ensure the purity and nobility of the blood of the European royal families, the royal families of various countries are married continuously, and the blood is mixed, which is breathtaking.
After talking about the West, let's talk about the North. In the period of feudal serfdom in Russia, the phenomenon of son preference was more serious, but under various coincidences, there were four female tsars in the history of Russia. The most famous female tsar in Russian history is catherine II the Great, who ruled Russia during the Romanov dynasty. Catherine II held a very high position in the hearts of Russians, she ruled Russia for 34 years, and Russia was developed into the first european power at that time, and the only female tsar in Russian history known as the "Great". She is on a par with "Peter the Great" in the minds of Russians, peter the Great believes that everyone has heard of it, and is named the same as Peter the Great, which shows the historical status of Catherine II in the minds of Russians.
Catherine II
In the east of the Korean Peninsula and Japan, in the feudal period, there were also many phenomena of female protagonists in power. In particular, the empress of Japan, in the long history of the country, there are eight empresses in Japan, which is extremely patriarchal, which is breathtaking.
Having said all this, it is to analyze the distribution of queens and empresses in various countries in the world, so that everyone can understand the countries in various regions and the status of female protagonists.
Let's get back to business. Who is the only orthodox female emperor in Chinese history who has been accepted by successive dynasties and later generations? First of all, I will give you a few key words, Wu Meiniang, Wu Xi, tang dynasty. Having said these few keywords, I believe everyone has already guessed it. Yes, the only orthodox female emperor in Chinese history who has been accepted by successive dynasties and later generations is the concubine of Tang Taizong Li Shimin and the empress of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, who is also known as Wu Meiniang and Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian
In the feudal era, women who held the power of national rule had some proprietary words to describe, such as regency, pro-dynasty title system, pro-dynasty government, curtain-down government, and so on. Speaking of this, we have to mention several heavyweight female figures who are familiar to the people of our country and hold the power of national rule.
The first is Mi Yue, the eighth son of Qi, based on empress dowager Qin Xuan of the pre-Qin Dynasty. In the past five years, "The Legend of Mi Yue", starring Sun Li, can be described as popular all over the country, and love and hatred have intertwined with the rise and fall of the family country, making this Empress Qin Xuan, who has left a great reputation in history, another fire.
The second is the empress Lü Lu of Liu Bang, the legendary emperor of Han Gaozu, who has the titles of starting from scratch, starting a business in the old age, repeatedly defeated, repeatedly defeated, and grassroots emperor. After Liu Bang's death, Lü Hou and Liu Bang's only son Liu Ying of Hanhui succeeded to the throne, and Li Ying, who had just passed the year of hair binding, had not yet cultivated to become a qualified emperor and an imperial trader, so Lü Hou began to take sole power, and a few years later Liu Ying died of depression, and Lü Hou established Liu Ying's son Liu Gong to succeed to the throne, thus beginning her career as a ruler of the dynasty.
Lu Hou
The third is that as soon as the end of the Qing Dynasty is mentioned, she can immediately appear in her mind. That's right, that's Yehenara's Cixi Lafayette. After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, Cixi was succeeded by the then five-year-old Tongzhi Emperor, and in the face of the situation of internal and external troubles in the late Qing Dynasty and the imminent collapse of the building, it was objectively required that the power of the entire Qing Empire must be highly concentrated. However, the highly centralized political power fell into the hands of Cixi, who was in a mother-son relationship with the Tongzhi Emperor, and on objective conditions, from the perspective of the Tongzhi Emperor and the emperor's lineage, it was the best plan to centralize power to the imperial family in times of crisis.
It was for this purpose that Cixi, together with Ci'an and Prince Gong Yixuan, launched a coup d'état of Xin You, and fought to the death against Su Shun, who was the chancellor of the Government of Xiang and the head of the Eight Ministers, and successfully seized power. Since then, the imperial lineage has been controlled by Cixi, and it is precisely in this way that Cixi has the exclusive right to decide on the candidates for the imperial heirs who will inherit the throne when the imperial throne changes at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and also seeks huge political interests in the selection and succession of the last emperors at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
During the three dynasties of the Tongzhi Emperor, the Guangxu Emperor, and the Xuantong Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi successively came to the court several times to make a claim and listen to the government, and held the Qing Dynasty for a total of 47 years. I have to say that Cixi Lafayette's sensitivity to politics and political skills are really extremely superb, but it is a pity that playing with power cannot strengthen the country and enrich the people.
The above lists several well-known phenomena in which female protagonists are in charge of the dynasty and bow down to the government, but why only Wu Xuan and Wu Zetian dare to change the title of emperor through a series of longitudinal and superb political means, so as to further achieve the purpose of becoming emperor?
The reason why Wu Zetian was able to change the name of the country and successfully claim the title of emperor is that I think there are the following reasons:
First of all, it was determined by the character and style of the Elite and Nobles in Tang Dynasty society, especially in the upper echelons of society. Historians are well known to have questioned the Tang Dynasty's claim to han ancestry. According to various studies by historians, the Tang Dynasty was actually a country where Hu and Han cultures were integrated, and the bloodline of the Tang royal family was actually a fusion of Han and Xianbei.
The Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty, and yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, accepted the Northern Zhou Zen Concession and called the Emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, together with the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, and Northern Qi, was called the last dynasty in the Five Kingdoms of the Northern Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The five kingdoms of the Northern Dynasty were all Hu and Xianbei regimes, and the imperial family and ruling class of the Sui and Tang Dynasties all came from the highest leadership of the Northern Dynasties countries, which shows the influence of the blood and culture of the Northern Dynasties on the Sui and Tang dynasties during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
In Mr. Chen Yinke's book "Treatise on the Political History of the Tang Dynasty", the first part (the clans of the ruling class and their rise and fall) is examined in detail, and the results are indistinguishable from the above analysis.
Tang Dynasty society
The social atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty, the character and style of the highest leadership group caused by the combination of Hu and Han cultures were very different from the social culture of Confucianism flourished in later generations, and the thinking and understanding of the ruling class at that time.
Therefore, changing the name of the country was not as important to the leadership of the Tang Dynasty at that time as later generations saw. We cannot treat others by ourselves, and we cannot compare the values of future generations with those of the Tang Dynasty. Just as The Hu people Shi Jingyao sacrificed the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to the Khitans, Shi Jingyao's understanding of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was completely different from the understanding and feelings of the people of the Later Song Dynasty for the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
Secondly, the Tang Dynasty's understanding and views on the sanctity of the country name were not as important as those seen by later generations, and posterity could not look at the tang Dynasty state name according to the sanctity of the future country name. Early state names were very accidental, such as the pre-Qin period, the founding monarch of the Qin state, Qin Feizi, took Ying as his surname, and was appreciated by Zhou Tianzi for his horse breeding and was sealed in Qindi, so the name Qin, the qin state and the qin shi huang of qin all used "Qin" as the national name.
The same is true of the Han Dynasty established by Liu Bang, the name of the Han Dynasty is actually not sacred, and the name of "Han" is also very accidental. Liu Bang was first named the King of Hanzhong, and after Liu Bang established a huge empire, due to inertia, he still used "Han" as the national name.
Tang Dynasty armament
The same is true of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan was first named the Duke of Tang, so after the establishment of the Tang Empire, he still used "Tang" as the national name, which shows that the sacredness of the Tang Dynasty's emblem and national name is not as sacred as we later imagine.
Finally, Wu Zetian had been monopolizing power for decades, and his ability to control the court was extremely strong, making it impossible for people to go against his will; and when she ascended the throne in her sixties, everyone thought that she would not rule for long; and after ascending the throne, she always made her own son and grandson the emperor and heir, and these measures also reassured all strata of society, thus creating this strange phenomenon.
Wu Zetian's power reign was very long, from 655 AD when Emperor Gaozong of Tang "deposed Wang Liwu" and Wu Zetian officially became empress, to li Zhi's death in 683 AD, for nearly thirty years Wu Zetian spent most of his time in power, and together with Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi was called (Emperor Tianhou) As the Second Saint.
According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", "Since everything is seen from above, the curtain is hanging behind, and the government is big or small, and everything is heard." The power of the world shall be returned to the Middle Palace, and the dethronement of the Emperor shall be determined by his mouth, and the Son of Heaven shall be surrendered, and the Chinese and foreign countries shall be called the two saints."
Two Saints
From the death of Emperor Gaozong of Tang to the establishment of Wu Zhou by Wu Zetian in 690 AD, in these years, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian's two sons, Li Xian of Tang Zhongzong and Li Dan of Tang Ruizong, successively succeeded to the throne, (disobeying or abolished) During this period, Wu Zetian twice came to the throne and still held the power.
In 690 AD, Wu Zetian, who had monopolized power for decades, under her instructions and momentum, the land of Shenzhou was spread throughout Xiangrui, people from all walks of life, officials, Dao, Buddhas, Yi, etc., and wrote to ask Wu Zetian to be called emperor. Therefore, Wu Zetian changed Tang to Zhou, changed yuan tianzhi, and successfully ascended to the throne of female emperor. From 690 AD when Wu Zetian was proclaimed emperor to the death of the female emperor Wu Zetian in 705 AD, it was said that the empress Wu Zetian had worked for another fifteen years, which shows the strength of his ruling ability and the high political skill, looking at Shi Hai, there is no other woman comparable to him.
Although Wu Zetian called Emperor Jianwu Zhouhou, although he was very important to Wu Chengsi, Wu Sansi and other nephews, Wu Zetian was very clear about the issue of imperial succession, and there was no doubt that he chose his own descendants and could never pass them on to his nephews. According to historical records, at that time, some people in Luoyang held stinky feet, and shangshu asked Wu Chengsi, the "heavenly nephew", to be made crown prince, and was killed by Wu Zetian. The reason was that "this thief wants to depose my imperial heir and establish a martial heir."
Portrait of Di Renjie
After a few years, Wu Zetian was older, Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi were once again recommended as princes, this time Wu Zetian was really confused, between the two parties undecided, Di Renjie, who was then the prime minister, said: "What is the cousin and nephew and mother and son? His Majesty Lizi, after a thousand years of age, eats the Taimiao Temple, inheriting infinity; the nephew, who has not heard of the nephew as the Son of Heaven and the nephew in the temple, is also "known in history" as the Empress Dowager's slight enlightenment.
It can be seen that Wu Zetian was called empress, the heir still belonged to the Li Tang royal family, and Wu Zetian still defended his son. After the Shenlong coup, the reason why the Li Tang Dynasty recovered so quickly, Wu Zetian acquiesced to the smooth recovery of the Li Tang Dynasty, is estimated to be many factors.
To sum up, the reason why Wu Zetian changed the title of emperor and successfully became emperor was first of all because Wu Zetian's decades-long reign made his ruling position very stable; secondly, the character and style of the Tang Dynasty society where Hu and Han culture were integrated were very different from those of later generations; secondly, the understanding of the seriousness of Wu Zetian's title as emperor was different from that of later generations; and finally, Wu Zetian's indisputable choice of Li Tang's imperial family on the issue of heirs was indisputably. The times create heroes, this phrase will always be a classic!