Many of the real things that happened in history have become unsolved mysteries today. And these unsolved mysteries have also received widespread attention from posterity, as well as in-depth research, but unfortunately, due to the age, the available information is quite limited, so the explanation of these unsolved mysteries is now more dependent on conjecture, not necessarily the real historical facts.
The story to be told in this article is an unsolved mystery about the Tang Dynasty - the cause of Wu Zetian's death! As for the cause of Wu Zetian's death, the historical record is only hastily recorded, and its process and details are not recorded in detail, which inevitably makes some people wonder whether there is an unknown story.
It was not until Shaanxi dug up a Tang Dynasty stone stele that the mystery of Wu Zetian's cause of death was unveiled, and experts said: "Cheated again!" What kind of sample information does the stele tell us? Did Wu Zetian's cause of death have anything to do with any conspiracy? Let's analyze the analysis below.
According to the New Book of Tang, on November 26 of the first year of the Shenlong Dynasty (December 16, 705), Wu Zetian died of illness at the Xianju Hall of Shangyang Palace at the age of eighty-two.
As an empress of a generation, Wu Zetian's aftermath is only a simple word of "illness and death", which cannot help but make people a little puzzled. Moreover, in addition to what Wu Zetian did before his death, in the process of exploring the cause of Wu Zetian's death, many people believe that Wu Zetian's affairs are related to the Li family.
First, because Wu Zetian originally took away the Li family's Jiangshan, and second, because the woman's reign made them shame on the Li family, coupled with the aggressiveness of the previous Wu family, so that the contradictions between the two families continued, so it seems that it is indeed not surprising that Wu Zetian was murdered by the Li family.
People believe that the biggest suspect should be Li Xian. why? Li Xian, who had been on the throne for only 55 days, was deposed by Wu Zetian as the King of Luling and demoted to Chang'an.
And the reason why Wu Zetian in his later years made Li Xian the crown prince was also because Di Renjie was circling from it, otherwise it would not really be his turn.
After Wu Zetian made Li Xianye the crown prince, in the first year of shenlong (705), Wu Zetian fell ill. Zhang Kamzhi, Tan Yanfan, JingHui, Yuan Shuji, and Cui Xuanhui launched the "Divine Dragon Revolution", forced Wu Zetian to the palace, and supported the restoration of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, forcing Wu Zetian to pass the throne to Li Xian and return Li Tang to the world. The elderly and powerless Wu Zetian could only abdicate, and then Li Xian ascended the throne as Emperor Zhongzong.
To say that Li Xian was dissatisfied with Wu Zetian, it is difficult to tell the truth, after all, what Wu Zetian did was placed in front of him, and finally forced the palace to abdicate, it is difficult to imagine how deep the revenge psychology of Li Xian, who regained the throne, was.
However, there are still many people who think that although Li Xian may hate Wu Zetian, he cannot do anything to kill him, because Li Xian is cowardly by nature!
Lü Simian commented on Li Xian: Emperor Zhongzong was a faint lord, he was in Fangzhou, although he was prepared for hardships, after the restoration, he had no consciousness and could not eradicate the evil forces of the Wu Dynasty.
And Ren Shiying also commented on Li Xian: After claiming the title of emperor, he did nothing politically and lived in a nest.
Therefore, whether Wu Zetian was murdered by Li Xian or not has been debated endlessly. It wasn't until the excavation of the Tang Dynasty stone stele in Shaanxi that things had some eyebrows.
This stele is from the tomb of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, but it is actually about another figure, his name is Wang Tongjiao.
Wang Tongjiao was the pony of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang and one of the meritorious ministers of the Shenlong Coup. He has biographies in both "Books of Tang", but the deeds recorded are relatively brief, so the academic circles are less concerned, and the stone stele is the "Tombstone of Tang King Tongjiao".
In the "Qin Jinyu New Epitaph Continuation" contains a rubbing of the "Tomb of King Tongjiao of Tang", whose epitaph has a total of 36 lines, 37 characters, and a total of 1252 words. The epitaph not only makes a detailed record of Wang Tongjiao's deeds, but also enriches people's understanding of the Shenlong coup and the political situation of the Zhongzong Dynasty. What is even more interesting is that Wu Zetian, as mentioned in his zhiwen, suffered from wind disease in his later years!
According to the "Tombstone of King Tongjiao of Tang", "When the Emperor of Heaven was high in spring and autumn, plus there was a wind disease...
Spring and autumn high is worth being older, what is "wind disease"? There is a word "disease" that means that more disease is related, and there are exceptions in the history books that Wu Zetian died of illness, but it does not explain in detail what the disease is, so it is also one of the reasons why people suspect that Wu Zetian was killed. And the record on this stone tablet actually pointed out Wu Zetian's illness, whether it can explain the cause of Wu Zetian's death.
In fact, this "wind disease" is what we now call stroke! Wu Zetian, who suffered from this disease, could die at any time, coupled with the reasons for Li Xian's personality, so Wu Zetian really had a considerable possibility of dying of illness. However, experts have conducted a lot of research on whether Wu Zetian was murdered, but now they suddenly say that the historical records are correct, and it is no wonder that experts will shout and be deceived again.
What do you think about that?
References: New Book of Tang, Epitaph of King Tongjiao of Tang