In 649, Emperor Taizong of Tang died of illness at Cuiwei Palace, and his son Li Zhi ascended the throne. At the same time, the women in the palace before and after Li Shimin's birth were also placed where they should go. Either with the son's life, or as a nun in the royal monastery, and concubines like Wu Zetian, who had never given birth to children and were not of high rank, were arranged to become monks at the Ganye Temple.
When Wu Zetian first entered the palace, he said to his mother Yang Shi, "See the Son of Heaven knowing whether it is a blessing or not?" And twelve years later, she knew that seeing Tianzi was not necessarily lucky. She had been a talented person of Li Shimin for twelve years, and she had also been snubbed for twelve years, and even Li Shimin may not have favored Wu Zetian. But even so, after Li Shimin's death, she had to follow the established fate trajectory to the Ganye Temple, from one confinement to another.
It's just that Wu Zetian is not a person who confesses her fate in the end, she once had a flirtation with the crown prince Li Zhimei when Li Shimin was seriously ill, and gained Li Zhi's love. Although the love of the emperor is not valuable, but this is the only chip of Wu Zetian, so she tried every means to hand Over to Li Zhi a poem she wrote for Li Zhi, "Ruyi Niang", and the poem was written like this:
Looking at Zhu Chengbisi, he was haggard and fragmented as a memory. In disbelief, Bi Lai burst into tears and opened the box to check the pomegranate skirt.
This poem is considered to be Wu Zetian's own cultural level at the bottom of the pressure box, even the later Li Bai is ashamed of himself, Li Zhi is naturally also moved not to want, so he decided to go to the Ganye Temple on the day of Li Shimin's anniversary of his death, and meet with Wu Zetian by the way.
The two did meet, and the picture was really "holding hands and looking at each other with tears in their eyes, and they were speechless." However, Li Zhi's time was not free, and he soon said goodbye to Wu Zetian and let Wu Zetian wait for him when he left. But for how to bring Wu Zetian into the palace, Li Zhi did not think of any way, he had feelings for Wu Zetian, not shallow, but if he really wanted to bring wu Zetian back to the palace, he really had to make a good plan.
The first level must pass the level of Empress Wang, as long as Empress Wang agrees, then Wu Zetian can enter the palace smoothly, and there will be no obstacles, but empress Wang, who is from a family family, will agree to let people with wu Zetian's status enter the palace? If Empress Wang was unwilling, then Wu Zetian basically had no chance to enter the palace.
However, Li Zhi had just dozed off, and someone handed him a pillow, and it was Empress Wang who handed the pillow. Empress Wang actually took the initiative to persuade Li Zhi to take Wu Zetian into the palace, and the Old Book of Tang records:
"Empress Dowager Wu lived with Emperor Taizong's concubine at Ganye Temple, and after that, Emperor Gaozong was summoned to the palace by emperor Gaozong and established him as Zhaoyi."
Why did Empress Wang have such a mysterious operation?
Empress Wang was from the Taiyuan Wang clan, was one of the famous five surnames and seven wangs, and her status was evident, and Empress Wang was very popular with Li Shimin, and she was considered to be the daughter-in-law of Li Shimin, and Li Shimin also said to the eldest grandson Wuji and Chu Suiliang on her deathbed: "Shu Jia'er and good wife, now Fu Qing." "Even if I recognize this former Princess of Jin and later the Crown Princess, I also affirmed her status as empress."
This kind of liking is naturally not simply because Empress Wang behaves decently, is dignified and generous, and has the style of motherhood in the world, but also because the Taiyuan Wang clan behind Empress Wang is extraordinary.
After Empress Wang became empress, she did a good job and did not have any mistakes, but she also had weaknesses, one of which was that she had never given birth, and the other was that she was not liked by Li Zhi. The situation of the concubine with these two weaknesses in the harem is very difficult, although Empress Wang's Taiyuan Wang clan is a family clan, and her position has always been stable, but this does not mean that she is smooth sailing in the harem.
For example, Li Zhi's favorite Xiao Shufei, Xiao Shufei is from the Lanling Xiao clan, although her family is not as good as the five surnames and seven wangs, but it is also a family family, and Xiao Shufei also gave birth to a son and two daughters for Li Zhi, which is a strong opponent of Empress Wang, and Empress Wang is very jealous of Xiao Shufei, and is afraid that In the future, Xiao Shufei will take her empress position.
But Empress Wang really couldn't take Xiao Shufei, and the general palace fight couldn't hurt Xiao Shufei at all, after all, Xiao Shufei had the heirs that Empress Wang didn't have and Li Zhi's favor, so if Empress Wang really wanted to hold Xiao Shufei, she must let Xiao Shufei lose Li Zhi's favor, which required Li Zhi to empathize.
Therefore, when Empress Wang heard about Li Zhi and Wu Zetian's incident at the Ganye Temple, she seemed to see Xiao Shufei's tragic situation, and she couldn't wait to let Wu Zetian enter the palace to deal with Xiao Shufei.
However, Empress Wang did not know that she was luring wolves into the room, she thought that Wu Zetian was very good at grasping, first, she took Wu Zetian into the palace, and there was favor with Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian would inevitably be attached to her: second, Wu Zetian's origin was not good, although his mother was Yang, his father Wu Shiyan was just a hero during the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and there was nothing else, which posed no threat to Empress Wang's posthumous position.
In Empress Wang's view, even though Wu Zetian was favored by Li Zhi, her threat was far inferior to That of Concubine Xiao. However, where did Empress Wang think that she would make a mistake in prejudgment, she did not expect that Wu Zetian was such a strong person. If she could think of it, she might rather fight with Concubine Xiao Than Wu Zetian, of course, this is the last word.
Empress Wang felt that she was completely able to pinch Wu Zetian, so she took the initiative to share the worries for Li Zhi, persuading Li Zhi to take Wu Zetian into the palace, and even personally to do this, so Wu Zetian was taken into the palace, of course, Empress Wang was not stupid, she did not want to let Wu Zetian have the opportunity to oppose her in the future, so she was only good to her, but did not give her any name after Wu Zetian entered the palace.
The arrival of Wu Zetian occupied all of Li Zhi's sight, xiao Shufei was gradually forgotten by Li Zhi, and Empress Wang easily stepped on Xiao Shufei's feet, but after Xiao Shufei fell, the stronger one stood up.
Soon after Wu Zetian entered the palace, he gave birth to a son for Li Zhi, Namely Li Hong. It was the arrival of this son that made Wu Zetian breed ambition again, and she also wanted to sit in that position, she wanted her son to live in the East Palace. By the time Empress Wang sensed Wu Zetian's thoughts, it was too late.
She found that although Wu Zetian did not have Xiao Shufei's good origin, she had a strong will, a clever brain, great ambition, fierce enough to be calm, and her rank was much higher than Xiao Shufei's. When facing Wu Zetian, Empress Wang felt very difficult and passive.
On the other hand, Wu Zetian always knew what she wanted, she implemented the plan step by step, and at the beginning she naturally pulled Li Zhi to her side, she was a little troublesome at the beginning, but she also found a fact, that is, even if Li Zhi did not like Empress Wang, he was not willing to abolish her. Therefore, Wu Zetian had to make a big move to win Li Zhi over.
Her big trick is princess Andingsi, who was just born, this poor princess was targeted by her mother just after birth, and then there was the matter of Empress Wang "killing" the little princess, and Li Zhi was half an eyewitness, although he did not see Empress Wang inside, but he just happened to go with Wu Zetian to see the little princess when he found her death, this time, Li Zhi's heart finally loosened, and he moved his mind after the abolition.
Later, Wu Zetian stood firmly with Li Zhi and opposed the important ministers of the foreign court, such as Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, who opposed the abolition of the empress, which made Li Zhi want to abolish the empress more and more. It was also the maturity and decisiveness of Wu Zetian that gave Li Zhi great courage to resist the courtiers, and eventually deposed Wang Liwu and became a fact.
The new people laughed, the old people cried, Wu Zetian became the empress, while Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei were both deposed as shuren, and their close relatives were exiled to the land of Lingnan smoke, but this was the final outcome.
Wu Zetian imprisoned the two in a peculiar house in the courtyard, which had neither a door nor a window, only an opening, and only the size of which could accommodate the passage of food utensils. This was a real humiliation for Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei, who had always been dressed in fine clothes. Once, Li Zhi remembered them, ran to see them again, saw their encounters, moved his heart of compassion, and promised the two: "There will be disposition." ”
But Li Zhi's front foot had just gone, and Wu Zetian's back foot knew what had happened. The Zizhi Tongjian records:
When Empress Wu heard this, she was furious, and sent a hundred people to each of the Wang clan and the Xiao clan, cut off their hands and siblings, and caught the wine in the middle, saying: "Let the second concubine be drunk!" ”
This is actually an upgraded version of Lü Houren yan, Wu Zetian used medicine to hang these two people, and it took several days before the two died. Wu Zetian also changed the surnames of the two, and this way of treating them was really vicious.
Speaking of which, Empress Wang's being drunk by bones was not unjust, after all, if she hadn't wanted to take down Concubine Xiao Shufei and lure the wolf into the room, where did so many things come from? If she had refused to let Wu Zetian into the palace at the beginning, even if Li Zhi wanted to, she would have only thought about it for a while, and after that time, she might have forgotten About Wu Zetian, but Empress Wang had brought Wu Zetian into the palace and given birth to many, many things that followed, and she herself had paid a heavy price.