In October 684, Wu Zetian murdered the Tang Dynasty chancellor Pei Yan for treason and confiscated all his family property, but it was a void, and Pei Yan's family did not have much property.
At that time, there were many ministers who complained for Pei Yan, and this move completely angered the empress Wu Zetian, and all the ministers who were wronged by Pei Yanming were all punished.
However, according to the Tang Dynasty's "ChaoYe You Zai", Wu Zetian convicted Pei Yan because Pei Yan wrote the words "Green Goose".
What exactly does the word "green goose" mean? Not only do we not understand it now, but many ministers of the Tang Dynasty are confused, but Wu Zetian's subsequent simple explanation made the ministers wake up like a dream.
Wu Zetian is the only orthodox female emperor in the history of our country, that is, a female emperor recognized by the world, in fact, in addition to Wu Zetian in history, there are other women who call her emperor, but they have not been recognized by everyone.
At the age of fourteen, Wu Zetian was selected into the palace because of his beauty, and was named a wupincai by Tang Taizong Li Shimin, at this time Tang Taizong was already very old, and it seemed that he was not very interested in the little girl Wu Zetian, and he did not favor Wu Zetian.
Later, during Li Shimin's serious illness, Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang gradually developed feelings, and after Li Shimin's death, Li Zhi married Wu Zetian and greatly favored him.
Wu Zetian also used Tang Gaozong Li Zhi to step by step to the peak of power.
Some people are very popular with Wu Zetian, believing that Wu Zetian became emperor as a woman, which is really admirable, especially in ancient times when men were superior to women.
However, some people felt that Wu Zetian was too vicious and once killed his children for his own power.
According to the relevant historical records, after Wu Zetian gave birth to a daughter, the empress dowager came to visit the little princess, which was out of royal etiquette.
However, just after the empress left, Wu Zetian personally strangled his daughter and used it to marry the empress, and from then on Li Zhi had the idea of deposing the empress.
This incident is recorded in the New Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian, but the Old Book of Tang and the Tang Huijiao do not record the relevant cause of death, only that the baby girl died violently.
In 683, Li Zhizhi was seriously killed, and Li Xian, as the crown prince, succeeded to the throne, but the major affairs of the military state were not decided by him, and at this time, the Tang Dynasty was already the domain of Empress Wu Zetian.
Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian, was the fourth emperor of the Tang Dynasty and was also the son of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, and although he was the flesh and blood of Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian was slow to return to him.
In 684, Li Xian wanted to make his father-in-law Wei Xuanzhen a servant, which was strongly opposed by Pei Yan, and since the ruler at that time was still Wu Zetian, Li Xian became inexplicably angry and shouted:
"I am the Heavenly Son of the Tang Dynasty, don't say that I have given Wei Xuanzhen a small attendant, that is, I will give him all the world, who can say anything?"?
Of course, this was just Li Xian's angry words, but it really frightened Pei Yan, and he did not dare to hide anything, so he immediately told Wu Zetian the truth about Li Xian's words.
Wu Zetian was furious after hearing this, and this was also a matter of public opposition to himself, which was not obviously not to put himself in his eyes, even if he had the love of flesh and blood, the palace would also be righteous and destroy his relatives.
Subsequently, Wu Zetian directly deposed Li Xian, and made his fourth son Li Dan emperor for Tang Ruizong.
In 684, in order to oppose Wu Zetian's reign, the British duke Xu Jingye rebelled in Yangzhou, at which time Pei Yan took the opportunity to persuade Wu Zetian to return the government to the emperor.
Pei Yan's reason was that now that the emperor had reached adulthood, it was time to personally march, but the empress dowager never returned the government to the emperor, which gave the anti-thief an excuse to rebel, and if the government was returned to the emperor at this time, the anti-thief would collapse.
However, at this time, some people impeached Pei Yan, saying that Pei Yan, as a minister who cared for his life, did not think of a plan to suppress rebellion and anti-thieves, and even openly forced the palace to let the empress dowager return to power, and there must be a desire for rebellion.
At the same time, Wu Zetian also agreed with this statement, and claimed to have evidence of Pei Yan's rebellion.
"Chao Ye Yu Zai , Volume V": Yangzhou BingQi, Yan Congnaiying, Shu and Jingye and other conspiracies. Only the "green goose", who has a teller, the imperial court can not understand, then the heavens know: "This 'green' character is December, and the 'goose' word is self-contained." "Sui Jieyan, dedication and so on to find defeat."
It is said that after Pei Yan heard that Xu Jingye had raised an army against Wu Zetian, he wrote to Xu Jingye willing to act as Xu Jingye's internal response, but he was afraid of being discovered, so he wrote the word "Green Goose".
It just so happened that Wu Zetianzhen intercepted this secret letter and took it out as evidence of Pei Yan's rebellion, and when the courtiers saw the word "green goose", they were all confused, so Wu Zetian asked them to take the words apart and look at it.
"The word 'Qing' can be split into 'December', and the word 'goose' can be split into 'I am self-contained', and Pei Yan is indicating that he will respond to the city in December."
Chao Ye Yu Zai is a collection of novels written in tang dynasty notes. This book records that the news of the government and the wilderness can only be viewed as a history of the wilderness, and in the main history, Pei Yan took advantage of Xu Jingye's rebellion to persuade (which can be understood as persecuting) Wu Zetian to return to power, and was killed by Wu Zetian on the charge of treason.
However, in 710 AD, Emperor Ruizong of Tang rehabilitated Pei Yan and gave him the title of Zhong!
This article is referenced from the "ChaoYe You Zai", "New Book of Tang", "Green Goose" comes from the wild history legend, not to be trusted, the picture comes from the Internet!