Wu Zetian can be called the most existential emperor in Chinese history, her strong political skills, and her personal life is even more exciting, providing countless topics for Ye Shi.
Once upon a time, Wu Zetian, as a mother, also had a motherly love explosion.
When Li Xian was born, it was difficult to give birth, and Wu Zetian asked the Buddha for his blessing, asked him to worship the high monk Xuanzang as his teacher, and also built a Buddha statue for him at longmen, hoping that the Buddha would bless him; Li Dan was appointed to the north to be the governor of the capital, he hugged his mother's leg and said, "You can't go to Amu", and the result was left behind; not to mention the Princess Taiping.
However, there is no kinship in the face of power. Wu Zetian mobilized his forces to depose Li Xian, and then sent him far away to the desolate State of Fangzhou. Li Dan, not to mention, did not know how to come to power, nested and sacked down, as the imperial heir was placed under house arrest in the Eastern Palace, and was repeatedly framed by Wu Sansi's gang, which can be called nine deaths.
Fortunately, when Wu Zetian needed to establish an heir in his later years, Li Xian, as the orthodox of the Li Tang royal family, received strong support from a group of ministers. On the outside, there is a generous statement by Di Renjie, and inside there are zhang Changzong's brothers Zhang Yizhi blowing pillow wind to the empress.
After repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, Wu Zetian finally made a decision to take Li Xian, the king of Luling, back to Luoyang and make him crown prince.
However, in his later years, Wu Zetian was too fond of Zhang Changzong's brother Zhang Yizhi, which caused tension in the relationship between mother and son and monarch. Especially after the fourth year of Chang'an (704 AD), Wu Zetian was seriously ill, and there were only two servants around him, and the ministers could not easily see Wu Zetian's face.
With the support of the empress, the Zhang brothers gradually broke through the boundaries of male pets and extended their hands to the government, and Li Xian's position as crown prince was in jeopardy.
Under such circumstances, Zhang Kamzhi decisively decided to launch a palace coup and kill the Zhang brothers, which is the famous "Shenlong coup".
After the coup, Li Xian officially ascended the throne. The day after he ascended the throne, he moved Wu Zetian to the Xiangyang Palace. Once upon a time, Wu Zetian was dealing with political affairs in the Guanfeng Hall, the main hall of the Shangyang Palace, but now that he was revisiting the same place, he was already a tiger in Pingyang, and things were not human.
As the saying goes, power is the best beauty agent. According to some historical records, Wu Zetian re-grew thick eyebrows at the age of sixty-nine, and at the age of seventy-two, he grew new teeth.
However, after the Shenlong coup, Wu Zetian suffered a huge blow, his spirit collapsed at once, and the whole person visibly aged. Li Xian was shocked after seeing it, and a certain sense of guilt also arose in his heart.
But Wu Zetian's career as Emperor Taishang was not desolate, and her majesty was still there. Every ten days, Li Xian would lead a hundred officials of Wenwu to Visit Wu Zetian at Shangyang Palace, a treatment that was of the first class among the Emperor Taishang of the Tang Dynasty.
Thinking back to that year, Li Yuan, who was forced to abdicate, became empress dowager and was immediately sent to Da'an Palace to be put under house arrest, and Li Shimin rarely visited him, and finally Li Yuan died alone. After the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Xuanzong, who was forced to abdicate, did not enjoy such treatment.
Li Xian showed great respect for Wu Zetian and gave him a high evaluation. He specially issued a holy decree, emphasizing that Wu Zetian had entrusted jiangshan sheji for his son for more than ten years at a time when the country was facing danger, and the Wuzhou Dynasty was actually in the same line as the Li Tang Dynasty.
Li Xian also boasted that Wu Zetian was both a loving mother and a Ming Jun, and that he had arranged Wu Zetian's posthumous affairs quite properly. Wu Zetian left a will to be buried with Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Li Zhi after his death, which aroused strong opposition from the ministers, because when Li Zhi was buried, the mausoleum had been closed, and it would take a lot of manpower and material resources to reopen it.
Li Xian, however, resolutely defended his mother's will. He personally escorted the coffin back to Chang'an, opened the Qianling Tomb, and made the Qianling the only mausoleum in China where two emperors were buried.
Even after Wu Zetian's death, the Wu family continued to receive preferential treatment, and Li Xian and his nephew Wu Sansi quickly became good friends. Li Xian also visited Wu Sansi's home many times to discuss major state affairs with him.
From this point of view, Li Xian seems to have a deep affection for his mother, but this is not the case.
Not long after Li Xian ascended the throne, he issued an edict changing the name of the country to Tang, and the Zongmiao Temple, Sheji, Mausoleum, Hundred Officials, Banners, and Costumes all restored the system of the year of Tang Gaozong's death.
This is equivalent to erasing all the traces of existence of the Great Zhou Dynasty created by Wu Zetian, and abolishing all the new characters created by Wu Zetian, leaving the word "Cao" behind, after all, he cannot change his mother's name.
Luoyang's status as capital was also abandoned by Li Xian, who redefined Chang'an as the capital and adjusted the status of Buddhism and Taoism. In the past, Wu Zetian relied on Buddhism to start his family, but now the descendants of Taishang Laojun have become emperors again, and they have become The Tao on the Buddha. These edicts were equivalent to completely announcing the demise of the Wuzhou Dynasty.
This series of reforms was carried out when Wu Zetian was alive, and seeing the achievements of her life's struggle being destroyed, she must have vomited a liter of blood in her heart.
In fact, it is not easy to be a public figure, it is even more difficult to be an emperor, one of the necessary qualities of a politician is to be able to act, and most of Li Xian's respect for Wu Zetian is for the people of the world.
To say that the little mother-son love between him and Wu Zetian had long since disappeared. When Li Xian was the king of Luling, Wu Zetian was still not at ease, and sent emissaries to "visit" him wave after wave. Every time he heard the news of the messenger's arrival, Li Xian had to find a rope to hang himself, he was afraid that the messenger would bring bad news, but fortunately he was stopped by his wife Wei Shi every time.
It was not easy to return to be the crown prince, because the eldest son and daughter Yongtai County lord said a few bad things about the two brothers, Wu Zetian scolded Li Xian fiercely, and Li Xian, who was worried about his unsafe status, forced his son to commit suicide. Now that he was emperor, this account had to be counted on Wu Zetian's head, and even if he hated Wu Zetian and hated it so much that his teeth itched, he could not show disrespect for his mother.
Traditional Chinese filial piety
Influenced by Confucian culture, Chinese generally believe that there are no parents in the world, as long as the children are slightly disrespectful to their parents, everyone can take the big hat of "morality" to give you a "big dunk", not to mention that the emperor is still a model for the whole world, even if this mother repeatedly wants to put herself to death, Li Xian must also show a generous look.
The nature of the Dragon Coup
The purpose of the Shenlong coup is actually to end the interference of the erzhang brothers in politics, and the overthrow of Wu Zetian's rule can only be regarded as an unexpected coup by-product.
Therefore, when Wu Zetian abdicated because of the coup d'état and moved to Shangyang Palace, yao Chong, the later famous prime minister, cried uncontrollably.
His attitude also represented the position of a large number of courtiers at that time, who did not dislike Wu Zetian. On the contrary, because Wu Zetian knew people well and gave them the space and opportunity to display their talents, they had a considerable liking for Wu Zetian.
The complex situation after the coup d'état
The Shenlong Coup was a coup d'état launched by various forces. The leading figures were not Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, But some ministers with status and power. In addition, Li Xian's younger brother Li Dan the Prince of Xiang and his sister Princess Taiping also contributed a lot, and these people had great power after the coup.
For Li Xian, who is alone, the power of these people is a great threat. If we overemphasize the correctness of the Shenlong coup, it is equivalent to highlighting the merits of the five ministers, which will make them more powerful and difficult to control. In this case, Li Xian can only emphasize that he has accepted his mother's Zen concessions and made his power more legitimate.
It is precisely because Li Xian is the crown prince of Wu Zetianli that with this status he can become the object of support for the coup, and after the coup d'état, he can naturally become the emperor. If he denied the legitimacy of Wu Zetian, it would be equivalent to denying the legitimacy of his status as a prince, and although Li Xian did not have much wisdom, he had been in a high position for a long time, and he still had this political consciousness.
He also co-opted the people of the Wu clan in order to let Wu Sansi and others charge for him, to fight against the meritorious forces led by Zhang Kamzhi and the Li clan forces led by Li Dan and Princess Taiping.
Therefore, Li Xian not only will not liquidate his own mother, but also have great respect for her.