In the ancient patriarchal society, the existence of Wu Zetian is a vision in feudal history. For this reason, the writers of the history of the wild history naturally did not "let go" of Wu Zetian, which also made the first empress in history a "hot figure" in the history of barnyard officials, and her legendary story was also talked about.
In other words, the Tang people thought that parrots could dream, feel the gods, and predict the future. Wu Zetian once let cats and parrots eat and drink in a vessel for hundreds of officials to watch. She wanted to show the politicians and scenes under her rule, but she did not expect the hungry cat to "bite the parrot to eat". Also because of the harmonic sound of and Wu, Wu is the national surname, and the phenomenon that the parrot is eaten by the cat is regarded as an ominous omen by Wu Zetian, and therefore Wu Zetian hates cats very much.
Later, one day, Wu Zetian summoned Di Renjie and told him a strange dream, Wu Zetian said that he dreamed of a beautiful parrot, this parrot's feathers are very gorgeous, unfortunately, its two wings were injured. Di Renjie was a wise man, and he immediately applied this strange dream to politics, "interpreting the dream" for the female emperor: "The parrot represents Shengshang (the surname Wu is homophonous with the parrot), and the two injured wings refer to Li Xian and Li Dan, the two princes. If His Majesty wants the parrot's wings to return to their original state, he only needs to reactivate the two princes. ”
The dream of "parrot folding wings" also became the origin of the Tang Dynasty's heir.
Moreover, during this period, Di Renjie skillfully decomposed the word "parrot" into three characters of "bird, martial, bird", integrated the Chinese dream culture with the Chinese character culture, resolved various contradictions and stabilized the situation in the change of dynasties, and made a great contribution to the divine feat.
Di Renjie's words were confusing, what exactly was he trying to express? For this matter, we still need to look at it in light of the political situation at that time.
Wu Zetian relied on conspiracy means to finally become the "Second Emperor", sitting on an equal footing with Emperor Gaozong, and was revered as the "Second Saint". Wu Zetian's eldest son died prematurely, and she made her second son Li Xianzhi crown prince, planning that he would inherit the throne. Li Xian's ability was very strong, and his popularity was also very good, and he was supported by the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu. Over time, the ambitious Wu Zetian felt that the child would become an obstacle on his way to becoming emperor.
In order to eliminate Li Xian, Wu Zetian instigated the chancellor to plant a rebellion against Li Xian and depose him. Although Li Xian was stripped of his position as crown prince, his prestige was still very high, and the power-hungry Wu Zetian eventually killed Li Xian and sent someone to assassinate Li Xian. After Li Xian's death, Emperor Gaozong of Tang made his third son Li Xian crown prince. Compared with Li Xian, Li Xian was even weaker and more incompetent, so Wu Zetian believed that Li Xian did not pose a threat and accepted the fact that Li Xian became crown prince for a short time.
In 683, Emperor Gaozong of Tang died, and the crown prince Li Xian ascended the throne for Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, and Wu Zetian naturally became the empress dowager. After Li Xian sat on the dragon chair, he was not willing to be controlled by his mother, and gradually began to seize power from Wu Zetian. However, Li Xian was too hasty, and he underestimated Wu Zetian's political energy. Because Li Xian appointed his elder brother-in-law Wei Xuanzhen as chancellor, this touched the bottom line of Wu Zetian, who immediately gathered his courtiers, deposed Emperor Zhongzong in the Qianyuan Palace, demoted Li Xian to the position of King of Luling, and put him under house arrest.
Once Li Xian and Li Xian died, Wu Zetian had to inherit his last son, Li Dan, to the throne and manipulate Li Dan to take charge of the imperial government. Like Li Xian, although Li Dan had the name of emperor, he had no right to govern at all, and wu Zetian still needed to be the master of the affairs of the dprk and China. Later, Wu Zetian was no longer satisfied with obeying the government, and she simply abolished Li Dan and became the master of her own affairs and became an emperor addict. In 690, Wu Zetian finally put on a dragon robe surrounded by ministers, changed the name of the country to Great Zhou, and set the capital Luoyang, and began his reign.
After Wu Zetian cleared all the obstacles in front of her, she began to consider the issue of heirs after sitting firmly in the dragon chair.
Now that his sons had all been deposed, Wu Zetian planned to pass the throne to his nephews and let Jiangshan pass on in the hands of the Wu family. In order to select the right crown prince, Wu Zetian promoted his nephews and observed their abilities. During this period, Wu Chengsi stood out and became a favored candidate for Wu Zetian, and was appointed by Wu Zetian as the prime minister.
Although Wu Chengsi was favored by Wu Zetian, the ministers of the DPRK scorned him. All the officials of The Civil and Military Forces saw that Wu Zetian wanted to pass the throne to the Wu family, and they were quite critical of this, and even some ministers pointed out that Wu Zetian's inheritance did not conform to the ancestral system of the Wu family, and raised fierce objections. Seeing that the ministers were indignant, Wu Zetian was very conflicted in his heart.
In this case, Wu Zetian could not make up his mind, and could only summon Di Renjie and make up a dream about the parrot, so as to probe Di Renjie's tone and see what the important minister had on the candidate for the Crown Prince of Great Zhou. Obviously, from the dialogue at the beginning of the article, we can see that Di Renjie is more inclined to be succeeded by Li Xian and Li Dan, rather than passing on Li Tangjiangshan to a foreign surname.
In order to persuade Wu Zetian, Di Renjie moved to understand the reason and explained the stakes to the empress: "If the throne is passed to his nephew, although the Wuzhou regime can be maintained, the future emperor surnamed Wu will never be able to enshrine Wu Zetian in the Taimiao Temple." After all, Wu Zetian was already married from the Wu family, and in feudal society she was already a "foreign surname".
However, if Wu Zetian passed the throne to her son, then she could retain the position of empress dowager and enjoy the incense of her descendants forever. After listening to Di Renjie's words, Wu Zetian finally suddenly realized and recognized the facts. In this way, Wu Zetian took Li Xian, who had been demoted from Luoyang, back to the palace, restored his status as crown prince, and restored the Li Tang regime in his later years to make up for his mistakes.
Resources:
【New Book of Tang", "Old Book of Tang", "Zizhi Tongjian"】