Empress Wu Zetian can be said to be a person with great influence in Chinese history, and she is also a unique empress. Her life is a legendary life, and her experience can be sad and bumpy. She married two emperors, Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Gaozong of Tang. In the ancient Chinese society of male superiority and inferiority, she pioneered the emergence of women as emperors, and after her, no woman could reach her height.
Although she reigned for only fifteen years, it was brilliant. When she ascended the throne in 690, by 705, Li Xian forced her to abdicate with hundreds of officials, and Wu Zetian ended her fifteen-year reign, and her life gradually came to an end. In the end, Wu Zetian died at the age of eighty-two and was buried in Li Zhi's Qianling tomb under the honorific title of "Empress Zetian Dasheng".
At that time, Li Zhi had already died for many years, and digging up the Qianling Tomb was a violation of the etiquette of the time. But Tang Zhongzong did just that. The reason for this was that Wu Zetian did several things before his death, and successfully subdued Li Xian's heart. Therefore, even a person like Wu Zetian, who changed the name of the country and established a new dynasty, was re-incorporated into the system of the Tang Dynasty, and the records of Wu Zetian in later generations were all praise and demeaning.
What exactly did Wu Zetian do that would allow her to receive enough respect under that circumstances at that time. First of all, in terms of heirs, she did not choose her nephew, but chose her son Li Xian, which actually solved a lot of problems. The son will certainly remember his mother's good in the future, and compared with his nephew, the son will be better able to pay tribute to himself after his death. Although the Great Zhou she had worked so hard to create returned to the hands of the Li family in the end, she could also end up as an empress and smoothly enter the imperial tomb of the Li family.
The heir is his own son, and it is Li Xian. In fact, at that time, she had another son, Li Dan, so why did she choose Li Xian instead of Li Dan? This is to analyze the situation of the imperial court at that time, Li Xian was an emperor, but it was not long before he was sent to Junzhou by Wu Zetian, so li Xian had no faction in the dynasty at that time, and he was not like Li Dan, who had people under him. Moreover, there was no contradiction between the Wu Zetian family and Li Xian at that time, which further strengthened Wu Zetian's choice.
Even if Li Xian later took the throne from Wu Zetian, he did not deal with his mother much, but buried her in the tomb of Emperor Gaozong of Tang after Wu Zetian's death. The reason for this is also because Wu Zetian's cleverness, after she knew that her general trend had gone, she took the initiative to approach Li Xian, after all, Li Xian did not have many supporters in the dynasty at that time, and he also had a younger brother, so it can be said that his throne was very unstable.
At this time, Wu Zetian was very clever, she changed her honorific title to "Zetian Dasheng Empress", passed the throne to Li Xian, and returned the imperial dynasty to the Li family in a righteous manner, which also laid the foundation for her to get fame after her death. Why not call her Emperor but Empress? This reflects another clever place of Wu Zetian. After all, at that time, she was also a usurper to become emperor, and she still seized the throne of the Li family. Now there is no way but to pass the throne to her son, that is, it is equivalent to working for the Li family for more than ten years in vain, and at this time, the name of an empress not only affirms her deeds, but also for the future.
The world is still the world of the Li family, so if she still calls herself emperor, let the future princes and grandchildren see it, is not it to punch the Li family in the face. If she really did this, then her imperial tomb might all be destroyed, so she called herself empress in exchange for a chance to be buried with Li Zhi, setting the tone for her peace after death. The problem of her greatest sacrifice was thus perfectly solved.
Therefore, Wu Zetian is indeed a very intelligent person, she not only made many plans for herself before she died, but also formulated many plans for herself after her death. Let the son ascend to the throne and make himself an empress, so that not only will he no longer worry about the continuation of the incense, but also can harvest the heart of the new emperor Li Xian, change the name of the country to change the title is to conform to the hearts of the ministers of culture and military affairs, after such a series of operations, not only will the emperor not hate her, but the civil and military officials will no longer be able to slander her.
Although Wu Zetian's life was bumpy, the success she achieved could completely cover the ups and downs she experienced. Her foresight, her great wisdom, are all necessary qualities for her to draw a perfect end to her life. She successfully got rid of the identity of the king of the subjugated country, and also smoothly joined the Li Tang Group to leave a way back for herself, and retreated with her whole body. Her legendary life is indeed worthy of our admiration.