To say that Wu Zetian, no one knows, no one knows, she is the only female emperor in Chinese history, she has a strong feminism, her personality is even more fierce, or how can she steal the position of the emperor from the Li family clan that defeated the Sui Dynasty, and for her cruelty, people know that in order to stabilize her position and seize the back seat, she personally strangled her daughter to marry Empress Wang, and after she ascended the throne, she liquidated the Li family one by one, even her own son, when Li Zhi was still the emperor, She had killed his 3 sons, but Li Zhi stood by and watched, was it because he loved her too much? Even she could condone the murder of her own son?
Li Zhi stills
Wu Zetian has had an unusual style with other women since childhood, and is intelligent and studious, and her appearance is beautiful and li Shimin is selected to enter the palace to become a talented person, and after following Li Shimin for 12 years, her position has not been promoted, she is always only a 5-pin talent, and has not given birth to a man and a half woman, it can be seen that Li Shiming does not love her, it can be said that there is no favor, and after Li Shiming's death, Li Zhi has a special love for her, with the help of Empress Wang, she was taken back by Li Zhi and crowned as Zhaoyi in the Ganye Temple, who was a nun in the Ganye Temple, It also became a major turning point in her life, and slowly made her life gradually reach its peak.
Stills of Wu Zetian and Li Zhi
However, she was not limited to her current position, she had always been ambitious, she was interested in the position of empress, so she tried her best to seize the throne, and Li Zhi herself was the only one who favored her at that time, and naturally wanted to make her the queen, but the most important reason was that she could take this opportunity to seize power from the ministers and get rid of the aristocratic group in the court to demonstrate strictness. Because of the emperor's favor for her, and she herself was also very capable, she gradually let her intervene in the affairs of the dynasty, so that Wu Zetian slowly accumulated experience in handling the government, and after having great power, his ambitions were even greater, and he began to look at the supreme throne.
According to the imperial custom, the throne is to be inherited to the emperor's descendants, the crown prince at that time was Li Zhi's eldest son Li Zhong, so he naturally became a thorn in the eye of Wu Zetian, and at that time, The Rebbe Shangshu Xu Jingzong was Wu Zetian's loyal lackey, he saw that the empress meant to seduce her, so he wrote to the emperor that although Li Zhong was the eldest son, he should abolish his position as crown prince, change Wu Zetian's son Li Hong to crown prince, Li Zhi agreed after hearing it, so he abolished his position as prince and changed it to King Liang. The eunuch Wang Fusheng, who had served Li Zhong, had offended Wu Zetian, so Wu Zetian asked Xu Jingzong to write to the emperor that Wang Fusheng and Li Zhong had the intention of rebelling against the imperial court, so Li Zhi ordered his son to be killed, but in fact, the culprit behind Li Zhong's death was undoubtedly Wu Zetian.
After Li Hong became the crown prince, because he was particularly filial from childhood, so Li Zhi was very fond of him, and he was the eldest son of the favorite concubine Wu Zetian, naturally cultivating him as an heir, and gradually giving him more and more power, Wu Zetian saw this situation, he would definitely threaten himself, thinking that he would definitely become a stumbling block for himself, although he was still his own son, but her ultimate goal was that the throne was not the empress, just when she was worried, Li Hong suddenly died of illness, although he was weak and sick from childhood, his body was weak, Although the cause of his death is still unknown, according to the New Book of Tang, his death is not closely related to Wu Zetian, and it is rumored that Wu Zetian killed him.
Li Hong stills
As soon as he died, the position of prince was vacant, so he made Li Xian the crown prince, he was a talented person, but the relationship with Wu Zetian was very tense, Ming Chongyu was deeply trusted by the emperor and Empress Wu at that time, but he told the emperor that Li Xian was not capable of inheriting the throne, but Li Dan was very tianzi, Li Xian was very much like Emperor Taizong, Li Xian was very angry, and then Ming Chongyu was killed by robbers, Wu Zetian suspected that it was Li Xian's hand, thinking that he was retaliating, and found several armors in his palace as evidence of murder. Li Zhi immediately abolished his position as crown prince, and then Li Xian, in desperation, committed suicide.
Wu Zetian stills
Wu Zetian persecuted Li Zhi's three sons for her future power, but why did Li Zhi remain indifferent? Xiao Bian believes that first, Li Zhi has great trust in her, and he is weak and sickly, many times when he goes to the court, he is dizzy and cannot handle the government, but Wu Zetian is assisting on the side, and handling it very well, so he is more assured to hand it over to her, and the death of the three sons is 1 is a disease death, two are rebellion, one of them is still his own personal death.
The emperors of all dynasties could not tolerate rebellion, and all those who violated his power had to die, no matter who they were, so for the death of his 3 sons, especially after Wu Zetian came up with evidence of their rebellion, Li Zhi also chose to be silent and indifferent and silently allowed.
Reference: Old Book of Tang