From 221 BC, when Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms and unified the world as "emperor", to 1912, when the Qing Dynasty declared its demise and the last feudal emperor Puyi announced his abdication, in these 2132 years, there were more than a thousand emperors in Chinese history. However, there has only been one female emperor, and I am afraid that many people already have the answer in their hearts, she is Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian was born in 624 and was the second daughter of the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty. According to the General History of China, according to the official rank of the samurai, it should belong to the newly promoted high-ranking warrior clan. Therefore, according to this calculation, Wu Zetian can be said to be no longer from the Bureaucratic Family of the Shu Clan, but from the Bureaucratic Family of the Shu Clan, which can be described as a prominent family.
Wu Zetian entered the palace in the eleventh year of Zhenguan (637), when Emperor Taizong of Tang came to Luoyang. I heard that there was a 14-year-old woman named Wu Zetian in the local area, who looked very beautiful. Even to the extent of being famous far and wide, Li Shimin was also very satisfied after seeing it, so he summoned Wu Zetian into the palace, sealed the Five Pin Talents, and gave him the title of "Wu Mei".
However, Wu Zetian, who entered the palace, did not get the favor of Li Shimin, and the status of a talented person who had been a talented person for twelve years did not improve in the slightest. In 649, Li Shimin fell seriously ill and died. Along with other concubines, Wu Zetian was forcibly cut into a nun and was finally rescued by the newly succeeded Emperor Gaozong Lizhi.
As early as the time of Li Shi's reign, the two already had inexplicable feelings, and after re-entering the palace, Wu Zetian gave birth to a son Li Hong for Li Zhi, who was worshipped as Erpin Zhaoyi and later given the title of Yipin Chenfei. In 683, Emperor Gaozong of Tang died. Wu Zetian was 67 years old when he came to power as empress dowager, but such an old man with a flower armor even personally established the Wuzhou Dynasty.
Although Wu Zetian ascended the throne, the feudal idea of "male superiority over female inferiority" in ancient China was still deeply rooted in the impression of everyone at that time, and few Manchu Wenwu were willing to see a female emperor succeed to the throne. The former Tang remnants thought about how to overthrow Wu Zetian almost all the time.
Among them even included pei yan, the chancellor of the dynasty, who could be said to be the most trusted minister of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. Before Li Zhi's death in 683, he ordered the crown prince Li Xian to oversee the state, and Pei Yan was one of the most important confidants who assisted the crown prince Li Xian. After Li Zhi's death, Wu Zetian, as empress dowager, subsequently deposed Li Xian as the King of Luling.
In 690, at the age of 67, Wu Zetian established the Zhou Dynasty as emperor and became the first female emperor in the orthodox system. During her reign, because she received a secret letter, she later ordered the beheading of Pei Yan, who was already the prime minister at the time. Many ministers wondered why they wanted to kill the prime minister. In this secret letter, there are only two words, "green goose".
But Wu Zetian said: You will know it when you take the words apart and look at them! It turned out that these two words were really hidden mysteries. The word "green" is "December" separately, and "goose" means "I am self-contained". The so-called green goose, when taken apart, does not mean "December, I am self-contained"?
This letter is intercepted by Pei Yan, meaning that in December, Pei Yan will rebel. Of course, Wu Zetian could not tolerate him, and this was the biggest evidence in response to Xu Jingye's uprising! As the only female emperor in Chinese history, Wu Zetian's cunning and means were questioned by Mu Yong, and Pei Yan thought that his little cleverness could be concealed from Wu Zetian. Isn't that a joke?