After Wu Zetian became empress, his desire for power became deeper and deeper, and he often acted beyond Li Zhi, which made Li Zhi very unhappy, at this time, after Shangguan Yi advised Li Zhi to abolish, Li Zhi also agreed very much, but he did not think that this matter was known to Wu Zetian, so he went to Li Zhi to complain to himself, making him "ashamed and unbearable, and treat it as before."
Since ancient times, women's social status has been low, and they have been oppressed by the ancient feudal system, and male superiority over female inferiority has become a conventional social contract. From childhood to adulthood, women are exposed to the three principles and five constants and the principle of ethics every day, and no matter how prosperous the outside world is, it has nothing to do with them, and the deep courtyard of the palace wall is their destination. Women do not have the opportunity to enter the academy to study, let alone the word "meritorious name", which does not belong to them.
The professional knowledge they learn is how to be a good female red, how to take care of her husband, but in history, there is a female emperor, she is the famous Wu Zetian, but also a female empress who loves male pets, Wu Zetian is 76 years old, and what two beautiful male pets spend days and nights, 8 years later to find that she is really smart.
Wu Zetian was the only female emperor in history, and also a female emperor who loved men, and during her reign she was also a harem beauty of three thousand, but at this time the beauties were all men. Wu Zetian, who ascended to the throne, was not useless in the eyes of everyone except for the concentration of nobility and power. As a woman, Wu Zetian's ascension to the throne was far more difficult than that faced by a man on the throne.
In the beginning, Wu Zetian had been thinking about passing on his throne to his son or to his nephew. In the eyes of an ordinary person, this question makes no difference as to who is the emperor. But there is a lot of relationship here, which is the closest thing between the son and the nephew?
If Wu Zetian had made his son crown prince, after a hundred years Wu Zetian would have been able to receive such a great honor as the Taimiao Temple, but if he had made his nephew the crown prince, there was no such thing as sacrificing his aunt in the family temple. After thinking about it for a long time, Wu Zetian finally made his son Li Xian the crown prince of the dynasty.
On the issue of sons and nephews, Wu Zetian is not unaware of which one is far away, and she has also thought about returning the throne to the Li clan. But I don't know when to return it, and in what way it is most appropriate to return it, because behind it is a family's conflict of interests. In the face of interests, there is no family affection to talk about, if the Li clan is hastily revived, Wu Zetian's sons Li Xian, Li Rui, princesses and others will definitely attack the Wu family in a short period of time.
The moment Wu Zetian decided to establish Li Xian, it meant that she had to have more countermeasures to deal with the division of Li Wu's two families. In order to eradicate the troubles, Wu Zetian came up with a special method, that is, to let the Li clan and the Wu clan marry, so that they could kiss each other and ensure the stability of the court. Princess Taiping married Wu Youji and Princess Anle married Wu Yanxiu, so the princesses of the Li family were contracted by the Wu clan.
In addition, Wu Zetian also asked Li Rui, Li Xianwu you and An to swear to heaven above the Ming Hall, swearing that the Wu clan of the Li clan would live in peace from now on and not to do anything harmful to each other. Wu Zetian was a wise woman, and she also knew that this empty and powerless oath was only the law of the moment, and could not be believed for a long time.
Marriage can be ended, vows can be violated, Li Wu and the two families united, to give a warning to the civil and military officials above the court, proving that Wu Zetian has the support of the two people of the dynasty behind him, and can suppress the courtiers. But if there is no better way, the Li and Wu clans will be separated sooner or later, and no matter which one is destroyed, the most difficult one in the middle will be Wu Zetian.
Under the balance, Wu Zetian had another plan, that is, to adopt a male pet himself. Under the recommendation of Princess Taiping, Zhang Zongchang smoothly became the first male favorite of Wu Zetian, and under the recommendation of Zhang Zongchang, his brother Zhang Yizhi entered Wu Zetian's harem. The two Zhang brothers, who are both beautiful and talented, are appreciated by the 76-year-old Wu Zetian and accompany her through a comfortable old age.
Everyone knows that the 76-year-old Wu Zetian is not really for the sake of men and women, she just likes this youthful vitality. Whenever there was a banquet, Wu Zetian would look for the Zhang brothers as a companion, and as the time of companionship increased, the Zhang brothers slowly gained Wu Zetian's trust. Wu Zetian not only rewarded them with a large amount of gold, but also granted them two powers, specifically responsible for the work of revising books, and finally achieved the status of a prince.
With the support of Wu Zetian, the power in the hands of the two brothers slowly exceeded the power of the Li clan, thus balancing the power of the two families. For the supreme power of the Zhang brothers, there will inevitably be psychologically unbalanced forces in the imperial court, but they are all eradicated by Wu Zetian. In the eighth year of the Zhang brothers' entry into the palace, Zhang Kamzhi and others launched a revolution and killed the two brothers, and Wu Zetian also ended his ruling career, and Li Xian ascended the throne and became emperor.
After Li Xian ascended the throne, he did not retaliate against the Wu clan, but entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. Although Wu Zetian was gone, the union of the two major families she proposed had not been dissipated. As the only female emperor in history, Wu Zetian's ability to govern is obvious to everyone. A woman who controls two major families and can keep the two families at peace after stepping down, there is a reason why she can become emperor.
Resources:
Old Book of Tang, Volume VI, Benji Vi