In the early days of Emperor Gaozong's reign of Li Zhi, the most favored person in the harem was Concubine Xiao Shufei, and even Empress Wang could not compete with her, but unfortunately, there was a Wu Zetian later, and directly snatched all of Li Zhi's favors.
Figure | Xiao Shufei (film and television stills)
Princess Xiao Shufei was not willing to fall out of favor, so she joined forces with Empress Wang to launch a "battle for favors" against Wu Zetian, but unfortunately she was ultimately defeated at the hands of Wu Zetian, not only did she herself perish, but also her two daughters, Princess Yiyang and Princess Xuancheng, were imprisoned in the Court.
The two daughters lived in Yeting for 16 years, until the second year of Xianheng (671), when the crown prince Li Hong accidentally passed by The Court and found that two women over forty years old were locked up inside.
Curious, Li Hong asked about the identity of the two daughters, and when he learned that the two daughters were his half-sisters and had been imprisoned here for more than 10 years, Li Hong was shocked and very sympathetic to the suffering of the two daughters.
Subsequently, Li Hong, who was kind and generous in nature, decided to help a group of two sisters, so Li Hong found Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong and asked Li Zhi to release the two daughters and choose a husband for the two daughters as soon as possible.
After Li Hong's reminder, Li Zhi finally remembered that he still had two daughters, and now that the prince had personally interceded, plus they were his own daughters after all, Li Zhi agreed to Li Hong's request and said that he would choose a horse for the two daughters as soon as possible.
Figure | Tang Gaozong Li Zhi (film and television stills)
Subsequently, Li Zhi approached Wu Zetian to discuss the matter, originally according to Li Zhi's intention, he wanted to find a horse with outstanding ability and noble birth for the two daughters.
But Li Zhi obviously found the wrong object of consultation, to know that the mother of the two daughters, Xiao Shufei, was Wu Zetian's love enemy, when the two fought to the death in the harem, Xiao Shufei died because of Wu Zetian, and now how could Wu Zetian easily let go of Xiao Shufei's daughter?
Therefore, when Wu Zetian learned that Li Zhi actually wanted to find a good match for the two daughters, he was very angry, so Wu Zetian directly pointed to the guards on duty outside the palace and said, "I think these two people are very suitable for being a donkey."
Therefore, Princess Yiyang and Princess Bao, the two daughters of Li Zhi, Her Royal Highness the Princess of tangtang, married two "illiterate" guards in this way.
This incident is recorded in the New Book of Tang, which reads: "The second princess of Yiyang and Xuancheng took her mother's death and did not marry forty years, and she was proud of her compassion and fell." After the anger of the martial queen, he was worthy of being a defender. ”
Figure | Wu Zetian (film and television stills)
Wu Zetian, as the empress of the dynasty, later became a generation of empresses, and even just because Princess Yiyang and Princess Xuancheng were the daughters of love enemies, they were imprisoned until they were about 40 years old before marrying, and they were also married to two guards, and I have to say that this woman is really cruel!
Of course, in historical records, Wu Zetian was indeed known for her fierce heart, and in order to consolidate her rule, she could even force her own son to die, and now the daughter of the enemy Xu was given to the guards, which was already considered to be a mercy for her subordinates.
However, although this seems to be something that Wu Zetian can do, in the real history, Wu Zetian did not do such a desperate thing, and the facts are also very different from what is recorded in the New Book of Tang.
First of all, the marriage age of Princess Yiyang and Princess Xuancheng did not match the record, according to the New Book of Tang, the two were already more than 40 years old when they were married, but Li Zhi was only 43 years old that year, how could he have two daughters who were about the same age as him?
So how old were the two women at that time? According to the epitaph of Princess Xuancheng, Princess Xuancheng was born in 649 and married in 671, that is, Princess Xuancheng was only 22 years old at the time, nearly half the difference from 40.
Picture | Princess Yiyang (film and television stills)
Although the exact date of birth is not recorded on the epitaph of Princess Yiyang, according to the calculation that Li Zhi's eldest son Li Zhong was born in 643 years, Princess Yiyang was only 28 years old when she married.
In addition, if calculated according to the time when Xiao Shufei was favored, Princess Yiyang should be about 25 years old when she married, so the record in the New Book of Tang is pure nonsense.
Secondly, according to the New Book of Tang, the two princesses were married to the guards, and in the understanding of many people, the ancient guards were some "illiterate" soldiers, so it was felt that Wu Zetian was humiliating the two princesses.
But in fact, the ancient palace guards did not say that they were full of poetry, but there were very few people who were "illiterate", and the palace guards in the Li Zhi period were divided into three guards of "pro, xun, and yi", and the people married by the two princesses were from the "Yi wei".
As the internal guard of the palace, Yiwei often has access to the ministers of the DPRK and china, and even the emperor himself, so the promotion speed is often relatively fast, so Yiwei can be said to be a hot position in the palace, and generally only the sons of Xun Gui are eligible to serve.
Figure | palace guards during the Tang Dynasty - schematic diagram
Moreover, the horses of Princess Yiyang and Princess Xuancheng also had quite good origins, Princess Yiyang's horse was called Quan Yi, and his father Quan Zhijie was once the governor of Guizhou.
Quan Yi's grandfather Quan Hongshou had followed Li Shimin and was the governor of the Qin Dynasty, and was later given the title of Duke of Tianshui Commandery, and Quan Yi's ancestor Quan Jingxuan was a great general during the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
In addition, soon after quan yi married princess Yiyang, he was also named the assassin of Yuan Prefecture, so from the point of view of origin, Quan Yi was fully worthy of Princess Yiyang.
Although Princess Xuancheng's background was not as prominent as Quan Yi's, wang xun's father was once Sima of Shezhou, his grandfather was once the general of the Right Guard Gate, and was given the title of Duke of Pingshu County, and Wang Xun himself was also named yingzhou assassin after marriage.
In addition, Wang Xun and Empress Wang are of the same clan, born from the Taiyuan Wang clan among the five surnames, and their ancestors have produced many famous figures, such as Wang Qi during the Qin Dynasty and Situ Wang Yun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so Wang Xun is also worthy of Princess Xuancheng.
Picture | Princess Xuancheng (film and television stills)
Of course, although Wang Xun and Quan Yi were from good backgrounds, they were only side branches or concubines, and although they were worthy of tang princesses, they were only low-grade.
After all, Princess Yiyang and the princess who claimed that the princess was not Wu Zetian's daughter, but the daughter of her love enemy, and it would be good to have such a donkey.
To sum up, although Wu Zetian really married Xiao Shufei's two daughters to the guards, these two guards were not the big soldiers who were "illiterate", and the so-called "illiterate Ding" was just an excessive perversion of posterity.