The image of Wu Zetian in the history textbook is relatively single, entering the palace at the age of 14, becoming a nun at the age of 25, returning to the palace at the age of 27, becoming an empress at the age of 31, becoming an empress at the age of 59, becoming an emperor at the age of 66, and dying at the age of 81. In later generations, many people admired this empress, of course, there were not a few who criticized her for si chen.
When studying Wu Zetian, there is a question that is worth noting: Why did Wu Zetian choose the word "Zhou" as the national name? She changed the historical trend of the Tang Dynasty, and it was not unusual to change the name of the country, but the empress had to face great resistance to ascend the throne, and Wu Zetian had to walk carefully at every step. Therefore, the choice of the word "week" is not accidental.
The history books record that Wu Zetian was quite good at literary history, that is to say, Wu Zetian was familiar with some historical allusions and knew how to work words (otherwise he would not be an empress). Behind this "Week" of Wu Zhou is the secret of Wu Zetian's confrontation with Li Tang's orthodoxy. If you want to replace one orthodoxy with another orthodoxy, how to replace it?
Quite simply, this new orthodoxy must be more convincing than the previous one, or be acceptable to all. The orthodoxy that Wu Zetian was looking for was the Zhou Dynasty, and she was not simply studying the Zhou Dynasty. We all know that the Zhou people destroyed the Shang Dynasty, but many people do not know where the concept of Zhou came from.
The Zhou people originally lived in places such as Jishui and Feng, and the ancestors of the Zhou people were of the Yellow Emperor Miao descent. Later, this ethnic group moved to the Zhouyuan south of the Qishan Mountains in the Wei River Valley, where the natural environment was very good, and the Zhou people developed and produced quite smoothly, and then became stronger and had the concept of "Zhou". The Zhou Dynasty was one of the two great prosperity in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Dynasty Chancellor Zhang said that he mentioned in the "Reciprocal Words and Words" that the achievements of the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty were relatively outstanding. It just so happened that Wu Zetian came from a family of upstarts, and although her father, Wu Shiyan, was also a founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, in the early years he was only a wealthy businessman doing business. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the nobility has paid special attention to the origin of mendi.
Even Li Shimin once lost his temper because the chancellor listed the Cui clan in Shandong as a "first-class" scholar clan, which shows how frightening the reputation of the old shi clan with deep roots is. Wu Zetian became empress, in order to find a good origin for the mother clan, he found Ji Wu, the younger son of king Zhou Ping of the Zhou Dynasty, and the "Surname Compilation" records that the pattern of Ji Wu's palm when he was born resembles the word "Wu".
Later, Ji Wu's descendants took "Wu" as their surname. And Wu Zetian gave him the identity of the 40th generation of Ji Wu's descendants, that is to say, the Wu clan is a descendant of the Zhou Dynasty royal family, the status is noble, and its orthodox nature is self-evident. Therefore, Wu Zetian became empress for a few years, and in the Tang Dynasty's "Surname Record", the Wu clan has become the first class of the 9th class surname.
In order to emphasize this point, and in order to show that he was close to the Zhou Dynasty and revived the Zhou rites, Wu Zetian not only posthumously honored his father Wu Shiyan as The Great Emperor of Zhou Zhongxiao (later abolished by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), but also called the Empress Dowager to learn from the Zhou Gong to build the Ming Hall, and even some of the official names of the institutions in the dynasty also adopted the style of the Zhou Dynasty.
In the final analysis, Wu Zetian's purpose was only one, that is, to confirm that his identity as emperor was "justified", and the empress's careful machine was hidden in a small "Zhou" character. Taking "Zhou" as the national name is also indicating that it will create a new prosperous era and inherit the glory of its predecessors. In fact, not only Wu Zetian, many emperors in history have done similar things, but Wu Zetian's daughter status makes it more difficult for her.