Yang Huan in the hit drama "Wind Rises Luoyang" is beautiful and elegant, unforgettable at first sight. Her prototype in real history is Shangguan Wan'er, who is famous for her talent and appearance. Many people know that Shangguan Wan'er is the "Prime Minister" around Wu Zetian, but few people know that Shangguan Wan'er also has a title - "Talented Person", Li Zhi's "Talented Person". That is what Li Zhi's concubine meant. The strange thing is that the title of this talented person was given to Shangguan Wan'er by Wu Zetian, so is Wu Zetian not afraid of Shangguan Wan'er competing with him for favor and bringing a threat to himself?
(Shangguan Wan'er in "The Wind Rises in Luoyang")
First, the title of talented person is nominal to Shangguan Wan'er
First evil makes up for the meaning of the word "talented" in ancient times.
The so-called "talented person" is an official position or rank of concubines in the ancient harem, which generally belongs to the four or five products of the right, and is divided into two kinds: the emperor and the prince. The State of Wei, which first appeared in the Three Kingdoms period, is most famous in the Tang Dynasty, because the Tang Dynasty had two very powerful talents, one was Wu Zetian, who was the talent of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, and the other was Shangguan Wan'er, who was the talent of Emperor Gaozong of Tang.
Shangguan Wan'er's title of Talent was sealed by Wu Zetian. Why did such a domineering person as Wu Zetian take the initiative to give Shangguan Wan'er, who was both talented and beautiful, to Li Zhi? The first reason is that Li Zhi is sick, and the illness is not light.
(Li Zhi)
Li Zhi's disease is called vertigo, which is a relatively serious cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, with dizziness, headache, inability to see, and body convulsions when onset. Li Zhi's illness is divided into three stages, one stage is more serious than the other. The first stage began in 660 AD, when Li Zhi often had headaches, could not see, and could not independently complete the administrative affairs he should complete, so he asked Wu Zetian to help handle government affairs, which was the beginning of Wu Zetian's rise to power. In the second stage, a year later, Li Zhi's dizziness had reached the point where it was "difficult to manage government affairs", so Wu Zetian gained more power to handle political affairs. Li Zhi also agreed to Wu Zetian's suggestion, and together with Wu Zetian was called the "Second Sage". The third stage began in 675, when Li Zhi was basically unable to handle political affairs, and he consulted with his ministers to let Wu Zetian be regent. Due to the strong opposition of the ministers, Li Zhicai gave up.
In short, Li Zhi's cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are getting more and more serious, and Wu Zetian knows this best. Wu Zetian appointed Shangguan Wan'er to be Li Zhi's "talented person" in 677 AD, which was in the third stage of Li Zhi's most serious illness. It can be imagined that even if Shangguan Wan'er is beautiful, Li Zhi, who is seriously ill, will not be able to visit her. Therefore, Shangguan Wan'er was only a talented person with a pseudonym and did not pose any threat to Wu Zetian. It was precisely because Wu Zetian knew this that he was relieved to name her a "talented person".
(Shangguan Wan'er)
Second, the title of talented person is a two-pronged victory for Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian sealed Shangguan Wan'er as a talented person, but it was a beautiful thing for himself to kill two birds with one stone.
First of all, Shangguan Wan'er was gifted and had a very strong ability to handle political affairs. At that time, Wu Zetian was in power, dealing with a huge amount of government affairs every day, and needed Wan'er's help. However, Shangguan Wan'er's status was humble, she was just a slave, and it was inconvenient to handle government affairs. Therefore, Wu Zetian abolished his slave status and promoted him to "talented person", so that Wan Er could stay by Wu Zetian's side for 24 hours and help Wu Zetian handle government affairs. This greatly reduced Wu Zetian's work burden.
Secondly, Wu Zetian's sealing of Shangguan Wan'er as a talented person is equivalent to tying up Shangguan Wan'er's wings of the golden phoenix, preventing Shangguan Wan'er from becoming her strong competitor. Wu Zetian was actually Shangguan Wan'er's enemy. Because Shangguan Wan'er's grandfather Shangguan Yi was killed by Wu Zetian, Shangguan Wan'er's mother and Wan'er herself were also sent to the court by Wu Zetian and served as an official concubine. Shangguan Wan'er is talented and beautiful, Lan Xinhui is quality, if you give her freedom and let her find a strong man, maybe she can fly like Wu Zetian! If possible, Wan Er might seek revenge on Wu Zetian. Therefore, Wu Zetian must do one thing: not to let Shangguan Wan'er find a strong man, and to block the passage for Shangguan Wan'er to change her fate through marriage.
(Wu Zetian)
What can be done about this? You know, once you become a talented person of the emperor, you will be labeled as an "emperor woman", and in principle, you can no longer start a family. In ancient China, except for the concubines in the palaces of the Han Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, who could marry people in the palace, the palace women of other dynasties had to "end from one". The Tang Dynasty was no exception, and the Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Shu once wrote a poem "Xinggong", which described the bleak situation of the palace women who were "widowed to the point of whiteheads" after the emperor's death:
"The ancient palace is rare, and the palace flowers are lonely and red." The white-headed palace lady was there, sitting idly and saying Xuanzong. ”
It can be seen that Shangguan Wan'er was named because of a talented person with no real name, and her happiness in life was ruined. When Li Zhi was alive, she could not be with him; after Li Zhi's death, which man dared to marry the "emperor's woman"?
Third, the sequelae of "talented people" lead to a tragic ending
However, Shangguan Wan'er is not emotionally miserable. Shi Zai, when she was young, mixed with Zhang Changzong, and had an affair with Wu Zetian's nephew Wu Sansi the Prince of Liang, and Li Xian, emperor zhongzong of Tang, was also her sweetheart, and finally she raised Cui Xiang and his brothers outside the palace. These chaotic love histories are actually the sequelae of her title of "talented person", because she cannot have a normal marriage, but emotional comfort is indispensable. And she is talented, powerful, and relatively easy to get quality men.
Here, Shangguan would like to give special thanks to Emperor Zhongzong of Tang and Li Xian. In the era of Wu Zetian, Shangguan Wan'er had always been a talented person with five qualities, and although she was a red person of Emperor Wu, her official qualities had always been low. After Wu Zetian's death, Li Xian's appointment of Shangguan Wan'er as The Zhaorong of Zheng Sanpin enabled her to be freed from the shackles of "Emperor Gaozong of Tang" and became Li Xian's person. And Li Xian did not restrain her, let her play casually, although there is still no normal marriage, but Shangguan Wan'er to find a lover is not restricted, emotionally satisfied.
However, it was emotional debauchery that became a reason for Shangguan Wan'er's tragic murder.
In 710, Princess Taiping and Li Longji joined forces to launch the Tang Long Rebellion, killing Empress Wei and Princess Anle, who had poisoned Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, and killing Shangguan Wan'er in the middle. Originally, Shangguan Wan'er was not a person of Empress Wei and Princess Anle, and even she was the internal response of Princess Taiping of this mutiny. But Li Longji still killed her. What is the reason?
In Cai Dongfan's "History of Tang", Li Longji said this:
"How can this adulterous and blasphemous palace be forgiven?"
The so-called "adultery" and "blasphemy of the palace" mean that Shangguan Wan'er has always been "the emperor's woman", but her private life is chaotic and the royal etiquette is ruined. Of course, this reason is not the main cause, the main cause is the power struggle between Li Longji and Princess Taiping. But Li Longji insisted on saying this, who did Shangguan Wan'er look for to reason with?