Shangguan Wan'er was a woman with a very literary talent in the history of the Tang Dynasty, and at a very young age, she showed talent in this area. After Wu Zetian found out, he promoted her to be his secretary, and for Shangguan Wan'er, many people may feel that she is like Wu Zetian's dry daughter, and let her help her approve and handle government affairs.
Then, why did shangguan wan'er be punished later?
Many people do not know what kind of punishment "ink punishment" is, ink punishment, also known as tarnishing, face, is a kind of punishment that appeared very early in ancient China, that is, tattooing words or patterns on the face or forehead of prisoners, and then dyeing ink to make it a symbol of prisoners, which can never be washed off.
Compared with Ling Chi, beheading, waist beheading, and car cracking, this punishment is much lighter, but such tattoos will make the prisoner lose his dignity and belong to a "shameful punishment".
In ancient times, people attached great importance to their dignity, and although this punishment was not physically harmful, it was still a huge blow to their spirits.
There are many theories about the reason why Shangguan Wan'er was subjected to ink torture, and there are three of the most popular ones.
The first: During a time when Wu Zetian and the prime ministers were discussing state affairs, Shangguan Wan'er, as the "secretary" of Wu Zetian's side, appeared in front of the prime ministers, which made Wu Zetian feel that Shangguan Wan'er had a feeling of overstepping himself, and in front of many high-ranking officials in the dprk, Wu Zetian lost a lot of face, and naturally wanted to punish Shangguan Wan'er.
Therefore, Wu Zetian ordered the tattoo on Shangguan Wan'er's head to show a warning to Shangguan Wan'er, so that she would always remember her identity and not do anything beyond Wu Zetian's identity again.
The second kind: Wu Zetian had a male favorite named Xue Huaiyi before, and later Xue Huaiyi fell out of favor here in Wu Zetian, which made Xue Huaiyi very angry and wanted to meet Wu Zetian.
When the people told Shangguan Wan'er the news that Xue Huaiyi wanted to see Wu Zetian, she felt that Xue Huaiyi had fallen out of favor, and even if Xue Huaiyi went to see Wu Zetian, it would not play any role, so Shangguan Wan'er did not inform Wu Zetian of this matter, but suppressed the matter privately. In anger, Xue Huaiyi burned the Ming Hall to the ground, which caused a lot of chaos.
The news reached Wu Zetian, who blamed all the blame on Shangguan Wan'er, so he ordered that Shangguan Wan'er be punished.
The third kind: Wu Zetian's favorite male favorite in his later years was none other than Zhang Zongchang and Zhang Yizhi's brothers, but just when Wu Zetian spoiled the Zhang brothers to the extreme, it suddenly came out that there was an ambiguous relationship between Shangguan Wan'er and Zhang Zongchang.
At this time, Wu Zetian put all the responsibility on Shangguan Wan'er, believing that Shangguan Wan'er had seduced Zhang Zongchang, and Wu Zetian did not dispose of Zhang Zongchang, but imposed ink punishment on Shangguan Wan'er.
In the above three statements, no matter which one of them, we can see that it is true that Wu Zetian admired Shangguan Wan'er's talent and entrusted her with heavy responsibilities, but Wu Zetian always regarded Shangguan Wan'er as a slave, and once Shangguan Wan'er annoyed Wu Zetian in what she was, she could not escape punishment in the end. After Shangguan Wan'er was tortured with ink, she came up with a method, so she painted plum blossoms on her forehead and covered up the engraved words, which was the later plum blossom makeup.