Wu Zetian was the only female emperor in China (Chen Shuozhen was generally not recognized), which was a groundbreaking event in ancient times when men were superior to women. Therefore, the denigration of Wu Zetian has never stopped, so a generation of empresses often suffered many unjust injustices for no reason. However, we must emphasize that Wu Zetian is just not as black as the "apologists" depict, but it must not be said that she is white. As a politician, Wu Zetian did commit many heinous crimes, the most important of which was "killing his own daughter."
According to the New Book of Tang and the Biography of Empress Zetianwu:
"Zhaoyi gave birth to a daughter, and then he took care of it, went, Zhaoyi sneaked under the table, served the emperor to the emperor, Yang for the joy of speech, expressed his vision, and died." And left and right, all knew: 'Later, it is appropriate to come.' Zhaoyi was weeping, and the emperor could not detect it, and said angrily: "After killing my daughter, I used to slander the concubine, and now I am evil?" 'From zhaoyi to his confession, there is no way to understand himself, and the more the emperor believes in love, the more he has the intention of abolishing the aftermath."'
The simple translation is that Wu Zetian, who was still Zhaoyi at the time, gave birth to a daughter, and Empress Yuan of Tang Gaozong came to visit and tease the little princess. However, after the empress left, Wu Zetian secretly strangled his daughter to death and covered her with a quilt. When Emperor Gaozong of Tang came to visit his daughter, he found that her daughter was dead. Wu Zetian took the opportunity to cry that it was Empress Wang who killed her daughter. After hearing this, Tang Gaozong did not distinguish between true and false, and was furious: "The empress dared to kill my daughter!" For this injustice, Empress Wang could not refute it, and Emperor Gaozong of Tang had the intention of deposing Wang Liwu from then on.
For this historical material, the Old Book of Tang and the Tang Huijiao, which were compiled and revised in the five dynasties, are not recorded, but are included in the New Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian compiled by the Song Dynasty. Therefore, some scholars believe that this historical material is completely a slander of Wu Zetian. The five dynasties are closer to the Tang Dynasty, and there is no record of Wu Zetian killing women; the Song Dynasty is farther away from the Tang Dynasty, so how can this bizarre historical material appear?
Some people believe that compared with the five dynasties of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty is more conservative and even more intolerant of the dictatorship of the muji Sichen and the woman. Therefore, Ouyang Xiu and Sima Guang would fabricate such a history.
However, in the author's opinion, the New Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian are recognized as good histories, while the Old Book of Tang was compiled in only 5 years, which is far from being compared with the rigor of Sima Guang and others. At the same time, the Old Book of Tang is mostly based on the "Records of Tang Shilu", that is, the history books that record the behavior of the emperors.
Transcript of the Wu Zetian Dynasty. It should probably be cultivated by Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong at the latest when they were in Xuanzong. Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong were the sons of the Wu clan, and Emperor Xuanzong was her grandson, and they were naturally secretive about their mother or grandmother's murder of the daughter and the throne. The Old Book of Tang copied the record of deliberate protection in the actual records.
The New Book of Tang and the Old Book of Tang are different, Ouyang Xiu and Sima Guang still have a large number of Tang Dynasty history books to refer to, such as Truthful Records, National History, Edict System Rescue Records, and Historical Records and Redemptions of Historical Records. Compared with the editors of the Old Book of Tang, they will not copy the history books, but will make careful and precise choices of materials. Therefore, the credibility of the New Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian should be higher than that of the Old Book of Tang.
Returning to wu zetian's murder of women, both the old and new Tang books have recorded an abnormal phenomenon of Wu Zetian. Ten years after the death of the eldest daughter, Wu Zetian posthumously gave her a strange nickname, "Si". According to the law, "repentance of previous deeds" is "thought". That is to say, all those who have put on the name of "thinking" have made mistakes. However, Wu Zetian's eldest daughter died within a few days of her birth, so what mistake did she make that deserves remorse?
Obviously, it is not the daughter who should regret it, but Wu Zetian himself. On the one hand, Wu Zetian was deeply condemned by the conscience of killing her own daughter; on the other hand, she also used the nickname "Si" to express her pain of missing her daughter.
In addition to posthumously sealing his daughter's title, Wu Zetian also posthumously honored her as a princess of Anding and was buried as a prince, and also arranged for advocacy. Generally speaking, "women's burial, no advocacy", that is, women do not enjoy the standard of the funeral that is advocated. In the Tang Dynasty, only princesses of Pingyang who had made great military achievements were given the funeral rites of "advocacy". And Princess Anding has no military merit, not even an adult, what qualifications do she have to enjoy such a funeral? Apparently, Wu Zetian wanted to soothe his daughter's spirit in heaven in the form of a thick burial, in exchange for her forgiveness.
In addition, Wu Zetian was also unusually kind to his only living daughter, Princess Taiping. On the contrary, she was not so good to her sons. From a psychological point of view, this may be a kind of empathic effect of Wu Zetian. Because of the guilt for the eldest daughter, the second daughter was doubly compensated.
In short, in the author's opinion, the "Wu Zetian killing woman" incident recorded by the Song people is true and credible. Although Wu Zetian was the victor of the power struggle, he was an out-and-out pathetic person in terms of family affection