Talents are far-sighted, and the industry is great. --Cui Rong
As we all know, since the establishment of dynasties in the ancient history of our country, it has always been dominated by men, which has led to the fact that the emperors of various dynasties are men. However, there is a very special figure in history, that is, Wu Zetian, who is the first female emperor in ancient Chinese history and the only female emperor.
In feudal society, it is very difficult to become a female emperor of a dynasty, wu Zetian she is naturally different from the gentle and gentle personality of ordinary traditional women, her personality is more decisive and direct, there is a kind of male fortitude in it.
Wu Zetian also made many contributions to her country during her reign, but she also invented many tortures in order to consolidate her imperial power, including a torture called "Jade Girl Climbing the Ladder", the name of this punishment does not sound terrible, but why is it a very cruel torture?
The life of a generation of empresses Wu Zetian
In the ancient history of our country, imperial power is the symbol of supremacy, there are many people who will stop at nothing to be able to have imperial power, and we also know a lot of events about the struggle for imperial power. In the face of imperial power, family affection is not worth mentioning, and the struggle for imperial power will definitely produce bloody incidents.
In the struggle for imperial power, men are generally the leaders of these events. But when it came to Wu Zetian, something changed. Wu Zetian's family originally became a large family in the Tang Dynasty at that time because his father followed Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, to fight the world.
Wu Zetian also had the opportunity to enter the palace to become the emperor's concubine because of her family, and her identity at that time was only a talented person, but through her own plot and wisdom, she became an empress step by step, which laid the foundation for her to successfully compete for imperial power later.
In fact, during Wu Zetian's time as empress, she also had a time to listen to the government, because she herself was favored by the emperor Li Zhi at that time, and she herself had wisdom, and later Emperor Li Zhi did not have much energy to take care of state affairs because she was seriously ill, so the heavy responsibility of taking care of state affairs was gradually handed over to Wu Zetian's hands, and she also showed her ability in governing the country with her own ability.
Later, after the death of her husband Li Zhi, the power in the hands of Wu Zetian was already uncontestable for others, and she also began to run the dynasty with her own power and her status as empress dowager, and later became the first female emperor in Chinese history through her own strategy and extraordinary courage.
Wu Zetian invented torture and consolidated imperial power
After Wu Zetian became emperor, although others could not pull her down from this position, but in private there were many people who were dissatisfied with her holding the imperial power, so Wu Zetian invented many very harsh punishments in order to consolidate his imperial power, among which there was also a punishment specifically used for female women, called the jade girl climbing the ladder, and ordinary women would be frightened and trembling after seeing it. The name of this punishment, although it does not sound terrible, is actually creepy to implement.
We know that the customs and culture of the Tang Dynasty were relatively open and inclusive, but no matter which dynasty, people still attach great importance to women's chastity. The punishment of "jade girl ascending the ladder" is to strip the woman of all her clothes before it is implemented, which is a great humiliation for the prisoner from this point of view alone.
After that, a rope was put on the prisoner's head, the woman was hung on the ladder, and then many awls were placed under the ladder, and as long as the prisoner struggled the rope, it would become tighter and tighter, and finally the prisoner would either die in the rope or die under the awl.
epilogue
During the reign of Wu Zetian, she invented many punishments. But in addition, in addition, many people in other dynasties in history have invented some more cruel punishments, which were produced in the context of feudal society, and lasted for a long time, with the development of the times and the improvement of women's status, these punishments were gradually abolished.
Wu Zetian invented so many punishments in order to consolidate imperial power, which led some people to be very dissatisfied with her approach, such as the History of Song written by Lu Daozong that Wu Zetian was "a sinner of Tang", and Wu Zetian himself knew that the merits of his life were difficult to judge, so after her death, he left a wordless stele in front of her tomb and left the world to comment.