The only female emperor of China can be said to be known to everyone. After the death of Wu Zetian, who had been majestic all his life, his condition was very bleak. Wu Zetian's tomb is in Qianling, which contains nothing valuable, unlike the tombs of other emperors, which is extremely luxurious, leaving only a wordless stele in front of his own tomb. There are many speculations about why she ordered the tablet not to be inscribed before her death, and there are many theories about this question, some people say that they feel that their merits are too much to write, and some people say that they are not meritorious for posterity.
The identity used by Wu Zetian when he gave his will was that of an empress, so why did Wu Zetian do this? Why didn't he issue an edict as emperor? It seems that even if the thinking at that time was more open and could accept a female emperor, Wu Zetian himself still could not escape the constraints of feudal thought.
Later people praised Wu Zetian not only because of her actions that made the Tang Dynasty prosperous, but also on the issue of heirs, it can also be seen that Wu Zetian was a Ming emperor. At that time, there were two roads in front of her, one was to return the throne to the Li family, which was expected by everyone, and later it would be the Li family's Jiangshan, and the second choice was to hand over the throne to her own matriarchal martial family, and from then on, the Tang Dynasty's Jiangshan would change its name and surname. In the end, Wu Zetian chose the former and maintained the peace and stability of the Tang Dynasty.
Now let's look at what Wu Zetian did, and Wu Zetian's practice of choosing the emperor's successor was not only too wise, but also well-intentioned. Although Wu Zetian's surname is Wu, when the members of the Wu clan speak to heaven, they are at most Wu Zetian's nephews and nephews. Although Wu Zetian is not surnamed Li, many members of the Li clan are Wu Zetian's own sons and grandsons. In this regard, it was almost inevitable that the position of Emperor Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty would be handed over to the Li family. Imagine if the throne had been forcibly passed to the martial family in those years, then the world would have been in chaos, and all forces would have rebelled. And the few pustules of the martial family must not be able to resist, and in the end, not only the entire martial family, but even Wu Zetian will be left behind for thousands of years, it seems that Wu Zetian is still very prescient, worthy of a generation of Ming Jun.