After the fall of the Yin Shang, the script gradually became popular, and the golden script was the official script, and the form was more consistent. However, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were regional differences in folk scripts such as weapons, pottery, shushu, and jianshu. The difference in language has seriously hindered cultural and economic exchanges in various places, and has also affected the implementation of the central government's policies and decrees. After Qin Shi Huang unified the whole country, he ordered the unification and simplification of the script, which played an important role in the development of Chinese culture.
In 690, Wu Zetian ascended the throne and changed the name of the country to Zhou. The status of women in ancient times was not high, and her practice caused many people to be dissatisfied. After she ascended to the throne, she appointed a cool official, and most people who were dissatisfied with herself would die tragically at the hands of the cool official. Extreme means are used to suppress opponents and consolidate rule and power. But the whole world, the population is large, and the opponents cannot be killed. Moreover, the long-term use of extreme means to suppress things will inevitably reverse, which is bound to cause turmoil and instability in the situation.
The best way to conquer a man is to conquer his mind, and then he can identify with himself, be loyal to himself, and use it for himself. The idea of conquest must start from culture, and the origin of culture is writing, so Wu Zetian decided to imitate Qin Shi Huang and create writing. Chinese culture is vast and profound, and the number of words is also very large, and it is not possible to replace the old with new characters overnight. Therefore, Wu Zetian selected commonly used or political characters among many Chinese characters, and then innovated them.
There was a man named Zong Qinke, and his mother was Wu Zetian's cousin. At that time, he was serving as a Fengge waiter, that is, a Zhongshu waiter. After he learned Wu Zetian's intentions, he consulted with her about the matter. At the behest of Wu Zetian, he produced 12 new characters, which are expressed in the current characters: heaven, earth, sun, moon, star, king, subject, zai, beginning, year, positive, and illuminated. Later, after expert examination, it was found that there were five words: human, holy, granted, certified, and national. These 17 characters are the so-called "Zetian Script", which was used by the Wuzhou Dynasty from 690 to 705 AD. Wu Zetian stipulated that when students took the imperial examination, they must use these words, otherwise they would not be admitted, in an attempt to enforce it throughout the country.
Legend has it that Zong Qinke had an exchange with the ancient goddess and secretly became a courtier of the goddess. There is a "void" in the name of the goddess, and in order to express loyalty to the goddess, an additional word was created, "曌". "When the sun and moon are empty, they illuminate the world", which is actually greater than the sun and the moon, and at the same time pleases the goddess and Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian wanted to consolidate his imperial power by creating new writings to control the minds of the people, but after all, he did not resemble Qin Shi Huang. Before Wu Zetian succeeded in unifying the script, he was forced to abdicate and died shortly thereafter. After Li Xian ascended the throne, he abolished the unreasonable policy of changing glyphs. So far, 16 of Wu Zetian's 17 characters can only be seen in the inscriptions at that time, and only the word "曌" has survived to this day.