Wu Zetian, the only female emperor of China. Due to the old view that men were superior to women, scholars of all generations had harshly criticized her, so the unjust case about her ranked first in the imperial group, even surpassing Qin Shi Huang. In Wu Zetian's life, she has one after another unjustly murdered her own flesh and bones, for example, Wu Zetian suffocated Princess Anding after giving birth to princess in her first child, in order to marry Empress Wang. After that, Wu Zetian personally forced his second son Li Xian to die, while the other two sons Li Xian and Li Dan were also repeatedly persecuted.
According to the Old Book of Tang, Wu Zetian forced the death of his grandson Li Chongrun, granddaughter Princess Yongtai, and granddaughter-in-law Wu Yanji in 701 AD because the three of them slandered Wu Zetian's two male favorites, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, behind their backs. According to historical records:
"Then TianchunQiu was the brother of Gao Zheng, Emperor Zhongzong was crown prince, crown prince Shao Wang Chongrun and his female brother Yongtai Commandery secretly said erzhang dictatorship. Yi Zhi sued Zetian, and Prince Fu asked him to dispose of the prince and hanged himself. ”
Translated, in his later years, Wu Zetian took the Zhang brothers as his eyes and ears to control the government. Li Chongrun, the son of Crown Prince Li Xian, and Yongtai County,000 (who was not yet a princess at the time), talked about the dictatorship of the Zhang brothers behind their backs. After Zhang Yizhi heard about it, he slandered the two in front of Wu Zetian. Subsequently, Wu Zetian ordered the crown prince Li Xian to personally interrogate his sons and daughters and kill them with a ruthless heart. According to other records, along with princess Yongtai's husband, Wu Yanji, was killed.
Judging from this record, the actions of Li Chongrun and Princess Yongtai did not lead to death at all, and the incidents of these three young people were mainly: First, they did not do anything illegal at all, which was purely slandered by Zhang Yizhi and others. Second, they whispered that Erzhang had to enter the palace and monopolize power, and was tipped off. Third, they themselves are disgruntled with each other and vented. Wu Zetian killed his grandson and granddaughter for such a small crime, which is unbelievable.
More importantly, the power of the Zhang brothers is not as important as we think. For example, in 704, five of Zhang Yi's brothers were imprisoned together for embezzlement, and in December of the same year, Zhang Changzong led the warlock Zhan Xiang to prison. Once, Zhang Yizhi's household slaves were running amok in the streets and were beaten to death with a staff at the behest of Wei Yuanzhong, the chancellor.
Therefore, we can say that there are simply more people who dare to offend the Zhang brothers. If the Zhang brothers were so sacred and inviolable, I don't know how many heads would have landed on the ground. However, Wu Zetian did not treat these people as well, and for the Zhang brothers, the courtiers still wanted to scold. Therefore, it is unbelievable that Wu Zetian killed Li Chongrun, Princess Yongtai and Wu Yanji for such a trivial matter.
Due to the lack of historical data, the deaths of Li Chongrun and Wu Yanji are no longer possible, and scholars now believe that their deaths should have nothing to do with the denigration of Erzhang. It was that they had a bad relationship and broke a secret oath. In Wu Zetian's later years, she feared that after her death, wu relatives would repeat the mistakes of the Lü clan of the Han Dynasty and be slaughtered by the regained Li clan. In order to prevent the contradictions between the Li and Wu clans from intensifying, she first let the Li and Wu clans intermarry, and the combination of Princess Yongtai and Wu Yanji was such a product.
Subsequently, in April of the second year of the Holy Calendar (699), Li Xian, the crown prince of Wu Zetian, Li Dan the Prince of Xiang, Princess Taiping, and Wu You and Wu Sansi all knelt in front of the statue of the gods in the Ming Hall and swore to "reconcile with eternal words" and hid the iron coupon of the oath inscription in the History Museum. Now this oath is no longer examinable, but it is certain that the so-called oath is mainly a binding clause on the behavior of the parties, otherwise it will be worthless. Needless to say, the Mingtang Oath of the Li and Wu ethnic groups only has a severe punishment of "killing without forgiveness" for those who dare to test the fa by example, and there is absolutely no preaching from mothers-in-law and mothers. As a result, Li Chongrun and Wu Yanji, who had a bad relationship, both broke their oaths and were eventually killed by crown princes Li Xian and Wu Zetian.
If the deaths of Li Chongrun and Wu Yanji are indirectly related to Wu Zetian, the death of Princess Yongtai has nothing to do with her. In 1960, the tomb of Princess Yongtai was opened, and her remains were removed by experts. In 1961, the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Administration commission identified the skeleton excavated from the tomb of Princess Yongtai at Xi'an Medical College (now Xi'an Jiaotong University). The doctors spliced 17 bones of Princess Yongtai and then measured and identified them according to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Anatomy of the Hospital. It was found that all parts of princess Yongtai's pelvis were smaller than those of women of the same age.
After reaching this conclusion, the experts came up with a surprising conjecture that Princess Yongtai had either died in childbirth. Experts note that Princess Yongtai's epitaph mentions:
The pearl fetus destroys the moon, the ten miles of resentment are fragranceless; the calyx withers the spring, the secret medicine of the two children.
The Shu Yi Zhi says that the ancients used beads as treasures in some places and also called boys and girls jewels precious. Although the princess's fetus is a noble fetus, she lost her mother because of the fetus. Apparently, the epitaph author is suggesting that Princess Yongtai died in childbirth. First, Princess Yongtai was too young, developed late, and her body had not yet developed to the point where she could have children smoothly. Due to the narrow pelvis, it was difficult for her to give birth, and at the same time, her brother Li Chongrun and her husband Wu Yanji also died, causing the princess to feel extremely depressed. Physical defects coupled with psychological collapse, which eventually led to the end of the princess dying in childbirth, whimpering, whining.
Therefore, the author believes that the death of Princess Yongtai is not counted as Wu Zetian's head. In order to slander the empress, later generations of literati inflicted the death of the princess on her and caused Wu Zetian to suffer grievances, which was extremely unfair. Therefore, Wu Zetian could no longer be discredited.