Through various historical materials, we can see that the ancients always got married very early, basically at the age of fifteen or sixteen. In ancient times, women were older in their twenties, and it was even rarer to be thirty years old. However, there was a person who married at the age of 44 in the Tang Dynasty, this person was very powerful, it did not matter if he married late, the children born later had a great success, and the daughter later became the emperor of the ages.
Her name was Yang Peony and she was born in 579 AD. In this year, the Sui Dynasty had not yet perished, and Yang Peony's father, Yang Da, was an official of the Sui Dynasty. Her family is not simple, even if it is a branch of the Hongnong Yang clan, she is also a member of the Sui Dynasty clan. Her noble birth made her well raised from an early age, and during the Sui Dynasty, society believed in Buddhism, and Yang Peony also believed in Buddhism. It may be that she is more picky, and at the beginning she wanted to find a better husband, but it didn't take long for the war to be chaotic.
In the midst of the war, the Sui Dynasty's clan also wandered around, and she had the opportunity to consider marriage when the world was at peace. However, Yang Peony was still unwilling to find someone to marry in this way, she had little direct relationship with the direct royal family, and she was not treated badly by the Tang Dynasty. At this time, Yang Peony was 44 years old, and her age seemed to be relatively old even in modern times, and eventually she married a samurai who had been an official of the Sui Dynasty. Samurai Had actually had a marriage contract before, married to the Sari clan, and gave birth to two sons.
After Yang Peony married, he lived the life of a godson and soon gave birth to three daughters to samurai. The second daughter was born in the seventh year of Wude (624), when the samurai would probably not have imagined that this daughter would dominate the fate of the future Tang Dynasty. She was Wu Zetian, and for this daughter, Wu Shiyan did not care too much, but only educated her according to the ordinary lady of the family. In May of the ninth year of Zhenguan (635), after Li Yuan's death, The Samurai Was also very sad, and it was not long before he died of over-healing.
Wu Zetian was only twelve years old when Heiko died, and because her mother did not have a son, Wu Weiliang and other cousins fell into the well. Yang Peony had to take his daughter back to Chang'an City, and in November of the eleventh year of Zhenguan (637), Tang Taizong heard that the fourteen-year-old Wu Zetian was very good-looking, so he let her enter the palace to become a wupincai. After knowing that her daughter was elected to the palace, Yang Peony was very sad, she only had three daughters together, and now this one may never be seen again.
Wu Zetian was given the title Wu Mei as soon as he first entered the palace, and before entering the palace, Wu Zetian said goodbye to his mother and said: How do you know that it is not a blessing to follow the Son of Heaven of Shengming? Why cry and cry to be a gesture of a daughter's home? After entering the palace, Wu Zetian did not get favored and became a talented person for twelve years. But she met Li Zhi, who was still the prince, and the two of them developed feelings. In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), after Li Shimin's death, Wu Mei was sent to Ganye Temple as a nun, and at that time Yang Peony felt that his daughter's life might be like this.
What Yang Peony did not expect was that in just one year' time, Li Zhi was reunited with Wu Mei. Empress Wang, who had been out of favor for many years, did a stupid thing at this time, and in order to attack Concubine Xiao Shufei, she advocated taking Wu Mei into the palace. Later, things were out of control, and as soon as Wu Zetian entered the palace, he gave birth to a son Li Hong, xiao Shufei was nothing at all, so Empress Wang and Xiao Shufei fell together and were given death. In April of the fourth year of Xianqing (659), the eldest son Wuji and his gang were demoted from the capital division, and no one could stop her.
After Wu Mei became empress, Yang Peony was given the title of Lady daiguo. In the third year of The Tang Dynasty (670), Yang Peony died, but she was buried with the etiquette of a princess. Others are mothers and sons, Yang Peony is a mother and daughter, although 44 years old to marry, but she gave birth to a daughter to meet the number of sons of others. In September of the first year of the first year of the reign (690), Wu Zetian changed Tang to Zhou and declared himself emperor.
Although Wu Zetian's throne was robbed of her son, she did a lot of things for the country, and it was also because of her actions that laid the foundation for the future Kaiyuan prosperous world. During his reign, Wu Zetian vigorously developed the imperial examination, reused talents, and straightened out the administration of officials. At the same time, Wu Zetian was also the only orthodox female emperor in Chinese history. Even Yang Peony was also crowned Empress Xiaoming, and there were women like this, inferior to men?
References: Old Book of Tang, New Book of Tang