In 690 AD, in a song of praise and praise, a generation of empress Wu Zetian officially ascended the throne and began the 15-year-long empress years.
As the only female emperor in Chinese history, Wu Zetian has been controversial during her reign. On the one hand, she has made many reforms and promoted the development of Chinese history, and has made great historical contributions. But on the other hand, during his reign, Wu Zetian appointed cool officials in a big way, and at the same time did a lot of things that were controversial in later generations.
So, what did Wu Zetian do during the fourteen years of his reign? From a historical point of view, how should Wu Zetian's merits and demerits be judged?
After Wu Zetian ascended the throne, the first thing he did was to completely move the capital to Luoyang.
This event is of particular significance in history, because from the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, several important regimes in the north have used Chang'an as their capital. At the same time, it also formed a famous Military Aristocratic Group of Guanlong in history. The emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties always wanted to get rid of the shackles of the Guanlong clique, until Wu Zetian moved the capital to Luoyang, which completely solved this problem.
Since then, the influence of the Guanlong clique over the country has been further weakened. This is of great historical significance.
At the same time, Wu Zetian also changed the name of the country to Zhou, and wantonly divided the kings of the martial family. Since then, the strength of the Li family's clan has weakened to the extreme, and the martial family has stepped onto the stage of history as a new political force.
In addition, as early as when Wu Zetian came to power as empress dowager, Wu Zetian began to set off a nationwide campaign to report secrets. No matter what kind of identity, even the lowest-level people can come to Luoyang to report, and even Wu Zetian may personally receive them.
This approach seems to be very fair, and at the beginning, it did play a role in broadening the channel. But soon, this movement gradually changed its flavor under the distortion of some people with hearts. Many notorious cool officials began to take advantage of this opportunity to ascend to the throne. The notorious era of cool officials in history began.
In this era of cool officials, Wu Zetian, as the supreme ruler, actually knew the evil deeds of those cool officials. However, out of all considerations, Wu Zetian tacitly acquiesced to the evil of these cool officials, and even secretly supported them.
One of the most important reasons why Wu Zetian did this was to maintain his rule. At that time, although Wu Zetian was in power, there were still many people who opposed him. The existence of these cool officials can not only help Wu Zetian and clean up these opponents, but also in the future, they can also be brought out to help Wu Zetian carry the pot, which can be said to be the best of both worlds.
More than a year later, in 692 AD, Wu Zetian once again made an important reform, that is, the implementation of the probationary official system.
The so-called probationary system, in simple terms, means that after an official enters the military, he needs to go through a probationary period to examine his personal ability. This system may not be anything in modern times. But at that time, it was definitely a very great innovation. And since then, this system has been preserved, and has been continued by many later dynasties.
In addition to carrying out reforms in internal affairs, after Wu Zetian took the throne, he did not forget about foreign wars.
The foreign wars of the Wu Zetian period, although not as they did during the Zhenguan period, opened up the territory and expanded the territory. But its importance is not low at all. Because after the Tang Dynasty was developed by two generations of Tang Taizong and Tang Gaozong, by the middle of Tang Gaozong's reign, the territory had reached the extreme.
With the extreme size of the Tang Dynasty's territory, it was not long before various problems followed. In the late Li Zhi era, the Tubo regime on the plateau rose completely and began to compete with the Tang Dynasty for control of the Western Regions. The Turks in the north resurrected and once again established the post-Turkic khaganate. After Li Zhi's death, the Tang Dynasty's top brass fell into several years of chaos, resulting in limited attention to the frontier.
Therefore, many people in later generations said that it was Wu Zetian who was a loser, which led to the shrinkage of the Territory of the Tang Dynasty, and this view is obviously wrong. Before Wu Zetian began to take power, the Tang Dynasty was already too large to maintain it for a long time. After Wu Zetian ascended the throne, he used troops many times to ensure the peak territory of the Tang Dynasty as much as possible.
In 692, the year that Wu Zetian officially implemented the probationary official system, Wu Zetian sent the general Wang Xiaojie to the northwest. Prior to this, Tubo had already captured the four towns of Anxi, causing the Tang Dynasty's control over the western regions to decline significantly. After this battle, Wang Xiaojie regained the four towns of Anxi and won a great victory. After that, Wu Zetianli defied the public opinion, and under the unanimous opposition of the group of ministers, he once again added 30,000 troops to the Western Regions.
This choice of Wu Zetian is correct from a historical point of view. Because it was precisely because she chose to increase her troops and reset the Anxi Capital Protectorate, the Tang Dynasty could once again achieve long-term control of the western region. After that, until the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, although Tubo invaded many times, he never again failed to take away the Western Regions.
However, Wu Zetian's strong counterattack ushered in a strong rebound. A year later, in 693, the Western Turks also revived and began to unite with Tubo to attack the Tang Dynasty, intending to regain control of the Western Regions. At the same time, when the Western Turks moved, the Later Turks on the northern steppe also began to act at the same time, uniting with the steppe peoples such as Murong Wei to rebel together and besiege the Tang Dynasty together.
Suddenly, most of the border of the Tang Dynasty was ignited at the same time, which had the meaning of 'attacking the Tang Dynasty with the whole world' described in the novel.
However, in the face of such a critical situation, Wu Zetian did not flinch in any way, but instead actively responded, sending Wang Xiaojie to deal with the combined forces of Tubo and Western Turks, Li Duozuo to deal with the Murwei rebellion, and at the same time sending a large team of generals to deal with the Later Turks. As a result, after the Turks heard about the Tang Dynasty's counterattack, they did not fight at all, and directly retreated.
Thus, after several months of fighting, the Tang Dynasty repelled attacks from multiple directions and almost all of them won a complete victory. The victory of this war also laid the foundation for the integrity of the entire Wuzhou era and the national territory.
Thereafter, in 695, Wu Zetian again sent Wang Xiaojie to attack the Later Turks. Later, Wang Xiaojie also lived up to the expectations of the people, and after the battle, the Turks had to submit again.
After defeating the Later Turks, the Tang Dynasty's frontier security came to an end for the time being. All the frontier wars were suppressed by Wu Zetian with an iron fist. Therefore, in this year, Wu Zetian chose to go to Mount Song to seal Zen and commend his merits.
Not long after this sealing activity, there was another rebellion on the tang border. This time, however, the target of the rebellion was a new enemy named Khitans. This was also the first time that the Khitan as a regime appeared in Chinese history. After the Khitan rebellion, Wu Zetian again sent the general Wang Xiaojie to quell it. However, in this war, Wang Xiaojie was unfortunately killed in battle. Later, Wu Zetian could only send Li Kaigu and others to take over. After another year of fighting, the Khitan was finally leveled.
By this time, Wu Zetian had actually put the country back on track and swept away the previous decadence. Therefore, in 697 AD, that is, seven years after Wu Zetian officially ascended the throne, Wu Zetian began to gradually become conservative and no longer active.
This year, in Wu Zetian's ruling career, is undoubtedly a landmark year.
During this year, Lai Junchen, who was the head of the Cool Officials, falsely accused the kings of the Wu clan and the two sons of Wu Zetian of rebellion. Lai Junchen's false accusation is usually considered to be his counterattack. As the head of the cool officials, Lai Junchen knows that he will not be able to die well in the future. The best way is to get rid of Wu Zetian's heirs, so that he can ensure his position for a long time.
However, this move of Lai Junchen directly offended the public anger. Therefore, next, the two kings of the Wu clan and the Li family clan rarely joined hands and went to Wu Zetian to report to Junchen. At this time, Wu Zetian did not want to continue to forge ahead, and the knife of the cool official was meaningless to Wu Zetian. Therefore, Wu Zetian pushed the boat along the water, pushed all the faults on Junchen, and finally executed Junchen Lingchi.
At the same time, the matter of Lai Junchen also reminded Wu Zetian that perhaps it was time to seriously consider the issue of heirs.
At that time, Wu Zetian had two choices, one was to pass the throne to the Wu family, and the other was to pass the throne to the Li family. Among these two choices, Wu Zetian had been entangled for a long time. But in the end, at the critical moment, the chancellor Di Renjie opened his mouth and successfully persuaded Wu Zetian to pass the throne to the Li family. Therefore, in 698, Wu Zetian recalled Li Xian, who had been exiled by her for 14 years, and re-established Li Xian as crown prince.
In addition, in this year, Wu Zetian successfully used the anti-plot to cause civil unrest in the powerful Tubo. In the end, Tubo Zampu killed the most powerful general, resulting in many problems within Tubo. The originally powerful Tubo began to be held back by internal problems, and in the following decades, it never threatened the Tang Dynasty, and at most it could only harass the Tang Dynasty's borders.
After doing these things, Wu Zetian felt that his life might have been complete. Everything that should be done has been done. Under the rule of this legendary empress, the country prospered, the borders were gradually secured, and the people lived in abundance. Although there are still many hidden dangers at the top, as long as Wu Zetian is still alive, these hidden dangers are not a problem.
Therefore, after this, Wu Zetian began to gradually indulge in pleasure, overhauling the palace Buddhist temple and favoring the male pet.
In the last few years of Wu Zetian's reign, he did almost nothing. On the contrary, for the interests and hobbies of Her Majesty the Empress, the country has built a large number of civil engineering projects, which has consumed a lot of national strength. This is also where Wu Zetian is most criticized by later generations, and in the last years of her reign, it is indeed more consumption than contribution.
In the early period of the government, there were many contributions, but the cool officials ran rampant; in the later period of the administration, there were no cool officials, but they built a lot of civil engineering and favored the male favorite. Moreover, for the later Tang Dynasty, several big mines were buried. As a result, the Tang Dynasty suffered a series of coups d'état over the next decade. Therefore, it is really difficult to comment on the merits and demerits of Wu Zetian.
In the last few years of his reign, Wu Zetian not only favored the male favorite Zhang family brothers, but even gave them a lot of real power to give them a foothold in the court. In 705, Wu Zetian was seriously ill and was bedridden in the Yingxian Palace, and the Zhang family brothers took the opportunity to blockade the Yingxian Palace and forbade outsiders to see it. It was intended to hold Wu Zetian hostage and seize the supreme power.
At the critical moment, a group of ministers led by the prime minister Zhang Kamzhi suddenly launched a coup d'état, led the Yulin army into the palace, and killed the Zhang family brothers. After the death of the Zhang brothers, Zhang Kamzhi and others took the opportunity to force Wu Zetian to abdicate and return the government to Li Xian. Under pressure, Wu Zetian had to abdicate in the end. This coup is the famous 'Shenlong Coup' in history.
After the Shenlong coup, Wu Zetian moved to Shangyang Palace and completely lived a life of old age. Ten months later, Wu Zetian died of illness in the Shangyang Palace, and a generation of empresses completed their lives.
Before Wu Zetian died, he left a testament, stripped himself of his title of emperor, and instead buried himself with Li Zhi in Qianling as an empress. In addition, Wu Zetian pardoned the relatives of Empress Wang, Concubine Xiao Shu, Chu Suiliang, Liu Yi, and others. These people were all opponents that Wu Zetian eradicated in order to seize power at the beginning of his reign.
In addition, according to Wu Zetian's will, after Wu Zetian's death, a wordless monument was erected outside the Qianling Tomb. Thousands of achievements, since posterity commented.
Wu Zetian's reign lasted fifteen years. In the past fifteen years, Wu Zetian has done many, many things to promote the development of history, such as adhering to the implementation of the imperial examination system, developing agriculture, rectifying the rule of officials, and winning many foreign wars in the military field, maintaining the huge territory of the Tang Dynasty.
But at the same time, Wu Zetian abused cool officials, favored male pets, and built a large number of civil engineering in the later period of his reign, which was more serious in the consumption of national strength, which was also a fact.
It is precisely because wu Zetian's contributions and faults are relatively numerous, so for thousands of years, the debate about Wu Zetian has not stopped.
But these things, for Wu Zetian himself, are no longer important.
Perhaps, before Wu Zetian died, when she left a will to remove her imperial title, she had already given up everything.