In ancient times, ancient Chinese tribal leaders often took the title of "emperor" or "emperor", and during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, they were called "king", until the yin government unified the six kingdoms, in order to show their merits and strengthen the centralization of power, they called themselves "the first emperor", and the title of "emperor" was born from this, which was the title of the supreme ruler of feudal society for more than two thousand years.
China's feudal society is a patrilineal society, and the emperors are mostly men, but there have also been female emperors in Chinese history, and the most famous female emperor is Wu Zetian.
However, most people do not know that the first female emperor in China to call herself a female emperor is someone else, she is in the same era as Wu Zetian, as early as Wu Zetian ascended the throne as emperor, she has been unveiled, since she became the emperor, she is Chen Shuozhen.
1. False immortals, real uprisings
Chen Shuozhen was born in Muzhou, her parents died early since childhood, she took her sister to live a difficult life alone, and when she grew up, she went to work in a rich family in the township, and her life was better. Muzhou is now Zhejiang Province, with abundant water sources and abundant products, so the taxes levied by the imperial court here are heavier than in other places.
One year, there was a flood here, all the grain crops were destroyed, the tax collection period had arrived, and the people had run out of food, had no time to take care of themselves, and could not take out grain to pay taxes.
Chen Shuo saw the situation and privately opened the owner's granary and distributed the grain to the people, so she was arrested, beaten and tortured, and later escaped with the help of the people she rescued, in order to avoid being pursued, she was forced to hide more in the shipwreck mountain.
Chen Shuozhen's period on Shipwreck Hill was an important period of her ideological transformation. She realized that just secretly opening a warehouse to release grain was only a drop in the bucket, not a long-term solution, and only by overthrowing the corrupt feudal rule could the status quo be changed and the people live in peace and contentment. So she decided to use Ideas such as Taoism to develop the congregation and accumulate strength for the uprising.
So she disguised herself as a Daogu, spread the news, saying that she had been accepted as a disciple by Taishang Laojun, founded the Fire Phoenix Society, claimed that she was a heavenly goddess, came to the human world to benefit Cangsheng, and after a while, she said that she had received the oracle and was about to become an immortal.
At this time, someone went to the official palace to inform, saying that Chen Shuo was really using the name of Cheng Xian and intended to rebel. Chen Shuozhen was arrested for this crime, and after the villagers she had helped knew, they raised money everywhere and rescued her.
2. The First Female Emperor of China
On the way to Chen Shuozhen's uprising and becoming emperor, there was a person who played a very important role, that is, Zhang Shuyin, Zhang Shuyin was her distant relative, for Chen Shuozhen's uprising, he was very supportive and did a lot of preparatory work, he actively publicized that Chen Shuo was really a god and a god, boundless magic, and could drive the gods and ghosts.
Saying that she had come to save the people living in hardship this time, the guidance of this kind of public opinion, coupled with Chen Shuozhen's image of being helpful in the past, made the people in the vicinity trust and respect Chen Shuozhen very much, and willingly drove her.
After the preparations were completed, Chen Shuozhen openly confronted the government, and she established a political power according to the tang dynasty's institutional system, calling herself "Emperor Wenjia", sealing Zhang Shuyin as a servant, and officially starting an uprising. Chen Shuozhen's uprising won the support of the faithful and the local people, and the rebel army grew rapidly, attacking the city and absorbing the people along the way.
In a short period of time, it grew from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and such a rapid and large-scale uprising caused turmoil in the government and the opposition, and the Tang government began a strict blockade, investigation and suppression.
The Tang government sent people to seal off the area of the uprising, and pedestrians were subject to inspection. In order to cope with the blockade of the imperial court, Chen Shuozhen changed the direction of attack to Anhui, but at that time, the garrison in the city was strictly guarded, and the rebel army could not find a breakthrough.
In desperation, Chen Shuozhen changed her combat strategy again, she divided the rebel army into several routes, attacked separately, and focused on attacking Wuzhou, which is now Jinhua, Zhejiang, when The defender of Wuzhou was Cui Yixuan.
Cui Yixuan was born in the Qinghe Cui clan, after being a famous man, he was quite strategic and courageous, and when the rebel soldiers approached the city, he did not panic, but gathered the soldiers in the city and prepared to defend the city.
At that time, the rebel army was huge, and the generals in the city persuaded Cui Yixuan to avoid the battle first, and just when Cui Yixuan hesitated, a member of the army stood up and said that since ancient times, there have been countless peasant uprisings, but there are only a few successful ones, and Chen Shuo is really just a female stream, there is nothing to fear. When Cui Yixuan heard this, he made this general a vanguard officer and went out of the city to meet the rebel army.
Although the rebel army has tens of thousands of people, but the establishment time is very short, and most of them are composed of ordinary people, lack of formal training and organization, most of these people are peasant masses who have cultivated for generations, before participating in the uprising, even the sword has not been taken, the combat effectiveness and combat experience are very limited, although the momentum is huge, but compared with the regular army of the imperial court well trained and properly commanded, there is still a big gap.
3. The stars will fall and die in humiliation
The war in Wuzhou was tight, and Chen Shuozhen mobilized most of his troops to face off against the Tang army led by Cui Yixuan, and both sides were waiting for an opportunity.
Until one night, a meteorite crossed from the sky and happened to fall into Chen Shuozhen's camp, Cui Yixuan immediately released a wind voice, saying that this represented Chen Shuo's real fall of the star, Chen Shuozhen originally started by relying on the remarks of "heaven and god under mortals", and her rebel army also relied on public opinion to create momentum to have today's scale.
As soon as Cui Yixuan said this, the rebel army was immediately confused, and the morale of the imperial court army was greatly boosted, and the battle was brave, and Chen Shuozhen's rebel army was greatly defeated.
The Tang army surrendered nearly 10,000 people, and the rest of the rebel army was also killed and wounded by the Tang army, Chen Shuozhen and Zhang Shuyin were captured, and the vigorous Chen Shuozhen uprising was suppressed. After Chen Shuozhen was captured, the Tang army severely tortured her, but Chen Shuozhen's will was very firm, she did not give in, and was tortured by Tang soldiers for three days and three nights after a tragic death, ending in a tragic end.
summary:
Chen Shuozhen was born in the late Wei Dynasty, from childhood poor, she borrowed the "heavenly gods under the mortal" legend of the uprising, quickly gathered tens of thousands of people, although due to the lack of formal organization and training, was eventually suppressed by the Tang Dynasty court, the uprising failed.
Although this uprising lasted a short time and was not large in scale, it did not shake the rule of the Tang Dynasty at that time, but Chen Shuozhen, as a woman, had extraordinary thoughts and visions, and her feat of calling herself "Emperor Wenjia" also made her known as "the first female emperor of China" by later historians.
Although the uprising she led did not have much impact at that time, her spirit had a certain impact on the society of the time and even on future generations. Although she is a woman, she has more courage and courage than many men, she dares to resist the decadent rule and oppression at that time, and wants to lead the people to find a way out, this spirit is really admirable, and her words and deeds also truly confirm the sentence "The scarf does not let the eyebrows be raised, and the red eyes are better than the erlang."