Wu Zetian was the first female emperor, and she attached great importance to culture and writing. Because in her conception, words are a good way to control people's minds. So in order to put herself on the throne, clear the political obstacles. Wu Zetian carried out a series of restoration activities, including the creation of characters.
Wu Zetian's characters are mainly divided into two stages. In the first stage, 12 characters were created at one time, and 6 words were added successively. These 18 characters were explicitly abolished by law during the tang wenzong period. But there is one word in it, which has been preserved and passed down to this day. This word is 曌, because this is Wu Zetian's self-name and has a special meaning.
1. The female emperor ascends the throne
China has a very long history, so in the vast history of China, there are all kinds of emperors with distinct personalities. But in Chinese history, there have been very few female emperors. This is because in China's feudal society and traditional culture, women's identity and men's identity are not equal. Therefore, women do not have the opportunity to go to school and take a career path, let alone to be a marquis and become an emperor.
But in China's history, there is a woman who bravely broke the precedent. This woman is Wu Zetian. In fact, before Wu Zetian, it was not that there were no women holding state power. This phenomenon is not in the minority, such as Liu Bang's Lü Hou and so on.
But Wu Zetian was not satisfied with holding real power, she wanted to stand on the political stage with honor and integrity, and let everyone in the world recognize her identity as emperor. After all, this was a pioneering act, so Wu Zetian also attached great importance to this matter. To this end, she made sufficient preparations politically and culturally. Wu Zetian vigorously promoted Buddhism, preached the Mandate of Heaven, and created a gimmick for his ascension to the throne as emperor.
Moreover, she changed the name of the capital from Luoyang to Shendu, and also changed the name of the official position. In addition to this, culturally, she also created some new writing. Through these restoration activities, Wu Zetian won the support of many officials and further controlled the power of the imperial court. It also paved the way for her to ascend the throne herself as emperor.
Second, then the heavenly text
Wu Zetian was a very talented emperor. The mere fact that Wu Zetian implemented the imperial examination system allowed many of the disciples of the cold door to get the opportunity to serve the country as officials in the imperial court in a relatively fair way.
On the one hand, for these cold children, they got the opportunity they dreamed of. On the other hand, for the country, more talented people entered the imperial court to serve the country. It can also allow the country to have better development. On the other hand, the han disciples entered the imperial court, which was also a powerful blow and check on the family door valve.
Therefore, from this point alone, we can see Wu Zetian's means and her admiration and yearning for culture. Wu Zetian has an almost paranoid admiration or superstition about culture and writing. Therefore, during the years of her reign, she frequently changed the name of the year, changed the name of the palace, and changed the name of the official position.
Regarding Wu Zetian's revision and creation of the text, there are also different versions of the historical record. But most of the records are that Wu Zetian originally created 12 new characters. Among the 12 new characters, there are heaven, earth, and Wu Zetian's own name, Cao.
This is the 12 characters created by Wu Zetian in the first large-scale restoration activity. Later, after the end of this restoration, Wu Zetian ascended the throne. Wu Zetian especially believed in the role of word transmission on thought control, which is why she created these 12 new characters.
Moreover, these new words created by Wu Zetian did not come out of thin air. According to some later generations of writing researchers, at least seven of Wu Zetian's 12 new scripts are from ancient or seal scripts.
Wu Zetian attaches great importance to cultural construction, and she believes in the power of culture and words. She felt that words could change people's lives, so she was particularly fond of changing the names of others during her reign. These new characters created by Wu Zetian were given the name Zetian characters.
Third, follow-up development
The Zetian script originally contained 12 characters, but it was later increased to 18. In some historical records, the number of celestial scripts was later increased to 21. As soon as these words were created, they were published. And used for the transcription and copying of books, for dissemination, so that everyone in the world can know.
The reason why the exact number of heavenly characters is not uniform, on the one hand, is because these words are not promulgated at one time. They were increased by Wu Zetian many times over time. On the other hand, it is also because the transmission of ancient writing mainly relied on transcription. Therefore, in the process of dissemination, there may be some errors, resulting in people's misjudgment.
In fact, under the social conditions at that time, the Celestial Script was not thoroughly implemented. From some historical materials left over from that time, it can be seen that such a relatively large and conspicuous text as the inscription was written in Zetian script at that time. And some of the folk circulation, the scriptures that are not easy to be detected, etc., still use the old characters.
During the reign of Wu Zetian, the celestial script was widely circulated. It is not only used in the Central Plains, but also has an impact on neighboring countries. For example, today's Japan and Korea, and then the Tang Dynasty's Nanzhao State, which is now the Yunnan region.
Later, after Emperor Wenzong of Tang ascended the throne, he issued an edict. Abolish new words and use back to the original words. Therefore, after that, the Zetian script was abandoned in the Central Plains. To be precise, 17 of the 18 Zetian scripts have been abandoned. The remaining word is used today. Because this text is Wu Zetian's self-name.
The remaining 17 texts, though legally abolished. But in some remote areas, there are still people who use it. Because culture and history are the same, it is impossible to be completely eliminated and severed. In fact, Wu Zetian first created Zetian scripts, mainly in the service of her own political purposes.
Wu Zetian, in order to make himself ascend to the throne as a woman, was recognized by the people of the world. Therefore, from the cultural point of view, from the text, some means and methods were used. However, when the Celestial Script was truly created, its significance was not limited to political significance, but also produced rich historical and cultural connotations.
4. Summary
Wu Zetian's political talent is not inferior to that of men. But due to the limitations of the background of the times, she had to use some methods to make the world accept the fact that she was the emperor. Under this premise, the Zetian script was born.
During the reign of Wu Zetian, these scripts were widely used and even spread to neighboring countries. However, after Wu Zetian's death, as the later emperors succeeded to the throne, the heavenly script was gradually forgotten by people. However, until now, there are still many historical records that have recorded Zetian scripts, which also proves that Zetian scripts have indeed had a cultural impact.