In China for five thousand years, Wu Zetian, as the only empress in Chinese history, is unknown to everyone, but in the historical feudal dynasty, there has always been a feudal tradition of male superiority over female inferiority, so the figures who can finally stand at the peak of power are basically men. In that era of dominance, it is not easy for women to want power. However, even in this harsh social environment, there is still a woman who can not let her eyebrows be shaved and make a fuss. This person was Wu Zetian, who became the only orthodox empress in Chinese history. Today we will analyze why Wu Zetian can become a generation of empresses in the long river of feudal history.
First of all, Wu Zetian was ostensibly born in a Shangjia family, the second daughter of Wu Shiyan and Yang Shi, and her father was engaged in timber trading and had a well-to-do family. The Sui Dynasty Emperor's great cause, the martial family had funded money, grain and clothing, so after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, it ranked among the warriors, and from the perspective of blood, it belonged to a small household that was less than mentioned. In fact, Wu Zetian's life is far from being so simple, Wu Zetian's mother comes from the Sui Dynasty royal Yang family, so Wu Zetian is related to Sui Yang from the bloodline and has sui Yang royal blood. In many studies of history, it has been found that Wu Zetian does not represent the interests of the Shandong region as the researchers believe, and in fact she strongly identifies with her northwestern aristocratic origins.
Secondly, Wu Zetian is outstanding in appearance and intelligent. In November of the eleventh year of Zhenguan (638), Emperor Taizong of Tang heard that the young Wu clan was talented and good-looking, so he included her in the palace, and when Wu Zetian first entered the palace at the age of fourteen, he was given the title of "Wu Mei", and later generations falsely called Wu Mei Niang. At only fourteen years old, Wu Meiniang showed that she was different from other women, she not only had wisdom and strategy and did not have the mannerisms of other women, so Li Shimin was very fond of her, so he always kept Wu Meiniang by his side to take care of herself, even when she was seriously ill, Wu Meiniang was always left by his side. Since then, he has known and fallen in love with Li Zhi.
In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), Emperor Taizong of Tang died, and Wu Meiniang, following the example of the Tang harem, entered the Ganye Temple to cut her hair as a nun. In May of the first year of Yonghui (650), When Emperor Gaozong of Tang entered the Temple of Xiangye on the anniversary of Emperor Taizong's death, he met wu again, and the two recognized each other and exchanged thoughts after parting. He was taken back to the palace, and soon after he was given the title of Zhaoyi, ranking first among the nine concubines.
In the end, Wu Zetian not only attacked the scheming and acted fiercely, because there was no dependence, Wu Zetian was under the attack of the palace concubines and the former ministers of the imperial family, and his life was also very difficult, since Emperor Gaozong of Tang favored Wu Meiniang and made her empress Dowager Zhaoyi and Empress Xiao Shufei reached an agreement on the interests of Wu Meiniang, and from then on Wu Meiniang strangled his young daughter and married Empress Wang and was demoted to a commoner. In November 655, Wu Zetian was crowned empress, and her son Li Hong was made crown prince. In the fifth year of Xianqing (660), Emperor Gaozong was unable to handle state affairs due to illness, so he ordered Empress Wu to act as the government. Wu Zetian began to formally take power from then on, and deposed the throne under the trend of power, and eventually seized power and became emperor.
All in all, Wu Zetian became the only empress in Chinese history because she was not only charming and intelligent, not only ambitious and scheming, in my opinion, her success originated not so much from her beauty and the country, but because her success was attributed to her wisdom and inverted sentient beings.