History's evaluation of Wu Zetian is also objective, she killed her closest relatives to be emperors, but she could also listen to advice and kill cool officials. Combing through the historical texts, in order to become the emperor, she has removed ten close relatives, and the ruthlessness and viciousness of the means have made people have a deeper understanding of the ruthlessness of the emperor. Although Wu Zetian's way of acting is despised by many people, her political vision has to be impressed.
Wu Zetian is Li Shimin's "talented person", but she has been planning her life since she entered the palace, and she understands very well that it is impossible to accompany Li Shimin to old age with her age, not to mention, there are so many concubines in the harem, she has to find another patron for herself, so she has a crush on Li Zhi. At that time, Li Zhi was not conspicuous at all, and the only bright spot was that his birth mother was empress dowager.
This is actually not surprising, looking at Wu Zetian's later political skills, this is a rather assertive, and very domineering woman, she will not look for a man with the same personality, Li Zhi's personality is soft. There were many people in the harem who had the same idea as her, but the bet was wrong, at that time, Li Tai was favored, and everyone went to show favor to this prince, only Wu Zetian was optimistic about Li Zhi.
There is a "Love History" that tells the story of Wu Zetian and Li Zhi. Li Zhi later became the crown prince, and when Li Shimin was ill, he entered the palace to serve the sick, and when he saw Wu Zetian, the two of them "immediately went to the East Chamber". This story is to say: Wu Zetian and Li Zhi had an affair early on, and the use of the word "烝" shows the generational difference between the two, and Wu Zetian is Li Zhi's mother.
This story is believed by everyone, because later Wu Zetian became Li Zhi's empress. However, if you are familiar with the history of Tang and see how Li Shimin later treated those sons, with Li Zhi's personality, would he do this under Li Shimin's eyes? However, there should be a flirtation between him and Wu Zetian.
There are also texts that say that when Li Zhi went to the toilet once, Wu Zetian also followed, and also used a golden basin of water to let Li Zhi clean his hands, and made a full of shyness, which made Li Zhi unable to control himself, first with poetry to test, Wu Zetian immediately responded with poetry. The two have the same heart, so it becomes a good thing. No matter how these stories are written, their purpose is one, that is, Wu Zetian hooked up with Li Zhi early.
Some also said that she had trained Li Zhi for her own purposes to meet Li Shimin's criteria for electing a prince, and finally got her wish. Li Shimin really didn't like Li Zhi at that time, because he didn't look like himself, but Li Zhi had a good uncle, so he became a crown prince. Li Zhi was not an emperor without opinion, if his personality was really cowardly, he would marry his father's concubine?
In fact, he has his own considerations, and Wu Zetian attracts him, beauty is on the one hand, more talent. Later, he could let Wu Zetian oversee state affairs, because he discovered Wu Zetian's political talent, and he was quite outstanding.
So, why did Wu Zetian later treat his family so cruelly? In fact, it is driven by the desire for power.
First of all, talking about the matter of strangling her daughter, the caliber of the historical books is basically the same, that is, Wu Zetian, for the position of empress, blamed the death of her daughter on the empress dowager at that time, and the truth is that she is the "murderer". Later, someone overturned the case for Wu Zetian, because early death was common in ancient times, and there were other factors, such as improper care of palace women or sudden accidents, which could not be arbitrarily inferred that Wu Zetian did it.
Leaving aside the fact that this matter has been discussed for the time being, however, judging from the results of this matter, it can be seen that Wu Zetian's mind is quite meticulous, and she can fully "hype" one thing in order to achieve the greatest benefit. Later, she became an empress and began to intervene in political affairs, at this time, Wu Shi was no longer the talented person she was at the beginning, she had seen all kinds of deceit in the court, so she believed that only with an iron fist could she survive better.
After a period of training, Wu Zetian decided to become emperor. At this time, Li Zhi could no longer control her and agreed to her decision, but the minister objected, where is the throne passed to the wife and not to the son? Li Zhi had no choice but to give the throne to Wu Zetian's son Li Hong, but he died soon after, and he was poisoned to death, and the poisoner was his mother.
Later, Li Zhi made Li Xian crown prince, who was also the son of Wu Zetian, but he did not escape the persecution of his mother, and he was forced to die. At this time, Wu Zetian wanted to be emperor too much, and she wanted to remove all obstacles, including her own son. If she were just a prince or some other man, this practice might only be cold-blooded and ruthlessly characterized by historians.
In the eyes of the world, there are mothers who mutilate their children, but in the face of the throne, it is estimated that people's affection will be replaced by the desire for power. Wu Zetian was just as rude to her brothers. When she became empress, she wanted to bring up her family, but her brother did not want to dip into this light, and in the eyes of the world, this kind of "remarriage" could not be on the table at all. In this regard, Wu Zetian also had a big temper, so he assigned his brother, of which two were said to have been forced to commit suicide on the way, and two were also nearly killed. However, the surviving two brothers also ended up in a miserable situation.
Wu Zetian had an older sister who was also very beautiful, and later widowed, once brought his daughter to the palace to see Wu Zetian, Li Zhi saw that the mother and daughter were so beautiful, so they all stayed. However, Wu Zetian was not happy, and her sister died violently a month later. Once the two brothers went on a pilgrimage to the palace and brought fish with them, Wu Zetian personally made this fish, but she was poisoned. At that time, there was Li Zhi, the niece, and these two brothers at the dinner table. As a result, the niece ate the fish and died on the spot, and Wu Zetian's first reaction was to point at her brother and say: This fish is poisonous. After that, they were immediately pushed out and chopped off.
At this time, Wu Zetian could not tolerate anyone to "rebel" against her, including his own relatives, look at her way of doing things, what is the difference between her and those emperors? At this time, she already regarded herself as an emperor.
According to some statistics, Wu Zetian killed a total of 10 relatives, 4 brothers, 2 sisters, 1 niece, and 3 of his own children. Later, she introduced a lot of policies to benefit the people in her political initiatives, but whether it was worth it at the expense of her relatives for the sake of power may not be able to give an answer herself. Perhaps, this is a kind of survival normal of the imperial family, and if I don't curse people, I may be cursed.
Resources:
【New Book of Tang", "Old Book of Tang", "Zizhi Tongjian"】