Wu Zetian was the only female emperor in The feudal period of China, and her decisive character naturally needless to say, it must have many characteristics that ordinary people do not have, it can be said that the prosperity and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty are also inextricably linked to her.
Not only that, Wu Zetian also broke many world records, each record can well reflect the character of Emperor Wu and his style of governance. She has set a "number of the best", not only broke the record of the mainland feudal dynasty period, but also looked at the world to see Wu Zetian, these records can also be called "the first".
During this period, the "year number" she used was one of them.
According to records, from the time Wu Zetian came to power until she was forced to step down from the Shenlong coup, she changed a total of seventeen era names: Guangzhai, Vertical Arch, Yongchang, Zaichu, Tianzhi, Ruyi, Longevity, Yan zai, Zhengsheng, Long live the Heavenly Book, Long Live Dengfeng, Long Live Tongtian, Shen gong, Holy Calendar, Jiushi, Dazu, and Chang'an. Even, among these years, there are cases where two years are changed in one year.
The so-called towel does not allow the eyebrows to be shaved, and some of Emperor Wu's practices are indeed breathtaking.
In addition, she appointed the most prime ministers - during the Tang Dynasty, there were many official positions equivalent to the functions of prime ministers, such as: left and right servants and the governors of the three provinces of Menxia, Shangshu and Zhongshu, these people can be called: prime ministers. In terms of the number of appointees, the number of prime ministers in the Tang Dynasty was generally higher than that of other dynasties. According to statistics, a total of twenty-five prime ministers were appointed during the twenty-three years of Tang Taizong's reign.
At first glance, this number seems to be very frightening, but it is much worse than this Period of Emperor Wu. In her view, the progress of the country and the nation is inseparable from the promotion of talent. Therefore, in order to enable more talents to be recruited to her command and contribute to the country, she vigorously promoted the examination system and encouraged local governments to recommend talents to the country.
Even so, she was afraid of missing out on talent and encouraged everyone to introduce themselves. After a period of accumulation, her talents are also very much. The number of people has increased, and the corresponding number of official positions should also be upgraded to facilitate the employment of talents, otherwise, it is a pity that the talents that are hard to recruit are wasted in vain.
Even, in order to better recruit talents, Emperor Wu recruited information through various channels, although the number of people came up, but some shortcomings were revealed. The bureaucracy under Emperor Wu was cumbersome and swelled, and the number of officials during this period increased sharply. The "History of sui and Tang Dynasties" has such a record: "The Wu Hou was reckless, his likes and dislikes were uncertain, and on the day of his death, he was counted as seventy-three prime ministers." ”
Here is a story of Wu Zetian appointing a prime minister:
Before the establishment of the Great Zhou, there was a man named Fu Youyi, who was only a small Nine Pin Sesame Official, but this person was good at opportunism. He could read people's hearts and knew that Wu Zetian had ambitions to become emperor, so he gathered a group of people to write a letter and asked Wu Zetian to change the name of the country to "Zhou". After Wu Zetian saw it, he was very happy, so he directly raised Fu Youyi from Jiupin to Sanpin and achieved the position of prime minister.
Emperor Wu really had no standard for appointing officials, and it was all up to his own preferences. Sixty-nine of these seventy-three can find out the origins from historical documents. Nineteen of these sixty-nine were killed, and at least twenty-two were exiled. Fortunately, Wu Zetian was very attentive to political affairs, good at governing the country, and did not cause chaos in the government due to the frequent appointment of prime ministers.
Coincidentally, Chongzhen knew that people were not good at using them, ruining daming's future.
In the history of feudal dynasties, the second most appointed prime minister was the prime minister of the Chongzhen Emperor during the Ming Dynasty. The Zhu family was suspicious of people throughout their lives, and Chongzhen reigned for seven years, repeatedly changing more than fifty prime ministers. As we all know, the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period was already running out of gas, and as a result, being tossed by Chongzhen was undoubtedly pushing the Ming Dynasty to its complete demise.
Second, she was the oldest emperor in Chinese history to ascend to the throne— Wu Zetian was the oldest emperor when China ascended the throne, and there was no one, and it is said that before Wu Zetian, the oldest emperor on the throne was Liu Bei. In the first half of his life, Liu Bei went around guerrilla warfare and was displaced, but he was blessed with old age, and after taking over the two major states of Jingzhou and Yizhou, he finally ascended the throne at the age of sixty and established the Shu Han Dynasty.
When Emperor Wu was emperor, she was older than Liu Bei, and her path to advancement was also a counter-attack process. From the time of Emperor Taizong of Tang, he entered the palace at the age of fourteen and became a talented person, but unexpectedly he was not favored, and the position of talent actually did more than ten years. Later, when Emperor Gaozong of Tang was enfeoffed with Zhaoyi, Empress, Empress Dowager, and Empress Dowager, he was already very old. Wu Zetian ascended to the throne at the age of sixty-seven and eventually achieved great unification.
In 690 AD, Wu Zetian changed the name of the country to "Zhou", and the capital was Luoyang, called "Shendu", and called himself "Emperor of the Holy Spirit". There is a historical basis for saying that Wu Zetian was the oldest emperor in China when he ascended the throne, and from the time she entered the palace in the cardamom years and then from the time when cairen sat on the emperor's throne, she had struggled for fifty-three years during this period.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, there was a man named Ma Yin, who claimed to be the general of Fubo, Ma Yuanhou. In his early years, his family was difficult and he worked as a carpenter, and finally, in 927 AD, he was named the "King of Southern Chu" and became the founding monarch of Southern Chu during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. At that time, he was already seventy-five years old. However, Ma Yin was only a "king" and not an "emperor", so this first person was still Wu Zetian.
Finally, the mausoleum is the largest - the Wu Zetian period was in the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, and the sufficient financial income was enough to build an extremely luxurious mausoleum, and it was even more glorious after the prosperous life and death. The work of her mausoleum was enormous, and it took twenty-three years to complete the first phase. The structure is complete, and it looks like it copied a small Chang'an City.
Historical documents record that this mausoleum is "Zhou Eighty Mile". It can be said that even Tang Taizong's Zhao Mausoleum can not be looked backed upon, and it can be called the largest mausoleum in Chinese history. Unfortunately, in the "Anshi Rebellion", the splendid and spectacular ground buildings of Qianling were greatly damaged, and now, we can see very little.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Huangchao Rebellion occurred, at this time, Huangchao mobilized 400,000 troops to plan to excavate Qianling, but 400,000 people only dug out a "Yellow Nest Ditch" more than 40 meters deep. In modern times, when the expedition team members explored the Qianling Tomb, they even speculated that the number of funerary items in its mausoleum alone was about five hundred tons, which was not counting other higher-value funerary items.
It can be said that the specifications of Wu Zetian's mausoleum are comparable to that of Qin Shi Huang, which are all major events in the archaeological community.
Resources:
【History of Sui and Tang Dynasties", "New Book of Tang", "Zizhi Tongjian"】