In ancient feudal society, the status of women was much lower than that of men, especially in the court, and the role of women was more like a fertility or political tool, but except for one period, that was when Wu Zetian reigned.
At the side of China's only female emperor, standing is also China's first female prime minister, Shangguan Wan'er.
So, like such an unprecedented "prime minister", what is her emotional life?
The scarf does not allow the eyebrows
In 690, Emperor Gaozong of Tang died, and Wu Zetian ascended the throne as emperor, establishing Wu Zhou and beginning a 15-year reign.
At the same time, another woman's life began to shine, she was Shangguan Wan'er.
Shangguan Wan'er came from a family of officials and eunuchs, and later her grandfather Shangguan Yi offended Wu Zetian, so the whole family was killed and the woman was beaten into slavery.
Later, under the guidance of her mother Zheng, Shangguan Wan'er successfully relied on her outstanding talents and was favored by Wu Zetian and given heavy responsibilities.
At this time, Wan'er had become the most powerful assistant around the empress. Wu Zetian not only let him draft the edict, but also let him take charge of the performance of the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs, and Wan'er directly made a decision, "a hundred divisions of the table, more orders to participate in the decision", and then to the later military strategy, the power of killing, mostly depends on Wan'er, all kinds of shows how much the empress trusts Wan'er!
And Shangguan Wan'er, as a woman, to reach this step in a patriarchal society, what kind of courage and power should she have!
In addition to politics, Wan Er has also reached a height that is difficult to reach in literature.
In literature, she leads the literary style and shakes the poetry world. She inherited the poetic style of her grandfather Shangguan Yi, paid attention to the beauty of vocal words, paid attention to gentle and beautiful, and had a long affection, and created a large number of poems throughout her life.
Shangguan Wan'er's life can be roughly summarized in three aspects:
(1) Only learn
In ancient times, people always said that "a woman without talent is virtuous", but Shangguan Wan'er was a great "counterexample", and her talent exceeded most people at that time, including men.
(2) Rights
From the birth of Wan'er until the end of her life, she was deeply involved in a power struggle.
(3) Love life
Wan'er's love life, like her life, is bumpy and tortuous, and it is always entangled with politics.
The legend of "plum blossom makeup" in the Tang Dynasty - Wan'er's love sinus has just opened
Folk rumors say that the "plum blossom makeup" that arose in the Tang Dynasty, that is, the plum blossom pattern on the woman's forehead, originated from the first opening of Shangguan Wan'er's love sinus.
In the special era of Wu Zhou, the status of women in the palace was very high, and the former harem "Jiali" was now replaced by a "male favorite", and Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's brothers were the most deeply loved by Wu Zetian.
Zhang Changzong followed Wu Zetian every day, and Shangguan Wan'er also handled government affairs around Wu Zetian every day, so Zhang spent a lot of time with Wan.
At that time, Wu Zetian was over 70 years old, his face was full of wrinkles, in contrast, Wan'er was in his youth, so for Zhang Changzong, Wan'er was undoubtedly more attractive, and the reason why Zhang Changzong could become a male pet was naturally handsome.
Therefore, not long after, these two young handsome men and beautiful women had feelings for each other, but this angered Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian has a strong personality, and when she learns that she has been deceived, her anger can be imagined.
She originally wanted to kill Wan'er, but considering that her talent was still useful to Wu Zhou, she only carried out "appeasement" on Wan'er, that is, she took a knife and stabbed a mark on Wan'er's forehead, so that she would never make a mistake again.
Ironically, Zhang Changzong was unscathed.
Although Wan Er was spared from death, she was a woman after all, born to love beauty, and now has a scar on her forehead, which is tantamount to disfigurement. Rather than saying that Wu Zetian ruined Wan'er's countenance, it was more that he ruthlessly stifled the initial emotional germ in the little girl's heart.
Wan'er also seemed to understand some truths overnight, she quickly adjusted her mentality, continued to serve Wu Zetian respectfully, and she quickly regained the trust of the empress.
Interestingly, I don't know if it was inspired by Princess Shouyang of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (who invented "plum blossom makeup"), Wan'er embroidered a red plum blossom on the forehead scar to cover it, who knows that this makes Wan'er look more chuchu and moving, like a Western beauty.
Later, the palace ladies all took this as a beauty and followed suit, using rouge to paint the plum blossom pattern on the forehead, so since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, "plum blossom makeup" re-emerged in the Tang Dynasty.
The combination of power and lust - Wu Sansi, Li Xian
The story of Wan'er and Zhang Changzong is only a folk tradition and wild history record, and according to the Old Book of Tang, Wan'er had an affair with Wu Sansi.
But if the other party is surnamed "Wu" or "Li", it can be seen that such feelings are more or less mixed with political factors.
Wu Sansi was the nephew of Wu Zetian, at that time, Wu Zetian was old, and Wu Sansi was in power, which could be described as the "big red man" of the dynasty.
Although Wan Er won the trust of Wu Zetian and had a foundation in Wu Zhou, she knew that she was a woman after all, and she always had to prepare a retreat for herself, so walking with Wu Sansi was also a kind of protection for herself.
As for Wu Sansi's side, there is also a relationship of mutual use for Wan'er, and of course he hopes that this "prime minister" who has a considerable position in the DPRK can "push Wu and suppress Li" and let him take care of him in the official arena.
And Wu Zetian also turned a blind eye to their private feelings, because she also had selfish intentions: Wu Sansi was her nephew after all, and if the Wu family succeeded to the throne in the future, Shangguan Wan'er was the best candidate for assistance.
However, in 705 AD, Wu Zetian became seriously ill, and the crown prince Li Xian, the chancellor Zhang Kamzhi, Cui Xuanwei and others launched the "Shenlong Revolution" to force Empress Wu Zetian to abdicate.
Three days later, the crown prince Li Xian ascended the throne as emperor, restored the Tang Dynasty, and ended the Wu Zhou Dynasty, meaning that men regained supreme dominance from women.
I think this is the second time that Emperor Zhongzong of Tang has become emperor, the last time was 21 years ago, when he had only sat on the throne for 55 days before he was ousted by his mother Wu Zetian.
This time, Li Xian seemed to have taught a long lesson, and he named Wan'er Zhaorong, and Wan'er became Li Xian's concubine.
Obviously, this is Li Xian's efforts to woo Wan'er, after all, she has been around Wu Zetian for many years and can basically be regarded as the "number one" in the DPRK, so her experience in managing government is quite rich.
After becoming Li Xian's Zhaorong, Shangguan Wan'er's power had already reached the peak of her life, but she had never imagined that this was actually laying the foundation for the future little by little.
After the fall of Wu Zetian, too many things happened, such as the "Imperial Lady" incident, the Wei Hou chaos, Tang Zhongzong Li Xian's poisoning by Wei Hou and Princess Anle, etc., and Wan'er was all implicated, until finally, a person named Li Longji killed all these women, and the era of women interfering in politics came to an end.
Later, Li Longji did lead Datang into the "Kaiyuan Prosperous Era", but in the end he could not defeat the happy smile of another woman...
A new discovery in Shangguan Wan'er's epitaph
In August 2013, a high-grade ancient tomb was excavated in Xianyang New District, Shaanxi Province, with nine characters engraved on the epitaph of "Shangguan Ming, the former Zhaorong of the Tang Dynasty", and the owner of this tomb is Shangguan Wan'er.
Epitaphs can be said to be the first-hand information of the historical community, and their research value and credibility are higher than those of history books.
The epitaph reads that "the thirteenth year is a talented man". At that time, it was Li Zhi of Emperor Gaozong of Tang who reigned, that is to say, Wan'er had already married Emperor Gaozong at the age of 13, but some scholars believed that "Cairen" was just a title given to Wan'er by Wu Zetian, after all, Emperor Gaozong had entered his old age at that time.
Before the discovery of the epitaph, the historical records only record that Shangguan Wan'er had an affair with Wu Sansi and later married Li Xian, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, as for the legend and wild history, at most, it was the "scandal" between her and Zhang Changzong, and later with the literati Cui Xiang, but the historical fact that she had married Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong was really a new discovery.
As for the relationship with Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, it is written like this: "In the first year of the Divine Dragon, the book is Zhaorong", it turns out that as soon as Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian ascended to the throne, he could not wait to take Wan'er into his harem.
We don't know if Li Xian really likes Wan'er, who is 8 years older than him, but one thing is for sure, Li Xian wants to catch the line of Wan'er at the first time and make it serve himself.
After all, Wan'er was a woman, and unlike male ministers who only needed to show loyalty, she had to sacrifice her feelings and marriage to marry the emperor, in the end, it was still a political marriage.
Shangguan Wan'er's life has been entangled with politics, and the combination of power and lust has run through her life.
She is one of the few women in Chinese history, beautiful, talented, scheming, and means, and at the same time can manage the political country, but precisely because of this, men dare not get close, and the men who are really close to her have other plans.
Because of politics, she never got true love in her life.
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