It may be the reason why I went to Qianling when I was in school, and my first reaction when I saw this question was: the cruel woman in human history is Wu Zetian.
At that time, the tour guide's colorful commentary is still fresh in my memory, and there are few people who do not admire Wu Zetian's legendary life, but when it comes to her vicious deeds, several of our companions who listened to her also had a numb scalp and a cold back.
As the only female emperor in Chinese history, Wu Zetian's evaluation of her by later generations often showed two extremes. Some people think that she knows people well, is diligent in governing the country, and is a wise and good emperor; Some people also think that she reuses cool officials, violates traditional etiquette, and is a sinister and cruel and unscrupulous woman.
However, no matter what kind of evaluation people give to Wu Zetian, one thing is generally recognized, that is, in order to achieve personal goals, Wu Zetian used all means to the extreme, and the degree of ruthlessness was extremely rare in the entire history of China.
So, how ruthless was Wu Zetian in history? Today we will take a look at the empress's iron-blooded wrists.
Wu Zetian's ruthlessness is not only reflected in her fierce behavior towards political opponents, but also in her attitude towards her children.
Wu Zetian gave birth to six children for Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Hong, second son Li Xian, third son Li Xian, fourth son Li Dan, and eldest daughter Princess Andingsi and younger daughter Princess Taiping. In addition to Princess Taiping, she is very ruthless towards several other children.
Li Xian and Li Dan are not bad, although they were both abolished because of Wu Zetian, but their good lives are still kept, and after Wu Zetian was forced to abdicate the throne, they successively became emperors, but Li Hong, Li Xian and Princess Andingsi did not have such good luck, and all became "stepping stones" on Wu Zetian's way to the throne.
Needless to say, Princess Andingsi is indispensable for all kinds of film and television dramas about Wu Zetian. As soon as Princess Andingsi was born, she was loved by Li Zhi and Wu, and she was very fond of this daughter; But she had just been alive for a month, but Wu Zetian strangled his daughter to death with his own hands because he wanted to deal with Empress Wang. The death of Princess Andingsi became the fuse for Li Zhi's "abolition of Wang Liwu".
Wu Zetian became empress, and her eldest son, Li Hong, was naturally crowned crown prince. Li Hong is 2 months older than Princess Andingsi and is a child that Wu Zetian conceived when he was still in Kanye Temple. Li Hong was very liked by Li Zhi, and unlike his mother Wu Zetian, he was very kind and benevolent, and his political views were often contrary to Wu Zetian.
In 675, Li Hong died suddenly while traveling with the empress to Luoyang at the age of 23, and his death was still the second cruel thing Wu Zetian did. According to historical records, Li Hong should have died at Wu Zetian's dove, that is, poisoned by alcohol.
At that time, Li Zhi's health was not very good, and he was not particularly fond of powerful people, so he had the idea of Zen position. Li Hong's political views were often different from those of Wu Zetian, and at that time, the actual power of the court had fallen into Wu Zetian's hands, how could she possibly want her son to share power with her?
If the death of the crown prince Li Hong is still controversial, then his younger brother, the successor crown prince Li Xian, is completely the hand of Wu Zetian. Li Xian was also a very capable prince, who oversaw the country three times during his tenure as crown prince, and won the recognition of civil and military officials, the approval of Li Zhi, and the love of the people, and his reputation was very high.
Wu Zetian sensed that this was the second "Li Hong", so in 680, he was directly deposed as a commoner on charges of treason and exiled to Bazhou, which is now Sichuan. Just exiling Wu Zetian could not be at ease, after Li Zhi's death, she arranged for a cool official named Qiu Shenwei to run to Li Xian, named surveillance, but in fact persecuted, Li Xian died at the age of 29.
Wu Zetian's ruthless treatment of her three children directly proves how hard-hearted she is;
The reason why Wu Zetian is called a poisonous woman is because she will stop at nothing in order to ascend to power, not to mention her absurdity, just killing her own children with her own hands is enough to make her bear the stigma of poisonous women.
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