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Left and right Fengyuan, literary brilliance is average, female politician Shangguan Wan'er in the Wu Zetian era

author:Dr. Fishing wants to fly

Shangguan Wan'er is the most famous talented woman in the Tang Dynasty, her popularity is very high, many movies and television have played her, and her image is very elegant and moving. She can be so famous in modern society, of course, on the one hand, it is related to her experience and talent, and on the other hand, it is also related to how much better her name is. It is already a great blessing for a talented woman to have a compound surname like "Shangguan", not to mention that it is called "Wan'er". If her name were Niu Guizhi, think about what it would be.

Shangguan Wan'er does have literary brilliance, but her literary brilliance is exaggerated. She left dozens of poems, none of which are particularly good. For example, she wrote "Taiping Words are prosperous, long wish Ji Hongxiu", "years are often stumbling, long and happy to rise to peace", which belongs to the "old dry body" of the Tang Dynasty. Of course, it is better than the old cadres who write now, but it also tastes like chewing wax when reading. Shangguan Wan'er also has some relatively good sentences, such as "watching the electric leaping dragon as a horse from afar, looking back at the frost original jade as a field", which is quite imposing. But in general, as a talented woman, her literary level is far inferior to Li Qingzhao and Zhu Shuzhen in the Song Dynasty, nor Zhang Ailing in the Republic of China. Even together with the fish Xuanji belonging to the Tang Dynasty, it is also better than her.

Left and right Fengyuan, literary brilliance is average, female politician Shangguan Wan'er in the Wu Zetian era

  But none of the talented women had such an experience as her. She witnessed and participated in one of the most peculiar times. In this era, women and men have the same dreams and chases the same ambitions, and such times appear and disappear like meteors in history.

  The founder of this era was Wu Zetian.

  Shangguan Wan'er has lived in her shadow all her life.

  From slave to senior secretary

  Things have to start with Shangguan Wan'er's grandfather. Her grandfather's name was Shangguanyi, a famous talent, who wrote good poems and created a poetry style called "Shangguan Body". It has two main characteristics, the first feature is beautiful rhetoric, and the second feature is that there is no difference between reading and not reading.

Shangguanyi came from a famous family, steadily rose in the career path, and has always become a high-ranking official at the level of prime minister. But in 664 AD, Shangguan Yi caused a big incident. At that time, Wu Zetian had already fallen to power and emptied her husband Li Zhi. Of course, everyone knows that Li Zhi is afraid of his wife, but the clay man still has a dirt temper, and Li Zhi once had a temper with Wu Zetian. The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he became, and he brought Shangguanyi to complain. This kind of thing, ordinary people will definitely be with thin mud, but Shangguanyi actually did not. Ancient history books are often brief, so we don't know what happened to the 56-year-old genius, what conspiracy he was planning, or was it a common hatred between men, or what dirty food he ate that morning. Anyway, the emperor and the queen are stunned, and he seems more excited than the emperor: too unspeakable, too unspeakable, the emperor should abolish her! This time, Li Zhi was also excited: Okay, you come to the grass!

Left and right Fengyuan, literary brilliance is average, female politician Shangguan Wan'er in the Wu Zetian era

  Can Wu Zetian be a good waste? When the two monarchs were excited, someone had already run to report to Wu Zetian. When Wu Zetian broke in, Li Zhi didn't even have time to hide the edict. Seeing Wu Zetian, Li Zhi, who was originally very excited, suddenly became not excited, and talked for a long time, and finally came the sentence: Oh, this is all taught to me by Shangguan Yi. As a result, Shangguanyi was unlucky. He and his son were executed, and the whole family was ransacked. Shangguan Wan'er had just been born at that time, and she was taken into slavery with her mother.

  Said to be a slave, in fact, Shangguan Wan'er's youth was okay. After all, grandpa was the prime minister, and uncle was a young secretary. The skinny camel is bigger than the horse, and although she has lost her freedom, no one really bullies and abuses her. On the contrary, she received a good education and has been studying in the "Literature Hall" of the harem. Shangguan Wan'er has her grandfather's literary genes, and she will soon be familiar with poetry books and write chapters. By the time she was 14 years old, she already had a bit of a literary name in the harem, which aroused Wu Zetian's curiosity. She summoned Shangguan Wan'er and gave her a propositional essay. Shangguan Wan'er did not add points, and it was made up, as if she had already made a draft. Wu Zetian was very happy, and dismissed her as a slave, let her take charge of the palace commandments, and became his senior secretary.

  From this day on, Shangguan Wan'er began to follow Wu Zetian. That follow-up is 27 years.

  Followers of the Empress

  Mikoyan was a high-ranking Soviet leader, a notoriously old traitor, who avoided many turbulences. There was a political joke about him that Mikoyan was attending a banquet and when he was about to go home, it was raining outside. The host asked him to take an umbrella with him. He said no. The host said, "Dear Anastas, it's raining outside, you'll get wet!" Mikoyan said, "No." I can walk in the rain crevice. ”

  Shangguan Wan'er has this talent of Mikoyan. When we now mention Shangguan Wan'er, we think of a talented woman, in fact, her primary identity is an extremely shrewd female politician. The political relationship in Wu Zetian's era was very complicated, but she had the ability to get left and right in the cracks.

The complicated political relationship at that time was directly related to Wu Zetian. On the one hand, she likes to use this way to balance her subordinates, on the other hand, she really can't help. Wu Zetian was a female emperor who lived in the patriarchal era, which caused her a great trouble. The patriarchal era was a patriarchal society. In everyone's mind, Wu Zetian's son is first and foremost a member of the Li family, and even Wu Zetian cannot change this. If Wu Zetian left the throne to his son, he would definitely restore the Li and Tang dynasties. Wu Zetian wanted to be the master of Wu Zhou's founding, but of course he was not willing to do so. Allowing her to pass the throne to her nephew is against biological instinct, and unless she kills all her sons, her nephew may not be able to keep this position. She probably also considered leaving the throne to her daughter, Princess Taiping, but it was too risky.

Left and right Fengyuan, literary brilliance is average, female politician Shangguan Wan'er in the Wu Zetian era

  Wu Zetian defeated all men, but could not defeat male power. Political relations in the imperial court were complicated. His son Li Xian, Li Dan, nephew Wu Sansi, daughter Princess Taiping, as well as those who beat soy sauce and picked up leaks, various forces were entangled together, causing a lot of turmoil, and many high-ranking officials were sent away. But Shangguan Wan'er was always able to pick the rain and leave, and the forces of any faction accepted her. She slept with Wu Sansi, allied with Princess Taiping, married Li Xian, and finally became a confidant of Empress Wei - behind this talented woman was a clever and treacherous political genius.

  Wu Zetian especially liked smart people, and was very serious about Shangguan Wan'er, giving her more and more power. After 698, Wu Zetian officially asked Shangguan Wan'er to handle the imperial court and participate in government affairs. She became the most powerful female official in Chinese history. Wu Zetian trusted her very much. Later, Prime Minister Zhang said in the "Preface to the Zhaorong Anthology" that Shangguan Wan'er's advice could make Wu Zetian "sleep in the intention of avoiding the sea, cut the power of cutting the beard and crossing the crossing, and disappear from the end of the bird love", which was divorced from low-grade taste. Of course, this is an exaggeration by the literati, but it will not be an exaggeration for no reason. However, the relationship between the two is not all smooth sailing. Shangguan Wan'er offended Wu Zetian once, and Wu Zetian stabbed her in the face in anger and punished her. Shangguan Wan'er tattooed a red plum on the tattoo to cover up the past. This kind of red plum makeup on the face later became popular and became a trend in the fashion industry of the Tang Dynasty.

  Now some people have invented the love story of talented women, how Shangguan Wan'er and Prince Li Xian developed pure love, how Shangguan Wan'er drafted the "edict of the abolished prince" for Wu Zetian with tears, and so on. This is all nonsense and has no basis in the history books. Judging from the available information, there is only one person that Shangguan Wan'er really loves, that is, Shangguan Wan'er. Of course, her relationship with Wu Zetian is a little complicated, hateful? Revere? Attachment? Maybe a little. But no matter what complicated feelings there are, when the situation requires it, Shangguan Wan'er will still abandon Wu Zetian without hesitation.

  In her later years, Wu Zetian slowly transformed into a confused old lady, with low energy, brain decline, and the only thing that remained active was sexual function, and as a result, she completely lost control of the situation. The imperial court originally had a political situation of checks and balances, but the appearance of Wu Zetian's male favorites Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong broke this balance. Wu Zetian unconditionally trusted these two little white faces and gave them great power. These are two lotus-faced scoundrels who know nothing about political struggle. But scary is terrible, here, punching the teacher to death, no one knows how they will play their cards. The groups endured until the end, and finally reached a tacit agreement: they must be killed.

  There is a British legend that if a ship is about to sink, the rats on board can always sense the danger, abandon the ship and escape. Shangguan Wan'er was like these rats, sniffing out that Wu Zetian was a sunken ship. She also decisively decided to abandon ship. In 705, the "Shenlong Revolution" broke out, Wu Zetian abdicated sadly, and the crown prince Li Xian ascended the throne, known as Emperor Zhongzong. What role Shangguan Wan'er played in the "Shenlong Revolution" is not recorded in the history books. But she was definitely not idle, most likely an internal traitor beside Wu Zetian, because she was immediately rewarded. Shangguan Wan'er was given the title of Jieyu and later promoted to Zhaorong, taking charge of Emperor Zhongzong.

  Jieyu and Zhaorong are concubines, but Shangguan Wan'er is not a concubine in the strict sense. She was old at the time of the "Shenlong Revolution", and she may not be very attractive to Li Xian. Moreover, Shangguan Wan'er has her own mansion outside the palace, which shows that she and Li Xian are more of a political relationship. Concubine is more like a title, which is convenient for her to move around in the palace.

  Wu Zetian's disciples

  Although Wu Zetian died, her era was not over. Whether it is Princess Taiping, Shangguan Wan'er, or emerging political stars Empress Wei and Princess Anle, they are all her spiritual private disciples and live in her shadow. The psychological impact that Wu Zetian brought to people is unimaginable. There have been many women in power in China, but only Wu Zetian unabashedly left men and took power directly into his hands. Female emperor, these three words contain a subversive and explosive concept. Wu Zetian's granddaughter, Princess Anle, said: "She can be the emperor, why can't I?" "No princess in China has ever said anything like that. It was an amazing moment in history. In that instant, China's future revealed another possibility.

  Politics has another way of playing. Sex became a political tool, a lubricant between allies. Blood for alliances and burning incense are outdated, and it is better to go to bed and sleep if you really want to form an alliance. For example, after Wu Zetian stepped down, the forces of the martial artists have yet to be contacted and absorbed. Shangguan Wan'er stepped forward and slept with Wu Sansi as a scouting sword team, and after sleeping she introduced Wu Sansi to Empress Wei. Finally, on the queen's bed, the two forces of the martial artist and the Wei family reached a deep reconciliation.

  Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping also shared a lover named Cui Xiang. Some modern readers speculate that the two have become rivals and that the relationship must deteriorate. In fact, the history books clearly record that it was at that time when Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping formed an alliance. Cui Xiang is not so much the object of contention between the two women, but a sweet little gift for the two allies to deepen their relationship.

  In the eyes of later Taoists, this is simply shameless: what is a "dirty and smelly man"? This is called "dirty and smelly man". At that time, the Tang Dynasty was a bit like the early Roman Empire, and the morality was indeed relatively relaxed, not as tense and strict as in later generations. But this relaxation is not the moral collapse born of despair during the Wei and Jin dynasties, it has a sense of calmness in a prosperous age, like a young man who is confident that he has endless years to squander, indulgent and happy.

  The five years from the "Shenlong Revolution" to Li Xian's death were the most beautiful period for Shangguan Wan'er. She became a figure who threaded the needle between different factions and was extremely respected. Even Princess Anle, who is brutal, seems to get along well with her. She was a cashier, presided over poetry meetings, sold official knights, balanced the forces of various factions, and turned her luxurious private residence into a large salon, holding banquets for officials and poets. Shangguan Wan'er was in Chang'an in the eighth century, just as Madame Pompidou was in Paris in the eighteenth century.

  But Shangguan Wan'er has also encountered danger. Li Xian's crown prince, fearing to be deposed, suddenly launched a mutiny, killed Wu Sansi, and surrounded the palace, naming Shangguan Wan'er, the adulteress who wanted to kill Wu Sansi. Fortunately, the mutiny was finally suppressed, and the prince lost his life. But Shangguan Wan'er was still frightened. She became more cautious and placed more emphasis on maintaining balance in factional fights.

  The end of an era

  When Shangguan Wan'er was 46 years old, the real crisis finally arrived. This crisis is related to Empress Wei and Princess Anle. Among the female politicians at that time, the closest in talent to Wu Zetian was Princess Taiping, and the closest in status to Wu Zetian was Empress Wei, if Empress Wei had the talent of Princess Taiping, or Princess Taiping had the status of Empress Wei, then it was possible for a second Wu Zetian to appear. But it's a pity that IQ is Weihou's shortcoming. As for Princess Anle, she is a princess with a serious princess disease and imagines the world as a cream cake made for her personally. She was full of thoughts about being the "crown prince", but she knew nothing about the political risks behind it.

  The trump card in their hands is Emperor Li Xian. During Wu Zetian's reign, Li Xian was a good husband and father rarely seen in history. How good is his husband and father? Just think of him as a gray wolf wearing a crown. As a result, this Li Xian died five years after ascending the throne. The history books insisted that Empress Wei and Princess An Le teamed up to poison him. Now many researchers think this is unreasonable, which is as absurd as saying that the Red Wolf and Little Gray Ash joined forces to get rid of the Big Wolf in order to rule Wolf Castle. But judging by the personalities of these two women, it is actually quite possible. Didn't Wu Zetian depose two emperors after Li Zhi's death and then proclaim himself emperor? If Empress Wei wanted to learn from Wu Zetian, Li Xian's death was an indispensable step. If Li Xian himself pushes and refuses to die, it is okay to help him.

  But in this way, all accumulated political contradictions will face a boiling point of explosion.

  Shangguan Wan'er's political intelligence far surpassed Wei's, and she immediately realized the danger. Just as she sniffed out that Wu Zetian was a shipwreck, now she also sniffed out that Wei Hou might be another shipwreck. Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping secretly formed an alliance, and together they drew up an edict for Emperor Zhongzong, proposing a power-sharing plan: Emperor Zhongzong's son Li Chongmao succeeded to the throne, Empress Wei was regent, and Emperor Zhongzong's younger brother Li Dan assisted him. But Wei Hou flatly refused. She wants to monopolize power and completely exclude the Li family's forces.

  Eighteen days later, the storm came. Li Dan's son Li Longji's army stormed the palace. After Wei Hou escaped into the flying horse camp, she was beheaded, and Princess An Le was killed in front of the dressing table.

  Shangguan Wan'er did not panic. She led the palace maids out to meet the rebels, holding in her hand the Zhongzong edict she had drafted. Shangguan Wan'er wants to tell Li Longji that he is not Wei's sworn party, but a mediator who fights between various factions. She is familiar with court politics, familiar with factional struggle, she is the arm of all who succeed, she is a valuable ally. Shangguan Wan'er stood on the night of the killing sound, and there may be apprehension in her heart, but there should be no fear.

  What she didn't expect was that Li Longji was not interested in her confession and ordered Shangguan Wan'er to be beheaded. At the moment of being killed, her heart must be full of surprise: How can politics be so done, I am valuable!

  In the new era belonging to Li Longji, female politicians like Shangguan Wan'er are worthless. Three years later, Princess Taiping was killed by Li Longji. Wu Zetian's era officially ended and has never been repeated in Chinese history. One can only imagine that era from the history books: in those wonderful days, there was a group of women who were confident in personality, bold in politics, free in sex, and they were not afraid of men and feared by men.

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