In June 636, after the death of Li Shimin's wife Empress Changsun, it was common to want to take concubines. So, Li Shimin opened the concubine contest and called on beautiful women from all over the world to enter the palace. In it, he learned that Wang Zhao, the second daughter of the samurai, was extremely beautiful, so he included her in the harem in the eleventh year of Zhenguan and made him a talent. It is worth mentioning that Wu Zetian was only 14 years old at that time.
Wu Zetian's father was named Samurai Gong, one of the founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty. He accompanied Tang Gaozu Li Yuan to Taiyuan and served as armament logistics. Due to his outstanding performance and contribution, he was appointed Shangshu of the Ministry of Works of the Tang Dynasty and was made the Duke of Ying Guo, becoming a high-ranking nobleman of the Tang Dynasty.
Wu Zetian's mother was named Yang and was a Sui dynasty royal family. After she married the samurai, she gave birth to three daughters, the second of which was Wu Zetian. However, two years before Wu Zetian entered the palace, in 635 AD, the samurai died in 635. And the two sons Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang born to Samurai's ex-wife became more and more cold towards their stepmother Yang and three daughters, and other members of the Wu family gradually sided with Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang. In this case, the Yang mother and daughter could only leave Jingzhou and move to the capital Chang'an.
Wu Zetian resolutely entered the court, and the road was full of ups and downs and challenges. Her mother, Yang, was very conflicted at the time, because she knew that once she entered the palace, it would not be easy to gain the favor of the emperor. But in order to solve the family's economic problems, Wu Zetian still boldly stepped into the palace and began an unknown journey. Entering the palace does not change a person's fate, and Wu Zetian's status in the palace is also ups and downs.
Wu Zetian's name is also very special. Until she was 14 years old, she still had no official name and may be called Wu Erya. It wasn't until she died at the age of 80 that people began to call her "Wu Zetian." At the age of 14, because of her charming appearance, Li Shimin gave her the name "Mei", after which she was called Wu Meiniang and was named a five-rank talent. In the harem, the status of the five-pin talent is not high, and outside of the empress and concubines, they generally do not receive the attention and preferential treatment of the emperor.
In the 12 years before Li Shimin's death, Wu Meiniang served the emperor but never had children. During these 12 years, in order to win the emperor's favor, she tried various methods, such as copying Wang Xizhi's calligraphy works. But these efforts did not work, and her status was never improved in the court. Although she later became a queen, it was also under extremely difficult conditions, and the reason why she was not favored for 12 years was not only because of her insufficient efforts, but also because of her background.
Li Shimin has a high IQ and emotional intelligence, and he knows politics and human feelings very well, so he can succeed on the battlefield and in the officialdom. But he also killed many people, including his own family and relatives. However, when Wu Meiniang described to him how she could tame the lion skeleton, he heard something different.
At that time, Wu Meiniang was still very young and did not know much about politics and human relations. She thought that she would be able to gain Li Shimin's favor in this way, but the opposite was true. Li Shimin prefers gentle and charming women, while Wu Meiniang behaves fiercely and intelligently in front of him, which is not easy to get his favor. Maybe Wu Meiniang at that time could not have imagined that she had no chance in front of Li Shimin, until Li Shimin died, she was still a small five-rank talent.
Another reason why Li Shimin abandoned Wu Meiniang was because he had heard about Li Junxian. It is said that in 648 AD, the Taibai Star repeatedly appeared during the day, indicating the king's illness, the courtier's curse of his father, the chaos in the world, etc., which was a great omen. Li Shimin was very nervous, because the relevant departments told him that the divine will embodied in Taibai was "heroine Chang". According to the "secrets" circulating among the people at that time, after the three generations of emperors of the Great Tang, there would be a heroine King Wu who seized Li Tang's world.
Among the military generals who were entertained at that time, there was a self-proclaimed nickname Wuniang named Li Junxian who was discovered by Li Shimin that he was from Wu'an, and his official positions, duties, titles, fiefs, and places of origin all carried the word "Wu". Li Shimin became suspicious of him, and later transferred Li Junxian to Huazhou as a local governor, and put him on the charge of "colluding with demon people and plotting misdeeds" and killed him.
If this record is true, then we can see that in order to maintain his own power, Li Shimin's methods are indeed very cruel. As for the heroine King Wu predicted in the "Secret", it is a situation that is not presented in later history.
In 691, the second year of Wu Zetian's award, Wu Zetianping rebelled against Li Junxian and restored all his official positions, titles, and treatment. But in fact, such actions are intended to hype up the destiny and make people believe that she is the legitimate empress, not an illegal usurper.
Before becoming empress, Wu Zetian was the empress of the Li and Tang dynasties and the number one person in the harem. She ruled the court with the tacit consent of Emperor Gaozong's Li Zhi, but when she replaced Li Tang as the lord of the world, she had to prove her legitimacy. So she used the doctrine of destiny to forge her own legitimacy to prove her status.
The doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven is not only reflected in the Li Junxian incident, but also in many other events. For example, in the 41st Legend of the Old Book of Tang, it is mentioned that the fortune teller Yuan Tiangang predicted that Wu Zetian would become the lord of the world.
But in fact, Li Shimin does not like strong women, and this is the real reason why Wu Zetian fell out of favor. She stayed by Li Shimin's side every day, and he had already seen Wu Zetian's strong character. And Li Shimin needs a weak woman, not a strong woman, which is why Wu Zetian cannot get Li Shimin's favor.
However, Wu Zetian was supported by Li Shimin's son, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi. Emperor Gaozong's character was very different from his father's, and he was a very weak man. Perhaps because of the attraction of the opposite sex, Wu Zetian attracted Li Zhi because of his strength, gradually mastered the power of the Tang Dynasty, and eventually rose to the top to become the only empress in mainland history.
Therefore, although the Li Junxian incident provided a successful case for Wu Zetian to hype the Mandate of Heaven, what really made her empress was her strong character and the favor of Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi. Although people no longer believe in the Mandate of Heaven, what Wu Zetian did in the political struggle of the Tang Dynasty left an indelible mark on history.
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