Many friends have heard that a generation of empress Wu Zetian, before her death, set up a "wordless tablet" for herself, that is, a tablet without inscriptions, meaning "a thousand years of merits, let others comment", it is said that this is the origin of the "wordless tablet" of Shaanxi Qianling.
This story is very romantic, very "empress-like", it sounds majestic, and many history buffs believe it, but in fact, this story is fake and deceitful.
Shaanxi Xianyang, Qianling, Wu Zetian's wordless monument
The truth of the matter is actually like this:
Truth 1: Today's Qianling Tomb (Wu Zetian's Mausoleum) in Shaanxi does have a "wordless tablet", but the wordless tablet was not established by Wu Zetian at all, but by his son (Tang Zhongzong) Li Xianli after Wu Zetian's death, so the so-called "Wu Zetian set up a wordless tablet for himself" is wrong and untenable from the root.
As shown in the figure, the wordless tablet is not Wu Zetian's, but Li Xianli's
Truth 2: Although there is no inscription on the wordless stele, it has been carved one by one squares, each square is 4 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide, in other words, it was originally intended to be engraved, but then I don't know why, the engraving was delayed.
Truth 3: Therefore, the real question is not "why did Wu Zetian erect a wordless monument for himself", but "why didn't Li Xian engrave words after he erected a monument for his mother (Wu Zetian)", this is the real problem.
Li Xian: My mother is not easy to evaluate, and the inscription is not easy to write
Truth 4: So, why didn't Li Xian engrave the letter? There is no way to know, but it is generally believed that Li Xian had at least the following two difficulties. One of the hardships: Li Xian disagrees with her mother Wu Zetian's behavior of usurping the throne of the Tang Dynasty, so he can't praise her, but after all, he is his own mother, and it is not right to criticize her, so the inscription is difficult to write. Bitter two: If the inscription is to praise Wu Zetian, then Li Xian is worried that the inscription will be erased by the male rulers of later generations, and if the inscription is to criticize Wu Zetian, then Li Xian will widely offend a large number of courtiers, imperial relatives and other remnants left by Wu Zetian, which is not good for Li Xian.
Truth 5: So to put it simply, the wordless monument is an unfinished project, not Wu Zetian's wordless monument "thousands of merits and demerits, let others comment", it is not so romantic at all.
Wu Zetian's imagination
Truth 6: If you don't want to leave an inscription, then you don't even need to erect a monument, this is common sense, why? Because of "Occam's razor": if it is not necessary, do not add substance. Erecting a wordless monument is equivalent to you clearly planning to never write a letter, but you just buy a large stack of stationery and go home, which is absurd.
Truth 7: Erecting a wordless tablet (empty tablet), allowing future generations to carve words and slander themselves at will, this is not the behavior of intellectually and mentally normal people, so the so-called Wu Zetianli wordless monument means "a thousand years of merits and demerits, let others comment", it is just the conjecture of the folk boring literati, logically speaking, it cannot be established at all.
Truth 8: A more logical version of the story is like this: Li Xian set up a monument for his mother, and originally planned to engrave the inscription, but Li Xian did not think about it carefully, and after setting up the empty monument, before the engraving, Li Xian repeatedly pondered the manuscript of the inscription, and the more he pondered, the more he found that something was wrong, and he gradually realized that the matter was difficult to do, so Li Xian was very cautious about the lettering, and delayed it again and again, and the result was delayed for 5 years, and Li Xian's life was whimpered, so this matter was over, and this narrative was a reasonable inference.
In short, Wu Zetian's wordless monument does not have the implication of "a thousand years of meritorious deeds can be commented on", because the wordless monument was not set up by her Wu Zetian at all, so this statement is not valid at all.