The place of the ghosts and gods is not tolerated, and the subjects are resentful. --Wang Fuzhi
In China's thousands of years of history, there have been several generations of dynastic changes, but only one orthodox female emperor has emerged, that is, Wu Zetian, and for thousands of years, the legend of Wu Zetian has never stopped. As a female emperor, Wu Zetian has experienced many tribulations along the way, but she has also committed many crimes that make the world disdainful.
At that time, in order to achieve his goal step by step, Wu Zetian had personally killed his own children several times, and everyone who had seen the "Secret History of Wu Zetian" knew that Wu Zetian, played by Yin Tao, suffocated his own princess Anding in the cradle, although there is no direct evidence to prove this in history, but there have been many such speculations from ancient times to the present. Because for the sake of power, in order to further win the trust of the emperor, Wu Zetian could do whatever it took.
Li Hong was the eldest son of Wu Zetian, and after Wu Zetian was made empress, the original crown prince was deposed by the emperor and Made Li Hong, who was only four years old at the time, crown prince.
Li Hong was a man of generosity, although as a prince, he was not arrogant, born in the imperial family, but he did not like those stories of unscrupulous means for power. Li Hong was extremely filial, and when Tang Gaozong was ill, Li Hong even boiled medicine for his father personally, hoping that he could recover his health as soon as possible.
In 675, Li Hong died. When Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian learned of this news, they were so distraught that they posthumously honored Li Hong as crown prince, and eventually buried Li Hong at Gongling with the gift of heavenly son.
But for what reason did this young prince die? Is it really because of too much fatigue to die suddenly? For a long time, Li Hong's death was a question.
Until people unearthed an epitaph in Shaanxi, the written records in it slowly cleared the clouds of doubt in history, and also exposed the animal behavior of Wu Zetian, who did not achieve his goal and did not use any means.
In 1995, the tombstone of Yan Zhuang unearthed in Shaanxi presented key evidence of Li Hong's death. This Yan Zhuang was also a Tang Dynasty man, his father was the famous minister Yan Lide, it is worth noting that the crown prince Li Hong died in 675 AD, but five months later, Yan Zhuang, who had served as the prince's family order, also died mysteriously.
In the excavated Yanzhuang epitaph, there is probably a record of such a passage, which says, "Entangled in the ant bed and the disaster" "with the crane version and died", some experts believe that the ant bed should be the coffin bed, and the owner of the coffin bed is Li Hong, which also shows that Yan Zhuang's death is actually a cause, but also has a great relationship with Li Hong. In this way, it further proves that Li Hong's death was not accidental, but a murder carefully planned by someone, and that person was Wu Zetian, who later became emperor.
According to the history book "Zizhi Tongjian", in 675 AD, The young Man Li Hongba died in the Qiyun Temple, and Sima Qian also recorded that "people thought that the Queen of Heaven was also the emperor", that is to say, many people at that time suspected that Wu Zetian did it, and then the appearance of Yan Zhuang's epitaph corroborated Sima Qian's record, and the original history books were not speculations.
Why did Wu Zetian do this? If in the early years, Wu Zetian wanted to make the emperor care more about himself and further consolidate her position by killing his son because of his unstable status, then she was already an empress at that time, so why did she kill her own son?
No one could have imagined that Li Hong's death actually stemmed from his father's love for him. Because Tang Gaozong's illness became more and more serious, he slowly began to consider the issue of abdicating the throne, and he immediately thought of Li Hong, believing that Li Hong would become a useful emperor and wanted to hand over the throne to Li Hong.
However, Wu Zetian had already seen through Tang Gaozong's intentions, and she already had the idea of becoming emperor in her heart at that time, so at this time, Li Hong once again became a huge obstacle to her progress. For her, only by getting rid of her own son can her plan not be suspended.
Usually, the crown prince needs to compete with his brother for the throne, and he needs to compete with his elders for the throne, but Li Hong did not expect that the person who wanted to compete with him most for the throne was his own mother.
Many people also say that Wu Zetian, as a mother, could have killed Li Hong, but it should be known that in 684, after Wu Zetian came to power, her second son Li Xian was also forced to commit suicide.
The reason why human beings are different from animals, in addition to the reasons why we use tools and have our own language, there is also an important reason, that is, most of our fathers and mothers do not kill and eat their own flesh and bones with their own hands, while Wu Zetian kills his own flesh and bones more than once.
Although Wu Zetian eventually became the first empress with supreme power, she also left unlimited influence in later generations. However, people's evaluation of Wu Zetian is mixed, even Wu Zetian herself left a wordless monument after her death, perhaps she herself feels guilty about the mistakes she has committed, and cannot evaluate her own merits, but let posterity evaluate her according to her own judgment.
References: Zizhi Tongjian, Classic Legend