If you say that the protagonist in Chinese history is inseparable from the emperor. As the core of feudal rule, the identity of the emperor has always been highly desired and respected by the people of the world, whether it is an obscure cloth civilian or a general who is wise and courageous, they are ultimately in the service of the emperor. The long-term patriarchal society has given the impression that the emperors are all men, and today's protagonist is the only female emperor in Chinese history--- Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian was born in Wenshui Prefecture (present-day Wenshui County, Shanxi). She was a politician during the Tang dynasty to Wuzhou, the founding emperor of Wuzhou, and the only orthodox female emperor recorded in Chinese history. Wu Zetian lived to be 82 years old, making him one of the longest-lived emperors in Chinese history. Her life is legendary, but she was criticized in the patriarchal society, in that era, it was almost impossible for a woman not to say that she was an emperor, even an official, so Wu Zetian could only be an ordinary harem concubine at the beginning. But before Wu Zetian entered the palace, she had said to her widowed mother, Yang Shi, "Wouldn't it be a blessing to serve the Son of Heaven?" Why do you have to cry and cry and be a child? From this, it can be seen that Wu Zetian is a man of wisdom and courage.
Wu Zetian entered the palace at the age of fourteen, became a talented person of Tang Taizong, and was given the title of "Wu Mei". However, during the taizong period, Wu Zetian did not get the favor of Tang Taizong, so that he was a talented person for twelve years, and his status never improved. However, Wu Zetian secretly had an affair with Li Zhi, the crown prince at the time, when Tang Taizong was seriously ill. In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), after the death of Emperor Taizong of Tang and Li Shimin, Wu Zetian also joined Li Shimin's other concubines in the Ganye Temple as a nun, but during this period he remained in a state of disconnection with Li Zhi.
The first year of Yonghui (650) was the year when Wu Zetian's fate changed. In this year, when Li Zhi went to the Ganye Temple to pay tribute to Li Shimin, he met Wu Zetian. Li Zhi and Wu Zetian recognized each other and poured out their thoughts to each other. At that time, Empress Wang was also present, and understood the meaning of Li Zhi wanting to take Wu Zetian back to the palace, because Empress Wang had been childless, so that the xiao shufei family in the palace was dominant, and in order to attack Xiao Shufei and consolidate her position, Empress Wang took the initiative to request Li Zhi to re-enter the palace with Wu Zetian, and Li Zhi immediately agreed, and in the second year of Yonghui (651), Wu Zetian successfully returned to the palace.
After returning to the palace, Wu Zetian made Li Zhi simply spoiled the heavens, which can be described as responsive. Wu Zetian was also very angry and gave birth to a boy for Li Zhi, named Li Hong. But Wu Zetian was always just a concubine, and there was no other way to improve his status except to slander Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei. Therefore, in the fifth year of Yonghui (654), Wu Zetian used the death of his daughter Princess Andingsi to report to Li Zhi the various sins of Empress Wang, so that Li Zhi had the intention of "deposing Wang Liwu". However, due to the opposition of the prime minister, it was ultimately impossible to achieve anything.
At that time, Li Zhi wanted to "abolish the king and establish the martial arts", in fact, it was also to resist the power of the elder ministers and restore the imperial power. Therefore, Wu Zetian also became Li Zhi's "political partner". Subsequently, Li Yifu first supported the "abolition of Wang Liwu", and the atmosphere in the court gradually changed to support Wu Zetian. It was not until the sixth year of Yonghui (655) that Empress Wang was deposed and Wu Zetian was made the new empress. The incident of "deposing Wang Liwu" dealt a heavy blow to the Guanlong clique of the elder ministers, and the emperor's totalitarianism was once again consolidated.
Since becoming Li Zhi's "political partner", Wu Zetian began to penetrate deeper and deeper into the ruling clique. In the fifth year of Xianqing (660), Li Zhi's head wind attacked, and the pain was unbearable, allowing Wu Zetian to act as the ruler of the dynasty, which undoubtedly contributed to the expansion of Wu Zetian's ambitions. Between the first year of Long Shuo (661) and the second year of Yongchun (683), Wu Zetian's understanding of the major affairs of the dynasty became more and more profound, and his status became more and more prominent, from empress to empress dowager to empress dowager. Wu Zetian's power was growing. Finally, in the first year of tianzhi (690), the Wuzhou regime was established.
Wu Zetian said that the empress continued to show her talent for political domination and rule the country from a female perspective. During her reign, Wu Zhou had a stable policy, detailed military strategy, flourishing culture, and happiness for the people, and historical evaluation believed that she "inherited the legacy of the zhenguan and the rule of the kaiyuan from the next." Historian Mr. Fan Wenlan wrote in the General History of China: "Wu Zetian was a strong and resourceful politician. Unity and strength have been effectively consolidated during the half-century of Wu Zetian's reign, which is her contribution to history. "In the first year of the Shenlong Dynasty (705), a generation of empresses died, and a wordless monument was erected, and the merits were left for posterity to comment.
Although in the early days of his reign, there were also many negative evaluations. For example, in the early days of wu Zetian's reign, she vigorously promoted the style of whistle-blowing, reusing the cool officials Zhou Xing, Lai Junchen and others, and some historians in later generations disdained her behavior of having fun with many men but not being ashamed. However, Wu Zetian, as the only empress in Chinese history, although she was a daughter, she had superhuman strategies and means. We should see more of her contribution to Chinese history and the cool and heroic posture of a generation of empresses.