In Chinese history, there have been three strong women, namely Lü Hou (Lü Jie), Wu Zetian and Cixi.
Although all three of them had their own unique side, there was no doubt that at that time they all held the highest power in the dynasty. They have done some things that help the stability of the dynasty, and they have done some things that are not conducive to the stability of the dynasty, and they have done a lot of merit, but their final outcome is very different.
Lü Hou and Cixi held the power of life and death until their deaths, that is, the highest power of the dynasty, and naturally no one dared to challenge it. But after their deaths, the Lü family's forces were uprooted, and men, women, and children were killed. And Empress Dowager Cixi, after her death, left a rolling name, and even the grave was planed.
Only Wu Zetian was also the only empress among the three strong women who successfully became emperor, and the only one who handed over the highest power when she was still alive. If you think about it, her destructive power to the entire dynasty is greater than the other two in some ways, although the late Qing Dynasty is very depressed, but the good and evil imperial court is still there, and the Tang Dynasty has been replaced by Wu Zhou.
But why did no one dare to move her after she lost her supreme power, and even after her death, the samurai family was saved?
Although when Lü Hou was alive, no one dared to challenge her authority, but the people walked in the tea, and from the moment she lost her power and life, the Lü family was already doomed:
"Then the people's branch was sent to arrest all the men and women of The Lu Dynasty, and all the young men and women were beheaded."
However, Wu Zetian's fate was much better, although she also had a similar personality to Lü Hou and had also massacred officials and political enemies. However, after the Shenlong coup, although Wu Zetian was placed under house arrest, the successor emperor Zhongzong Li Xian did not embarrass her, and still visited her every ten days. Even after her death, she did not take revenge on the martial family, but continued to reuse Wu Sansi and others to maintain the prosperity of the martial family.
So, was it Li Xianren, or did Wu Zetian make plans for the martial family in advance?
In fact, the biggest difference between Wu Zetian and Lü Hou is that Wu Zetian has a son, and in the later period of his reign, she did have the move to return the government to the Tang Dynasty.
In the end, it is because Wu Zetian has high-ranking people around him, and it is very likely that he even learned the lessons of the Lü family's eventual failure. Lü Hou was a person with a heavy desire for power, and when he was alive, he did not allow others to interfere with his power, and even if he was dying, he did not want to return his power to the Liu family:
"In the middle of July, Empress Gao was seriously ill, so she made Lü Lu, the king of Zhao, a general in the northern army; and King Lü was born in the southern army."
Lü Hou did not understand the way to lose, thinking that as long as he controlled the military power, he would be able to smile at jiuquan, so when he was seriously ill, he also ordered Lü Lu to command the northern army and Lü Chan to command the southern army.
When Lü Hou was alive, the other ministers did not dare to make a mistake, but you were all dead, and after all, these ministers had followed Liu Bang to fight the world. Therefore, after Lü Hou's death, under the command of Chen Ping, Zhou Bo and other veteran generals, the Lü family was uprooted.
At the beginning, Wu Zetian also promoted the Wu family after learning from Lü, and even planned to make his nephew Wu Sansi or Wu Chengsi the crown prince.
In order to clear the way for her nephew, she also wantonly suppressed the Li Tang family members, and even her own son Li Xian died inexplicably.
If Wu Zetian insisted on this choice, I think her fate would be even worse than That of Lü Hou. After Lü Hou died, the Lü family was liquidated, and Wu Zetian was most likely liquidated after the Shenlong coup, while she was still alive.
Wu Zetian was relatively obedient to the advice of the ministers, and among the ministers she promoted, there were also many sages who dared to speak out. Therefore, when Wu Zetian was older, he consulted with The Prime Minister Di Renjie about who was the crown prince.
Di Renjie also gave Wu Zetian moral and legal advice:
"Your Majesty's son, after a thousand years of age, will be eaten by the Temple, and the inheritance will be infinite; the nephew will not be heard of as the Son of Heaven and the one who is in the temple."
Wu Zetian weighed the pros and cons, examined the opinions of other ministers and the people, and felt that Li Tang's foundation in the people was still very deep, so he agreed to Di Renjie's suggestion.
This is the most obvious difference between her and Lü Hou, in the late period of Lü Hou's reign, the Liu family and the Lü family were already in the same situation, but she did not know how to delegate power, and eventually the contradictions accumulated more and more seriously, and they were out of control.
Wu Zetian, on the other hand, was able to judge the hour and size up the situation, and perceived that the world was still Li Tang's, so when he still had the ability to make decisions, he set the matter behind him.
Wu Zetian was still quite able to give birth, and gave birth to four sons, two of whom became emperors, one was Li Xian, and the other was Li Dan.
Li Xian was still ambitious, and when he was emperor, he listened to Empress Wei's words and promoted the Wei family to fight against the Wu family, and was eventually deposed by Wu Zetian.
Li Dan instigated some of them, seeing that his brothers were dead and ruined, so when he was emperor, he obeyed Wu Zetian's words and did not say a word of superfluous words. In the end, it is estimated that Wu Zetian also felt that he was not as good as an emperor, and simply came by himself.
When Wu Zetian was emperor, the crown prince was deposed Li Dan, but as I said just now, this emperor's ability is still a little worse. Therefore, after Di Renjie woke up the dreamer with a word, Wu Zetian changed back to Li Xian as crown prince, planning to return the government to Li Tang after his death.
Even, Wu Zetian left a legacy for himself:
"Go to the emperor's trumpet, call the Heavenly Great Saint Empress." Wang, Xiao and the relatives of Chu Suiliang, Han Yan, and Liu were all pardoned. ”
It can be seen from this that whether there is a Shenlong coup or not, the final world is still Li Xian's, so why is there still a Shenlong coup?
According to the historical records, it was Wu Zetian who fainted in his later years, favored Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, and even later the two Zhang gradually controlled the government and suppressed the xianliang ministers, which triggered the rebellion of Zhang Kamzhi and other ministers.
On the surface, it seems that the ministers were worried that after Wu Zetian's death, Erzhang would be so flying and flappy that the matter of returning the government to Li Xian would be in vain, so they staged an early coup, forced the old lady to retire, and helped Li Xian to take the throne.
In fact, there are the small calculations of the ministers in it:
In fact, Erzhang also supported Li Xian as emperor, after all, this was decided by Wu Zetian, and they were just tools that Wu Zetian used to balance the courtiers. If he waited safely and steadily until Wu Zetian died, Erzhang would most likely be a person with meritorious service.
However, this kind of ending is obviously not what Zhang Kamzhi and others hope to see, and even if they can't wait for this day, they may be killed by Erzhang.
If a coup is launched, let Wu Zetian hand over power in advance, how to calculate, how to calculate:
The group of ministers got rid of the two sheets and replaced them with Li Xian, who was better at talking, not only had the merit of supporting the establishment, but also everyone said that in the future, the court was also what everyone said.
Li Xian, on the other hand, was the most indebted, and could have waited a few more days to become emperor, but now he had to take up his post in advance, and he had to bear the reputation of filial piety. More importantly, five kings were sealed at once, riding on their own heads, and there was still no real power above the court, how to calculate how to lose.
Therefore, when the Shenlong coup broke out on the day, Zhang Kamzhi and others led the army to find Li Xian and let him enter the palace, and Li Xian was very reluctant:
"When the fierce erection is destroyed, the upper body is uneasy, and there is no alarm!" The princes are more in the picture. ”
That is to say, the eradication of the villain should indeed be, but the emperor is not in good health, so entering the palace will disturb her, or from the long-term perspective, forget it.
It was already at this time, how could Zhang Kamzhi and others stop here, even if they had to put Li Xian in front of Wu Zetian.
At this time, Wu Zetian's deterrent power was reflected, and it could be regarded as her great wisdom.
As soon as she saw so many people coming in, she immediately sat up and asked the people who came in:
"Who is evil among the rioters?"
Meaning, what, is someone going to rebel?
This sentence is very powerful, if the answer is that no one is rebelling, then why are you here?
If there is a rebellion in the answer, then it is good, it is all characterized as rebellion, which is a major sin of the Nine Tribes. Therefore, the ministers also played a stirring spirit, and Zhang Kamzhi also hurriedly answered:
"Zhang Yizhi and Chang Shou plotted rebellion, and the ministers were ordered by the crown prince to rebuke them, for fear of leakage, so they did not dare to hear about it." Call the forbidden soldiers' palace, and the sin should be killed! ”
Zhang Kamzhi was not stupid, if he really moved Wu Zetian, his life would not be wanted, after all, the successor was Wu Zetian's son Li Xian.
And Wu Zetian also knew that the matter had reached this point, there was no need to struggle anymore, and simply agreed to abdicate the throne immediately and pass the throne to Li Xian. So on the third day of the Shenlong coup, Wu Zetian issued an edict to abdicate, Li Xian once again ascended the throne as emperor, and Zhang Kamzhi and five other ministers were made the king of the county and appointed as the same chancellor.
When Wu Zetian abdicated, she was already 82 years old, and she had no power in her hands, because there was an emperor, and the ministers naturally did not dare to move her easily, so why did Li Xian not dare to move Wu Zetian?
In addition to Wu Zetian being his own mother-in-law, let alone moving her, even if he is a little sluggish, he will also be spurned by the people of the world, and he really does not need to carry such a hat of filial piety.
Then there is the legitimacy of Li Xian's ascension to the throne:
Did Li Xian take the throne from Wu Zetian or from his father Li Zhi?
Obviously the former, after all, the Shenlong coup was to force Wu Zetian to hand over power:
"Jia Chen, make the prince oversee the country, forgive the world."
Since he had taken the throne from Wu Zetian, the legitimacy of the throne had a basis, which was why Li Xian often took hundreds of officials to visit his mother at Shangyang Palace after he ascended the throne.
Including the later Zhu Yuanzhang, his parents and brothers, most of them lost their lives, he hated the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty so much, and the banner of the Northern Expedition was also:
"Expel Hu Yu, restore China, establish a program and Discipline, and relieve the Si people."
When he wanted to become emperor, he realized the legitimacy of the throne, so he began to implement an enlightened ethnic policy, as long as the Mongols married han Chinese, they could be treated equally. Even some ethnic minorities could go to the imperial court to become officials, and their purpose was to recognize the legitimacy of the Yuan Dynasty in order to fulfill their own orthodoxy.
After all, Li Xian was a normal person, who knew filial piety and forbearance, and Wu Zetian was his mother no matter what he said. Therefore, when I went to visit my mother later, I found that my mother was emaciated, and I realized that she had something to say:
"I welcomed Ru from Fangling, and I fixed the world to grant Ru Yi, and the five thieves were greedy for merit, and I was shocked to this point."
Only then did Li Xian understand that Wu Zetian was going to give him the throne, otherwise he would not have taken him to Beijing to wait. Zhang Kamzhi and others, obviously greedy for merit, their motives are not pure, and they are illegal, and they hope that Li Xian will not be coerced by them.
Later, when Li Xian was in power, he began to reuse Wu Sansi, Shangguan Wan'er, and others, and after Wu Zetian's death, he eliminated the "Five Kings" clique.
Before Wu Zetian died, he also called Li Xian to his side, asking him to cancel his title as emperor and change it to "Zetian Dasheng Empress", and was buried with her husband Li Zhi to enjoy the sacrifice of Li Tangzong Temple.
At the same time, she also asked Li Xian to forgive Empress Wang, Xiao Shufei's clansmen, and Chu Suiliang, who had been convicted in the struggle to depose Wang Liwu, and other clansmen.
Finally, she called Li Xian to him and said something into his ear:
"Emperor, beware of Empress Wei."