The story of Empress Wang, Concubine Xiao Shufei, and Wu Zetian feels like status and beauty, losing to love.
The queen has status. She was born into the then noble family of the Taiyuan Wang clan, both of which were military cliques of guanlong nobles; she was made a princess by Emperor Li Shimin when Li Zhi was still a prince; her father Wang Renyou was made the Duke of Wei, and her uncle Liu Yi was the chancellor of the imperial court. Empress Wang's status, whether it was Xiao Shufei or Wu Zetian, was incomparable. Although Princess Xiao Shufei was from the Lanling Xiao clan, and the Lanling Xiao clan was also a noble family, in terms of personal status, she was inferior to the Empress Wang who was being married by the Ming Media. Although Wu Zetian's father, Wu Shiyan, had helped Li Shimin and was the founding father of the country, he was only a businessman, and the merchant himself had no status. At the same time, Wu Zetian was actually Li Zhi's mother-in-law from the generation point of view, and he also became a nun in the temple, and his identity was not different. Therefore, its status is even less than that of The Queen Wang.
Princess Xiao shufei has beauty. Concubine Xiao Shufei should be the most beautiful concubine of the three. Empress Wang may have been beautiful before, but she was old and faded after all. Wu Zetian should not be too beautiful, after expert research, it seems that her figure is somewhat fat, not very beautiful of the category.
Wu Zetian has love. The love of men and women is actually very strange in many cases. If the media is marrying, or if the road of love between two people is smooth, then this feeling of love is often not too strong. On the contrary, if love is not easy to obtain, it is tempered and twisted, then it is very precious. Empress Wang, Concubine Xiao Shufei and Li Zhi were all smooth sailing, and there were no waves. And Li Zhi and Wu Zetian can be said to have gone through countless hardships. When Li Zhi and Wu Zetian fell in love, Wu Zetian was still Li Zhi's mother-in-law, and this feeling was hopeless at the beginning, and ethically speaking, it was deformed. Later, although Li Zhi became emperor, Wu Zetian had been sent to the temple to become a nun. It was not easy to make the nun in the temple vulgar and become the emperor's concubine, and it rarely happened in those days, not to mention that this nun was once his mother-in-law. Therefore, Li Zhi still feels that this feeling is hopeless. In fact, if empress Wang had not vigorously urged Li Zhi to marry Wu Zetian into the palace, Wu Zetian would have basically been unable to return to the palace. Because of hopelessness, nature is full of thoughts, and because of full of thoughts, feelings must appear very sincere.
(Stills of The Queen Of Kings)
Therefore, if you are not familiar with the history of these three people, look at the background of the three people, you will inevitably come to the plot that we said earlier, "status and beauty cannot withstand love".
However, this claim is unreliable and arbitrary.
In fact, what the three of them rely on is very fragile.
No matter how noble Empress Wang's family is, it is not as noble as Li Zhi, the emperor. As long as the emperor says a word, your noble place will not be noble at once. Those you are not noble may soon become noble. As a result, when Li Zhi no longer favored Empress Wang, her family suffered a catastrophe.
The beauty that Xiao Shufei relied on was also unreliable. For women, the most unreliable thing is beauty. Because as you get older, the beauty of any person will disappear. Once it disappears, relying on beauty to capture the heart of the emperor will soon lose the heart of the emperor. And even if you are young and beautiful, you can't rely on it. Because as long as the women who can enter the palace are all beautiful and heavenly immortals. Coupled with delicate makeup, and a youthful atmosphere, no one can be too bad. Therefore, the beauty that Xiao Shufei relied on had already lost its effect when she was not yet old.
The love that Wu Zetian relied on was actually not very reliable. In fact, Wu Zetian and Li Zhi themselves will not be too loving, at least Wu Zetian will not like Li Zhi very much. What she likes is nothing more than Li Zhi's power, when she was seriously ill in Li Shimin, Li Zhi hooked up in time, which already showed that she had ideas, and her life plan was very clear. When the feelings between men and women had a certain purpose, it was difficult to say that true love could appear between them.
And Li Zhi's love for Wu Zetian is more of a strange stimulus. After all, Wu Zetian was Li Zhi's mother-in-law, and Wu Zetian was very decisive, which attracted Li Zhi, and coupled with Wu Zetian's "flattering skills" of "Wu Mei Niang", Li Zhi could not resist even more. At the same time, because Wu Zetian and Li Zhi have been separated for a long time, the distance has produced a sense of beauty and thoughts, and all these things have made Li Zhi have complicated feelings for Wu Zetian.
(Wu Zetian stills)
However, when Wu Zetian returned to the harem and showed Li Zhi her nature of pursuing power, Li Zhi was a little afraid of Wu Zetian. Frightened, he even wanted to abolish Wu Zetian at one point. It can be seen that in the end, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian no longer have any love, but a kind of power and control. Whoever has more power and who has more control has the upper hand between them.
Since these three points were unreliable, then why was Wu Zetian able to defeat Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei in the harem competition for favor?
The fundamental reason is that Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei only regard this battle as a struggle for status within the family. From the very beginning, Wu Zetian regarded this struggle as a political struggle.
Empress Wang just wanted Li Zhi to be able to love her again. But the means used by the queen were completely incompatible with the purpose she wanted to achieve. Empress Wang wants to sit firmly on her own throne, and what she should actually do most is to put herself in the right position. She didn't need to compete with Xiao Shufei for favors at all, let alone shout Wu Zetian back from the temple and rely on Wu Zetian to fight Xiao Shufei. Because even if Wu Zetian could beat Xiao Shufei down, it would be Wu Zetian who won, not empress Wang. For Empress Wang, she only needs to sit firmly on the Diaoyutai, maintain the dignity of the empress, and ensure the stability of the harem, and her goal will be achieved, and Li Zhi will always let her maintain the status of the harem.
Empress Wang did the opposite, instead of ensuring stability, she became a destabilizer of stability. The uproar in the harem was basically provoked by her. How could she gain Li Zhi's favor and maintain the empress's position?
(Siu Shufei stills)
If Princess Xiao shufei wanted to win, she didn't need to fight. Because although Empress Wang is an empress, she has a disadvantage, and this disadvantage is that Empress Wang does not have children. As long as Xiao Shufei stood firm on her own feet and tried her best to curry favor with Empress Wang, so that the emperor could make her son crown prince, at that point, Xiao Shufei's position was stable. Having a son as a prince and replacing empress Wang as the new empress is just around the corner.
Wu Zetian's thinking is very clear, when she first entered the palace, she wanted to try to be a person who kept to herself and had a good relationship with everyone. Therefore, she tried her best to please Empress Wang, but at the same time did not overstiminate Xiao Shufei. Then, Wu Zetian gave birth to Li Zhi. Having children is the most important thing, and only by having children can we consolidate our position. When she had a child and her position was relatively stable, what Wu Zetian had to do was to show weakness in front of Li Zhi, show Li Zhi how Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei bullied her, make Li Zhi sympathize with her, and no longer believe Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei.
The pinnacle of Wu Zetian's sympathy for Li Zhi was that she personally strangled her newborn daughter and blamed it on Empress Wang, thus making Li Zhi extremely distrustful of Empress Wang and seeing Her as an evil embodiment. Through this move, Wu Zetian eventually replaced Empress Wang and obtained the position of empress.
When Wu Zetian won the empress's throne, she did not end it, and used the ultimate move, that is, she killed Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei very quickly and did not let them exist. Because he had already seen Li Zhi's nostalgia for Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei, she would never let this nostalgia continue to happen. Once this happens, the harem may change again. Therefore, she very viciously cut Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei to death.
Then, Wu Zetian's political struggle was not limited to the harem, but extended to the imperial court. She used her superior ability in handling government affairs to set aside Li Zhi, making herself the supreme decision-maker in the affairs of the imperial court, and established close ties with courtiers. At this stage, no one would challenge Wu Zetian's position anymore.
This was the path of Victory for Wu Zetian. She had a lofty vision, a clear goal, a clear line of thought, a crisp way of doing things, and no way back, so she not only defeated Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei, but also defeated Li Zhi, defeated the entire Li Tang family, and became a queen of a generation.