Mention the name Shangguan Wan'er, now many people may first think of it, is the single mage in a mobile game. But what we want to talk about today is not the Shangguan Wan'er in the game, but the real Shangguan Wan'er in history.
The real Shangguan Wan'er in history has a very legendary life. Not only as a woman, she served as the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, but even claimed to be the most talented woman in the Tang Dynasty.
However, it is such a woman, her whole life, but always deep in the whirlpool of power struggle, it is difficult to extricate herself. From birth to death, Shangguan Wan'er has been living an involuntary life, which really makes posterity sigh.
In 664, Shangguan Wan'er was born in Chang'an. However, at the same time that Shangguan Wan'er was born, the Shangguan family ushered in a major disaster.
The Shangguan family has been an official for generations, and since the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there have been people in high positions. Shangguan Wan'er's great-grandfather had served as the Taishou of Youzhou in Northern Zhou, and his great-grandfather Shangguan Hong had served as the deputy palace supervisor of Jiangdu. His grandfather, Shangguan Yi, entered the throne during the Zhenguan years of the Tang Dynasty, and during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, he was promoted to chancellor.
However, it was this position of prime minister that brought a great disaster to the Shangguan family.
At that time, Li Zhi had been on the throne for a long time, but because he suffered from a headache, he had to ask Empress Wu Zetian to help him take care of the government. However, Wu Zetian, a man with a strong desire for power, began to meddle in the government and became uncontrollable. Gradually, even Li Zhi himself began to feel that Wu Zetian had endangered his imperial throne and began to have the idea of abolishing the throne.
In this regard, The Prime Minister Shangguan Yi naturally fully supports it. Shangguan Yi is the representative of the civilian official group, and even more the representative of the traditional Guan Long shi clan. Wu Zetian's rise to power deprived the traditional Guan Long family of power, and it also harmed the interests of many civilian official groups. Therefore, when Li Zhi showed a hint of the idea of abolishing the posthumous, Shangguan Yi immediately helped Li Zhi write the edict and prepare all the procedures. As soon as Li Zhi gave the order, Wu Zetian would be deposed immediately and lose all power.
But at this critical time, Wu Zetian came.
Wu Zetian had many eyes and ears in the palace, and naturally discovered Li Zhi's plan to abolish the empress. Therefore, at the most critical time, Wu Zetian came to Li Zhi's side, humbly confessed his mistake to Li Zhi, and began to cry to Li Zhi about the difficulties of many years. Li Zhi, this person, everything is good, that is, the ear root is too soft. After Wu Zetian cried like this, Li Zhi completely softened his heart and never mentioned the matter after the abolition.
In this way, Wu Zetian escaped a disaster. A change that could have caused a violent shaking in the court became just an ordinary quarrel between husband and wife. However, in this way, the Shangguan Yi, which had previously been firmly advocated for abolition, became a mirror of the Eight Precepts of the Pig, and it was not a person inside and out. Li Zhi did not think of his benefits, and Wu Zetian hated him because of this.
Soon after, Wu Zetian instructed his cronies to falsely accuse Shangguan Yi of rebellion. In the end, the Shangguan family was raided, and all the family members were confiscated into slavery. At that time, Shangguan Wan'er was still in her infancy, and her grandfather Shangguan Yi and father Shangguan Tingzhi were all killed, and she and her mother became officials and slaves of the court.
The so-called official slaves refer to some slaves who are responsible for doing things in the harem, which is what we commonly call palace women. During the Tang Dynasty, the palace women were generally served by women who had committed crimes, and they were not allowed to leave the harem for a lifetime. For the rest of his life, he will be a slave in the harem until he dies.
Shangguan Wan'er, who was just born, obtained such an identity. Later in life, there seems to be no hope anymore.
Fortunately, however, Shangguan Wan'er had an excellent mother, Zheng Shi. The Zheng family comes from a large family and has a high level of education. Therefore, even as an official slave, the Zheng clan still strictly taught Shangguan Wan'er in her leisure time, so that Shangguan Wan'er received the best education.
It is precisely because of Zheng's persistence that Shangguan Wan'er has given her hope of coming out in the future.
Thirteen years later, once, Wu Zetian was idle in the harem and wanted to test the talents of the palace women, and then he was admitted to the head of Shangguan Wan'er. As a result, Shangguan Wan'er showed a very high cultural attainment, which made Wu Zetian instantly look sideways. After that, Wu Zetian simply pardoned Shangguan Wan'er's slave status and made Shangguan Wan'er his personal secretary!
Shangguan Wan'er thus directly turned over and defeated the original fate.
This experience of Shangguan Wan'er also enlightens us: learning is really a very useful thing. Even in a desperate situation, you must not give up learning.
For Wu Zetian, Shangguan Wan'er can be said to be hated and respected. On the one hand, Wu Zetian was an enemy of the Shangguan family. If it were not for Wu Zetian, the Shangguan family would not have ended up with a broken family, and Shangguan Wan'er would not have been born into slavery. On the other hand, Wu Zetian was shangguan wan'er's benefactor. If it were not for Wu Zetian, Shangguan Wan'er would only be an ordinary court official slave in this life, and she would not have the opportunity to turn over in this life.
This mood is obviously very contradictory. But in the end, Shangguan Wan'er still decided to give up her hatred and work honestly. Because she knew very well that all her status and power came from Wu Zetian. As long as she shows any intention of disobeying Wu Zetian, everything she has will be taken away by Wu Zetian in an instant, and she will become that ordinary official slave, or even lose her life directly.
In the following ten years, Shangguan Wan'er began to do her best to become Wu Zetian's most effective secretary. In order to help Shangguan Wan'er get rid of slavery, Wu Zetian even took the initiative to include the fourteen-year-old Shangguan Wan'er as a talented person of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. Many friends who are familiar with the history of Tang may know that Wu Zetian was the talent of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, and later developed feelings with Li Zhi and was accepted as a concubine by Li Zhi. And decades later, the same thing happened to Shangguan Wan'er again.
In terms of position, Shangguan Wan'er is Li Zhi's woman. However, according to historians, this talented person of Shangguan Wan'er may really be just a simple harem female official, and nothing happened to Li Zhi. There are also many historians who speculate that Wu Zetian may have been like this at that time, after entering the palace, he only became a female official, and did not have anything to do with Tang Taizong Li Shimin, so he would be accepted by Li Zhi later.
As Wu Zetian's secretary, Shangguan Wan'er was deeply loved by Wu Zetian. Even once, Shangguan Wan'er committed a crime and should be executed according to the law, but in the end, Wu Zetian chose to pardon her, but only tortured her, and continued to use her repeatedly afterwards.
Especially after Wu Zetian was later proclaimed emperor, Shangguan Wan'er became Wu Zetian's imperial literati. Wu Zetian's edicts were basically from the hands of Shangguan Wan'er. In 696, as Wu Zetian grew older and more difficult to handle the government, Wu Zetian directly asked Shangguan Wan'er to help her handle the performance of hundreds of officials and participate in the decision-making of the government. At this time, Shangguan Wan'er was no different from the prime minister.
Although she is a woman's body, Shangguan Wan'er has shown outstanding means and mixed well in the official arena. Not only did he win the favor of Wu Zetian, but he also wandered among the various forces in the court. Friends who are familiar with this history of the Tang Dynasty should know that in the later period of Wu Zetian's reign, the political struggle at the top of the Tang Dynasty was quite fierce. However, during this period, Shangguan Wan'er was always able to move between all parties and make all the forces trust her. I have to say that this is really a miracle.
In 705, at the age of 42, the Shenlong coup broke out. Some ministers, led by the chancellor Zhang Kamzhi, suddenly launched a mutiny, supporting the crown prince Li Xian's ascension to the throne and forcing Wu Zetian to return the throne to Li Xian. At this point, Wu Zetian completely surrendered his power.
From being removed from slavery by Wu Zetian at the age of fourteen to the Shenlong coup at the age of forty-two, Shangguan Wan'er served Wu Zetian for 28 years and has always been deeply trusted by Wu Zetian. Moreover, in the past 28 years, Shangguan Wan'er has also accumulated strong political capital. Although it is the body of a woman, it is also of high power and status equivalent to that of the prime minister.
Therefore, after Li Xian regained the throne, instead of deposing Shangguan Wan'er, he continued to let Shangguan Wan'er take charge of the original work. In the midst of such a violent court turmoil, Shangguan Wan'er was able to maintain her position and even gain Li Xian's trust, which was simply incredible.
Not only that, but what is even more incredible is that in order to win over Shangguan Wan'er, Li Xian actually directly incorporated Shangguan Wan'er directly into his harem and made him his own Zhaorong!
At that time, Wu Zetian was a talented person of Li Shimin, and was later made a concubine by Li Shimin's son Li Zhina; now Shangguan Wan'er has been a talented person of Li Zhi, and is also a concubine by Li Zhi's son Li Xianna. This family is really interesting.
After the Li Xian's era, Shangguan Wan'er continued to play her long-sleeved and good dancing personality, and all the forces were very fond of her. Li Xian's empress Dowager Wei and her daughter Princess Anle both had deep trust in Shangguan Wan'er. Moreover, Shangguan Wan'er even became a political ally of Empress Wei, repeatedly persuading Empress Wei to imitate Wu Zetian and become the second female emperor.
In order to help Wei Hou achieve this goal, Shangguan Wan'er even took the initiative to introduce Wu Sansi, the leader of the martial family, and met Wei Hou. Under the concatenation of Shangguan Wan'er, Wei Hou formed a strong political alliance with the Wu family. Several of the heroes of the Shenlong coup were all exiled and deposed; even the crown prince Li Chongjun was completely suppressed. In the end, the crown prince Li Chongjun even had to take the initiative to rebel, hoping to kill Wei Hou and the Wu family, but in the end he only killed the Wu family, but failed to kill Wei Shi. Even he himself was eventually killed.
Under the operation of Shangguan Wan'er, Wei Shi became more and more powerful in the court. Even Li Xian himself began to gradually lose control of the court. In 710, Li Xian died suddenly. After that, Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping joined forces to draft a will for Li Xian, making Li Xian's son Li Chongmao emperor.
Since the death of Wu Zetian, just a few years later, the top level of the Tang Dynasty has changed, and almost all of them have the shadow of Shangguan Wan'er behind them. After this series of operations by Shangguan Wan'er, he not only helped Wei Shi grasp all the power, but also became one of the most powerful people in the Tang Dynasty.
Once Wei Shi became the second Wu Zetian, Shangguan Wan'er's status would be raised again, becoming one person below and above ten thousand people in the true sense.
However, during Shangguan Wan'er's planning, she missed one point, that is, Li Longji, the son of Li Dan, the King of Xiang. Although Li Longji was young at that time, he had a wide network of contacts in the capital. After Li Xian's death, Li Longji learned that Wei Shi was going to emulate Wu Zetian and become the second female emperor, so he began to connect various forces in the capital, and finally united with Princess Taiping, launched a coup d'état, directly attacked the palace, and killed Wei Shi.
Shortly after Li Longji had just invaded the palace, Shangguan Wan'er came to Li Longji with the edict she had drafted earlier, proving that in fact, it was the Li family who was really loyal. I have to say that Shangguan Wan'er really did not leak anything, even at this time, she still left a backhand.
However, this time, Shangguan Wan'er never expected that the Li Longji she met was an equally shrewd person. Li Longji knew very well how much energy Shangguan Wan'er had in the tang dynasty's political arena for decades as a woman. Moreover, Shangguan Wan'er is really too knowledgeable about the wind and rudder, and has been wandering between various forces for many years. Such a person, if left, there are too many variables.
So in the end, Li Longji directly ordered the execution of Shangguan Wan'er, a generation of female prime ministers, and thus the incense disappeared and he completed his life.
Throughout Shangguan Wan'er's life, from the time she was an infant, she was involved in the power struggle at the highest level of the Tang Empire. However, in the face of her own fate, Shangguan Wan'er rebelled again and again, and eventually became a generation of female prime ministers. If you look at the political skills alone, Shangguan Wan'er is actually very powerful, not inferior to those male celebrities in history, and definitely an excellent politician. Moreover, the talent of Shangguan Wan'er herself is extremely amazing, leaving many articles to pass down, and is praised by later generations as one of the four talented women in ancient times.
But at the same time, after years of wandering between various forces, she lost her fundamental position, so she eventually died at the hands of Li Longji.
Such a legendary woman, her life, there are really too many places worth pondering for posterity.