When the biography of Empress Liu in the History of Song finally commented on Empress Liu, she said that Empress Liu had the power of Lü Wu, but not the evil of Lü Wu. It means that Empress Liu had the ability of Lü Hou and Wu Zetian, but she was not as bad as Lü Hou and Wu Zetian, and did not do so many bad things. Quoting this evaluation here, the main thing to explain is that Lü Hou and Wu Zetian are indeed called together in history.
Lü Hou was Liu Bang's married wife before starting a business, who had been captured by Xiang Yu in the Chu-Han War, and was imprisoned for several years, she served her father-in-law Liu Taigong in prison, and also took her own son and daughter, the daughter was Princess Lu Yuan, and later the price of Zhang Ao, the king of Zhao, and the son was the later Han Hui Emperor Liu Ying.
In his later years, Liu Bang once thought of replacing the crown prince, and wanted to replace Liu Ying with his favorite concubine Qi Jisheng's son Zhao Wang Ruyi and make him crown prince. But after thinking about it again and again, Liu Bang thought about it again and again, and finally did not make up his mind to do so.
One of the important reasons is that Lü Hou participated in the process of Liu Bang's entrepreneurship, and her brothers and nephews were all members of the Han Dynasty Meritorious Heroes Group, so she could get the support of the Han Siyuan Group, and Liu Ying's succession to the throne helped maintain the political stability of the Han Dynasty. Qi Ji was a favorite concubine picked up by Liu Bang halfway through, and had no foundation, and if King Ruyi of Zhao succeeded to the throne, he might become a puppet of the Chengchen clique.
Lü Hou also did something that was more helpful to Liu Bang, and it was she who killed Han Xin.
Han Xin was one of the three masters of the early Han Dynasty, and a very important reason why Liu Bang was able to defeat Xiang Yu in the Chu-Han War was the role of Han Xin. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang began to suppress Han Xin, first demoting him from King of Qi to King of Chu, and then, under the pretext of touring, tricked Han Xin into coming to the court, and took advantage of Han Xin's lack of preparation when he was not ready to see him, took Han Xin away, took him back to Luoyang, and put him under house arrest in the capital. However, Lü Hou took advantage of Liu Bang's expedition to kill Han Xin to avoid any trouble. This made Liu Bang look at her with astonishment.
After Liu Bang's death, Liu Ying succeeded him, and Lü Hou began to interfere in the government. First, Lü Hou executed Qi Ji, who had threatened her position, in a very cruel way, and then married the daughter of Princess Lu Yuan to Liu Ying as empress, which was equivalent to letting Liu Ying marry her niece.
At the same time, Empress Lü vigorously promoted her brothers and nephews Lü Chan, Lü Lu and others to control military power. By the time of Liu Ying's death, Lü Hou had been in power for a while, which was actually equivalent to having the power of an emperor, only one emperor's name.
After Lü Hou's death, the eunuch Zhou Bo consulted with Chen Pingren, claiming that the son of Liu Ying, who was in power, was not Liu Yingsheng and came from an unknown source, launched a coup d'état, netted all the people involved in the Lü family, and then installed Liu Heng as emperor, the acting king born of Bo Ji, who was not favored by Liu Bang during his lifetime, and almost completely negated the Lü period.
Wu Zetian entered the palace during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, but his status was not high and he was not favored, but by chance, he met Li Zhi, the King of Jin, who was younger than her. After crown princes Chengqian and Wei Wangtai were deposed, Li Zhi was made crown prince.
After Emperor Taizong's death, Li Zhi succeeded to the throne as Emperor Gaozong. Emperor Gaozong did not forget his old feelings and took Wu Zetian back to the palace. At this time, Empress Wang and Emperor Gaozong's favorite concubine Xiao Shufei fought, and in the end, both were defeated, and Wu Zetianyu won the favor and was finally made empress.
Emperor Gaozong's health was not good in the middle and late period, and Wu Zetian began to help Emperor Gaozong deal with the imperial government. After a while, she simply went up to the court with Li Zhi to receive the courtiers, known in history as the Second Saint Linchao.
After Emperor Gaozong's death, Wu Zetian's two sons Li Xian were made emperor, and Wu Zetian deposed him and replaced him with his younger son Li Dan. After a while, she deposed Li Dan and directly ascended the throne as emperor, becoming the only female emperor in Chinese history who matched her name.
In the middle and late period of Emperor Gaozong, when she began to participate in the handling of imperial politics, she began to gain power, purged and replaced the imperial court ministers, and successively attacked, denigrated, and executed Shangguan Yi, Chu Suiliang, and others who opposed her interference in politics, and replaced them with Xu Jingzong and others who greeted her to help her control the imperial court. After Emperor Gaozong's death, she carried out a large-scale purge and suppression of the Li clan, and at the same time promoted her own sons and nephews to key positions, completing the preparation for the title of emperor.
In his later years, Wu Zetian had considered whether to make her son Li Xian, the Prince of Luling, crown prince, or her nephew Wu Yousi, and even had the idea of appointing her daughter Princess Taiping as the empress dowager and then becoming empress dowager.
However, under the persuasion of Di Renjie and others, she finally chose to make her son Li Xian, the Prince of Luling, crown prince. In his later years, Zhang Kamzhi, Jinghui and others launched the Shenlong coup, Wu Zetian abdicated, and Li Xian took the throne. Three years later, Wu Zetian died.
After Lü Hou's death, the Gongchen clique retaliated against the Lü family, and Lü Hou's family was almost exterminated. After Wu Zetian abdicated, her brothers, nephews, and other Wu clan relatives who she promoted were also liquidated and attacked. Except for Wu Sansi, who had passed through Li Xian's empress Dowager Wei through Shangguan Wan'er to avoid death, most of the other Wu clan members were also killed or degraded.
During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong, Wu Sansi and Empress Wei had an affair, and once again their power was in full swing. After Emperor Zhongzong's death, Empress Wei wanted to emulate Wu Zetian, and when the empress dowager, Li Dan's son Li Longji, launched a coup d'état and killed Empress Wei and others, and Wu Sansi was also killed.
That is to say, after the death of Lü Hou and wu Zetian, their people were liquidated and attacked, and many people were killed, and there was not much difference in this regard.
If there is any difference, it is only that the Lü family was almost completely killed, and the Lü family's status as a hero of Si Yuancong was also erased, while the Wu Zetian family survived for a while because Wu Sansi thought about his own use of power, and almost overturned after Emperor Zhongzong's death. But this had little to do with Wu Zetian, but because Wu Sansi's own power was successful.
(Circle cards have been added here, please check out the today's headlines client)