Chapter 183: Wu Zetian 1
In the later years of Tang Taizong, he was troubled by the problem of the crown prince, and the prince Li Chenggan and the king of Wei Li Tai fought inwardly, and as a result, the prince and the king of Wei were abolished, and finally the ninth son Li Zhi, the king of Jin, was appointed as the crown prince. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
After the death of Tang Taizong, Li Zhi ascended the throne for Tang Gaozong. At the beginning of his reign, he continued to implement the various economic systems formulated by Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and worked with his eldest grandson Wuji and Chu Suiliang to assist the government. Their monarchs and ministers all kept in mind Taizong's testament and will, and pursued the unswerving instructions of Taizong to advise and love the people.
Tang Gaozong's monarchs and ministers followed the rules and regulations, and implemented them in accordance with the laws and regulations of Tang Taizong, so during the Yonghui period, the border was stable, the people were stable, and there was the legacy of Zhenguan, which was known as the rule of Yonghui in history, and during his reign, the territory of the Tang Dynasty was also the largest.
Wu Zetian is the only female emperor of China, an outstanding woman with supreme talent and superhuman intelligence, but also ruthless. During her reign, she appointed cool officials to rule her dynasty by forceful means, replacing Li Tang Jiangshan, and her dynasty was called Zhou.
Wu Zetian, whose real name is Wu Zhao, was changed to Wu Cao after being called the emperor. Wu Zetian was born in the family of the nouveau riche eunuch, and her illustrious power and luxurious life nourished her unlimited desire for power. However, in the early Tang Dynasty, the style of the gate valve of the scholar clan was prevalent, and the family of the Wu clan and her humble background made her suffer from the contempt of the vulgar and unwilling to be buried.
This special circumstance and encounter strongly stimulated the young Wu Zetian, and cultivated her arrogant pursuit and grabbing the highest power in order to achieve self-obedience and revenge for everything with ruthlessness and unscrupulous means.
Wu Zetian has been smart and sensitive since he was a child, extremely good at expression, and has superhuman courage. Her father felt that she was a talented person, so he taught her to read and write, so that she could understand the world. When Wu Zetian was thirteen or fourteen years old, she was already well-read, well-read and memorized, and her poetry and songs had also laid a certain foundation, and she was good at calligraphy, and her characters were outstanding.
In the eleventh year of Zhenguan, the fourteen-year-old Wu Zetian was selected into the palace and was named a talented person with his handsome appearance. After entering the palace, Wu Zetian acted capably, empathetic, and beautiful, which won the favor of Taizong, so he was given the name Wu Meiniang.
After a long time, Tang Taizong found that Wu Zetian was very knowledgeable and knew etiquette, so he transferred her from the ranks of the waiters to wait for Wenmo in the imperial study. This change made Wu Zetian begin to contact the royal documents, learned about some palace affairs, and was able to read many books and regulations that were not easy to see, and his vision was broadened, and he became more and more familiar with officialdom and power.
Tang Taizong died, and Wu Zetian and all the concubines were sent to Chang'an Ganye Temple to cut their hair and become nuns. After Taizong's ninth son, Li Zhitang Gaozong, ascended the throne, because he had a secret relationship with Wu Zetian earlier, he was very interested in her, so he often traveled to and from Ganye Temple, and two or three years later re-summoned Wu Zetian to become an official, and was named Zhaoyi, and entered the number Concubine Chen, competing for favor with Queen Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu, and slandering each other.
Wu Zetian, who was greatly favored by Gaozong, won the battle in the inner palace and urged Gaozong to establish himself as the queen. However, in feudal society, the abolition of the empress was a major national event that needed to be discussed with important ministers. When Gaozong explained his plan to abolish the empress Wang and establish Wu Zetian as the empress to Zhu Suiliang, the eldest grandson Wuji and other veteran ministers, he was immediately met with strong opposition. They believed that the Wu family was from a humble background and was not suitable to be made an empress.
However, Gaozong's proposition was also supported by Wu Zetian's accomplice Xu Jingzhong, as well as some important officials in the DPRK and China, such as Li Yifu and Xu Shi. With their help, Gaozong finally issued an edict in October of this year, abolishing the empress Wang and officially canonizing Wu Zetian as the empress. Since then, all the power of the royal inner palace has fallen into the hands of Wu Zetian.
After Wu Zetian ascended the throne of the queen, he was witty and shrewd, and his strengths in literature and history were greatly exerted, which made Gaozong look at her differently. She also took advantage of her status as the queen, the emperor's favor for her, and actively participated in court politics. She tried to eliminate her political opponents, belittled Shangshu's right servant and shot Zhu Suiliang, causing him to die of depression; deposed the eldest grandson Wuji of the same Zhongshu sect and forced him to hang himself; and dismissed the supporters of Zhu Suiliang and the eldest grandson Wuji of the court, consolidating and expanding her influence and power, and removing obstacles to her participation in politics.
Gaozong Li Zhi couldn't see because he suffered from phoenix dazzle, so he issued an edict to entrust Empress Wu to assist in political affairs. Since then, Wu Zetian has been in power from participating in politics, and although he is behind the scenes, he has controlled the real power of the imperial court. Later, Gaozong regretted it, tried to take back the power, and secretly ordered the Zhongshu Shilang Shangguan Yi to abolish the edict. How do you know that the opportunity is not secret, the martial queen is ruthless, the first strike is strong, and Shangguan Yi is immediately executed, Gaozong's move fell short, but it made the martial queen more vigilant.
Because Wu Zetian handled government affairs in a disciplined manner, unlike Gaozong, who hesitated for a long time, she was respected by the ministers. Although Gaozong hated her for acting alone, many national affairs could not help but rely on her, so that Empress Wu gradually moved from behind the scenes to the foreground, and even went to the Purple Hall with Gaozong and accepted the worship of the ministers together. Gaozong is called the emperor, the queen is the queen of heaven, the people of the world call them the two saints, since then Gaozong is nothing, and the authority is in the hands of Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian began to rule as the queen of heaven, and in the sixteen years when he was officially proclaimed emperor, Wu Zetian made a lot of long-term preparations for becoming emperor and took a variety of powerful and effective measures. First of all, in the succession to the throne, Gaozong wanted to Zen in the eldest son Li Hong, and the Empress Wu did not miss the love of mother and son, poisoned Li Hong, and made the second son Li Xian the crown prince.
Li Xian was appointed by Gaozong to be in charge of the country, and he was quite capable in handling government affairs, and the Empress Wu abolished Li Xian as a concubine and appointed his third son Li Xian as the crown prince. After the death of Gaozong, Zhongzong Li Xian just succeeded to the throne, and Empress Wu was in the name of the empress dowager to call the dynasty, and a year later he abolished Zhongzong, changed the title of King Luling, and set up the fourth son Li Dan as the emperor, which is Ruizong. Li Xian and Li Dan are both mediocre and incompetent, and they are also puppets on the emperor's throne, and they are subject to the Empress Wu everywhere.
Traditionally and in terms of public opinion, it is necessary to crack down on and weaken the bureaucracy of the Shi clan that has always opposed itself, and to nurture and rely on the emerging landlord class of the Shu nationality. In this way, the bureaucrats of the noble clan no longer have the superior conditions for being officials, nor can they do whatever they want because of their noble birth, and the officials from the Shu clan will no longer be humiliated and humiliated because of their poor background.
Changing the official name, changing the eastern capital Luoyang to the divine capital, ascending the throne and becoming the emperor for himself, establishing a new order, taking an important step, and expressing his supreme power to the whole country. These new policy measures of Empress Wu were soon opposed by the Li clan and many nobles and bureaucrats.
Xu Jingye, the assassin of Liuzhou, summoned hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to take the lead in Yangzhou, and the famous book "Seeking Wu Cao" spread all over the country. Li Chong, the king of Langyu of the clan, was in Bozhou, and Li Zhen, the king of Yue, also rebelled against the military in Yuzhou and raised troops to fight. Under her direct command, these rebellions were quickly quelled, and the main perpetrators such as Xu Jingye, Li Chong, and Li Zhen were either killed on the battlefield or were killed, and none of them were spared. The terrifying slashing and extensive strains fully exposed the ruthlessness and decisiveness of the martial queen.
In 690 A.D., Wu Zetian believed that the conditions were ripe for coming to the throne in person, and first used the mouth of the Buddhist monk Fa Ming to create public opinion: "Empress Wu is the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha, and the contemporary Tang Dynasty is the Son of Heaven." ”
Then he directed again, and the 60,000 subjects led by Tang Ruizong persuaded him to change the country's name. At this point, it was a matter of course, and the Empress Tianwu ascended to the throne in the voice of the heavens and obedience to the public opinion, realized her long-cherished wish, changed the Tang Dynasty to Zhou, and became the emperor herself, at this time she was already sixty-seven years old.
If it is said that Wu Zetian has participated in politics and ruled for more than 30 years before becoming emperor, he has shown amazing strategies and means. Then, in the more than ten years after becoming emperor, she more fully demonstrated her outstanding talent and courage in employing people, handling affairs, governing the country and other aspects.
After Wu Zetian became emperor, she paid more attention to the selection and use of talents. In order to recruit talents, she developed and perfected the imperial examination system since the Sui Dynasty, allowing self-promotion as officials, trial officials, and the establishment of foreign officials. In addition, she also pioneered the palace examination and martial arts system, which created favorable conditions for more and more talents to be discovered and collected from the Tang Dynasty.
Wu Zetian also attaches great importance to agricultural production. She said: "The foundation of the founding of the country must be in agriculture, and if we do farming, we will cultivate the fields, and if we cultivate the fields, we will have more corn, and if we have more corn, we will be rich." ”
During her reign, agriculture and handicrafts were greatly developed, and the population continued to increase. According to the statistics at that time, the number of households in the country was 3.8 million in Yonghui, and by the first year of Shenlong, when Wu Zetian was dying, it gradually increased to 6.15 million households, almost doubling.
During the nearly half century that Wu Zetian was in power, there were also many mistakes. After taking power, he suspected that his subjects were not loyal to him, so he appointed Suo Yuanli, Zhou Xing, Lai Junchen and other cool officials, and made a lot of noise, harshly extorted confessions, rewarded whistleblowers, and although some political enemies were eliminated, they also killed many innocents indiscriminately, making many filthy officials rampant.
They tortured to extract confessions, indiscriminately killed innocent people, and framed people, causing many civil servants and military generals to suffer unjustified injustice. It was not until after the formal establishment of the Wuzhou regime that the struggle tended to ease, and this trend was somewhat subdued. Although it played some role in consolidating the Wuzhou regime, it intensified the contradictions within the ruling group and put everyone in danger, which inevitably affected the country's governance and the development of production.
She worships Buddhism, builds monasteries, builds Ming Hall, builds Tianshu, casts Jiuding, wastes a lot of manpower and material resources, she is very happy in her later years, lives a luxurious life, and consumes a lot of wealth and labor. pampered male concubines Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's brothers, the two of them are fake tigers and mighty, and they are powerful. Wu Zetian reused Wu Chenghei, Wu Sansi, Wu Youxu and Wu Youning of the Wu clan, and crowned the Wu clan as the king.
Minister Ji Ji and others were deeply concerned about the choice of the heir, and Wu Zetian also felt that as a woman, she could only enter the Li Family Temple to enjoy the sacrifice of her descendants after death, so she accepted the suggestion of her subordinates, welcomed back Li Xian, the king of Luling, and reinstated as the crown prince.
In the later years of the Wu family, Zhang Cambodia, Huan Yanfan, Cui Xuan, Jinghui and others jointly launched a coup d'état with Li Duozuo, the general of the Right Yulin, killing Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi's brothers, forcing Wu Zetian to abdicate and welcome Zhongzong to the throne. Zhongzong was called the Great Sage Emperor of Zetian, and later generations called her Wu Zetian, and died in November of the same year.