Wu Zetian was the only female emperor in Chinese history, she came from an ordinary clan of scholars, and was included in the palace by Li Shimin of Tang Taizong because of her elegant manners, and later became the empress of Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong.
From the daughter of an ordinary official to the mother of a country, Wu Zetian's life is full of legends and has also been studied and discussed by historians.
Emperor Gaozong of Tang, li zhi, also known as Wu Zetian's husband, was famous in history for "not dying of illness for a long time". He has always appeared everywhere as a weak figure, but the political means of this man are by no means as weak and deceitful as the image he shows. On the contrary, Li Zhi's political methods are very clever.
Before Wu Zetian became empress, the wenwu dispute between the Shandong clan and the Shanxi clan had a long history
There are various speculations about the reason why Wu Zetian entered the palace, but the more mainstream theory is that Wu Zetian's appearance and demeanor are very elegant and well-known in the local area, and Li Shimin heard about it and summoned her to the palace as a talented person.
There is also a saying that Wu Zetian's father and brother saved Li Shimin on the battlefield, and in order to show his gratitude to the martial family, Li Shimin took Wu Zetian into the palace.
Si Ren has passed away, and it is impossible to determine exactly what is in Li Shimin's mind, but some of the background of the era before Wu Zetian entered the palace can be explored through various historical materials.
Wu Zetian's family belonged to the Shanxi clan, and before she entered the palace, the Shanxi clan had already declined, but the Shandong clan, which had been fighting with it before, was in a glorious period. The struggle between the Shanxi clan and the Shandong clan began as early as the Qin Dynasty and did not end until the early Tang Dynasty.
Shandong is the land of Qilu, the place where Confucius and Mencius were born, so the unique innate geographical location has made the Confucian culture in Shandong develop very well, and the Shandong clan has become a representative of Confucian culture.
During the Han Dynasty, especially during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "deposed hundreds of families and exalted Confucianism alone", the Shandong clan took advantage of the rise and gradually became a politically influential interest collective. Emperor Wu of han and other rulers of the Han Dynasty appointed a large number of sons of the Shandong clan as officials, so that the Shandong clan experienced many times the prosperity brought by the large number of sons entering the dynasty as officials.
On the other hand, the Shanxi clan, instead of preferring the civilian official route like the Shandong clan, they took the military officer route because they were born good at war. In this way, the contradiction between the Shandong clan and the Shanxi clan is highlighted.
In any dynasty, between the civilian and military attaché groups, there is a struggle for power and profit, unless the complete unity of civilian officials and military attaches can be achieved and they become one, but this is obviously impossible.
During the period of Emperor Wu of Han, because of the need to fight against the Xiongnu, coupled with the fact that Emperor Wu of Han himself was warlike, the Shanxi clan and the Shandong clan were well developed. The famous warriors of this period, Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi, were both from the Shanxi clan.
The struggle between the Shanxi clan and the Shandong clan against the Wenchen by the time of the Tang Dynasty had already yielded preliminary results: the development of the Shandong clan was far better than that of the Shanxi clan. The reason is also very simple, the rulers of the late Han Dynasty had a negative attitude towards war, and in the long run, the Shanxi clan and other military generals could not be reused at all, and the family naturally declined.
By the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the growth of the Shandong clan not only enabled them to win the initial victory in the east-west struggle with the Shanxi clan, but also attracted the attention of the rulers. Because at this time, the Shandong clan had too much say in the court, and even threatened the emperor's dominance.
The conflict between Li Zhi himself and the GuanLong clique gave Wu Zetian the opportunity to replace Empress Wang
At that time, the Shandong clan was an idol in the hearts of literati students, and every word and deed affected the readers of the world. The Tang Dynasty vigorously promoted the imperial examination system, and these readers were all general officials in the reserve, and the Shandong clan had such a great influence among these people, which must be a great threat to the imperial power.
Since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Rulers have carried out a series of suppression actions against the Kwantung clan, but this suppression did not completely eliminate the Kwantung clan, but only gradually limited their power and development.
Some people believe that Wu Zetian was summoned to the palace, and there may also be some reasons why Li Shimin deliberately took this opportunity to suppress the arrogance of the Kwantung clan. Later, Li Zhi brought Wu Zetian back to the palace from Ganye Temple and vigorously promoted her to be empress, the main purpose of which should be to use Wu Zetian to contain or even oppose the Guanlong clique.
The Guanlong Group was formed during the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was formed by a community of interests composed of Shijia Gate Valves, supported by a strong military force. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Guanlong clique had a very important representative figure: the eldest son Wujie.
The eldest grandson Wuji himself was a man of great talent, and at the same time he was from the Guanlong clique and had a very good personal relationship with Li Shimin, and his sister was also Li Shimin's empress and the biological mother of Li Zhi, who later succeeded to the throne. All this made his path of being a vassal extremely smooth, and the eldest son Wuji soon became a powerful minister by Li Shimin's side.
During Li Shimin's reign, although he was jealous of the power of the Guanlong clique, Li Shimin himself was very talented in all aspects and had a strong personality, so the Guanlong clique was not enough to threaten his personal dominance. However, li zhi himself, who succeeded to the throne, was somewhat weak and unable to take care of himself, and the eldest son Wuji was also his uncle, and the threat to him by the forces of the Guanlong clique was increasing day by day.
Regardless of any dynasty, if the maternal family of the successor of the ruler is too powerful, then in the early days of the transfer of power and the succession of the successor, the powerful maternal family will surely take the opportunity to expand its sphere of influence and pose a threat to the rule of the successor.
This is how the Guanlong clique's threat to Li Zhi arose. When Li Zhi had just succeeded to the throne, his wife, Empress Wang, was a daughter from the GuanLong clique, and this wife was chosen for Li Zhi by the eldest son Wuji and others, and his own wishes were not taken into account.
Even if it was his uncle, the eldest grandson Wuji's behavior of overstepping the newspaper also caused Li Zhi's strong dissatisfaction. In order to oppose the Guanlong clique represented by Changsun Wuji, Li Zhi brought back Wu Zetian, who had been taken to Ganye Temple after Li Shimin's death, and gave her the identity of Zhaoyi.
As the contradictions between Li Zhi and Guan Long's clique gradually intensified, the confrontation between Wu Zetian and Empress Wang became more and more intense. Obviously, the final result was that Li Zhi's side won the victory, and Wu Zetian naturally became the new empress, and even the next emperor.
Wu Zetian's ability to claim the title of emperor was inseparable from Li Zhi's over-pampering to the outside world. After Wu Zetian became empress, Li Zhi, in order to show his favor for her, also crowned her as a queen of heaven, and even gave her the privilege of the Second Holy Linchao.
Wu Zetian, who lacked the support of the powerful and powerful clans behind him, vigorously reused the han disciples in order to stabilize his own rule
In fact, Li Zhi held Wu Zetian to such a high position, not only out of favor for Wu Zetian, but more importantly, Li Zhi cared very much about his reputation. He could be a weak emperor, but he could not bear the ungrateful insults of his foreign grandparents.
What's more, at that time, the power of the Guanlong group and other family clans was very large, and Li Zhi did not have the ability and prestige of Li Shimin, and he was not sure whether he could crush these forces one by one or take them into his own hands. Once defeated, Wu Zetian would become Li Zhi's best shield.
From this point of view, Li Zhi's political means are still very clever, and for thousands of years, it has always been Wu Zetian who has been criticized by posterity, and Li Zhi has perfectly maintained his positive image. But Li Zhi also did not expect that after his death, Wu Zetian would dare to usurp the power of the Tang Dynasty and create the Wuzhou regime.
After Wu Zetian ascended to the throne, she vigorously reused the sons of the Han Dynasty to support the development of the Shumin family and cultivate her own forces, and the reason behind all these measures was that she wanted to stabilize her own power.
Wu Zetian, who was born from the Shanxi clan, the family behind him is not very prominent, and compared with many women in the palace, it can even be regarded as being born in the cold door.
After entering the court, Wu Zetian was first used by Li Shimin as a tool to beat up the Shandong clan, and then by Li Zhi to deal with the Guanlong clique, although both eventually disappeared due to the suppression of the rulers, but Wu Zetian himself did not cultivate a force of his own. This is also an important reason why many people think that Li Zhi has been playing a pig and eating a tiger.
If everything Wu Zetian did really stemmed from her own ambitions and desires, judging by what Wu Zetian did after usurping power, she could not fail to realize the importance of cultivating her own power. Unless Li Zhi secretly deliberately suppressed, Wu Zetian had been tied up in his hands and tail, which had not been able to fully grasp the court.
After ascending the throne, Wu Zetian knew that he did not have enough strong support behind him, because he had overthrown the Guanlong clique before, and the other powerful clans also had a respectful attitude towards Wu Zetian. Therefore, she actively promoted the examination system and vigorously recruited talents from the cold disciples.
In order to reflect his attitude of seeking talents and thirst, Wu Zetian also pioneered martial arts in the imperial examination system. In the past, the imperial examination only selected civilian officials, but the martial arts were dedicated to the selection of talented military generals, and this measure gave the children of the cold door more opportunities to promote to the class.
Most of the talents selected through martial arts are the children of small officials, because the world is too peaceful, and there is no way to be promoted without military merit, so they have always been depressed. After Wu Zetian gave them such an opportunity, these people were naturally loyal to the female emperor.
On the whole, Wu Zetian reused the cold door, and even provided a large number of opportunities and upward channels for the rise of the cold door, the essence of which was to allow these people to maintain their dominance.