Wu Zetian claimed that the empress created 18 characters, 17 of which were abolished, and no one dared to use the remaining word
Heaven and earth in the same direction 2022-01-17 07:00
Wu Zetian (web image)
Pen and ink is the carrier of a national civilization, with the help of a clever pen and ink talent to pass on the civilization. In the major pen and ink systems of the ancient times, only Chinese characters have survived. However, Chinese mainland Chinese characters are not all still in use, because some Chinese characters are one-sided and original, and have not been recognized by the public, just like Wu Zetian once created his own Chinese characters. Wu Zetian, who claimed to be the empress, in order to wipe the veto faction and win more public support, had to use the "Book of Hetuluo" and through the death force to re-interpret the religion, and arbitrarily declared to the people that it was because of the ascension of the female emperor that such a great auspiciousness had arrived
Wu Zetian once created his own Chinese characters (network photo)
Wu Zetian killed many ministers in order to consolidate her position in the early days of her ascension to the throne, and even if her position was not stable enough, she strengthened her dominance through military power and civilian ministers, and even invented many tortures to deter those who wanted to oppose her. In her career as emperor, she also created 18 Chinese characters, of course, her characters were not fabricated out of thin air, but modified and reconstructed on the basis of the original characters. If you carefully observe the words created by Wu Zetian, most of them look cumbersome and are not easy to write, so why did she create words? It is undeniable that Wu Zetian's characters have a deep political purpose. These words often appear in her holy will, thus demonstrating her deterrent power. And the other purpose of Wu Zetian's character creation is a kind of show-off. Relying on her own writing to show her erudition also indirectly expresses her desire to suppress people's thoughts from the most basic places. Wu Zetian created a total of 18 characters during her reign as emperor, but as the years passed, 17 of these characters she created were abolished, and only one "曌" was left. However, for this "曌" character, it was a "forbidden" word at that time. What's going on here? First of all, we must understand how this "曌" came from, if we decompose this word, the upper and lower parts of the cao are divided into the two words of Mingkong, and Wu Zetian is a monk in the Ganye Temple, and the Dharma name is Mingkong. When she returned to the world, she changed her name to "Wu Cao", which means that she reminds herself of the past years at all times; another point of "Cao" can also be divided into "Sun and Moon Sky", of which the Sun and Moon represent "Yang yin", in the society with low female status, Wu Zetian uses this word to indicate "the sun and the moon are empty", that is, a concept of "yin and yang coexistence".
Most of the time, this word appears in the "book making", and ordinary people are not allowed to use it at all, just as the emperor can only call himself "朕". It can be said that "Cao" has become the exclusive representative of Wu Zetian, and ordinary people dare not or be reluctant to contact it.
"Cao" can be said to have become the exclusive representative of Wu Zetian (network photo)
After Wu Zetian abdicated, the word "曌" was also discarded, but it did not disappear, or it has been passed down, which may be to warn future generations, so no one dared to use this word in the later Ming and Qing dynasties. During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang and the Qianlong Emperor, the prison of writing was very serious, and if it was not used carefully, it was likely that it would be arrested and beheaded, and if it was not used well, it would mean rebellion. The meaning of "曌", in the era of male superiority and female inferiority at that time, people thought that there was a meaning of "upside down", which was extremely bad, so no one dared to mention it in that era.