When Wu Zetian was born, his father was 48 years old and his mother was 44 years old.
Some studies say that genes are not so good when they are older, and Wu Zetian later became the only very successful woman in thousands of years of history, sitting in the highest position of emperor, which shows that this statement is not all correct.
How did Wu Zetian break through the predicament of fate step by step and come to the peak of his life?
Let's start with her parents, because without her parents, she wouldn't have the chance to enter the palace.
His father's entrepreneurship
Wu Zetian's father, named Wu Shiyan, when he reached an age, married his wife and had children, and while selling tofu to support his family, he went around asking if there was a chance to make a fortune.
On this day, The samurai were selling tofu on the side of the street, when he heard a news that the Sui Emperor was going to build the Luoyang Palace, and the streets were full of the voices of the poor lamenting, and the powerful needed to go to the construction site to contribute, and those who did not have the strength had to pay for it, and there was nothing, and they were ready to flee with a few burnt cakes.
The samurai did not panic, he was a merchant, a merchant free merchant's way, he smelled money, the most needed to build a large palace was wood, so he seized the opportunity to become the first timber supplier of Luoyang Palace, becoming a legendary magical species that can fly in the wind outlet.
When you have money, you want to be rich and expensive.
In times of war, the fastest way to do this was to climb up the magnate and then support him.
Samurai Yan's vision was too good, and he chose Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang.
On the road of rebellion, only one of the heroes and good men of the Eighty-One Road can become the king, and the loser is Kou.
Samurai Yan's luck was extremely good, and Li Yuan succeeded.
Wu Shiyan became one of the fourteen founders of the Tang Dynasty, was awarded a gold medal for avoiding death.
His mother was the daughter's plot
Wu Zetian's father, Wu Shiyan, opened the door to the imperial palace, the highest capital of the feudal dynasty.
Samurai Yan had long been loyal to the emperor, or loyal to his own career, regardless of his family, and in the war years at the end of the Sui Dynasty, his son died of illness and his wife.
After Li Yuan became emperor, he thanked him for his sincerity, and the marriage officiation gave a woman from the Sui Dynasty imperial family, Yang Girl, to a warrior. Yang girls were forty-two years old at the time, because of the war in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, they had never had the opportunity to get married, and after the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the Yang clan declined, but they were also once nobles.
Through kuangfu emperors and marriages with nobles, samurai became a merchant to an aristocrat.
Although the Yang family fell, but once also the royal family surname, once lived a worry-free life, from childhood do not have to learn needle and thread female red to make clothes for the family, there are special teachers to teach reading, Yang clan likes to read, after the exile, when the female Husband to maintain their livelihood.
The year after the marriage of Yang and Wu Shiyan, Wu Yuanzhao was born, that is, Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian also has a name called Wu Cao, which is a new character invented by Wu Zetian himself, which means the same day as the sun and the moon.
According to historical records, when Wu Yuanzhao was born, his mother was forty-four years old and his father was forty-eight years old.
In his childhood, Wu Yuanzhao happened to be after his father made meritorious achievements, his family was superior, his life was rich, and he did not worry about eating and drinking. Her mother also had culture, so she studied history books and literature with her mother, and her father was the military commander, and Wu Zetian followed her father to take up his post from an early age, riding horses and shooting arrows.
Until the time came to Wu Yuanzhao's eleventh year, this year Li Yuan and Wu Shiyan died one after another, and Li Shimin had already taken the world after the change of Xuanwu Gate, Wu Yuanzhao began to follow his mother to keep filial piety for his father for three years, in the filial piety, the two half-brothers were difficult everywhere, dividing the family property, Wu Yuanzhao and his mother had no place to live, after the anniversary of filial piety, his mother Yang Clan took Wu Yuanzhao to Chang'an to rely on his cousin to make another way to make a living.
Yang Shidao, a cousin of the Yang clan, one of his nieces was already a favorite concubine of Li Shimin at that time, Yan Defei, and after the death of Li Shimin's wife, Empress Changsun, after recommending a sufficient harem, he recommended Wu Yuanzhao to him.
In 637, the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Wu Zetian entered the palace, just when Wu Zetian was fourteen years old. Also entering the palace was Xu Hui, who had the reputation of "child prodigy", who was later promoted to Xu Jieyu. Wu Yuanzhao was given the name Wu Meiniang (武美娘) and lived with Xu Hui as a neighbor.
He tried everything to please Li Shimin, but he lost all his heart
After Wu Zetian entered the palace, he tried to curry favor with Li Shimin.
Li Shimin liked Empress Changsun, and Wu Meiniang read through the "Female Rules" compiled by Empress Changsun to increase her own virtuousness.
Li Shimin liked Xu Hui, and Wu Meiniang imitated Xu Hui to write songs and compose music based on the Book of Poetry, showing her talent.
Li Shimin liked calligraphy, especially Wang Xizhi, and Wu Meiniang studied Wang Xizhi's calligraphy day and night to give herself extra points.
However, seeing that they entered the palace together, his neighbor Xu Hui became Xu Jieyu, and he was still a talented person, doing the work every day as the emperor's close attendant, and afterwards the emperor dressed and gave the emperor a pen and ink paper. Wu Meiniang was unsatisfied, only to study harder, and she had a vague impression of how to be the emperor around Li Shimin.
Li Shimin likes gentle and virtuous women, and no matter how Wu Meiniang changes herself, her nature will always be inadvertently exposed.
On this day, Li Shimin pulled out his beloved horse, lion, and asked the concubine minister, "I don't know who can tame it?" ”
Wu Meiniang was anxious to come out and preemptively said, "Give the concubines three things, and the concubines can tame them." ”
Emperor Taizong said, "Which three?" ”
The lady said, "An iron whip, an iron hammer, a dagger." ”
After pondering, Emperor Taizong smiled and said, "Sure enough, it shows the courage of my Concubine Of the Tang Dynasty." ”
Since then, Wu Meiniang has lost Tang Taizong's sincerity.
Xu Jieyu, who had been accompanying Li Shimin, was promoted to the rank of ninth concubine after a few years, and Wasen allowed to meet with her family.
At this time, Wu Meiniang also especially wanted to meet with her mother, who was well-informed and must be able to know why she did not get grace, but she did not have the opportunity to meet her mother, and could only read the story of the eldest grandson empress repeatedly under the green light alone.
Met her second husband, Li Zhichu
The crown prince during the Tang Taizong period was not originally Li Zhi, who was li shimin's ninth son and the third son of Empress Changsun. In order, only the above two brothers are eliminated, can it be their turn, and their two brothers are better than themselves. Li Zhi was weak and filial, but lacked the determination to kill.
But history is so magical, and opportunities never arise according to theoretical speculation.
After Li Zhi became crown prince, Emperor Taizong was bedridden after his eastern expedition to Goguryeo, and Li Zhidai handled the government and was extremely filial, running back and forth between his father's palace and the court every day, Li Shimin was considerate of his son, and gave his son a room next to his room.
Emperor Taizong's concubines also took turns on duty to serve around, and Wu Meiniang was Li Shimin's personal attendant.
At this time, Wu Zetian was 23 years old and Li Zhi was 17 years old, and during the years that he later took care of Tang Taizong, Wu Zetian became Li Zhi's first love.
Wu Meiniang entered the nunnery
Nevertheless, after Li Zhi succeeded to the throne, he did not have the courage to put forward any ideas about Wu Meiniang, who went to the Ganye Temple to become a nun according to the custom.
When the matter came to this point, if it was an ordinary woman, the story of Wu Meiniang would be over, and it was likely that she would be sick, toiling, and dying like other concubines.
Wu Zetian, who had gradually matured, began to feel fear in her heart after seeing the reality, she had insomnia all night long, in the daily labor and fear of death, she found a little light of hope, she thought of Li Zhi, but Li Zhi had become an emperor, she was not sure whether Li Zhi could save herself, but she did not want to give up this only hope.
Later, whether Wu Zetian found someone to help through his mother's relationship is not recorded in history.
However, in the second year of Li Zhi's succession, when Emperor Taizong of Tang was on the day of the sacrifice, Li Zhi found an excuse to set the sacrifice at the Ganye Temple.
Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were reunited, and between the two were a group of ministers and concubines, the two were close to the end of the world, and Wu Meiniang's tears fell like rain.
A few days later, Li Zhi quietly came to the Ganye Temple in plain clothes. Wu Zetian poured all his talents into writing "Ruyi Niang".
Look at Zhu Chengbisi, haggard and fragmented for The Remembrance,
In disbelief, Bi Lai burst into tears and opened the box to check the pomegranate skirt.
This poem was later included in the Quan Tang Poems, and Li Bai claimed to be inferior.
Wu Meiniang returned to the palace
Li Zhi is kind and can't bear to let his former first love die of illness in the temple, and he is thinking of finding a way to take Wu Meiniang back to his side, but he has not been able to find the opportunity.
The Queen knew about this. Empress Wang, because Concubine Xiao Shufei fell out of favor, wanted to "treat her human body in the way of others." "Wu Meiniang is the right choice.
After Wu Meiniang saw Empress Wang, she promised one after another, and she only grasped two points, the first was that she could return to the palace and temporarily have the empress cover; the second time after returning to the palace, she could compete with Xiao Shufei, who was being favored, and she had the opportunity to become a new favorite.
She felt the light in front of her eyes become more intense.
Empress Wang took Wu Meiniang back to the palace on behalf of the emperor, and the emperor was very happy and reconciled with the empress.
At this time, Wu Meiniang, who returned to the palace, was not a simple-minded little girl in her teens, nor was she a stunned young woman in her early twenties.
She had experienced suffering, she had experienced careful thinking all night long, she was careful every day, she did not dare to say a word wrongly, did not dare to offend a person.
To the emperor, life is extremely gentle. The emperor's heart-wrenching political affairs, she also boldly participated in the opinions and gave the emperor support.
For the empress, she served carefully, and every day she took the initiative to ask the emperor to find the empress.
For the next person, she will share as much as she wants, only rewarding and not punishing, especially looking for the wronged maids around the Queen Wang, hoping to help her in the coming day.
For the minister, she dredged the ministers, duties and connections of important organs, and repeatedly thought hard about it.
This time, she turned over, step by step, and could only succeed but not become a ren.
With goals and action, Wu Meiniang made rapid progress after returning to the palace, and a year later, she was enthroned Zhaoyi, ranked first among the nine concubines, and gave birth to her first son, Li Hong.
Having a son under great favor, Wu Zhaoyi took the opportunity to get the emperor to agree to allow his widowed sister Wu Shun to enter the palace to help him take care of his son, and his mother sealed the noble lady to enter and leave the palace freely.
The struggle with the Queen Wang
At this time, Empress Wang discovered that in the harem, her biggest enemy was not someone else, but Wu Zhaoyi, who had been cultivated by herself.
Empress Wang began to fight back, and her every move was sold to Wu Zhaoyi by the personal maid.
At this time, Li Zhi was also subject to the constraints of the ministers in the previous dynasty, and his own opinions were difficult to implement.
The two discussed that the strength of the former harem queen was too great, and the best way to break through was to cultivate his cronies who obeyed his orders after the abolition.
The first step was to inquire about the attitude of the eldest son Wujie, Li Zhi gave the eldest son Wujie the title of an official, and rewarded countless treasure jade jade brocade silk, and the result was that the eldest grandson Wujie just ate vegetables and pretended to be deaf and dumb after the abolition. Li Zhiwu Zhaoyi returned without success.
In the second step, Wu Zetian let his mother Lady Yang once again become a lobbyist in the Eldest Sun Wuji Mansion, but there was still no progress.
It wasn't that there was no gain at all, at least Wu Zetian knew that it was impossible to abolish the queen by relying on the strength of his courtiers to abolish the queen non-violently.
Only by letting the empress take the initiative to make a big mistake, so there is a famous suspense case in history, Wu Zetian's second child, Princess Andingsi "violent pawn".
What was the cause of the little princess's death? After Empress Wang saw the little princess, something happened, and Wu Zhaoyi had enough apparent reasons to believe that Empress Wang was the murderer, and there were palace ladies in full view as witnesses.
In the same year, Wu Zhaoyi also testified that Empress Wang and her mother, Lady Liu, cursed herself with needles in the harem by making a villain made of paper.
The empress completely lost power, and her relatives were transferred out of the capital.
Wu Zhaoyi's first staff member helped him become empress
At this time, the ministers of the eldest sun Wuji saw Wu Zhaoyi's ambitions and came out to block it.
It was also at this time that Wu Zhaoyi's first staff group appeared, Li Yifu and Xu Jingzong.
Li Yifu was once a Zhongshu She, in charge of writing the edict, and on this day he suddenly received the news that he had been transferred out of the capital, and this edict absolutely could not be written.
He hurried around, and his colleague Wang Dejian, who was also a Zhongshu Sheren, came up with an idea: "Now the emperor is distressed about Liwu Zhaoyi for the empress, it is better that you be the first to write a book, if you succeed, not only can there be a turnaround, your future is simply on a rocket." ”
Wang Dejian opened the back door while on duty, and Li Yifu directly wrote to Emperor Li Zhi, requesting that Wu Zhaoyi be made empress.
Li Zhi and Wu Zhaoyi saw that someone had finally supported them, and they were very happy, and immediately promoted to Zhongshu Waiter and rewarded them with gold and silver treasures.
Tangible interests are more popular than heavenly justice and morality, and Wang Dejian's uncle Xu Jingzong and the imperial master Cui Yixuan have all taken sides with Li Zhiwu Zhaoyi.
The situation opens, then you can open the skylight to say bright words.
On this day, Li Zhi summoned his ministers and asked, "How about Liwu Zhaoyi as empress?" ”
Chu Suiliang, who was then one of the four prime ministers, first objected and used Tang Taizong's last words to scare people.
Li Zhi did not dare to oppose his father, and the first round could only be stopped.
When he returned to the harem and told Wu Zhaoyi about this, he did not expect that Wu Zhaoyi did not worry, but told Li Zhi: "It doesn't matter, tomorrow you will continue to summon the minister and continue to listen to opinions, but ah, you have to allow me to hide behind the curtain, I have a way to deal with Chu Suiliang." ”
So the next day I followed the plan. The ministers still said those words, and even tearfully said that they were going to resign. Wu Zetian was not embarrassed, and directly sneered behind the curtain and said, "Why don't you kill this officer on the spot!" “
As soon as this sentence came out, everyone in the palace did not dare to come out, and the eldest grandson slowed down the gods and said, "Chu Suiliang is the minister of the former emperor's orders, and if he is guilty, he cannot be punished." "It's an escape." The second round was thrilling.
In the following days, the ministers buzzed around Li Zhi like flies every day, and Li Zhi was annoyed to death, but Wu Meiniang ignored all this, and asked Li Zhi to find Li Ji, who had been silent and avoided the front.
"Such a big thing, as one of the prime ministers, why don't you say a word?"
Li Ji replied, "The abolition of the empress is a family affair of the emperor, and it has nothing to do with me as a courtier." ”
This line of thinking immediately gave Wu Zetian more inspiration, so she let her mother and Xu Jingzong, who supported her, spread the words everywhere: "The cropper can change his wife, why can't the son change an empress?" Outsiders manage so much. ”
Under the unstoppable momentum outside the palace, Li Zhi was degraded for Chu Suiliang's great disrespect for the king.
In 655, Wu Zetian was made empress.
From his return to the palace in 651 to his accession to the empress in 655, it took only five years for Wu Zetian, who had super execution power.
Wu Zetian completed the transformation and sublimation from the age of 29 to 34.
At this time, Li Zhi found that while Wu Zetian helped him subdue a group of old ministers, he also became a new shackle that he could not live without.
Li Zhi once fell in love with Wu Zhaoyi's widowed sister, and she was gentle and pitiful, but Wu Zhaoyi used his own methods to stop this kind of thing from happening.
After becoming Empress Wu, Li Zhi loved and feared her.
However, at this time, the final decision on major affairs in the DPRK and China was still in Li Zhi's hands on the surface.
History is always full of paradoxes.
When you are unsuccessful, complain that your talents cannot be used,
In fact, talent can only be used after a person's success.
Wu Zetian's world
Wu Zetian achieved the most powerful position among women, and also regarded Li Zhi as dead. With the feudal monarch alone having the final say, Wu Zetian could show his deeds. Some historians say that the Era of Wu Zetian has quite a legacy of the Tang Taizong Period, which is the general historical environment, in fact, small details, Wu Zetian also has its own characteristics.
Wu Zetian raised his respect for women. In the past, the father died and kept filial piety, Wu Zetian proposed that the death of his mother should also serve for three years, before respecting Confucius Confucianism, Confucianism is not good for women, Wu Zetian proposed to learn Laozi's thought, because Lao Tzu thought has many ideas on female fertility worship, keep soft and noble females.
In the face of famine, Wu Zetian specially formulated a policy to protect children, allowing the adoption of displaced children, and after raising them, he also required adopters to release the children back to their places of origin, allowing refugees between states and counties to beg for food.
Wu Zetian once proposed that it was not possible to hold a banquet, and an ordinary person lived to the age of 90 and held a banquet, but was reported by his neighbors. After Wu Zetian knew, he not only did not punish the 90-year-old man, but also shook his hand to congratulate her on her longevity.
In addition, she also had a talent that women of the same period did not have.
She had a good literary talent and was able to imitate the Book of Poetry to write and compose songs. A poem "Ruyi Niang" written was praised by Li Bai and compiled into the "Quan Tang Poems" for posterity.
She was an excellent calligrapher who personally wrote the Monument to prince Shengxian and passed it down.
She was well versed in the history books, and when the chancellor compared her to Lü Hou, she said that Li Zhi was still with my husband, and I was just KuangZheng, temporarily instead of handling some government affairs.
Crisis after abolition
After Shangguan Yi instigated Li Zhi's abolition, Li Zhi agreed, and the edict was written, and it seemed that the big seal was about to take effect.
Wu Zetian received the news, used the speed of a hundred-meter sprint, fell down several times and got up several times to sprint, arrived in time, and burned the edict.
And with a backhand move, he began to listen to the government, until he later became a generation of female emperors.
Some people say that Wu Zetian was able to become the only orthodox female emperor in history because she had a husband who loved her.
There are elements of this view, but love is such a thing, in the current relatively fair environment, civilian couples know that it is unreliable, let alone in the royal palace where various forces are intertwined. Li Zhi was serious about love and righteousness, but his good character lacked determination, and in the later period of his reign, he was basically sick, and his sons were deposed one by one, and after Li Xian succeeded to the throne, he gave up the struggle and directly ceded power to his mother Wu Zetian, so that his mother could continue to hold power.
It is that everyone has merit and right, and what Wu Zetian left behind is a wordless monument, which is a kind of arrogance that has never been seen before.