In the first year of the Sacred Calendar (698), Wu Chenghei and Wu Sansi sought to become the crown prince, and several times they said to Empress Wu: "Since ancient times, the Son of Heaven has never taken a different surname as his heir. Empress Wu hesitated, and Di Renjie said to Empress Wu: "Which one is closer to the aunt and nephew or the mother and son?

He also persuaded Empress Wu to recall the king of Luling (Zhongzong). The Empress Wu is not the heir of Wu Cheng and Wu Sansi. It is to call the king of Luling to return to the eastern capital, the emperor (Ruizong) please be inferior to the king of Luling, and the queen of Wu set up the king of Luling as the crown prince, ordered to be the marshal, and Di Renjie was the deputy marshal to lead the troops to attack the Turks.

Empress Wu believes in Di Renjie, often called him "national elder" instead of calling him by name. Di Renjie is good at admonishing, and every time the Empress Wu succumbs, he obeys. Ren Jie died, and the Empress Wu cried: "The court is empty!" and often sighed: "Heaven has taken away my country, and the old man is too early to be evil!"

Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong brothers were young and beautiful, and they entered the military service. The two of them often wear gorgeous clothes. Wu Chengsi, Wu Sansi and others all vied to chase after them, and even whipped and led horses for them.

Zhongzong's eldest son, Shao Wang Li Chongrun (Zhongzong was named Shao Wang when he was the crown prince for the second time) and his sister Yongtai County Lord and County Lord's son-in-law Wu Yanji secretly discussed Zhang Yi's brother "how to enter the palace at will", Yi Zhi complained to Empress Wu, and Empress Wu Li Chongrun, Yongtai County Lord, and Wu Yanji were all given death.

Wu Zetian's granddaughter Princess Yongtai was executed because she and her husband Wu Yanji and her imperial brother, Li Chongrun, who was then King Shao, discussed the first Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong's brothers.

The first year of Shenlong (705). Wu Zetian was sick and bedridden, and only his favorite ministers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong served on his side. Prime Minister Zhang Khan Zhi, Cui Xuanwei and ministers Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shuji, etc., befriended Li Duozuo, the commander of the forbidden army, and pretended that Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong brothers rebelled, so they launched a mutiny, led more than 500 forbidden troops, rushed into the palace, killed the two Zhang brothers, and then surrounded Wu Zetian's palace. Demanded the abdication of the Wu clan. It is known as the Shenlong Revolution in history.

The Wu clan was forced to cede the throne to the emperor and the crown prince Li Xian, who was for Tang Zhongzong. Zhongzong was honored as the "Emperor of the Great Sage", the Wu Zhou Dynasty ended, and the Tang Dynasty was restored. Officials, flags, uniforms, and characters are all reverted to the old system. Restore the Shendu as the eastern capital.

The first year of Shenlong. Wu died of illness in Shangyang Palace at the age of eighty-two. The relics went to the emperor's name, called "the great holy queen of the sky". The second year of Shenlong (706). Buried with Gaozong in the Qianling Mausoleum, leaving no word tablet.

For Wu Zetian, since the Tang Dynasty, there have always been different evaluations and perspectives. In the early Tang Dynasty, because all the emperors were her direct descendants, and Confucian orthodoxy had not yet fully dominated, the evaluation of Wu Zetian at that time was relatively positive.

However, as time passed, especially the "Zizhi Tongjian" edited by Sima Guang, he severely criticized Wu. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Cheng Zhu Lixue dominated Chinese thought, and the public opinion of the light woman determined the evaluation of Wu Zetian.

For example, at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the famous thinker Wang Fuzhi once commented that Wu Zetian "is not tolerated by ghosts and gods, and the subjects are resented". However, it is undeniable that the Empress Wu is good at governing the country, attaches great importance to recruiting talents, and pioneers the "palace examination" system of the imperial examination, and knows people well, and can reuse Di Renjie, Zhang Cambodia, Huan Yanfan, Jinghui, Yao Chong and other Zhongxing celebrities.

During the reign of Wu Zetian, the country had a stable policy, a proper military strategy, a cultural revival, and a prosperous people, so it had the reputation of "Zhenguan Legacy", and also laid the foundation for the long-term stability of his grandson Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and Wu Zetian made great contributions to history.

Wu Zetian's first contribution to the development of history was that she struck down on the conservative clan of the gate lords. After Wu Zetian was made queen, he drove the eldest grandson Wuji, Chu Suiliang and others who opposed her as queen out of the court one by one and banished them to remote areas. For Wu Zetian, this was an example to the chicken, but these Guanlong groups and their dependents had become a conservative force with vested interests at that time.

Their expulsion from the political arena marked the end of more than a century of rule by the Guanlong clique since the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and also created a favorable condition for social progress and economic development.

The second is to promote economic development. Wu Zetian suggested in his 12 suggestions that "persuade farmers and mulberries to serve thinly". After she took power, she compiled the "Zhaoren Benye Ji" and issued it to the state and county, as a reference for the state and county officials to persuade farmers.

She also paid attention to the administration of local officials and strengthened supervision over landlords and officials. A more tolerant policy was also adopted with regard to land annexation and the fleeing peasants.

Therefore, during the reign of Wu Zetian, the society was quite stable, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce had made great progress, and the number of households increased from 3.8 million in the third year of Yonghui (652) of Gaozong of Tang Dynasty to 6.15 million in the first year of Shenlong of Zhongzong of Tang Dynasty (705), with an average annual growth of 0.721%. This was a very high growth rate in the Middle Ages, and it was also an objective data reflecting the economic development of the Wu Zetian period.

The third contribution is to promote the development of culture. When talking about the imperial examination system, Tang Ren Shen Jiji said: "The Queen Mother is quite involved in literature and history, and she is good at carving insects. "The Queen Mother has been in the world for more than 20 years, and at that time, the ministers were full of ideas, all of them reached with articles, and over time, immersion has become a trend."

Shen Jiji's words contain a wealth of content. First, Wu Zetian attaches great importance to the imperial examination and opens up the department. Once, when she was planning to make a candidate for the imperial examination, she came to the examination room in person and presided over the examination.

The second is that at that time, the Jinshi and system examinations were mainly examination questions, that is, arguments. The quality of the essay is the main criterion for admission.

The third is that Wu Zetian does not look at the family background, and does not ask whether he is the descendant of a high-ranking official, but whether he has political talent. Therefore, special attention was paid to the selection of high-ranking officials from among those who had come from the imperial examinations. More and more people have become high-ranking officials from the imperial examination. This greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the scholars to participate in the imperial examination, and even more stimulated the enthusiasm of ordinary people to read and study. This is what Shen Jiji called "immersion has become the wind".

During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods, the social atmosphere of "the father taught his son, and the brother taught his brother", and "the five-foot boy was ashamed of his words" began in the Wu Zetian period. It is the popularization of culture that promotes the all-round development of culture. The famous poets and writers Cui Rong and Li Qiao all emerged during this period. Sculpture and painting have also reached unprecedented levels.

In addition, Wu Zetian also had a lot of negative comments, Cen Zhongmian said, "The Empress Wu was reckless, with uncertain likes and dislikes, and on the day of his death, he counted seventy-three people as prime ministers."

In the early days of her reign, due to the style of whistleblowing, the reuse of cool officials Zhou Xing, Lai Junchen, etc., and later historians despised her for violating traditional etiquette, as a woman, she actually had many male concubines (called "male favorites"), so the history books all lashed out at her behavior, directly denouncing her insidiousness, cruelty, and good at manipulating power, and the dictatorship of Zhongzong Shi and Empress Wei, collectively known as the Wuwei Rebellion.

But Zhao Yi defended Wu Zetian's private life, saying: "The lord is rich all over the world, and the concubines move thousands, and then he is the queen, and he is favored by only a few people, which is not surprising, so he didn't think it was secret, and he didn't have to hide it. 」

The absence of Wu Zetian's rule was mainly the loss of territory. First of all, he took the initiative to abandon the four towns of Anxi in 686, and only sent Wang Xiaojie to recover them in 692.

In addition, in 696, he provoked the rebellion of Sun Wanrong and Li Quanzhong, so that the Khitan Xi fell into the hands of the Turks during the Wuzhou period. The Anbei Protectorate ruled in China at the time of Gaozong's death, and the indiscriminate killing of Cheng Wuting and the abandonment of Wang Fangyi and other famous generals led to the restoration of the Eastern Turks. Anbei has never recovered. She almost gave up all the Anbei and Anxi that Taizong and Gaozong had worked so hard to manage.

In addition, if Wu Zetian's use of Tang Xiujing, Di Renjie and others is to know people and make good use of them, it is only to correct previous mistakes. In the early days of Wu Zetian's reign, he appointed cool officials such as Junchen and Suo Yuanli, coupled with the commander of the army such as Monk Huaiyi, reflecting her nepotistic character and employing people not on the side of talent. It was only in later years that this changed.

Hong Mai of the Song Dynasty said in "Rong Zhai Essays": "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty cannot be described as unknown", and Zhao Yi of the Qing Dynasty called him "the female Chinese and British masters".

Miscellaneous Records - Legend has it that when Tang Taizong was alive, he asked an astronomer to tell his fortune, and the astronomer believed that within 30 years, the Li family would die at the hands of a man surnamed Wu. So Taizong slaughtered the Wu courtiers, but he didn't expect that the person who was counted was actually the martial artist around him.

Legend has it that during the period of Ganye Temple, Li Zhi once went to worship, and after seeing the Wu family, he was distraught. At that time, Queen Wang, who was competing for favor with Concubine Xiao Shu, took advantage of this to take the Wu clan as her own faction and confront Concubine Xiao Shu, but she didn't expect that both of them died at the hands of the Wu clan.

Wu Zetian is the emperor, and there are also many male favorites. The most famous of them is Feng Xiaobao (Xue Huaiyi), who was sent by Wu Zetian to become a monk in the White Horse Temple in Luoyang East, with the legal name Huaiyi, but still had an affair with Wu Zetian. In a certain year, during the Obon Festival, Huaiyi, who had gradually fallen out of favor at that time, burned Mingtang in order to please Wu Zetian's attention, and the fire spread throughout Luoyang.

In order to reform the culture, Wu Zetian created the Zetian script. Some of them have also spread to Japan and Korea, and have even become the names of some Japanese people.

Wu Zetian is the author of 100 volumes of "Vertical Arch Collection" and 10 volumes of "Golden Wheel Collection", which have been dispersed. There are forty-six poems in existence, and the text of the "Quantang Wen" is compiled into four volumes.

Wu Zetian held real power for 6 years before he became emperor, and used 3 era names, and 16 era names were used in the 15 years of being emperor, which was the emperor with the most era names and the highest density among Chinese emperors. In second place was the Western Jin Dynasty Emperor Jin Hui Emperor Sima Zhen.

In addition to Wu Zetian, there were two other female "emperors" in history who were generally not recognized by later historians for other reasons, they were the Yuan family of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Chen Shuozhen during the reign of Tang Gaozong. (To be continued......)