Since the death of Emperor Gaozong, Prince Li Xian succeeded to the throne for Tang Zhongzong, and the mother of the new emperor, Wuhou, was honored as the Empress Dowager. Due to the disagreement with Zhongzong, Wu Zetian soon abolished Zhongzong as the king of Luling and changed Li Dan, the fourth son of Yu, to be the emperor.
Since then, Wu Zetian's political ambition has been expanding, and the emperor has managed his own affairs in another palace, and gradually he has the heart of calling himself the emperor and representing the self-reliance of the Tang Dynasty.
In 684 (the first year of Guangzhai), Xu Jingye, the Sima of Liuzhou, called for the restoration of the Tang Dynasty and the establishment of the King of Luling, which rose to more than 100,000 troops in Yangzhou.
In 688 (suspended for four years), the imperial clan king of the Tang Dynasty fought Wu Zetian in Bozhou (Liaocheng, Shandong) and Li Zhen, the king of Yue, in Yuzhou (Runan, Henan). The two men rose up and were quickly defeated by Wu Zetian's army.
Wu Zetian used cruel officials to punish the descendants of Li Tang's imperial clan and the old ministers of the Tang Dynasty, and the rest were told to flow to Lingnan. Later, she changed her name from "The Virgin Jade Emperor" to Wu Zhao, and created a woman as the master of public opinion by using the Buddhist "Dayun Sutra". Since then, Wu Zetian has proclaimed himself emperor, and no one can stop him.
On September 9th, the first year of God-given (690), Wu Zetian boarded the Tianmen Tower (yingtianmen) after finishing a series of preparations to claim the title of emperor, and abolished the emperor Li Dan as an heir and gave him a surname of Wu, so she claimed the title of emperor, changed the title to Zhou, and made Luoyang its capital (commonly known as the capital of God). History is called Wu Zhou.
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In the 11th year of Emperor Taizong's Zhenguan reign (AD 637), fourteen-year-old Wu Zetian entered the palace and became a gifted scholar of Emperor Taizong. Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, also liked her at first, giving her the name "Wu Mei", and the imperial secretary called her "Wu Meiniang".
Soon, she was left out in the cold by Emperor Taizong. As a result, Wu Zetian has been a talented person for twelve years, and her status has never been improved.
Twenty-two years later, Emperor Taizong died, and Wu Zetian and some childless concubines were driven into Ganye Temple to become nuns. After Tang Gaozong acceded to the throne, his concubine Xiao Shufei spoiled the harem and dominated the dragon bed, which won the envy of the queen.
In the second year of Yonghui, the queen called Wu Zetian into the palace in an attempt to "fight poison with poison". Wu Zetian was 26 years old this year. After returning to the palace, Wu Zetian quickly defeated Xiao Shufei and won the favor of Tang Gaozong. The following year, she was posthumously named Zhao Yi, and later gave birth to Tang Gaozong's first son, named Li Hong.
With the change of status, Wu Zetian's desire has also risen, and she began to think about being a queen. At this point, the Queen and Xiao Shufei joined hands to form a faction, and Wu Zetian played a role in the harem.
Wu Zetian is good at calculation, ruthless, dabbling in literature and history, and talented. At the age of 27, she gave birth to her eldest daughter. According to Zi Jian, Wu Zetian's eldest daughter was only one month after her birth. After the Queen Wang came to see her daughter, she personally killed her daughter. Tang Gaozong was furious, so he had the idea of abolishing the queen.
At that time, the ministers headed by Sun Chang Wuji had great power, and Tang Gaozong's power was greatly limited. Many ministers in the outer court, led by Sun Chang Wuji, opposed Tang Gaozong's policy of "abolishing the king", which made Wu Zetian's way forward full of hardships.
At this time, it tried to revive the imperial power and the platform of the dynasty through the policy of "abolishing the king" and hit the power of the ministers in the DPRK. As a result, Wu Zetian began to become an enterprising "ally" in Tang Gaozong politics.
With the planning and support of Wu Zetian, Tang Gaozong rewarded Li Yifu, the first five-grade official who explicitly supported the "Abolished King", and made many middle-level officials see that supporting the "Abolished King" is profitable.
As a result, they turned to support the establishment of Wu Zetian and formed a "martial arts school" in the court, breaking the monolithic situation of the original ministers. Later, Prime Minister Li Ji also acquiesced in Tang Gaozong's policy of "abolishing the king".
In the sixth year of Yonghui (AD 655), Tang Gaozong made Empress Wu Zetian, who brutally killed Queen Wang and made her son Li Hong a prince.
At the same time, he advised the emperor, adopted the strategy of "easy first, then difficult", and successively deposed a number of elder ministers such as Chu Suiliang, Han Zhen and Lai Ji, and finally got rid of Sun Chang Wuji, a veteran of the Three Dynasties. At this point, Tang Gaozong basically realized the centralized monarchy.
The incident of "Abolishing the King" dealt a heavy blow to Guanlong aristocratic group. Since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the lack of imperial power has been fundamentally changed, which has had a far-reaching impact on the history of China.
In the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Xianqing (AD 660), Tang Gaozong first suffered from a wind disease and began to let Wu Zetian handle some government affairs. From then on, Wu Zetian participated in state affairs, and everything was in line with Tang Gaozong's will.
During this period, due to factors such as weather, geographical location and human harmony, the Korean government handled it very smoothly, especially in the Korean battlefield that was repeatedly defeated in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties. After five years of celebration, it succeeded frequently and the territory of the Tang Dynasty expanded rapidly.
With the aggravation of Tang Gaozong's illness, Wu Zetian had more and more opportunities to handle state affairs alone, and she gradually gained public power in the court, which caused Tang Gaozong's dissatisfaction. In the first year of Linde (AD 664), Tang Gaozong and Prime Minister Shangguan Yi discussed countermeasures and decided to abolish Wu Zetian.
However, what I didn't expect was that this plot was aborted because Wu Zetian took the lead in setting an example, responded quickly and handled it properly. In order to strengthen the control of state affairs, Wu Zetian began to listen to politics. At that time, people called her and Tang Gaozong "double saints".
In October of the second year of Linde, Wu Zetian participated in Taishan meditation, and then proposed that Emperor Gaozong increase the price for ministers. Through these actions, Wu Zetian expanded her political influence and bought people's hearts.
In the first year of Shangyuan, in 674 AD, Wu Zetian changed the title of Emperor Tang Gaozong to "Emperor"; I call myself "Tianhou", which further improves my political status.
From then on, she began to support her consorts and prepare for the change of dynasty; At the same time, Wu Zetian put forward twelve suggestions to Tang Gaozong according to the situation at that time, which is called "Twelve Suggestions" in history. This is the first time that Wu Zetian independently put forward her own policy agenda.
On April 25th last year, Prince Li Hong died of illness, and Li Xian succeeded him as Prince. Soon, Wu Zetian abolished him and made Li Xian a prince. In the second year of Yongchun (AD 683), Tang Gaozong died, and Li Xian acceded to the throne as Tang Zhongzong, renamed Heisheng, and made Empress Wu Zetian.
In the second year, Wu Zetian abolished Li Xian as king of Luling and made Li Dan emperor. Wu Zetian was called the imperial court, and from then on, Wu Zetian began the era of truly arbitrary court.
In September of the same year, Xu Jingye assembled 100,000 troops in Yangzhou and launched a rebellion against Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian sent 300,000 troops to quickly put down the rebellion. At the same time, Wu Zetian killed Gu Ming's minister Pei Yan and others, basically eliminating the opposition in North Korea.
She also designed to use force against Li Tang's imperial clan and took the opportunity to kill people; Remove the obstacles to becoming an emperor. In order to crack down on potential people who were dissatisfied with Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian began to reward informers and appoint cruel officials in two years (AD 686).
While suppressing the opposition, Wu Zetian also built auspicious signs and temples, and found the basis for women to claim to be emperors in the Buddhist classic Dayun Sutra, creating public opinion for themselves. On May 18th, four years after hanging the arch, Wu Zetian added the title of "The Virgin Jade Emperor" and tentatively took a step towards becoming an emperor.
The first year (AD 690). In this year's Double Ninth Festival, Wu Zetian abandoned Li Dan, called himself the Emperor of the Holy Spirit, changed the country name to Zhou, and designated Luoyang, the eastern capital, as the capital of the gods, which was called "Wu Zhou" in history. Wu Zetian ascended the throne at the age of 67, becoming the only orthodox female emperor in China history.
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