Wu Zetian is the only female emperor in the history of China, and her life is full of legends. In the feudal society, under the environment of strict hierarchy and extremely serious patriarchal ideology, she can stand out, and she has to say that her wisdom and means are very powerful.
At first, Wu Zetian was just a talent of Emperor Taizong and Li Shimin, and she was very unpopular. After Taizong died, she was sent to Ganye Temple as a nun because she had no children or daughters. During this period, she fell in love with Li Zhi, then a prince. When Li Zhi became emperor, she tried her best to get her back. Later, she became the queen of Li Zhi, Tang Gaozong, and assisted the emperor in handling military affairs. At the age of 67, after 30 years in charge of state affairs, she ascended the throne, calling herself Emperor of the Holy Spirit, changing her country name to Zhou and becoming the queen of China.
Wu Zetian's road to becoming emperor can be said to be very cruel, because there were many heroes loyal to Li Tang at that time, especially those who worked with Tang Gaozu and Li Shimin. It can be said that Wu Zetian is unfaithful, and Wu Zetian wants to reign, so these people are the biggest obstacle. In the process of preparing to be proclaimed emperor, Wu Zetian began to purge and punish those forces loyal to Li Tang, but at this time, no founder of the Tang Dynasty was still alive. The cleaning of Wu Zetian involved many descendants of founding heroes, such as Li, his grandson, who was very grateful to Wu Zetian. After the defeat, his family was wiped out. After he proclaimed himself emperor, Xu Jingye rebellion happened again, so Wu Zetian promoted a group of brutal officials, who implicated others in the name of cleaning up Xu Jingye's associates and wiped out many threatening political enemies for Wu Zetian.
But why didn't Wu Zetian move Cheng and his descendants?
With the popularity of many TV dramas about Emperor Taizong, I believe many people are familiar with Cheng. The two famous proverbs, "Kill the journey halfway" and "Cheng Sanbanfu", come from Cheng's deeds.
Cheng (February 26, 589-665), formerly known as Bite Gold, later renamed Zhijie, was born in Dong 'e, Jeju (now southwest of Dongping, Shandong). One of the twenty-four outstanding figures of Lingyange. At the end of Sui Dynasty, Cheng joined the Wagang Army, voted as king, and then fell to the Tang Dynasty. It is Cheng's credit that he fought with Yu, Dou Jiande and others and even forced his father to abdicate. He was the founding star of the Tang Dynasty and had great power in the army, but why didn't Wu Zetian move him?
Some people say that when Wu Zetian became emperor, Cheng was already dead. But if Wu Zetian wants to be an emperor, does she have to wait until she becomes an emperor to deal with those who oppose her? If so, can she still be emperor? In fact, Wu Zetian has long been laying a future trouble for her hegemony.
Ten years before Cheng's death, in 655 AD, Li Zhi wanted to abolish the Queen and establish Wu Zetian. Later, ministers headed by uncle Sun Chang Wuji strongly opposed it, thus offending Wu Zetian. In 659 AD, Wu Zetian, with the help of Xu and Li, drove her mother-in-law's eldest grandson's brother and the queen's best friend out of Chang 'an. After that, Sun Chang Wuji was forced to hang himself, and Tang Gaozong Li Zhi completely defeated the powerful force of her uncle Sun Chang Wuji. Wu Zetian took a long breath after pulling out this thorn in the flesh.
In 664 AD, the year before Cheng's death, Li Zhi felt the growing threat of Wu Zetian, and wanted to abolish Wu Zetian and let Prime Minister Shangguan Yi draft letters. The imperial edict was not discovered by Wu Zetian. After Wu Zetian used both hard and soft tactics to abolish Li Zhi, Shangguan Yi was robbed of his property.
Cheng died in 665 AD at the age of 76, the last of the 24 heroes in Lingyange. Five years before his death, Cheng became seriously ill and could not handle political affairs. Wu Zetian was asked to help with political affairs, and Wu Zetian took power from then on. Wu Zetian began to listen to politics with Li Zhi after the incident of abolishing legislation, and was honored as a double saint. Wu Zetian's power at this time was so great that Tang Gaozong and Li Zhi were basically unable to cancel her power.
The reasons why Wu Zetian didn't move are as follows:
1. Stay away from the imperial court and never openly oppose Wu Zetian.
On Wu Zetian's road to power, her main opponent was the first dynasty. As a military commander, Cheng served as general Zuo Tunwei and general, and inspected the military strength of the camp. Cheng has moved away from the imperial court. Cheng has never publicly opposed Wu Zetian, so Wu Zetian naturally won't kill him and his descendants. After all, there are reassuring political factors involved.
2. Low desire for power and early retirement.
Cheng will not interfere in Li Zhi's state affairs and harem affairs, just like his eldest grandson's family. On the contrary, he has little desire for power, basically enjoys power after he stops fighting, and has no intention of playing politics. At that time, there was a nobleman in Guanlong who always United against Wu Zetian, but Cheng didn't. Although he is from Shandong, he is not with these people. Later, the cause of killing was removed from office. Although the imperial court intended to reopen the state affairs, it retired from the political arena with the permission of the emperor on the pretext of being old. Emperor Li Zhi died in 683 AD and Empress Wu Zetian ascended the throne in 690. There was no direct conflict between the two sides.
Little things are confused, big things are unambiguous.
In the early Tang dynasty, the military was very United. Almost all people in the army can die well as long as they are not dead. Cheng is also one of the 24 outstanding figures in Lingyange, enjoying high prestige.
His wife is the daughter of the owner of one of the four great families in the early Tang Dynasty. He doesn't look smart, but in fact he is as smart as a fool. When he followed Li Shimin, although there were some minor mistakes, it didn't matter, and he was never vague on major issues, which was one of the reasons why he was able to end well. Sun Chang Wuji and other important officials ended in tragedy, not only because they intervened in the affairs of Li Zhi harem, but also because they, as representatives of Guanlong aristocratic group, seriously hindered the centralization of Li Zhi. It is not so much that Wu Zetian killed the hero when she was a queen as that of Li Zhi.
Appendix:
"Twenty-four Heroes of Lingyange" is a portrait of twenty-four heroes of Lingyange made by Emperor Taizong on February 28th (March 23rd) in the 17th year of Zhenguan (AD 643), in memory of many heroes who fought together in the world. The pavilion is divided into three layers: the innermost layer is painted as the most meritorious minister of Zaifu; The middle layer is painted as a high-ranking vassal minister; The outermost layer was painted by other heroes.
The twenty-four heroes are Wuji, Li, Du Ruhui, Fang, Gao Shilian, Wei Chijingde, Li Jing, Xiao Yu, Duan, Qu Tutong, Yin Kaishan, Chai Shao, Shunde, Sun Qiang, Zhang Liang, Hou Junji, Zhang Gongjin, Cheng Zhijie, Yu Shinan, Liu Zhenghui, Tang Jian, Li Ji and Qin Qiong. Among them, Wuji, Fang, Du Ruhui, Fang, Gao Shilian, Zhang, Hou, Duan, Cheng Zhijie, Qu Tutong and others 10 participated in the change of Xuanwu Gate.