In Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, there is an ancient emperor's tomb named Gan Ling, in which two emperors are buried, one is Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, the husband of Wu Zetian, and the other is Wu Zetian, the emperor of Zhou Dynasty. The couple were buried in the grave. In Litchi Town, Tang Gaozong, there is a monument called "Sage Memorial", which tells the story of a sage. There are more than five thousand words on this tablet, which was written by Wu Zetian to her husband. However, in her own place, although a monument was erected and all the squares on the monument were typed out-there were more than 3,000 squares, that is, more than 3,000 words-but there was not a word on it. Therefore, later generations called the tablet of Wu Zetian a "tablet without words". This is unique in the history of China, and there is not a word on the inscription of any emperor.
It has been said that the monuments after the emperor's death are usually erected by the next emperor. Why do we say that Wu Zetian erected a monument without words for herself? This is because this stone tablet was not erected by later generations, but was built by Wu Zetian when he was alive, and it was her own request not to engrave a word on this stone tablet. As for the reason, historians have failed to unify a standard answer after repeated textual research.
The first argument is that Wu Zetian thinks that she has too many achievements to be described in words. This statement is not recorded in historical materials, but only speculated by later generations. Then, we can smash it here and tell you carefully whether Wu Zetian thinks her contribution is too great to be described in words, just like folklore, and this has made a monument without words.
Politically speaking, Wu Zetian is a great man and a very enlightened ruler. In this respect, she is the most typical person, and she never forgets to forgive and forget. Because she changed dynasties among them, ended the Li family and became an emperor, especially a woman who became an emperor, which violated the orthodoxy of China feudal society, so many people hated her. However, Wu Zetian can forgive these enemies. One of the original crusaders against Wu Zetian was Luo, one of the "four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty". Luo drafted a book for Wu, in which Wu Zetian was insulted and scolded. But Wu Zetian let bygones be bygones and only said, "Did the Prime Minister gain this person or lose this person?" It is the dereliction of duty of the prime minister to think that such talents have not been reused! In addition, everyone knows that Wu Zetian has a female secretary named Shangguan Waner. Both Shangguan Waner's father and grandfather were killed by Wu Zetian, but she still dared to reuse Shangguan Waner as a personal female official. These two things show that Wu Zetian's mind is relatively open.
Another, Wu Zetian is eclectic in employing people. In the Tang Dynasty, China had a strong sense of family status, what a person's family status was and what to do in this generation. This has caused the internal circulation of the aristocratic system, inbreeding, one person is incompetent, and the whole family will perish. At this time, the imperial examination can make ordinary people enter the system by leaps and bounds. Wu Zetian carried forward this aspect, not only abolished the system of official recommendation, but also ordered that "no matter where you come from, whether you have family background or not, you can take the exam by imperial edict, and then hand over the scholar who won the list in the three tests to my palace for personal interview." The imperial examination was initiated by Wu Zetian and lasted for nearly 400 years. Later, the Northern Song Dynasty emperor named the top three in the imperial examination as "Sanyuan", which was the beginning of the title of China's imperial examination champion.
Not only that, Wu Zetian also created something on the basis of Emperor Taizong. Do you still remember that Stephen Chow acted in a movie called "Wulin Master Su Qi Er"? So, when did Wu Champion win it? Wu Zetian's era began as the champion of martial arts. There used to be only literary champions. Moreover, whichever minister's suggestion is good, she overturns her original point of view and adopts others' point of view, which is beyond the average person's comparison.
Besides, culturally, Wu Zetian is a literate person, and she also admires literate people. Wu Zetian's handwriting is very good, called Feibai. Its characteristic is that every word is a couplet, and every word is white, dense and beautiful. Wu Zetian likes Wang Xizhi. As soon as she found out that there was an official in the dynasty who was the grandson of Wang Xizhi for ten generations, she called him over and asked if there was an original Wang Xizhi in this family, so that she could enjoy it. This one is overjoyed. What happened? If the emperor wants to find this thing, he will be promoted by the day. Without saying anything, this man took out the original works left by Wang Xizhi at home and even his nine generations to Wu Zetian. Unexpectedly, Wu Zetian took these things and found a calligrapher to copy them. After that, I found a first-class paperhanger to mount the original calligraphy and painting, and then I had it sent back. Lao Wang's family was overjoyed and said that Wu Zetian liked culture and respected it. Wu Zetian believed in Buddhism when he was in power, so he vigorously promoted Buddhism. As we all know, there is a giant Lushena Buddha in Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, which is the Buddha's dharma body. This Lushna Buddha was carved on the Longmen Grottoes on the order of Li Zhi, Tang Gaozong. It is said that this giant Buddha was carved in the image of Wu Zetian. So, if you want to know what Wu Zetian looks like, go to the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang to see the Lushe Buddha. That's a portrait of Wu Zetian, which is a solemn treasure and a mother-in-law on earth.
Because of its political, cultural status and economic success, the population of Wu Zetian increased rapidly during her reign, which was very prominent in the history of China. During the reign of Wu Zetian, including those years when she was in charge of state affairs before becoming an emperor in her sixties-from 652 to 705, the population of the Tang Dynasty almost doubled, from 3.8 million to 6,654.38+0.5 million. What does this mean? It shows that the social economy can develop steadily without moving swords and soldiers, indicating that the living standards of ordinary people have improved.
Wu Zetian actively encouraged agriculture. For example, according to her rules, how can an official be promoted? It is the people in the place where they work who want to have surplus grain at home, which shows that the local officials are doing well and grasping agriculture well, which will make you promoted. If the people in the place where the official works have fled and the landlord has no surplus food, then the local official will be punished. Moreover, Wu Zetian developed the economy in a delicate way, and during her administration, she also produced many officials who were very sure about agriculture.
Moreover, we can see this through historical extension. As we all know, the period of Emperor Taizong was called "the rule of Zhenguan", before Wu Zetian. After Wu Zetian, when Emperor Xuanzong was in Li Longji, it was called "Kaiyuan Shi Sheng". These two important ZTE nodes are connected by Wu Zetian. Without the recuperation and sustainable development of Wu Zetian at this time, there would be no "Kaiyuan Shi Sheng".
Therefore, from the political, economic and cultural point of view, if Wu Zetian thinks that she has made great contributions, especially when the minister and people around her are still praising her, then it is normal for her to find the North and think that she has made indescribable contributions.
There is a second saying that Wu Zetian feels ashamed and thinks that she has done nothing good. She was a little embarrassed to brag about her merits, so she decided not to write anything. So, what did Wu Can Zetian do to make her feel ashamed? It must be a few things that have been criticized.
The first thing, Wu Zetian made a tool called a big copper cong. What is a big bronze coffin? It is a big box made of copper, with four colors of blue, red, white and black on all sides, and a small mouth on one side, similar to the current mailbox, which is used to plug letters in and out. What letter should I fill in? On the one hand, it is an application, on the other hand, it is an opinion to the court, on the other hand, it is used to inform on people. Of course, the most important of these four aspects is this informant. As mentioned earlier, Wu Zetian's coming to power made Li Tang's imperial clan very dissatisfied, and some people were wondering to bring down Wu Zhi. When Wu Zetian saw it, she had to be monitored by her confidant, so she ordered to build a big copper coffin.
Besides, it was her nephew Wu's idea to build this big Tongling. This incident has set a criminal precedent in the history of China, which is tantamount to opening Pandora's Box! Why do you say that? If someone snitches, Wu Zetian will send someone to check. If this is true, the informer will be rewarded handsomely, even upgraded to level 3. However, if false accusations are found, the whistleblower will not be punished. Think about it, only good things, no bad things, no cost involved. Many villains take this opportunity to complain. Furthermore, under the temptation of this kind of interest, the informer triggered people's worst nature. The couple, because they didn't like one side, told the leader and killed one side. For example, it is clear that there are two brothers, and one informs on the other and makes a fortune. Therefore, this is actually promoting the style of corrupt human feelings. Personally, I think this is the biggest mistake of Wu Zetian's life. She opened the Pandora's Box where relatives in China killed each other. This incident is an unforgivable stain in the history of Wu Zetian.
What is another negative thing brought by the above events? It is to reuse cruel officials, which is the second thing that Wu Zetian was criticized. There are too many informers, so we must investigate them one by one. However, in officialdom, this person and that person, or who and who, always have something to do. If the person investigating the case happens to be very close to the person being investigated, then he will not look into it. Therefore, in order to find out all this, Wu Zetian did not need the original officials, but found someone from the informers to investigate the case. Most of these informers are hooligans or people at the bottom. When they entered the imperial court, they didn't have any backers or sects, so they could only serve Empress Wu Zetian, so Wu Zetian was most at ease with such people. Moreover, if such a person comes up to investigate the case, if the defendant is fine, the investigator will feel humiliated and have no credit. So these people are vicious and will do anything to express their love. Later, people called such people "cruel officials", that is, officials with cruel nature and harsh means.
Wu Zetian reused cruel officials, making everyone in the court feel insecure and worried all the time. At that time, when I went to prison, even if I was nothing, I was tortured into a confession, and countless people died with hardships. Among these brutal officials, two stand out, one is Zhou Xing and the other is Lai Junchen. There is a famous story in the history of China called "Please Enter the urn", which was created by these two people. When Zhou Xingxian became a cruel official, he received a tip-off letter from Wu Zetian, saying that Zhou Xingyou was unfaithful and wanted to rebel. Since this Zhou Xing was a brutal official himself, Wu Zetian began to use Lai Junchen, a rising star, to put him in charge of the trial. After receiving the order, Lai Junchen pondered for a long time and felt that Zhou Xing could not be beaten by the existing methods. Lai Junchen is also very cunning, so he thought of a way to invite Zhou Xing to have a drink at home, saying that there is a difficult thing to ask Zhou Xing, an old timer. Zhou Xing asked him what it was. Lai Junchen said that he met a prisoner who refused to confess, had a hard mouth and a thick skin, and had a background. He still refused to confess after exhausting all kinds of instruments of torture. After hearing this, Zhou Xing thought of a way to let Lai Junchen prepare a big urn, put firewood around the urn and put the prisoners in the urn. Death is unbearable, and pain is unbearable, which can make prisoners wish they were dead. Even Kouga, the iron mouth, will confess immediately. As a result, what Zhou Xing didn't expect was that Zhou Xing actually found a big jar, lit it with fire and invited Zhou Xing in. At that time, Zhou Xingcai knew that Lai Junchen had come to interrogate him. Can't, Zhou Xing is shooting himself in the foot, and immediately confessed without reservation.
The third thing that Wu Zetian was criticized by many people, in fact, can't be called a great sin, that is, doting on men and appointing Toy Boy. This matter has been widely circulated in history. Wu Zetian had four Toy Boy in her life, and the first one was Xue Huaiyi. The second place is Shenzhen, and the last two are Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi. This matter has been widely circulated in history, recorded by unofficial history and recorded in official history. However, we have to admit that Wu Zetian later used Toy Boy to do nothing. At that time, she was over seventy years old and couldn't bear to do it. What is she doing with this Toy Boy? In fact, it is psychological comfort and a symbol of women's rights. That is, men are emperors, regardless of age. Seventy-two concubines in three palaces and six hospitals, and a bunch of women are all his. Then as a woman, she is also an emperor. Why can't she take turns bringing more men? So she used this way to strengthen the legitimacy of her feminist emperor. Of course, I don't think this is a stain on Wu Zetian's life.
There is a third saying that Wu Zetian is very clever. She has done many things in her life, both good and bad. Speaking for yourself is inevitably biased. Therefore, she won't write on the tablet. Let's comment on her strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, some people think that there is no word in the monument, which just shows the original intention of Wu Zetian as a posterity to comment on merits and demerits.