Wu Zetian, the most legendary woman in Chinese history, was the only orthodox female emperor in Chinese history, who founded the Wu Zhou dynasty and ruled for forty-five years. In her twilight years, the legendary female emperor did not choose to hand over the inheritance she founded to her nephew, but returned it to the Li family, allowing the Wu Zhou dynasty to die for a generation. Why did she make such a decision?
Wu Zetian entered the palace at the age of fourteen, first as a talented person of Tang Taizong, and was edicted into the palace after Tang Gaozong ascended the throne and became the queen. When Tang Gaozong was still in power, Wu Zetian had already begun to work on the government, and was also named the "Queen of Heaven", and Gaozong was called the "Two Sages". After the death of Tang Gaozong, she first took the status of the queen mother to the dynasty, and later directly drove Tang Ruizong Li Dan **, established herself as the "Holy Spirit Emperor", and changed the country name to Zhou, and established the only dynasty in history ruled by women - Wu Zhou Dynasty. In the fifteen years of his reign, Wu Zetian perfected the imperial examination, lightly punished the meager endowment, recovered Anxi, and made real political achievements, but in his later years, he began to become extravagant and arbitrary, and finally attracted the "Shenlong Revolution", which led to the return of the throne to the Li family.
Regarding the issue of the imperial heir, Wu Zetian was actually very hesitant in his later years. She knew very well that her sons did not have great talents, and she was not willing to give up the Wu Zhou she had worked so hard to create. But if the throne is not passed on to his son, then only one person can be elected from the Wu clan to inherit the unification, but in this way, the Li family dynasty will be completely destroyed, and it will inevitably lead to turmoil in the court. At that time, although Wu Zetian had been on the throne for many years, there were still many former ministers of the Tang Dynasty in the court, and whether it was above the court or among the people, the phenomenon of "people thinking about Tang" was the mainstream, and if the throne was passed on to the children of the Wu family, it would inevitably be difficult to convince the public. Wu Zetian, who was very entangled, then sent the upright Di Renjie to ask for his opinion. Di Renjie naturally advocated making the children of the Li family the crown prince, so the two monarchs and ministers did not reach a consensus and broke up unhappily.
But on the night of that day, Wu Zetian had a dream in which a parrot could not fly because it had broken one of its wings. She suddenly felt uneasy, so she sent Di Renjie to interpret the dream again. Di Renjie believes that the "parrot" corresponds to the "Wu" of Wu Zetian's mother's family, and the parrot's wings represent that if Wu Zetian insists on passing on the throne to his nephew, it will eventually lead to the Wu family becoming a trapped beast that cannot fly, and sooner or later it will be hunted. At the same time, Di Renjie also pointed out that if the throne is passed on to the Wu family, it will be difficult for Wu Zetian to be worshiped after a hundred years, but if the throne is passed on to his son, even if he is no longer the emperor, he can enter the ancestral temple to receive incense. After listening to this, Wu Zetian finally made up his mind to return the throne to the Li family, and immediately secretly took Li Xian back to Luoyang from Fangzhou.
So after the coup d'état of the "Shenlong Revolution", Wu Zetian took the opportunity to pass the throne to Li Xian, and chose to go to the emperor's name, and finally buried as Empress Li Zhi. After her death, Wu Zetian left a wordless tablet to the world, and let future generations comment on her merits and demerits, but her legendary life is worth remembering.