It is said that men are so beautiful, the ancient emperor sat on three palaces, six courtyards and seventy-two concubines, it was simply not too happy, if a woman became the emperor, would she follow the example of the male emperor to set up a harem?
As the only orthodox empress in history, Wu Zetian is very representative, reasonable, although Wu Zetian is a woman, she is also the emperor, and it stands to reason that the establishment of a harem is beyond reproach, but the problem is that she was the queen of Li Zhi at first, and then the queen mother and emperor.
In a male-dominated patriarchal society, Wu Zetian's influence was first attached to Li ZhiEven if Li Zhi has passed away, this natural dependency relationship cannot be completely eliminated, so if Wu Zetian dares to open a harem, he will inevitably be criticized by the world.
However, you can't set up a harem, it doesn't mean that you can't have no male favorites, in history, after the Empress Dowager Qin Xuan succeeded to the throne with her son King Qin Zhaoxiang, didn't she also have an unclear relationship with King Yiqu, and even gave birth to two children? In the historical records, there are four male pets of Wu Zetian with names and surnames.
Empress Wu Zetian's first male favorite is Xue Huaiyi, his real name is Feng Xiaobao, originally just a small merchant who wandered around the countryside to sell wild medicine, with excellent physical fitness and a clever mouth that can speak, Xue Huaiyi is very popular among the majority of women.
Among Xue Huaiyi's many lovers, one is the maid in the princess's mansion, once the two had a bold tryst in the princess's mansion, but unfortunately were discovered by the owner of the mansion, the princess Qianjin, who was furious and wanted to execute the two, but seeing Xue Huaiyi's handsome face, the princess moved with compassion again.
Xue Huaiyi was raised in the princess's mansion like this. Princess Qianjin was originally Li Yuan's daughter, if it was about seniority, Wu Zetian would call her an aunt, but Wu Zetian killed the Li Tang clan in order to be the emperor, and Princess Qianjin did not hesitate to give up her face to take the initiative to recognize Wu Zetian as her mother in order to protect herself.
In order to please Wu Zetian, Princess Qianjin personally bathed Xue Huaiyi and changed his clothes, and dedicated it to the palace, and Princess Qianjin also said meaningfully to Wu Zetian: "Xiaobao has extraordinary materials and can be served." ”
Wu Zetian naturally understood and left Xue Huaiyi in the palace, and Xue Huaiyi also coaxed Wu Zetian with sweet words.
After all, Wu Zetian still has to save face, in order to prevent the ugly affairs of the two from being noticed by outsiders, Wu Zetian spent a lot of effort to package Xue Huaiyi, first of all, to let Xue Huaiyi become a monk, so that he can enter and leave the palace in the name of passing on the scriptures, and then let him change his surname to Xue, and Xue Shao, the ex-husband of Princess Taiping, is a family.
After that, Xue Huaiyi walked in the palace without taboo, and the Wu clan and the court ** all called him Master Xue, treated him with courtesy, and became the host of the White Horse Temple.
There is an illegal act of Xue Huaiyi in the imperial history, but as a result, this imperial history was seriously injured by Xue Huaiyi's entourageWu Zetian was very clear about Xue Huaiyi's evil deeds, but she adopted a laissez-faire attitude, which made Xue Huaiyi even more "pampered and arrogant".
After four years of vertical arching, Wu Zetian demolished the Qianyuan Palace, built a magnificent Ming Hall (the place where the emperor held sacrificial activities) on the old site, and then built a heaven in the north of the Ming Hall, and the supervisors who built the two buildings were Xue Huaiyi.
The following year, Wu Zetian asked Xue Huaiyi to lead the troops to resist the Turkic army that invaded the border, although he did not encounter the Turkic army and returned, Wu Zetian still added Xue Huaiyi's title and official position.
Under Wu Zetian's operation, Xue Huaiyi became an important minister of the court, and his sudden high position also made Xue Huaiyi more unscrupulous, carefully selecting strong men as monks, and then leading them to do nonsense and encroach on the people's fields everywhere.
Later, Xue Huaiyi found that Wu Zetian gradually fell in love with a person named Shen NanxuanIn a fit of anger, he simply did not enter the palace to serve Wu Zetian, but stayed in the White Horse Temple all day long, and lost Wu Zetian's favor and was still so high-profile, Xue Huaiyi's move was undoubtedly looking for death.
Yushi Zhou Ju repeatedly asked Wu Zetian for a thorough investigation of Xue Huaiyi, Wu Zetian also relented and agreed to investigate, and finally all the monks of the White Horse Temple were exiled, this matter did not make Xue Huaiyi hurt his muscles and bones, he framed Zhou Ju afterwards, resulting in Zhou Ju being imprisoned and dismissed.
What really made Xue Huaiyi fall into a dead end was that he was bold and reckless, and he actually burned Mingtang and Heaven, which undoubtedly touched Wu Zetian's bottom line, and half a month later, Xue Huaiyi was killed.
As mentioned earlier, Wu Zetian has a new male favorite Shen Nanxuan, Shen Nanxuan is different from Xue Huaiyi, he is originally a palace doctor, proficient in medical science, and can prolong Wu Zetian's life, which Xue Huaiyi is far from being able to doIt was precisely because of Shen Nanxuan's appearance that Xue Huaiyi lost his mind and made the move of burning Mingtang.
So, after Xue Huaiyi died, what happened to Shen Nanxuan? There are only a few words in the history book about Shen Nanxuan's record, and there is no explanation of Shen Nanxuan's ending, but in a ** book created by Xu Changling in the Ming Dynasty, it is said that Shen Nanxuan was "overwhelmed and died of exhaustion." ”
Of course, this is from ** after all, and how true it is, everyone can only see the benevolent and the wise.
Two years after Xue Huaiyi's death, Wu Zetian's daughter Princess Taiping got another "superb", that is, the face looks like a lotus Zhang Changzong, she brought Zhang Changzong into the palace and introduced him to Wu Zetian, who was over seventy years old.
Soon after, Zhang Changzong intimately recommended his brother Zhang Yizhi to Wu Zetian, and then the Zhang brothers began to be favored by Wu Zetian.
The Zhang brothers are not high-born, and their father Zhang Xizang had the highest official position in Yongzhou Sihu to join the army before his death, just a seven-grade petty official, it stands to reason that this kind of little person is generally not qualified to appear in the history books, but there are two good sons who can please the empress, so the name Zhang Xizang is fortunate to be recorded in the history books.
When the Zhang brothers entered the palace, Wu Zetian had already entered the later years of his lifeIn order to please this grandmother-level empress, the Zhang brothers did their best, and Wu Zetian was dry and spring, so he naturally appreciated the two brothers very much, and he was not stingy in adding officials to the knighthood.
Under Wu Zetian's deliberate promotion, the Zhang brothers quickly became the hottest upstarts in the imperial court, to what extent did the power of these two brothers go? From these two things, we can get a glimpse of one or two:
First, the Wu brothers and Wu Zetian's nephew Zong Chuke rushed to the Zhang family and curry favor with each other, not only personally leading the horses and handing whips to the Zhang brothers, but also affectionately calling the two brothers "Wulang" and "Liulang" to get closer.
The second is that the crown prince Li Xian and the prime minister Li Dan took the initiative to ask Wu Zetian to make the two kings in order not to be targeted by the Zhang brothers.
As the saying goes, the higher he is praised, the worse he falls, and the more Wu Zetian trusts and delegates power to the Zhang brothers, the more he will arouse the disgust of his children and ministers, and to get rid of the dangerous Zhang brothers, it is obvious that he can only use unconventional means, that is, a coup d'état by force.
So, in the change of the dragon, the Zhang brothers were in Wu Zetian's dormitory to meet the immortal palace and set the immortal hall to ambush them.