The videos I watched became popular in ancient times

Chapter 178 The famous tradition of the Li and Tang royal families

Su Chen talked about Wu Zetian's contributions from five aspects: politics, economy, culture, military, and diplomacy. After hearing this, ancient people from all dynasties couldn't help but give Wu Zetian a thumbs up.

Although Wu Zetian was a female figure, her political achievements during her time as empress were no worse than those of other emperors.

Before the Song Dynasty, Confucian orthodoxy had not yet completely taken hold. Everyone thought it was okay for a woman to be the emperor, and it was not a big deal. Therefore, they admired Wu Zetian for these achievements.

But starting from the Song Dynasty, especially after Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became dominant, the trend of belittling women spread in society.

This also made people in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties dislike Wu Zetian, thinking that Wu Zetian was a demon queen who brought disaster to the country and the people.

But even if these dynasties deliberately belittled Wu Zetian, after listening to the anchor's account of Wu Zetian's contribution, one had to admire a generation of queens.

During Wu Zetian's reign, there were things she did well and things she did poorly.

Su Chen finished talking about the positive side, and then started talking about the negative side.

"Wu Zetian's ascension to the throne had a serious negative impact on the politics of the time. Her actions intensified conflicts within the ruling group, causing the political situation to become complex, volatile and unstable."

"Xu Jingye raised troops in Yangzhou on the one hand because of his grievances about dereliction of duty and ambition for separatism; on the other hand, Wu Zetian's attempt to become emperor provided him with an excuse."

The ancients of other dynasties may not have deep feelings, but the subjects of the Tang Dynasty who were on the eve of Wu Zetian's proclaimed emperor could deeply feel the strange turmoil of the political situation.

Wu Zetian made a series of arrangements in order to become emperor, and various opposition forces were also surging undercurrents. The entire society was shrouded in a tense atmosphere, and turmoil could break out at any time.

As ordinary people at the bottom, they are full of fear when faced with this strange situation, fearing that the turmoil from above will burn them and cause them to suffer unreasonable disasters.

But what reassures them is that they already know the final outcome, and the turmoil caused by the Queen Mother's accession to the throne and proclaiming herself emperor will not harm them.

"In order to become emperor, Wu Zetian adopted the method of bribery, and a large number of opportunistic people poured into the officialdom."

"In order to cater to Wu Zetian's ambition to become emperor, many treacherous villains went along with her chaotic government, seriously corrupting the officialdom and social atmosphere, and sycophancy and hypocrisy began to prevail."

"At the same time, in order to claim the throne, Wu Zetian adopted terrorist methods to suppress the opposition, appointed cruel officials, rewarded informants, and killed innocent people indiscriminately. This had a very negative impact on the relatively enlightened political atmosphere of the Zhenguan period."

During this period, officials of the Tang Dynasty complained endlessly. They lived in fear every day, fearing that one day they would suddenly be arrested by cruel officials and sent to prison to be tortured.

He didn't even dare to talk to other officials casually, lest he be misunderstood by the Queen Mother as colluding with the opposition, and then be implicated and targeted by cruel officials.

In short, these officials hope that this trend will pass quickly. They have long been fed up with cruel politics.

Compared with the officials of the Tang Dynasty who lived in fear of the politics of cruel officials, the common people of the Tang Dynasty applauded this and wished that the Queen Mother would use more cruel officials.

The common people see clearly that the Empress Dowager's re-employment of cruel officials is mainly detrimental to the court ministers and the Li Tang clan, but it is beneficial to them, the common people.

In order to claim the throne, the Queen Mother today uses cruel staff to kill those who oppose her and clear the way for her to become emperor.

And they are ordinary people who just want to live their own lives and will not oppose the Queen Mother, so the Queen Mother's cruel staff will naturally not harm them.

And besides, when the Queen Mother's ruthless officials want to attack those opposition officials, they mostly start with corruption.

Corrupt officials are eliminated, and the people who benefit naturally are the people.

Coupled with the cruel officialdom implemented by the Queen Mother, officials from all over the country were cautious and did not dare to bully the people and engage in corruption. During this time, the ordinary people lived an easy life.

The only thing that made the common people regretful was that after the Queen Mother successfully ascended the throne and proclaimed herself emperor, she killed those cruel officials to quell the public anger of the officials.

As ordinary people, they still hope that after the Queen Mother becomes emperor, she can be a little cruel and beat the officials from time to time, so that the officials will not bully the people unscrupulously.

"Wu Zetian squandered a large amount of social wealth in order to become emperor, and encouraged the ambitions of concubines, princesses, princes and relatives to covet the throne."

"After the death of Wu Zetian, the political situation during the period of Zhongzong Li Xian and Ruizong Li Dan was frequently shaken and coups were constant. This was closely related to the impact of Wu Zetian's proclaimed emperor."

"Therefore, Wu Zetian's proclaimed emperor had a negative impact on the political situation, political conditions and political style at that time."

Queen Wei:?
  Princess Taiping: Who is the princess the anchor is referring to?
  Li Longji: Which prince doesn’t covet the throne?
  Wu Sansi: I suspect the anchor is clicking on me.

The people of Tang Dynasty nodded in agreement after hearing this. It was indeed as the anchor said.

After the death of the Queen, Zhongzong Li Xian ascended the throne, but then Prince Li Chongjun launched a coup, which ultimately failed.

Less than three years later, Li Longji and Princess Taiping launched another coup to kill Empress Wei.

Two years later, Li Longji launched another coup to kill Princess Taiping.

In just a few years, four coups were launched in a row, and the shocking situation made the people marvel.

However, although there are constant coups, the good thing is that it is only the top that is shaking, and ordinary people are not affected.

For the Li Tang royal family to launch a coup, their common people have long been accustomed to it and can watch it all calmly.

After all, coups are a tradition of the Li and Tang royal families, and everyone has long been accustomed to it, without feeling anything wrong at all.

Speaking of which, Emperor Taizong came to power through the Xuanwumen Coup.

Later, Emperor Taizong's prince Li Chengqian also launched a coup in the same manner, but unfortunately the coup failed and the throne fell into the hands of Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi.

After Gaozong's death, Wu Zetian launched a coup to change the dynasty and became the queen of the generation.

Looking at it this way, the people have become numb to the coup.

If the Li and Tang royal family did not launch a coup when the power changed, their people would not be used to it.

Regarding the negative impact mentioned by the anchor, Wu Zetian herself did not think it had anything to do with it.

Since she chose to ascend the throne and become emperor, she had already considered the negative impact it would have on the political situation, but she didn't care at all.

As for the political situation during the Zhongzong and Ruizong periods after her death, she could no longer control it.

Now, what she cares most about is how future generations will view her act of ascending the throne and proclaiming emperor, whether they support or slander her, or whether they don't care. Wu Zetian: Anchor, I would like to know what future generations will say?
  "On this issue of Her Majesty the Queen, people from all eras have different opinions. Some praise and some criticize."

"For example, the poet Lu Zhaolin, known as one of the four heroes of the early Tang Dynasty, commented that Wu Zetian was upright, had modest qualities, and showed fairness and wisdom in education and administration."

"Furthermore, Shen Jiji, a litterateur in the Tang Dynasty, believed that during Wu Zetian's more than 20 years of rule, no matter whether he was a minister or a hundred officials, there was no one who was not famous for his literary talent. This trend gradually formed and spread widely."

"Cui Rong, a writer of the Tang Dynasty, believed that Wu Zetian had made immortal achievements for the country and the nation. He believed that Wu Zetian had extraordinary talents and far-sightedness, and spoke highly of her historical achievements."

The ancients after the Tang Dynasty did not think it was a big deal that Lu Zhaolin and Shen Jiji praised Wu Zetian.

But Cui Rong's evaluation is so high, everyone just thinks Cui Rong is a flatterer.

This Cui Rong was one of the Four Friends of Articles when Wu Zetian became emperor. He served in Wu Zetian's court. He licked his face and praised Wu Zetian to the sky, without any dignity of a scholar.

"Liu Yu, a politician during the Five Dynasties period, wrote in the "Old Book of Tang" that Wu Zetian was a woman with outstanding talents. She used power and strict discipline, and formulated a series of political, legal and military reforms that made the Tang Dynasty political Long-term stability has been achieved.”

"Liu Yu believes that Wu Zetian has achieved certain achievements in governing the country, but there are also some problems and negative impacts. His evaluation of Wu Zetian is multi-dimensional, with both praise and criticism."

"Liu Yu also pointed out some of Wu Zetian's problems, such as being too arbitrary and autocratic, which weakened local political power and social freedom."

Liu Yu: I strive to be fair and strict when compiling history books. I have to write down both the good and bad sides.

His views on Wu Zetian are generally positive. In addition to the advantages and disadvantages mentioned by the anchor, there are actually some others.

For example, Wu Zetian advocated frugality, loved the people as her own children, vigorously supported agricultural production, lowered taxes, and strengthened people's livelihood construction, which led to a large-scale recovery of agricultural production in the Hexi region.

This is an achievement made by Wu Zetian during her rule, which cannot be erased in any way.

Of course, in addition to the positive ones, there are also some negative comments that the anchor did not mention.

For example, Wu Zetian set up a secret service to monitor and persecute political dissidents and their families, which made Tang Dynasty society generally feel depressed and depressed.

Wu Zetian's face was quite calm, and she also quite approved of the "Old Book of Tang" compiled by Liu Yu.

As for the praise and criticism of her, they are fair and not blindly smearing, which is enough.

"Zhao Kuangyin of the Northern Song Dynasty also affirmed Wu Zetian's ability to govern the country, and his overall evaluation of Wu Zetian was very positive."

Zhao Kuangyin: The anchor is right about this. Although Wu Zetian abused punishment, her ability to reuse capable ministers like Di Renjie is enough to show that she is good at governing the country.

"Ouyang Xiu, a politician in the Northern Song Dynasty, believed that Wu Zetian's usurping the throne was a serious crime, but Ouyang Xiu did not completely erase Wu Zetian's achievements."

Ouyang Xiu: The "New Book of Tang" compiled by me included Wu Zetian in this chronicle, which was also influenced by the "Gao Hou Ji" written by Sima Qian.

In his opinion, there are similar examples in history, such as the "Gaohouji" written by Sima Qian. Although the Lu usurpers were not legitimate rulers, they were not completely denied after they took charge of the country.

Precisely following this line of thinking, he did not blindly smear Wu Zetian.

"Sima Guang, the historian of the Northern Song Dynasty, highly praised Wu Zetian for his good use of talents in Zizhi Tongjian. Di Renjie is a good example."

Sima Guang: Wu Zetian abused her power to win people's hearts, but I have to say that she was indeed very capable and allowed all the heroes and talents in the world to be used by her. This is still worthy of praise.

"Zhu Xi, the master of Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty, repeatedly criticized Wu Zetian in the "Tongjian Gangmu" and cursed Wu Zetian as a cancer causing harm to the Tang Dynasty."

Zhu Xi: That's it. I'm not talking nonsense. Wu Zetian took advantage of the weakening of the Tang Dynasty to usurp the country of the Tang Dynasty. He appointed ruthless officials to create unjust prisons. In order to remove the obstacles to becoming emperor, he massacred the Li Tang clan, one after another. What is it if it’s not a cancer?
  "Hu Zhitang, an official of the Southern Song Dynasty, listed nine major crimes against Wu Zetian and believed that the disasters caused by Wu Zetian were unprecedented. However, he did not completely deny Wu Zetian and still affirmed Wu Zetian's virtuousness and talents."

Wu Zetian couldn't help but sneer again and again. She was so virtuous and capable that future generations would accuse her of so many crimes.

She finally saw that the evaluations of her in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty were polarized.

Most of the people in the Northern Song Dynasty received positive reviews, such as Zhao Kuangyin, Ouyang Xiu, and Sima Guang.

But in the Southern Song Dynasty, the evaluation of her was mainly slander.

For example, Zhu Xi scolded her as a cancer of the Tang Dynasty, and Hu Zhitang scolded her for causing unprecedented chaos.

She was dismissive and didn't care at all about the evaluation of her by people in the Southern Song Dynasty.

If she remembered correctly, the Southern Song Dynasty was that useless dynasty that was beaten to a corner by foreigners.

She didn't even look at the humiliation of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the people of the Southern Song Dynasty were even less qualified to judge her.

"Ming Dynasty writer Hu Yinglin tried his best to belittle Wu Zetian. He believed that even in history books, it would be difficult to find a more evil character than Wu Zetian."

Hu Yinglin: I searched through thousands of years of history books and could not find anyone more evil than Wu Zetian. Even people like Zhao Gao, Wang Mang, Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao, Zhu Wen, and Qin Hui were not as evil as Wu Zetian.

Wu Zetian: Haha!

She was too lazy to pay attention to such ignorant people, and would only blindly belittle and slander him. For those who didn't know, she thought she had destroyed his nine tribes.

Of course, if Hu Yinglin was a person of her era and dared to say these words, she would not mind destroying the other nine tribes.

"Li Zhe (zhe), a writer in the Ming Dynasty, spoke highly of Wu Zetian. He believed that among the emperors in modern times, there was no emperor who was as good at identifying talents, focused on cultivating talents, and cared about the well-being of the people as Wu Zetian."

Li Zhi nodded. He indeed thought so. A good emperor should focus on identifying talents, caring for talents, and benefiting the people. Wu Zetian was such a wise king.

During Wu Zetian's reign, many talented people were reused, such as Lou Shide, Hao Chujun, Yao Chong, etc., and their talents were fully utilized.

Moreover, Di Renjie, the Liang Gong whom he admired most, was able to show his talents because he received Wu Zetian's favor and courtesy.

Although Song Lu was upright and often annoyed Wu Zetian, he was also reused by Wu Zetian.

These show that Wu Zetian is a wise king who is good at appreciating and respecting wise men and gentlemen.

Zhu Yuanzhang: Haha, is this Li Zhe saying that we are not as good as Wu Zetian?
  (End of this chapter)