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Chapter 179 Teacher’s Views on Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian was deeply moved, how come they were both writers of the Ming Dynasty, but their evaluations of her were so different.

One devalued her to the eighteenth level of hell, and the other praised her to the thirty-third level of heaven.

However, although the Ming Dynasty writer Li Zhi gave her a very high evaluation and she appreciated it very much, she was also self-aware and did not have the shamelessness to accept it frankly.

"Wang Euzhi, a thinker in the Qing Dynasty, called Wu Zhou's regime a pseudo-Chou regime, cursed Wu Zetian as a murderous whore, and believed that Wu Zetian's crimes were outraged by both humans and gods, and that heaven and earth would not tolerate her."

Wang Fuzhi: Although I say this, I don’t think so in my heart.

The reason why he slandered Wu Zetian was because he was extremely dissatisfied with the alien rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

So he used the past to satirize the present, and satirized the Manchu Qing Dynasty by lashing out at Wu Zetian, the usurping king in history.

"Qing Dynasty historian Zhao Yi commented on Wu Zetian's private life in his history books and believed that it was normal for Wu Zetian to have a male favorite and that it was nothing to make a fuss about."

Zhao Yi: Originally, emperors of all dynasties had many concubines, but as the empress, Wu Zetian only had a few male attendants in front of her, so there was nothing to blame.

"Zhai (zhai) Ai (ai) in the Qing Dynasty regarded Wu Zetian not only as a queen mother, but as a real emperor. His evaluation showed his respect for female rulers and the importance they attached to their talents."

Zhai Ai: As a woman, Wu Zetian was able to control the world with the power of a woman and ruled for more than 20 years. This was very difficult. Her intelligence is beyond ordinary people's imagination and she is a very outstanding ruler.

"Wang Qinglan, a poet from the Qing Dynasty, commented that Wu Zetian's ability and achievements in governing the country were unique in history."

"At the same time, Wang Qinglan also mentioned that Wu Zetian had used people such as Di Renjie and Liang Bao, expressing his appreciation for her wisdom and ability to appoint people on their merits."

"In addition, Wang Qinglan believes that Wu Zetian takes care of herself, but will not get angry because of other people's provocations. This also shows her mind and magnanimity."

Wang Qinglan: Although Wu Zetian is a woman, we cannot deny her achievements. What she did well must still be praised.

"In addition, Cheng Yingquan, a Qing Dynasty poet, praised Wu Zetian. He believed that Wu Zetian created many miracles during her reign and was a very outstanding ruler."

Cheng Yingquan: There is no doubt that Wu Zetian’s talents and abilities surpassed many wise monarchs and she was a very outstanding figure.

He admired Wu Zetian very much. Being able to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor in a society where men were superior to women was enough to illustrate Wu Zetian's intelligence.

What's more, after Wu Zetian became emperor, her series of policies greatly promoted the development of Tang society. This was not easy, and she did better than many emperors.

So after Wu Zetian passed away, her successors also imitated her, but it was difficult for them to reach Wu Zetian's height.

"In addition to the various evaluations of Wu Zetian by ancient literati, there are also many celebrities in modern times who evaluated Wu Zetian, such as the most famous teacher."

"The teacher felt that Wu Zetian was not simple, but even extraordinary. In feudal society, women had no status. People didn't even dare to think about a woman being the emperor."

"The teacher has read some unofficial histories that describe Wu Zetian as debauched and extravagant, and thinks this matter is worthy of discussion."

"The teacher believes that Wu Zetian is indeed a talented person in governing the country. She has the capacity to tolerate people, the wisdom of recognizing people, and the skill of employing people."

Wu Zetian: Although I don’t know who the teacher is, what he said is very right and I agree with it very much.

Before, people in the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties either praised or belittled her, but she didn't pay too much attention.

Because she is not very interested in the evaluation of herself by people of these dynasties. On the contrary, she is more interested in the evaluation of her by later generations.

After all, later generations are further behind than those in the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, so their evaluations are more meaningful.

According to what the anchor said, this teacher will be a celebrity in future generations.

An influential later generation's positive evaluation of her is enough to show that the overall evaluation of her by later generations is also positive.

Thinking of this, she smiled slightly, feeling particularly comfortable and her face was radiant.

Her act of usurping Li Tang's kingdom would cause great controversy and would most likely leave an infamy in the history books.

Now that she knows that future generations will mostly evaluate her positively, she can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"The famous scholar Guo Moruo believes that the reign of Wu Zetian was the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Not only was the country rich, but it also extended its sphere of influence to the Persian Gulf."

"Guo Moruo also believed that Wu Zetian developed Tang Taizong's Zhenguan rule and laid the foundation for Tang Xuanzong's prosperous Kaiyuan era."

"Most of the ministers, prime ministers, scribes, and bachelors in the Kaiyuan era were people trained in the Wu Zetian era."

Zhu Di: There is nothing wrong with that. During Wu Zetian's reign, she initiated Zhenguan and Kaiyuan. Generally speaking, Wu Zetian's ability to govern was still very powerful, better than many emperors in various dynasties.

The reason why Li Longji was able to create the prosperous Kaiyuan era was thanks to the foundation laid by Wu Zetian.

Wu Zetian not only handed over the prosperous Tang Dynasty to Li Longji, but also trained a large number of talents for Li Longji. This allowed Li Longji to bring the Tang Dynasty to its peak and create the Kaiyuan era that attracted the attention of the world.

After Li Longji ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor through a coup, all the talents his court relied on were trained by Wu Zetian.

"Song Qingling believed that Wu Zetian was the only female emperor in Chinese history and an outstanding female politician in the feudal era. But in terms of family roles, it is not difficult to see that Wu Zetian was also a good wife."

Li Shimin: A good wife? This Song Qingling is probably not joking! How can you tell that she is a good wife? If she is really a good wife, she will not snatch the throne from her son after her husband's death.

Wu Zetian: Finally someone understands me.

Although the entire Tang Dynasty's subjects did not believe it, she thought she was a good wife.

Her husband was seriously ill, so she worked hard day and night to shoulder the important tasks, share the heavy responsibilities for her husband, and ensure that the Tang Dynasty was stable and untroubled. She fulfilled the responsibility of a wife.

After the death of her husband, her son succeeded to the throne, but the son was so unsatisfied that he wanted to give away the Tang Dynasty that his ancestors had conquered.

Her son was unreliable, so in order to preserve the country of Tang Dynasty left by her husband, she had no choice but to do it herself.

She does all this, which shows that she is a good wife, but the world always misunderstands her.

"Chinese modern writer Lin Yutang believes that Wu Zetian is a rare woman in ancient and modern times, and it is not easy to compare with other noble women."    "Wu Zetian is neither Cleopatra nor the Empress of Tsarist Russia. She has the energy of the British Queen Elizabeth and the French Empress of cruelty."

"It is also believed that Wu Zetian blatantly despised moralists. She shattered traditions, initiated reforms, and caused more chaos than any sinister man in history."

Zhao Kuangyin: Wu Zetian is an outstanding woman, there is no denying this. Apart from being crazy about power and extremely arrogant, he is very clear-headed, very calm, and has a smart and strong personality.

Wang Anshi: To be fair, Wu Zetian was indeed the most shrewd and capable politician at that time, better than those knowledgeable Confucian ministers and the most ambitious queens in the past dynasties.

Ouyang Xiu: If Wu Zetian had not usurped the Tang Dynasty and established herself, she could have become a wise ruler, better than many emperors in history.

Su Shi: Taizong was a man and Empress Wu was a woman. Both of them tried their best to create a dynasty. Taizong was a man of great talent and broad-minded strategy, and was highly regarded by the public. Empress Wu was comparable to Taizong in terms of talents.

Zhu Xi: Wu Zetian was the most arrogant, extravagant, vain and selfish queen in Chinese history, the most self-willed, and had an extremely bad reputation.

Yu Qian: Cruelty and intelligence, madness and calmness are surprisingly unified in this unparalleled woman who has dominated China for half a century.

"Historian Fan Wenlan said in the Compendium of General History of China that Wu Zetian was a strong and resourceful politician, while Gaozong Li Zhi was a fatuous monarch."

"The achievements of unity and strength achieved during the Zhenguan period were further consolidated during the half century of Wu Zetian's autocratic rule, so that social peace was maintained for a long time. This is her contribution to history."

Li Zhi:......

He just didn't understand. He was just praising Meiniang, so why did he still want to step on him? How could he be a fatuous monarch?
  Under his governance, the Tang Dynasty's martial arts surpassed Taizong's, not to mention the civil affairs, and greatly increased the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

With such achievements, he dare not say that he is on par with Taizong, but he still has some of Taizong's demeanor, which has nothing to do with mediocrity.

Yongzheng: Wu Zetian's policy of cracking down on aristocratic families and promoting ordinary landowners to officials was in line with the development trend at that time. Therefore, Wu Zetian's role was positive and she also made a lot of contributions to consolidating the borders of the Tang Dynasty.

"In addition to the domestic ones, the Cambridge History of Sui and Tang Dynasties in China compiled by the modern British historian Cui Ruide also gave a very high evaluation of Wu Zetian."

"Despite the vicious attacks and hostile attitudes of Confucian historians about this woman who dared to overthrow the Li and Tang royal family and rule as fiercely as a man, Wu Zetian clearly had special talents, a gift for politics, and was very good at it. Manipulating the power structure of the palace.”

"At the same time, Cui Ruide believes that Wu Zetian's extraordinary ability to seize power is due to her outstanding talents, firm determination and ability to identify people, coupled with her ruthlessness, unscrupulousness and political opportunism."

Wu Zetian was very surprised that a foreigner could have such a high opinion of her.

If she remembered correctly, the sky screen had previously played a video of people escaping from the British Museum. The British had robbed many historical relics from the Qing Dynasty, and even many precious treasures from the Tang Dynasty were also robbed by the British.

In this regard, Britain is the enemy of China, and there is sworn hatred between the two.

Being able to have an enemy praise her highly shows that her evaluation in later generations is still very positive.

"Since the Tang Dynasty, there have always been various evaluations of Wu Zetian."

"In the early Tang Dynasty, because all the emperors were direct descendants of Wu Zetian, and Confucian orthodoxy had not yet fully taken hold, the evaluation of Wu Zetian was relatively positive at that time."

"But as time went by, especially Sima Guang of the Northern Song Dynasty, who edited "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", he severely criticized Wu Zetian."

"After Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became dominant in Chinese thought, the public opinion of concentrating on women determined the evaluation of Wu Zetian."

"But with the rise of progressive ideas in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the evaluation of Wu Zetian slowly improved."

After the anchor said this, ancient people from various dynasties thought about it and found that this was really the case.

The ones who scolded Wu Zetian most harshly were Zhu Xi and Hu Zhitang during the Southern Song Dynasty. People from other dynasties had mostly positive evaluations of Wu Zetian.

Zhu Xi scolded Wu Zetian as the cancer of the Tang Dynasty, and Hu Zhitang scolded Wu Zetian for causing unprecedented chaos.

Everyone speculates that these two people were deeply influenced by Cheng and Zhu's Neo-Confucianism, so much so that they belittled Wu Zetian.

Sima Guang: It cannot be said to be a harsh criticism. I also had a positive evaluation of Wu Zetian in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian".

Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was prevalent in the Song Dynasty, and he was inevitably affected, so his evaluation of Wu Zetian was also derogatory.

However, seeing that so many people mostly praised Wu Zetian, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties and later generations, he felt that it was necessary to revise the "Zizhi Tongjian" that mostly had negative comments about Wu Zetian, otherwise his evaluation would appear unfair. This greatly reduces the value of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian".

Su Chen spent a lot of time talking about the evaluations of Wu Zetian by celebrities of various eras. Generally speaking, the images were mostly positive.

In fact, from ancient times to the present, there have been thousands of evaluations of Wu Zetian, and the vast majority of historians have positive evaluations of Wu Zetian.

This is mainly due to the different perspectives of considering the problem. If we look at the problem from the perspective of the Li clan of the Tang Dynasty, then Wu Zetian was indeed guilty of a heinous crime.

But looking at the problem from the perspective of the common people, Wu Zetian did have great things.

Before Wu Zetian, the Tang Dynasty was the dynasty of the Li family in Longxi and the dynasty of the Guanlong Group.

The Guanlong Group controls all these key departments, and it is difficult for children from poor families to stand up. It can be said that they will never get ahead in their lifetime.

However, after Wu Zetian's killing spree, the Guanlong Group declined, providing a stage for other noble clans to flex their muscles.

At the same time, Wu Zetian reformed the imperial examination system, searched for talents everywhere, and promoted palace examinations, which provided a convenient way for poor families to participate in politics and expanded the basis of rule.

Wu Zetian's heavy use of cruel officials was mainly detrimental to the court officials, but it was beneficial to the common people.

To sum up, Wu Zetian's cruelty was mainly aimed at the Li family and the Guanlong Group of the Tang Dynasty. For most people in the country, the policy pursued by Wu Zetian was benevolent government.

In that patriarchal society, Wu Zetian was so cruel to the Li family as a last resort.

After all, emperors in the past dynasties did more than Wu Zetian in order to maintain their throne.

For the entire country, Wu Zetian broke class solidification, injected new vitality into the Tang Dynasty, and contributed to the revival of the Tang Dynasty.

It is precisely because of this that most of the evaluations of Wu Zetian are positive.

(End of this chapter)