In this article, the editor of History Encyclopedia brings you the following content: Wu Zetian asked a question to the courtiers, and Di Renjie answered it casually, continuing the Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years.
Wu Zetian is a well-known name in the history of our country. She is the only female emperor in the 5000 year history of our country who ascended the throne and firmly held the throne through her personal abilities!
Before Wu Zetian, there were two female emperors who also officially ascended to the throne, but unfortunately they did not sit on their own and did not last long, so they were not officially recognized.
The first person born in Northern Wei was named Yuan (without a name, added by later generations to record her). She was able to ascend to the throne because she was the only child of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, but unfortunately she was a girl. At that time, Empress Dowager Hu wanted to control the court and announced to her ministers that Yuan was still a boy and made her emperor.
But the next day, after stabilizing the government, she was abandoned, and later Yuan and Empress Dowager Hu were both killed in the Heyin Incident (the biggest catastrophe in the history of Northern Wei). Therefore, Yuan only sat on the throne for one day, and she was less than one year old at that time.
The second one was Chen Shuozhen, a peasant leader who rebelled and proclaimed himself emperor in the fourth year of Yonghui (653 AD, the reign title of Wu Zetian’s husband Tang Gaozong Li Zhi), but unfortunately her dream of becoming emperor only lasted for a month. Because the Tang Dynasty was experiencing a strong rise at that time, this small-scale peasant uprising was impossible to succeed (I don’t know if Wu Zetian had this idea after seeing Chen Shuozhen).
The author mentioned these earlier to tell everyone how amazing Wu Zetian was in history, after all, it took 5000 years for her to be born! Alright, back to the main topic, what question did Wu Zetian ask several of her close courtiers at that time, and how did Di Renjie continue the 200 year reign of the Tang Dynasty (the inheritance of national fortune)?
Between approximately 699 and 705 AD, historical records recorded two statements (one meaning).
Your Majesty concealed the artifact and took it for more than ten years, but he wanted to think twice before making a decision. And who is the relative between the nephew and the mother and son? If Your Majesty establishes the Prince of Luling, he will enjoy the ancestral temple for thousands of years to come; Think twice before building a temple, don’t forget your aunt.
Renjie calmly spoke to the Empress Dowager, saying, “Emperor Tai entrusted His Majesty with two sons, and His Majesty intends to transfer them to another tribe. It is not a matter of heaven’s will! And who is the relative of my nephew and mother? If Your Majesty establishes a son, he will live for thousands of years and inherit the temple without quantity. If you establish a nephew, I have never heard of anyone who is an emperor and resides in the temple.
I believe there is no need for the author to explain the above two paragraphs, as they are not difficult to understand. What do they mean? That is to say, Empress Wu Zetian once asked her close courtiers (Di Renjie, Li Zhaode, Zhang Jianzhi, etc.) a question: should I return the throne to the Li family or give it to the Wu family after my death? And Di Renjie said these two sentences, it’s hard to determine which one exactly, but the general meaning is the same.
We all know that Di Renjie was very loyal to the Li family. When he was in charge of Luantai (a department name during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, Di Renjie’s peak official position was Tongfengtai Luange Pingzhangshi, which means prime minister), he protected the Li Tang royal family many times, especially the early Crown Prince Zhanghuai, who was also the third son of Empress Wu Zetian and Li Zhi, the Prince of Luling at that time.
Some fans may ask, would Wu Zetian change her mind on such a major issue as the succession of the throne just based on a single sentence from Di Renjie? Of course, if it were just this sentence, Wu Zetian would not have changed her mind. However, the problem was that at that time, Wu Zetian had two reasons that forced her to agree with Di Renjie’s words.
The first one is that Wu Zetian was a Buddhist, and Di Renjie’s words undoubtedly told him that if the throne was passed on to Wu Chengsi of the Wu family (Wu Zetian’s nephew, whose hands were stained with the blood of the Li Tang royal family), then she would definitely not be able to enter the Tang Dynasty ancestral temple. Because her husband is Li Zhi and she is the emperor’s aunt, there is no reason for a nephew to offer sacrifices to his already married aunt.
So, Wu Zetian could only choose to return the divine artifact (Jiangshan) to Li Tang, because she was the biological mother of Li Xian and Li Dan (both emperors, Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong of Tang), and also the empress of Li Zhi. Therefore, she was bound to enter the imperial temple to enjoy sacrifices.
The second reason is that before Wu Zetian ascended to power, for some unknown reason (some say she was bullied by her family when she was a child, while others say she was loyal to Li Zhibiao), she killed many members of the Wu family, including her brother, sister-in-law, and other nephews, all of whom died tragically under the butcher’s knife. If she passes on the throne to Wu Chengsi, then Wu Chengsi is likely to overturn the old accounts and negate everything about her. In this way, not only will her imperial title not be guaranteed, but even her son will not survive.
In summary, Di Renjie, relying on the special status of Wu Zetian and Wu Chengsi, successfully persuaded Wu Zetian to change politics with Li Tang by taking the lead (to clarify, Wu Zetian did not actually do so at that time, but already had this idea in her heart, so after the Shenlong Rebellion, she calmly returned the throne to Li Xian, otherwise Li Xian would have been labeled as a matricide). It is precisely because of his words that the Tang Dynasty was not cut off from Wu Zetian’s hands, indirectly adding about 200 years of national fortune to the Tang Dynasty (if given to Wu Chengsi, the Tang Dynasty would have died in three generations).
