Today, the History Encyclopedia editor brings you articles by Xue Huaiyi and Wu Zetian, hoping to be helpful to everyone.
Xue Huaiyi, originally named Feng Xiaobao, was a medicine seller in the martial arts world. One day, he suddenly fell in love with a maid from a wealthy family, and this maid was not an ordinary person. She was the maid of a Tang Dynasty princess. Princess Qianjin was originally the daughter of Li Yuan, but due to her greed and fear of death, she recognized Wu Zetian as her godmother. However, the difference in their seniority can be calculated. The maid brought Feng Xiaobao to the princess’s mansion for a date, which made the princess very angry. After all, this is the princess’s mansion, which has no rules, but just as she was about to punish them, the princess had another idea. Xue Huaiyi’s rise to fame has always been based on his appearance, and the same goes for people in the Tang Dynasty. When Princess Qianjin saw that Feng Xiaobao was good-looking, she brought him to Wu Zetian. When Wu Zetian saw him, she also liked him very much. In order to facilitate his entry into the palace, Wu Zetian made him a monk.
But his background is really bad, it’s okay. Wu Zetian asked Feng Xiaobao to recognize Xue Shao, the former husband of Princess Taiping, as his uncle and changed his name to Xue Huaiyi. Xue Huaiyi quickly became the abbot of the White Horse Temple, and Wu Zetian doted on him very much. Xue Huaiyi is not only handsome, but also has strong abilities. In order to prove her legitimacy as the empress, Wu Zetian planned to build the emperor’s political office – Mingtang. This matter is very important. Wu Zetian asked Xue Huaiyi to complete it, and Xue Huaiyi lived up to his expectations. In less than a year, he built the Mingtang. The Mingtang is about 30 stories high, also known as the Palace of All Things. Behind the Mingtang is a paradise for storing Buddha statues. It is said that one little finger can hold dozens of people, so the paradise is extremely tall and magnificent, with a total of five floors. Even the third floor is already higher than the Mingtang. Xue Huaiyi’s luck is also very strong. As a thug, his ability to win the favor of Wu Zetian itself indicates that he has excellent luck, and the following events will further illustrate it.
Due to his favor, Wu Zetian conferred upon him the title of Grand General. Later, when the Turks invaded, Wu Zetian asked him to go and suppress them. But he’s just a thug who can’t fight, but he can’t disobey Wu Zetian’s orders, so he had to grit his teeth and go. He arrived at the front line just as the Turkic soldiers had left. Unexpectedly, when he came back, he said that the enemy was scared when they heard my name, so they had already fled before I arrived. Wu Zetian was also very happy and immediately appointed him as the second rank Grand General of the auxiliary country. Not long after, the Turks came again. Unexpectedly, as soon as Xue Huaiyi arrived, the Turks left again. This luck was so enviable. After returning, he said he had made contributions, but as for the reason, it was still the same as last time. Xue Huaiyi is becoming more and more popular, and people in Luoyang city want to cling to him, even Wu Sansi personally leads his horse.
Xue Huaiyi was originally a thug selling medicine. After finally succeeding, he should be doubly cautious and cherish it, but he refused and insisted on becoming a demon. Why is he restless? Besides being a thug, the main reason is jealousy. Wu Zetian is the empress, she cannot love only him, but she does not understand this truth. Xue Huaiyi often did bad things in Luoyang city back then. For example, he had become a monk. When he saw a Taoist on the street, he would arrest him, forcibly shave his head, and then make him become a monk. After a Taoist was arrested, he waited until Xue Huaiyi died before returning to become a Taoist. If officials impeach him, he will go and beat them, and Wu Zetian chose to tolerate it. Later, due to jealousy, he decided not to go to the palace to see Wu Zetian, and instead played around with a group of thugs at the White Horse Temple every day.
Wu Zetian could endure everything until something big happened. On the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival in 695 AD, Empress Wu Zetian chose to spend the festival in Mingtang. In order to attract Wu Zetian’s attention, he asked her men to dig a five zhang deep pit on the ground of Mingtang. In the pit, a Buddha statue was buried in advance and a mechanism was installed. Then, a palace was built on the pit with silk. When Wu Zetian arrived, he commanded his subordinates to slowly lift the Buddha statue from the bottom of the pit all the way to the palace built of colorful silk. He thought this spectacular sight could catch Wu Zetian’s attention, but she didn’t react. Fortunately, Xue Huaiyi also made other preparations. He drew a 200 foot tall Buddha statue with cow blood and hung it on the Tianjin Bridge. Then she said to Wu Zetian, ‘This is what I cut off my knee and drew with my own blood.’. Wu Zetian is not foolish, how could she believe what he said.
Xue Huaiyi felt that he was about to lose favor, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. So on the second day, which was the 16th day of the first lunar month, he set fire to Mingtang and Heaven. As mentioned earlier, Mingtang is a symbol of the Empress’s identity and status, which is very important to Empress Wu Zetian. Moreover, the construction of Mingtang required a lot of manpower and material resources, and this effort was wasted. On that day in Luoyang City, the night was as bright as day, and Xue Huaiyi felt relieved in his heart, but Wu Zetian was angry. In this way, Xue Huaiyi, who had been with Wu Zetian for a full 10 years, passed away more than half a month later, and the cause of his death is disputed.
