For those who are interested in Wu Zetian and Cheng Yaojin, the History Encyclopedia editor brings detailed articles for your reference.
Although Empress Wu excessively used her position of wealth to win the hearts of the world,
Those who are not competent will be dismissed or punished, and will be held accountable for their actions. They will use the handle of punishment and rewards to govern the world. Politics will be governed by themselves, and good judgment will be made. Therefore, at that time, the wise and virtuous also competed for it. ”Sima Guang’s Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government
As the saying goes, ‘One emperor, one courtier’. Even the succession of the throne passed down from father to son is inevitably accompanied by turmoil in the court, let alone the fact that Wu Zetian’s accession to the throne was the only female emperor in Chinese history, and the impact it caused would naturally be even greater.
The existence of Empress Wu Zetian is undoubtedly an indelible “stain” on the feudal patriarchal society, which has been criticized by various dynasties, including her “indiscriminate killing”. But did Wu Zetian really kill indiscriminately? I don’t deny that she is cruel and ruthless, after all, it is highly likely that Princess Andingsi was killed by her personally in order to falsely accuse Queen Wang, and the remaining three sons also had their own struggles; But if we were to say that she massacred the founding heroes on a large scale, it would be truly ridiculous.
I don’t know since when, there are always some irresponsible official account or novels with such titles as “Empress Wu killed all the founding heroes, but she didn’t move Cheng Yaojin”. Oh yes, sometimes Cheng Yaojin will be replaced by Li Ji (Xu Shixun). Every time I see such articles, I want to roll my eyes.
The reason why Wu Zetian did not kill Cheng Yaojin in these articles is because he was a hero of the Four Dynasties and had a good relationship with Li Shimin; The reason why she didn’t kill Li Ji was because Li Ji had spoken up for her. Brothers, at least you can give a unified statement first. The only one who won’t be “moved” by Wu Zetian is Cheng Yaojin or Li Ji?
In fact, Wu Zetian did not move either of them. The only founding hero who could truly be considered moved was Changsun Wuji.
What is a founding hero? Those who followed the establishment of the dynasty by conquering the world were called founding heroes, and in the Tang Dynasty, they could truly be considered as such, namely the 24 heroes of Lingyan Pavilion. But the problem is that the Tang Dynasty was established in 618 AD, and before Wu Zetian, there were three emperors: Li Yuan, Li Shimin, and Li Zhi. By the time Wu Zetian ascended the throne in 690 AD, 72 years had passed since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
Conquering the world has always been a matter of wind and rain. Most of the twenty-four meritorious officials in Lingyan Pavilion are military generals who have already suffered a lot. Not to mention when Wu Zetian ascended the throne, most of them passed away before Li Shimin. Only Changsun Wuji, Yuchi Jingde, Cheng Yaojin, Li Ji, and Tang Jian survived until the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (Li Zhi).
Yuchi Jingde became addicted to elixirs in his later years and began to work as a “reclusive mansion”. He built some pavilions and towers at home, hung white decorations and dressed up as a floating immortal. He also took various mineral powders and did not communicate with outsiders for 16 years. He passed away in 658 AD at the age of 74. At this time, Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, was still alive and even paid his respects to him for three days without paying attention to the court affairs.
Cheng Yaojin was conferred the title of Duke of Lu by Li Shimin. During Li Shimin’s campaign against Goguryeo, Cheng Yaojin stayed behind in Chang’an. After Li Shimin passed away, Cheng Yaojin escorted Li Zhi back to the throne and was afraid of political turmoil during the establishment of the new dynasty. He specially led troops to stay outside the Left Yanming Gate for three consecutive months, showing loyalty and gaining the trust of the Li Tang royal family.
But Cheng Yaojin was also old after all, and because he violated taboos by slaughtering cities during the conquest of the Western Turkic Ashina Horu, he was dismissed from office for a period of time, and later reinstated as the governor of Qizhou. At this point, Cheng Yaojin realized that it was time for him to retire, so he promptly submitted a letter of resignation and obtained approval. He passed away at home in 665 AD at the age of 77.
Many people say that the reason why Li Ji was not killed by Wu Zetian was because Li Zhi wanted to establish Wu Zetian as his successor and asked for the opinions of Li Ji and Chu Suiliang. Chu Suiliang held opposing views, believing that Wu Zetian was not worthy of being a role model for the world, but Li Ji said, “This is Your Majesty’s family matter, why do we need to make a decision?” Wu Zetian accepted Li Ji’s feelings for this matter.
But the problem is that Li Ji died in 669 AD, when Wu Zetian didn’t even have the title of “Heavenly Queen”. How could she decide Li Ji’s life and death? Tang Jian is no exception. After Tang Jian grew old, he no longer paid attention to political affairs and enjoyed drinking with guests. When he felt that he was about the same age, he chose to retire and passed away peacefully in 656 AD.
So all four founding heroes who lived until the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty died peacefully, and none of them were killed after Empress Wu Zetian ascended the throne; The death of Changsun Wuji is indeed closely related to Wu Zetian.
As mentioned above, when Li Zhi decided to depose Empress Wu Zetian and establish her, he gathered a group of important officials to inquire. Although Changsun Wuji did not explicitly oppose it at that time, he still stood on the side of Chu Suiliang, which earned Wu Zetian’s resentment; In 569 AD, under the command of Empress Wu Zetian, Emperor Xu Jingzong reported to Changsun Wuji that he secretly conspired with Li Chao with the intention of rebellion.
This is actually quite absurd. Changsun Wuji is Li Zhi’s uncle. Why does he oppose Li Zhi’s rule when he has nothing to do? But Li Zhi is a love brain, perhaps because the excessive restraint from Changsun Wuji and others made him feel annoyed, and even exiled him to Qianzhou without confronting Changsun Wuji.
Not long after, Li Zhi regretted again and in July of the same year, he wanted Li Ji and Xu Jingzong to overturn the verdict for Changsun Wuji. Xu Jingzong was originally instructed by Wu Zetian to kill Changsun Wuji, how could he possibly overturn his verdict? So he quickly whipped the scholar Yuan Gongyu to rush to Qianzhou to interrogate Changsun Wuji on charges, but in reality, he forced him to commit suicide.
As for Chu Suiliang, who strongly opposed Wu Zetian’s succession, his fate was not as tragic as Changsun Wuji’s. Although he was repeatedly demoted, at least he did not tarnish his reputation and ultimately died in office.
After reading this article, don’t be fooled by those fabricated novels anymore. If you talk about history with someone and say ‘Wu Zetian killed all the founding heroes’, you will also be laughed at.
I have never denied Wu Zetian’s ruthlessness, but all comments should be based on historical facts rather than groundless speculation. It must be acknowledged that due to Wu Zetian’s unique status, she has been subjected to too much unnecessary stigma for thousands of years.
Professor Meng Man’s name is probably well-known to everyone. He is an elite lecturer at the “Hundred Lectures” and is particularly skilled at telling the stories of some female historical figures. Why does Meng Man have such a preference for conducting research on women’s history? Because we all know that since the introduction of the hereditary system in China, it has always been a male dominated society with relatively low status for women. In this social context, there are still some women who can break through the shackles of society and make achievements. How can we not want to explore it deeply?
