Wu Zetian is the second daughter of Wu Shihuo, the founder of the Tang Dynasty. Her mother's name is Yang (born in the royal family of Sui Dynasty, and her father is the younger brother of King Sui and Duke Ning Sui), and her ancestral home is in Wenshui County, Bingzhou (now a native of Beixu Village, Wenshui County, Shanxi Province). Wu Zetian was born in Lizhou (now Guangyuan, Sichuan) and Chang 'an (now Xi 'an, Shaanxi) in the seventh year of Wude (624).

There are two half-brothers, Wu and Wu, and two half-sisters. One is Mrs. Wu Shun of Korea (Wu Shun is called a sister in history books and a sister in Wu Shun's epitaph), and the other is Mrs. Guo.

Wu Shihuo is engaged in timber trade, and his family is well-off. At the end of Yang Di the Great, when Li Yuan (Tang Gaozu) was in Hedong, he stayed in the Wu family many times and got to know each other. After Li Yuan rose up against the Sui Dynasty in Taiyuan, the Wu family once supported money and had no worries about food and clothing.

After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Shihuo, as a "hero of the Yuan Dynasty", was appointed as the minister of the Ministry of Industry and the secretariat of Jingzhou. Therefore, Bai Shouyi thought in "A General History of China" that "according to the rank of samurai, they should belong to the new senior cremation. Therefore, Wu Zetian was not born in a family of landlords and bureaucrats among ordinary people, but in a family of gentry bureaucrats whose landlords and bureaucrats rose among ordinary people.

After Wu Shihuo died in the ninth year of Zhenguan (635), Wu Zetian was only twelve years old. Her cousins, Wu Huaiyun and Wu are rude to their mother Yang. Soon, Wu Zetian moved back to Chang 'an from Jingzhou with her mother.

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Wu Zetian entered the harem at the age of fourteen, and was a gifted scholar of Emperor Taizong. She was awarded the title of "Wu Mei". Tang Gaozong was named Zhao Yi, then the queen, and was honored as the "queen of heaven", and was also called "double saint" with Emperor Gaozong. After the death of Emperor Gaozong, he became the empress dowager of Tang Zhongzong and Tang Ruizong.

In the first year of God's Grant (690), Wu Zetian established herself as emperor, changed her country name to Zhou, made Luoyang her capital, and established Wu Zhou. Before and after the reign of Wu Zetian, the imperial clan of the Tang Dynasty was massacred, and "cruel officialdom politics" arose.

However, she is "observant and good at judging", and she has great power and can use people, so she makes talents come forth in large numbers. We also rewarded agriculture and mulberry, reformed official management, and attached importance to selecting talents. In his later years, he gradually became extravagant and arbitrary, and gradually degenerated.

In the first year of Shenlong (705), Wu Zetian was seriously ill, and Prime Minister Zhang Jianzhi launched the "Shenlong Revolution" to support the restoration of Tang Zhongzong and forced him to abdicate. After the restoration of the Tang Dynasty, Zhongzong was honored as the "Emperor of Heaven".

In the same year 1 1 month, Wu Zetian died in shangyang palace at the age of 82. In accordance with his last wish, Zhongzong changed his name to "Zetian Tiansheng Queen" and was buried in Ganling as a queen. Later, she became the "Tianshun Saint Queen".

Baidu Encyclopedia-Wu Zetian