@XiranJayZhao

9 months ago

LET'S GOOOO Some corrections on fuzzy details: - Wu Zetian was never Taizong's personal secretary. She was just kind of ignored during her time in his harem, with the exception of getting an "art name" bestowed by him, Mei-Niang (Charming Lady). So she was noticed by him at some point at least, but ultimately she wasn't his type and their age gap was too big, so she had no luck. Her actual job was supposedly changing his sheets, and she met Gaozong while they were both serving the deathly-ill Taizong. - The baby daughter likely died from natural causes and Wu Zetian made the best out of the situation by trying to pin it on Empress Wang. This is not to say Wu Zetian wasn't capable of killing her own kids, but it doesn't make tactical sense to deliberately sacrifice the baby when it's impossible that Empress Wang would have ever been alone with it. There were bound to be servants around. Hence Empress Wang was never found guilty; it was some other bogus charge that brought her and Consort Xiao down later on. It's especially suspicious when accounts of the incident GAIN in detail as the centuries go on. You'd think those later historians (who were very misogynistic) were personally under the bed when it happened by the way they described the entire sequence of events in dramatic detail. The earliest account only says the baby "died suddenly." - Zhongzong never asked Wu Zetian if he could make his father-in-law prime minister, he just went ahead and did it, which was the problem. His wife was indeed ambitious, but she only started making moves AFTER Wu Zetian died, so I wouldn't say Wu Zetian was ever intimidated by her or that she was the mastermind behind this. It was Zhongzong's own hot-headed f*ck up because he thought he could do whatever he wanted now that he was finally emperor. - Crown prince coups aren't that weird in the Tang dynasty. Gaozong himself only came to the throne because his brother the former crown prince tried it and got deposed, and their dad came to the throne through his own coup. Taizong started a bad precedent (and had the NERVE to be shocked when his sons tried to pull the same sh*t on himself 😂)

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