Before liberation, the General History of China and the History of Sui and Tang Dynasties published in 30 or 40 years mostly contained chapters such as "the disaster of Wuwei", "the chaos of Wuwei" and "the chaos of Wuhou", which linked Wu Zetian's rule with Wei Hou's chaotic politics and criticized them together. Although some history books have said a few fair words for Wu Zetian, the overall evaluation has not fundamentally changed. Wu Zetian is a sinner who usurps power and chaos.
After the founding of New China, historians got rid of the shackles of feudal ethics and began to evaluate the historical position of historical figures from their times and contributions to historical development. People's views on Wu Zetian have also changed greatly. Most historians affirm Wu Zetian.
Comrade Wu believes that Wu Zetian is a "strong and witty politician". In 660, the fifth year of emperor xianqing, wu zetian participated in politics. Although Emperor Gaozong was a national subjugation and a bad king, "the decadent forces did not grow up with his support, nor did they cause disasters that harmed the people because the emperor changed his surname. The achievements made during the Zhenguan period were unified and powerful, and they were effectively consolidated in the half century of Wu Zetian's rule. This is her contribution to history. " It is also pointed out that Wu Zetian's ruling "caused a powerful autocratic rule for half a century and contributed to the further consolidation of national unity and the long-term maintenance of social peace."
Comrade Jane Bo said in the Outline of General History of China: "Wu Zetian's policy of cracking down on aristocratic families and promoting ordinary landlords to be officials was in line with the social development trend at that time, so its role was also positive. ..... Wu Zetian also did a lot of work in consolidating the frontiers of feudal countries.
Shang Gantong commented on Wu Zetian in the Outline of China History, saying that during her reign, "the Tang Empire continued to develop upward, developed the imperial examination system internally, resisted the harassment of Turks, Tubo and Qidan externally, and continued to open tunnels to the western regions, which played a positive role in social and economic development in some aspects."
In several monographs on the history of Sui and Tang Dynasties, Wu Zetian was basically affirmed.
Yang Zhijiu said: Wu Zetian's main contribution is that she broke the political monopoly of Guanlong aristocratic group and worshipped Wei from then on.
The system of respecting family status has been further impacted, and the opening of political power to more people has contributed to the progress of history. At the same time, women being emperor is also a great revolution to the patriarchal clan system in feudal times.
Wu Feng believes that Wu Zetian's ruling has dealt a serious blow to the big bureaucratic aristocratic groups that have been in power for a long time, and opened up a broad political future for small and medium-sized landlords through various means, especially the imperial examination system. On the one hand, it promoted the development of centralized politics, on the other hand, it also selected more effective bureaucrats for the rule of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty ... Its main policies had certain positive significance to the society at that time.
South Korea Pan believes that the continuation of some reforms in the Wu and Zhou Dynasties dealt a blow to the gentry, further strengthened and consolidated the landlord power among the common people, expanded the feudal ruling class, developed the imperial examination system, selected talents and attached importance to agricultural development, which was in line with the objective situation of social development at that time. Therefore, during the reign of Wu Zetian, social economy continued to develop.
There are experts in the history of Sui and Tang Dynasties such as Zhong Mian and Lv Simian who hold a negative attitude towards Wu Zetian. Cen believes: "Even if you ignore private interests, you can still see that there is no record of any achievements in your one-year rule." He said that Wu Zetian invaded foreign countries and was in charge of countermeasures, but she was suspicious and cruel; Trapped in sin, all by exercise; Giving folk farm tools to praise Shu Tian, casting Jiuding and building a paradise is not beneficial to people's livelihood and national memory. Mr Qin also objected to Wu Zetian's saying that she knew people well and was good at her duties, and thought that only Yao Chong could be her candidate. "However, this is only an accident." Completely denied Wu Zetian.
Mr. Lu described Wu Zetian as a "tyrant" in his two-volume History of Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties. She said that she abused punishment and was a cruel official, but she also denied that Wu Zetian could employ people.
In addition to the above-mentioned historians' monographs, experts and scholars have also published many articles evaluating Wu Zetian in newspapers and periodicals. 195 1 On September 22nd, Luo published an article Criticizing Wu Zetian in Guangming Daily, arguing that "Wu Zetian played a positive role in the history of China", pointing out that her arrival in Turkey, Khitan and Tubo objectively protected people's safety; The internal affairs are not black and there are new policies. It also refutes the incident that Wu Zetian killed her own baby girl in the old history.
1959, Wu Ze published an article about Wu Zetian's problems in history in Wen Wei Po. It is believed that "the main contradiction in the early Tang society is the contradiction between imperial power and emerging landlords and clan landlords", and during his 50 years in power, Wu adhered to the political road of Taizong and anti-clan struggle and achieved great victory; It overcame contradictions, stabilized and developed the "rule of Zhenguan" and pushed history forward a big step. Its policies played a great positive role in maintaining the long-term peaceful reunification of the country and the social and economic development of the Tang Dynasty. Changing the traditional academic thought promoted the development of poetry and literature, played an innovative role in education, academic thought and literature, and prepared the conditions and laid the foundation for the later "rule of Kaiyuan". Therefore, Wu Zetian was a core figure in the early Tang Dynasty, as well as Emperor Taizong and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, and an outstanding female politician in the history of China.
1962 In the academic report made by Mr. Wang Qian at the Central Party School, he also affirmed that Wu Zetian's policies objectively conformed to the trend of historical development and opened the way for the further development of feudal society. Later, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty followed the path of Wu Zetian, and "the rule of Kaiyuan" appeared in history.
1959, Shanghai Yue Opera Troupe performed "Emperor Zetian" in Shanghai, Beijing and other places, shaping Wu Zetian as a positive figure on the literary stage for the first time. The evaluation of Wu Zetian has also aroused discussion in history. In the same year, the first edition of Wen Wei Po was entitled "Wu Zetian Should Be a Gentleman", which guided the views of historians Bozan, Wu Han, Lv Zhenyu, Shang Yue and writer Tian Han. They expressed their approval and satisfaction with the performance of Yue Opera. Emphasized Wu Zetian.
1960, Comrade Guo Moruo's play "Wu Zetian" was published in People's Literature, which made an overall evaluation of Wu Zetian and highly affirmed it. This issue has attracted more and more attention from academic circles. Then People's Daily published an article asking what role Wu Zetian played in history. The book's dynamic guidance systematically introduces the views of various schools.
Comrade Wuhan affirmed Wu Zetian many times in his speeches and articles. What he said: "Zi, Yi, Song, Qing and others all respect Wu Zetian and speak highly of her." He criticized the historical attack on Wu Zetian, and thought that Wu Zetian consolidated and developed this foundation. Without Wu Zetian's 50-year work, there would be no Xuanzong's "rule of Kaiyuan". Wu Zetian's rule "played a role in the history of the Tang Dynasty and the history of the motherland, which should be affirmed".
It should be pointed out that historians, while affirming Wu Zetian, also deeply criticized her for her cool history, wanton murder and religious worship, pointing out that she was an autocratic monarch in feudal times, the ruler of the people and the highest political representative of the landlord class.
During the ten-year Cultural Revolution, normal academic discussions were interrupted. Under the banner of "criticizing Confucianism and judging the law", Jiang Qing and his gang tampered with history at will, and their evaluation of Wu Zetian lost its academic significance. They tried their best to beautify the female emperor and create public opinion for Jiang Qing to usurp the party and steal the country. After the downfall of the Gang of Four, in the process of criticizing and alluding to historiography, historians resumed their evaluation of Wu Zetian.
On the question of how to smooth over the merits and demerits of Wu Zetian, there is a view that Wu Zetian is a negative historical figure. In his two articles, Mr. Xiong thinks: Wu Zetian cheated trust by flattery, became a queen and held power; Cultivate party members and establish a court traitor group; Expand power and eliminate dissidents by double-dealing; Appoint brutal officials to carry out terrorist policies, worship religion and fool the people; The loss of Anxi four towns will endanger the unity of the country. In a word, Wu Zetian's coming to power is "reversing the history", which makes "the arrival of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty delayed by 30 to 50 years compared with the Ming and Qing Dynasties". Some comrades added: Wu Zetian's attack on the gentry has no key significance in adjusting the relations of production and cannot be regarded as her credit. It was also pointed out that the person who took advantage of her abnormality was a cruel official who helped her shovel out dissidents and a villain who supported her as an emperor. Since Emperor Gaozong, she has not only failed to ease class contradictions, but has intensified them to some extent. He is a negative historical figure.
Another view is that Wu Zetian's historical position should be affirmed. She inherited the provincial corvee of "the country is people-oriented, and the people take food as the sky" in the early Tang Dynasty, but failed to grasp the political policy at that time, paying more attention to agricultural peace, rewarding agriculture and mulberry, and building water conservancy projects. So the social economy rises and the population increases. At the same time, she thinks that she pays attention to employing people in different ways and makes good use of them. Not only at that time, but also at the beginning of Kaiyuan, she retained many successful politicians. It is also believed that she has done a lot of work in consolidating the frontier defense of feudal countries and improving the relationship between Tang and frontier nationalities. In addition, she also maintained the style that Emperor Taizong was good at training. During her reign, class contradictions were relatively eased, and the economic development trend since Zhenguan continued, which played a role in connecting the past with the future.
Above, we have generally introduced the modern people's overall evaluation of Wu Zetian, and it is not difficult to understand the reasons behind Wu Zetian's mixed comments. People have different opinions about the injury she suffered, and they are still arguing. As she is in the middle period of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan's "ruling the world", whether to develop or regress the history of the early Tang Dynasty is not only related to how to evaluate the historical role of Wu Zetian, but also to further explore the clues of social development in the early Tang Dynasty. Therefore, this remains to be further explored by historians.