There are thirteen lines of inscriptions on Wu Zetian’s existing stele. What is going on?

Wu Zetian is the most legendary woman in modern China and the only official empress. After her death, she was buried in Qianling Mausoleum, together with Tang Gaozu Li Zhi.

These are great, but not magical enough. What really made future generations wonder was that Wu Zetian erected a "wordless monument" for herself, with not a single word on it.

However, there are thirteen lines of characters on the existing stele. What is going on? Next, let’s talk about this with everyone.

The "Wordless Monument" had no words at the beginning?

There are many legends about the wordless monument. For example, there are speculations about why Wu Zetian erected the wordless monument, some with malicious intentions and some with good intentions. However, after the "Wordless Monument", it may be that the monument is not wordless, but has another mystery. There are two key points about this matter.

(1) Archaeological discovery shows that the positive side of the wordless stele originally had no square grid from top to bottom, indicating that it was originally intended for inscriptions. Therefore, historians speculate that Wu Zetian originally planned to engrave the content of erecting a monument and setting up a biography, but his son Li Xian was still very angry with Wu Zetian, so he did not mention it or engrave it, leaving a monument without words.

(2) There is another theory that the inscription was destroyed by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once destroyed Tianshu and was helpless to deal with the legacy of the Wuzhou regime and clear away the traces brought about by the Wuzhou regime. After all? As a result, for Li Tangshanhe, Wu Zetian's existence is a shame.

Why are there words on the current "Wordless Monument"?

The past is thousands of years old, and there are already many words on the wordless monument. What exactly happened? Regarding this matter, three things are recorded in history books.

(1) After the Jin Kingdom occupied the south, someone had already carved several lines of Khitan inscriptions on it. At that time, the Jin Dynasty used Khitan script, but Jin script had not yet been created.

(2) During the war between the Jin Kingdom and the Northern Song Dynasty, Wanyan Salihe, who captured the two emperors of Huiqin and Qin Dynasty, carved inscriptions on a wordless tablet as a souvenir when he was stationed in Shaanxi. The content of the engraving is "The Travels of the Emperor of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty". The Hu people who originally trembled in front of Wu Zetian later carved the character "Hu" on her monument.

(3) According to statistics, there are a total of thirteen paragraphs of inscriptions written by ancestors on the wordless stele, mainly in Khitan, Jurchen and Chinese character translations.

Postscript

To be honest, most of the Jin people at that time did not have orthodox ideas and respect for historical books. They only cared about personal expression and wrote words at will. For example, the tomb of the emperor of the Song Dynasty can be said to be the worst in all dynasties. The emperor's body was buried in the wilderness, the coffin was used as a manger, and later Song Lizong's head was made into a wine vessel, etc.

In fact, if you really respect Wu Zetian and the troubled times of the Tang Dynasty, then why not build another monument next to it and carve words on it as a souvenir?

In addition, regarding the wordless stele, there are two other poems worth mentioning, one is by Anonymous in the Ming Dynasty, and the other is by Guo Moruo.

(1) During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, a poem lamenting the longing and respect for the Wu family by the people outside the country goes: "The pines and cypresses in Qianling Mausoleum were burned by the war, and the bison, sheep and green grass are everywhere. Only the Qian people can restore their virtues. Wheat rice is sacrificed to Zhaoyi every year."

(2) Guo Moruo's "Ode to the Qianling Mausoleum" says: "Thousands of years of public affairs have changed the clouds and rain, and hundreds of hectares of fertile fields have been transformed into soil fields. Those who can read the words on the head of the unmarked monument. "Gu Kunyuan."

Of course, after the engraving of the Jin Dynasty, there were also engravings later, but relatively few, usually just writing in ink on them.

Seeing this scene, I suddenly thought of Qianlong's actions of stamping and graffiti on cultural relics, and he could not maintain respect for Chinese cultural relics. The genetics before and after are exactly the same!

If you are tired of watching, here is a joke to cheer you up:

Isn’t it a pig to eat and then sleep?

My friend always sleeps before eating at noon every day. That day I asked her in a strange way: "Is it because I ate late in the morning?" "Isn't it a pig if I eat and then sleep?"

ノ(°_°ノ) So it turns out that I am being a pig every day?