What is the real reason why Wu Zetian moved to Luoyang?

Guanhua Liang starred in "Detective Di Renjie", the first paragraph of "Snake Spirit", in which "paying homage to the river god" was really a stroke of genius. In the play, Yuan Tiangang took advantage of the high tide of the Luohe River during the total solar eclipse to murder Wu Zetian and Manchu Chen Wuda in order to seize the world. Therefore, Yuan Tiangang persuaded Wu Zetian to move to Luoyang by paying homage to the river god and bringing blessings from heaven. Most of the audience who have seen this play believe this statement.

Does Wu Zetian really believe that Yuan Tiangang's deception moved the capital to Luoyang? If not, what is the real reason why Wu Zetian moved to the capital?

Wu Zetian moved the capital to Luoyang for many reasons.

Wu Zetian made a series of careful preparations for the capital Luoyang. In September of the first year of Guangzhai, Luoyang's status was improved, and its eastern capital was changed to the capital of God. Approve Wu's request and make Wu's ancestors king. In February 688, Wu Zetian destroyed the Yuan Temple as a Hall of Fame, taking becoming a monk as her own responsibility. Wu Zetian also created public opinion for the capital Luoyang. In April, Wu Chengsi ordered Tong Tai to dedicate a white stone engraved with the words "Virgin Mary of Yongchang Emperor" to Wu Zetian. In May, Wu's "treasure map" went to the southern suburbs and told Xie Haotian and Yu to order governors, secretariat, imperial clan and consorts of various states to gather in Bailuo ten days ago. In July, the "treasure map" was named "God-given map", and the Luoshui River was enshrined and a temple was set up. In the first month of the first year of Yongchang, Wu Zetian enjoyed fame and granted amnesty to the world. Celebrate in class in the first month of the following year. The first month is organized by week, and the name is "". In July, the Universiade won the world prize. In September, the Tang dynasty was ordered to change the name of the country to Zhou and give yuan. The Wu family built seven temples in Luoyang. In July of the second year of Tianshou, "100,000 households in Neiyong Kyushu realized Luoyang". As we all know, the establishment of seven halls is the privilege of ancient emperors; Tang Ming was the place where ancient emperors held various large-scale activities, such as sacrificial ceremonies, court meetings, celebrations and awards. It was also the consistent practice of ancient emperors to substitute flowers for trees. All this shows that Wu Zetian wants to make Luoyang her capital.

The first is political reasons.

The political importance of Luoyang to Wu Zetian can also be seen from his remarks during the war. In September of the first year of Guangzhai, Xu Jingye and others used the excuse of restoring the king of Luling to oppose Wu Zetian. At that time, Wei Xiang suggested: "Gong Ming should use rehabilitation as an excuse to lead the people forward and point to Luoyang. Then the whole world knows that the public is determined to be diligent and all parties respond. " [1] Unfortunately, Wei's suggestion was not adopted, and he was defeated and died. When talking about this matter, Chen sighed: "If you are dedicated, you can use Wei's strategy to point to the river and the Luohe River, and you are dedicated to the aftermath. Be loyal if you lose your life. And the spirit of the king who hopes for Jinling is really rebellious. What's the point? " [1] It can be seen that the importance of Luoyang to Wu Zetian is actually the political stronghold of Wu Zetian.

Secondly, geographically speaking, Luoyang is suitable as the capital. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, after Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong, the territory continued to expand. In the first year of Emperor Gaozong, the territory of the Tang Dynasty reached its limit: "The land is east to the sea, west to Yanqi, south to Linzhou, and north to the land of snow feathers and foliage. East and west 95 1 1 Li, north and south 169 18 Li. " [5] Since then, until the period of Wu Zetian, although the territory has changed from time to time, it is larger than the early days of the founding of the Tang Dynasty. Chang 'an is located in the west on the map, and it has lost its role of taking the world as the center. Luoyang is bordered by Guanzhong basin in the west and North China Plain in the east, which has been called "the world" since ancient times. As far away as the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.

On the other hand, Luoyang's geographical location is also suitable for being a national capital. Luoyang is bordered by the Yellow River in the north, facing Taihang Mountain and Wu Wang across the river, and Mangshan Mountain in the north is a natural barrier. There are steep Yique in the south, Xiong 'er Mountain and Shao Shi Mountain in the south; Control the risks of Xiqu and Hexin; Donghu prison, Blackstone, etc. Luo Yi Plain is rich in soil and food, and can be self-sufficient. Therefore, Luoyang is an important place in the situation of "governing the three rivers and fixing four blockades". This dangerous geographical location makes Luoyang have superior military conditions at home and abroad to defend the country, which is also the main reason why Luoyang is suitable as the capital.

The third is economic reasons.

Thirdly, for economic reasons, the economic conditions in kanto region where Luoyang is located are better than those in Guanzhong where Chang 'an is located. The main body of kanto region is the North China Plain in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the Sanjiang River at its western end is the confluence of the four rivers of Iraq, Luoyang, Henan and Hebei. Agriculture has been very developed since ancient times. Before the Anshi Rebellion, it had become the most developed agricultural area in China. The promotion of kanto region's economic development indirectly strengthened the importance of Luoyang's position. Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved to Luoyang, which reflected the importance of Luoyang's status and economic prosperity. During the reign of Emperor Xiao in Ming Dynasty, Luoyang became the center of the whole northern China. During the reign of Yang Di, Chang 'an was only named as the capital, while Luoyang has become the actual capital.

On the contrary, the economic development level and importance of Guanzhong area is not as good as that of kanto region. The agricultural economy in Guanzhong area is quite developed, so it was Chang 'an from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. However, since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the importance of agricultural economy in Guanzhong area has been declining. In addition, the area of land suitable for farming in Guanzhong area is limited. With the rapid increase of population and the expansion of ruling institutions, food supply has become a major problem in Chang 'an. There are only two ways to solve this problem: one is to revitalize the production in Guanzhong area; The second is to transport more grain from Kanto and Jiangnan to Guanzhong.

There are many problems in revitalizing the production in Guanzhong area: First, the natural conditions in Guanzhong in the Tang Dynasty are incomparable with those in Qin and Han Dynasties. Especially in the Sixteen Countries War of Eastern Jin Dynasty and the end of Sui Dynasty, Guanzhong suffered many serious damages, resulting in serious soil erosion and loess desertification. The sediment concentration of Jinghe River, Weihe River and Beiluo River has increased greatly, and the irrigation effect has been declining. For example, the irrigation amount in Zheng Guoqu in early Tang Dynasty was less than that in Qin and Han Dynasties 1/4. Second, the growing population has the ability to make the limited arable land lose its load, which is the so-called "narrow land and dense people, but poor farming". Emperor Gaozong in the Wu Zetian period was in a period of rapid population growth in the Tang Dynasty. According to statistics, in the thirteenth year of Emperor Taizong's Zhenguan reign, the number of households was about 3.04 million and the population was about12.35 million. In the first year of Tang Zhongzong Shenlong, the number of households was about 610.5 million, and the population was about 3710.4 million. In six years, the number of households in the Tang Dynasty doubled and tripled respectively. Guanzhong is also the northern hinterland with the most concentrated population. Although the Guanzhong area was called Woye at that time, "what was given was not enough for the capital." Three princes and nobles in Guanzhong area competed to build stone mills beside irrigation canals, which consumed a lot of water and affected the efficiency of water conservancy irrigation. For example, in Tang Gaozong Yonghui for six years, due to the competition among wealthy businessmen, the irrigation area of Zhengbaiqu was reduced from more than 40,000 hectares to 1 10,000 hectares. In the later period of Emperor Gaozong, he often led officials to eat Luoyang. What's more, in April of the first year of Yongchun, some squires starved to death in the Tao because of their haste.

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In order to overcome these three natural disasters as much as possible, the Sui and Tang governments carried out improvement plans, but the results were not satisfactory. In the fourth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty took the way of "transporting grain from Xiaoping to Shaanxi" and then "going back to Weichuan" and finally reached the capital. Although this has bypassed three natural disasters, the cost of land transportation is very high, and the land from Xiaoping to Shaanxi Province has to pass through steep valleys, which is also very risky. In June of the fifteenth year of Emperor Wendi, Emperor Wendi was forced to resume water transportation and "ordered the bottom column to be cut off", but he still failed to increase the water transportation capacity. In 656, in the first year of Tang Gaozong, Chu Lang chiseled Sanmenxia as a beam, and later Yang Wulian chiseled Sanmenxia as a plank road, all without success.

It was not until the twenty-second year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty that Pei Yaoqing used segmented transportation for grain transportation that this situation improved. At the intersection of Pei Yaoqing and Sanmenxia's Yellow River, Canal and Weishui, the grain first enters Dongcang, then takes the 80-mile mountain road, and is transported by land to Xicang, and finally by water to Guanzhong. This shortens the sailing date and improves the transportation efficiency. For three consecutive years in history, "Cao allocated seven million mangoku, and the Provincial Land Transport Commission allocated three hundred thousand Jin". It will save 300,000 yuan in three years, and the high cost of water transportation can be imagined. It is true that a bucket of rice carries a bucket of money.

In addition, the death of Tang Gaozong highlighted the advantages of Luoyang. At that time, "Yan and Dai invaded the Xiongnu, Ba and Long suffered from baby Tubo, West Shu was tired and sleepy, and thousands of miles of grain were lost. It was miserable to take the blockade in the north and south for fifteen years." Only the land in Guanzhong is left, "desolate and hungry". Only Luoyang, "heaven and earth meet in a stream, with risks of Taihang in the north, Wan and Ye Rao in the south, Jianghuai in the east, lakes and seas in the east and rivers in the west." At the same time, "Taiyuan has a huge warehouse, and Luokou has a millet in the world." Therefore, under the circumstances at that time, it was wise to take Luoyang as the capital, which not only did not have the difficulty of food supply, but also saved the financial expenditure needed for water transportation.

To sum up, Wu Zetian's move to Luoyang was a wise choice based on the political and economic situation at that time and the geographical situation in Luoyang. This is not just to escape the entanglement between the king and Xiao Ghost, nor is it purely out of greed and pleasure. Wu Zetian's move to Luoyang is of positive significance. This is not only in line with the needs of the replacement of political dynasties, but also in line with the historical trend of the economic center moving eastward.