In ancient times, there was a peculiar phenomenon: while the status of women was very low, that of mothers was extremely high.
This was because the emperors adhered to filial piety as a governing principle, and the emperor showed filial respect to the Empress Dowager.
As subjects and commoners, they naturally had to follow suit and show unconditional filial piety to their own mothers.
Precisely because mothers held such high status, historical female rulers were basically Empress Dowagers, such as Empress Lü, Liu E, and Empress Dowager Cixi.
This also made those so-called scholars and civil officials fear that women, by virtue of their maternal status, would seize power and interfere in governance, dominating men.
Thus, these individuals concocted sayings like "hen crowing at dawn" and "female disaster" to slander, demean, and demonize women, thereby preventing them from gaining power and becoming masters of their own fate.
"Hen crowing at dawn" means a hen crowing, symbolizing misfortune for the household and great calamity.
When women held power and interfered in governance, the state would perish and the people would suffer.
If you hold power, you are shameless!
Needless to say, Empress Wu was the primary target of the scholars' attacks, because she not only became Empress Dowager but also changed the dynasty and became Emperor. After being forced to abdicate, she was even honored as the Supreme Emperor by her peculiar son, Li Xian, making her the "most shameless" one.
Therefore, when Ouyang Xiu and others compiled the New Book of Tang, they extensively altered the narrative and added numerous fabricated scandals about Empress Wu.
For example, in the Old Book of Tang, the fates of Empress Wang and Consort Xiao were described as being granted silk to commit suicide. In the New Book of Tang, it was changed to them being made into human pigs.
In the Old Book of Tang, Empress Wu's mother, Lady Yang, was a proper woman. In the New Book of Tang, she was transformed into an old slut who had an incestuous affair with her grandson, Helan Minzhi.
Furthermore, Empress Wu's maternal family was also embellished with scandalous and erotic tales, such as her sister having an affair with her brother-in-law, and her niece having an unspeakable relationship with her uncle.
As for Empress Wu allegedly strangling her own newborn daughter, that is even more ridiculous.
The New Book of Tang claims that Empress Wu, in order to usurp the empress position, secretly strangled her infant daughter and framed Empress Wang.
The question arises: if she secretly strangled her, how did later generations know that the little princess was killed by Empress Wu?
Could it be that when Empress Wu was strangling the little princess, she specifically called for a historian to watch, and as she was strangling her, she shouted, "I'm going to strangle my daughter, quickly record this so that future generations will know that the little princess was killed by me, her own mother!"?
Damn it, isn't that idiotic?
Jiang Ling was utterly speechless towards Ouyang Xiu and the others who compiled the New Book of Tang.
Ouyang Xiu and other scholars racked their brains to create scandals for Empress Wu, portraying her entire family as sexually scandalous and erotic, hoping to deter future women from seeking power.
However, they severely underestimated human curiosity.
Both ancient and modern people alike were fond of such erotic and exciting content.
This is somewhat like modern XXX films; the more they are prohibited, and the more it's said to be detrimental to physical and mental health, the more young men with high spirits enjoy obtaining and secretly watching them.
The Tang Dynasty emperors were already quite vexed by having a daughter-in-law who usurped their family's empire. They tried their best to downplay the matter, wishing for time to cover up this family disgrace.
However, after Ouyang Xiu and the others got involved, Empress Wu's fame only grew, and the number of imitators increased. In modern times, she even became a banner for powerful women of ancient times.
This is what is called lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own feet.
Jiang Ling found it amusing just thinking about it.
She even suspected that the capital in the entertainment industry, by producing so many bad films, was following the example of Ouyang Xiu and others.