Empress Wu Zetian, what does her name have to do with an illiterate monk who burns a fire?

Wu Zetian's name is Wu Zhao. It is said that the word "Qi" was created by an illiterate monk who lit a fire. Many people who don't know this will think that Wu Zetian's name is "Wu Zetian" or "Wu Meiniang", but this is not the case. "Wu Zetian" is a title taken by later generations according to her honorific title "Zetian Sheng Di", and the name "Wu Meiniang" comes from the name "Wu Mei" given to her by Li Shimin.

As for the name "Wu Zhao", it came from a whim of Wu Zetian before she proclaimed herself emperor, and she wanted to create a unique name for herself. Wu Zetian thinks that she will soon become the only female emperor in the long river of history, so her name must be unique. So she published a list of articles and wanted to call on talented people in the world to provide them with some choices. Unexpectedly, however, everyone was afraid of creating words that would not satisfy Wu Zetian, and if they didn't get a reward, they would get into disaster, so no one disclosed the list.

At this time, a monk tore down the list in handfuls. In fact, the monk was just an illiterate monk who lit a fire. He didn't know it was named after Wu Zetian. In desperation, the monk remembered that Wu Zetian's dharma number when she became a monk was "Kongming", so he overlapped the words "Kongming" and took the word "Qi", which means that Wu Zetian is like the sun and moon in the sky, which can make the court clear and the people happy.

Wu Zetian is very happy. She thinks she is as lofty as the sun and the moon, hanging high in the sky. So she adopted this name and changed her name to "Wu Zhao". But there is also a saying that the word "Qi" was created by Wu Zetian herself, because besides "Qi", she also created other Chinese characters.