Wei Zi Palace in Tang Dynasty

In the twelfth month of 683, Tang Gaozong Li Zhi died in Luoyang Wei Zi Palace, leaving a will? Garden mausoleum system, to be frugal? There is another interesting point in the testamentary edict, namely? Those who are hesitant about military affairs will be punished in a few days. "This is basically Wu Zetian set the tone of the Regent, and Li Zhi's two sons, Li Xian and Li Dan, are so afraid of their mother's cowardice. It is only a matter of time before Wu Zetian faces the court.

Wu Zetian appointed Wei, the official minister at that time, as the ambassador of Yanling and began to build Yanling. At that time, the location of Ganling was on Liangshan Mountain in Guanzhong area, belonging to one of the eighteen tombs in Tang Dynasty. There are many legends about the location of Ganling. For example, Liangshan is the address of Ganling selected by Li and Yuan Tiangang at the same time, but this is just a legend and not credible. After all, Yuan Tiangang died in 635, and Taishiling Li died in 670.

The construction of Ganling follows the legacy left by Li Shimin, that is, the mausoleum is built because of the mountains, which is different from the previous organizational system including Li Yuanling. This is a great change, which reduces the workload but increases the firmness of the tomb. One of the purposes is to prevent grave robbers from patronizing. However, the imperial tomb has always been the most popular among grave robbers. After all, there are too many treasures in it. Even if Li Shimin once claimed that Zhaoling had no treasure, grave robbers wouldn't really believe that thieves would steal it again, and they would never feel at ease until they opened it.

It took more than seven months to build Ganling at first, and then Li Zhi was buried in August 684. More than 20 years later, in May 706, Wu Zetian was buried in Ganling. This incident caused quite a stir at that time. Wu Zetian died in the winter of 705. The testament left at that time was: Ruodian, Guiling, ordered the emperor to go to court and called it the Great Sage Queen. That is to say, buried Gan Ling with gifts from the Queen and Li Zhi.

Buried together is not a problem. Prior to this, the Empress Dowager and Tang Gaozu Li Yuan were buried together, and as a tomb, the eldest grandson and Li Shimin were buried together in Zhaoling. But if you want to be buried together in the same grave, the premise is that the queen died before the emperor. Once the first emperor dies, this kind of joint burial will be cancelled, or it may be another form. Among them, there is a conventional view, that is? The honorable person should be buried first, and the humble person should not enter later. ?

Even though both Wu Zetian and Li Zhi are emperors, in a patriarchal society, Li Zhi is the most important and Wu Zetian is the most humble. This is an unchangeable fact. Besides, Wu Zetian finally wanted to be buried with Li Zhi as a gift from the Queen as a daughter-in-law of the Li family. At that time, Yan Shansi wrote against Wu Zetian being buried in Ganling, which represented the thoughts of most courtiers. However, in the end, Tang Zhongzong Li Xian pushed his way through the crowd and achieved the wish of burying Wu Zetian and Li Zhi together.