Chapter 344 Extra: A Thousand Years Later (2)
History books say that Emperor Xingzong of Qi is considered one of the top three outstanding emperors in the history of Chinese civilization.
Her most fundamental and most impactful historical significance to posterity lies in her breaking through the millennia-old shackles of feudal patriarchal clan system, shattering the male monopoly on imperial power, and ascending the throne as a woman, becoming the first truly female emperor in the history of ancient China.
His mother was posthumously honored as an emperor, making her the first female emperor in name only.
She served in office for over forty years and achieved remarkable political success.
Externally, she expanded the territory, completely conquering powerful forces such as Tibet, Nanzhao, and Xianbei, greatly expanding the country's territory and laying the foundation for the basic outline of the country's map for the next several hundred years.
Domestically, she ruthlessly cracked down on the deeply entrenched powerful families, while vigorously promoting the reform of the imperial examination system, breaking down barriers of social class and class distinctions, allowing countless children from humble backgrounds to enter officialdom through examinations, and completely reshaping the power structure of the Great Qi Dynasty.
At the same time, she valued agriculture and sericulture, reduced taxes and levies, and promoted water conservancy projects, which stabilized the social foundation and created the prosperity of the Zhaoming era.
Most importantly, she implemented a groundbreaking new policy, explicitly promulgating laws that allowed women to enter officialdom, become heads of households, and inherit family businesses, completely breaking down the various shackles imposed on women for thousands of years and leading to an unprecedented improvement in women's status.
Of course, this iron-blooded empress was not without controversy.
To consolidate her imperial power, she heavily relied on cruel officials to eliminate opposition forces, employing ruthless methods.
Her aggressive military campaigns led to frequent foreign wars and constant unrest in the surrounding areas of the Great Qi Dynasty.
In his later years, he became increasingly suspicious and often executed ministers over trivial matters, causing widespread anxiety in the court.
He also embarked on a grand construction project to build a palace, became obsessed with the path to immortality, and favored male concubines.
However, the flaws do not overshadow the merits. Later historians generally believe that Li Yuanzhao's rule not only created a powerful empire with a vast territory and a prosperous economy.
Her most enduring legacy lies in the fact that, with her undeniable political achievements, she thoroughly demonstrated women's leadership and governing abilities, paving a historic precedent for women's participation in and even dominance of national politics in later generations.
After her death, Qi Liezong, who succeeded her, acted even more radically than his mother.
She inherited Li Yuanzhao's national policy of elevating the status of women, but went to extremes.
Under her rule, women's power was further strengthened, while men were systematically and comprehensively suppressed.
In the imperial court, male officials were gradually marginalized, and all core power fell into the hands of women.
At the societal level, men's living space was constantly being squeezed, and they could only engage in low-level manual labor or return to the home, where they were responsible for supporting their wives and raising their children and managing domestic affairs, and were strictly prohibited from showing their faces in public and participating in social affairs.
Her situation is quite similar to that of women in the past thousands of years.
The rule of the Great Qi lasted for more than four hundred years. Most of the subsequent ten or so female emperors continued the policies of Emperor Qi Liezong, and the status of men remained marginalized and they were oppressed for a long time.
Although two male emperors appeared during this period, women's power was already deeply rooted.
The power in the court was entirely controlled by a group of female bureaucrats. The two male emperors were merely figureheads with no real power.
By the time of Emperor Ai of Qi, the last emperor of the Great Qi Dynasty, the empire was riddled with deep-seated problems and on the verge of collapse.
Emperor Ai himself was extravagant and dissolute, neglecting state affairs and handing over the power of the country to his relatives, which led to rampant corruption in the court, increasingly heavy taxes and levies, and widespread discontent among the people.
At this time, the male population, after hundreds of years of oppression, was on the verge of collapse, and their discontent was accumulating like a volcano.
Ultimately, a large-scale uprising, led by men and under the banner of "restoring male power and returning to the old system," broke out violently.
Many oppressed men responded, and the movement quickly swept the country.
This war lasted for more than twenty years and ended with the assassination of Emperor Ai of Qi by palace eunuchs, thus bringing about the demise of the Great Qi Dynasty.
After the fall of the Great Qi, the leader of the uprising ascended the throne and established the Yan Dynasty, a male-dominated regime.
The rulers of the Yan Dynasty initially wanted to emulate the Qi Dynasty of hundreds of years earlier by drastically suppressing women's power, depriving them of their political rights, sending them back to their homes, and restoring the previous order of "male superiority and female suffering".
However, after more than four hundred years of the "female superiority and male inferiority" system in the Great Qi Dynasty, women are no longer as submissive as they were a thousand years ago.
They are knowledgeable, skilled, and cooperative.
These policies met with fierce resistance from women, leading to frequent women's uprisings and social unrest across the country.
Meanwhile, under the influence of the Great Qi, several neighboring countries have successively established female-led regimes, creating a certain external pressure.
Ultimately, the rulers compromised.
The Yan Dynasty nominally became a dynasty that practiced "equality between men and women".
However, this dynasty only lasted two generations before it perished.
The Xuan Dynasty, which succeeded it, was founded by a woman. However, she learned from the lessons of the Qi Dynasty's "preference for women over men" and the Yan Dynasty's "suppression of women" and sought a relatively balanced "gender co-governance" model.
Since then, a society based on "gender equality" has gradually taken shape, and a regime based on "co-governance" has been established and has continued stably.
Because of the liberation of men's and women's productive forces, productivity has been highly developed, science and technology have made rapid progress, and social progress has been greatly accelerated.
The Xuan Dynasty, as the last feudal kingdom, finally perished in 1790 AD.
In the centuries that followed, the world order underwent dramatic upheavals.
During the First and Second World Wars, China successively experienced constitutional monarchy and capitalism.
Then, after World War III, the state completely disappeared, forming the "social system" we know today.
This is what Zero learned from the standard history textbook.
However, her mother's research notes revealed a stunning archaeological discovery.
Fifty years ago, they found the imperial tomb of this Emperor Zhaosheng and excavated her remains.
A series of photos of the archaeological site popped up on the screen, with one close-up photo coming into view.
It was a well-preserved skeleton, exceptionally tall, with the length of its humerus and femur far exceeding the average of female remains from the same period, making it tall and robust, almost comparable to modern women.
Modern women, through long-term genetic selection and modification, have become basically on par with men in terms of physiological indicators such as height, strength, and endurance.
The differences are more about individuals than about gender.
For example, Ling herself is 1.85 meters tall, which is taller and more imposing than many of her male colleagues, but this is commonplace in modern times.
It is truly astonishing that a woman from over a thousand years ago could possess such a physique.
It is likely that, in addition to being born into royalty and living a life of comfort, he must have also undergone long-term training.
What shocked her even more was that, after genetic comparison, they found that they shared the same maternal ancestor as this Emperor Zhaosheng.
This means that they are very likely descendants of the sisters of Emperor Zhaosheng.
However, this does not mean that she is a "descendant of the Great Qi royal family".
Chromosomal analysis of the remains of Emperor Zhaosheng showed that she was neither the biological daughter of her father, Emperor Xizong of Qi, nor the biological child of her mother, Emperor Shengwu Zhaolie.
In other words, this emperor who was considered one of the greatest emperors in history was actually a "fake prince" who had been switched at birth.
Based on this genetic evidence, the mother boldly speculated in her research that the palace coup recorded in historical books, which broke out around the time Emperor Zhaosheng ascended the throne and involved "blood testing" and "deposing illegitimate children," was likely not unfounded.
The "fake prince" whom the rebels installed back then was most likely the real prince, a true descendant of Emperor Xizong of Qi.
Research data even shows that Qi Liezong, who later succeeded to the throne, was not her biological child.
This research record is simply revolutionary and shocking, completely contrary to everyone's understanding.
For reasons unknown, the mother did not make the research findings public, but at the end of her life, she sent them to her biological daughter as a special "information legacy".
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