The Prime Minister wrote "Green Goose" and was beheaded by Wuhou. What is the meaning behind these two words?

To understand the meaning of "Green Goose", we must understand one person, that is, Prime Minister Pei Yan.

Before Li Zhi died, Tang Gaozong ordered Pei Yan to help Li Xian. After Li Xian succeeded to the throne, he appointed Pei Yan as the secretariat.

Tang Zhongzong Li Xian wanted to take back power from Wu Zetian, and Pei Yan was Li Xian's right-hand man and the man behind Li Xian's suggestion.

Later, Wu Zetian abolished Li Xian, Tang Zhongzong, and changed Li Dan to be the new emperor of Tang Ruizong. At this time, Wu Zetian began to slaughter Li's people, showing his ambition to be emperor. Pei Yan is a staunch opponent of Wu Zetian. On one occasion, Pei Yan planned to hijack Wu Zetian while traveling, forcing him to return power to Li. However, due to the continuous heavy rain, Wu Zetian failed to make a trip and the hijacking plan fell through. Since then, Xu Jingye, the Sima of Longzhou, has joined forces with various armies to resist Wu Zetian in Yangzhou. At this point, Pei Yan immediately wrote to advise Wu Zetian to hand over power.

At this moment, Wu Zetian keenly felt that someone in the imperial court colluded with Xu Jingye, and this person was probably Pei Yan. So Wu Zetian ordered a search of Fu Pei and found evidence of Pei Yan's association with Xu Jingye. Immediately afterwards, Wu Zetian ordered Pei Yan to go to prison, beheaded him for "treason" and confiscated his property.

So, what evidence did Wu Zetian use to identify Pei Yan's collusion with Xu Jingye? Actually, it's just a letter!

Wu Zetian found a secret letter in Pei Yan's home, which contained only two words: "Green Goose".

What is the mystery of the word "green goose"?

It turns out that the word "green" used by Wu Zetian is "December" and "goose" is "self-involved". It adds up to "I want to take part in the December Uprising".

In this way, Pei Yan suffered a disaster.

In fact, the so-called "Green Goose" is only an opportunity for Wu Zetian to kill Pei Yan, not whether Pei Yan participated in the Xu Jingye Uprising. He repeatedly opposed Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian kept him. This is the real cause of Pei Yan's death.