Is “After her death, Wu Zetian fell into the Avici Hell and was punished.” true?
According to the Old Book of Tang, Annals of Empress Zetian, Wu Zetian abdicated to Emperor Zhongzong in the first year of Shenlong and 'died in the Xianju Hall of Shangyang Palace at the age of eighty-three,' ending her natural life. However, in the 100th chapter of Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, following the Buddhist concept of karma, it is said through the mouth of an immortal that Empress Wu, 'being licentious and cruel, committing too many sins, has now, together with Empress Wei, Princess Taiping, Princess Anle, and those treacherous ministers and cruel officials, all fallen into the Avici Hell, never to be reborn.' This is purely a supernatural fabrication of the novel.
In the official history, Wu Zetian succeeded the Tang dynasty and established the Zhou dynasty, dying a natural death, while in the novel's final chapter, she is subjected to divine punishment in the underworld, with exaggerated supernatural retribution.
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