information:extraction
Confucian viewpoints

Wu Zetian's rise and reign was criticized harshly by Confucian historians like Liu Xu and Yuan Shu, But, some of those had praises for Wu Zetian like Liu Xu (in Quotes section), Sima Guang

In the early period of the Tang dynasty, because all the emperors were her direct descendants, Wu was evaluated favorably. But commentary in subsequent periods, especially the book Zizhi Tongjian compiled by Sima Guang, harshly criticized her. By the period of Southern Song dynasty, when Neo-Confucianism was firmly established as China's mainstream political ideology, it determined the evaluation of Wu.