弥勒信仰是一种广泛流行于南北朝至唐初社会的佛教净土信仰。作为我国古代民众心目中一位“降魔除怪”、“济世安民”的佛教神祗,早在南北朝时期,其影响已广披于民间。入唐以后,此风犹存。作为一代女主的武则天,得以在封建男权文化统治下的唐代社会实现她以女身当国的理想,除了她所具有的非凡的个人胆识与政治才干外,还得力于她在很大程度上利用了唐初社会广为流传的弥勒信仰的力量,从而使其改朝换代之举具有了某种神圣“合法性”,进而取得男权社会对自己以女身“当王国土”,以及“威伏天下” 行为的默认与认可。在当时的历史条件下,这既是女皇的高明之处,同时也是她不得已而选择的做法。 Maitreya belief is a widespread Buddhism, Pure Land belief in the society from the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the early Tang Dynasty. As one of the ancient Chinese people’s minds, “demon magic”, “Ji An Anmin” Buddhist gods, as early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties, its influence has been widely worn in the folk. After the Tang Dynasty, the wind still survived. As a generation of female advocate Wu Zetian, in the feudal patriarchal culture under the rule of the Tang Dynasty society to achieve her ideals of women as the country, in addition to her extraordinary personal courage and political talent, but also effective in her very large To some extent, it took advantage of the Maitreya faith widely circulated in the early Tang Dynasty so that it had some sacred “legitimacy” to move toward the new generation, and then obtained the patriarchal society’s “ Prestige volt world ”behavior of acquiescence and recognition. Under the historical conditions at that time, this was not only the cleverness of the Empress, but also the last resort she had chosen.