23 Feb. 2023 . Replacing the dynasty and imperial house through Confucian ideology still could not legitimize a woman on the throne. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wu-zetian-624-705. . In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. She herself would thus be seen as a restorationist of the Zhou Dynasty, with the Wu family replacing the Li-Tang family. Lu Zhi was an instantly recognizable villain to the people of China, and linking Wu with her through the murders worked to destroy Wu's reputation. While functioning and surviving in the male-ruled and power-focused domain, she exhibited strengths traditionally attributed to men, including political ambition, long-range vision, skillful diplomacy, power drive, decisive resolve, shrewd observation, talented organization, hard work, and firm dispensal of cruelty. Mutsuhito Empress Wu Zetian. In her last years Wu lost influence, although she remained energetic and cruel. Thus Wu Zetian's experience might have caused some redefinition of gender in her time, but this direction has not translated into enduring gains in the society and political organization that she left behind. Picking through the bias to try to get to the real story is always fascinating and - in my mind - fun. She established a policy so that informants could be paid to travel by public transportation to report to the court. In the largest cave there is a statue called the Grand Vairocana Buddha. You're hard-pressed to find any historical documents that don't have some sort of bias, especially when dealing with a controversial figure like Wu Zetian. She wanted to make it clear that a new kind of ruler had taken the throne of China and a new order had arrived. In her new position, she was constantly involved in affairs of state at the highest level and must have performed her duties well because she became a favorite of Taizong. Thank you for your help! But is the empress unfairly maligned? Born to a newly emerging merchant family in the Northeast, Wu Zhao had been a concubine of Li Shimin, or Taizong, founder of the Tang dynasty (618-907). Wu is said to have potentially killed her own. Not the United States, of course, but one thinks readily enough of Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt, Russias astonishing Catherine the Great, or Trung Tracof Vietnam. She later volunteered to tame Taizong's wild horse with an iron whip, hammer, and knife. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. By 666, the annals state, Wu was permitted to make offerings to the gods beside Gaozong and even to sit in audience with himbehind a screen, admittedly, but on a throne that was equal in elevation to his own. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. In sum, within the social and political context of her time, Wu Zetian was a leader who went beyond the traditional roles of submissive wife and home-bound mother to emerge as ruler, lawmaker, and head of state and society while her second husband, lovers, and sons were relegated to less powerful positions than traditionally expected. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007; Dora Shu-Fang Dien, Empress Wu Zetian in Fiction and in History: Female Defiance in Confucian China. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Historians have documented Wu Zetian's resort to slander, torture, and murders to reinforce the propaganda of omens. Some historians have viewed her as blazing the trail for the women who came after her, and indeed her daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter aspired to emulate her success, but they failed and even died violently in the process. Edward Schafer, The Divine Women: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in Tang Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973). "Wu Zetian." During her reign she ordered the erection of temples in every province to explain the Dayunjingy which predicted the emergence of a female world ruler seven hundred years after the passing of the Buddha. Just how accurate this picture of Wu is remains a matter of debate. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. They are regarded as important by historians because they show how far Wu went in trying to create a new world in China under her reign: she even wanted to change the words they used. Chapter 2 SOURCES FOR THE LIFE AND CAREER OF WU TSE-T'IEN The chief primary sources for the life of the Empress Wu are her annals in the two dynastic histories of the T'ang, her biography in the New T'ang History, and the numerous references to her in Ssu-ma Kuang's Comprehensive Mirror.^ In some of the large official compilations of later ages, Quin Shi Huang-Di An active imagination produced pornographic novels in the 16th century focusing on her alleged sexual practices. Character Overview The only woman ever to rule as emperor of China, Wu Zhao (Wu ZeTian) was born in 624 C.E. License. As early as 660 CE, Wu had organized a secret police force and spies in the court and throughout the country. June 2, 2022 by by After the latter died in 684, she took on four or five lovers, including a monk whom she ordered executed when weary of his greed and abuse of power. Setting up a new dynasty meant installing a new imperial family to replace the Li-Tang imperial house, from which she had married two emperors who were father and son, Taizong and Gaozong. Wu eliminated all the bureaucracy by establishing a direct line of communication between herself and the people. Born to a newly emerging merchant family in the Northeast, Wu Zhao had been a concubine of Li Shimin, or Taizong, founder of the Tang dynasty (618-907). Her reign was peaceful and prosperous; she introduced the meritocratic system of entrance examinations for the imperial bureaucracy that survived into the 20th century, avoided wars and welcomed ambassadors from as far away as the Byzantine Empire. Wus memorial tablet, which stands near her tomb, was erected during her years as empress in the expectation that her successors would compose a magnificent epitaph for it. She did not hold that title but she was the power behind the office and took care of imperial business even when pregnant in 665 CE with her daughter Taiping. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Wu_Zetian/. McMullen, David. Wu Zetian was one of the longest-lived monarchs (82 years old) in Chinese history. Guo, Moruo. She maintained a stable economy and a moderate taxation for the peasantry. Although these characters were removed after her reign they still exist as a Chinese dialect in written form. At the same time, another political faction formed around Wu's other son, Ruizong, who was supported by Wu's daughter, Taiping. Empress Wu proved to be a wise monarch, and in her reign of twenty years she continued many policies and practices of her predecessors. I always think that's the most interesting things about primary sources - the bias. Wu began an affair with Li Zhi, who was married at the time, while still attached to Taizong as concubine. Her overall rule, in spite of the change of dynasty, did not result in a radical break from Tang domestic prosperity and foreign prestige. Empress Dowager. The answer was to proclaim another dynasty, not by military conquest, but by interpreting omens that favored her to carry out a change of dynasties and become enthroned as a woman emperor. Empress Wu Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism (625-705 C.E.) Having risen to be empress in Wangs stead, Wu ordered that both womens hands and feet be lopped off and had their mutilated bodies tossed into a vat of wine, leaving them to drown with the comment: Now these two witches can get drunk to their bones., As if infanticide, torture and murder were not scandalous enough, Wu was also believed to have ended her reign by enjoying a succession of erotic encounters which the historians of the day portrayed as all the more shocking for being the indulgences of a woman of advanced age. Vol. Appears In Meanwhile, the Turks invaded Gansu, and the Tibetans posed a threat to Chinese possessions in Central Asia. The founding emperor of a dynasty and his descendants constituted the imperial family, which through male succession produced emperors who were normally the eldest son born to the empress. 3, no. To consolidate her power, in 657 Wu designated Luoyang as a second capital. Jennifer W. Jay , Professor of History and Classics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. New Haven: YUP, 2008; Jonathan Clements. In 674 CE, Gaozong took the title Tian Huang (Emperor of Heaven) and Wu changed her own to Tian Hou (Empress of Heaven). Examination System. A third problem is that the empress, who was well aware of both these biases, was not averse to tampering with the record herself; a fourth is that some other accounts of her reign were written by relatives who had good cause to loathe her. Gaozong had caught a disease which affected his eyes (possibly a stroke) and needed to have reports read to him. She shocked the Chinese officialdom by arranging to send male grooms to the daughters and aunts of the tribal chieftains at the empire's borders, although it was customary to send female brides. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. If Wu Zetian is judged by the traditional female virtues of chastity and modesty, then she falls short of expectations. The development of the examination system during her reign was a critical step in the eventual transformation of the aristocracy to a meritocracy in the government. Empress Wu rose to power through ruthless tactics to move her from the emperor's concubine, to the emperor's consort, and eventually to the position of empress of China. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China's history. Under Xuanzong's reign, China became the most affluent country in the world at the time. In fact, the Tang Dynasty experienced a small interruption with the second Zhou Dynasty (690-705) established by the only female monarch in Chinese history-Empress Wu. The Tang Dynasty also witnessed significant military, political, and social changes, as reflected in the transformation of an aristocracy into a meritocracy from the 7th to the 10th centuries. She thus arranged marriages between her children and grandchildren with her brothers' sons and their grandchildren. Empress Wu was buried in a tomb in Qian County, Shanxi Province, alongside Gaozong. She did not ask any man's permission to lead these women to Mount Tai; she felt she knew what was best and did it. Books Pomacanthus imperator (emperor angelfish) See CHAETODONTIDAE. To enhance her position as a woman, in 688 she constructed a "hall of light" in the eastern capital of Luoyang to serve as a cosmic magnet to symbolize the harmony of heaven and earth and the balance of male (yang) and female (yin) forces. Han Emperor Wen, r. 180-157 BCE . Leiden: EJ Brill, 1974. At the age of fourteen, she was selected as a palace maid to Gaozong, then a Prince, and his first spouse and primary consort Xing, who had recently married. When he fell out of favor, he burned the building to the ground. Wu Zetian turned to the Buddhist establishment to rationalize her position. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. The woman who believed she was as capable as any man to lead the country continues to be vilified, even if writers now qualify their criticisms, but there is no arguing with the fact that, under Wu Zetian, China experienced an affluence and stability it had never known before. One of these served as her new personal name, Zhao, which articulates the fundamental Buddhist notion of universal emptiness. According to almost all her biographers, she was extremely cruel in her personal life, murdering two sons, a daughter, sister, niece, grandchildren, and many Li and Wu princes and princesses who opposed her. Map: Wikicommons. Patronage of Buddhism. The Chinese Bell Murders. Wu also reformed the military by mandating military exams for commanders to show competency, which were patterned on her imperial exams given to civil service workers. empress wu primary sources. One of the brothers, she declared, had a face as beautiful as a lotus flower, while it is said she valued the other for his talents in the bedchamber. One critic, the poet Luo Binwang, portrayed Wu as little short of an enchantressAll fell before her moth brows. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. By the fourth century CE, the Roman Empire was at the apex of its power and strength. In death, as in life, then, Wu remains controversial. World History Encyclopedia. It could also be, like it was in Egypt after Queen Hatshepsut's reign, that no one in power wanted to record the reign of a woman and hoped that Empress Wu would be forgotten. R. W. L. Guisso, Wu Tse-ten and the Politics of Legitimation in Tang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1978). Chu Hsi (1130-1200) was one of the greatest Chinese scholars and philosophers. Wu Zetian's tough character and good equestrian skills were perceived by observers even when she was a teenager. Controversial ruler of Tang China who dominated Chinese politics for half a century, first as empress, then as empress-dowager, and finally as emperor of the Zhou Dynasty (690705) that she founded . Not only do we pay for our servers, but also for related services such as our content delivery network, Google Workspace, email, and much more. There must also be some doubt as to whether Wu really was guilty of some of the most monstrous crimes that history has charged her with. "The Real Judge Dee: Ti Jen-chieh and the T'ang Restoration of 705," in Asia Major. Her significance as an emperor and founder of a new dynasty lies in her redefining of the gender-specific concepts of the emperorship and the Confucian state. We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. Ruthless and decisive, she stabilized and consolidated the Tang dynasty at a time when it appeared to be crumblinga significant achievement, since the Tang period is reckoned the golden age of Chinese civilization. When the Turkic ruler asked for a marriage arrangement, she sent her nephew's son to become the groom to the chieftain's daughter. Wu Zetian's father was a successful merchant and military official who reached ministerial ranks. However, when Li Zhi became emperor and took the name Gaozong, one of the first things he did was send for Wu and have her brought back to court as the first of his concubines, even though he had others and also a wife. In 652 CE, Wu gave birth to a son, Li Hong, and in 653 CE had another son, Li Xian. "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) Her patronage of Buddhism also expanded to other temples and sects, and much work was done on the cave temples at Longmen on her orders. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Buddhism was carried into East Asia by merchants and Buddhist monks traveling the Silk Road from Northern India, Persia, Kashmir and Inner Asia. Empress Wu is the only female to have ever ruled in her own name in China.