To reinforce her legitimacy, Wu Zetian also invented about a dozen characters with a new script. Mutsuhito (also known as Meiji Tenno; 1852-1912) was a Japanese emperor, who became the symbol for, and encouraged, the dramatic, Quin Shi Huang-Di To ensure imperial male progeny, the Chinese emperor's harem was an elaborate organization of eunuchs who attended to hundreds of concubines, of whom one was appointed empress, the principal wife of the emperor. Recent revisionist reappraisals have focused on the feminist slant of her rule and her record as an emperor rather than a woman, but no new primary sources have appeared to resolve conflicting information and gaps in her biography. And does she deserve the harsh verdict that history has passed on her? Two years later, in 712 CE, Ruizong abdicated after he saw a comet one night and, following the interpretation suggested by Taiping, took it as a sign his rule was over. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1994, pp. Wills, John E., Jr. "Empress Wu," in Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History. Her Buddhist supporters interpreted the Madamegha (Great Cloud) sutra to predict a maitreya Buddha (Buddha-to-come) in female form, presumably Wu Zetian herself, who would embody the concept of the cakravartin (wheel-turner, universal emperor, or the ideal man who is king). It was Lu Zhi who, in 194 B.C., wreaked revenge on a rival by gouging out her eyes, amputating her arms and legs, and forcing her to drink acid that destroyed her vocal chords. 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. In 697 CE, Wu's hold on power began to slip when she became more paranoid and began spending more time with her young lovers than on ruling China. Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. No area of Chinese life was untouched by Empress Wu and her reforms were so popular because the suggestions came from the people. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Lady Wang had no children and Lady Xiao had a son and two daughters. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Again, it is hard to tell what is true and what is slander being that Wu Zeitan's story is so long ago and the sources are sketchy. One reason, as we have already had cause to note in this blog, is the official nature and lack of diversity among the sources that survive for early Chinese history; another is that imperial history was written to provide lessons for future rulers, and as such tended to be weighted heavily against usurpers (which Wu was) and anyone who offended the Confucian sensibilities of the scholars who labored over them (which Wu did simply by being a woman). 2023 Smithsonian Magazine 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. He refused to cooperate well with his mother and his wife, Lady Wei, assumed too much power. She ordered farming manuals to be written and distributed. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. A 17th-century Chinese depiction of Wu, from Empress Wu of the Zhou, published c.1690. She then began to plot against Gaozongs consort, Empress Wang, incriminating the empress in the death of Wus infant daughter. In 674 CE, Gaozong took the title Tian Huang (Emperor of Heaven) and Wu changed her own to Tian Hou (Empress of Heaven). The Chinese Bell Murders. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. Her reign witnessed a healthy growth in the population; when she died in 705 her centralized bureaucracy regulated the social life and economic well-being of the 60 million people in the empire. Vol. The insurrections had received little popular support and in the years that she dominated politics as empress, empress dowager, and finally as emperor, there were no widespread military unrests. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. 04 Mar 2023. Mike Dash is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. To respond properly to Heaven's censure, it is suitable that you lead the quiet life of a widow and cultivate virtue, otherwise I fear further disasters will befall us. She reformed the structure of the government and got rid of anyone she felt was not carrying out their duties and so reduced government spending and increased efficiency. Web. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. Two brothers, known as the Zhang Brothers, were her favorites and she spent most of her time in closed quarters with them. 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. Map: Wikicommons. She kept Ruizong under a kind of house arrest confining him to the Inner Palace. Zhou Dynasty. Although modern historians, both east and west, have revised the ancient depiction of Wu Zetian as a scheming usurper, that view of her reign still persists in much that is written about her. For example, at the statues eye opening ceremony which dedicated the monument, the ruler was ritualistically seen to have been given the right to rule through the divine mandate of the Buddha icon. When she died, she was laid to rest in an elaborate tomb in the countryside about 50 miles north of the then capital, Xian. She attracted the attention of many of the young men at court and one of these was the Prince Li Zhi, son of Taizong, who would become the next emperor, Gaozong. Yet it was this series of events that cleared the way for Gaozongs, and hence Wus, accession. A brother or a clan grandson at times ascended the throne during usurpation or when the emperor died without issue, but female succession through descent from a daughter was never permitted. But several years later, she returned to the palace as Gaozong's concubine and gave birth to sons. . It was Taizong who called her 'Mei-Niang' meaning 'beautiful girl' (one of the names commonly, and wrongly, attributed to her as her birth name). Unlike most young girls in China at this time, Wu was encouraged by her father to read and write and develop the intellectual skills which were traditionally reserved for males. Han Emperor Wen, r. 180-157 BCE . When the Turkic ruler asked for a marriage arrangement, she sent her nephew's son to become the groom to the chieftain's daughter. They ruled as divine monarchs until Gaozong's death in 683 CE. Image taken from An 18th-century album of portraits of 86 emperors of China, with Chinese historical notes. It was customary, when a dynasty changed, to re-set history. Chen, Jo-shui. These women were rarely chosen by their people. Empress Lu Zhi (241-180 B.C.) His son Li Longji succeeded him, ruling as Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756 CE). Vol. . She was the last wife and the only empress of Liu Bei, the founding emperor of Shu Han, and a younger sister of Wu Yi . But is the empress unfairly maligned? She improved the public education system by hiring dedicated teachers and reorganizing the bureaucracy and teaching methods. The reversal of gender roles was nowhere more objectionable than Wu Zetian's sexuality, in the eyes of the traditional historians. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. It was used for religious rites supervised by her lover Xue Huaiyi. Wu Zetian. Her overall rule, in spite of the change of dynasty, did not result in a radical break from Tang domestic prosperity and foreign prestige. 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. On the question of succession after her death, Wu Zetian entertained notions of an heir from a Wu and Li marriage. Wu also learned to play music, write poetry, and speak well in public. Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty (The Greenwood Press Wu: The Chinese Empress who schemed, seduced and murdered her way to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. These historians claim that Wu ordered Lady Wang and Lady Xiao murdered in a terrible way: she had their hands and feet cut off and they were then thrown into a vat of wine to drown. 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. Why should you weep for me?" 1, Sui and T'ang, pp. The emperor believed her story, and Wang was demoted and imprisoned in a distant part of the palace, soon to be joined by the Pure Concubine. She established a policy so that informants could be paid to travel by public transportation to report to the court. A woman in the most powerful position in government threatened the traditional patriarchy and the court counselors, ministers, and historians claimed Wu had upset the balance of nature by assuming a power which belonged to a man. It is also generally accepted that Ruizongs wife, Empress Liu, and chief consort, Dou, were executed at Wus behest in 693 on trumped-up charges of witchcraft. Any historian who has written on Lady Wu has followed the story set down by the later Chinese historians without question, but these historians had their own agenda which did not include praising a woman who presumed to rule like a man. Yet Wu has had a pretty bad press. 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. Examination System. emperor angelfish (Pomecanthus imperator) See CHAETODONTIDAE. Moreover, Wu exhibited one important characteristic that suggests that, whatever her faults, she was no despot: She acknowledged and often acted on the criticisms of loyal ministers, one of whom dared to suggest, in 701, that it was time for her to abdicate. How did she hold on to power? Nationality/Culture Encyclopedia.com. Wu also took back lands which had been invaded by the Goturks under the reign of Taizong and distributed them so that they were not all held by the aristocrats. 21/11/2022. World Eras. published on 22 February 2016. "Wu Zetian." Taizong forced the abdication of his own father and disposed of two older brothers in hand-to-hand combat before seizing the throne. Books Your Privacy Rights The military exams were intended to measure intelligence and decision making and candidates were personally interviewed instead of just being appointed because of family connections or their family's name. Empress Wu Zetian (Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, l. 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor of Imperial China. This institution became a political weapon in the hands of Empress Wu when she usurped the throne in 690. The primary and secondary sources on Wu Zetian are abundant and problematic, reflecting an almost exclusively male authorship that has portrayed her as a beautiful, calculating, brutal woman who ruled China as the only woman emperor in name and in fact. 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. It is the only known uncarved memorial tablet in more than 2,000 years of imperial history, its muteness chillingly reminiscent of the attempts made by Hatshepsuts successors toobliterate her namefrom the stone records of pharaonic Egypt. World History Encyclopedia. Wu could have murdered her daughter but her position as a female in a male role brought her many enemies who would have been happy to pass on a rumor as truth to discredit her. Kannon embodies compassion, and when seen as female is venerated as a patron of motherhood and fertility. 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. In spite of all of her reforms and the prosperity she brought to the country, Wu was remembered mainly for her crimes against friends and family members - especially the murder of her daughter - and people did not think she was worthy of an inscription. She founded a secret police and conducted a reign of terror, justifying the mass executions on the grounds that discrimination against a womans open exercise of power forced her to use terror to defend her authority. For Wu Zetian, the rise to power and consolidation involved manipulations, murders, and support of the intellectual and religious establishments. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Born ne Wu (first name at birth not known) in 624 in Taiyuan, Shanxi province; died in 705 in Luoyang, Henan province; daughter of a high-ranking official, Wu Shihuo, and his aristocratic wife; married Emperor Taizong (r. 626649), in 640 (died 649); married Emperor Gaozong (r. 650683), in 654; children: (second marriage) Crown Prince Li Hong; Crown Prince Li Xian; Emperor Zhongzong; Emperor Ruizong; Princess Taiping ; another daughter (died in infancy). 127148. The practice of an emperor having young women as concubines was customary but when an empress decided to entertain herself with young men it was suddenly scandalous. Overall Wu Zetian was a decisive, capable ruler in the roles of empress, empress dowager, and emperor. 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. (Issued by the Empress Dowager Cixi, 1835-1908) Wu either read him whatever she felt like and then made her own decisions or read him the real reports and then still acted on her own. To recruit a new class of administrators through competition, the examinations that had played only a secondary role in the recruitment and promotion of civil servants in Han times (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) The most serious charges against Wu are handily summarized in Mary Andersons collection of imperial scuttlebutt, Hidden Power, which reports that she wiped out twelve collateral branches of the Tang clan and had the heads of two rebellious princes hacked off and brought to her in her palace. It is easier to take seriously the suggestion that Wu arranged a series of murders within her own family. Traditionally, only the emperor, as the son-of-heaven, could communicate with heaven and carry out sacrifices to heaven and earth.