Not until 705, when she was more than 80 years old, was Wu finally overthrown by yet another sonone whom she had banished years before. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4558/empress-wu-zetian/. . Anticipating Wu Zetian's political ambitions, 60,000 flatterersincluding Confucian officials, imperial relatives, Buddhist clergy, tribal chieftains, and commonerssupported the petition to proclaim the Zhou Dynasty with herself as the founding emperor. She was painted as a usurper who was both physically cruel and erotically wanton; she first came to prominence, it was hinted, because she was willing to gratify certain ofthe Taizong emperors more unusual sexual appetites. How to evaluate such an unprecedented figure today? 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. Having been raised by her father to believe she was the equal of men, Wu saw no reason why women could not carry out the same practices and hold the same positions men could. She installed a series of copper boxes in the capital in which citizens could post anonymous denunciations of one another, and passed legislation, R.W.L. She was in very poor health anyway by this time and died a year later. Five Historical Plays. But in 705, when she was 81 years old, the combined forces of the Li-Tang family took advantage of her weakening grip on the state and removed her from power. Carlton further notes, "While ostensibly for her great concern over the condition of her people, the box mainly served the purpose of obtaining information on seditious subjects (3)." For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Missions from Japan, Korea, and Vietnam arrived at Xi'an bearing tribute and seeking education in Buddhism and Confucianism. 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. "Wu Zetian (624705) 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). These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Empress Wu, the first and only female emperor of Imperial China. Wu Zhao embarked on religious life as a nun in a convent after Li Shimins death in 649. The critical Anderson concedes that, under Wu, military expenses were reduced, taxes cut, salaries of deserving officials raised, retirees given a viable pension, and vast royal lands near the capital turned over to husbandry.. "Empress Wu Zetian." 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. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. Wu Zhao viewed the situation differently: she claimed the mountain was a good omen which reflected the Buddhist mountain of paradise, Sumeru. Wu's rise to power was ruthless and her reign no less so, as she continued to eliminate rivals and opponents using tactics that were sometimes brutal. Although these characters were removed after her reign they still exist as a Chinese dialect in written form. At one point, to the horror of her generals, Wu proposed raising a military corps from among Chinas numerous eunuchs. 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. It seems possible that the fate ascribed to Wang and the Pure Concubine was a chroniclers invention, intended to link Wu to the worst monster in Chinas history. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Guo, Moruo. 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. Encyclopedia.com. The story of Wu's murder of her daughter and the framing of Lady Wang to gain power is the most infamous and most often repeated incident of her life but actually there is no way of knowing if it happened as the historians recorded it. Primary Sources with DBQsCHINA 4000 - 1000 BCE Ancestral Rites and Divination . Please support World History Encyclopedia. She established a policy so that informants could be paid to travel by public transportation to report to the court. She first entered the imperial harem at the age of 13 as a lowly ranked concubine to Emperor Taizong (r. 626649), who has been praised as the most capable ruler of the Tang period and hailed as the "heavenly khan" by Central Asian states. One example of her clout was in 666 CE when she led a group of women to Mount Tai (an ancient ceremonial center), where they conducted rituals which traditionally were performed only by men. "Empress Wu Zetian." There are abundant signs that Wu was viewed with deep suspicion by later generations of Chinese. Princess Taiping had shielded Li Longji from her mother when he was young and supported him in his efforts to take the throne. She worked against the Confucian dictum that women must restrict their activities to the home and in the wildest imagination could not become emperors. Mutsuhito The Tang empire in 700, at the end of Wus reign. In preparing for the legitimacy of her emperorship, she claimed the Zhou Dynasty (1045256 bce) and its founders among her own ancestors. Her experience reflected a reversal of the gender roles and restrictions her society and government constructed for her as appropriate to women. . As early as 660 CE, Wu had organized a secret police force and spies in the court and throughout the country. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Empress Wu (died September or October 245), [a] personal name Wu Xian ( Chinese: ), formally known as Empress Mu (literally "the Just Empress"), was an empress of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. Rise to Power. Nevertheless, court intrigues still greatly influenced the recruiting of civil servants. Cite This Work 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. Under Wus rule the government was expanded, and many of the new positions were filled through the examination system. 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. She was also the most important early supporter of the alien religion of Buddhism, which during her rule surpassed the native Confucian and Daoist faiths in influence within the Tang realm. Forte, Antonino. Empress Dowager. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1989, pp. Web. Wu Zetian is the only legitimatized Empress in Chinese history. Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout (University of Wisconsin), Merlot (California State University), OER Commons and the School Library Journal. 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). Bellingham, WA: Center for Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1978. At a nunnery she established, Empress Komyo sponsored the creation of a statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon which, like Wu Zetians statue at Longmen, was felt to be done in her likeness. The Woman Who Discovered Printing. Wu placed her first son on the throne who took the royal title Zhongzong. These women were rarely chosen by their people. 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. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! His rule covered a span of 63 years, a reign lo, Zhao Kuang-yin She gave titles of royalty to her own Wu family: her brothers and nephews became princes while her sisters, aunts, and nieces became princesses. Ch'ien-lung (1711-1799) was the fourth emperor of the Ch'ing, or Manchu, dynasty in China. 181. In the last three decades, Marxist historiography on Wu Zetian in Mainland China has yielded a positive but unreliable and ideologically charged reappraisal. Examination System. After Mount Felicity appeared, and Wu claimed it as an omen favoring her, one of her ministers wrote: Your Majesty, a female ruler improperly has occupied a male position, which has inverted and altered the hard and soft, therefore the earth's emanations are obstructed and separated. Although she was not able to control the newly unified state, relations continued to be friendly during her reign. (British Library, Shelfmark Or. She organized teams to survey the land and build irrigation ditches to help grow crops and redistributed the land so that everyone had an equal share to farm. When he fell out of favor, he burned the building to the ground. Throughout 15 dismal years in exile, her sons consort had talked him out of committing suicide and kept him ready to return to power. Empress Wu Zetian. He refused to cooperate well with his mother and his wife, Lady Wei, assumed too much power. 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). She improved the public education system by hiring dedicated teachers and reorganizing the bureaucracy and teaching methods. Anyone she suspected of disloyalty, for any reason, was banished or executed. She was the daughter of a minor general called Duke Ding of Ying, and came to the palace as a concubine in about 636an honor that suggests that she was very beautiful, since, as Jonathan Clements remarks, admission to the ranks of palace concubines was equivalent to winning a beauty contest of the most gorgeous women in the medieval world. But mere beauty was not sufficient to elevate the poorly connected teenage Wu past the fifth rank of palace women, a menial position whose duties were those of a maid, not a temptress. (It was common for poor Chinese boys to voluntarily undergo emasculation in the hope of obtaining a prestigious and well-remunerated post in the imperial service). She was also able to re-open the Silk Road, which had been closed because of the plague of 682 CE and later raids by nomads. World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. First emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Quin Shi Huang-di (259 B.C.-210 B.C.) Meanwhile, the Turks invaded Gansu, and the Tibetans posed a threat to Chinese possessions in Central Asia. 1 minutes de lecture . Historians remain divided as to how far Wu benefited from the removal of these potential obstacles; what can be said is that her third son, who succeeded his father as Emperor Zhongzong in 684, lasted less than two months before being banished, at his mothers instigation, in favor of the more tractable fourth, Ruizong. Unknown, . 6, no. Alternate Names Every Chinese emperor had concubines, and most had favorites; few came to power, or stayed there, without the use of violence. 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). Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. 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.) She began her life at court as a concubine of the emperor Taizong. She wanted to make it clear that a new kind of ruler had taken the throne of China and a new order had arrived. ." Character Overview 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). 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. Vol. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/empress-wu-wu-zhao, "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) Edward Schafer, The Divine Women: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in Tang Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973). World Eras. But if she is observed in the context of the sexuality of male rulers, then the number of her favorites is insignificant. When she was an infant dressed in boy's clothes, Wu Zetian's potential for emperorship was predicted by an official. 04 Mar 2023. "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) She is hated by gods and men alike.. 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. "Kao-tsung and the Empress Wu," in Denis Twitchett, ed. When her mother was distressed about losing her to an uncertain life fraught with intrigues in the emperor's harem, she firmly reassured her: "Isn't it a fortune to attend the emperor! According to Wu's own account, they conspired against her but, according to other historians, Wu started and finished the problems she had with them. Guisso, Richard W.L. Buddhists Support. 2231). She graduated from SUNY Delhi in 2018. (February 22, 2023). Ouyang, Xiu. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Sources about Wu Zetian's life are a hodgepodge, which some condemning her as the devil himself and others testifying she was an absolute angel. 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. (2016, February 22). Submitted by Emily Mark, published on 17 March 2016. When Empress Wu was the empress of the Tang Dynasty, she created a system of secret police to watch her opponents and killed or put anyone in . published on 22 February 2016. 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. Became concubine to Emperor Taizong (640); entered Buddhist nunnery (649); returned to the palace as concubine (654), then as empress (657) to Taizong's son Emperor Gaozong; became empress dowager and regent to her two sons (68489); founded a dynasty (Zhou, 690705) and ruled as emperor for 15 years. Chen, Jo-shui. 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. The emperor's concubines could not be passed on to be used by others but were forced to end their time at court and start a new life of chastity in a religious order. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Traditionally, only the emperor, as the son-of-heaven, could communicate with heaven and carry out sacrifices to heaven and earth. Twitchett, Denis, and Howard J. Wechsler. 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. Nationality/Culture Still, Xuanzong continued many of Wu's policies, including keeping her reforms in taxation, agriculture, and education. So much for the supposed facts; what about the interpretation? I always think that's the most interesting things about primary sources - the bias. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China's history. "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) Zhou Dynasty. Wu began her life at court taking care of the royal laundry but one day dared to speak to the emperor when they were alone and talked about Chinese history. She contended with petitions against female dominance which argued that her unnatural position as emperor had caused several earthquakes to occur and reports being filed of hens turning into roosters. 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. emperor angelfish (Pomecanthus imperator) See CHAETODONTIDAE. Territorial Expansion. 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. Even her gravesite is remarkable. Wu Zetian's collected writings include official edicts, essays, and poetry, in addition to a treatise to instruct her subjects on moral statecraft. She could not become an emperor under the Tang Dynasty because of the long tradition of male succession and the fact that she was not a member of the imperial family by birth. 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. It is a challenge to recover real people from this morass of bias. She changed the compulsory mourning period for mothers who predeceased fathers from the traditional one year to three yearsthe same length as the mourning for fathers who predeceased mothers. With her exceptional intelligence, extraordinary competence in politics, and inordinate ambition, she ruled as the "Holy and Divine Emperor" of the Second Zhou Dynasty (690-705) for fifteen years. Taizong forced the abdication of his own father and disposed of two older brothers in hand-to-hand combat before seizing the throne. Her one mistake had been to marry this boy to a concubine nearly as ruthless and ambitious as herself. World History Encyclopedia. What role, if any, the undeniably ambitious concubine played in the events of the early Tang period remains a matter of controversy. Barretts recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world. Historical Significance: Empress Wu was very significant in the Tang Dynasty. Quin Shi Huang-Di 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. She herself would thus be seen as a restorationist of the Zhou Dynasty, with the Wu family replacing the Li-Tang family. 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. Empress Wu is one of the most controversial leaders in Chinese history for her method of rule and the means she likely used to rise to power. 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. across from her husband, the emperor. However, despite establishing an autocratic and centralised state, Emperor Wu adopted the principles of Confucianism as the state philosophy and code of ethics for his empire and started a school to teach future administrators the Confucian classics. These characters were supposed to replace between 10 and 30 of the older characters and were Wu's attempt to change the way her people thought and wrote. Map: Wikicommons. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. It is easier to take seriously the suggestion that Wu arranged a series of murders within her own family. Empress Wu proved to be a wise monarch, and in her reign of twenty years she continued many policies and practices of her predecessors. 3, no. The China that Wu Zetian was born in was the Tang Dynasty (618906), a strong and unified empire after four centuries of political discord and foreign interaction. Download Full Size Image. 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. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. The Fall of Kaifeng [ edit] In 1126, Emperor Huizong abdicated in favor of his son, Emperor Qinzong, the elder brother of Gaozong. Wei had her father appointed Chief Minister to her husband and tried to push through other measures favoring her family. Wu Zetian established her dynasty - the Zhou dynasty. Traditional historians grudgingly acknowledged that she surpassed her sons, the legitimate heirs, in both vision and statecraft. 290332. Barrett. Illustration. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. 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. They ruled as divine monarchs until Gaozong's death in 683 CE. RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 0.1 percent . unified China in 221 B.C. To reinforce her legitimacy, Wu Zetian also invented about a dozen characters with a new script. One of these served as her new personal name, Zhao, which articulates the fundamental Buddhist notion of universal emptiness. She then began to plot against Gaozongs consort, Empress Wang, incriminating the empress in the death of Wus infant daughter. Gaozong fell for it and the Empress Wang was put to death. Wu probably did dispose of several members of her own family, and she ordered the deaths of a number of probably innocent ministers and bureaucrats. 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). Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. New Haven: YUP, 2008; Jonathan Clements. This item is in the public domain, and can be used, copied, and modified without any restrictions. Of all these female rulers, though, none has aroused so much controversy, or wielded such great power, as a monarch whose real achievements and characterremain obscured behind layers of obloquy. We care about our planet! She was also assured that her sons would rule the country after the death of her husband. Mark, Emily. 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. Sima, Guang. 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. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984. After Gaozongs death, in 683, she remained the power behind the throne as dowager empress, manipulating a succession of her sons before, in 690, ordering the last of them to abdicate and taking power herself. 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. 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. Wu is said to have potentially killed her own. (February 23, 2023). Still, this did not mean the women were not jealous of the favor the emperor showed Wu now that she had given birth to two sons in a row. After rising to power, Wu tried to remove from power the representatives of the northwestern aristocracy, who had controlled the government from the beginning of the dynasty through the medium of the imperial chancellery. 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 .
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