She then began to plot against Gaozongs consort, Empress Wang, incriminating the empress in the death of Wus infant daughter. 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. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. 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. 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. 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. across from her husband, the emperor. 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 . The three phases of the universe; These three phases were birth, existence, and destruction. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Still, Xuanzong continued many of Wu's policies, including keeping her reforms in taxation, agriculture, and education. Every Chinese emperor had concubines, and most had favorites; few came to power, or stayed there, without the use of violence. 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. As early as 660 CE, Wu had organized a secret police force and spies in the court and throughout the country. Ouyang, Xiu. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. During her Tang Dynasty reign, the practice of Chinese Buddhism is known to have reached its height and influence. Van Gulik, Robert. 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. Anyone she suspected of disloyalty, for any reason, was banished or executed. and turned the, Wang Mang (45 B.C.-A.D. 23) was a Chinese statesman and emperor. Examination System. Wu Zetian's father was a successful merchant and military official who reached ministerial ranks. Taizong forced the abdication of his own father and disposed of two older brothers in hand-to-hand combat before seizing the throne. 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.) 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. Her success in the campaigns against Korea inspired confidence in her generals and Wu's decisions on military defense or expeditions were never challenged. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4558/empress-wu-zetian/. Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/empress-wu-wu-zhao. Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. Wu Zetian's tough character and good equestrian skills were perceived by observers even when she was a teenager. 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. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Seen from this perspective, Wu did in fact fulfill the fundamental duties of a ruler of imperial China; Confucian philosophy held that, while an emperor should not be condemned for acts that would be crimes in a subject, he could be judged harshly for allowing the state to fall into anarchy. Empress Wu Zetian ruled as Chinas only female emperor. Wu Zhao listened to her minister and considered his argument and then, Rothschild writes, "Wu Zhao, with no intention whatsoever of 'leading the quiet life of a widow', rejected this interpretation and promptly exiled the man to the swampy, disease-ridden, Southland" (109). And while Chinas imperial chronicles were too rigidly run and too highly developed for Wus name to be simply wiped from their pages, the stern disapproval of the Confucian mandarins who compiled the records can still be read 1,500 years later. 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. Unlike her predecessors she was fond of the Buddhist community, which led her to build at great expense the Mingtang, or Hall of Light. New Haven: YUP, 2008; Jonathan Clements. is held up in Chinese histories as the prototype of all that is wicked in a female ruler. She began her life at court as a concubine of the emperor Taizong. Her upright Confucian minister, Di Renjie (d. 700, the protagonist of Robert van Gulik's popular Judge Dee detective novels), convinced her to bring back her son, the deposed emperor Zhongzong, to be appointed as her successor. Her daunting task was convincing the Confucian establishment about the legitimate succession of a woman who was the widow of the deceased emperor and the mother of the currently legitimate ruler. The Turkic chieftain was insulted by the fact that the groom did not come from the Li-Tang imperial family but descended from what he perceived to be the inferior Wu clan, so he promptly imprisoned the unlucky groom and in 698 returned him to China. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. In 690 C.E., Zetian forced Li Dan to abdicate the throne to her, and declared herself the founding empress of the Zhou dynasty. Jay, Jennifer W. "Vignettes of Chinese Women in Tang Xi'an (618906): Individualism in Wu Zetian, Yang Guifei, Yu Xuanji and Li Wa," in Chinese Culture. 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. published on 22 February 2016. 31, no. 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. 181. 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. 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. 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. 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. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Charlemagne (or Charles the Great) was king of the franks from 768 to 814, king of the lombards from 774 to 814, and emperor from 800 to, FOUNDED: c. 1050256 b.c.e. "The Real Judge Dee: Ti Jen-chieh and the T'ang Restoration of 705," in Asia Major. Barretts recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world. China during Wu Zetian's ReignIan Kiu (CC BY-SA). Guisso, Richard W. Empress Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China. First, I'll beat it with the iron whip. Whether true or not, it is what people believed. Amherst : Prometheus Books, 1990; T.H. "Empress Wu Zetian." 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. She has published historical essays and poetry. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. The reversal of gender roles was nowhere more objectionable than Wu Zetian's sexuality, in the eyes of the traditional historians. She not only created many different cultural and political policies, but she displayed what a women could do in government. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. 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. 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. Add to . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. No area of Chinese life was untouched by Empress Wu and her reforms were so popular because the suggestions came from the people. A huge stele was erected outside the tomb, as was customary, which later historians were supposed to inscribe with Empress Wu's great deeds but the marker remains blank. Wu Zetian was in effect taking the unprecedented step of transforming her position from empress dowager to emperor. Lyn Reese is the author of all the information on this website Wu Zetian's SteleI, (GJGY.com) (CC BY-SA). Wu Zetian's collected writings include official edicts, essays, and poetry, in addition to a treatise to instruct her subjects on moral statecraft. World Eras. 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. Character Overview Princess Taiping put an end to her plans when she had Wei and her family murdered and put her brother Ruizong on the throne. World History Encyclopedia. The spirit road causeway to Wus still-unopened tomb lies between two low rises, tipped by watchtowers, known as the nipple hills.. World History Encyclopedia, 22 Feb 2016. 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. Liu, Xu. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1989, pp. Wu Zetian is the only legitimatized Empress in Chinese history. Princes and ministers loyal to the Tang Dynasty and princes suspected of rebellious motives against her were executed. Your Majesty may take this as 'Mount Felicity', but your subject feels there is nothing to celebrate. When he fell out of favor, he burned the building to the ground. As an effective woman ruler, she challenged the traditional patriarchical dominance of power, state, sovereignty, monarchy, and political ideology. Empress Dowager. World History Encyclopedia. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984. Buddhism was carried into East Asia by merchants and Buddhist monks traveling the Silk Road from Northern India, Persia, Kashmir and Inner Asia. After Wu's death, Zhongzong reigned but only in name; real power was held by Lady Wei who used Wu Zetian as a role model to manipulate her husband and the court. Wu, characteristically, admired the virtuosity of Luos style and suggested he would be better employed at the imperial court. Attaining that position first required Wu to engineer her escape from a nunnery after Taizongs deaththe concubines of all deceased emperors customarily had their heads shaved and were immured in convents for the rest of their lives, since it would have been an insult to the dead ruler had any other man sullied themand to return to the palace under Gaozongs protection before entrancing the new emperor, removing empress Wang and the Pure Concubine, promoting members of her own family to positions of power, and eventually establishing herself as fully her husbands equal. 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. "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) To further separate her Zhou Dynasty from the Tang, she created new characters for the Chinese writing system which are known today as Chinese Characters of Empress Wu or Zetian Characters. When Taizong died, Wu and his other concubines had their heads shaved and were sent to Ganye Temple to begin their lives as nuns. 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. Appears In 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. Just how accurate this picture of Wu is remains a matter of debate. Mutsuhito 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. Cookie Policy Beginning in 660 CE, Wu was effectively the emperor of China. 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. When she saw she would not be able to control the court as her mother did, she killed herself and Xuanzong decreed that no member of Wu's family would be allowed to hold public office because of their ruthless scheming and underhanded politics. Her extravagant construction projects and expensive frontier campaigns had exhausted the treasury, which led to a financial crisis. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 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. 1, 1990, pp. She was the power behind the throne from Gaozong's death in 683 CE until she proclaimed herself openly in 690 CE and ruled as emperor of China until a year before her death in 705 CE, at the age of 81. Barrett. Justinian. souls of those who died in the atomic bomb attacks, 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, Empress Wu Zetian (r. 683-704 CE) of the Tang Dynasty. She gave titles of royalty to her own Wu family: her brothers and nephews became princes while her sisters, aunts, and nieces became princesses. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. She ordered the executions of several hundred of these aristocrats and of many members of the imperial family of Li. This mountain, so born of the sudden convulsion of earth, represents a calamity. The Chinese Bell Murders. (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 the last wife and the only empress of Liu Bei, the founding emperor of Shu Han, and a younger sister of Wu Yi . Download Full Size Image. Lineage To legitimize her position, Empress Wu turned mainly to Buddhism, proclaiming herself an incarnation of Maitreya (Mi-le), the Buddhist savior. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China's history. 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 Chinese mythology , Huang-Di (pronounced hoo-arng-DEE), also k, Ho-shen Gaozong had caught a disease which affected his eyes (possibly a stroke) and needed to have reports read to him. World History Encyclopedia. Five Historical Plays. In death, as in life, then, Wu remains controversial. The efficiency of her court declined as she spent more and more time with the Zhang brothers and became addicted to different kinds of aphrodisiacs.