These monumental statues, like the one carved into the mountain at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, alerted the populous to the dominance of Buddhism. Wu Zhao viewed the situation differently: she claimed the mountain was a good omen which reflected the Buddhist mountain of paradise, Sumeru. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. This particular minister was silenced but that did not silence the rest; they just were more careful not to speak their mind in front of her. Primary Sources with DBQs | Asia for Educators - Columbia University "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) 04 Mar 2023. Wu Zetian's first two sexual partners were emperors and related to each other as father and son. Thank you! Paul, Diana Y. Barretts recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. 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. June 2, 2022 by by She later volunteered to tame Taizong's wild horse with an iron whip, hammer, and knife. Under the older regimes, a suggestion or complaint had to go through a number of different offices before it ever reached anyone who could do something about it. An active imagination produced pornographic novels in the 16th century focusing on her alleged sexual practices. "Empress Wu Zetian." Web. Historians have documented Wu Zetian's resort to slander, torture, and murders to reinforce the propaganda of omens. Wu: the Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become A Living God. Gaozong's wife, Lady Wang, and his former first concubine, Xiao Shufei, were jealous of each other but even more envious of the attention Gaozong paid to Wu. 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. It is not likely Wu was involved in the disgrace of Taizongs unpleasant eldest son, Cheng-qian, whose teenage rebellion against his father had taken the form of the ostentatious embrace of life as lived by Mongol nomads. The other statues (still seen in the Longmen Grottoes) were also made to elevate her status as a divine ruler who knew what was best for the people and was divinely appointed to apply whatever laws or policies she saw fit. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4558/empress-wu-zetian/. Although Carlton's observation is accurate, the box also did provide Wu with a number of ideas for reform which came directly from the people, not government officials who would have profited from them, and which Wu implemented efficiently. This was considered scandalous because of her advanced age and how young the Zhang brothers were but would not have even been commented on if Wu had been a man sleeping with much younger women. . https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wu-zetian-624-705, "Wu Zetian (624705) Lady Wang had no children and Lady Xiao had a son and two daughters. It was approached via a mile-long causeway running between two low hills topped with watchtowers, known today as the nipple hills because Chinese tradition holds that the spot was selected because the hills reminded Gaozong of the young Wus breasts. 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. Kannon embodies compassion, and when seen as female is venerated as a patron of motherhood and fertility. Sima, Guang. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Born: February 17, 624 Lizhou, China Died: December 16, 705 in Luoyang, China Reign: October 16, 690 to February 22, 705 Best known for: The only woman to be Emperor of China Biography: Empress Wu Zetian by Unknown [Public Domain] Growing Up Wu Zetian was born on February 17, 624 in Lizhou, China. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Related Content The poet Luo Binwangone of the Four Greats of Early Tang and best known for his Ode to the Gooselaunched a virulent attack on the empress. Cold, ruthless, and ambitious, the Han dynasty dowager murdered her rival, the beautiful concubine Lady Qi, by amputating all her limbs, turning her into a human swine and leaving her to die in a cesspit. Wus later life was one long illustration of the exceptional influence she had come to wield. For Wu Zetian, the rise to power and consolidation involved manipulations, murders, and support of the intellectual and religious establishments. World Eras. As we know, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. 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. 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. Su, Tong. A 17th-century Chinese depiction of Wu, from Empress Wu of the Zhou, published c.1690. One of the most powerful champions of Buddhism in China was the Empress Wu Zetian. Emperor Wu of Han - Wikipedia Wu, characteristically, admired the virtuosity of Luos style and suggested he would be better employed at the imperial court. True, Taizongan old warrior-ruler so conscientious that he had official documents pasted onto his bedroom walls so that he would have something to work on if he woke in the nighthad lost his empress shortly before Wu entered the palace. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. . Guisso says, that empowered informers of any social class to travel at public expense. She also maintained an efficient secret police and instituted a reign of terror among the imperial bureaucracy. 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. But is the empress unfairly maligned? It was used for religious rites supervised by her lover Xue Huaiyi. 242289. So much for the supposed facts; what about the interpretation? Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 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. Wu Zetian (624-705) | Encyclopedia.com As early as 660 CE, Wu had organized a secret police force and spies in the court and throughout the country. 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. World History Encyclopedia, 17 Mar 2016. Vol. Nevertheless, the legitimation was not without problems, and there was continued resistance from among the high officials who collaborated with the Li-Tang crown princes, princes, and princesses to get her dismissed as empress in 674 and dethroned as de facto ruler in 684, but both events failed. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. "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. McMullen, David. In 690 C.E., Zetian forced Li Dan to abdicate the throne to her, and declared herself the founding empress of the Zhou dynasty. Amherst : Prometheus Books, 1990; T.H. She has published historical essays and poetry. 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. Vol. She held power, in one guise or another, for more than half a century, first as consort of the ineffectual Gaozong Emperor, then as the power behind the throne held by her youngest son, and finally (from 690 until shortly before her death in 705) as monarch. Cambridge History of China. Han Emperor Wen, r. 180-157 BCE . In 704 CE, court officials could no longer tolerate Wu's behavior and had the Zhang brothers murdered. If Wu Zetian is judged by the traditional female virtues of chastity and modesty, then she falls short of expectations. She kept Ruizong under a kind of house arrest confining him to the Inner Palace. Unknown, . 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. (108). We are told that through cruel manipulations, including strangulating her own infant daughter to falsely implicate Gaozong's then current barren empress, Wu Zetian replaced her as empress in 657 and dominated the rest of Gaozong's reign. Quin Shi Huang-Di Wu began an affair with Li Zhi, who was married at the time, while still attached to Taizong as concubine. and turned the, Wang Mang (45 B.C.-A.D. 23) was a Chinese statesman and emperor. 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, Map: Wikicommons. 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. When Wu could no longer tolerate her daughter-in-law's antics and disrespect, and her son's refusal to discipline her and obey Wu's dictates, she had him charged with treason and banished along with his wife. 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. No area of Chinese life was untouched by Empress Wu and her reforms were so popular because the suggestions came from the people. Chu Hsi (1130-1200) was one of the greatest Chinese scholars and philosophers. Replacing the dynasty and imperial house through Confucian ideology still could not legitimize a woman on the throne. 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. Wu was forced to abdicate in favor of her exiled son Zhongzong and his wife Wei. Palace ladies of the Tang dynasty, from a contemporary wall painting in an imperial tomb in Shaanxi. Creating overpowering statues, like the one at Longmen, was important. Gaozong divorced his wife, barred her mother from the palace, and exiled Lady Xiao. But already in 666 when Wu Zetian was empress to the reigning Gaozong, she had prepared for her imperial ambitions by defying tradition and mockery as she led the unprecedented procession of imperial ladies to sacrifice to earth, believed to be a female deity. 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. Taizong forced the abdication of his own father and disposed of two older brothers in hand-to-hand combat before seizing the throne. To reinforce her legitimacy, Wu Zetian also invented about a dozen characters with a new script. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007; Dora Shu-Fang Dien, Empress Wu Zetian in Fiction and in History: Female Defiance in Confucian China. Pomacanthus imperator (emperor angelfish) See CHAETODONTIDAE. 1, 1990, pp. Wu Zetian. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. T.H. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Forte, Antonino. 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. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. Empress Wu was buried in a tomb in Qian County, Shanxi Province, alongside Gaozong. Empress Lu Zhi (241-180 B.C.) Your Privacy Rights In 652 CE, Wu gave birth to a son, Li Hong, and in 653 CE had another son, Li Xian. 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. R. W. L. Guisso, Wu Tse-ten and the Politics of Legitimation in Tang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1978). Ruizong was also a disappointment to her and so she forced him to abdicate in 690 CE and proclaimed herself Emperor Zeitan, ruler of China, the first and only woman to sit on the Dragon Throne and reign in her own name and by her own authority. 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. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/empress-wu-wu-zhao, "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) Hailing from the Tang dynasty, Empress Wu made some great positive strives for the Tang dynasty, but also got caught up in scandals - a couple even involving murder! Unknown, . Wu Zetian turned to the Buddhist establishment to rationalize her position. Encyclopedia.com. History 100 Flashcards | Quizlet When a mountain seemed to appear following the earthquake, this was also interpreted as nature itself revolting against the reign of Wu. Wu also accused Lady Wang and her mother of practicing witchcraft and implicated Lady Xiao; Lady Wang was found guilty of all the charges and so were the others. . Her last name, "Wu" is associated with the words for 'weapon' and 'military force' and she chose the name 'Zeitan' which means 'Ruler of the Heavens'. Thus the Wu family was now elevated to the imperial house. Long a supporter of Buddhism through her mother's devotion and her own refuge in the nunnery after her first husband Taizong's death, Wu Zetian counted on Buddhist ideology to legitimize her reign and her dynasty. Wu Zhao embarked on religious life as a nun in a convent after Li Shimins death in 649. Yet contemporaries thought that there was more to her than this. 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. 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. 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. Wu also learned to play music, write poetry, and speak well in public. 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. 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. So queens and empresses regnant were forced to rule like men, and yet roundly criticized when they did so. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. The Shiji In 605 the Qidan, who lived in Manchuria in the marginal areas between the open steppe and settled areas, invaded the Tang empire and gained a dramatic victory over Wus armies near the site of modern Beijing. Patronage of Buddhism. 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. 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. Though Wu was unusually well-read and self-willed for a mere concubine, she had only one real advantage over her higher-ranked rivals: Her duties included changing the imperial sheets, which potentially gave her bedroom access to Taizong. She had the mountain named Mount Felicity and claimed it had risen to honor her and her reign. https://www.worldhistory.org/Wu_Zetian/. After this event Wu became Empress and shared Imperial power equally with her emperor. The first thing she did was change the name of the state from Tang to Zhou (actually Tianzhou or Tiansou). In preparing for the legitimacy of her emperorship, she claimed the Zhou Dynasty (1045256 bce) and its founders among her own ancestors. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4558/empress-wu-zetian/. "Kao-tsung and the Empress Wu," in Denis Twitchett, ed. Sunzi/Sun Wu, Eastern Zhou Period (770-221 BCE) Selections from the Sunzi: Art of War [PDF] Agriculture, Han Period. Bellingham, WA: Center for Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1978. She also reformed the department of agriculture and the system of taxation by rewarding officials who produced the greatest amount of crops and taxed their people the least. 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). Empress Wu Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism (625-705 C.E.) At these pilgrimage sites, rituals were performed which established a link between the standing Buddha and the ruler. An official under the former Han dynasty, he took the Han throne and founded his own, CHARLEMAGNE But she changed the composition of the ruling class by removing the entrenched aristocrats from the court and gradually expanding the civil service examination to recruit men of merit to serve in the government. Each dynasty was considered a new beginning and when Wu changed the name from Tang to Zhou she was following this tradition but went further to make it clear that she was the beginning of a completely new era by calling her reign Tianzhou ('granted by heaven'). (British Library, Shelfmark Or. One of the most powerful champions of Buddhism in China was the Empress Wu Zetian. correct answers: the roman empire constructed significantly more roads and developed inland economic resources more extensively than its predecessors the roman empire integrated many Greek and Phoenician trade routes, regional products and trade cities into its own economic system The Woman Who Discovered Printing. "The Real Judge Dee: Ti Jen-chieh and the T'ang Restoration of 705," in Asia Major. . We care about our planet! Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. Encyclopedia.com. 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. If so, their hopes were in vain; Empress Wu Zetian is remembered today as one of the greatest rulers in China's history. 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 Demonization of Empress Wu : r/history - reddit Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/empress-wu-wu-zhao. Explaining why the empress was so reviled, then, means acknowledging the double standard that existedand still existswhen it comes to assessing male and female rulers. Pronunciation: Woo-jeh-ten. 7789. New Capital. 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). 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. souls of those who died in the atomic bomb attacks, ." On the question of succession after her death, Wu Zetian entertained notions of an heir from a Wu and Li marriage. According to Anderson, servants. Empress Wu: Part XV of the Great Patron Series - Khyentse Foundation Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. How to evaluate such an unprecedented figure today? Empress Lu Zhi (241-180 B.C.) 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. Your Majesty may take this as 'Mount Felicity', but your subject feels there is nothing to celebrate. Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) | Encyclopedia.com Given Tang Chinas rich history of inter-regional connections and communications with its East Asian neighbors, it is not surprising that Wus sponsorship of Buddhism resulted in a flurry of scholarly exchanges, and the construction of many new pilgrimage Buddhist sites. The Story Of Wu Zetian, China's First Female Emperor, The Demonization of Empress Wu by Mike Dash, The Karmic Retribution of Pei Huaigu by Kelly Carlton (University of Florida), Wu Zetian: China's One and Only Woman Emperor by Jim Down. the empress, greatly weakened by infirmity and old age, would allow no one but the Zhang brothers by her side. Under the administration of Empress Wu, Tang territory expanded through constant fighting with other peoples, particularly the Tibetans. 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. 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. 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 . The Empress Wu Zetian (690-704 CE) is the only female ruler in the history of China. None of these actions, though, would have attracted criticism had she been a man. This page titled 4.16: Links to Primary Sources is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by George Israel (University System of Georgia via GALILEO Open Learning Materials) . Among a raft of other allegations are the suggestions that she ordered the suicides of a grandson and granddaughter who had dared to criticize her and later poisoned her husband, whovery unusually for a Chinese emperordied unobserved and alone, even though tradition held that the entire family should assemble around the imperial death bed to attest to any last words. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. License. The scholar N. Henry Rothschild writes, "The message was clear: A woman in a position of paramount power was an abomination, an aberration of natural and human order" (108). by Unknown. Privacy Statement Last modified March 17, 2016. Wu Zetian's politics can be considered as feminist initiatives to reinforce the legitimacy of women in the political arena. The famed imperial mosaics in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna depict the sixth-century Byzantine empress. ." And does she deserve the harsh verdict that history has passed on her? Wu disposed of her enemies, first the former empress and then the high-ranking officials, who had strongly opposed her rise. Original image by Unknown. Ouyang, Xiu. In their place, she appointed intellectuals and talented bureaucrats without regard to family status or connections. 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. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. 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. Her success in the campaigns against Korea inspired confidence in her generals and Wu's decisions on military defense or expeditions were never challenged. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. 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). Traders from the Mediterranean and Persia also came from both the overland and maritime trade routes, where Buddhism and Central Asian culture, dress, and music reached China. Traditionally, only the emperor, as the son-of-heaven, could communicate with heaven and carry out sacrifices to heaven and earth. Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. 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. She was in very poor health anyway by this time and died a year later. (He would camp out in the palace grounds, Clements notes, barbecuing sheep.) Cheng-qian was banished for attempted revolt, while a dissolute brother who had agreed to take part in the rebellionso long, Clements adds, as he was permitted sexual access to every musician and dancer in the palace, male or femalewas invited to commit suicide, and another of Taizongs sons was disgraced for his involvement in a different plot. (3). If it still won't be tamed, I'll cut its throat with the knife. empress wu primary sources - tiba-constructions.com However, the date of retrieval is often important. The system of Neo-Confucianism of which Chu Hsi is regarded as the spo, Mutsuhito World History Encyclopedia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. Cookie Settings, I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too., as we have already had cause to note in this blog, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, 5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq, The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars.