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). Missions from Japan, Korea, and Vietnam arrived at Xi'an bearing tribute and seeking education in Buddhism and Confucianism. Mutsuhito (also known as Meiji Tenno; 1852-1912) was a Japanese emperor, who became the symbol for, and encouraged, the dramatic, Chien-lung 21/11/2022. Kumarajiva's influence on Chinese Buddhist thought was crucial. Zhou Dynasty. She herself would thus be seen as a restorationist of the Zhou Dynasty, with the Wu family replacing the Li-Tang family. Empress Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian is the only legitimatized Empress in Chinese history. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China's history. The Shiji The Analects of Confucius Primary Source Activity - Google Drive - Print & Digital. In 705, Wu Zetian's grandson, the later Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712756), slaughtered the Zhang brothers in spite of Wu Zetian's protest and forced her to return the Li-Tang imperial family to power. 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. Even though there were many important and influential women throughout China's history, only one ever became the most powerful political figure in the country. is held up in Chinese histories as the prototype of all that is wicked in a female ruler. 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. We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. 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. 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. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Cambridge History of China. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. Already in 674 she had drafted 12 policy directives ranging from encouraging agriculture to formulating social rules of conduct. The political success of Wu Zetian indicates that the attributes needed in diplomacy and rulership were not restricted to men. World History Encyclopedia. Empress Wu Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism The historians always portray Wu as ruthless, conniving, scheming, and bloodthirsty, and she may have been all of these things, she may have even murdered her daughter to gain the throne, but any of these claims should only be accepted after considering their source. across from her husband, the emperor. Her success in the campaigns against Korea inspired confidence in her generals and Wu's decisions on military defense or expeditions were never challenged. She also organized military campaigns against Korea in 668 CE which were so effective that they reduced Korea to the status of a vassal state. 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. Hauppauge : Nova Science Publishers, 2003; Richard Guisso, Wu Tse-Tien and the Politics of Legitimation in Tang China. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. 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 Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism - Women In World History It may be helpful to consider that there were in effect two empressesthe one who maintained a reign of terror over the innermost circle of government, and the one who ruled more benignly over 50 million Chinese commoners. One of the most powerful champions of Buddhism in China was the Empress Wu Zetian. 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. But 28 other consorts still stood between her and the throne. Primary Sources with DBQsCHINA 4000 - 1000 BCE Ancestral Rites and Divination . 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.) We care about our planet! Belmont: Wadsworth, 1989, pp. She established a policy so that informants could be paid to travel by public transportation to report to the court. 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. A history known as the Comprehensive Mirror records that, during the 690s, 36 senior bureaucrats were executed or forced to commit suicide, and a thousand members of their families enslaved. Traditionally, only the emperor, as the son-of-heaven, could communicate with heaven and carry out sacrifices to heaven and earth. When Taizong died, Gaozong became emperor, and Wu Zetian joined a Buddhist nunnery, as required of concubines of deceased emperors. 1, Sui and T'ang, pp. The Tang emperor Taizong was the first to promote Wu, whom he gave the nickname Fair Flatterera reference not to her personal qualities but to the lyrics of a popular song of the day. 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. 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). The mute and limbless concubine was then tossed into a cesspit in the palace with the swine. She began her life at court as a concubine of the emperor Taizong. 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. She killed her sister, butchered her elder brothers, murdered the ruler, poisoned her mother, the chronicles say. Throughout 15 dismal years in exile, her sons consort had talked him out of committing suicide and kept him ready to return to power. Image taken from An 18th-century album of portraits of 86 emperors of China, with Chinese historical notes. Give me three tools to tame that wild horse. "Empress Wu Zetian." Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. 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. For Wu Zetian, the rise to power and consolidation involved manipulations, murders, and support of the intellectual and religious establishments. 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 . . 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. published on 22 February 2016. 1 minutes de lecture . Map: Wikicommons. This institution became a political weapon in the hands of Empress Wu when she usurped the throne in 690. Her overall rule, in spite of the change of dynasty, did not result in a radical break from Tang domestic prosperity and foreign prestige. 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). She ruled for 15 years during the Tang Dynasty and was one of China's most impactful and divisive emperors. Nationality/Culture Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey of Chinese Sex and Society from ca.1500 BC till 1644 AD. 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. Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) | Encyclopedia.com After suppressing this revolt, the empress dowager began to purge her opponents at court. is held up in Chinese histories as the prototype of all that is wicked in a female ruler. Shanghai: Sibu congkan ed., 1929. Agricultural production under Wu's reign increased to an all-time high. Rise to Power. Empress Wu Zetian (r. 683-704 CE) of the Tang Dynasty. Yet it was this series of events that cleared the way for Gaozongs, and hence Wus, accession. To legitimize her position, Empress Wu turned mainly to Buddhism, proclaiming herself an incarnation of Maitreya (Mi-le), the Buddhist savior. All in all, Wus policies seem less scandalous to us than they did to contemporaries, and her reputation has improved considerably in recent decades. . "Wu Zetian (624705) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. This item is in the public domain, and can be used, copied, and modified without any restrictions. McMullen, David. However, the date of retrieval is often important. 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. (Issued by the Empress Dowager Cixi, 1835-1908) She was also assured that her sons would rule the country after the death of her husband. "Kao-tsung and the Empress Wu," in Denis Twitchett, ed. Empress Wu (Zhaolie) - Wikipedia 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. 242289. This is very similar to the story of the Empress Lu Zhi (l. 241-180 BCE) of the Han Dynasty who got rid of her rival Qizi in the same way (although Qizi was drowned in a pigsty and had her eyes gouged out as well). The only woman ever to rule as emperor of China, Wu Zhao (Wu ZeTian) was born in 624 C.E. the empress, greatly weakened by infirmity and old age, would allow no one but the Zhang brothers by her side. Examination System. 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. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 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. Empress Theodora. Mutsuhito The earliest sources on Wu Zetian already contained rumors of sex scandals in her court. 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). In death, as in life, then, Wu remains controversial. Barrett. Appears In Cite This Work 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). Wu Zetian. Buddhism was carried into East Asia by merchants and Buddhist monks traveling the Silk Road from Northern India, Persia, Kashmir and Inner Asia. If it does not yield, I'll hit it with the iron hammer. Her name was Wu Zetian, and in the seventh century A.D. she became the only woman in more than 3,000 years of Chinese history to rule in her own right. If so, their hopes were in vain; Empress Wu Zetian is remembered today as one of the greatest rulers in China's history. To justify her rule, Wu used selected Buddhist scriptures and led the way in the creation of numerous visual representations of the Buddha. Justinian. 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. Wu Zetian came to the throne when she was 67, making her the oldest person ever be crowned. 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. So queens and empresses regnant were forced to rule like men, and yet roundly criticized when they did so. 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. 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. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984. 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. Theodora. 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. 3, no. 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. Wu Zetian was one of the longest-lived monarchs (82 years old) in Chinese history. 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. Wu Zetian Biography, Facts & Quotes | Who was Empress Wu? | Study.com Xin Tangshu [New history of the Tang]. ." But is the empress unfairly maligned? She is hated by gods and men alike.. She has published historical essays and poetry. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 17 Mar 2016. In 710 CE Zhongzong died after being poisoned by Wei who hid his body and concealed his death until her son Chong Mao could be made emperor. Lady Wang's uncle, the chancellor Liu Shi, was removed from his post which meant his son was cut off as Gaozong's heir. World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. 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. At the same time, another political faction formed around Wu's other son, Ruizong, who was supported by Wu's daughter, Taiping. The baby was strangled in her crib and Wu claimed that Lady Wang had killed her because she was jealous. Naples: Institute Universitario Orientale, 1976. World Eras. His rule covered a span of 63 years, a reign lo, Zhao Kuang-yin 77116. Empress Dowager. 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. 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. 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. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. 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. 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. Empress Wu proved to be a wise monarch, and in her reign of twenty years she continued many policies and practices of her predecessors. She was in very poor health anyway by this time and died a year later. Unknown, . 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. 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. Her usurpation marked a significant social revolution, the rise of a new class, which the empress tried to use in her struggle against the traditionalist, northwest nobility. First, I'll beat it with the iron whip. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. According to Anderson, servants. Picking through the bias to try to get to the real story is always fascinating and - in my mind - fun. Removing the legitimate heir, she took the name of Emperor Zetian and founded the Zhou dynasty in 690, becoming the first and only female emperor in Chinese history. Wu was the daughter of Wu Jin, a commoner in Kaifeng. Wu Zetian's father was a successful merchant and military official who reached ministerial ranks. empress wu primary sources. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1977. As we know, the truth is somewhere in the middle. emperor angelfish (Pomecanthus imperator) See CHAETODONTIDAE. Van Gulik, Robert. Even her gravesite is remarkable. 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. 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. Still, Xuanzong continued many of Wu's policies, including keeping her reforms in taxation, agriculture, and education. Neither of these boys was a threat to Lady Wang or Lady Xiao because Gaozong had already chosen a successor; his chancellor Liu Shi was Lady Wang's uncle, and Gaozong appointed Liu Shi's son, Li Zhong, as heir. June 2, 2022 by by 7789. Lyn Reese is the author of all the information on this website 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) . Barretts recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world. Thank you! Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. "The Real Judge Dee: Ti Jen-chieh and the T'ang Restoration of 705," in Asia Major.

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