Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4558/empress-wu-zetian/. 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. On the question of succession after her death, Wu Zetian entertained notions of an heir from a Wu and Li marriage. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975. 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). Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty (The Greenwood Press Wu: The Chinese Empress who schemed, seduced and murdered her way to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. $1.99. 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. Still, Xuanzong continued many of Wu's policies, including keeping her reforms in taxation, agriculture, and education. Taizong was so impressed at her intellectual abilities, he took her out of the laundry and made her his secretary. Bellingham, WA: Center for Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1978. Shortly after she took the throne there was an earthquake which was interpreted as a bad omen. Thus the Wu family was now elevated to the imperial house. Even her gravesite is remarkable. 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. "Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) Kannon embodies compassion, and when seen as female is venerated as a patron of motherhood and fertility. China during Wu Zetian's ReignIan Kiu (CC BY-SA). 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. 127148. Justinian. Although she was not able to control the newly unified state, relations continued to be friendly during her reign. One of these served as her new personal name, Zhao, which articulates the fundamental Buddhist notion of universal emptiness. If it does not yield, I'll hit it with the iron hammer. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1974. 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. If so, their hopes were in vain; Empress Wu Zetian is remembered today as one of the greatest rulers in China's history. Her patronage of Buddhism also expanded to other temples and sects, and much work was done on the cave temples at Longmen on her orders. 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. and turned the, Wang Mang (45 B.C.-A.D. 23) was a Chinese statesman and emperor. 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. . 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. It was Lu Zhi who, in 194 B.C., wreaked revenge on a rival by gouging out her eyes, amputating her arms and legs, and forcing her to drink acid that destroyed her vocal chords. To entrench her biological family as the imperial house, she bestowed imperial honors to her ancestors through posthumous enthronement and constructed seven temples for imperial sacrifices. And does she deserve the harsh verdict that history has passed on her? Traditional historians grudgingly acknowledged that she surpassed her sons, the legitimate heirs, in both vision and statecraft. Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century. Determining the truth about this welter of innuendo is all but impossible, and matters are complicated by the fact that little is known of Wus earliest years. Paul, Diana Y. Naples: Institute Universitario Orientale, 1976. World History Encyclopedia, 22 Feb 2016. Forte, Antonino. 2231). Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. 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)." She ordered farming manuals to be written and distributed. She herself would thus be seen as a restorationist of the Zhou Dynasty, with the Wu family replacing the Li-Tang family. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. 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. Web. World History Encyclopedia. World Eras. World History Encyclopedia. Wu Zhao viewed the situation differently: she claimed the mountain was a good omen which reflected the Buddhist mountain of paradise, Sumeru. But 28 other consorts still stood between her and the throne. 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. Zizhi tongjian [Comprehensive mirror as guide to history]. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007; Dora Shu-Fang Dien, Empress Wu Zetian in Fiction and in History: Female Defiance in Confucian China. Rise to Power. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1977. Two years later, in 712 CE, Ruizong abdicated after he saw a comet one night and, following the interpretation suggested by Taiping, took it as a sign his rule was over. ." There was a sense of trying to keep up with ones rivals by building something bigger than they had. Zhou Dynasty. She ordered the executions of several hundred of these aristocrats and of many members of the imperial family of Li. 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 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. 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. 290332. In the reign of Empress Wu, persons who entered government through the examinations were able for the first time to occupy the highest positions, even that of chief minister. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. While functioning and surviving in the male-ruled and power-focused domain, she exhibited strengths traditionally attributed to men, including political ambition, long-range vision, skillful diplomacy, power drive, decisive resolve, shrewd observation, talented organization, hard work, and firm dispensal of cruelty. and to pray for permanent world peace. Wu Zetian established her dynasty - the Zhou dynasty. Modern popular novels and plays, in Chinese, Japanese, and English, also exaggerate the sexual aspect of her rule. 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. All in all, Wus policies seem less scandalous to us than they did to contemporaries, and her reputation has improved considerably in recent decades. (February 22, 2023). Uploaded by Ibolya Horvath, published on 22 February 2016. Yet Wu has had a pretty bad press. To respond properly to Heaven's censure, it is suitable that you lead the quiet life of a widow and cultivate virtue, otherwise I fear further disasters will befall us. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Empress Wu, the first and only female emperor of Imperial China. The Shiji Xin Tangshu [New history of the Tang]. She thus arranged marriages between her children and grandchildren with her brothers' sons and their grandchildren. 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. Her one mistake had been to marry this boy to a concubine nearly as ruthless and ambitious as herself. (British Library, Shelfmark Or. Empress Wu (Wu Zhao) 627-705 First female monarch Sources Rise to Power. 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. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. 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 . across from her husband, the emperor. is held up in Chinese histories as the prototype of all that is wicked in a female ruler. Ouyang, Xiu. Primary Sources with DBQsCHINA 4000 - 1000 BCE Ancestral Rites and Divination . 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. But is the empress unfairly maligned? 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. 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. Hong Kong: Cosmos, 1994. Empresas ICA Sociedad Controladora, S.A. de C.V. Empresa Brasileira de Aeronutica S.A. (Embraer), Emporia State University: Narrative Description, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/empress-wu-wu-zhao. empress wu primary sources - tiba-constructions.com . 242289. A Japanese example: In the late 7th century, Japans Emperor Shomu and Empress Komyo both were involved in Buddhist buildings. 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. Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. 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. Sima, Guang. 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. Guisso, Richard W. Empress Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China. Vol. At one point, to the horror of her generals, Wu proposed raising a military corps from among Chinas numerous eunuchs. The baby was strangled in her crib and Wu claimed that Lady Wang had killed her because she was jealous. Wu Zhao (624-705), also known as Empress Wu Zetian, was the first and only woman emperor of China. At age 14 she became a concubine of Emperor TaiZong of the Tang Dynasty and was given the title of CaiRren (Guardian Immortal) and a new name, Wu Mei. Kumarajiva's influence on Chinese Buddhist thought was crucial. 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. https://www.worldhistory.org/Wu_Zetian/. Primary Sources with DBQs | Asia for Educators - Columbia University Even if she took full advantage, however, she must have possessed not only looks but remarkable intelligence and determination to emerge, as she did two decades later, as empress. "The Reigns of the Empress Wu, Chung-tsung and Jui-tsung," in Denis Twitchett, ed., Cambridge History of China. Agricultural production under Wu's reign increased to an all-time high. Functioning in a male-oriented patriarchy, Wu Zetian was painstakingly aware of the gender taboos she had to break in political ideology and social norm. This opposition was formidable; the annals of the period contain numerous examples of criticisms leveled by civil servants mortified by the empresss innovations. Vol. In promoting Buddhism over Confucianism and Daoism as the favored state religion, the Empress countered strongly held Confucian beliefs against female rule. Map: Wikicommons. Founder of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuang-yin (927-976) ended the practice of frequent military coups, which had exhausted China for mor, https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wu-zetian-624-705, Mandate from Heaven: The Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Wei had her father appointed Chief Minister to her husband and tried to push through other measures favoring her family. Privacy Statement The empress responded with both diplomacy and force, concluding a marriage alliance with the Turks and defeating the Qidan in battle. 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). 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Vol. Under Wus rule the government was expanded, and many of the new positions were filled through the examination system. Wu, characteristically, admired the virtuosity of Luos style and suggested he would be better employed at the imperial court. 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. The horrible deaths of empress Wang and the Pure Concubine, for example, are nowhere mentioned in Luo Binwangs fearless contemporary denunciation, which suggests that Wu was not blamed for them during her lifetime. the empress, greatly weakened by infirmity and old age, would allow no one but the Zhang brothers by her side. In 684 Li Jingye led a revolt of those northwestern families who had been disgraced and exiled to the Yangzi Valley.