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. Forte, Antonino. "Wu Zetian (624705) Wu Zetian's first two sexual partners were emperors and related to each other as father and son.
History 100 Flashcards | Quizlet the empress, greatly weakened by infirmity and old age, would allow no one but the Zhang brothers by her side. Wu Zetian's politics can be considered as feminist initiatives to reinforce the legitimacy of women in the political arena. Quin Shi Huang-Di Guisso, Richard W. Empress Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China. 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. Empress Theodora. Encyclopedia.com. Empress Wu is the only female to have ever ruled in her own name in China. 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. They are regarded as important by historians because they show how far Wu went in trying to create a new world in China under her reign: she even wanted to change the words they used. The odds that a girl of this low rank would ever come to an emperors attention were slim. Most historians believe Wu became intimate with the future Gaozong emperor before his fathers deatha scandalous breach of etiquette that could have cost her her head, but which in fact saved her from life in a Buddhist nunnery. Even today, Wu remains infamous for the spectacularly ruthless way in which she supposedly disposed of Gaozongs first wife, the empress Wang, and a senior and more favored consort known as the Pure Concubine. The Chinese TV series Women of the Tang Dynasty (2013) featured the actress Hui Yinghong as Wu Zetian and was very popular, attesting to the continued interest in China's first and only female ruler. In 684 Li Jingye led a revolt of those northwestern families who had been disgraced and exiled to the Yangzi Valley. Related Content She thus arranged marriages between her children and grandchildren with her brothers' sons and their grandchildren. 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. 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. Although the function of the concubine in China is almost always associated with sex, a woman in this position could have a number of non-sexual responsibilities, from daily tasks like taking care of the laundry to more specialized skills like conversation, poetry reading, and playing music. 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. Wu was given the privileged position of first concubine even though by law she should have been left in the temple as a nun. Even her gravesite is remarkable. 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. Nevertheless, court intrigues still greatly influenced the recruiting of civil servants. Thus the Wu family was now elevated to the imperial house. Shortly after she took the throne there was an earthquake which was interpreted as a bad omen. From 655, when she became the empress of Emperor GaoZong of Tang (son of Emperor TaiZong), until 683 . The first thing she did was change the name of the state from Tang to Zhou (actually Tianzhou or Tiansou). But 28 other consorts still stood between her and the throne. But is the empress unfairly maligned? Please support World History Encyclopedia. Empress Wu used the intelligence she gathered to pressure some high-ranking officials who were not performing well to resign; others she simply banished or had executed. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984. New Haven: YUP, 2008; Jonathan Clements. Wu Zetian established her dynasty - the Zhou dynasty. 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.) Luoyang was favorably located on the last stop of the river routes from the South, which greatly reduced the cost of shipping grains from the Southeast to the imperial capital. Why should you weep for me?" Barretts recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world. 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.
Wu Zhao: Ruler of Tang Dynasty China - Association for Asian Studies License. Her supposed method, moreoveramputating her victims hands and feet and leaving them to drownsuspiciously resembles that adopted by her most notorious predecessor, the Han-era empress Lu Zhia woman portrayed by Chinese historians as the epitome of all that was evil. Taizong was so impressed at her intellectual abilities, he took her out of the laundry and made her his secretary. Gaozongs third son succeeded to the throne in 683 after his death, but Empress Wu became the empress dowager in a few months, after forcing the young emperor to abdicate. 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. Examination System. Bellingham, WA: Center for Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1978. Empress Wu Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism (625-705 C.E.) McMullen, David. 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. 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. Pomacanthus imperator (emperor angelfish) See CHAETODONTIDAE. 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. In the largest cave there is a statue called the Grand Vairocana Buddha. The spirit road causeway to Wus still-unopened tomb lies between two low rises, tipped by watchtowers, known as the nipple hills.. 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. Add to . Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. (February 22, 2023). Unlike her predecessors she was fond of the Buddhist community, which led her to build at great expense the Mingtang, or Hall of Light. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. 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. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. 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. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Wu_Zetian/. She did not ask any man's permission to lead these women to Mount Tai; she felt she knew what was best and did it. By the fourth century CE, the Roman Empire was at the apex of its power and strength. We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. 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. She graduated from SUNY Delhi in 2018. Princess Taiping put an end to her plans when she had Wei and her family murdered and put her brother Ruizong on the throne. When Gaozong suffered a stroke in 660, the empress made herself the ruler. 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). 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. Originally published/produced in China, 18th century. Still, Xuanzong continued many of Wu's policies, including keeping her reforms in taxation, agriculture, and education. 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. 1996-2021 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 . 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 Zetian (624-705) | Encyclopedia.com 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). 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. 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. Omens were extremely important to the people of ancient China and played a significant role in Tang politics. 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. unified China in 221 B.C. Cookie Policy 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. 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. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. The Fall of Kaifeng [ edit] In 1126, Emperor Huizong abdicated in favor of his son, Emperor Qinzong, the elder brother of Gaozong. The three phases of the universe; These three phases were birth, existence, and destruction. Fitzgeraldwho reminds us that Tang China emerged from 400 years of discord and civil warwrites, Without Wu there would have been no long enduring Tang dynasty and perhaps no lasting unity of China, while in a generally favorable portrayal, Guisso argues that Wu was not so different from most emperors: The empress was a woman of her times. Terms of Use The area around Changan could not produce the amount of food required to feed the court and garri-sons, and the transportation of grain up the Yellow River, traversing the Sanmen rapids, was exceptionally expensive. and turned the, Wang Mang (45 B.C.-A.D. 23) was a Chinese statesman and emperor. To legitimize her position, Empress Wu turned mainly to Buddhism, proclaiming herself an incarnation of Maitreya (Mi-le), the Buddhist savior. 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. 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. Sima, Guang. There was a sense of trying to keep up with ones rivals by building something bigger than they had. In 654 CE, Wu had a daughter who died soon after birth. Zhou Dynasty. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wu-zetian-624-705. published on 22 February 2016. No-one knows what secrets it holds, for like many of the tombs of the most celebrated Chinese rulers, including that of the First Emperor himself, it has never been plundered or opened by archaeologists. (3). She was also assured that her sons would rule the country after the death of her husband. 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. Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/empress-wu-wu-zhao. Beginning in 660 CE, Wu was effectively the emperor of China. T.H. Wu Zetian was one of the longest-lived monarchs (82 years old) in Chinese history. Rothschild describes a confrontation which reflects the feelings of majority of those at court. The term Confucianism is derived from Confucius, the convention.