empress wu primary sources

In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. Even her gravesite is remarkable. Unlike her predecessors she was fond of the Buddhist community, which led her to build at great expense the Mingtang, or Hall of Light. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1989, pp. At one point, to the horror of her generals, Wu proposed raising a military corps from among Chinas numerous eunuchs. When a mountain seemed to appear following the earthquake, this was also interpreted as nature itself revolting against the reign of Wu. These women were rarely chosen by their people. We care about our planet! She thus arranged marriages between her children and grandchildren with her brothers' sons and their grandchildren. This opposition was formidable; the annals of the period contain numerous examples of criticisms leveled by civil servants mortified by the empresss innovations. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China's history. She established a policy so that informants could be paid to travel by public transportation to report to the court. R. W. L. Guisso, Wu Tse-ten and the Politics of Legitimation in Tang China (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1978). Emperor Gaozong had nothing to do with either of these events, although his name would have been attached to the campaigns against Korea. This was a common practice after the death of the emperor. 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. "Empress Wu Zetian." Taizong forced the abdication of his own father and disposed of two older brothers in hand-to-hand combat before seizing the throne. This spy system served her well in giving her early warning of any plots in the making and enabled her to take care of threats to her reign before they became actual problems. Empress Lu Zhi (241-180 B.C.) Her extravagant construction projects and expensive frontier campaigns had exhausted the treasury, which led to a financial crisis. Any historian who has written on Lady Wu has followed the story set down by the later Chinese historians without question, but these historians had their own agenda which did not include praising a woman who presumed to rule like a man. 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. She ruled China with complete authority and no one dared to challenge her when she was in control. Although she was not able to control the newly unified state, relations continued to be friendly during her reign. It was customary, when a dynasty changed, to re-set history. Mike Dash In 683 CE, when Wu began manipulating events as a man would, one Confucian scholar wrote that nature had been reversed by the 'usurping woman' and "throughout the empire in every prefecture hens changed into roosters, or half changed" (Rothschild, 108). 1 minutes de lecture . The China that Wu Zetian was born in was the Tang Dynasty (618906), a strong and unified empire after four centuries of political discord and foreign interaction. 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. Economic considerations also played a role in this relocation. Guisso, Richard W.L. Uploaded by Ibolya Horvath, published on 22 February 2016. 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. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. Her spy network and secret police stopped rebellions before they had a chance to start and the military campaigns she sent out enlarged and secured the borders of the country. Shortly after she took the throne there was an earthquake which was interpreted as a bad omen. She founded a secret police and conducted a reign of terror, justifying the mass executions on the grounds that discrimination against a womans open exercise of power forced her to use terror to defend her authority. "Kao-tsung and the Empress Wu," in Denis Twitchett, ed. Having risen to be empress in Wangs stead, Wu ordered that both womens hands and feet be lopped off and had their mutilated bodies tossed into a vat of wine, leaving them to drown with the comment: Now these two witches can get drunk to their bones., As if infanticide, torture and murder were not scandalous enough, Wu was also believed to have ended her reign by enjoying a succession of erotic encounters which the historians of the day portrayed as all the more shocking for being the indulgences of a woman of advanced age. One of these served as her new personal name, Zhao, which articulates the fundamental Buddhist notion of universal emptiness. 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 began an affair with Li Zhi, who was married at the time, while still attached to Taizong as concubine. Her mother ne Yang was of aristocratic birth with mixed Chinese and Turkic blood, the result of generations of intermarriage when five nomadic tribes overran north China and founded dynasties in the 4th to 6th centuries. Xin Tangshu [New history of the Tang]. Submitted by Emily Mark, published on 17 March 2016. 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. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. As we know, the truth is somewhere in the middle. 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. In her seventies, Wu showered special favor on two smooth-cheeked brothers, the Zhang brothers, former boy singers, the nature of whose private relationship with their imperial mistress has never been precisely determined. Wu Zetian's father was a successful merchant and military official who reached ministerial ranks. She was also assured that her sons would rule the country after the death of her husband. After suppressing this revolt, the empress dowager began to purge her opponents at court. Mike Dash is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4558/empress-wu-zetian/. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Unknown, . 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. 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. 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. Replacing the dynasty and imperial house through Confucian ideology still could not legitimize a woman on the throne. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. By 666, the annals state, Wu was permitted to make offerings to the gods beside Gaozong and even to sit in audience with himbehind a screen, admittedly, but on a throne that was equal in elevation to his own. These historians claim that Wu ordered Lady Wang and Lady Xiao murdered in a terrible way: she had their hands and feet cut off and they were then thrown into a vat of wine to drown. In defiance of convention Emperor Gaozong started an affair with her, and she bore him a son in 652. 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. 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) . 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 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). Princess Taiping put an end to her plans when she had Wei and her family murdered and put her brother Ruizong on the throne. Kumarajiva's influence on Chinese Buddhist thought was crucial. 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. 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 . She was in very poor health anyway by this time and died a year later. 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. (February 23, 2023). The most serious charges against Wu are handily summarized in Mary Andersons collection of imperial scuttlebutt, Hidden Power, which reports that she wiped out twelve collateral branches of the Tang clan and had the heads of two rebellious princes hacked off and brought to her in her palace. Wu was given the privileged position of first concubine even though by law she should have been left in the temple as a nun. 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. Although this system opened government positions to a wider group than ever before, in the final stages of the process candidates continued to be judged on their appearance and speech. New Haven: YUP, 2008; Jonathan Clements. and to pray for permanent world peace. She has published historical essays and poetry. She was painted as a usurper who was both physically cruel and erotically wanton; she first came to prominence, it was hinted, because she was willing to gratify certain ofthe Taizong emperors more unusual sexual appetites. Character Overview Territorial Expansion. 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. This institution became a political weapon in the hands of Empress Wu when she usurped the throne in 690. . 23 Feb. 2023 . Thus the Wu family was now elevated to the imperial house. Complete List of Included Worksheets Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document. Cold, ruthless, and ambitious, the Han dynasty dowager murdered her rival,. 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. Woodbridge Bingham, The Founding of the Tang Dynasty: The Fall of Sui and Rise ofTang, a Preliminary Survey (New York: Octagon, 1975). is held up in Chinese histories as the prototype of all that is wicked in a female ruler. empress wu primary sources. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1977. 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. The court followed Empress Wus example by creating an enormous statue of the Vairocana Buddha in gold and copper at the Todaiji monastery in Nara, Japans capital. speckle park bull sales 2021 847-461-9794; empress wu primary sources. 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. When her mother was distressed about losing her to an uncertain life fraught with intrigues in the emperor's harem, she firmly reassured her: "Isn't it a fortune to attend the emperor! Wu Zetian is the only legitimatized Empress in Chinese history. "Empress Wu Zetian." It was used for religious rites supervised by her lover Xue Huaiyi. When Taizong died, Gaozong became emperor, and Wu Zetian joined a Buddhist nunnery, as required of concubines of deceased emperors. Wu Zetian turned to the Buddhist establishment to rationalize her position. Wu was now raised to the position of first wife of Gaozong and empress of China. 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. Name variations: Wu Ze-tian; Wu Chao, Wu Hou, or Wu Zhao; Wu Mei or Wu Meiliang; Wu Tse-t'ien, Wo Tsetien, or Wu Tso Tien; Wu of Hwang Ho or Huang He; Empress Wu, Lady Wu. Her social, economic and judicial views could hardly be termed advanced, and her politics differed from those of her predecessors chiefly in their greater pragmatism and ruthlessness. Even the terror of the 680s, in this view, was a logical response to entrenched bureaucratic opposition to Wus rule. Wu Zhao viewed the situation differently: she claimed the mountain was a good omen which reflected the Buddhist mountain of paradise, Sumeru. Empress Wu Zetian and the Spread of Buddhism (625-705 C.E.) 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. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. In 690, she declared herself emperor after deposing her sons and founding her own dynastyZhou. Encyclopedia.com. 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). 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). 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. had been organized in a systematic way by the year 669. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Barretts recent book even suggests (on no firm evidence) that the empress was the most important early promoter of printing in the world. By 655 she had consolidated her position after her son inherited the throne. Han Emperor Wen, r. 180-157 BCE . Unknown, . 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. Her giant stone memorial, placed at one side of the spirit road leading to her tomb, remains blank. Nationality/Culture Books 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. 3, no. "Wu Zetian (624705) If Wu Zetian is judged by the traditional female virtues of chastity and modesty, then she falls short of expectations. Chen, Jo-shui. 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. 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. 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. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. She particularly supported Huayan Buddhism, which regarded Vairocana Buddha as the center of the world, much as Empress Wu wished to be the center of political power. 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. Yet it was this series of events that cleared the way for Gaozongs, and hence Wus, accession. Whether true or not, it is what people believed. 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. The earliest sources on Wu Zetian already contained rumors of sex scandals in her court. 3, no. 7789. (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). Twitchett, Denis, and Howard J. Wechsler. One of the most powerful champions of Buddhism in China was the Empress Wu Zetian. Forte, Antonino. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 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. across from her husband, the emperor. One explanation for Wus success is that she listened. unified China in 221 B.C. Their antagonism toward a female ruler eventually would find its way into the histories which recorded her reign and become the 'facts' which future generations would accept as truth. In fact, the Tang Dynasty experienced a small interruption with the second Zhou Dynasty (690-705) established by the only female monarch in Chinese history-Empress Wu. World History Encyclopedia. It is a challenge to recover real people from this morass of bias. 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. ." Terms of Use 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. 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 then began to plot against Gaozongs consort, Empress Wang, incriminating the empress in the death of Wus infant daughter. 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. Empress Wu Zetian (r. 683-704 CE) of the Tang Dynasty . "Wu Zetian." Hauppauge : Nova Science Publishers, 2003; Richard Guisso, Wu Tse-Tien and the Politics of Legitimation in Tang China. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Empress Wu, the first and only female emperor of Imperial China. 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. 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. "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. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Wu Zetian was in effect taking the unprecedented step of transforming her position from empress dowager to emperor. "Empress Wu and Proto-Feminist Sentiments in T'ang China," in Frederick P. Brandauer and Chn-chieh Huang, eds., Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China. 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.