Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own right, who governed the Tang empire from 690 to 705 under the dynastic name Zhou and before and after that held effective power as empress and regent. Shrewd, ambitious and ruthless, she broke the conventions that barred women from the throne and left a lasting mark on the government of China.

From Palace Woman to Empress

Wu Zetian was born in 624, the daughter of a provincial official of modest but respectable standing. As a girl of good family she was chosen for the palace of Emperor Taizong and entered the inner quarters as a junior consort. After Taizong's death in 649 the young women of his household were expected to retire to a convent, and she was sent to a Buddhist nunnery.

She was recalled to the palace by Taizong's son and successor, Emperor Gaozong, who had been drawn to her. Through a combination of charm, intelligence and the ruthless elimination of rivals, she rose to be his chief consort. In 655, after the fall of the existing empress, she was installed as empress, despite the objections of senior ministers who feared her influence.

As empress she was far more than a consort. Gaozong suffered from illness and from a weak constitution, and in the later years of his reign she increasingly took part in the conduct of government. She sat behind a screen at audiences and shared in the decisions of state, and the court came to speak of the two sages, the emperor and his empress ruling together.

Regent and Emperor of Zhou

Gaozong died in 683, and Wu Zetian's son Zhongzong succeeded him. When the young emperor showed signs of asserting his independence she had him deposed within weeks and replaced by another son, Ruizong, who was kept in tutelage while she governed as regent. For the next several years she ruled in practice, controlling the court, the army and the officials.

In 690 she dispensed with the fiction altogether and took the throne as emperor of a new dynasty which she named Zhou, after the ancient kingdom. She thus became the sole woman to reign in her own right in the long history of the Chinese empire. She moved the court to Luoyang, which she made the eastern capital, and she surrounded herself with able advisers and a formidable secret police.

Her claims to legitimacy rested on Buddhist as well as Confucian grounds. She sponsored the great Buddhist establishment and promoted texts and doctrines that could be read as sanctioning a female sovereign, and she built a great monumental complex at Luoyang. She also cultivated the literati and used auspicious signs and inscriptions to bolster her authority.

Government and Reforms

Wu Zetian proved an effective administrator. She expanded and regularised the examination system and used it to recruit talented men of non-aristocratic origins, thereby weakening the grip of the old great families on office. She added new examinations, including one that tested candidates before the throne in person, and she broadened the channels through which talent could reach the court.

She reformed and strengthened the bureaucracy, improved the military organisation and pursued a firm frontier policy. She was a patron of learning and of the Buddhist church, and she commissioned the building of temples and the translation of scriptures. She encouraged the compilation of historical and administrative works, and she gathered about her scholars and writers of genuine distinction.

Her methods were harsh. She used informers and secret trials to root out opposition, and many officials and members of the imperial family were executed or exiled during her rise and during her reign. The Chinese historical tradition, written largely by men hostile to a woman ruler, has dwelt upon her cruelty, and much of what it reports must be read with caution.

Culture and the Arts

The age of Wu Zetian was a time of considerable cultural vitality. The Buddhist establishment reached a high point of wealth and influence, and the great temples and cave sanctuaries of the period preserve some of the finest sculpture of the Tang. Learning flourished, and the examinations, patronised by the empress, drew an increasingly varied body of scholars into public life.

The great poets who would adorn the following decades were born or began their careers in these years. The court was a centre of literary activity and of painting, and the prestige of the capital drew artists from across Asia. The cosmopolitan character of Tang culture, with influences flowing in from Central Asia, Persia and India, was already strongly evident.

The empress herself was remembered as a patron of the arts and as a poet. She is credited with the composition of verses and with an interest in music and dance, and she maintained a ceremonial court of great splendour. Her support for women in the palace and for her female relatives and officials was unusual in an age of strict patriarchal order.

Downfall and Legacy

Wu Zetian's later years were troubled by the question of the succession. She vacillated between naming a member of her own Wu family and restoring the Tang line, and her advancing age left the court divided. In 705, when she was old and ill, a group of officials and generals staged a palace coup, forced her to abdicate and restored her son Zhongzong to the Tang throne. She died later that year.

Her memory was attacked by the historians of the restored Tang, who taxed her with usurpation and cruelty, yet her achievements could not be erased. She had ruled for decades, held the empire together and strengthened the institutions of government, and she had demonstrated that a woman could exercise supreme power in a civilisation that denied it to her sex.

Modern assessments of Wu Zetian are more balanced. She is recognised as a capable and decisive ruler whose administrative reforms, patronage of talent and cultural sponsorship contributed to the greatness of the Tang, while her record of political violence is frankly acknowledged. She remains one of the most debated and fascinating figures in Chinese history.

See also

• Tang dynasty
• Emperor Gaozong of Tang
• Buddhism in China
• Imperial examination