Here are the footnotes and bibliography that should accompany the Wu Zetian biographical comic I created. Feel free to email me if there are corrections required. Some of the books also have multiple editions, so if you have a different edition, the page numbers may not be correct.

IMPORTANT: This book was produced as part of a 2019 Masters thesis for Macquarie University, which can be read here, and the two parts (graphic novel and written thesis) are meant to be read together. It received a score of 85/100 (HD) which led to my PhD scholarship. Note that the history of Wu Zetian in this book is based on academic history, NOT popular history. For example, few modern historians believe that Wu Zetian murdered her own daughter to frame Empress Wang — that is a historical fabrication that happened 300 years after Wu’s death.

FOOTNOTES

[1] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 19. Madam Yang was descended from the Yang clan, a great north-western aristocratic clan who had established the previous Sui dynasty. Her father was a Sui dynasty chief minister, which meant that she was of solid noble stock. She was 44 when she married the 46 year-old Wu Shihuo, which meant that it was possible Wu was born by a concubine and not by Madam Yang. Also, unfortunately for Wu, although her mother was of nobility, a woman’s pedigree was strictly determined by her father’s family, and so Wu was unable to lay claim to any achievements by her Sui dynasty ancestors.

[2] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 3, 20. Wu’s father had been a general that served under the first Tang Emperor Gaozu, who encouraged Gaozu and his Li clan to seize the country from their cousins, the Yang clan of the Sui dynasty. It was a credit to early Tang’s social mobility that an ambitious lumber merchant can so easily get into politics, and while the Wu family was never a major or prestigious clan, the achievements of Wu’s father was well-rewarded due to his personal relationship with Gaozu. Since this was the early days of the Tang dynasty, the hold of the Li Imperial family on the country was still tenuous. As such, it was customary to send generals to govern provinces that were prone to rebellion. Wu Shihuo was successful at this, and he served as military governor in the areas of Yangzhou, Yuzhou, Lizhou, and Jingzhou – pacifying outlaws and making the area safe for commerce.

[3] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 22. These childhood experiences, which required Wu and her family to cross borders and witness the different customs and languages across the multi-ethnic Tang Empire, proved invaluable to Wu as a ruler. Her life story differs to a royal princess or an aristocratic woman, which invariably would have seen her locked behind closed doors and shielded from the ordinary people and lower classes. It also gave her a chance to watch her father govern successfully in provinces that were often corrupt and unruly.

[4] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 12. This was possibly a dispute over inheritance. The status of women in the Tang dynasty was liberal, and women had high legal status due to the Central Asian origins of the Tang dynasty founders, which included matriarchal clans. Tang women still had many restrictions placed on them, but they rode, hunted, herded, inherited property, and could divorce their husbands if there was mutual consent. Still, women derived their power from their husbands as pertaining to Confucian traditions, although the requirement that women stay home and tend to the domestic sphere didn’t really exist in the Tang.

[5] (Clements, 2014) PP. 25-26. The harems of every dynasty had a different structure, and in the Tang dynasty, there were 9 ranks of concubines, for a total of 122 women. Wu Zhao was a fifth-ranked cairen, which means ‘Talent’, and unlike the top two tiers of concubine, were required to earn their keep by performing housekeeping. Talents were in charge of bedding and linen, which gave her proximity to the Emperor. 

[6] (Clements, 2014) PP. 26-27. The birth name of Emperor Taizong is ‘Li Shimin’, with Taizong as his title and the name he’s most commonly referred to. The Li clan had established the Tang dynasty, with Taizong’s father as the founding Emperor. Taizong was a great general and administrator, and he pacified much of China’s borders from marauding neighbours. At the time of Wu’s concubinage, he was already 39 years old and with 14 sons, and mourning the death of his beloved Empress Zhangsun Wende. He would never elect another Empress in his lifetime, and despite Wu’s later claims, he wasn’t particularly interested in Wu herself when she served him. He gave her the name ‘Mei-niang’, which means ‘charming girl’—a reference to a popular song of the time, and little more. Wu used the name ‘Mei-niang’ for most of her life, but I did not use it in this story for fear of confusing readers.

[7] (Clements, 2014) PP. 43-46. The Crown Prince Li Zhi (later titled Emperor Gaozong) was the 9th son of Taizong. He was 15 years old when he became Crown Prince, and was supposedly chosen for his kinder, gentler nature after his two elder brothers launched failed coups. Since Gaozong was born after Taizong became Emperor, he had known only pampered luxury, to the extent that he had never left the Rear Palace (in which only women and children were permitted) until he became Crown Prince. He was believed to have been a shy young man, but that’s questionable given his flouting of Rear Palace rules to make a show of filial piety. However, that also meant that he was the only adult man besides the middle-aged Emperor Taizong (and eunuchs) that Wu Zhao would have seen in the 10 years she was there.

[8] (Clements, 2014) PP. 43-46. Sexual congress with an Emperor’s concubine is punishable by death, if discovered.

[9] The sky is considered ‘yang’ (a force of masculine energy), and the earth ‘yin’ (feminine energy). These are considered traditional Taoist beliefs, but within the discourse of Chinese Imperial rule, the concept of ‘sky’ and ‘Heaven’ is ideological rather than religious. The power of the Emperor comes from the ‘Mandate of Heaven’, which is a divine right to rule so long as that rule was just and fair. The concept of a just ruler who takes the concerns of his peoples to heart is a core Confucian concept, and Confucianism is a secular set of moral codes that emphases societal harmony. It has never been considered a religion, unlike Taoism or Buddhism.

[10] (Clements, 2014) PP. 51-52. The history of Wu Zetian was largely compiled 300 years after her death and by Neo-Confucian detractors, so large tracts of her early history, particularly from this part of her life, cannot be easily trusted. One part of this is the narrative that Wu and all of Taizong’s concubines were sent to Ganye Temple, which is odd in itself because Taizong himself had, on the death of his own father Emperor Gaozu, released all the lesser palace women and allowed them to return home. Secondly, while Ganye temple has to have been sufficiently large and prestigious to accommodate so many Imperial concubines, its exact location has never been found in modern-day Chang’an. Thirdly, Ganye temple was stressed to be a Buddhist temple, when Taizong’s Tang dynasty was Taoist (since the Imperial Li family claimed descent from Laozi, the founder of Taoism, for legitimacy reasons). Lastly, when Wu gave birth to her first son Li Hong in 653 AD, 2 years after her return to court, her hair was a remarkable 7 feet long, which makes you wonder if she ever cut it at all. There is the possibility that Ganye temple was in fact a euphemism for a nearby apartment, set up for Gaozong to visit his mistress, and not the religious institution it claimed to be. If so, this was an attempt to paint Wu and Gaozong’s affair as less scandalous, not that the incest angle could ever be shed.

[11] A concubine who has served both father and son was considered to be involved in an incestuous relationship, and is highly frowned upon by Confucians. However, (Chen, 1996) notes that the founders of the Tang dynasty were not ethnically Han, but of Tuoba Xianbei origins, which Chinese historians later masked since those of Turkic origins were traditionally considered barbarians. As northern tribesmen, the Imperial Li family would have had customs that differed greatly to that of Han Chinese, including the practice of sons marrying the concubines of his father upon his death. So, it must be noted that while Han Chinese in Gaozong’s court would have regarded Wu and Gaozong’s relationship as incestuous, the Tuoba Xianbei elements of the court would not have.  

[12] (Clements, 2014) PP. 53-54. The exact time at which Wu returned to the palace was unknown, but seeing that she gave birth to her eldest son Li Hong in 653 AD, she probably returned sometime around 651 AD. While initially only a lady-in-waiting to the Empress, Gaozong would raise her back to the mid-ranking concubine title she had before, which was cairen. He allegedly did so on the recommendation of Empress Wang, but it could also have been that she was pregnant, and only sons born of ranked concubines could qualify as princes.

[13] (Clements, 2014) PP. 59-61. Through Wu’s life, her network of informants was effective, well-known and widely feared. Most of her informants were palace maids, eunuchs and spies who she treated kindly and generously, but around this time, she also found allies around court of a higher standing. Most of them were men with connections to the Imperial family through marriage to Tang princesses, and she befriended these princesses in an effort to curry favour with their husbands. These royal couples were of a younger generation than the powerful court faction headed by the Zhangsun Wuji, who was aware of the resentment of the younger folk (which includes Gaozong) who felt that elder statesmen of the previous generation were keeping them down. In fact, Zhangsun Wuji accused Princess Gaoyang (Gaozong’s half-sister and a favourite daughter of Taizong) and her husband of rebellion, which caused his execution and the princess’ suicide.

[14] (Clements, 2014) PP. 54-55. There is contention among historians about the birth of Wu’s second son and first daughter, namely that it is believed that she gave birth to both in the year 654 AD. This is not impossible, but it’s unlikely, which coupled with the confusion over the actual birth year of second son Li Hsien makes historians question whether Wu was the true mother of Li Hsien. Historical records mention that the princess (post-humously named Anding) was Wu’s third child and was born in 654 AD, but Li Hsien was believed to be the son of Wu’s older sister Lady Helan, who as a widow had taken to visiting Wu in the palace and was presumed to have caught Gaozong’s eye. There is no solid evidence that this occurred though, except for a rumour that floated around the palace which may have contributed to Li Hsien’s eventual demise (Helan was long dead by that time). According to the notes in (Fitzgerald, 1968), the confusion over birth was created by discrepancies in the age of Li Hsien when he died, with the Old Tang History claiming he died aged 32 in 684 AD, and the New Tang History saying he was 34. In other words, his date of birth is unknown. The New Tang History puts his birthdate in 652 AD, which meant he could have been conceived or even born while Wu was still at Ganye, and possibly before her first son Li Hong.

[15] (Clements, 2014) PP. 56-57. (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 22-23. (Rothschild, 2008) PP. XI-XII. This incident is one of the most controversial claims in Chinese history, as it was popularly believed by Confucian historians that Wu Zhao had murdered her own infant daughter to lay blame on Empress Wang. None of the 3 academic historians I referenced for this book seems to believe this, and they state so in their books, going to far as Rothschild did on pgXI of his author’s preface to say that “How reliable are these official sources? At times, these official sources are patently unreliable“. This claim is also easy to debunk: if Wu Zhao had killed her own daughter, then how did she become Empress? If the infant had been murdered and there were signs of foul play, a thorough investigation would have taken place. However, the investigation must have turned up nothing, or never happened at all, because Wu wasn’t found to be the murderer. Another important point was that when Gaozong tried to strip Empress Wang of her title, his argument to his ministers was that the Empress was childless, and in the ensuing debate, no mention of the murder was made either, which meant that there might have never been any murder accusation to begin with. If there was no murder investigation to begin with, why is it that subsequent historians (writing 300 years after the fact) were so intent on claiming that Wu Zhao murdered her own daughter? Possibly to smear her by making her as evil a woman as they could imagine. However, Wu did successfully accuse Empress Wang and her family of witchcraft, which led to the resignation of her father and the stripping of aristocratic status from the Wangs. In my story, I tied this accusation with the possibility of her giving birth to a stillborn daughter, since these two incidents happened within less than a year of each other.

[16] (Clements, 2014) PP. 54-55. It’s important to note here that due to lack of space, I’ve omitted the role of Consort Xiao, the concubine with the prodigy son who was reported to have warred constantly with Empress Wang before Wu returned to the palace. Xiao was originally a favourite of Gaozong, but after Wu returned to the palace, both Xiao and Wang were sidelined, to the extent that these two old enemies joined forces in an attempt to displace Wu. They allegedly trumped up nonsense charges against Wu to Gaozong, but it clearly fell on deaf ears because nothing happened to Wu, but it seemed to have soured Gaozong’s feelings to Xiao enough that when Empress Wang and her mother was accused of sorcery, even Consort Xiao was confined to her own quarters. It seems that in Gaozong’s mind (with or without Wu’s help in shaping his beliefs), he thinks the two of them in league with each other, though there is the possibility that it was a political move as well since Xiao was from a separate though still fairly distinguished family.

[17] Xu Jingcong would go on to become Wu’s right-hand man for a long time, with her rewarding him with the post of Chief Minister from 657 AD to 670 AD, when he retired as an octogenarian. He, like his colleague Li Yifu, was a man with shady dealings, but it seems that he was still a talented administrator even as historians regard him as a traitor due to his habit of false accusations against Wu’s enemies. According to (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 43. he was an obscure political outsider who relied on Wu for his rise, which might mean that he was the first of Wu’s attempts to raise lowborn men to high status to wage war on the entrenched aristocracy. However, he was also a man who served under Taizong, and whom Taizong had thought highly of in terms of ability and learning. He also had served under Gaozong when he was still crown prince, and was very well-versed in the history of Chang’an city, which Gaozong admired.

[18] (Clements, 2014) PP. 67-68. This was Minister Li Zhi, a remnant of the older founding fathers of Tang. He had served as a general under Gaozu and Taizong, and thus was highly regarded at court. He had originally feigned illness to avoid having to go to court and answer the issue about Wu and Empress Wu, and his behaviour here may indicate that he, too, was involved in factional court politics.

[19] (Clements, 2014) PP. 69-70. According to a decree Emperor Gaozong issued in 655 AD, both Empress Wang and Consort Xiao were caught attempting to poison the Emperor, and thus stripped of their ranks and titles. Both their families were stripped of their titles and exiled to the far south, and the two women were imprisoned in an abandoned part of the Rear Palace colloquially called the ‘Cold Palace’. Later on, they were murdered by Wu, who allegedly cut off their limbs and drowned them in vats of wine. The records of their deaths cannot be easily believed, since this story of mutilation bears a resemblance to what Empress Lu did to Consort Qi in the Han dynasty, with Lu being another powerful woman maligned by Chinese historians.

[20] Her third son was Li Xian, who would later become Emperor Zhongzong, was born in 656 AD. Fourth son Li Dan was born in 662 AD, and would become Emperor Ruizong. Last of all was Princess Taiping, born in 664 AD. Taiping would later play a key role in helping Emperor Xuanzong to the throne in a palace coup against usurper Empress Wei, though she eventually turned against him and was forced to commit suicide. Xuanzong was Wu Zhao’s grandson by her fourth son Ruizong, and he would become the longest reigning emperor (43 years) of the Tang.

[21] (Clements, 2014) PP. 72-84. The two other officials were Han Yuan and Lai Ji, who Wu had initially promoted after she became Empress as a subtle way of reminding them she had not forgotten their earlier enmity towards her. These two had begged for retirement, but it was not allowed, and they suffered horrid fates. This was part of a series of purges that were carried out over the next few years, which saw flimsy treason accusations created by Xu Jingcong, Li Yifu and his associates. The final nail in the coffin was when Zhangsun Wuji, the previous Emperor’s brother-in-law who had held influence for over 30 years, was taken down. His death marked the end of an era where ministers of Taizong’s generation, who were all from an entrenched group of elite families, dominated court affairs. It paved the way for men of lowborn backgrounds like Xu to rise under the auspices of Gaozong and Wu. Historians generally attribute this purge to Wu, but it must be noted that none of these purges could have occurred without the authority and permission of Gaozong. Gaozong himself had good reason to remove the influence of older statesmen who would have blocked him from consolidating his own fledging power, which would have been motivation enough to rid his court of them. It may be that historians overstate Wu’s abilities and influence in this era due to her later achievements.

[22] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 44-45. Xu Jingcong, apart from helping reform the civil service, also promoted Wu’s family by adding the Wu clan to the ‘Record of Surnames and Clans’, which was a compilation commissioned by Taizong to elevate the Li clan to a higher standing when the Tang dynasty was created. These two reforms had the effort of undermining the oligarchic hold that the great aristocratic clans had on the administration, by funnelling a wider variety of lowborn men from diverse backgrounds into government posts. All these ‘new men’ owed their positions directly to Wu Zhao, and so Wu had their loyalty. It’s likely that Xu Jingcong and his faction were also of low birth, which is why they supported the petition since it added new members to their group. It also had the long-term effect of concentrating power in the royal family, rather than in their relatives.

[23] (Clements, 2014) PP. 85. The nature of Gaozong’s illness is unknown, but he has been physically weak for most of his life, and seemed to suffer from dizzy spells and attacks of blindness. Some speculate it could be epilepsy or MS.

[24] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 43-44. Li Yifu was instrumental in helping Wu become Empress, but he had always had a poor reputation at court. He had the nickname “Smile-Hiding-a-Knife”, which referred to his friendly demeanour which concealed a tendency to backstab and harm. He was accused of murder when he desired a beautiful female prisoner for a concubine, which then led to the suspicious suicide of the prison governor, though he wasn’t charged for that crime. Since he got away with it, he and his family soon got involved in uglier crimes, but it was his ultimate disrespect towards Gaozong when questioned that got him exiled in 663 AD.

[25] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 53-54. When Wu became Empress, she decided to undertake the Confucian ideal of refusing nepotism, and thus demoted her brothers and nephews from vice-ministers in court to remote provincial governorships. This was done to distance herself from dowagers (like Empress Lu of Han) who filled the court with their relatives, but it was also because she resented her half-brothers and their treatment of her side of the family. Soon after, both her elder brothers died due to the weather in the swampy southern lands they were sent to.

[26] The war on Korea lasted 10 years, and while the Tang ultimately triumphed, it was a hard-won fight and not worth the deaths on both sides. Also, according to Korean history, Koreans never submitted to the Tang and had paid a bribe instead, which the Tang court mistook as tribute. It was a war that did not give the throne much prestige, though in historical perspective, Gaozong and Wu had succeeded at a task that Taizong and the Sui dynasty had failed at.

[27] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 59-63. The feng and shan rituals were only performed in times of great peace and prosperity, and while many previous emperors have bandied the idea about, the actual logistics and planning involved was immense. The exact nature of the rituals had also been lost over time, so while the feng and shan had always been male-oriented, Wu was able to parlay this vagueness of the rituals to promote herself and the role of women. She argued that the balance of yang and yin must be achieved in the ritual, and hence women’s participation it was essential.  

[28] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 83-87. Historians believe that Wu Zhao poisoned her eldest son Li Hong, who died in 675 A.D., who by all accounts was a popular and just ruler, but there is little evidence of that. He probably died of an illness like appendicitis which had no cure. As for second son Li Hsien, he liked wine and women, and while he wasn’t as popular as his elder brother Li Hong was, he was still fairly talented. Unfortunately, when Wu Zhao consulted a fortune-teller on her children, the fortune-teller had said something unfavourable about Li Hsien, and then later turned up dead. The subsequent murder investigation into Li Hsien discovered a large store of illicit arms, and a serving girl Li Hsien had been having a scandalous affair with claimed that the prince intended to rebel. It’s unknown whether this was his true intent or it was a fabrication by Wu to discredit him, but he would be stripped of his status and would commit suicide a few years later.

[29] Whether Gaozong’s public request for Wu Zhao to succeed him is interpreted differently by modern historians, since it’s unknown whether Gaozong intended her to be his actual successor, or for her to act as regent. Rothschild (PP. 70) seemed to think that Gaozong meant for Wu Zhao to succeed him as Emperor, while Fitzergald (PP. 82) and Clements (PP. 118) thinks he meant for her to be regent. This event happened in 675 A.D., the same year their eldest son Li Hong died suddenly at age 23, and before their second son Li Hsien was made crown prince. The fact that Gaozong suggested that Wu Zhao become regent when Li Hsien was aged 21 (Gaozong was 19 when he became Emperor) is strange—Li Hsien was old enough to rule on his own, so there is the possibility that Wu was asked to be Gaozong’s successor, and not regent. Another event that may support this theory was the reaction of the court; the ministers argued against this because an Empress was needed to govern the Inner Palace to maintain harmony and balance. The fact that this idea wasn’t laughed out of court suggested that the prospect of a female Emperor wasn’t as daunting and unbelievable in the Tang dynasty as one may think. That Gaozong and Wu Zhao was referred to as the “Two Sages” during their period of co-ruling was proof of that, since the term was not derogatory, but exalted.

[30] The way Gaozong is speaking about the unity of Chinese Empire is somewhat a creative injection–we don’t know for sure if that’s the way the Tang dynasty perceived Chinese historical continuity, as nearly all the history we have from that era were recompilations from later dynasties. Certainly, historians from centuries later liked to conceive of Chinese history as a continuous, cyclical stream of unity and then chaos, and the way Gaozong is speaking means to draw upon that.

[31] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 72-73. It was around this time that Wu Zhao established “The Scholars of the North Gate”. This scholarly group produced treatises on ideal Confucian behaviour, which meant they were exempt from critique by other Confucians due to their focus. Their real role, however, was to act as an unofficial channel of power for Wu, whose original court faction were now all retired by now. All court memorials and petitions to the Emperor went through this group, and since they were loyal to Wu, they were like a secret supervisory group that had unofficial power over court affairs. Their presence undermined the power of established officials, and things could be done through them that circumvented court.

[32] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 89-91. Zhongzong was 27 when he came to the throne, and unlike his two elder brothers he was rather weak-willed and unpopular in court. He was under the thumb and influence of his wife Empress Wei, and the appointment of her father as a chief minister was obviously a ploy by Wei. When his chief adviser Pei Yan opposed it, Zhongzong failed to take a hint, and further proposed that the son of his wet nurse take the position of a fifth-rank official. His irresponsible behaviour was made worse by Empress Wei, a woman with the ambition of Wu Zhao but not the ability. Empress Wei would play a short but pivotal role in palace intrigues after the death of Wu Zhao. After poisoning Zhongzong with her daughter, she would ultimately be defeated in a palace coup launched by Wu’s daughter Princess Taiping and Wu’s grandson the Emperor Xuanzong.

[33] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 91. Emperor Ruizong was an empty title – he had no real power, and he spent much of his time imprisoned in the Rear Palace. He wasn’t present for the court discussions, and Wu effectively ran as Emperor in all but name. Even though Ruizong’s wife and son were Empress and Crown Prince, they had no power either, and this arrangement was not questioned much by the court.

[34] (Clements, 2014) PP. 133. This was a significant move by Wu that would not have escaped the notice of many. What Wu was doing was suspicious, because having married into the Li clan, she was considered no longer a part of the Wu clan. Under the norm set by Confucian ideals, a widow (even an Empress Dowager) was expected to run her husband’s estate while in transition, and also dedicate her time to honouring the family in their ancestral temples. Wu’s choice to elevate her own family in a rival ancestral temple made clear what her next move was intended to be. 

[35] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 105. The rebels were poorly organised from the start, and split between wanting to restore the Tang dynasty and starting a new dynasty. They suffered a devastating defeat and attempted to flee to Korea, but the wind was adverse and they couldn’t sail. They wandered for a few days until one of their number, a subordinate of lead rebel Li Jingye, decided to save his own life and kill his commanders for a reward from Wu. This action showed that even amongst Wu’s enemies, she was still considered a reasonable person who allowed those who repented in time to live.

[36] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP. 99-100, 105-109. This was the conspiracy and fall of Pei Yan, the chief minister who was instrumental at removing Zhongzong from the throne. This was known as the Longmen plot, which involved a plot by Pei Yan to surround Empress Wu with troops when she decided to visit the Buddhist Longmen Grottos. Bad weather delayed her trip, and Pei Yan was suspected and eventually executed. It’s important to note that he had already fallen out of favour with Wu over disagreements, and it should be noted that his nephew is Xue Zhongzhang, who was a major participant in the Li Jingye rebellion. 

[37] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 126-128. The bronze urn had four slots: one for men to recommend themselves for office; one where citizens can anonymously criticise the government; one to report omens, prophecies and military conspiracies; and one to address grievances and accusations of corruption and abuse. This urn was designed in a way that none of the boxes can be accessed unless all of the boxes are opened at the same time, and it immediately became a lightning rod for lowborn men hoping to accuse their highborn masters of various misdoings, real or fabricated. This system encouraged malicious back-stabbing (even though according to (Clements, 2014) PP. 157. claims there were penalties for improper use and perjury), and soon evolved into full-blown persecution of aristocratic men by those who have reason to hate them. How cognizant Wu was of all this abuse and deception is questionable, but despite the horrors of that period, Wu succeeded in decimating a large portion of highborn men who would otherwise have banded together to oppose her usurpation, while also creating a large group of lowborn interrogators with little real political power themselves, but who were fiercely loyal to her.

[38] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 125. In the ‘Biographies of Cruel Officials’ of the ‘Old Tang History’, 11 of the 23 men listed were from the reign of Wu. These cruel officials, despite their long reign of terror, only targeted upper echelon political enemies, imperial relatives and influential court officials, and as such, Wu never allowed them any impact on the court’s political decision-making process. The wider population of China, including peasants, merchants and artisans were not touched, with only a small, select group of elites being persecuted. Since such elites were typically Confucians and or Tang loyalists, historical accounts of the cruelty during this time tend to be overstated in terms of its impact.

[39] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 129) Of Wu’s ‘cruel officials’, the most notorious was Lai Junchen (the peasant reporting on the Prince of Yue on the previous page), and Wan Guojun. The two of them co-authored a ‘Manual of Entrapment’, a work of instruction on conspiracy, grotesque torture methods with sadistic names, and forced confessions. These men were widely hated by many, yet there was another official named Xu Yougong, the Assistant of the Supreme Court Justice, who opposed them and was widely beloved. According to (Fitzgerald, 1968, pp. 117, 152), Xu had the exceptional record of having never flogged anyone in his stint as a provincial judge, and he courageously defended wrongly accused men. There was a saying around this era, which was “if one encountered Lai Junchen, one was certain of death, and if Xu Yougong, then certain of life.” The fact that this saying existed suggested that Wu gave equal weight to the words of both men, and Xu was personally responsible for saving hundreds of lives before he was also accused, exiled and finally pardoned.

[40] (Rothschild, 2008) PP. 105-107. Wu’s ‘Regulations for Ministers’ was largely compiled and written by the Scholars of the Northern Gate, the group of Confucians Wu founded in order to help her gain the throne. In it was some clever reshaping of Confucian thought by lifting from various canonical texts to create a new set of ideas for the relationship between state and ministers. This new way of thinking defined the state as a body or as a family, with the ruler and minister as part of the same collective and therefore mutually dependent. By emphasising the shared stakes of both ruler and ministers, she created a political structure by which ministers show absolute loyalty by placing public interest over private family interests, acting as a PR arm of the ruler and shielding the ruler from blowback of state mistakes. She also elevated loyalty to state over filial duty, thus further undermining oligarchy and empowering autocratic powers of the Emperor.

[41] (Rothschild, 2008) PP 147. Wu’s mother was a devout Buddhist, and with Buddhism being a highly-popular foreign religion in China at the time, she was a huge patron of Buddhist arts and culture at the time. It could be said that the height of Buddhism was reached in China through her, and she was truly a Buddhist sovereign. In particular, she linked herself with a Buddhist idea of kingship called the Cakravartin, a magnanimous conqueror who united a disparate empire under Buddhist law. This idea became something of a doomsday cult in her time, with her followers disseminating prophecies, real or fabricated, throughout the Empire that foretold the coming of a female sovereign.

[42] (Fitzgerald, 1968) PP.121-122. The rebellion was instigated early when Wu invited the princes to court for the ceremonial opening of the Ming Tang temple. The princes had been sending secret messages for a short time, but this invitation threw them into panic, and some of them forged false decrees, portending to be from Ruizong, to raise troops. This soon devolved into a mess since the princes lived far apart and couldn’t adequately coordinate their troops. In the end, the rebellion dissolved on its own, with the rebel troops fleeing and disbanding quickly, and the rebel leader Prince Langya, decapitated by his own city guards for a reward.

[43] (Rothschild, 2008, pp. 157-158) The push for Wu to ascend the throne didn’t originate from within the court, but was actually brought forth by a commoner called Fu Youyi (likely staged, along with manufactured omens Wu created). He gathered a crowd of 900 before the gates of Luoyang to petition Wu to change the Imperial surname from Li to Wu, since it was a belief that confusion over the identity of the Imperial ruling house was tantamount to “two suns being in the sky”. This indicates that although Wu’s youngest son Li Dan was the nominal Emperor, the average person was well aware that she was in charge. Wu declined this man’s petition, but over the next few weeks, the crowed swelled to 12,000 and eventually 60,000, and even Emperor Li Dan publicly petitioned to have his mother’s surname. After this third plea, she then accepted the throne. She then claimed lineage from King Ping of the Eastern Zhou, who claims lineage from King Wen of the legendary Zhou, placing her above the Li’s lineage of Lao Zi (pg160). She then heaped titles on the Duke of Zhou and the Zhou Sage Confucius, making it difficult for enemies to paint her as an iconoclast or anti-Confucian.

[44] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 159) Wu chose the name ‘Zhou’ from the celebrated Zhou dynasty, which harkened back to 1000 BC. It was an era that had mythical kings such as King Wen and King Wu, the Dukes of Zhou, who were sage rulers who overthrew a brutal tyrant and established rule over then-China under the ‘Mandate of Heaven’. They were considered sage administrators, and the ‘Two Sages’ nickname Wu and Gaozong bore during their co-ruling years were a reference to them. Wu also took steps to use Zhou script in an official capacity, took ceremonial caps and vestments from the Zhou ritual code, and changed the calendar to the Zhou calendar. As a result, to this day, calendars from her reign are instantly recognisable to modern historians.

[45] (Rothschild, 2008, pp. 174-174, 194-196) These three men were some of the principled ministers who stood against the ‘cruel officials’ despite having been investigated and tortured by them. Many of them are also known for disagreeing with Wu, who seems to appreciate their forthright opinions. Di Renjie in particular was one of her best talents and his longest serving Chief Minister (for 5 years until his death); a staunch Confucian and capable Tang loyalist, he discouraged Wu from using violence as much as possible, and tried to rein in spending excesses to help the ordinary peasants. Wu affectionately called him the “Nation’s Elder”. Xu Yougong’s battles against the ‘cruel officials’ was documented in footnote 39, while Wei Yuanzhong became Chief Minister after Di Renjie, and would constantly battle against the corrupt Zhang brothers until Wu ultimately dismissed him. She should have heeded Wei’s warnings, since it was ultimately the Zhangs who brought about her dethroning.

[46] (Rothschild, 2008, pp. 161-163) As Emperor, she moved the capital to Luoyang, a commercial centre due to the intersection of waterways. As a merchant’s daughter, she did not have the anti-entreprenurial bias of Confucians. She also established granaries in case of a famine. She also expected neighbouring kingdoms to pay tribute, but conferred upon them kingly titles as a form of legitimacy.

[47] (Rothschild, 2008, pp. 161-163, 172) In 702, she invented a military examination for her generals, testing 7 areas of military competence. Despite good relations with neighbouring kingdoms, she kept a firm hand on the sword, prizing military arts (unlike later Emperors who prized civil courtly culture over martial arts). She was careful to court and choose capable generals, one of which was Wang Xiaojie, who in 692AD defeated the Tibetans and reclaimed the Four Garrisons, rich oasis states along the Central Asian Silk Road which gave her greater control of the commerce and taxes from that area. Between campaigns in Korea and incursions by Tibetans, Tujue Turks and Khitans, this was very important.

[48] (Rothschild, 2008, pp. 164-166) In 696AD, three major powers threatened – the Tibetans to the West, the Khitan to the northeast, and more ominously, the Turks to north and northwest. She was able to divide and conquer the Tibetans through marriage alliances, and pit the Turks against the Khitan, thus removing the Khitan threat. She then used a policy of appeasement, in bestowing titles and returning lands to the Turkish leader Muchuo, but he started to mount incursions into the Tang heartland, and eventually justified his incursions by claiming he is an ally of the house of Tang. Wu responded by sending an army led by her exiled but recalled son (on Di Renjie’s advice, which raised troop morale) Li Xian and Di Renjie, who won no decisive victories but was able to drive Muchuo back to the steppes. She was generous in bestowing rewards, but merciless to traitors.

[49] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 177) In 696 AD, she held the fengshan ritual again, this time at Mt Song instead of Mt Tai. She is the only Chinese Emperor in history to do the fengshan ritual twice.

[50] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 139) Wu was a great sponsor of Buddhism, and formally elevated it above Taoism in 692AD (pg147), though in 698AD she would make Buddhism and Taoism equal due to an interest in immortality (pg154). Her promotion of Buddhism was because Confucianism was against women ruling, while the Li family claimed descendent from Lao Zi, the founder of Taoism, which made it impossible for her to use Taoism to elevate her status (pg145). In 694AD, she shifted the management of Buddhist monks and nuns from the “Court of State Ceremonials” (an office that dealt with foreigners and diplomatic issues) to the “Ministry of Rites” (an office that oversaw ceremonial matters for Confucianism and Taoism). In doing so, she made Buddhism an official religion within the Chinese Imperial Court. However, by 700AD, she would fall under the sway of staunch Confucian Di Renjie (pg154-156), who viewed Buddhism as a foreign religion and a threat. Also, his concern for the wastage in state and human resources for Wu’s vast Buddhist building projects also dissuaded her pursuing further building works.

[51] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 174) One of the most important political players in Wu’s later life (and after her death) was chosen this way. In 698 AD, Shangguan Wan’er, the granddaughter of an executed old guard minister (660AD) who had subsequently become a palace slave due to her grandfather’s transgressions, became something akin to Wu’s unofficial prime minister due to her literary talents. She had no official position, but talked with Wu on matters of state, and became a ghost writer of her edicts. After Wu’s death in 705AD, she became a high-ranking concubine of Li Xian.

[52] (Fitzgerald, 1968, pp. 129-136) The ‘Hall of Illumination’ is addressed in footnote 53, but the Celestial Pillar was commissioned by Wu’s nephews. It was a great decorated pillar called the Tien Shu (Celestial Pillar), which was completed in 695 AD at great expense. Sadly, none of the buildings survived to present day, with the Celestial Pillar having been melted down to make weapons in the later Tang. However, the lack of grumbling from the general populace about these extravagant buildings seemed to suggest that the burden on them were not strong.

[53] (Fitzgerald, 1968, pp. 129-136) In 685 AD, Wu Zhao became acquainted with a cosmetics seller called Huaiyi, who was rumoured to be her lover. Huaiyi was a scoundrel who flouted his power in her court, and to reduce the scandal, Wu Zhao had him shave his head and become a Buddhist monk, which only made him and his cronies even more arrogant. The court feared him and Wu Zhao’s two nephews particularly tried to curry favour with him, but he indeed had talents as an architect and as a Buddhist propagandist for Wu Zhao. Wu charged him with building the “Hall of Illumination” (Ming Tang), an immensely grand hall that will signify Imperial status and power, which was something that Emperor Taizong had also wanted to build. It was completed in 688 AD, but was burnt down in a mysterious fire, possibly due to Confucian sabotage. Later, a smaller version was built and finished in 696 AD, and renamed the “Celestial Hall” (Tien Tang), which Huaiyi was also in charge of. This seemed to remove the suspicion that he was the arsonist. Huaiyi’s behaviour eventually grew erratic, and Princess Taiping had him beaten to death in the Imperial Gardens in 695 AD.

[54] What Wu was attempting to do here was to change a patriarchal system to, at the very least, a matrilineal one. This was highly controversial, not just because it bucked tradition, but because it will undermine her political base, which largely consists of minor aristocrats and upwardly mobile merchants, all of whom benefited from the reforms she had made by executing many of the Tang’s elite clans. This constituency wouldn’t support the Wu nephews as the next Emperor over that of the Li sons, because it throws into question the problem of monetary inheritance. Minor aristocrats, merchants, landowners, business owners, etc are people who accrue intergenerational wealth and transmit them down the male line – should the possibility of familial wealth being transmitted through the female line occur, it makes it possible for that accrued wealth to leave that particular clan and go to the wife’s clan. In other words, patriarchal systems don’t exist just as a way to ensure men’s superiority over women, but also to ensure an orderly transition of wealth from one generation to the next. This is done exclusively through the male line, so as to prevent a woman taking any of that wealth with her when she marries into another clan. This is a system that requires women to be property, and to be bought and sold by families as baby-makers. Wu, as ambitious as she was, wasn’t capable of changing it.

[55] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 183) Succession became an issue in 690 AD, when she became Emperor. She couldn’t return the throne to the Li family, but her nephew Wu Chengsi was slavish and indulgent. In 698 AD, Wu Chengsi petitioned to be crown prince, but Di Renjie launched a campaign to return the throne to the Tang household. So Wu made Li Xian the Crown Prince again, quashing Wu Chengsi and his brother Wu Sansi’s ambitions. Soon after, Wu Chengsi grew ill and died – no loss, Wu had realised that the backbiting and fawning of her two nephews meant that they were widely unpopular with both the court and the country. In 699 AD, she gathered the Wu clan and made them swear that they will have harmonious relationships with the Li family, then arranged intermarriages between the two clans.

[56] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 190) In 699 AD, Wu had two new favourites, the Taoist Zhang brothers. They became directors of the Riding Cranes Institute, which gave them political influence. By 701 AD, Wu was increasingly infirm, and was losing her good judgement. She often entrusted power the to Zhangs, which made resentment in the court even stronger. Ministers Wei Yuanzhong and Su Anheng (pg194), warred with the Zhangs, and Su in particular tried to pursuade Wu to relinquish the throne to Li Xian, which Wu seemed to agree with. However, things continued to deteriorate, as Wu wouldn’t hear criticism of the Zhangs, which eventually led to Wei Yuanzhong and Zhang Yue exiled. This only made things worse.

[57] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 197) In the following months, Li Xian and his ministers worked to undo all of the Wu’s reforms, and tried to restore the empire to what it was in 684 AD when Li Xian was deposed.

[58] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 197) In Wu’s will, she relinquished the title of Emperor (pg 204), but this was denied her. she also wished to be buried with her husband Gaozong in Quianling, which Li Xian granted against the wishes of the court. It is the only tomb in Chinese history to house two Emperors.

[59] (Rothschild, 2008, p. 211) In her reign, the population of the Tang grew from 3.8 million households in 652 AD, to 6.15 million households (approx 31 million people) at her death in 705 AD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

• Clements, J. (2014). Wu: The Chinese Empress who Schemed, Seduced, and Murdered her Way to Become a Living God. Unknown: Albert Bridge Books.
• Fitzgerald, C. P. (1968). The Empress Wu. Melbourne: Australian National University.
• Rothschild, N. H. (2008). Wu Zhao: China’s Only Woman Emperor. (P. N. Stearns, Ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Benn, C. (2002). China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Journal Articles

• Rothstein-safra, R. (2017). The Rhetoric of Transgression: Reconstructing Female Authority through Wu Zetian’s Legacy. University of Central Florida.
• Song, X. (2010). Re-gendering Chinese history: Zhao Mei’s emperor Wu Zetian. East Asia, 27(4), 361–379.
• Peng, N., Yu, T., & Mills, A. (2015). Feminist Thinking in Late Seventh-Century China: A Critical Hermeneutics Analysis of the Case of Wu Zetian. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 34(1), 67–83.
• Guisso, R. W. L., Guisso, W., & Johannesen, S. (1981). Thunder Over the Lake: the Five Classics and the Perception of Women in Early China. Women in China: Current Directions in Historical Scholarship, 3(3), 238.
• Guisso, R. W. L. (1979). The Reigns of the Empress Wu, Chung-Tsung and Jui-Tsung (684-712). Sui and T’ang China, 589-906, Part I (Vol. v.3).
• Bokenkamp, S. R. (1998). A medieval feminist critique of the Chinese world order: The case of Wu Zhao (r. 690–705). Religion, 28(4), 383–392.
• Chen, S. (1996). Succession Struggle and the Ethnic Identity of the Tang Imperial House. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6(3), 379-405