Wu Zetian’s Lasting Imprint: Empress, Innovator, and Controversy

Today, we’ll continue to talk about Wu Zetian. Despite achieving the pinnacle of power, her later years were marked by isolation and introspection, as she grappled with the sacrifices made for her reign. 

Transcript

Wu Zetian’s Lasting Imprint: Empress, Innovator, and Controversy

Today, we’ll continue to talk about Wu Zetian. Despite achieving the pinnacle of power, her later years were marked by isolation and introspection, as she grappled with the sacrifices made for her reign. 

After Li Xian was deposed, his brother, Li Dan, was elevated to the throne. The new emperor had never even been a crown prince and was weaker than his brother. At this point, the inevitable conflict between Pei Yan, who wielded immense power, and Wu Zetian, who had emerged with her own ambitions, began to take shape.

In dealing with Pei Yan, Wu Zetian demonstrated her political savvy: first, she allied with military leaders to keep them neutral; then, she encouraged lower-ranking officials to inform on Pei Yan and fabricate charges against him, which ultimately led to his imprisonment and execution. 

Due to her troubled childhood, Wu Zetian had strained relations with her half-brothers, whom she sent to positions far from the capital, with some even being exiled to remote areas. However, during her struggle against Pei Yan, members of the Wu family, such as her nephews Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi, quickly became her most trusted allies.

Additionally, the rise of a group of harsh officials, aided by a system of informants, was key to Wu Zetian’s victory over Pei Yan. By this time, she had truly consolidated her power. Following this, Li Zhi’s half-brother, Li Zhen, raised a rebellion, which Wu Zetian also quelled. Many members of the Li family, including Li Shimin’s half-brothers Li Yuanjia and Li Yuanguo, were executed for their involvement in this uprising.

By this point, Wu Zetian had eliminated all significant opposition, and the overwhelmed Emperor Li Dan repeatedly offered to abdicate. However, Wu Zetian had no desire to simply rule as an emperor of the Tang Dynasty; she aimed to establish a new dynasty. To this end, she implemented numerous reforms, renaming the Eastern Capital of Luoyang to “Shendu.”

Her ambitions sparked discontent among many leading figures like Li Jingye and Luo Binwang who rebelled in Yangzhou, rallying tens of thousands under the banner of restoring the Tang. Within seven days, Wu Zetian assembled 300,000 troops to suppress the rebellion, quickly quelling the poorly organized insurrection.

In April 688, a stone inscribed with the characters “Saint Mother Reigns, Eternal Prosperity” was reportedly found in the Luo River near Luoyang and presented to Wu Zetian as a good omen. In reality, it was a fabrication. Pleased, Wu Zetian named the stone “Heavenly Bestowed Treasure Map” and adopted the title “Saint Mother Divine Emperor,” organizing a grand ceremony to gather officials and Tang royalty in Luoyang.

The remaining Tang royal family felt threatened by her actions and conspired to rebel again, but their plans were leaked. Their hasty uprising was swiftly crushed, allowing Wu Zetian to eliminate the remaining members of the Tang clan who posed a threat to her rule. In the end, only her two sons remained from the Tang royal lineage.

Subsequently, Wu Zetian constructed magnificent palaces, reformed the script, and continually generated auspicious signs to build momentum for her ascension. Throughout her life, she created 19 characters, 18 of which were eventually discarded, leaving only one: “Zhao.” “Wu Zhao” was the name she adopted upon her ascension, signifying her confidence with the meaning of the sun and moon in the sky.

Officials, along with the citizens of Luoyang, petitioned her three times, each request growing in scale. Even the puppet Emperor Li Dan joined in, asking Wu Zetian to assume the throne. After declining three times, she finally resolved to ascend to power.

In the year 690, at the age of 67, Wu Zetian made a groundbreaking decision after years of regency: she abolished the Tang Dynasty’s name, proclaimed the era of “Tianshou,” and established her own dynasty, known as “Zhou”, later referred to as “Wu Zhou” to distinguish it from the earlier Zhou Dynasty. And she made Luoyang the capital, marking the beginning of her 15-year reign as a female emperor.

Her ascent to power was met with resentment from many loyal to the Tang, as a woman claiming the throne disrupted traditional norms. To solidify her rule, Wu Zetian invented a tool for denunciation – the “guǐ” – making informants and torture significant aspects of her governance. She employed ruthless officials, leading to a climate of fear that stifled dissent among her ministers.

After consolidating her power and dealing with opposition, Wu Zetian turned against her previously useful enforcers, many of whom were of low quality, eliminating them to streamline her administration. She then focused on attracting talented individuals, utilizing the imperial examination system to select officials and establishing military examinations.

However, as she aged, the issue of succession became central to her later political strategies, particularly concerning the relationship between the Wu and Li clans. For many years, the Wu family had been a crucial political support for her rise. She appointed her nephew Wu Chengsi to high office, while others from the Wu family also gained prominence. Given that the Tang royal family had been significantly diminished due to her purges, the Wu clan’s ambitions grew; they sought to position themselves as the next heirs to the throne.

In 696, a rebellion broke out among the Khitan people on the northeastern border of the Wu Zhou Dynasty. Wu Zetian appointed several members of the Wu family to key positions in the military campaign against the Khitan, hoping that they would seize the opportunity to achieve military success. However, the Wu family’s incompetence was fully exposed during the suppression of the rebellion.

In her later years, Wu Zetian grappled with a pressing question: after her death, would the realm belong to the Li family or the Wu family? She wavered for a long time regarding her successor. Ultimately, under the persuasion of her trusted minister Di Renjie and others, she decided to pass the throne to her son.

Historical records recount Di Renjie’s advice to Wu Zetian: “I have heard that Your Majesty is considering making Wu Sansi the crown prince. Perhaps you should consider who is closer: your son or your nephew? If you choose your son Li Xian, he will share in the ancestral worship in the future; but if you choose your nephew Wu Sansi, there’s no tradition of honoring an aunt in such rites.” Di Renjie’s argument, while ostensibly about family, enlightened Wu Zetian. Restoring power to the Li family would be beneficial for her, while allowing the Wu family to maintain power could lead to endless troubles.

Li Xian, as a representative of the Li Tang royal family and the legitimate heir, was the best choice for achieving political balance. Therefore, in weighing the options between her son and her nephew, Wu Zetian had to choose to return power to the Li family, as it was the safest decision for her own future.

In March 698, Wu Zetian used Li Xian’s illness as a pretext to secretly summon him and his family back to Luoyang, thus ending his period of exile. Later that September, she reinstated Li Xian as crown prince.

Before his return to power, Li Xian had been living in Fangling in Hubei Province, away from the political turmoil and posing little threat to the Wu family. Understanding the importance of staying low-key, he sought to balance the interests of the Li and Wu clans after being named crown prince. One of his strategies was to form marital ties: his eldest daughter, Princess Yongtai, married Wu Chengsi, while his younger daughter, Princess Anle, married Wu Sansi. 

This familial connection helped solidify the Li family’s status as heirs while also securing the Wu family’s political influence. However, Wu Zetian faced a significant dilemma. Despite her old age, she needed reliable confidants to maintain control over the political landscape. Relying too much on the Wu family could reignite tensions between the Li and Wu clans, jeopardizing her carefully maintained balance. 

To navigate this, Wu Zetian cautiously upheld the equilibrium between the two factions while promoting her trusted eunuchs, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, known as the “Two Zhangs”, who became significant powers in the court. Their loyalty was meant to counterbalance the influence of the Li and Wu families, but they were never granted military authority, ensuring they remained pawns in Wu Zetian’s game.

In early 705, Wu Zetian announced a general amnesty for criminals who were not major rebels since 684, a move aimed at stabilizing her rule and projecting good fortune. Soon after, news of her serious illness spread, setting the stage for the inevitable transfer of power.

In the critical moment of Wu Zetian’s illness, Crown Prince Li Xian and Princess Taiping found it difficult to visit her in person, as the nuances and complexities of imperial power made it so that only the “Two Zhangs” could serve her in the palace. At this time, a tide of unrest was brewing both inside and outside the court, with officials like Zhang Jianzhi reminiscing about the glory of the Tang Dynasty, conspiring with the commanders of the imperial guard to support Li Xian’s restoration.

On the morning of the 22nd day of the first month, the imperial troops launched a coup, claiming that the “Two Zhangs” had rebelled, and stormed into Wu Zetian’s hall, executing the brothers. Zhang Jianzhi and others implored the ailing Wu Zetian, urging her to pass the throne to Li Xian to fulfill the people’s wishes. Whether out of initiative or compulsion, the next day, Wu Zetian issued an edict allowing Li Xian to handle state affairs. Li Xian then ascended the throne, restoring the Tang Dynasty name.

Upon ascending, Li Xian’s first act was to bestow the title “Emperor Zetian the Great Sage” upon Wu Zetian, arranging for her to reside as the Empress Dowager in the Shangyang Palace. This also added historical significance to her name “Wu Zetian.”

Shortly after Li Xian’s restoration, he led the civil and military officials to the Shangyang Palace to check on Wu Zetian’s well-being. He continued to show her respect, visiting every 10 days. However, despite being treated kindly by her son, the former Empress Wu Zetian found herself in a state akin to “imprisonment,” leading to her declining spirit and morale. After a lifetime of pursuing power, she faced the profound loss of it in her final days, which deeply affected her mental state.

In December 705, Wu Zetian passed away within the deep walls of Shangyang Palace at the age of 82, her life having been a tumultuous saga that ultimately returned to tranquility. In her last moments, her emotions were undoubtedly mixed. And in an act that contributed to a more favorable historical reputation for her, her final edict included forgiveness and the relinquishing of imperial titles. In it, she forgave Empress Wang, Consort Xiao, and the families of many political rivals underscoring her turbulent relationship with power and its inevitable consequences. 

After her death, Wu Zetian was buried alongside emperor Li Zhi in the Qianling Mausoleum in Shaanxi Province, under a tall, unmarked stele, quietly reminding us of both the legend and the controversy.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Lü Weitao, translator Du Guodong, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.